Mark Burgtorf has won more races than any other drivers at the Quincy Raceways and over the past three decades he has both dominated from up front, and he has come from well back to chase down drivers too numerous to mention to score those victories. On this Sunday night, in the third edition of the Albert Scott Memorial honoring the man who built "The Bullring on Broadway", it looked as though Burgtorf was on his way to another of those rallying wins, but a new kid on the block held his own and walked away with the $2,000 top prize.
Twenty-six UMP Late Models were on hand on a beautiful, crisp, clear evening that followed a week where a couple of rounds of heavy rains had left the track very tacky and unfortunately very rough both in turn two and in turn three. Twenty-four of those cars would take the green for the 42-lap main event with Denny Woodworth edging out Dustin Griffin by a nose to be the official leader of lap one before the pole-sitter Griffin moved to the front on the second trip around the quarter-mile oval. A punted track tire rolling down the back stretch slowed the action on lap three and on the restart Justin Reed went to the cushion to challenge for the lead.
The Late Models were literally flying around the track tonight and while it had to be very physically demanding on the drivers, not to mention rough on equipment, it definitely gave a large throng of fans a thrill a second and Reed provided one of those when he charged off the cushion of turn four to zip past Griffin for the lead on lap four. The caution would wave again just after the lap was scored when David Wietholder, driving Jim Moon's second car, spun in turn three.
The race would then go green for an extended segment with Reed now getting a challenge from McKay Wenger who in 2016 is making Quincy his Sunday night destination as he pursues the UMP Late Model National Championship. The two drivers put on a quite a show as they tried different lines and zipped through lapped traffic while other visitors for the night such as Michael Kloos, Daryn Klein, Chad Zobrist and Allen Murray dropped out of the race. On lap twenty-two Wenger was finally able to vault off the bottom of turn two to snare the lead from Reed and, just like Reed's pass of Griffin earlier, the caution soon waved again as Clint Kirkham and Dewayne Kiefer tangled in turn turn. Jason Perry who had been running in the top six spun on the restart and when the field assembled for a run at the final twenty laps there he was, Mark Burgtorf, lined up in the top five after starting eleventh.
As the green flag waved Burgtorf quickly moved up to third and then went to work on Reed for the second spot. Justin fought him off valiantly for several laps before Burgtorf was able to clear him for second with twelve laps remaining. By now though Wenger had a straightaway lead, but I would bet that there wasn't a Quincy fan in the stands, including me, that didn't think that Burgtorf would chase him down and pass him. Burgtorf did cut into that lead using the heavy cushion to his advantage and once or twice getting an assist from lapped traffic, but by now there were just eleven cars still in action and even though Mark was able to get within five car-lengths with four laps to go Wenger was solid and scored his second win of the season here at Quincy. Reed would follow Burgtorf in for third with early leaders Woodworth and Griffin completing the top five. Sixth through tenth were Gordy Gundaker, Jim Moon, Greg Kimmons, Brian Diveley and Bo Brockway.
The IMCA Stock Cars were the first of five features on the night with Rudy Zaragoza pacing the ten car field early in the 18-lap event. Brian Hoener gave the fans a thrill when he bicycled his car non-winged sprint car style in turn three on the opening lap and sixth-starting Abe Huls quickly made his way to the front taking the lead on lap four. Huls would go on to win by more than half a lap in the non-stop event with Zaragoza going unchallenged for second. The race for third on back was definitely fun to watch though as on lap ten drivers raced four-wide for fourth through turn two. Despite a broken left front Brandon Savage finished in the third position, Dean Kratzer was fourth and after starting tenth New London, Iowa, visitor Chase Klenk finished in fifth.
Michael Long has completely dominated the UMP Modified division at Quincy this season, so much so that a bounty is out on the hometown driver and it has grown to $400 drawing in some top names in the division such as Ray Bollinger, Rick Conoyer and former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace. Unfortunately several names that have been around the track for years such as DeLonjay and Schlipman among others are missing in 2016 and it was only a ten-car field that would sign in with nine lined up for the 25-lap feature. Bollinger and Long would bring the field to green with Long using the cushion to race to the lead before a stalled Spencer Havermele brought out the caution on lap two.
On the restart Bollinger was throwing everything he had at Long and on lap three the bounty hunter from Kewanee went over the top of turn four and in the process cut down a tire bringing out the caution. Once the field was realigned Bollinger was given two courtesy laps under caution to make the tire change and charged back onto the track coming down the front stretch just in time as the light blinked off and the field entered turn three for the restart. Being a half lap back as the race went back to green, Bollinger deliberately spun down the back stretch to cause his second caution with the "penalty" to again be in ninth and now caught up with the field for the next try at a restart.
In no time Bollinger was back in the top four and the race saw Long leading comfortbaly over Wallace who was several car-lengths ahead of David Wietholder who was locked in a tight battle with Bollinger. On lap sixteen though disaster struck Wallace as his right rear wheel broke in turn three and he took a wild ride catching a great deal of height before settling to the track upside down. With some fire under the hood safety crews and even some other drivers quickly moved in to turn the car over and extinguish the flames as Kenny thankfully scrambled out uninjured. You can check out some photos of the extensive damage on Kenny's Twitter feed.
On the restart Wietholder slipped a right rear off the top of turn two to draw one more caution and on the next restart Bollinger did his best to make a challenge on the leader. Long would just shrug it off though pulling away over the closing laps to remain undefeated in five nights of action at Quincy this year. Bollinger and Wietholder were second and third with Shawn Deering and Russ Coultas the other two cars on the track at the checkers.
With the Late Model checkers waving at 9:20 Christine and I decided to wrap up our two-race weekend trip and head for home prior to the Sport Mod and Sport Compact main events. From SpeedNet this morning I see that Nathan Bringer won the Sport Mod feature over rookie driver Justin Ebbing while former Lee County Speedway track champion Brandon Reu won what I believe to be his first feature at the Quincy track in the Sport Compacts.
Thanks to promoter Kenny Dobson and to Mary Loney for the hospitality and, being the perfectionsit that he is, you know that Dobson and his crew will be working hard this week to get the track back into its usually smoother conditions.
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