Justin Kay suffered a flat tire on the second lap of his heat race and dropped out. Joe Zrostlik suffered a flat tire when Late Model rookie David Norton got sideways in front of him at the start of his heat race. And as for Ryan Dolan, well it appears that he was just tardy to staging as he was announced as part of the second heat race lineup, but did not drive on to the track until heat race three where he was then sent to the infield. All three would start from the back of the twenty-five car field as the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models would go fifty laps at the Quad City Speedway Sunday and while one took the win, the other two recorded top four finishes in a wild race.
This one was far from pretty folks, so instead of trying to describe it to you in a story format like I usually do I am instead going with more of a "Power Point" type of presentation with sequential bullet points. Here goes.....
- Cayden Carter would break out to the early lead riding the high line around the speedway with third-starting Curt Martin challenging down low
- Chuck Hanna spins in turn three on lap four
- A "domino effect" situation occurs on lap five when Ray Guss Jr., driving Joe Beal's #77, and Darrel DeFrance get together, but it would be Jeremiah Hurst who would spin and bring out the caution. Hurst would have to restart at the rear.
- Shawn Mulvaney noses into the turn three wall on lap six, but since the favored line is so low on that end of the speedway and the track is so wide, nobody really notices him for a lap and a half.
- Chuck Hanna spins in turn two on the restart
- Something breaks in the rear end of the leader's car causing Cayden Carter to slow on lap ten. His night is over
- Justin Kay, expected to put on a hard charge from the tail, is not making up much ground. Likely due to the fact that he has a left rear tire going down, but he will restart with it that way. Ryan Dolan on the other hand is about to crack the top five.
- Curt Martin will bring the field back to green as the new leader, but Rob Toland drives under him to the point on lap eleven. Toland's left front wheel is just along for the ride as the control arm is obviously broken.
- Ryan Claeys spins at the high side entrance of turn one on lap seventeen in front of the leaders. Toland, running the low line, has no problems but both Curt Martin and Matt Ryan spin to avoid. Both drivers are given their spots back for the restart. Justin Kay ducks into the pits to change that left rear tire and returns for the restart.
- One lap later the pole-sitter Nick Marolf spins in turn two. I believe that Marolf said earlier during the heat race winners' redraw that this was the first time that he has ever raced at East Moline.
- The race goes thirteen laps without a caution as Toland continues to use the throttle and only the right front wheel to steer the car in the lead. Andy Nezworski who had been running in the top five since the start pulls to the infield with a smoker on lap twenty-two.
- Eric Sanders spins in turn two. Dolan now up to second, Kay is finally on the move.
- Racing for position Todd Cooney and Matt Ryan run out of room on the front stretch with Ryan parking it against the wall in turn one on lap thirty-two. Ryan shows his displeasure with Cooney under caution before going to the back for the restart.
- One lap after the restart Toland gets a bit sideways in turn two and is hit by Chad Holladay sending Toland the rest of the way around. Holladay is sent to the rear for his involvement while Toland, faced with the chore of having to start at the back with his three-legged horse decides to call it a night instead.
- Dolan and Kay bring the field back to green side-by-side. Dolan races to the lead riding the high line through one and two before diving low in three and four. Kay does the opposite at both ends. On lap thirty-eight they switch lanes in one and two and Kay hammers the cushion perfectly to fly around Dolan and take the lead down the back stretch.
- Ryan brings out the eleventh and final caution of the event when he spins in turn three with ten laps remaining.
- The final ten laps go green with Kay in command for the win from the twenty-fourth starting position. Jeremiah Hurst, who you may recall also had to restart at the rear earlier in the race makes his way up to finish second. Joe Zrostlik who started 22nd finishes third ahead of Dolan who faded to fourth after coming from 21st to lead some laps and Nick Marolf also returned from a back of the field restart to finish fifth.
- The rest of the top ten were Cooney, Martin, Holladay, Sam Halstead and Gary Webb.
So let's just say that while it definitely was not one of the "cleanest" fifty lap races I have ever seen, it certainly was interesting.
Support class action also had its share of story lines starting with the first feature of the night, the IMCA Sport Mods. After a last place finish in last week's season opener Justin Veloz took full advantage of this week's lineups by inverted points starting from the pole position in both his heat race and the fifteen lap feature. Veloz had to survive six caution flags including one that was caused by himself when he punted the track tire marking the inside of turns three and four onto the speedway, apparently a non-punishable offense, before taking the win. Jared Waterman threw a slider at the leader in turns one and two with three laps to go and then rubbed wheels with Brandon Setser on the front stretch before finishing second. Setser who has moved from the Four Cylinders to the Street Stocks and now to the Sport Mods over the past three seasons continued his strong start to 2018 with a third place finish while Dustin Schram and Gage Neal completed the top five.
Nick Proehl would lead the Four Cylinder feature early until Brandon Forbes went by on lap six. Proehl stuck his nose under Forbes rear bumper entering turn three after the pass, but nearly lost it himself dropping back to the fifth position. As the field took the white flag Rob Harding Jr. was trying to make a run at the lead while behind them Lisa Benningfield was having a nice run trying to hold off Cody Brewster and Proehl. But when Proehl dove under Brewster going into turn one he came up the track and drilled Bennigfield in the left rear lifting it up and sending her car into a series of hard barrel rolls. Thankfully Lisa climbed out of the battered ride under her own power and the race was scored complete with Forbes taking the win over Harding. Brewster was credited with third followed by Trevor Carpenter and Josh Lane. It was later announced that Proehl had been disqualified for the night and that he will serve a two week suspension for the incident.
Guy Morse passed Jon Padilla on the final lap to best the seven car feature field of Mod Lites. Clint Morehouse, Brian Tipps and Michael Dominguez were also running at the finish.
Rob Toland spun in turn four on the opening lap of the IMCA Modified feature collecting Milo Veloz Jr. with both drivers going to the back of the fifteen car field. On the second try at a start Doug Crampton went for a spin in turn three so he would join them making it three potential winners at the rear of the field. Eric Barnes would take the lead once racing and he looked strong until lap fourteen when a wisp of smoke appeared as well as what looked like a brief fire under the hood of the leader's car. Barnes pressed on though and I wondered if he would even be able to restart when the caution waved with three laps to go for a three car tangle involving Mark Vervynck, Toland and Crampton.
On the restart smoke would again billow from the rear of the leader's car and you could see it firing from the exhaust, but the motor was still strong enough to get Barnes to the checkers to take the win ahead of Brandon Durbin and Matt Werner. Veloz and Toland both fought their way back to complete the top five in fourth and fifth respectively.
After a couple of light showers slipped by to the west and south it was a beautiful night for racing that saw hot laps get underway just past the advertised time of 5:15. And despite all of the cautions and the red flag scenario, plus a thirty-five minute intermission following the heat races, the final checkers waved at 9:10 p.m.
Here's hoping that the weather forecast improves for a night of racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday night and on Thursday I am hoping to be at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City for the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series event. Hope to catch you on the Back Stretch!
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