Concord, NC — By Kevin Kovac, World of Outlaws Late Model Series P.R. Director

HOMETOWN BOY: Moweaqua, Ill.’s Shannon Babb certainly had the hometrack advantage on his side in Friday night’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway, but that didn’t necessarily make winning the 50-lap feature easy for him.

Actually, racing at one of the tracks he grew up at put some extra pressure on him.

“It almost seems like it makes it tougher to do good,” Babb said of performing before his legion of local fans. “There’s just so many of our family members, friends and fans that want to see us when we run a big race close to home like this.

“I love ‘em that they come out and support us – that’s great, and I’m glad everybody was here tonight. But when we’re out racing in Virginia or other places (far away), it’s just me and (chief mechanic) Jay (Hunt), and we can concentrate on what’s going on more. We have to really think about keeping our focus on a night like this.”

Babb drew by far the loudest cheer from Farmer City’s packed grandstands when he was introduced during the pre-feature draw for positions. There were fans pressed up against the catch fence to get a close-up glimpse of him and shout their support, and a teenage girl nearly hyperventilated as she snapped a photo of him with her cell phone.

Yes, Babb was a rock star at Farmer City, and his victory made the post-race procession of well-wishers to his hauler even longer.

SOON GONE?: As Babb celebrated his biggest victory ever at Farmer City Raceway, he couldn’t help thinking – with clear disdain – about recent reports that place the venerable quarter-mile track’s future in doubt.

Published reports have been documenting efforts of the Farmer City Fair Association to secure the future of the speedway and county fair. The Fair Association leases the 49-acre plot the track sits on from the City, which is looking to develop the property after the Fair Association’s lease expires in December 2009.

The Fair Association has offered to swap land it owns nearby – a 45-acre park and 20-25 acres of property bordering Interstate 74 – to the City in exchange for the fair/speedway property, but the Farmer City Council rejected the proposal in early April. It’s possible that the land-swap idea could be raised again in May by a newly-elected council member, but if there’s no movement in that direction then the speedway’s days could be numbered.

Farmer City Speedway promoter Don Hammer, who is in his third year of leasing the track from the Fair Association, has said that 2008 would likely be the last season for racing at the oval if things continue on the current path.

That’s not a scenario Babb sees as being good for the Farmer City community.

“It’s a sad deal,” said Babb. “This dirt racing deal is big and growing like you wouldn’t believe, and this place brings a lot of good people and a lot of money into this town.

“If they do away with it, they’re gonna cut somebody’s chances of growing up and being a racer. Young kids who live around here come to this track and get hooked on racing -- hell, that’s how I came to want to be a race car driver! I used to go to races here as a kid, but if you don’t have places like this to start off at, you ain’t got a chance.”

Three-time WoO LMS champion Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., who has won several events at Farmer City over the years, has similar bad feelings about the possible stoppage of racing at the track.

“I think it’s a shame,” Moyer said after finishing second in Friday’s WoO LMS A-Main. “This little bullring here – look at the crowd it always gets. Those fans bring a lot of money into this town. They spend money at the gas stations and restaurants and hotels around here, and the town better realize that will be gone if there’s no racetrack.”

The Fair Association is considering the possibility of taking the speedway’s stands, lights, etc. and building a new track elsewhere in DeWitt County if Farmer City Raceway must be closed, but no specific location has been determined.

GOOD BUDDIES: Clint Smith has provided plenty of help already this season to his longtime pal Chris Madden, who is embarking on his first campaign on the road with the WoO LMS.

On Saturday night at Kamp Motor Speedway, Madden helped Smith.

“Madden gave me the right-rear tire I ran,” Smith said after winning the ‘Boswell Brawl 50’ by about three car lengths over Madden. “I didn’t pay him for it yet, so he’s probably gonna want more for it now.”

STAYING STRONG: Smith is pleased with the fact that he’s tied for the WoO LMS points lead with Babb after nine events, but he knows that the tale for the season will begin to be told with the busy upcoming schedule, starting with the five-race ‘Monster Midwest Tour’ that kicks off on Wed., May 9, at the Davenport (Iowa) Speedway Quarter-Mile.

“It’s been a steady, excellent year for us so far,” said Smith. “We’re trying not to have that two-month lull that we’re usually into by this time, and now we’re coming up on part of the country where we haven’t been all that great in the past.

“If we can get out of this next roadtrip and still have the points lead or be second, then I feel like you can start looking over the horizon and shooting for the end of the year.”

GREAT REVIEWS: Kamp Motor Speedway’s wide, racy surface drew across-the-board praise from drivers.

“Man, it was by far the best racetrack we’ve been on this year,” asserted Smith. “You could move all over – drive right up against the inside wall, all the way to the outside wall, and run the middle. Wherever you caught traffic at, you could drive by him. You could just do business.”

“It was a super racetrack,” added Madden. “You could run anywhere on this place. We’d love to see every racetrack be just like this was tonight.”

MID-SHOW SWITCH: Josh Richards and Co. weren’t pleased with the performance of their Rocket No. 1 after the 19-year-old finished third in a heat race Saturday night at Kamp, so they made a significant change for the feature.

“We ran a swing-arm car last night (at Farmer City) and all the way up to feature time tonight,” said Richards. “After the heat we switched to our normal stuff, a four-link setup. I’m not real comfortable with that swing-arm deal yet, so we switched to our normal stuff so we don’t end up getting ourselves too far back in the points.”

The decision paid off to the tune of a fourth-place finish for Richards, who started 11th. It was his second consecutive top-five run and moved him into a tie for fourth in the point standings with Steve Francis, 38 points behind co-leaders Babb and Smith.

IN A RUT: Darrell Lanigan registered more top-five finishes on last year’s WoO LMS than any other driver, but through nine events this season he doesn’t have one.

The Union, Ky., star is mired in a frustrating stretch of bad luck, which was never more evident than Saturday night at Kamp.

Lanigan ripped off a qualifying lap that ended up being the fastest time of the evening, but smoke that drifted from his Rocket No. 29 during his effort spelled trouble. A busted oil tank caused terminal problems with his motor, forcing him to pull out his backup car and start the first heat from the rear rather than the pole.

After being involved in an opening-lap tangle that bent up his car’s right-side bodywork, Lanigan was able to secure a transfer position in his heat. But he finished last (25th) in the A-Main because a broken rearend eliminated his car on lap 22.

LEARNING FROM THE BEST: Personable UMP DIRTcar Racing standout Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., made his presence known at his hometown Farmer City Raceway, timing eighth-fastest, winning a heat race and drawing the pole for the feature.

But major rear-suspension problems forced Feger to retire his distinctive No. 25 on lap 39. He then struggled the following night at Kamp, finishing one lap down in 18th after qualifying through a B-Main.

Feger, who turns 29 of May 7, chalked the weekend up as a great educational experience.

“I learned that I’m not mentally tough enough,” Feger said when asked what he took home from racing with the Outlaws. “When you run against these guys, you see that even when they’re not on their game, they’re still on the next level. That’s how good they are, so running with them makes you realize how focused you have to be every lap.”

Feger, who plans to enter selected WoO LMS shows throughout the season, will be hitting the road again this summer to follow the grueling UMP DIRTcar Racing Summernationals. A mechanic by trade, he’ll try to enter as many Summernationals events as he can.

NOTABLE…

* How much rain fell in central Illinois in the days leading up to Farmer City’s WoO LMS? Brian Shirley would certainly tell you, “A lot.”

Shirley, of course, lives in Chatham, Ill., so he experienced the mid-week downpours that flooded farms. And on Friday night at Farmer City, he experienced what that heavy precipitation did to the ground when he spun off the first turn of the racetrack during hot laps.

Shirley’s Petroff Towing No. 3s slid down the banking above the track’s berm and became stuck in deep mud. After a tow truck also got stuck in the quagmire trying to help Shirley, a chain was run from Shirley’s car to the speedway’s huge packer truck to pull his machine from the muck.

The talented 26-year-old recovered nicely from his practice problems, marching from the 16th starting spot to an eighth-place finish in the 50-lapper.

* WoO LMS Rookie of the Year leader Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., cracked the top 12 in tour points after finishing 14th at Farmer City, making him eligible for traveling-driver benefits.

Fuller competed in both weekend events with a Custom Race Engine under the hood of his John Wight-owned No. 19. Wight gave the go-ahead for Fuller to purchase a Custom powerplant from Steve Francis during the recent Colossal 100 weekend at The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and a second brand-new engine was shipped to Fuller from Custom’s Tennessee shop a few days later.

* It wasn’t a memorable weekend for WoO LMS standout Shane Clanton, who used a provisional to make the field at Farmer City and qualified through a B-Main at Kamp.

Clanton salvaged an 11th-place finish at Kamp, but he finished 21st at Farmer City after breaking a right-front spindle before the halfway mark.

Clanton’s struggles saw him tumble from third in the point standings (four points behind) to seventh (58 back).

* Brian Birkhofer appeared primed for his best WoO LMS outing of the season at Farmer City, but a tangle with Wisconsin’s Terry Casey caused both drivers to spin into the infield as they battled for third.

At Kamp, Birky finished 10th after changing his car’s rearend due to a problem that developed as he raced to a transfer spot in his heat.

* Terry Casey entered both shows, with a 13th-place at Kamp being his best. He said he’d love to follow the WoO LMS and would likely do it if he could land a fuel sponsor for his hauler.

Casey is planning to run the next four WoO LMS events, all of which are part of the ‘Monster Midwest Tour.’

* Eddie Carrier Jr. continued to show some speed, timing second-fastest at Farmer City and fourth-fastest at Kamp. But that didn’t translate into strong finishes for the 2006 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year.

The West Virginian spun off the backstretch while running sixth on the third lap of Farmer City’s A-Main, and he fell from the third starting spot to a 14th-place finish at Kamp.

* WoO LMS Rookie of the Year contender Adam Hensel of Barron, Wis., returned to the tour for the weekend but didn’t have an enjoyable experience.

The 19-year-old ran into major problems during heat action at Farmer City, where he rode the turn-three wall after being forced high. The wild ride left Hensel’s No. 44H with significant damage, including a bent rear clip.

Hensel, who was accompanied to the races by only his father and mother, patched the car together for Saturday’s program at Kamp. He got in the feature thanks to a provisional, but he said after the race that the bent machine “was the most inconsistent car I’ve ever driven” and in dire need of frame work when he returned home.

* Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., hauled his familiar No. 28 to the weekend’s events inside a new trailer he recently picked up. His finishes of ninth (Farmer City) and eighth (Kamp) made him one of six drivers who registered top-10s in both A-Mains.

Erb said he expects to hook up with the WoO LMS again to follow the five-race ‘Monster Midwest Tour’ that runs from May 9-18.

* After suffering through a trip to the Colossal 100 that saw him smash into an inside marker tire during a heat race, Wisconsin’s Brady Smith saw his fortunes get no better at Farm City. He ran his time-trial laps on a flat left-rear tire, than saw his night end after developing fuel-pressure problems during heat action.

Smith didn’t travel on to Kamp on Saturday night, but on his schedule are WoO LMS ‘Monster Midwest Tour’ events at Davenport (Iowa) Speedway (May 9), Charter Raceway Park in Beaver Dam, Wis. (May 12) and Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway (May 13).