Much like driving down Iowa 14 towards Knoxville Raceway, or Ohio State Route 118 towards Eldora Speedway, as you drive on US 24 in Illinois, a mecca of racing appears, seemingly out of nowhere. Fairbury, Illinois is that mecca. Fairbury American Legion Speedway, commonly known as FALS, hosts the Prairie Dirt Classic, a crown jewel of the late model season. 

You pass by the Fairbury welcome sign, and naturally it has late models on it. A small town that truly embraces their racetrack. Fairburian’s have baked goods for sale, kids have lemonade stands set up, golf carts escorting fans to and fro. The hair on your arms stands up because you now realize you’re stepping into something magical. Race car haulers are packed into every nook and cranny, as are campers, RVs, and tents. The town of 3,600 balloons to nearly 10,000 for one weekend in late July. 

Driving through Fairbury, you’d never know what goes down on Third Street. You’d never know about the intensity of the racing, the backstretch shenanigans, or the race that every late model driver wants to win. It’s a typical small-town in the Midwest. 

Like Knoxville or Eldora, many fans hang loose before the action starts. But as opening ceremonies get underway, after the pomp and circumstance, you sense that everyone is starting to lock in. For most drivers, it’s B-Main time, the best chance they’ll have to make the Prairie Dirt Classic on Saturday. Only two transfer out of each B-Main. One mistake and your weekend could be over. For a select few, they survive and advance. Others have one more shot in the Prairie Dirt Shootout. 

The horn goes off, shortly after cars are on the track, they do a five-wide salute to the fans. Five-wide on a quarter-mile track is fitting for a race like the Prairie Dirt Classic, and the fans that sold the grandstands out hours before hot laps on Saturday. You get that feeling again, your hair is standing up, goosebumps cover your arms, fireworks blast off of turn three; the magic of FALS. Little did anyone know, the magic hadn’t even started yet. 

Enter Bobby Pierce. He’d been so close to winning the Prairie Dirt Classic, heck, his father won it five times. But it had always eluded the younger Pierce. It had been a rough week for Pierce up until the Prairie Dirt Classic feature– he had to use a provisional to even make the show. He started 24th, but deep down, everyone knew he couldn’t be counted out. What Pierce proceeded to do was nothing short of incredible. I swear ‘Smooth Operator’ by Sade was being played over the PA speakers as Pierce picked off car after car. Each pass Pierce made, the music got louder. Eyes turned away from Brandon Sheppard battling local favorites Jason Feger and Brian Shirley, and dark horse Nick Hoffman for the lead, and watched Pierce navigate the field. 

Then, the music faded abruptly. Pierce spun out of fourth place. All the passes, hard work, worth nothing at this point. Pierce restarted 19th, but had plenty of feature left. The sand was falling in the hourglass quickly, though. 

The music never stopped, somehow. It probably had something to do with the magic of FALS. Pierce had already gone from 24th to 4th, the math says he should be able to go from 19th to 1st, right? 

Pierce went back to work while Nick Hoffman clicked off lap after lap, inching closer to his biggest career win. Not to be outdone by Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr., who started 21st was now knocking on the door of the top three, and soon enough made it there. Thornton then got by Mike Marlar for second. Thornton was looking to snatch that FALS magic and win another Prairie Dirt Classic in RTJ fashion– putting his right rear quarter panel on the wall until he didn’t have a quarter panel left. 

That made the eyes turn to Thornton. Meanwhile, Pierce methodically made his way back through the field, but would need some cautions to help him out. The cautions fell at the right time for Pierce. Including a caution for Thornton, who, after abusing the turns three and four wall for many laps, had the wall bite back, breaking a suspension component, ending his bid at the win while running down Hoffman. 

The music started to get louder, and some started to realize that Pierce was not losing this race. Pierce worked his way into second during the late stages of the 100 lap feature, and a caution came out once again, setting up a five lap shootout for the win. The music was blaring. 

What happened over the next five laps can only be described as the magic of FALS. Pierce got his car wound up, and set up his move on the white flag lap. The music was deafening. Pierce cut in front of Hoffman going down the backstretch. Eruption from the stands. Think 2016 Knoxville Nationals. Pierce had finally won the race that had avoided him his whole career. Pierce now earned his trip up Third Street to the Bank of Pontiac to claim his $50,000. Cheers of “Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!” echoed through the small town of Fairbury. For the boy from Illinois finally won the Crown Jewel of Illinois in electrifying fashion. 

The magic of FALS is hard to put into words. It’s something that more or less has to be experienced to be understood. It’s close to the same magic that can be experienced just off of Iowa 14 in Knoxville, or Ohio State Route 118 at Eldora. It’s the magic that makes people lifelong race fans. The kind of magic that gets race fans to travel hundreds, thousands of miles to be with their race family for a weekend. The kind of magic that is the heartbeat of automobile racing in America. Many will travel through a small town like Fairbury and never know of the magic that happens there, but those who do know, know that it’s like nothing else in this world.