Babb Strikes Again with Late Lap Battle at Sycamore Speedway
contributions from DirtonDirt.com
MAPLE PARK, IL — June 15, 2018 — Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, IL outdueled Billy Moyer of Batesville, AR for the second consecutive night — this time in a down-to-the-wire thriller — to score a $10,000 victory in Friday’s 55-lap DIRTcar Summer Nationals Feature at Sycamore Speedway. Moyer grabbed the lead from Babb on lap two and set the pace until the final six circuits, when the two longtime rivals swapped the top spot five times before Babb made his decisive pass on lap 54. Babb would go on to see the checkered flag in front of a packed house at Sycamore Speedway.
“It’s all fun and games when its like this,” commented Babb after the night’s event. “I was going to be content with 2nd place. I thought that’s where we were going to end up, and I was fine with that. It got to be 12 laps to go, and I could see we were approaching lap cars and knew something was going to change. I wasn’t sure what the outcome was going to be.”
Following Babb and Moyer to the checkered flag was tour regular Ryan Unzicker with his strongest finish in the first three nights of competition. Devin Gilpin of North Vernon, IN finished in the fourth position, making his way up from the 14th starting spot in the Jim Beeman-owned 1G.
Pole-sitter Brian Shirley rounded out the top five. Shirley now finds himself in the points lead, ahead of the dueling cars of Moyer and Babb.
Feature Finish: Shannon Babb, Billy Moyer, Ryan Unzicker, Devin Gilpin, Brian Shirley, Gordy Gundaker, Tony Jackson Jr., Nick Hoffman, Jason Feger, Chris Simpson, Bob Gardner, Rusty Schlenk, Timothy Culp, Charlie Olson, Austin Rettig, Brandon Thirlby, Billy Moyer Jr., Tony Peterson, Mike Spatola, Roger Markham, Frank Heckenast Jr., Billy Drake
Tomorrow the DIRTcar Summer Nationals and Summit Modified Nationals visits The Dirt Oval at Route 66 (IL) for the 4th event of Northern Kick Off Week. See the complete schedule at the helltour.com/schedule. Follow @SummerNationals on Twitter or Facebook for updates during and between race seasons. The DIRTcar Late Models will be joined by the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds as the Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals runs parallel to the DIRTcar Summer Nationals. Information on the Modifieds can be found at modifiednationals.com.
