Farmer City Raceway
Notes: In end, all's well for Pierces at Illini 100
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Bobby Pierce and his winning team in victory lane. (Josh James)
FARMER CITY, Ill. (April 11) — In victory lane Saturday night at Farmer City Raceway, Hall of Famer Bob Pierce had his right arm around the shoulder of his victorious son Bobby Pierce, who captured the World of Outlaws Late Model Series Illini 100 finale for the third time in four years.
That picture might not have represented some tense moments earlier in the day when the Pierces weren’t seeing eye-to-eye about how to prepare the No. 32 Longhorn Chassis for the night’s action. | RaceWire
“I was a little pissed off today,” said the 29-year-old Bobby, who instead of referring to his crew chief as “dad” used his father’s first name. “I yelled at Bob enough this weekend — us bickering back and forth — asking him to do this, do that.”
Eventually, the younger Pierce had enough of the back and forth. “There was a point I was like forget it, just do it. I’m just going to drive the freaking car.” (Except he used another word for forget and freaking).
All’s well that ends well as Pierce’s car earned him $25,000. While it didn’t perform quite up to snuff in time trials or heat action, it was near perfect for the feature as Pierce overtook Brandon Sheppard on the 42nd lap and led the rest of the 60-lapper.
“When the feature rolls around, the track kind of slicks off and moves around and I’m pretty good,” Pierce said. “Yeah, we're really good in the feature at night, like I was all over people. I could go bottom and pass them, and I could go middle and pass them like in (turns) one and two. That’s what it took — be maneuverable.”
Pierce was confident the car would perform well in a long-distance event.
“I think both of us kind of — him having some ideas, me having some ideas — I think we kind of applied both of them. A little mixture of that mixture of going back to our notes from when I’ve won here in the past,” Pierce said. “The track finally got like Farmer City. It had a little cushion in (turns) three and four, slick to it, but you could actually roll the bottom as well. They had (turns) three and four actually really good this time.
“Typically in the past here, if you’re not ringing the top of three and four, you’re done. Whereas I actually made a lot of passes down there in the bottom, and then (turns) one and two did its typical thing. The bottom one and two, top three and four. It was a good racetrack. Allowed us to move around, make some moves (and) pass.”
While Pierce had a few tense moments with Dad, his night also included a tense moment with one of his guests at his wedding a weekend earlier — Jason Feger. In heat action, Pierce accidentally clipped Feger going into turn one, sending him for a spin that knocked Feger out of the second spot. Immediately after the heat, Pierce headed to Feger’s pit area.
"I was, of course, very upset with myself to get into him, but racing is a game of inches, you know? And those left-front floppers stick up there and that turn one’s so damn narrow,” Pierce said. “I just apologized to him and he’s like, 'Hey man, it’s just racing.’ Of course he knows I didn’t mean to get into them at all and spin him out. But you see that happen from time to time with Late Models, quarter-panels sticking out there a mile and you just hook ‘em and by that time it’s too late.
“But nah, he was all cool with it. Luckily he, he made the show still. I was like, ‘I mean, I ruined your night,’ but luckily I didn’t ruin it too bad.”
Farmer City update
Flagged down in the Farmer City pit area early Saturday afternoon, promoter Lance Spieker looked fresh enough, but he knew a big night was ahead at the DeWitt County Fairgrounds oval.
“I’m ready to get this weekend over with,” he said with a smile. “I need some sleep.”
He expected another big crowd on Saturday for an event that has been weather-plagued since being established in 2008 but that’s seen improved conditions since moving back a few weeks on the calendar.
“Years back they used to try to do this at the end of March, first of April,” Speaker said. “Well, just pushing this to where we have, this is our third year in a row of getting it all three days in which that was rare, too.
“(Friday) was a little chilly, but for the crowd that still came out for as cool as it was, it’s a pretty good turnout, and we’re expecting a really good one tonight, I hope.”
While Spieker will catch some extra sleep after the event, his 15th season as promoter continues in earnest beginning April 17 with racing most Fridays through Labor Day weekend. The track has made a few 2026 improvements — new concrete pads for the deck-height “droop” inspection area in the infield and at the fuel tanks adjacent to the maintenance building — with other changes in the works, Spieker said.
“When they first started doing that whole droop tech thing back here in our pits, we had nothing but dirt and hills and valleys and nothing level,” Spieker said. “So that’s why we finally got that all donated and poured, and everybody said last night that they really liked it.”
Other upcoming projects include the addition of more backstretch billboards as part of a backstretch standing area for as many as 50 crew members along with additional lighting.
"We’ve run out of room for our billboards on the wall, so we’ve got some telephone poles. We’re gonna put up some new billboards and kind of a walk/stand area for fans in the pit area” on the backstretch closer to turn three, Spieker said. “It’ll be on an elevated stand. They can come up, walk and see the track. … it’s not a permanent spot to sit to watch the races, but at least a viewing point.”
With nearby high schools in Danville and Clinton upgrading to LED lighting with multimillion facelifts to their football fields, Farmer City is getting the old lighting to use around the facility, Spieker said.
“I wish we could upgrade to LED, but we’re going to take somebody else’s leftovers,” he said. “We need to add lighting for the track, and we definitely have some dark areas back here in the pits (where) we’ve brought in a bunch of portable lights for these big events, but we’d like to not have to have a portable. We’d like to have permanent, so we’ve got something for the whole season.”
Farmer City’s race programs includes a number of Super Late Model specials along with weekly Crate Late Models. Joining the regular divisions are Crown Vics, a class that also runs at Illinois dirt tracks in Peoria, Kankakee and Lincoln.
Spieker said it’s “an upcoming, growing class like the hornets started out to be, and a lot more of your locals that can affordably start up and run. So hopefully that adds some, some car counts and some crowd counts to the regular night shows.”
Blend rule amended
At WoO drivers’ meetings this season, race director Mitchell Hedstrom is explaining to drivers an amendment to the “blend” rule for setting the lineup after a caution. Starting in 2026, drivers whose cars spin 360 degrees and keep going won’t benefit from the blend rule and must restart on the tail.
“If a caution comes out on a car that does not come all the way to a complete stop, he is able to blend back in where he rolls into the field under yellow,” Hedstrom said in an interview, “but it no longer includes the 360 portion aspect of it because to do a 360 and go all the way around, you’ll go all the way to the tail just because we don't want people gassing it back up in front of the field, creating a blockage on the racetrack or creating a bigger safety concern as far as going all the way around and trying to keep their momentum without coming to a stop.”
The rule matches the World Racing Group tour’s sister series, the NOS Energy Drink World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, Hedstrom said. The change has been well received by competitors.
“They understand the safety aspect of it, of not wanting to create roadblocks and whatnot, so we’ve even had positive feedback on that part of it, too,” Hedstrom said. “When you do a 360, you’re taking up more space on the racetrack than you would be if you’re just making contact and maybe slide a little bit and then try to keep going and whatnot.”
The prime reason for the long-active blend rule is to give drivers a fair restart position and for safety, said Hedstrom, adding that series use all the data it can to accurately “blend” the driver into the correct position.
“We use a little bit of everything,” said the 26-year-old Hedstrom, who is in his third season as race director and fifth year with WRG. “We have turn-spotter officials that keep an eye when cars spin and watch the racetrack at all times. So we try to use every resource we have whether it’s officials standing in the corner on the racetracks or reviewing video footage evidence.
"I guess you could always make the argument of give or take of one or two positions as far as exactly when they get rolling, but at the end of the day, the fact of the matter is, it’s there to benefit guys from not having to go all the way to the tail.”
Odds and ends
North Carolina-turned-Illinois driver Daniel Adam’s team celebrated his 21st birthday with a banner hung atop the team’s trailer. … The first paint-swapping of Saturday’s program came in the pits came when a RV-hauled trailer scraped the left-rear corner of one of the DIRTVision pickup trucks in the pits while the driver made an ill-advised angled move through a gated area. No injuries were reported. … Caden McWhorter, who wasn’t a factor after tangling with Justin Duty in Friday’s heat action, was an early scratch with his Doug Curless Motorsports entry on Saturday. … Brent Larson held a transfer spot most of his heat race, but blew a tire late and scratched from his consolation. … Former WoO regular Pat Doar of New Richmond, Wis., was among pitside spectators. He’d arranged to do some truck hauling to North Carolina to coincide with a trip to Farmer City, so that on his way home he can route though Shinnston, W.Va., to pick up a fresh ride at Rocket Chassis.
