Photo by 357 Studios/357's World of Dirt- Lucas Halbert Pictured: Chad Zobrist
HIGHLAND Ill. (July 11,2020) Our first trip to Highland Speedway did not disappoint with great racing from the heats to the features. Even hot laps were racey. UMP Late Models, UMP Modifieds, UMP Pro-Modifieds, and UMP Street Stocks were all in attendance on Saturday night.
Highland is a 1/4th mile track with hairpin corners, similar to Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Indiana. The short track and tight corners made the racing close all night long. The Late Models hit the track first after hot laps. Chad Zobrist took the first heat of the night while Matt Bailey won the second.
Following the Late Models were the Modifieds. Tyler Diebert captured heat one over Zach Schantz and Chad Sellers won the second heat over Rob Lee. Next up were the Pro Modifieds. Cale Hartnagel drove his heart out for the win in heat number one and Owen Steinkoenig picked up the win in heat two. Last, but certainly not least, were the Street Stocks. Marc McClintock won heat one while Trevor Isaak conquered heat number two.
UMP Late Model Feature
Once the sun went down, the air cooled but the cars did not, as it was time for the feature races. The number 78 of Chad Zobrist started on the pole for the UMP Late Model feature. Zobrist rode the high side all 25 laps to get the win. It may have been an easy night for him, but it certainly wasn't for everyone else as the top five battled hard during the entire race.
Full Results (25 Laps): 1. (78) Chad Zobrist, 2. (16) Rusty Griffaw, 3. (52) Matt Bailey, 4. (87) Jason Zobrist, 5. (30) Mark Voigt, 6. (27K) Greg Kimmons, 7. (1H) Josh Heuiser, 8. (14) Paul Kiper, 9. (11) Shannon Kuhn, 10. (4) Jason Suhre, 11. (96) Katt Koch), 12. (10J) Jordan Bauer, 13. (4D) Doug Tye, 14. (67) Mark Oller
Heat 1: Chad Zobrist, Heat 2: Matt Bailey
UMP Modified Feature
The UMP Modifieds had the best show all night with side by side racing throughout the race. Chris Smith was tough early on leading the field on the bottom. On the final restart, Smith went back to the bottom but Tyler Diebert did not let him get very far. Using the high side he slowly reeled him in. Diebert took the lead with 5 to go, but Smith was not going to let him go easily. Staying close, Smith threw a slider, causing Diebert to check up and took the lead with 3 laps to go.
Smith then went to the high side causing Diebert to feed around the bottom. Diebert, keeping him close, threw a big slider in turns three and four on the last lap. Diebert and Smith made contact nearly causing both to wreck. They beat and banged all the way to the line but in the end, it was Smith edging out Diebert by a nose.
Full Results (20 Laps): 1. (15) Chris Smith, 2. (84) Tyler Diebert, 3. (128) Zach Schantz, 4. (88) Rob Lee, 5. (E55) Chad Sellers, 6. (87Z) Zeb Koake, 7. (9) Chad Cornett, 8. (1) Johnny Allen, 9. (21M) Willy Meyers, 10. (118) Dustin Atchison, 11. (25) Len Garson
Heat 1: Tyler Diebert, Heat 2: Chad Sellers
B-Mod Feature
The B-Mods were up next and were as good as always. Cale Hartnagel started on the pole and made it tough for Owen Steinkoenig. The two were not afraid to beat and bang as they did so very much in the opening laps. On lap 3, after two cautions, Steinkoenig took the lead from Hartnagel when Hartnagle slid high on the exit of turn four and Steinkoenig ducked under him to take the top spot. Steinkoenig never felt any pressure after taking the lead and went home with a win.
Full Results (15 Laps): 1. (5) Owen Steinkoenig, 2. (63V) Cody Ventimiglia, 3. (29H) Cale Hartnagle, 4. (7M) Dominic Mertzke, 5. (81) Garett Schumacer, 6. (787) Cody Zobrist, 7. (34) John Holzhauer, 8. (88) Steven Wolf, 9. (23) Ryan Timmons, 10. (21T) Talen Beard, 11. (33) Kevin Medlin, 12. (59) Brent Thole, 13. (43) Bobby Dees Jr
DNS- (1) Jacob Franklin, (9) Robby Keen
Heat 1: Cale Hartnagel, Heat 2: Owen Steinkoenig
Street Stock Feature
The Street Stocks were in charge of wrapping up the night on a good note and they did that with no problem. Blake Stieb led the field to the green flag and got a good jump until an early caution. Stieb continued with the quality restarts but was challenged quickly by Marc McClintock. McClintock had been itching to get by on the inside but could not make it stick. He got his chance when Stieb exited turn four a little too high. McClintock got a good bite off of the bottom and thundered down the front stretch nearly pulling even with Stieb at the line. A caution back in turn four then put him back in second.
On the restart, Steib blocked low but not high allowing McClintock to once again pull even with him heading into turn one. McClintock going through the middle got a good bite again and took over the lead down the backstretch. He never faced any issues the rest of the way and won by half a straightaway over Trevor Isaak.
Full Results (12 Laps): 1. (70) Marc McClintock, 2. (9X) Trevor Isaak, 3. (242) Blake Stieb, 4. (1) Cole Cygan, 5. (35) Chrid Sale, 6. (58) Cody Huelsman, 7. (93) Kaleb Stajduhar, 8. (16C) Billy Collins, 9. (81LE) Lacey Egbert, 10. (16E) Todd Eyman, 11. (43R) Austin Roach, 12. (27) Garry Klaus, 13. (204) Chandler Smith, 14. (36) Eric Harris
Heat 1: Marc McClintock, Heat 2: Trevor Isaak
Next Up
Highland Speedway in Highland, Illinois certainly provided great racing all night. With a great atmosphere and great racing, Highland is definitely a place to visit. Their next race is this Saturday, July 18th for the UMP Summer Nationals for $10,000 to win UMP Late Models and UMP Modifieds.
-Lucas Halbert