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!
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Monday Notebook: March 21, 2016
I was all set to gather together my cold weather gear and pack the car for my trip to Winston, Missouri, on Sunday morning when I received a text from the USMTS saying that due to snow on the ground and forecasted cold temperatures the race at I-35 Speedway had been cancelled. Yes, I let a couple of f-bombs fly and stomped around for a bit before deciding to go on a walk not only for exercise, but to calm myself down. My route started off to the south before turning west where I was protected by several houses, but as soon as I turned into that north wind I was convinced. Good call, race officials, good call!
I know that I shouldn't be like a little kid when the races are cancelled, but hey I guess it still shows the passion that I have for the sport, especially when I am trying to get to that first race of the season for me here in the Midwest. When the day comes that I am not disappointed you can bet that I am dead and gone. Even with that disappointment I know that the race promoter has to always do what is best for them because as I have noted before, without a successful race promoter we have no races and in this case I was happy that they waited until the morning of the event to call it based upon the actual weather rather than going off of a forecast. Why am I saying that? Well, primarily because weather forecasts two or three days in advance are more likely to change rather than stay the same, and also to encourage all promoters who have races scheduled for this coming weekend to be patient and not pull the plug too early since there is, as of Monday, a potential snowstorm being discussed for Wednesday night into Thursday in the upper Midwest. This will be my last chance to go racing until April 6th so let's just wait to see what actually happens first as cancelling a Friday show on Thursday is still more than enough lead time. I'm a selfish little kid, aren't I?
What made yesterday's cancellation even worse was that it allowed me to watch the Iowa game and then later the Northern Iowa meltdown. Ugggh......read this story on the Hawkeyes by the Cedar Rapids Gazette's Mike Hlas and don't you wish that we can all be like the 12-year-old reporter for Sports Illustrated for Kids and see the broader picture rather than the current disappointment? Thank you to the Hawkeyes and the Panthers for giving us a season full of thrills and to all those seniors on both teams thank you for your stellar careers!
Now let's go Cyclones!
What a great tournament so far! The Notre Dame tip in was a great play by a seldom used player, but I was disappointed to have Stephen F. Austin lose and have Thomas Walkup and his beard go to the sidelines. And I wished that I had switched the channel to see Bronson Koenig's game winner for Wisconsin rather than UNI's final 44 seconds of regulation.
I will gladly give up watching all of it this Friday and Saturday though to go racing! Mother Nature, do you hear me?
There were a few tracks in the area did get their shows in this weekend. The Cecil Harlan Memorial Kegger at the Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Oklahoma, ran on Saturday and Sunday with Iowans Jeff James of Stanton scoring the win in the IMCA Modifieds while his teammate Todd Van Eaton finished fifth.
The USMTS raced on Saturday night in Humboldt, Kansas, with Jason Hughes taking the win over Ryan Gustin and Zack VanderBeek. Hunter Marriott finished in the fourth spot and there was an (R) after his name in the results, so does that mean that this rising star in the IMCA ranks will now be running more USMTS events? Iowa's Daniel Hilsabeck was fifth and Todd Shute was sixth. In the companion USRA Iron Man Series openers Decorah's Kyle Falck scored the Stock Car win ahead of Polk City's Steve Jackson while Wheatland, Missouri's Mike Striegel was the B-Mod winner as four-time defending All Missouri points champion J.C. Morton finished fifth.
Daugherty Speedway in northwest Indiana opened its season on a cool Saturday with Steven Brooks topping a solid field of 24 UMP Modifieds while Gerald Gault was the Pro (Crate) Late Model winner. They will run again this coming Saturday and may be one of my options should either Donnellson or LaSalle fall by the wayside due to the weather.
The Spring Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway was already an attractive show with the five IMCA divisions, but when you add in the Crate Late Models for $1,000-to-win each night it is just too good of a show, and too close to home to pass up. The dirt Late Model world though will be focused on the Thaw Brawl at the LaSalle Speedway where not only is there a bunch of money up for grabs for what should be a stellar field of drivers, but it will be the return of Brian Birkhofer driving one of Justin Kay's Gheer'd Up rides. My suggestion to you would be to arrive early because the place is likely to be filled to the brim with excited Late Model fans. All of my other options for the weekend are pretty far away and since Easter dinner is at my mother's house at noon on Sunday, they are probably all beyond reason, so come on weatherman, let's straighten up!
The Gateway Dirt Nationals made some news last week when it was mentioned that 80 Late Models and 150 Modifieds had already pre-registered. The announcement then came down that they would cap the entries at 250 Modifieds and 150 Late Models with Thursday now being used as a qualifying day, rather than the previously announced practice that will whittle each class down to 100 cars for Friday and Saturday racing. I am seeing people saying that they have already bought their tickets and while it would appear from this seating chart that they might only be using the colored sections for the event, if there is no room for me to buy a Friday night ticket at the door in a dome that has seats for more than 60,000 people then I will go with the next best option and purchase the PPV from Dirt On Dirt. Would love to see that list of drivers that have already paid their non-refundable, non-transferable entry fees for this December event.
On the pavement this past weekend Wisconsin's Ty Majeski scored the win in the Rattler 250 at the South Alabama Speedway. Open wheel ace and current NASCAR Truck Series RoY candidate Christopher Bell finished second.
Jonathan Davenport added to his lead in the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model points with his Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series victory at Atomic Speedway in Ohio Friday night.
I know that I shouldn't be like a little kid when the races are cancelled, but hey I guess it still shows the passion that I have for the sport, especially when I am trying to get to that first race of the season for me here in the Midwest. When the day comes that I am not disappointed you can bet that I am dead and gone. Even with that disappointment I know that the race promoter has to always do what is best for them because as I have noted before, without a successful race promoter we have no races and in this case I was happy that they waited until the morning of the event to call it based upon the actual weather rather than going off of a forecast. Why am I saying that? Well, primarily because weather forecasts two or three days in advance are more likely to change rather than stay the same, and also to encourage all promoters who have races scheduled for this coming weekend to be patient and not pull the plug too early since there is, as of Monday, a potential snowstorm being discussed for Wednesday night into Thursday in the upper Midwest. This will be my last chance to go racing until April 6th so let's just wait to see what actually happens first as cancelling a Friday show on Thursday is still more than enough lead time. I'm a selfish little kid, aren't I?
What made yesterday's cancellation even worse was that it allowed me to watch the Iowa game and then later the Northern Iowa meltdown. Ugggh......read this story on the Hawkeyes by the Cedar Rapids Gazette's Mike Hlas and don't you wish that we can all be like the 12-year-old reporter for Sports Illustrated for Kids and see the broader picture rather than the current disappointment? Thank you to the Hawkeyes and the Panthers for giving us a season full of thrills and to all those seniors on both teams thank you for your stellar careers!
Now let's go Cyclones!
What a great tournament so far! The Notre Dame tip in was a great play by a seldom used player, but I was disappointed to have Stephen F. Austin lose and have Thomas Walkup and his beard go to the sidelines. And I wished that I had switched the channel to see Bronson Koenig's game winner for Wisconsin rather than UNI's final 44 seconds of regulation.
I will gladly give up watching all of it this Friday and Saturday though to go racing! Mother Nature, do you hear me?
There were a few tracks in the area did get their shows in this weekend. The Cecil Harlan Memorial Kegger at the Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Oklahoma, ran on Saturday and Sunday with Iowans Jeff James of Stanton scoring the win in the IMCA Modifieds while his teammate Todd Van Eaton finished fifth.
The USMTS raced on Saturday night in Humboldt, Kansas, with Jason Hughes taking the win over Ryan Gustin and Zack VanderBeek. Hunter Marriott finished in the fourth spot and there was an (R) after his name in the results, so does that mean that this rising star in the IMCA ranks will now be running more USMTS events? Iowa's Daniel Hilsabeck was fifth and Todd Shute was sixth. In the companion USRA Iron Man Series openers Decorah's Kyle Falck scored the Stock Car win ahead of Polk City's Steve Jackson while Wheatland, Missouri's Mike Striegel was the B-Mod winner as four-time defending All Missouri points champion J.C. Morton finished fifth.
Daugherty Speedway in northwest Indiana opened its season on a cool Saturday with Steven Brooks topping a solid field of 24 UMP Modifieds while Gerald Gault was the Pro (Crate) Late Model winner. They will run again this coming Saturday and may be one of my options should either Donnellson or LaSalle fall by the wayside due to the weather.
The Spring Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway was already an attractive show with the five IMCA divisions, but when you add in the Crate Late Models for $1,000-to-win each night it is just too good of a show, and too close to home to pass up. The dirt Late Model world though will be focused on the Thaw Brawl at the LaSalle Speedway where not only is there a bunch of money up for grabs for what should be a stellar field of drivers, but it will be the return of Brian Birkhofer driving one of Justin Kay's Gheer'd Up rides. My suggestion to you would be to arrive early because the place is likely to be filled to the brim with excited Late Model fans. All of my other options for the weekend are pretty far away and since Easter dinner is at my mother's house at noon on Sunday, they are probably all beyond reason, so come on weatherman, let's straighten up!
The Gateway Dirt Nationals made some news last week when it was mentioned that 80 Late Models and 150 Modifieds had already pre-registered. The announcement then came down that they would cap the entries at 250 Modifieds and 150 Late Models with Thursday now being used as a qualifying day, rather than the previously announced practice that will whittle each class down to 100 cars for Friday and Saturday racing. I am seeing people saying that they have already bought their tickets and while it would appear from this seating chart that they might only be using the colored sections for the event, if there is no room for me to buy a Friday night ticket at the door in a dome that has seats for more than 60,000 people then I will go with the next best option and purchase the PPV from Dirt On Dirt. Would love to see that list of drivers that have already paid their non-refundable, non-transferable entry fees for this December event.
On the pavement this past weekend Wisconsin's Ty Majeski scored the win in the Rattler 250 at the South Alabama Speedway. Open wheel ace and current NASCAR Truck Series RoY candidate Christopher Bell finished second.
Jonathan Davenport added to his lead in the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model points with his Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series victory at Atomic Speedway in Ohio Friday night.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Lee County Speedway Welcomes Crate Late Models to Iowa
Lynn Richard started racing in 1979 when he earned the Rookie-of-the-Year honors in the Sportsman division at the West Liberty Raceway and outside of a six-year period where his employer made him choose between selling tractors or racing cars the Mount Pleasant, Iowa, resident has either driven or owned a car, or two, and once even three, ever since. At the conclusion of the 2015 season though, after reviewing the expenses that were involved with his IMCA Late Model team, Richard made the tough decision to call it quits.
"My motor bill alone last year was forty-one thousand dollars and as a weekly racing team we are out there running for five hundred or six hundred dollars to win," said Richard as I visited his race shop on Wednesday. "Under the current rules a motor is twenty grand minimum and thirty thousand for a good one. It just didn't make sense to me anymore."
Grudgingly preparing himself to walk away from the sport that he and his family had enjoyed so much over the years Richard took a phone call from the Lee County fair asking him if he would be interested in being an advisor to the race board. "I agreed on one condition, if they would bring Crate Late Models to the Lee County Speedway in 2016 and they said, sure, if you write the rules!"
Lynn and his wife Karen then made the trip out to Nebraska to talk with drivers and promoters at a few of the tracks in the eastern part of the state where the Late Model division ran a mix of rules that included an option for crate engines. It would be Lynn's opprtunity to not only learn more about the Crate Late Models, but also how to integrate it into the rules package that was already in the region. "I knew that we couldn't just go straight to Crate rules, we needed to have a transition period where drivers could use what they already had and I wanted to try to make the combination as equal as possible."
What he came up with is a set of rules that will allow the IMCA rules cars to race as well during the transition period, rules that Richard said if there is a competitive advantage one way or another that adjustments will be made and Lee County Speedway Promoter Mike Van Genderen emphasized that point even further. "We will change the rules at anytime to keep the playing field level. We want to make this work and it is important that there is not a perception that the Crates have an advantage over the IMCA cars, or vice versa."
For the IMCA legal cars they can come and race against the Crates by running a .950 restrictor plate that can be purchased from Performance Bodies for $97 and by running a 7,800 chip. They can leave everything else as is.
The rules for the Crate cars are written to keep costs down with the obvious headliner being the engine that can be purchased for around $6,000, but another big savings comes in the shocks where Richard said that his IMCA car took about $4,500 to equip. "I had these twin tube oil shocks in my drawer over there and they probably wouldn't have brought ten bucks a piece at an auction. With these rules they are going on my car instead and I will have about $200 invested in my shock package."
Re-energized from the new option, Richard quickly jumped back into the sport by purchasing Jeff Aikey's championship car from 2015, buying a crate engine from Shottenkirk and by purchasing an open trailer to make the 25-mile haul down to Donnellson where Jeff Guengerich will drive the car that I assume will once again carry Lynn's familiar #15. "All combined, I'm going Late Model racing for just $15,000!"
That new lower budget has other drivers and car owners in the region fired up as well. "We have cars in the area being pulled out of sheds and barns that otherwise would have sat idle this season," continued Richard. "We believe that we will have twelve to fifteen local drivers by mid-season and hopefully that number will continue to grow." Driver names that we discussed included Tommy Elston, Sam Halstead, Louis Lynch, Todd Frank, Derek Liles and of course Guengerich, while Van Genderen noted that he has fielded several calls from interested drivers from outside of the immediate area and from other promoters as well.
The southeast corner of the Hawkeye state has been without weekly Late Model racing since nearby 34 Raceway in Burlington dropped the division following the 2012 season and, given its location, Donnellson seems to be the perfect track to introduce Crate Late Models to Iowa. The nearest IMCA Late Model track is 75 miles to the north in West Liberty and the closest UMP Late Model track is about 60 miles south in Quincy, Illinois, and both of those tracks set the outer edge of coverage for those two respective sanctioning bodies. You have to drive three hours to the west before you find weekly Late Model racing in Corning while it would be a two hour trip to the east where the Super Late Models run weekly in Peoria and the Pro Late Models, UMP's own Crate division race weekly at the Spoon River Speedway.
The division will make its debut next weekend, March 25th and 26th during the annual Spring Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway with a full show both nights paying $1,000-to-win. Both the promoter Van Genderen and the advisor Richard noted that they have had drivers from Nebraska and Kansas who said that they plan to make the trip to Donnellson for the two-day show to show their support knowing what it has meant for their own Late Model programs. The Crate Late Models will then race weekly at Donnellson on Friday nights paying $500-to-win and $100-to-start, plus the division will run in support of the track's May 5th MLRA Late Model show with another $1,000 winner's check up for grabs. Then, on the first two days of August, the "Lee County Late Models" will take center stage for a $1,000-to-win special event. No wonder the division is drawing interest from around the region!
The class will also make appearances at 34 Raceway, the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, and during the fair races at the Bloomfield Speedway. Van Genderen also wanted to emphasize that all events this year, including the weekly shows at Donnellson, will be run under a draw/redraw format to give drivers the opportunity to drop in and tryout the rules package without having to start at the rear......unless of course that is where they draw.
"I have been checking the weather and hoping that it will be good for next weekend," said Richard. "We could have four cars or there could be more than twenty, you just never know. I'm apprehensive, but I am so excited to have Late Models back at the Lee County Speedway."
Race fans in the area are excited as well.
"My motor bill alone last year was forty-one thousand dollars and as a weekly racing team we are out there running for five hundred or six hundred dollars to win," said Richard as I visited his race shop on Wednesday. "Under the current rules a motor is twenty grand minimum and thirty thousand for a good one. It just didn't make sense to me anymore."
Grudgingly preparing himself to walk away from the sport that he and his family had enjoyed so much over the years Richard took a phone call from the Lee County fair asking him if he would be interested in being an advisor to the race board. "I agreed on one condition, if they would bring Crate Late Models to the Lee County Speedway in 2016 and they said, sure, if you write the rules!"
Lynn and his wife Karen then made the trip out to Nebraska to talk with drivers and promoters at a few of the tracks in the eastern part of the state where the Late Model division ran a mix of rules that included an option for crate engines. It would be Lynn's opprtunity to not only learn more about the Crate Late Models, but also how to integrate it into the rules package that was already in the region. "I knew that we couldn't just go straight to Crate rules, we needed to have a transition period where drivers could use what they already had and I wanted to try to make the combination as equal as possible."
What he came up with is a set of rules that will allow the IMCA rules cars to race as well during the transition period, rules that Richard said if there is a competitive advantage one way or another that adjustments will be made and Lee County Speedway Promoter Mike Van Genderen emphasized that point even further. "We will change the rules at anytime to keep the playing field level. We want to make this work and it is important that there is not a perception that the Crates have an advantage over the IMCA cars, or vice versa."
For the IMCA legal cars they can come and race against the Crates by running a .950 restrictor plate that can be purchased from Performance Bodies for $97 and by running a 7,800 chip. They can leave everything else as is.
The rules for the Crate cars are written to keep costs down with the obvious headliner being the engine that can be purchased for around $6,000, but another big savings comes in the shocks where Richard said that his IMCA car took about $4,500 to equip. "I had these twin tube oil shocks in my drawer over there and they probably wouldn't have brought ten bucks a piece at an auction. With these rules they are going on my car instead and I will have about $200 invested in my shock package."
Re-energized from the new option, Richard quickly jumped back into the sport by purchasing Jeff Aikey's championship car from 2015, buying a crate engine from Shottenkirk and by purchasing an open trailer to make the 25-mile haul down to Donnellson where Jeff Guengerich will drive the car that I assume will once again carry Lynn's familiar #15. "All combined, I'm going Late Model racing for just $15,000!"
That new lower budget has other drivers and car owners in the region fired up as well. "We have cars in the area being pulled out of sheds and barns that otherwise would have sat idle this season," continued Richard. "We believe that we will have twelve to fifteen local drivers by mid-season and hopefully that number will continue to grow." Driver names that we discussed included Tommy Elston, Sam Halstead, Louis Lynch, Todd Frank, Derek Liles and of course Guengerich, while Van Genderen noted that he has fielded several calls from interested drivers from outside of the immediate area and from other promoters as well.
The southeast corner of the Hawkeye state has been without weekly Late Model racing since nearby 34 Raceway in Burlington dropped the division following the 2012 season and, given its location, Donnellson seems to be the perfect track to introduce Crate Late Models to Iowa. The nearest IMCA Late Model track is 75 miles to the north in West Liberty and the closest UMP Late Model track is about 60 miles south in Quincy, Illinois, and both of those tracks set the outer edge of coverage for those two respective sanctioning bodies. You have to drive three hours to the west before you find weekly Late Model racing in Corning while it would be a two hour trip to the east where the Super Late Models run weekly in Peoria and the Pro Late Models, UMP's own Crate division race weekly at the Spoon River Speedway.
The division will make its debut next weekend, March 25th and 26th during the annual Spring Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway with a full show both nights paying $1,000-to-win. Both the promoter Van Genderen and the advisor Richard noted that they have had drivers from Nebraska and Kansas who said that they plan to make the trip to Donnellson for the two-day show to show their support knowing what it has meant for their own Late Model programs. The Crate Late Models will then race weekly at Donnellson on Friday nights paying $500-to-win and $100-to-start, plus the division will run in support of the track's May 5th MLRA Late Model show with another $1,000 winner's check up for grabs. Then, on the first two days of August, the "Lee County Late Models" will take center stage for a $1,000-to-win special event. No wonder the division is drawing interest from around the region!The class will also make appearances at 34 Raceway, the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, and during the fair races at the Bloomfield Speedway. Van Genderen also wanted to emphasize that all events this year, including the weekly shows at Donnellson, will be run under a draw/redraw format to give drivers the opportunity to drop in and tryout the rules package without having to start at the rear......unless of course that is where they draw.
"I have been checking the weather and hoping that it will be good for next weekend," said Richard. "We could have four cars or there could be more than twenty, you just never know. I'm apprehensive, but I am so excited to have Late Models back at the Lee County Speedway."
Race fans in the area are excited as well.
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