Spoon River Speedway
Notes: Flo victory adds to B-Shepp's versatility
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Brandon Sheppard gets rolling at Spoon River. (mikerueferphotos.photoreflect.com)
BANNER, Ill. (May 6) — Behind Brandon Sheppard making victory lane trips look routine again — having now won his sixth race of the season — is a rhythm he’s noticing within his Rocket Chassis house car group that’s evident just about everywhere they go.
“Right off the trailer again tonight we were comfortable, maneuverable, had a really well-balanced race car,” Sheppard said after Wednesday’s feature victory at Spoon River Speedway to open the FloRacing Night in America campaign. | RaceWire
Sheppard’s victory total through the first week of May isn’t only the most it’s been since he had six victories this time of year in 2022, but the pace and adaptability he’s exhibiting is something he hasn’t steadily exhibited since the height of his Rocket1 tenure when he won four World of Outlaws Late Model Series titles in a between 2017-21.
Unlike the 2022 season, when three of his opening six victories were at a single racetrack —Florida’s East Bay Raceway Park — and when he only recorded three victories from March through June, he has victories at a variety of racetracks: from quarter-miles, to 3/8-miles and half-miles … in Florida, the Northeast and the Midwest.
In fact, Wednesday’s victory marked the fastest Sheppard has won at six different tracks to begin a season since 2018, when he had seven victories at six tracks by May 3 and went on for a 21-triumph season.
Those tracks: Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla., Ocala (Fla.) Speedway, Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway, Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway and now Spoon River. Sheppard has certainly noticed he’s multidimensional in just about every way right now, something he lacked last year as his car owner Mark Richards worked toward constructing and refining Rocket’s next-gen XR2 chassis.
All four of Sheppard’s national touring victories last season were on tracks and/or surfaces familiar to him: Farmer City’s lllini 100, a rough-and-tumble Atomic Speedway on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, a speedy Lucas Oil Speedway in the Diamond Nationals on the Lucas Oil tour and a Topless 100 prelim on an unusually hammer-down Batesville Motor Speedway.
Sheppard knows he excels on black-dirt bullrings, especially close to home, and on any track that’s either choppy and on the heavier side, or a mix of both. Now, Sheppard doesn’t feel constrained.
“That’s the thing. You have to be able to go to any part of the country and run good, be consistent night in and out, across the country, especially if you’re running a national tour,” Sheppard said. “Mark and the guys have worked their tails off and everybody at Rocket have worked their tails off to get these things to work. We’re not even all the way there yet. We can still be better. That shows how good the car is right now, how good these XR2s are. Yeah, it’s a testament.
“We’re just concentrated on keeping the balance underneath the car like they have night in and night out. Yeah, a lot of fun to drive and we’re just riding the wave.”
Babb right there
Shannon Babb thought, for a moment, he had a chance to win Wednesday’s opening heat race at Spoon River Speedway. In the early laps, he was entrenched in a riveting three-wide battle for the lead, with eventual feature winner Brandon Sheppard and Bobby Pierce to his outside.
“I was unsure of what direction either one of us was going to go,” said Babb, who eventually finished ninth from the 13th-starting spot in the 50-lap feature. “All it took was just one slip up for one of us, either Brandon or Pierce, to open the door for me. But we were all kind of battling in that grease a little bit, so everybody was diving for that.
“I think the bottom was good for about five laps, and then all of a sudden, it kind of burned up. The top got going. It was really neat to see the racetrack change lanes there.”
Not to mention that Babb, who slipped back to finish fourth in his heat race, was stacked up against a World 100-caliber lineup — featuring four of the top-seven drivers in the country, per DirtonDirt’s latest Top 25 poll, including Nick Hoffman and Ricky Thornton Jr.
It was still another solid outing for Babb at Spoon River in a 3-race-old Longhorn Chassis. With the newer car, he’s apparently experimenting with “a little bit different setup.” He’ll bypass Lincoln Speedway on Thursday and plan to round out his week Friday at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway (where April 11’s ninth-place finish in the Illini 100 was stripped by a tire violation) and Saturday at Fairbury Speedway.
“I was a little unsure about how it was gonna be, and it was it was decent, but we had a lot of room for improvement there,” Babb said. “Nice just to get the 50 laps under our belt, see what showed up, so we can work on it from there.”
English’s one-night trip
Tanner English made the most of his lone Illinois Speedweeks appearance Wednesday at Spoon River Speedway, moving forward to finish eighth from the 12th-starting spot.
It’s a result the Benton, Ky., driver will happily take as he’ll skip Lincoln Speedway, Farmer City Raceway and Fairbury Speedway to close out the week as he diligently manages his family-owned equipment.
“That was alright. I felt good the whole time, just needed the clear track there. I think we're alright,” the 32-year-old English said. “That’s a hell of a field. … It's like, the more we race, the more we realize how unprepared we are, especially the fast-paced deal like this. So, I'm gonna take this weekend (off) and get ready, you know what I mean? Get the truck ready and stuff. We haven't had time to get everything (fully) together.”
Since his departure from Coltman Farms Racing last December, Tanner English has methodically rebuilt his No. 96 family team, piece by piece. He recently invested in a brand-new AK Race Car, with Wednesday marking just his sixth start in the new machine.
Entering the night, English had been pleased with his body of work aboard the Austin Kirkpatrick-built machine, carrying finishes of fourth, 29th (a start-and-park effort April 10 at Poplar Bluff Motorsports Park in Missouri after starting fifth), second, third and 12th (after cutting down a tire while running seventh at Peoria Speedway in Illinois).
“It just feels stable and there’s not many cars you can jump out and, you know, be right on speed right out of the gate,” said English, who still has his Rocket Chassis he won with March 14 at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn., but only one engine at the moment. “I'm having to watch where I go and go places I know I'm good at and know I can make some money at,” English said. “You know, really we don't even need to be coming here with all these guys here. It's hard to pass up because we ran third here (in 2022).”
Odds and ends
Thanks to an anonymous donor, a $1,000 donation will be made to a charity chosen by FloRacing Night in America feature winners this season — a program akin to Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing’s Angel Donor initiative, where sprint car winners are likewise able to direct $1,000 to a charity of their choosing. Even better, the donor doubled down for Illinois Speedweek, putting up $2,000 total for Wednesday’s and Thursday’s winners at Spoon River and Lincoln Speedway. Brandon Sheppard selected St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield, Mo., noting his wife, Mikala, previously worked there. … Dillon McCowan of Urbana, Mo., was perplexed how his car could go from “one of the faster cars in the pit area” through preliminary action to “the slowest car” by feature time. The stark contrast left the 22-year-old searching for answers after starting eighth in Wednesday’s 50-lap main event, only to plummet to 22nd before retiring after 32 laps: “Riddle me that,” McCowan said, his disbelief and frustration evident. … Spire Motorsports owner Jeff Dickerson was in attendance Wednesday at Spoon River Speedway, soaking in his first Dirt Late Model event outside December’s annual Gateway Dirt Nationals at The Dome at America’s Center as his NASCAR Cup driver Carson Hocevar began his FloRacing Night in America campaign. It wasn’t, however, Dickerson’s first trip to Spoon River Speedway. The current NASCAR co-owner used to race midget cars on dirt in the 1990s and early 2000s, making one start at Spoon River in 1998 with the Midget Auto Racing Association. He flipped in that night’s feature, something he can laugh about now. “Then the night after that, we went to Fairbury Speedway and ran last in the B-main,” Dickerson said through a laugh. … Competing in the modified division Wednesday, former NASCAR Cup Series driver David Stremme of Mifflintown, Pa., recently made his Super Late Model debut April 18 at Port Royal Speedway in Chris Casner’s No. C33 — a 19th-place finish, one lap down, in a 28-car field. Stremme said “I was supposed to fly under the radar” with the one-off start, but since then, “I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me asking to drive their Late Model.” He added that the outing will remain a one-off as he continues his full-time role as a modified chassis builder at his business, Lethal Chassis, while racing his No. 35 modified when he’s able.
