Track Work Leads To Great Feature Racing at Quincy

Usually when a track takes a 45-minute intermission I will report that fact and then attempt to show my displeasure in a subtle manner that will be picked up on, especially if you are a somewhat regular reader of the Back Stretch. On Sunday night there was a 45-minute intermission at the Quincy Raceways. And it may have been the best darn 45-minutes of downtime that I have ever experienced at a racetrack.

A week full of rain had resulted in a heavy racing surface that had developed a tall cushion in turns one and two leaving a narrow racing groove and a treacherous journey if a driver dared to go above it. Left alone the feature races would have likely seen very little passing and, or numerous cautions for incidents and attrition caused by the track conditions. Instead the track crew went to work and, after 45-minutes of grader work and track packing, turns one and two were wide, smooth and ready for action.

The IMCA Stock Cars were up first with Michael “Taco” Larsen bolting to a big early lead while the rest of the field jockeyed for position behind him. Larsen’s lead was over a straightaway when Terry Houston and Abe Huls broke clear and picked up the chase in second and third. As Larsen’s advantage dwindled the race for second picked up as Huls mounted a challenge on Houston just past the mid-race point of the 15-lap distance. With five laps to go Huls pulled even with Houston and the two drivers ran most of the next four laps door-to-door with little if any contact. Usually a battle like this for second is exactly what a leader wants to see in the closing laps, but in this case it seemed like the Houston/Huls duo ran faster laps as they wrestled for that runner-up position than they did before and when Huls finally cleared Houston as the white flag waved he was now only a little more than a car-length back from Larsen. On that final lap Abe got a nice run off of turn two and then drove to the inside of Larsen in turn three. The two came off of turn four side-by-side and at the finish line it was Abe Huls taking the win by a bumper in the non-stop thriller. The third-place finisher Houston was quick to come to the frontstretch and congratulate Huls on a nice, clean race in victory lane. Current point leader Jake Powers finished in the fourth spot with Stock Car division newcomer Brandon Savage taking fifth.

I get down to Quincy at least four or five times a year and I cannot remember the last time that I saw a 25-lap UMP Modified feature go flag-to-flag here as for whatever reason the division sometimes struggles with yellow fever, but not on this night. The Mods had three St. Louis area visitors on hand tonight and all three would end up in the top five at the finish. One of those was Rusty Griffaw who started on the outside of David Wietholder on the front row and raced away to the early lead. With Griffaw setting a quick pace the race to watch was for second as Wietholder tried to hold back the charges of surprise visitor Ken Schrader and four-time feature winner here Steven DeLonjay. With five laps remaining they went three-wide for second down the back straightaway and with a couple of lapped cars involved, plus a hard charging Jake Griffin right behind the trio it definitely brought the solid Sunday night crowd to the edge of their seats. After dropping to third for a lap, Wietholder got back into second but on lap twenty-two he got completely sideways on the bottom of turn four. Wietholder was able to make the save by driving through the infield losing four positions in the process and when DeLonjay had to check up to keep from being involved, he too dropped back a couple of positions.

This now put Schrader into second and while he could still see the leader up ahead of him there were not enough laps remaining to reel him in as Rusty Griffaw picked up the win and scored those valuable UMP Modified National points. Schrader had finished fifth in the Elko, Minnesota, ARCA race Saturday and called his crew to have them meet him with his Modified in Quincy on his way home resulting in a second-place run. Griffin rode the cushion on both ends to finish in the third spot, DeLonjay would have to settle for fourth and the third visitor from the STL area, Jim Black filled out the top five. It would not surprise me if Stevie Dirt has the answer as to when the last time the Mods went green to checkered with no cautions in his blog that focuses on all the action at Quincy.

The IMCA Sport Mods were next on the card and with the domination shown by Tony Dunker here this year I decided to specifically document his progress as he started tenth in the 15-lap main event. As Jeff DeLonjay drove away to an early lead Dunker had one of his prime contenders Bobby Anders fall by the wayside when he dumped a driveshaft on lap number two. Following the restart Dunker was up to fourth on lap three and had moved to third on lap number six when John Lear spun in turn four to produce a caution. On the restart Brandon Dale was able to hold off Dunker for a lap before the caution waved again, this time for a Tanner Klingele spin in turn two and on the ensuing restart Dunker was able to move to second at the mid-race point. On the following lap though things got interesting as Tony’s right front tire went flat and he stopped on the front straightaway to bring out the caution before ducking into the hot pit for a tire change.

Restarting last of the nine cars remaining Dunker showed his strength and passed five of them in that first lap and by lap eleven he was up to third once again behind DeLonjay and Dale. Dunker would get by Dale with three laps remaining and he quickly closed the gap on the leader, but Jeff DeLonjay stayed smooth over those closing laps and the Hobby Stock division graduate would hold on to take his first career win in the Sport Mod class. Dunker put on quite a show for the fans with his back-to-front-to-back-to-front effort to take the runner-up money on this night, Brandon Dale was solid in third while Klingele and Bradley Holtmeyer completed the top five.

Sixteen UMP Super Late Models would then take to the quarter-mile oval for their 30-lap finale with hometown driver Ricky Frankel establishing a lightning fast pace. Dewayne Kiefer and Mark Burgtorf gave chase in second and third, but the man on the move was Michael Long. Usually a double duty racer here on Sunday nights, Long did not compete in the Modified division tonight reportedly down a motor right now, but there was plenty of horsepower in his #56J Late Model as he rocketed around the cushion on both ends coming to the front from his eighth starting position. Jason Perry hooked up with Long and made his move to the front as well setting up quite a battle for the top five positions at the mid-race point. Kiefer was able to slip by Frankel for the lead on lap fifteen and two laps later it was Long who used the cushion, as well as the lapped car of Mike Hammerle to grab the lead.

With Long now pulling away from Kiefer the race to watch was for third as Perry applied the pressure to Frankel and on the final lap those two competitors charged into turn three side-by-side. Both had entered the turn a little too hot on the low groove and they went for a synchronized spin as Burgtorf and Clint Kirkham avoided them by going to the high side. Long had already taken the checkers for the win while Kiefer finished in second and with the caution waving the rest of the top five unofficially was Burgtorf, Kirkham and Jared Schlipman.

The feature racing had been excellent and while I am sure that the Sport Compacts would have closed out the evening on a fine note Christine and I made the decision to head for home at 9:40 p.m., not too bad for a Sunday night that included a 45-minute intermission that, in the long run, might have actually ended up saving time. And it definitely made for some great racing!

Make sure to mark your calendar for Tuesday night July 2^nd as the UMP Summer Nationals returns to “The Bullring on Broadway”. I will likely be back at least once before that night, but definitely look forward to taking in the “Hell Tour” this close to home.