Rains from the previous two days had promoter Kenny Dobson and his crew scrambling to see if they could get the facility in shape for racing Sunday night, but with hard work, sunny skies and a northerly breeze that still had a bit of a chill to it the decision was made at noon that the show would go on for night number two of the 2015 season at the Quincy Raceways. The saturated grounds did not allow for normal track preparations and that showed early as that sun and wind had dried out the surface creating quite a bit of dust, but as the night went on the moisture came to the surface at the quarter-mile oval was in near perfect condition come feature time with drivers finding racing lines high, low and even in between.
IMCA Sport Mods started out the menu of five feature events for the evening and with this being the second points night of the season the lineups were set using the standard average points inversion method and that created plenty of action throughout the 18-lap distance. Austin Howes would lead the opening lap only to have Nathan Bringer takeover on lap two. Bringer got in a few nights late last season, but 2015 is his rookie campaign and he is already looking quite impressive just adding to the strength of this division here at Quincy Raceways.
Bringer did his best to protect the bottom only to have Joey Gower sneak by on lap six and three laps later the race was slowed for the first time by Cody Henderson's spin in turn two. The restart saw a three-wide battle for second as Tony Dunker made his way toward the front and the caution waved one more time on lap thirteen when Mike Goodwin spun in turn two. The final restart again saw a mad scramble for position behind the leader and that allowed Joey Gower to ease away over the final five laps to score the victory. Dunker would hold off Bobby Anders for second while Bobby Six made a late pass on Tanner Klingele to finish fourth.
The IMCA Stock Cars were up next and again an inverted start created plenty of action and drivers were not shy about putting a fender to each other as I don't know if any of the twelve starters escaped without at least a little bit of body damage. Andrew Hustead who has moved from the Hobby Stock class up to the Stock Cars would lead the first trip around the speedway before Jerry Jansen and Jake Powers pulled even with him making this a three-wide race for the lead for the next two laps. And if that wasn't exciting enough both Jim Lynch and Abe Huls joined the mix and as the lead pack exited turn four on lap four they were five-wide with Lynch going form fourth to first using the extreme bottom line.
When some of that fender banging happened in the next two laps Beau Taylor was able to move up to second, but he too had suffered damage and on lap six Taylor pulled to the infield with a flat tire. The caution waved on lap nine when William Dahl's Dodge and Jerry Jansen's Ford got locked together in turn two and on the restart Lynch and Huls would lock into a classic Stock Car battle where both wanted the inside line and while there may have been a bit of rubbing, it was just good hard racing. Huls had made his way under Lynch and even though the leader did his best to pin the challenger down the race track, Huls held his line and the two ran door-to-door for two laps. On lap thirteen as Lynch charged hard into turn one and pitched it sideways in an effort to take away that bottom lane, he got sideways and actually bicycled the car for a split second and if not for Huls taking evasive action to the high side, contact from Huls would have likely sent Lynch for a tumble.
The caution waved and following another caution for Derek Sammons on the restart Lynch would head to the pit area. Once back to racing it was now Huls comfortably out front with Hustead chasing him in second and as the leader took the white flag Hustead spun on his own in turn four bringing out one last caution. Lynch would rejoin the field for the green-white-checkers restart and as the checkers waved it was Huls taking the win followed by Powers and Jansen. Lynch crossed the line in fourth, but he had lost a lap or two in the pits so he was scored ninth leaving Hustead and Jeremy Buss to complete the top five.
UMP Late Models and Modifieds were next and both divisions use a format where heat races are aligned straight up by qualifying times and then the first heat winner rolls a die to see how many cars will be inverted for the feature lineup. On this night both Mark Burgtorf (Late Models) and Michael Long (Modifieds) rolled a one placing them on the pole position for their respective main events. Anybody who has been at the Quincy Raceways over the past decade knew what that meant.
Burgtorf would get a challenge early from opening night winner Justin Reed before caution waved for Bobby Regot's spin down the front stretch on lap six. On the restart Denny Woodworth pulled even with Reed and as that battle for second played out Burgtorf checked out. Lapped traffic would allow Reed to get back to within striking distance late in the race, but the thirteen time track champion Mark Burgtorf would not make a mistake as he put the Rick Frankel owned car #33B in victory lane. Reed was second, Keith Pratt started sixth and finished third ahead of Woodworth and Brian Diveley.
The winner of the Modified feature was essentially decided at the initial drop of the green flag as Michael Long powered to a full straightaway advantage by lap six. Long's only instant of concern came on lap thirteen when the soon to be lapped car of Frankie Wellman spun right in front of the leader in turn two and on the restart Long again left the field in his wake. Cautions on laps eighteen and twenty-two only delayed the inevitable as Michael Long was dominant in victory. Rick Conoyer who actually had the fastest qualifying lap earlier in the evening only to suffer a flat tire in his heat race battled back to to pass David Wietholder on the final restart to finish second. Conoyer had started the race in the fifteenth position. Wietholder ended up third followed by Steven DeLonjay and Shawn Deering.
IMCA Sport Compacts would close out the night with first week winner Kimberly Abbott starting in the eighth position for the fifteen lap event. Spencer Coats who battled mechanical issues all night appeared to have them solved as he paced the opening lap only to have Seith Woodruff nose him out at the line on lap two. Woodruff and Coats would race side-by-side for the next three laps before caution waved for Jerry Bown who was up against the wall at the exit of turn four. While under caution the gremlins again plagued Coats and he sputtered to the pit area while another top contender Trent Orwig coasted to a halt and his car had to be pushed off the track. On the restart Abbott powered around the outside of Woodruff to take the lead and the current All Iowa Points leader would go the rest of the way to record her second straight win here at QR. Woodruff was a solid second ahead of Brandon Lambert, John Girdley and the sharp looking #11 of Darin Weisinger Jr.
Ironically the final checkered flag waved at 9:07 p.m., the exact same time as the night before in Boone, and once again I was home earlier than I had expected. A big thanks to Kenny Dobson, Mary and Larry Loney, Jack Walbring, Doug Miller and Brian Neal for their hospitality and remember that you can always keep up on the action at Quincy Raceways by checking in with my colleagues Neal and Danny Rosencrans at Positively Racing. The track is just getting started with their Sunday night slate of racing plus they have several special events on the schedule for 2015 that you won't want to miss!
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