Mother Nature stopped me from pulling off something that I haven’t done for more than twenty-five years yesterday, seeing two full short track racing programs in the same day at different tracks. It is not too hard to go to a NASCAR event during the day and then on to a short track that night (Talladega and Talladega Short Track, Daytona and New Smyrna or Volusia, etc.), but the opportunity to do it with two short tracks just does not come along very often. The last time that I can remember doing this was when I announced an afternoon IMCA Modified show at DeSoto Speedway in Bradenton, Florida, and then hurried up the road to East Bay Raceway for races that same night in Gibsonton.
My combo for Sunday would be the 34th Annual Spring Classic at the Rockford Speedway followed by the Deery Brothers Summer Series stop at the Quad City Speedway in East Moline. With an hour and forty-five minute drive between the two tracks I would need to have the Rockford show run off efficiently and perhaps have the East Moline show start just a few minutes late in order to see two “full” shows and, as it worked out, the timing could not have been any better.
One of the things that I love about asphalt tracks is that as long as it has not just rained, or is raining, there is no reason to start late and the Rockford show started right on time at one o’clock. It has probably been about twenty years since I was last here and I was amazed at how the neighborhood around the Speedway has changed. The historic track was once nestled into a wooded area well north of the population base of the second largest city in Illinois, but now there is a huge Menard’s and a strip mall across the road to the north, a new-looking hospital just to the east and a very large housing addition was in clear view looking from the grandstand over turn three. The Spring Opener was kicking off the 64th year of continuous operation at the Rockford Speedway and here’s hoping that the new neighbors always remember who was there first.
The Big 8 Late Model series served as the headliner for the afternoon while the Mid-American Stock Cars were the undercard and following the preliminary events the Stock Car fifty-lapper was up first. Pole-sitter Ryan Gutknecht was loose early as he drifted back to seventh in the first two laps with defending series champ Lyle Nowak stuck behind him and fading as well. Veteran driver Bill Prietzel, who was supposed to start fourth but moved up a row when Jake Finney failed to make the call, assumed the lead with James Swan in hot pursuit. The lead duo pulled away from the field and they looked like they would decide it amongst themselves until the first caution of the event waved on lap twenty-six when Chris Storey spun in turn two. With a complete double-file restart Swan started even with Prietzel and the two touched in turn four causing the rest of the field to stack up behind them. Scotty Null was the primary victim as he coasted to a halt when the battery dropped out of his car that had been running fifth prior to the caution.
Once back to action Nowak emerged as a third contender for the lead looking for racing room around Prietzel and Swan, but with just ten laps remaining Nowak drove it too deep into turn three and spun to bring out the final caution. With ten or fewer laps remaining the series uses a single-file restart and Swan went right back to work on Prietzel with the wave of the green. Swan was able to stick a nose under Prietzel on a couple of occasions over the final laps and on his final bid the two touched in turn three coming to the checkers. The two veterans, who between them have won seven of the series’ championships, recovered nicely with Prietzel holding on to take the victory over Swan. Fast qualifier Travis Rodewald advanced from an outside row four start to take third, Jeremy Spoonmore finished fourth and Brian Back was fifth.
The Big 8 Late Models were scheduled to go 108 laps, but first they had to get one in the books as incidents on the first two attempts at a start kept that from happening. One of Rockford’s best, seven-time track champ Bobby Wilberg was involved in both and after changing a right rear tire he would now start the event from the 24th position. Young Zach Riddle would pace the first nine laps of racing before Dale Nottestad muscled his way to the front on lap ten. The caution waved again a lap later this time for fast qualifier Steve Rubeck who had spun in turn two while running fifth. For the restart I was thrilled to see that the Big 8 series uses the “pick and choose” method of lining up with the leader out front and the rest of the field having to drive either below or above a cone on the frontstretch to form up double-file behind him. The process alone adds a bit of a thrill to the event as “The Hammer” Eric Huenefeld made the call over the p.a. system. With the top-side being the preferred groove here at Rockford the second-place driver always picked the high side and I believe that the third-place driver went high every time as well. This meant that the fourth-place driver then had to make a split second decision to either start on the inside of the first double row or on the outside of the third double row and so on. Wilberg, who had been working his way back toward the front using the low-line anyway, always seemed to move up several track positions during the restarts as he would opt for the low side of that cone on each restart. The fact that I had just blogged about this type of restart the day before (see the Saturday Notebook April 16th, 2011) made me enjoy this even more!
Back to racing, Nottestad was in command with the battle for second between Ryan Carlson and defending series champion Jeremy Miller entertaining the sun-soaked and wind-chilled crowd until Miller slowed suddenly on lap 32 ending his day. Matt Berger, the 2010 Sportsman champ here at Rockford, was another driver who was using the low-line on the restarts and he had moved from row six into the top five before he dropped out on lap 78. Nottestad, the Late Model champion at the Madison Speedway, just kept getting stronger as the race wore on and it became obvious that nobody was going to touch him on this day as he left only the top five cars on the lead lap when he took the checkers for the victory. Carlson appeared to have second locked up until his motor soured with fifteen-laps remaining allowing Rubeck to pick up the runner-up honors in an impressive run back to the front after his early spin. Carlson nursed his #55 in for third, Wilberg also came from the back to take fourth while Kyle Shear advanced from row eleven to take fifth.
My return trip to the Rockford Speedway was now completed at 4:05 p.m. and as I sprinted (more like lumbered) back to the car I made a promise to myself to not wait another twenty years to return to one of racing’s gems here in the upper Midwest.
Driving no more than five miles per hour over the speed limit I arrived at the Quad City Speedway just in time for the A-Modified heat race that was kicking off the night of racing on what was now an overcast and chilly evening in East Moline. Making my way into the stands it was obvious that new track manager Shane Davis and his staff had worked incredibly hard to get the track into a condition that would allow for racing this night as the infield was a muddy mess. Following the rains and cold temperatures of the last three days, the track was fast but rough producing some wild action during the four heat races for the Deery Brothers Summer Series Late Models. Local favorite Shawn Mulvaney held off Mark Burgtorf to win the first heat while Rob Toland muscled his way past T.J. Criss in the final laps to take the third and final transfer spot. Heat two saw last week’s winner of the “Slocum 50” Matt Ryan take the win ahead of Jason Perry while Colby Springsteen slipped by Tom Goble on the final lap for third. In heat race number three Series newcomer Travis Denning of Sterling, Illinois, was impressive holding off an aggressive challenge from Dan Shelliam to lead until the caution waved with three laps remaining. On the restart Denning was now under fire from Shelliam, Brian Harris and Mike Murphy Jr. and on the final lap the top four exited turn four using four different lines in what had to be the second most thrilling finish in racing that day (have you seen the finish at Talladega??). Shelliam took the win, Harris was second, Murphy was credited with third while Denning would end up one spot out of qualifying in fourth. Many in the crowd, including me, thought that Denning had actually crossed the line ahead of Murphy, but I’ll trust that the guys sitting ten feet behind the flagstand had a much better view of it than I did. In the fourth and final heat series point leader Terry Neal appeared to have things well in hand until he had suspension problems in the left front during a mid-race caution. Neal stayed on the track and would have still won the qualifier if not for the high-side charge from Ray Guss Jr. who swept by for the victory. Neal held on for second while Eric Gustaf qualified in third.
A check of the radar as the first of two IMCA Modified heats came to the track showed a narrow line of showers approaching from the southwest and it became obvious that this show would soon be in trouble. Burlington’s Bill Roberts Jr. won the first heat and the second was under caution with two laps to go when the rain started to fall. It didn’t rain hard, but it did rain for at least twenty minutes and with a track that was already holding more than its fair share of moisture the announcement was made that the remainder of the show would be scrubbed. After putting in a gallant effort just to have a chance to race, this scenario could not have been any more frustrating for Davis, but he showed his cool as fans approached him about the decision with the sea of mud and a greasy track just behind him. It was a tough opening night experience, so if Shane can weather this one there are definitely brighter days ahead.
A big thanks to Davis and to Lisa Sanders for their hospitality and I look forward to returning to East Moline for some Sunday night action later this season. Officially I did not pull off the short-track Daily Double due to the rainout, but I did see plenty of laps of racing on an April Sunday both on pavement and dirt! Boone and Stuart were the only two All Iowa Points paying tracks that completed a full show this weekend and if the forecast for the week ahead holds true, getting a race night in may again be a challenge this coming weekend. Hopefully that will change.
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