EVANSVILLE, IN – Sept. 20, 2007 – Wes Steidinger’s almost season-long run atop the UMP DIRTcar Racing Late Model national points standings is over.
 
The question is: does the 24-year-old rising star from Fairbury, Ill., have enough time left to get the lead back?
 
Steidinger heads into this weekend’s action without the points lead for the first time in months. Two rough nights last weekend caused him to lose the top spot to 2007 UMP DIRTcar Racing Summernationals champion Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., who has been chipping away at Steidinger’s once-healthy edge for the past two months.
 
Erb, 34, now holds a four-point advantage over Steidinger, who suddenly finds himself wondering if he has enough left to pull out the $20,000 national title.
 
“Our hopes have been high ever since we got the (points) lead early in the season,” said Steidinger, who is chasing his first-ever UMP DIRTcar Racing national points crown. “We thought we could hold them all off, but it’s not looking good because of the bad luck we’ve been having.”
 
Steidinger has not yet lost the war by any means – not with two weekends of UMP weekly points collecting remaining, plus the season-finale UMP DIRTcar Racing Fall Nationals on Oct. 5-6 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. The title is determined using a driver’s best 50 points finishes of the season, so he still has several opportunities to replace his worst points nights with higher numbers.
 
But Steidinger’s hopes certainly took a very big hit last weekend, draining some of his morale.
 
After recording his 19th overall feature win of 2007 on Sept. 14 at Kankakee (Ill.) Motor Speedway, Steidinger experienced his worst night of the season 24 hours later at Kamp Motor Speedway in Boswell, Ind. He tangled with Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., while battling for position during the ‘Kamp 50,’ and then Dan Walden of Crawfordsville, Ind., slammed into both Steidinger and Feger at high speed.
 
No one was injured in the fierce wreck, but it left Steidinger with a 19th-place finish and a badly damaged Rayburn car.
 
“It wiped the front (end) clean off my car,” said Steidinger, whose machinery is owned by his father Mark. “We have to get the front reclipped, and that’s a big blow to us. We raced every night this year but three with that car, and we won all our races with it.”
 
Steidinger had to run his older Rayburn mount – a car he just doesn’t feel as comfortable driving – in the Sept. 16 World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway. He started from the pole position in the 40-lap A-Main, which offered UMP national points because the UMP Hoosier 20/40 tire rule was in effect for the night, but he faded once the green flag was thrown and ultimately retired from the race, finishing 20th.
 
Pouring salt in Steidinger’s wound, Erb won the ‘Kamp 50’ and finished sixth at La Salle, giving him quality points nights that vaulted him into the national points lead.
 
Somehow, some way, Steidinger must put the disastrous weekend behind him and move on. His remaining schedule includes Kankakee (Sept. 21 and 28), Kamp (Sept. 22), Peoria (Ill.) Speedway (Sept. 29), Quad City Speedway in East Moline, Ill. (Sept. 30) and Eldora’s Fall Nationals.
 
Erb has the same six events listed on his schedule, setting up a head-to-head showdown with Steidinger for the title. UMP officials said Steidinger will need to finish seventh or better to replace his worst finishes, while Erb must finish ninth or better to replace his low points nights.
 
“It’s gut-check time right now,” bottom-lined Steidinger, who finished a career-high fifth in the 2006 UMP DIRTcar Racing Late Model national points race. “I have a good team that helps keep my head up for me when I get down like we are now. They’re gonna push me, and hopefully we can just stick together as a team and pull it out.”
 
It will be little consolation to Steidinger if he falls short of the title, but the fact is, win or lose, he has taken a giant leap forward in his career this season. In his sixth year of dirt Late Model racing, Steidinger has won at eight different tracks (Illinois’s Kankakee, Peoria, Fairbury American Legion Speedway, Farmer City Raceway, Morgan County Speedway, Macon Speedway and Vermilion County Speedway, and Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway); finished third in the UMP DIRTcar Racing Summernationals points standings; and captured his first Summernationals victory (Macon’s Herald & Review 100).
 
He’s done it all after starting the year with no real plan to chase the Summernationals or the national title.
 
“Actually, we were gonna take it easy this year,” said Steidinger. “We weren’t gonna race as much and focus on my son (Blaine), who lost his mother (Jenny Sue Maurer was killed in a highway accident earlier this year).
 
“But we took off at the start and started winning. All of a sudden we’re leading the points, so we’re like, ‘Man, we gotta try to do it (run for the UMP national title) if we’re running this good.’
 
“We felt that if you’re gonna try to win the national title, you gotta do the Summernationals as well, so we jumped into that too.”
 
Steidinger has made 70 starts this season – a lofty total for a kid who makes his living as the owner of a trim carpentry business.
 
“What’s hard for us is that we’re not fulltime racers, and Dennis (Erb) is,” said Steidinger. “Everyone involved with the team works, so we’ve really extended ourselves this year.”
 
If Steidinger and Co. end up standing in the spotlight as national champs at the 2007 UMP DIRTcar Racing Awards Banquet, all the sacrifice will have been well worth it.
 
For more information on UMP DIRTcar Racing, visit www.umpracing.com.
 
2007 UMP DIRTcar Racing Late Model National Points Standings - as of Sept. 17 (Rank/Driver/Number of Starts Counted – 50 maximum/State/Points):
 
1. Dennis Erb Jr. 50 IL 3330
2. Wes Steidinger 50 IL 3326
3. Randy Korte 50 IL 3179
4. Steve Sheppard Jr. 50 IL 3160
5. Jason Feger 50 IL 2953
6. Kevin Cole 50 IL 2855
7. Mike Hammerle 50 MO 2632
8. Ryan Dauber 50 IL 2599
9. Mike Schulte 50 IL 2503
10. Kevin Weaver 50 IL 2478
11. Scott Bull 50 IL 2422
12. Jeep VanWormer 42 MI 2405
13. Rusty Schlenk 47 MI 2342
14. Rusty Griffaw 50 MO 2337
15. Richie Hedrick 45 IL 2322
16. Brian Ruhlman 41 MI 2272
17. Rodney Melvin 39 IL 2132
18. Ed Dixon 46 MO 2123
19. Don O’Neal 34 IN 2084
20. Shannon Babb 33 IL 2025
21. Joe Harlan 42 IL 1970
22. Rick DeLong 34 OH 1930
23. Dustin Mooneyham 42 MO 1902
24. Daren Friedman 36 IL 1847
25. Ryan Unzicker 45 IL 1798
26. Mark Voigt 42 IL 1789
27. Brian Diveley 34 IL 1771
28. Billy Faust 35 IL 1763
29. Chris Shelton 44 KY 1703
30. Billy Moyer 28 AR 1692