The UMP Summer Nationals Hell Tour rolled into the Quincy Raceways Friday night and the weather definitely supported the title as the temperature on my car registered 104 degrees as we pulled into the parking lot. We did note however that there appeared to be some clouds building just to the south, something that caught our eye since absolutely no rain was in the forecast for the evening.
Even with most other UMP tracks and events cancelled for the evening due to the heat, the car count did not grow beyond original expectations as drivers likely chose to stay home and enjoy a night of air conditioning. Still it was a solid field of thirty-one Late Models while the car count for the Summit Modified Nationals portion of the program was down a bit at sixteen. Nine of the track's Hobby Stock division cars were on hand in support and they put on some great racing in their heat and feature, but more on that later.
Hell Tour point leader Brian Shirley drew the opportunity to be the first car out to qualify and not only did he establish the fastest time in the first group, but he would also be the fastest qualifier overall. Shirley would drive away from Ohio's Jon Henry to win the first heat and then his luck of the draw continued when he pulled out the number one pill to snare the pole position for the forty-lap main event. Brandon Sheppard who started out the 2012 season racing here on Sunday nights before stepping into the Rocket house car started next to Shirley on the front row, but it was Brian who won the race into turn one at the drop of the green.
California driver Jason Papich who had earned one of the Tour's provisional starting spots stopped the race three times in the first eleven laps first by kicking one of the track tires onto the speedway and then by spinning out twice. On the lap eleven restart Sheppard started running a little higher line in turns three and four and that allowed him to now keep pace with Shirley as those two pulled away from the other competitors. Behind them there was a pretty good race for third going on with Ryan Unzicker and Shannon Babb running side-by-side and Jason Feger looking for racing room right behind them. Those clouds that I mentioned in the first paragraph had continued to build all evening and they were now one of those mid-summer stationary thunderstorms that was continuing to grow and expand toward the speedway.
Just as the field completed lap twenty a vivid lightning strike hit just beyond turn three and most of the track's lighting shut down immediately. Fortunately some of the older lighting stayed on and drivers were able to get slowed down without incident as the tracked plunged into near darkness. Announcer Doug Mealy told the crowd that it would take about fifteen minutes for the lights to cool down before they would be able to come back on and a couple of more lightning strikes during the break made me wonder about how much longer I should be sitting on these metal seats. After fifteen minutes the lights were back on and the field went back to green just as I felt a raindrop hit my hand.
That was the only drop that I felt as the final twenty laps ran off without caution as Shirley continued to lead with Sheppard staying close, but not able to make a challenge. Babb established himself in the third spot with Unzicker and Feger close behind and those top five positions did not change to the finish with Shirley taking another win followed by Sheppard, Babb, Unzicker and Feger. The next five were Dennis Erb Jr., Jason McBride, Jon Henry, Mark Burgtorf and B-Main winner Mike Spatola who had started in row nine.
UMP LM Q Notes........Brian Shirley and Jon Henry started on the front row of the first heat and the first two starts were called back by DirtCar officials. After the second one both Shirley and Henry came down the frontstretch with their left hands out the window gesturing "what do you want?"......Iowa City native Matt Furman who now calls Columbus, Ohio, home qualified poorly starting from the back of the second heat, but it was obvious that he had one one of the fastest cars. After driving off the top of turn three early in the heat race, Furman was closing fast on Mike Spatola who was holding down the fourth and final transfer position. But just as Furman was about to pull even with Spatola with two laps remaining, he went just a little too high in turn two and again spun his #51. On the restart Jason Perry, who also had to restart at the year when he and Chuck Mitchell had a little disagreement that saw them end up out on the pit entrance road over turn one mid-race, was able to slip under Spatola on the final lap to take that last transfer position......Track regular Clint Kirkham raised some eyebrows when he was the fastest qualifier in Group 3 and second quick overall earning him the pole position for the third heat race. His excitement showed though as he jumped the first two starts and on the third try Brandon Sheppard was able to beat him to turn one and hold the lead on the opening lap. Jason Feger and Jason Rauen were also able to race past over the ten laps, but Kirkham made the show by finishing fourth......The fourth heat saw Shannon Babb and Dennis Erb Jr. put on a good two-line race with Babb's outer line prevailing for the win......A few cautions slowed the B-Main and once again Matt Furman was on the charge after starting near the back of the fourteen-car field. Furman passed Robby Warner for the third spot with three laps remaining, but he did not have enough time to catch Spatola and Jim Moon who would be the final two transfers into the main event......Mike Hammerle would earn the UMP National Points provisional while Justin Reed would start the feature by virtue of his track points at Quincy. Park City Utah's Kathy Jarvis would have her persistence pay off as she would start her first feature of the Tour with a point provisional along with Jason Papich.
After running a heat race where eight of the nine cars in attendance stayed together in one group usually racing two-wide, the Hobby Stocks were first up for the three feature races with one driver Brian Hoener scratching for the main event. As they pulled to the track it was announced that due to the threatening weather the Hobby Stock feature would be cut to fifteen laps making me wonder how many laps the eight cars were originally going to run. Once again this group of drivers entertained the large crowd with plenty of side-by-side action with the lead being swapped three times over the final two laps and at the checkers it was Jake Powers who took the win. Jeff DeLonjay was less than a car-length back in second, Tanner Klingele edged out Jeremy Buss by a bumper for third and Justin Bevill completed the top five.
The Late Model feature followed the Hobby Stocks and as Shirley's victory lane photo session wrapped up the wind picked up and a couple of more raindrops started to fall as the UMP Modifieds hustled on to the speedway. Just as the field was about to get the green the rain increased a bit causing officials to delay the start and following another close lightning strike we decided to head for the car. As we scurried through the parking lot we could hear that the race had taken the green, but it had to be slippery go as any rain falling on the hard slick surface would have had nowhere to go. As we got into the car the motors went quiet as the rain was now steady and it was obvious that the racing for tonight was over.
With the large crowd in attendance and with the big haulers also trying to exit the pit area to beat the rain and head on down the road to Clarksville, Tennessee, it was a chore trying to get out of the parking lot but after twenty minutes we finally made it to the highway and while going up the hill toward town we passed the hauler of Brian Shirley. I said to Barry, "we just did something that nobody else was able to do tonight." While making a stop at Taco Bell for our Fourth Meal we learned that Michael Long was the winner of the Modified feature that went eight laps before the rain put an end to it.
Quincy Raceways returns to action this Sunday night July 8th and, if you were in attendance last night, make sure that you bring back that ticket stub as it will save you two dollars on your admission to Sunday's racing.
I may be able to catch the last half of Sunday's Hogan Memorial at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton this Sunday night and then my next stop is planned for Tuesday night July 10th as the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models returns to the West Liberty Raceway.
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