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Manhattan Express: Spatola Nets 10K at Farmer City

Photo: Hall Racing Photos

September 2, 2022 (Farmer City, IL) Round 11 of the Mars Racing Series took place at the Farmer City Raceway on Friday night. The pits filled up with 32 cars on the beautiful summer evening in the land of Lincoln. The event kicked off a tripleheader of Labor Day weekend action.

In Allstar Performance qualifying it was Mike Spatola who laid down the quickest lap at 12.303 seconds. This set the stage for four heat races to set the field for the 40 lap event.

In Arizona Sport Shirts Heat Race #1  Mike Spatola took the win to start on the pole for the nights main event. Shannon Babb, Jason Feger, and Nick Allen were the other transfer cars.

Heat Race #2 presented by Dirt Track Bank went to Oakwood, IL driver Bobby Pierce. Other drivers picking up transfer spots were Kyle Bronson, Donny Walden, and Kye Blight.

O'Reily Auto Parts Heat Race #3 went to driver Taylor Scheffler. Hall of Famer Billy Moyer, Chris Simpson, and defending Mars Series Champ Brian Shirley all moved on to the main event.

Heat Race #4 presented by Hoosier Tire Midwest went to Myles Moos. Mars points leader Ryan Unzicker, Frank Heckenast Jr., and Kevin Weaver all transferred to the feature event.

It took a Racing Performance Media sponsored B-Main to set the final two starting spots. The Catlin, IL driver Logan Moody and Paul Parker grabbed the transfers on to the main show. The 21 car starting field was made complete with a series provisional being given to Bob Gardner.

In the 40 lap $10,000 to win event Mike Spatola took the lead early. In the opening stages fans witnessed quite the battle between Bobby Pierce and Myles Moos. The drivers traded sliders on both ends of the track as the battled for second. Taylor Scheffler and Shannon Babb were the other two drivers in the mix early on in the top five.

Bobby Pierce tried to chase Mike Spatola down as they fought through lap traffic as the race went on. Pierce was able to get to his back deck but never able to put together that pass he needed to pull off the win. Spatola crossed the line first and became a back to back feature winner on the Mars Racing Series tour. It was the biggest payday of his career. Bobby Pierce and Shannon Babb finished out the podium to make it a all Illinois. Bob Gardner was the Keyser Manufacturing Hard Charger of the night after improving 8 positions.

The Mars Racing Series now looks to its Saturday event at the Fairbury Speedway for $10,000 to win. The weekend will finish up Sunday night at Spoon River Speedway. Every lap of action can be seen LIVE on FloRacing.

Full Results:

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 3. 18-Shannon Babb[5]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[7]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[12]; 6. 24-Ryan Unzicker[8]; 7. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[6]; 8. 25-Jason Feger[9]; 9. 84-Myles Moos[4]; 10. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[2]; 11. 21A-Nick Allen[13]; 12. 3S-Brian Shirley[14]; 13. 4G-Bob Gardner[21]; 14. 1W-Donny Walden[11]; 15. 31-Kye Blight[15]; 16. 2C-Colton Billington[20]; 17. (DNF) 22-Skyller Lewis[19]; 18. (DNF) 162-Logan Moody[17]; 19. (DNF) B12-Kevin Weaver[16]; 20. (DNF) 10-Paul Parker[18]; 21. (DNF) 32X-Chris Simpson[10]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 162-Logan Moody[2]; 2. 10-Paul Parker[3]; 3. 22-Skyller Lewis[4]; 4. 2C-Colton Billington[1]; 5. 9-Lyle Zanker[6]; 6. 4D-Doug Tye[10]; 7. 24X-Turk Letizia[7]; 8. B15-Bob Sidener[8]; 9. T8-Tim Gauntt[14]; 10. 38-Thomas Hunziker[5]; 11. (DNF) 2M-Matt Mickelson[9]; 12. (DNF) 4G-Bob Gardner[15]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola[1]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[2]; 3. 25-Jason Feger[4]; 4. 21A-Nick Allen[5]; 5. 2C-Colton Billington[3]; 6. 38-Thomas Hunziker[6]; 7. 2M-Matt Mickelson[7]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 3. 1W-Donny Walden[2]; 4. 31-Kye Blight[3]; 5. 162-Logan Moody[4]; 6. 9-Lyle Zanker[5]; 7. 4D-Doug Tye[8]; 8. (DNF) T8-Tim Gauntt[7]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[1]; 2. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[3]; 3. 32X-Chris Simpson[2]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 5. 10-Paul Parker[5]; 6. 24X-Turk Letizia[7]; 7. 11D-Brian Diveley[6]; 8. (DNF) 4G-Bob Gardner[8]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 84-Myles Moos[1]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker[2]; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[4]; 4. B12-Kevin Weaver[3]; 5. 22-Skyller Lewis[5]; 6. B15-Bob Sidener[7]

Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:12.303[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:12.490[15]; 3. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:12.491[8]; 4. 1W-Donny Walden, 00:12.518[10]; 5. 2C-Colton Billington, 00:12.620[1]; 6. 31-Kye Blight, 00:12.620[3]; 7. 25-Jason Feger, 00:12.662[14]; 8. 162-Logan Moody, 00:12.673[13]; 9. 21A-Nick Allen, 00:12.709[11]; 10. 9-Lyle Zanker, 00:12.772[7]; 11. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:12.960[16]; 12. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:13.057[4]; 13. 2M-Matt Mickelson, 00:13.799[5]; 14. T8-Tim Gauntt, 00:14.196[6]; 15. 33 4-Billy Hough, 00:59.999[12]; 16. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:59.999[9]

Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 10S-Taylor Scheffler, 00:12.430[10]; 2. 84-Myles Moos, 00:12.460[9]; 3. 32X-Chris Simpson, 00:12.541[16]; 4. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:12.643[1]; 5. 21-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:12.683[15]; 6. B12-Kevin Weaver, 00:12.689[8]; 7. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:12.712[3]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:12.759[5]; 9. 10-Paul Parker, 00:12.812[12]; 10. 22-Skyller Lewis, 00:12.861[14]; 11. 11D-Brian Diveley, 00:12.932[11]; 12. 42-Mckay Wenger, 00:12.984[7]; 13. 24X-Turk Letizia, 00:13.080[13]; 14. B15-Bob Sidener, 00:13.412[4]; 15. 4G-Bob Gardner, 00:28.015[2]; 16. F8-Bryan Clendenen, 00:59.000[6]

Stay informed on all the news and results of the Mars Racing Series at www.marsracingseries.com.

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