OneDirt

Billy Moyer would cruise to his third Summer Nationals win in three years at I-55 Raceway on Saturday night

Billy Moyer dominated the feature on Saturday night at Federated Auto Parts Speedway at I-55 on Saturday night and led all 40 laps to notch another Hell Tour victory for Moyer.  The victory would be Moyers third in as many years in Summer Nationals competition at I-55.  Shannon Babb would overcome rolling his car during qualifying and earn a 5^th place finish after pulling out the back up car.  Brian Shirley and Brian Birkhoffer would round out the podium earning second and third place finishes respectively.

Shannon Babb would find the lid of his no. 18 machine during qualifying

Jon Henry took the number one overall qualifying spot out qualifying Ryan Unzicker and Jason Mcbride within his group for the top spot in heat no. one.  Also highlighting qualifying action was Shannon Babb found uncharacteristically in trouble after qualifying after his 18 machine flipped entering turn one.  Babb admitted, “I definitely didn’t start out good, got the car into the slime and lost the right front and it rolled over, it didn’t really hurt anything but the body.”

Heat race no. 2 winner Brian Shirley

Henry would jump out to an early lead on the high-side of the track with Unzicker attempting to get around on the bottom.  Henry was smooth on the top side of the track while Unzicker would launch the car recklessly sideways.  With one lap to go Unzicker was within striking distance, but pushed the car too far entering one and would be unable to catch Henry again, but it would not cost him a position.  Heat no. two saw more exciting action as Shirley tried to pinch Klint Byars to the bottom of the track on the start, but Byars pushed back to hold the spot.  Nick Bartels would spin and later in the race so would Billy Moyer Jr. sending both to the B-main with Shirley collecting the win after passing Byars on the top.

Brandon Sheppard, heat race no. 4 winner

Billy Moyer would win heat no. three with Babb picking up a few spots to earn the third starting position in the B-main.  Brandon Sheppard was the big winner in heat no. four starting on the pole position then jumping out to a lead on each of a total of 3 starts of the event. While outside pole sitter, Frank Heckenast Jr. would not be so lucky.  Heckenast would find the wall and get shuffled mid pack, where the conditions were no easier.  Heckenast would only end up collecting minor cosmetic damage, but would fall to the sixth position while Sheppard would cruise to the win. Jason Feger stepped up a rough qualifying effort to make the show in the heat races.

Randy Korte, B-Main winner, in his primary car. He would switch to the no. 92 machine later in the evening while using it as a back up.

Randy Korte after a rough night would win the B-Main with  Babb in tow and Michael Kloos finishing third, just outside of the transfer position.  Moyer Jr, and Heckenast would both miss transfer spots, however, Heckenast would get in using a provisional starting position.

Brian Birkhoffer would take home third after a tough battle among thesecond through fourth position

Billy Moyer drew the top spot for the A main after the heat race winners re-drew to determine the starting line up for the top four positions.  Moyer and Henry lead the field side by side to the green flag where Sheppard would push early to grab the second spot on the bottom. While Moyer would grab the lead and Henry running on the outside of Sheppard.  Sheppard, Henry and Shirley would all battle hard for the first six laps when the caution would fly for a piece of debris in turn one.  In those first half-dozen laps Babb, Feger and Korte began their march towards the top with each driver picking up around six spots a piece.  On the restart Moyer held the lead with Feger picking up to the 7^th spot on lap seven after starting in the 16^th position.  On lap 16 Moyer Jr. would have an issue slow on the track and bring out the caution.  On the restart Shirley would relieve Henry of the second position with a pass on the bottom.  Soon after, Sheppard would battle Henry for the third position.  With 10 to go Babb would get around Feger and battle Sheppard for the sixth spot.  Just two laps later Henry would find the wall in turn three, then again in turn two and would accumulate enough damage to end his night.  On the restart Birkhoffer would attack Shirley for the second position, but would not be able to make the pass stick.  Moyer would not be able to extend the lead much over the next eight laps gaining just over a second advantage over Shirley with Birkhoffer rounding out the podium.  After the race Moyer credited good track conditions and a well prepped race car, “you could run wherever you wanted to set the car up and we set it up for the middle, the chassis did its job, the motor did its job, everything did its job.”