Macedo Sweeps Land of Lincoln Trek

by Rocky Ragusa

Winged 410 Sprint Cars made their first appearance to the Fairbury American Legion Speedway Saturday night in nearly 15 years. A large crowd was on hand as California’s Carson Macedo (Sprint Car), Frank Heckenast Jr. (Late Model), and Mike McKinney (Modified) grabbed the hardware.

The Interstate Racing Association and Midwest Open Wheel co-sanctioned Sprint Car race drew 39 drivers to the 1/4-mile dirt oval. Twelve drivers broke the old track record in qualifying as Carson Macedo turned a 11.219 to earn fast time honors. Four heat races were held as Macedo, Kody Kinser, Dave Uttech, and Jeremy Schultz advanced to the 30-lap feature. Bret Tripplett was the winner of the B-Main. In the $3,000 to win race, Schultz took an early lead with Tayler Malsam and Scotty Thiel following. Macedo started fifth and was on the move. He quickly moved in to second and executed a slide job on Schultz to take the top position on the 11th lap, as Thiel followed. In the waning laps, Bill Balog looked to have the fastest car on the track. Using slower traffic, Balog worked his way by Thiel but ran out of laps in his bid to catch Macedo. After taking the win the previous night at Lincoln, Macedo commented in victory lane. “This track reminds me of one back home. You have to get up there on the curb and let it rip around there. I can’t say enough about my team. They give me a car that can win about every single night. It’s all I can ask for.” Following Macedo to the line were Balog, Thiel, Paul Nienhiser, Schultz, Malsam, Blake Nimee, Tripplett, Kinser, and Kris Spitz.