Gordy Gundaker knows his way around the city of Quincy after having played catcher for the local university for three years. While in school he also had his family bring the race car up out of St. Louis occasionally and he has had some past success winning a couple of features here in 2014 and on Sunday night Gundaker made a triumphant return to Quincy Raceways capturing the "Scottie 43" UMP Late Model special at the quarter-mile bullring.
A stout field of twenty-two Super Late Models signed in on a perfect evening for racing with this event being the opener for the Midwest Big Ten Series and paying $2,000-to-win. Ricky Frankel would start from the pole with Gundaker to his outside and it would be Frankel who would enjoy the early advantage. A Ron McQuerry spin on lap two would slow the pace as would a lap three caution when the third running Rusty Schlenk would spin off turn four. Schlenk then hustled to the work area with a flat tire, but his crew must have found other damage as he then retired to the pit area.
On the restart Frankel slowly pulled away from his challengers until he reached the back of the field on lap twelve. Mike Hammerle was running in Frankel's preferred low line and when the leader followed him for a lap that allowed Gundaker to erase the gap and prepare to challenge. When Frankel looked to the top to get around Hammerle, Gundaker charged under him the take the lead and he then returned to the top to make quick work of the lapped car. Frankel's frustration continued on the following lap when he tried to go under Hammerle and contact between the two allowed Michael Kloos to take over the second spot.
A caution for Dewayne Kiefer slowed the field one last time on lap nineteen and on the restart there was no catching Gundaker as he drove away to a convincing victory. Kloos and Frankel maintained second and third while third row starters Denny Woodworth and Jamie Wilson completed the top five.
The UMP Pro Late Models were also on the card tonight and they would be the first of six feature races. This division appears to be a weekly battle of the #45's as Denny Woodworth and Tommy Elston lined up on the front row with Woodworth leading early and Elston challenging. On lap five Elston had pulled even with the leader and looked like he would complete the pass, but a caution for Laine Van Zandt who had slowed in turn two reverted the field to the previous lap putting Woodworth back out front for the restart.
Denny now knew that he needed to protect the bottom and he did just that to lead the remaining thirteen laps and secure the win over Elston. Brandon Savage chased the lead duo in for third, Guy Taylor was fourth and Van Zandt came back for fifth in the nine car field.
The twenty lap UMP Modified feature was a great race that was interrupted by way too many cautions as the yellow flag flew eight different times with the first of those coming as the twenty car field tried to negotiate turns one and two for the first time. Pole-sitter Josh Newman got sideways and collected four more cars while others, including Michael Long experienced some sort of damage as they scrambled to avoid the melee. On the restart Long would line up third and he would find the bite off the bottom to race to the lead. With Long running low Rick Conoyer went to the top shelf and he would take the point on lap three. A caution for Levi Mealy slowed the field on lap six and on the restart Long would get a big run off of turn four and then drove up into Conyer entering turn one to regain the lead, but that effort would be erased when Shawn Deering spun in turn one behind them.
On the next restart Conoyer protected the bottom out of four to keep Long behind him as one more lap was scored before Frankie Wellman spun while running in the top five. Once back to racing Conoyer continued to run the cushion as Long challenged down low and on lap ten Michael would drive off the bottom of turn two and up in front of Conoyer who had to stand on the brakes to keep from hitting Long. This would allow David Wietholder and Kevin Blackburn to slip past Conoyer as well and they would now pick up the chase of Long before cautions on lap fourteen and fifteen again required restarts.
Wietholder would drop out of contention after jumping the cushion in turn three and with Long struggling to keep his car on the bottom in the closing laps Blackburn was there to challenge. On the final lap the two went down the back stretch side-by-side and they stayed that way through three and four with Blackburn down low and Long just above him. As the checkered flag waved sparks flew from Long's right rear as he tagged the retaining wall, but he had just enough to edge out Blackburn by a mere 0.079 seconds for the win. Conoyer was close behind in third, Donovan Lodge finished fourth while Deering recovered to take fifth. In victory lane Long admitted that Conoyer was probably mad at him about the two sliders, but quickly said "he'll get over it."
Eleven cars started the Stock Car feature, but only five remained after a lap two crash that started when leader Rudy Zaragoza spun sideways exiting turn four, perhaps from a flat left rear tire. With the field tightly bunched behind him there was nowhere to go and the second place car of Michael Larsen went up and over two or three times directly in front of the large crowd. Larsen scrambled from his car visibly upset with the circumstances and, after helping the wrecker crews untangle the mess and pull away the damaged cars of Jerry Jansen and Abe Huls, Larsen hopped into his own battered Stock Car, fired it up and drove it to the infield to the cheers of the crowd.
After the cleanup the remaining sixteen laps were uneventful as Brian Hoener went the distance to take the win over Beau Taylor, Jimmy Miller, Chester Peek and Jake Powers.
With all of the yellows in the Modified main event, the long red flag period in the Stock Cars and more cautions in the heat races than we see at most tracks (the "one spin and you're in rule" would be helpful here), the Late Model feature wrapped up just before ten o'clock so I headed for home before the final two features. Courtesy of track PR man Jack Walbring though I can tell you that Austin Howes came from the fourth row to win the IMCA Sport Mod main event and that Brandon Lambert parlayed a front row start into a victory in the Sport Compact finale.
Up next for me will be the annual appearance of the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa this Wednesday night. Hope to see you there!
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