FARMER CITY, Ill.  The kickoff to racing season in Illinois is here and Farmer City Raceway  is set to play host to the World of Outlaws Late Models once again for this weekends Illini 100.

The first quarter-mile bullring on the 2025 schedule has earned a reputation of side-by-side, door-banging racing and unforgettable finishes, and this years edition of the springtime tradition is set to provide even more thrills.

The weekend gets underway with a practice night on Thursday, April 10, before a pair of full programs on Friday and Saturday, April 11-12. Fridays show wraps up with a 40-lap, $12,000-to-win, feature before the 60-lap, $20,000-to-win, finale on Saturday night.

The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series and MARS Modified Championship is also on the card.

WELCOME HOME

The Land of Lincoln is home to several members of this seasons full-time roster, and theyre all looking forward to their first chance of the year at a strong showing in front of their home crowd. Given recent history at Farmer City, they have good reason to be excited.

The last time a driver from somewhere other than Illinois won a World of Outlaws race at Farmer City was nine years ago, when Josh Richards got the job done in 2016. Since then, the list of drivers who have gone to victory lane at one of their home tracks includes Brandon Sheppard, Brian Shirley,  Mike Spatola, Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman,   who lived in Belleville, IL prior to moving south to Mooresville, N.C.

For Pierce, a weekend on home soil could provide the perfect opportunity to build on his 30-point advantage on top of the standings. His three World of Outlaws wins in the last four seasons are merely the tip of his Farmer City iceberg. In his last 10 feature starts at the track between World of Outlaws, DIRTcar Summer Nationals and MARS competition, Pierce has finished outside of the top five once and has a 3.1 average finish over that span.

While Hoffmans first Late Model start at Farmer City came two years ago, his track record since then is nearly flawless. The Thrill From Mooresville has never finished worse than second in three World of Outlaws nights. That mirrors his numbers with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals, as he has also never finished off the podium in four Hell Tour starts at Farmer City.

However, neither of them have been turning laps around the bullring for as long as Brian Shirley, who made his first Summer Nationals appearance at the track in 2003 and debuted with the World of Outlaws a few years later in 2006. Squirrel won on Illini 100 weekend for the first time in 2017 before backing it up in 2019, and hes added two wins each with the Hell Tour and MARS in the years since.

JOINING THE CLUB

One name missing on the list of Illinoisans with a World of Outlaws win at Farmer City is Carpentersvilles Dennis Erb Jr.

The 2022 Series champion has partaken in 15 World of Outlaws races at the track since 2006. His fifth-place run that year was his first of four top fives, with the other three coming since 2019. While Erb has yet to add the Illini 100 trophy to his collection, he still knows how to win at Farmer City, as evidenced by Summer Nationals wins in 2009 and 2015 as well as a pair of Northern Allstars triumphs in 2004.

While Erbs 2025 campaign may have gotten off to a slow start, a season-best sixth-place effort in the Saturday program at Swainsboro Raceway showed that things could be headed in the right direction for the No. 28 team. Erb finds himself in a logjam in the middle of the points table, with 42 points separating six drivers between seventh and 12th, so a solid weekend in familiar territory could vault him up several spots in the championship chase.

KEEPING PACE

The rest of the field has their sights set on breaking the Illinois stranglehold on Farmer City, and one of the leading candidates to do it is Ryan Gustin.

Gustin may be entering the Illini 100 without a Farmer City win, but that hasnt fazed him yet this year his wins at Volusia Speedway Park  and Swainsboro were the first World of Outlaws victories of his career at both tracks.

Gustin will need to keep the No. 19r at the front to avoid losing ground to Pierce and Hoffman at a track they both excel at, but The Reaper has done that in the past at Farmer City. His first trip to the track resulted in a podium effort with MARS in 2020, and he has a World of Outlaws top five to his credit from 2023.

What Gustin isnt looking for, though, is a repeat of last year, when he finished 16th and 21st in two nights of action.

DEFENDING THE FARM

Anytime the World of Outlaws full-timers roll into Illinois, they know theyll have to wrestle the trophy away from some of the toughest regional competition in the country.

Reigning series champion Sheppard has been racing at Farmer City since the dawn of his Late Model career at age 14, and its been one of his favorite places to wheel a race car ever since.

The New Berlin, Ill., native has three World of Outlaws wins at the track to his credit, although its been a while the last one came in 2019. Hell look to end that drought this weekend and grow his margin as the winningest driver in series history.

Three-time and defending DIRTcar UMP Late Model national champion Jason Feger won 16 times across the region in 2024 on his way to the title, including one at Farmer City on May 31. The Bloomington, IL gasser finished top 10 on both nights of the Illini 100 last year and has his sights set on finally picking up a win in one of the states biggest races.

No one has won more races at Farmer City as of late than Fairburys McKay Wenger. The No. 99 team won six times in 10 starts at the bullring last season and is on the hunt for his best World of Outlaws run since a seventh in the 2021 Prairie Dirt Classic.

Other staples of the Illinois scene expected to be in contention include Spatola, Shannon Babb, Frank Heckenast Jr., Ryan Unzicker and many more.