My plan for Friday was to leave Mt. Pleasant around five o'clock and make the twenty-five mile drive to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, but shortly after three I saw a Facebook post stating that the races there were cancelled. Yes, it was late in the day and since practice was supposed to start at four I know that there were a bunch of drivers and fans who were already enroute and hopefully they were alerted in the same way as, for this fan, I still had a couple of options to salvage the one night that I could go racing on this Easter weekend.
My first thought was to head south to the season opener at Kevin Gundaker's Tri-City Speedway as I figured that it would be warmer down there and the track did not get as much rain over the past couple of days as my other option did. Besides, I love the racing at Tri-City and they always draw a solid field of cars. But, it is a three and a half hour drive for me and that is without any Friday rush hour traffic in St. Louis, so would I even be there in time for the first heat race?
I hate missing even the first heat race!
My other option was to go to the race that I had originally planned on going to this weekend before the closer opportunity became more intriguing and, since the LaSalle Speedway was about fifty minutes closer than Tri-City, that was a big plus. Add in the fact that there would be a great field of Late Models and Modifieds, plus the storied return of Brian Birkhofer and the decision was made. I was now making the trip to the opening night of the Thaw Brawl.
My colleague Ed Reichert was planning to cover both nights at LaSalle so a quick call to him gave me the comfort of knowing that I would have a good seat even though I would be arriving after the start of hot laps and while on the phone Ed gave me a few of the big names that were already in the pits at the north central Illinois quarter-mile. With both national touring series off for the weekend there were representatives from each in attendance along with a few hotshoes from eastern Indiana and of course the strong regional talent that is in this area. Plus, with the tri-sanction of ALMS, MARS and the Corn Belt Clash the top drivers from each of those were on hand, so in the field of forty-three Late Models you knew that there was going to be some solid talent left on the sidelines come feature time.
Arizona Modified ace Ricky Thornton Jr. earned the pole position for the $5,000-to-win Late Model main event by winning the opening heat race while Jared Landers would start to his outside after a thrilling last lap pass of Bobby Pierce to win heat race two and they would lead the field of twenty-four to green for the fifty-lapper. As the field thundered down the back stretch for the first time the fifth and seventh starters Justin Asplin and Spencer Diercks made contact turning both cars sideways and the scramble was on. Asplin spun up the track and everybody missed him, but Diercks was sideways in the middle and he collected three top contenders in Kevin Weaver, Jason Feger and Tim McCreadie. All four drivers were eliminated and on the second try at a start it was Landers who vaulted off the cushion of turn two to take the lead for the opening lap.
Brian Shirley and Frank Heckenast Jr. shuffled Thornton back to fourth and took up the chase of the leader as the eighth starting Shannon Babb was pounding the cushion on both ends to make his way to the front. As Babb was about to pass Thornton for fourth on lap nine his car bicycled in turn four and then one more bite of that cushion rolled the #18 over once to bring out the red flag for a second time.
On the restart Shirley kept pace with Landers and showed his patience until lap sixteen when he eased by Landers on the inside to take the lead. The defending champion of this event Bobby Pierce was running fifth at this point, but smoke started to billow from the tail of his car and as Shirley pulled away from the pack and it became obvious that the next yellow would be when the mechanical issue brought Pierce to a halt. That happened on lap thirty as Bobby coasted to a stop in turn two and a tell-tale pool of fluid was left behind as his car was towed away.
One lap after the restart the two drivers who raced to a photo finish at the Spring 50 in Florence, Kentucky, two weeks ago Cody Mahoney and Jason Jameson tangled entering turn one sending Mahoney for a spin and, while he retired to the pits, Jameson was sent to the rear for the restart.
When the green flag waved Shirley again pulled away from the field and built a half lap lead over the final nineteen circuits to score the convincing win over Landers, Heckenast and Thornton. However, Heckenast then failed to make weight at the scales dropping him to the back of the 24-car rundown. That would put Thornton officially in third for his first Late Model start in the Midwest with Ryan Unzicker in fourth after he started the race from the ninth row. Fellow ninth row starter Mitch McGrath would be paid for fifth while the rest of the top ten would be Rusty Schlenk, Jameson, Payton Looney, Tony Jackson Jr. and the final car on the track Jeff Roth.
Thaw Brawl Notes......I was amazed at how well the racing surface held up throughout the evening as the racing surface itself stayed smooth. Yes, the grader had to come out to knock down the cushion three different times during the evening, the result of the cold and rain the previous two days, but overall it was a very good track for the final weekend in March......As mentioned earlier there was plenty of talent left in the pits at feature time and that means that there was some very entertaining qualifying races as the field went through group qualifying and then ran four heats and two B-Mains. Rusty Schlenk drove around local favorite Scott Schmitt off of turn on the final lap to take the fourth and final transfer spot out of the first heat......The race of the night was the second heat as Bobby Pierce seemed to have things well in hand until Jared Landers raced him side-by-side over the final two laps. I was actually a bit surprised at the reaction of the crowd when Landers nipped Pierce at the line although it might have been more for the thrill of the finish rather than who took the win......That second heat was loaded with talent with two of the non-qualifers being Billy Moyer Jr. and Dennis Erb Jr......Brian Birkhofer's return to action was in heat three where he would start deep in the field after slipping high in turn four on his qualifying lap. Birky was picking things up quickly though and was closing in on Rich Bell for the fourth and final transfer spot on lap four when Bell went for a spin in turn four. Race officials penalized Birkhofer as well and both drivers were sent to the rear for the restart......So I am a big Hawkeye basketball fan and I love attending the games, but one of the things that disappoints me is when the fans overreact in a negative manner when one of the Hawks gets called for a foul. "Are you kidding me?? That wasn't a foul, he didn't even touch him!! What's wrong with you ref are you blind? You suck!" I love the Hawks, but I do know that they sometime commit a foul and when they get called for it I am sometimes embarrassed at how my fellow fans act about it. Sadly I know that this is not unique to the Hawkeyes as fan bias is a huge issue across all of college basketball and other sports as well......Anyway, back to the restart of third heat race, Birkhofer was again making his way forward when on lap seven he slid wide at the exit of turn four and when he made that save the right front of the car turned into the front stretch wall and he rode it all the way down to the entrance of turn one where his night would end on the back of a wrecker.....Frankie Heckenast would go on to win that heat ahead of Spencer Diercks and early MARS point leader Tony Jackson Jr......The fourth and final heat would have three of the best in Illinois up front in Brian Shirley, Shannon Babb and Jason Feger......Only two drivers would transfer out of each of the B-Mains with Mitch McGrath and Scott Schmitt coming out of the first one and Ryan Unzicker and Billy Drake from the second one. Tim McCreadie was challenging Drake early for second before he spun in turn one and the national star raced his way back up to fifth at the checkers. McCreadie did though make the feature field as a track provisional while the three series named Rich Bell, Jeff Roth and Chris Simpson as their provisionals.......Nineteen UMP Street Stocks waged an entertaining 20-lap feature where the leaders seemed to be jinxed as the first one spun in turn one and another one had a tire go flat with two laps remaining. A driver whom the announcer identified as Frye came from deep in the field to take the win......Thirty-six UMP Modifieds were also in action and while I would have loved to stay for their final race of the night the approaching eleven o'clock hour and the long drive home was calling my name. I see where defending UMP National Champion Mike Harrison scored the $1,500 win over Ray Bollinger, Brian Lynn, Steven Brooks and Jeff Leka.
The disappointment of the cancellation at Donnellson was more than erased by the entertaining show at LaSalle and I have now officially kicked off the 2016 season with my first Midwest event. That next one will have to wait for another eleven days or more due to other commitments, but hopefully you can get to the track for an early special event soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment