(Macon, IL) Shelby shined again at Macon Speedway on July 3 as Rick Roedel and Clark Robertson finished among the leaders.

The Sportsman point leader at Macon Speedway, Rick Roedel (Shelbyville) placed third, while Clark Robertson (Shelbyville), sitting in 8th in Modified points, maneuvered his way to second place in a race with seven caution flags.

On a monthly basis, Macon Speedway hosts a Kids Club meeting.

In the June meeting, kids from all around, sons and daughters of drivers or just fans, began construction on box cars for the July meeting where they put the finishing touches on them, showed them off and raced them in front of a packed front stretch.

Twenty children, two groups of ten, formed a line and raced from the cone in front of the judge’s stand to the entrance of turn one. Six-year-old Blake Dulgar took the first race and nine-year-old Matthew Brewer claimed the second race. The ages ranged from two-to-six in the first race and six-to-eleven in the second race.

As the stock car races entered the turn two gate, the Touchstone Energy Sportsman raced a cautionless 15 laps with a first-time winner taking the checkered flag. Steve Hill from Edinburg started on the pole position and raced 15 perfect laps as he stayed away from lapped traffic and the wall. Two weeks ago, Hill took his Sportsman up the wall in turn three and down the wall in turn four. It was a wild ride two weeks ago but not as wild as his first checkered flag and feature win. Hill took the honors over Terry Reed, Rick Roedel and Timmy Dick.

The Modified feature saw rather bizarre situations during their 20 laps. A storm was forming to the north of Macon Speedway with a brief lightning show but nothing materialized until the race started. The wind, which was light and variable shifted and began howling out of the north letting everyone know that the hot and humid weather was about to change. Luckily, no precipitation fell throughout the races but lightning still flashed throughout the skyline to the north and to the northwest.

Lightning struck for the third time for Jeremy Nichols as he took hold of his third consecutive feature win in 2009. A race in which Nichols dominated after wrestling the lead away from Dick Taylor early was far from entertaining. Seven caution flags which saw three cars (Dick Taylor, Dave Crawley, Jr. and Don Koehler) come to the infield on lap 11 with flat tires.

After fixing the mess, the cars jumped back to the tail of the field and resumed the race. Nichols took the win, but Clark Robertson of Shelbyville ran a good second place; Wendell Zulauf, Jr. of Springfield sealed third place and Steve Ewing (who started from the back on lap six because of a take-out) took fourth.