Babb Overpowers Shirley for Summer Nationals Win at Quincy

Shannon Babb and Brian Shirley waged a thrilling door-to-door battle mid-race and it was Babb who prevailed to score the win in the 40-lap main event as the UMP Late Model Summer Nationals “Hell Tour” returned to the Quincy Raceways on Tuesday night. Steven DeLonjay posted his sixth win of the season at his hometown track outrunning a solid field of cars on hand for the Summit Modified Nationals event and Tony Dunker continued his dominance of Quincy’s IMCA Sport Mod division winning the “King of the Bullring” title and the $1,003 top prize.

Thirty-seven Late Models filled the pit area outside of the banked quarter-mile oval and after four heat races, a C-Main and a B-Main the twenty-two car feature field was set with Brian Diveley and Brian Shirley bringing the field to green on the front row. The first attempt at a start was nixed though when Clint Kirkham stopped in turn two before a lap could be scored and on the second attempt at a start Diveley would beat the field into turn one only to have Shirley use the high side to vault to the lead down the back straightaway. Diveley and Sunday night’s Hell Tour winner in Lincoln, Bobby Pierce settled into second and third with Shannon Babb racing in fourth.  A caution on lap three slowed the pace as track regulars Michael Long, Jerry Lierly and Rickey Frankel tangled in turn four and that would turn out to be the last caution of the race.

As Shirley started to pull away following the restart, Babb went to work driving by Pierce on lap five and then blowing past Diveley for second on lap six. The distance between the top two slowly faded and as Shirley approached the first couple of lapped cars Babb made his move to snatch the lead away from the defending Summer Nationals champion. The race winner here on a blistering hot night last year, Shirley was not about to give in as he came right back to challenge and, as they tried to put a lap on Lierly, Shirley nosed ahead for the lead on lap twenty-one. With Lierly down low the lead duo literally raced full throttle, door-to-door into turn one both getting almost completely sideways on the topside of turn two and when Shirley made just a bit of contact with the lapped car on the exit of turn two that was all that Babb needed to regain the advantage.

As Babb stretched out his lead over the closing laps, Shirley found himself having to hold off a late charge from the youngster Pierce and when the checkers waved it was Shannon Babb notching his 78^th career Summer Nationals win by a full straightaway over Shirley and Pierce. Diveley would finish in the fourth position with current Hell Tour point leader Brandon Sheppard coming from the sixth row to finish fifth. Defending track champion Jason Perry finished in the sixth position, Kevin Weaver was seventh, eighth went to Tyler Reddick, Randy Korte was ninth and Denny Woodworth completed the top ten.

Shirley has served as the crew chief for Tim Lance as the Peoria driver chases the entire schedule and in selected events Brian also enters the backup car #48. Dustin Griffin, Rusty Schlenk, Mark Burgtorf and Jason McBride earned provisionals for the main event with Griffin scoring the best finish of those four in fifteenth. Iowa City native Matt Furman, who now lists Columbus, Ohio, as his hometown raced his way into the main event by finishing second to Michael Long in the B-Main and then advanced from his 18^th starting spot to finish in eleventh. Non-qualifiers included the father and son teams of Terry and Tanner English, and Terry and Lake Knutti. Joseph Joiner of Milton, Florida, made his first-ever appearance at Quincy but did not qualify. Joiner has won in seven of his last eight starts at his home track Southern Raceway in Milton and his brother, Joshua Joiner, was on hand to cover the action for Dirt On Dirt. Todd Frank of Mellen, Wisconsin, had set out to follow the entire Summer Nationals schedule, but those plans may have changed after he took a hard tumble in turn one after taking the checkers in qualifying. It was his second time to get upside down after doing the same at Granite City on June 21^st. The Summer Nationals moves on to Jacksonville tonight (July 3^rd) before providing the fireworks at the LaSalle Speedway on Thursday night. Don’t forget that the Tour makes its one and only Iowa appearance on Saturday night July 13^th at 34 Raceway near Burlington.

Several drivers were making their first trip into Quincy as twenty-eight UMP Modifieds were on hand for the twelfth points-paying event on the 2013 Summit Modified Nationals Tour as David Wietholder and Matt Goulden earned the front row for the thirty-lap main event. Wietholder took command from the outset and it wasn’t long before Steven DeLonjay disposed of Goulden and took up the chase on the leader. The two track regulars can usually be found racing for the lead here on Sunday nights and, to the chagrin of Wietholder, Tuesday night’s results went the same way as they as have been going on Sundays this year as DeLonjay made his move in traffic and then pulled away over the final eleven laps to end up in a familiar place here, victory lane.

Wietholder would settle for the runner-up honors, Goulden was consistent in third, Rusty Griffaw finished where he started in fourth and Jim Black did the same in fifth. Michael Long, doing double-duty on the night finished in the sixth position just ahead of Owensboro, Kentucky, driver Tyler Nicely. Shawn Deering finished in eighth ahead of the current Modified Nationals point leader Ray Bollinger and DeSoto, Missouri, driver Michael Stuckey was tenth. Defending Summit Nationals champion and NASCAR personality Kenny Wallace finished in eleventh.

When we pulled into the parking lot for this event last year the temperature was pegged at 104 degrees. Tonight was much different with temps in the low 80’s and a high cloud cover and that may have contributed to the “Clear Day Rain Delay” track conditions as it took a lot of extra effort to get the track rolled in before racing could get underway with the first heat race taking the green around 8:45 p.m. On the first lap of that Sport Mod heat race it appeared that something broke on the right front of Bobby Anders’ car entering turn three and he drove up the track clipping the left rear of Chris Larson who was racing to the cushion at full speed. The contact caused Larson’s car to bicycle and when he hit the cushion his #67 went into a series of violent rolls that were enhanced by the drop off going over the top of turn three. It was one of the worst rollover accidents that I have ever seen for a Modified, especially considering that this is just a quarter-mile race track. Larson who was alert and talking with officials was removed from his car on a back board and was then transferred to the local hospital. Later in the evening it was announced that he had been treated for a “banged up shoulder” and had been released which drew a nice round of applause from the large crowd on hand.

With the late start and the two delays for the rollover incidents the Late Model feature took the checkers at about 11:40 so we headed to the gates rather than staying around for the high-paying Sport Mod main event that had drawn in nineteen cars including long distance travelers Nick Roberts and Austin Heacock. From track reports I see that Tony Dunker held off Abe Huls to take the win. One of the top IMCA Stock Car drivers in the region, Huls drove Rich Wagy’s #55 for the second time this week while another of the track’s top Stock Car shoes Terry Houston was also in competition driving the #27 normally wheeled by Chandler Owens. Brandon Dale, Charles Van Zandt and Joe Bliven rounded out the top five.

While the late night was not ideal I will say that the extra moisture in the track did produce some exciting racing action throughout the evening including the thrilling first corner charge of Shirley and Babb on lap twenty-two that absolutely made the trip worthwhile.

Tonight (Wednesday) you will find me at 34 Raceway just west of Burlington as the Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders will headline the racing action that will be topped off by a big fireworks display to kickoff the Independence Day celebration. Hope to see you there!