The Morrow Brothers Ford, Inc. MOWA Sprint Cars return to action this Friday, August 16 at Lincoln Speedway for the “Night Before The Mile” presented by Farm & Home Supply.
It’s the first MOWA event contested since the Tom Knowles Memorial at Spoon River Speedway on July 20, where Kyle Schuett bested the field for his first-career MOWA victory. Schuett held off a late race charge from Will Armitage who finished second, just ahead of Paul Nienhiser.
This Friday’s event will be the 19th career visit for the MOWA Sprint Car series to the Logan County Fairgrounds 1/4-mile. In 18 previous visits, 11 different drivers have found victory lane, with Paul Nienhiser winning five events, including both visits in 2023. Much like a second-place finish at Spoon River, Will Armitage is looking to improve on his last visit to Lincoln which was a second to Paul Nienhiser in the 2023 running of the “Night Before The Mile.”
In DIRTcar Pro Late Model action, last year’s track champion and current point leader, Braden Johnson, from Taylorville, IL, leads the field into Friday’s event. Johnson has a narrow point lead of 12 over Blaise Baker. Brandon Sweitzer, Curtis Eller, and Derek Smith round out the top five in points. The division has had four feature winners this year in four races as Johnson, Dakota Ewing, Chase Osterhoff, and Aaron Heck have claimed victories.
Peoria, IL’s Mike Brooks holds a ten-point lead on Riverton, IL’s Tim Luttrell in the track’s DIRTcar Modified class. Jared Thomas is also in striking distance in the third spot, while Brian Lynn and Brian Diveley complete the top five. Feature wins have been claimed by Luttrell, Kelly Kovski, Ray Bollinger, Dave Weitholder, Michael Ledford, and Cole Falloway.
The MARA Midgets will also be back on track Friday night, as Blue Mounds, WI driver, Parker Jones leads the way in the standings. Jones is followed by former Lincoln track champion, Mark McMahill, of Peoria, IL. Alex Midkiff, RJ Corson, and Daltyn England are the rest of the top five. In addition to Lincoln, the series has also had events at Kankakee, Sycamore, Coles County Speedway, and Champaign County Speedway.
Rounding out Friday’s action will be the newly formed Crown Vic class. The division, which will be running for the third time this year, will take a while to grow with teams/drivers still building cars and looking ahead to next season which will have several events. The division has had two events at the track so far this season.
A race car show will be held Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Farm & Home Supply location from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM. They will have some goodies as well as a chance to win a $250 gift card. We are looking for cars to make this year’s show a big success again. To enter the show, call Bob Rankin at 217-737-7841.
Pit gates will open at 4:00, grandstands at 5:00, hotlaps begin at 6:00, with racing at 7:00. Grandstand admission will be $20 with kids 11 and under free.
The event is the start of a huge weekend of racing that begins Friday night, August 16 at Lincoln Speedway featuring MOWA Sprint Cars, Saturday afternoon, August 17 with USAC Silver Crown and Sportsman at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, and Sunday afternoon, August 18 with the ARCA Allen Crowe Memorial 100 and the Sportsman Nationals at the Illinois State Fair.
Advance tickets for the Illinois State Fair races are available by calling the Track Enterprises office at 217-764-3200, by calling the Illinois State Fair box office at 217-782-1979, or by stopping by the Illinois State Fair box office.
Advance sale discounted tickets for the ARCA Menards Series event on Sunday, August 18 can be purchased in Central Illinois area Menards stores for a price of just $20. Stores selling tickets include Champaign, Danville, Effingham, Forsyth, Normal, Pekin, Peoria, Quincy, Springfield North/South, and Washington.
MOWA Sprint Car Feature Winners at Lincoln Speedway:
2011: Korey Weyant and AJ Bruns
2012: Jimmy Hurley and Jerrod Hull
2013: Christopher Bell
2014: Ian Madsen and Rico Abreu
2015: Paul Nienhiser
2016: Willie Croft
2017: Carson Macedo
2018: Paul Nienhiser (2)
2019: Rico Abreu
2020: Rico Abreu
2021: Jake Neuman
2022: Scotty Thiel
2023: Paul Nienhiser (2)
Track Enterprises PR
