Before I share some news and notes from my last two nights of racing I want to make sure that you all know that the final night of 34 Raceway's inaugural Fall Haul has been postponed from tonight (Saturday) to Sunday September 30th west of Burlington. The weather is supposed to be much warmer on Sunday and we hope that you will join us for another great night of Sprint Car racing with the Lee County rules Late Models in action as well.
For the second year in a row I was able to make my way down to suburban St. Louis Thursday night for the opener of the Summit Modified Nationals at Kevin and Tammy Gundaker's Tri-City Speedway. A stout field of 64 UMP Modifieds were on hand along with a nice mix of 24 UMP Late Models on a late September night that was absolutely perfect for racing. A big thumbs up from this fan as the format for the Modifieds was changed this year from the old "qualify and start the fast guys in front format" to an interesting system of using passing points from six heat races, then taking the top forty in points to one of four qualifying races where the top sixteen in total points were then locked into the feature. The remainder of the field was then split into four last chance races with the top two advancing from each to set the twenty-four car field for the main event. For fans of racing this was simply spectacular although I am sure that the fans of a driver or two who are used to starting up front all of the time might have disagreed.
Late Model star Shannon Babb races a Modified one weekend a year driving a car owned by his brother-in-law Aaron Draege and in the first heat race of the night he would charge from deep in the pack up to second at the finish behind Mike McKinney. With the four qualifiers inverted by six thanks to the draw by the final heat race winner Nick Hoffman, Babb would start the third qualifier from the third row and again he moved to the front, this time winning ahead of two of the division's best Michael Long and Allen Weisser.
Shannon's point total landed him on the inside of the second row behind McKinney and Kenny Wallace and it would be Wallace who would lead the opening lap. Before the second lap was scored the caution would wave when Trey Harris clipped the track tire on the inside of turn three and spun up the track causing several cars to stack up at the back of the field. On the restart Tyler Nicely had a big run off of turn two and tried to squeeze under Babb and McKinney who were wheel-to-wheel entering three, but he too clipped the same track tire with the resulting damage ending his evening.
When the green flag waved again there would be no more cautions and Babb drove under Wallace to secure the lead when lap number two was finally scored. With Babb driving away the focus was now on the racing mid-pack with track champion Kyle Steffens making the biggest charge. Kentucky driver Tait Davenport had a top five finish in the bag until late in the race when his right rear tire went down and at the checkers Babb had more than a straightaway over the runner-up Wallace. Nick Hoffman started fourth and finished third, Steffens came from twelfth to fourth and McKinney held on to complete the top five.
The Late Models on the other hand used the traditional UMP format with group qualifying to set the heat races straight up and the first heat race winner starting from the pole of the thirty lap feature. That would be Jason Feger with Babb starting to his outside, two of the most vocal cheerleaders for this format. Shannon would take the lead at the drop of the green and the chase was on until lap fourteen when Collin Alexander spun in turn four. On the restart Kent Robinson would take second away from Feger and he would be able to keep pace with the leader until lap twenty-three when Jeremy Sneed spun in turn three in front of the leaders forcing both Babb and Robinson to make some contact with the wall as they tried to avoid to stopped car.
That contact might have been what later forced Robinson out of the race with mechanical issues and while Babb again walked away from the field the battle for positions two through five got a little wild in the closing laps. Dane Dacus looked like he would snare a top five finish until he got trapped behind a slowing Tim Manville after his tire went flat while running fourth. Ricky Frankel was on the move as well passing Feger for second with a handful of laps remaining, but when the two made contact in turn four with two laps to go it was a mad scramble with Brian Birkhofer and Brian Shirley also involved. Babb would take his second checkered flag of the night well ahead of that foursome with Feger, Frankel, Birkhofer and Shirley filling out the top five.
It was a full night of racing that wrapped up shortly after 11:30 and after an overnight stay in Wentzville I returned to a full day of work before heading down to 34 Raceway on Friday evening for the first of two nights for the inaugural Fall Haul. With light rain falling throughout most of Iowa, but not at the race track, and temperatures barely above fifty degrees it was not a good night to be a race promoter as while the car count for the Sprint Invaders was solid at 28, it was about seven fewer than I had expected. Even worse though was the fact that it was weather that was more conducive for high school football rather than racing and that definitely had an impact on the crowd, but those who did attend witnessed an entertaining night of action on a near perfectly prepared race track.
Jon Agan was fast from the first lap of his hot lap session and he would give the fans an early thrill racing hard for the win in the second heat challenging Ryan Leavitt for the lead. The young Leavitt was very, very impressive though warding off the challenge from Agan to post the win and put the Steve Wares Motorsports #10 into the Budweiser Shake Up Dash.
Terry McCarl is this weekend's driver in the Midland Performance #50 and he would win the Dash having Layla, the young trophy presenter draw the #1 starting spot for him in the 25-lap main event touching off a brief rendition of the Eric Clapton song. McCarl would pace the field through the early laps with Agan and Brayden Gaylord in hot pursuit while Paul Nienheiser would put on a show charging from eighth to fourth. Nienheiser would drop Gaylord to fourth just before Brayden slowed to a stop with mechanical issues in turn two.
Agan had just passed McCarl for the lead, but the caution would wipe that out and shortly after the restart Agan would again complete the pass bringing Nienheiser with him into second. Those two would set a blistering pace even through lapped traffic and each time that it looked like Nienheiser had an opportunity to make a run, Agan would work traffic to perfection and again pull away. McCarl would rally back in the closing laps, but there would be no catching Agan who was elated with his race car in victory lane. Nienheiser was a stout runner-up with the Hall of Famer McCarl in third while ASCS National Series regular Seth Bergman nipped Josh Schneiderman by a nose at the checkers for fourth.
I have to say that I was not looking forward to another cool and damp night at the track on Saturday, so with a more favorable forecast I was happy to see the final night of the Fall Haul moved to Sunday. With some big money on the line, don't be surprised if the Sprint Car count swells a bit, plus the Lee County rules Late Models will be in action on Sunday night as well. Hope to see you there!
Saturday, September 29, 2018
Monday, September 24, 2018
PPM, Shirley and Hafford Prevail At 8th Annual Bill Waite Jr. Memorial Classic
For the second year in a row Danny Rosencrans, Gary Lee and I took advantage of an absolutely gorgeous late September day and made the long drive for a Sunday over to the LaSalle Speedway for the annual running of the Bill Waite Jr. Memorial Classic. Of course it was not just the weather that drew us in, it was the three division lineup featuring the 410 c.i. Winged Sprint Cars co-sanctioned by the IRA and MOWA, the UMP Late Models and new this year the Wisconsin Wingless Sprints that makes this event almost irresistible to attend. Add in the fact that our good friend Jack Donlan has the grill going when we arrive and well, how much more perfect can it get?
The September sun obviously had an effect on track preparations as in hot laps the tires were already squalling and there was no cushion up top so two hours later, once qualifying was completed for the Winged Sprints and the Late Models a round of farming was definitely needed to make this a race rather than a parade.
Heat races and B-Mains would set the field in all three classes and the non-wing Sprints would be first up for what was announced as a twenty-five lap main event. Alan Hafford and Craig Campton would start from the front row and when the green flag waved it was a scramble for the low line around the quarter-mile with Hafford getting there first and the rest of the field settled into line as well creeping around the berm rather than using the wide racing surface. Fifth-starting Dennis Spitz tried the middle early on and after losing several positions he too fell into line on the bottom.
As the leaders started to close in on the back of the field I noticed that the crossed flags had been given to the field on lap ten indicating that this was actually a twenty lap race and just before Hafford had to make a decision as to how he would handle traffic the caution would wave on lap thirteen when Travis Mahoney stopped in turn one with front end damage.
On the restart one driver decided to go to the top rather than putt-putting around the bottom and when Jordan Mattson started to pick off positions lap by lap it was surprising that nobody else joined him on the top shelf. Mattson was thirteenth on the restart and after five laps he had moved to fourth and was gaining ground on the lead trio of Hafford, Campton and Mitchell Davis. As the white flag waved Mattson was now ready to challenge and had this actually been a twenty-five lap race he would have likely been a hero to the the large crowd, but he would still be a crowd favorite for taking the chance and finishing fourth as Hafford scored the win. Third-starting Rod Colburn completed the top five.
There would be no creeping around the bottom for the Winged Sprints as the high line would be the favored groove allowing for plenty of exciting slide job action throughout their thirty lap main event. Parker Price-Miller would snare the lead from the pole position and his Indy Race Parts teammate Gio Scelzi would quickly move to second after starting in sixth. As those two drivers ran away the racing behind them was intense often going three-wide as drivers were criss-crossing and dive bombing each other on both ends making for quite a show. Both of the fourth row starters, Kerry Madsen and Tony Stewart were making their way to the front but when Stewart changed lanes on the back stretch on lap seven, a fast closing Madsen had no place to go and the contact sent Madsen sideways at the entrance of turn three. The first two cars were able to miss him, but a fast closing Mike Reinke could not and, after clipping Madsen, Reinke would get upside down and into the turn three wall. Thankfully the contact was not more direct and both drivers were able get out of their damaged cars without injury.
On the restart Scelzi would throw a slider at "The Law Firm" in turn one, but Price-Miller would calmly execute the crossover in turn two and maintain the lead down the back stretch. Scotty Thiel would make his way into the third spot, but he could not keep pace with the lead duo who had to be making the lapped traffic feel like they were seeing double in their nearly identical looking #71 cars as first Price-Miller would slide you on one end before Scelzi would do the same on the other. Scelzi appeared to be closing back in on the leader in traffic only to have the caution wave with four laps remaining when Paul Nienheiser spun in turn four.
Stewart was now up to third after getting by Thiel, but with clear track ahead and only four quick circuits remaining around the LaSalle quarter-mile this one ended less than a minute later with Parker Price-Miller the winner over Gio Scelzi, Tony Stewart and Scotty Thiel while Brandon Wimmer who had started fourteenth edged out Bill Balog for fifth.
It was a challenging night for the point leaders in both series as the MOWA leader Jacob Patton got upside down in his heat race, returned to start tenth in the B-Main but came up short of qualifying for the feature after finishing seventh. The IRA point leader going into the weekend, Jake Blackhurst was leading his heat race only to have the last place car spin and slide up the track in front of him. Blackhurst though was able to win the B-Main and start 21st on the grid for the feature where he raced his way up to ninth at the checkers, but that may not have been enough to prevent Scotty Thiel from taking over the top spot in the standings with only two full point shows remaining next weekend at the Plymouth Dirt Track on the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds. The IRA will also be a part of the Sprint Mania event at the Fairbury American Legion Speedway on October 6th and 7th, but those two nights are for Show-Up points only.
The Late Models would close out the evening and after setting quick time in qualifying, starting on the pole of the first heat race and winning to earn the pole position of the forty lap feature, Brian Shirley would complete the UMP version of a clean sweep where you don't have to pass anybody for position the entire night to win the $5,000 top prize. Chris Simpson started second and chased him the entire distance that saw only one caution flag wave for a Paul Parker spin on lap two, but even in traffic Simpson could never get close enough to mount a challenge as he settled for runner-up pay. Billy Drake started third and finished third while Allen Weisser was the man on the move coming from tenth to finish fourth ahead of the fourth-starting Jason Feger.
With the quick moving Late Model main the remainder of the large crowd now headed for the parking lot at 11:15 to make their way home and as we started our long drive we contemplated whether or not we can do this again on a Sunday night next September. We all agreed that we love the event, but it is almost too much of a good thing for a Sunday night this far from home. Perhaps the 410's and the Late Models would be enough?
Looking to the week ahead plans call for a trip to suburban St. Louis on Thursday night for the opener of the 14th Annual Summit Modified Mania at the Tri-City Speedway and then on Friday and Saturday we will be at 34 Raceway west of Burlington as the Sprint Invaders headline the first "Fall Haul". Not only is there good purse money on the line with $2,000 going to the winner on Friday night and $3,400-to-win on Saturday night, both Matt Rogerson and Nick Eastin have been working hard to line up lap sponsors to further sweeten the pot for Saturday's finale. Watch for details this week. For our part, Positively Racing will present $100 to one of Friday's non-qualifiers in a random drawing hoping to make it a little easier to regroup and come back for a better night on Saturday.
Hope to see you there on the Back Stretch!
The September sun obviously had an effect on track preparations as in hot laps the tires were already squalling and there was no cushion up top so two hours later, once qualifying was completed for the Winged Sprints and the Late Models a round of farming was definitely needed to make this a race rather than a parade.
Heat races and B-Mains would set the field in all three classes and the non-wing Sprints would be first up for what was announced as a twenty-five lap main event. Alan Hafford and Craig Campton would start from the front row and when the green flag waved it was a scramble for the low line around the quarter-mile with Hafford getting there first and the rest of the field settled into line as well creeping around the berm rather than using the wide racing surface. Fifth-starting Dennis Spitz tried the middle early on and after losing several positions he too fell into line on the bottom.
As the leaders started to close in on the back of the field I noticed that the crossed flags had been given to the field on lap ten indicating that this was actually a twenty lap race and just before Hafford had to make a decision as to how he would handle traffic the caution would wave on lap thirteen when Travis Mahoney stopped in turn one with front end damage.
On the restart one driver decided to go to the top rather than putt-putting around the bottom and when Jordan Mattson started to pick off positions lap by lap it was surprising that nobody else joined him on the top shelf. Mattson was thirteenth on the restart and after five laps he had moved to fourth and was gaining ground on the lead trio of Hafford, Campton and Mitchell Davis. As the white flag waved Mattson was now ready to challenge and had this actually been a twenty-five lap race he would have likely been a hero to the the large crowd, but he would still be a crowd favorite for taking the chance and finishing fourth as Hafford scored the win. Third-starting Rod Colburn completed the top five.
There would be no creeping around the bottom for the Winged Sprints as the high line would be the favored groove allowing for plenty of exciting slide job action throughout their thirty lap main event. Parker Price-Miller would snare the lead from the pole position and his Indy Race Parts teammate Gio Scelzi would quickly move to second after starting in sixth. As those two drivers ran away the racing behind them was intense often going three-wide as drivers were criss-crossing and dive bombing each other on both ends making for quite a show. Both of the fourth row starters, Kerry Madsen and Tony Stewart were making their way to the front but when Stewart changed lanes on the back stretch on lap seven, a fast closing Madsen had no place to go and the contact sent Madsen sideways at the entrance of turn three. The first two cars were able to miss him, but a fast closing Mike Reinke could not and, after clipping Madsen, Reinke would get upside down and into the turn three wall. Thankfully the contact was not more direct and both drivers were able get out of their damaged cars without injury.
On the restart Scelzi would throw a slider at "The Law Firm" in turn one, but Price-Miller would calmly execute the crossover in turn two and maintain the lead down the back stretch. Scotty Thiel would make his way into the third spot, but he could not keep pace with the lead duo who had to be making the lapped traffic feel like they were seeing double in their nearly identical looking #71 cars as first Price-Miller would slide you on one end before Scelzi would do the same on the other. Scelzi appeared to be closing back in on the leader in traffic only to have the caution wave with four laps remaining when Paul Nienheiser spun in turn four.
Stewart was now up to third after getting by Thiel, but with clear track ahead and only four quick circuits remaining around the LaSalle quarter-mile this one ended less than a minute later with Parker Price-Miller the winner over Gio Scelzi, Tony Stewart and Scotty Thiel while Brandon Wimmer who had started fourteenth edged out Bill Balog for fifth.
It was a challenging night for the point leaders in both series as the MOWA leader Jacob Patton got upside down in his heat race, returned to start tenth in the B-Main but came up short of qualifying for the feature after finishing seventh. The IRA point leader going into the weekend, Jake Blackhurst was leading his heat race only to have the last place car spin and slide up the track in front of him. Blackhurst though was able to win the B-Main and start 21st on the grid for the feature where he raced his way up to ninth at the checkers, but that may not have been enough to prevent Scotty Thiel from taking over the top spot in the standings with only two full point shows remaining next weekend at the Plymouth Dirt Track on the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds. The IRA will also be a part of the Sprint Mania event at the Fairbury American Legion Speedway on October 6th and 7th, but those two nights are for Show-Up points only.
The Late Models would close out the evening and after setting quick time in qualifying, starting on the pole of the first heat race and winning to earn the pole position of the forty lap feature, Brian Shirley would complete the UMP version of a clean sweep where you don't have to pass anybody for position the entire night to win the $5,000 top prize. Chris Simpson started second and chased him the entire distance that saw only one caution flag wave for a Paul Parker spin on lap two, but even in traffic Simpson could never get close enough to mount a challenge as he settled for runner-up pay. Billy Drake started third and finished third while Allen Weisser was the man on the move coming from tenth to finish fourth ahead of the fourth-starting Jason Feger.
With the quick moving Late Model main the remainder of the large crowd now headed for the parking lot at 11:15 to make their way home and as we started our long drive we contemplated whether or not we can do this again on a Sunday night next September. We all agreed that we love the event, but it is almost too much of a good thing for a Sunday night this far from home. Perhaps the 410's and the Late Models would be enough?
Looking to the week ahead plans call for a trip to suburban St. Louis on Thursday night for the opener of the 14th Annual Summit Modified Mania at the Tri-City Speedway and then on Friday and Saturday we will be at 34 Raceway west of Burlington as the Sprint Invaders headline the first "Fall Haul". Not only is there good purse money on the line with $2,000 going to the winner on Friday night and $3,400-to-win on Saturday night, both Matt Rogerson and Nick Eastin have been working hard to line up lap sponsors to further sweeten the pot for Saturday's finale. Watch for details this week. For our part, Positively Racing will present $100 to one of Friday's non-qualifiers in a random drawing hoping to make it a little easier to regroup and come back for a better night on Saturday.
Hope to see you there on the Back Stretch!
Monday, September 17, 2018
Miller In A Thriller At Quincy
For the third year in a row the Sprint Invaders and the Quincy Raceways combined to give race fans a night to remember with great racing from the drop of the green in heat one all the way to the final checkers. Two years ago it was Chris Martin charging through the field like he was someone's avatar in a video game coming from the ninth starting spot to take the lead and then walk away with a convincing victory. And last year, on a racing surface that was about as perfect that you will ever see for a Sprint Car race, Jon Agan came from the sixth starting spot to take the win.
Just like the last two years it was unseasonably hot for mid-September on Sunday with a bright sun beating down on a racing surface that I have to admit looked way too dry as it sat there already packed in and waiting for hot laps to start at 5:30. I guess that just shows that I know less about track prep than I'd like to think as the quarter-mile was not only wide, but also had a nice cushion once racing was set to get under way at 6:30 for the twenty-two Sprint Cars and the other four divisions that were scheduled for action.
Sprint Car fans know that you sometimes sacrifice passing during the heat races so that the cushion can build and be pushed up the track as the night goes on in order to provide a great track for the feature. Nice and wide where drivers can catfish around the bottom, sail around the top, or use any of the space in between. For the second year in row though Jason Goble and his track crew somehow found a way to provide that "feature type" of track surface for the heat races as well and the fans were treated to plenty of passing in the three Sprint Car heats. In fact the seventh starter in each of the three heats were able to race their way forward with Joe B. Miller getting to fourth in the first heat, Brayden Gaylord moving to fourth in the second heat and Dustin Adams, making his first appearance with the Sprint Invaders since two years ago here at Quincy, was able to work his way up to third in the final heat earning him enough passing points to go from the pole position of the Budweiser Shake Up Dash. Adams would then fight off the challenges of Paul Nienheiser to take the win in the Dash, but when he drew the #6 that would put Nienheiser, the night's guest driver of the Midland Performance car #50 on the pole position for the 25-lap main event.
Fresh off of his victory the night before at the Spoon River Speedway driving his own 410 car in the Tom Knowles Memorial, Nienheiser would be a tough catch starting up front but the current Sprint Invaders point leader Cody Wehrle kept him in sight once the race found a groove after a couple of early cautions. Wehrle who himself captured his first career feature win with the series at the last event at 34 Raceway on August 18th even made a run at the lead with just a handful of laps remaining as Nienheiser had to leave his preferred top groove to work traffic. The man on the move though was Joe B. Miller who, just like Chris Martin two years ago, had started ninth and was steadily making his way to the front with a variety of moves depending upon where the car ahead of him was running and how the lapped traffic was involved. Let's just say that he was able to make his #51B work pretty much anywhere!
Just after Wehrle's missed attempt at the lead, Miller would drop him to third and with just three laps remaining the new challenger would pull even with Nieheiser in turns one and two. Paul would use the momentum off the top side to retain the lead though and Miller would regroup to make another run at him a lap later. Coming to the white flag Miller would again pull even with Nienheiser in turn three and four and they would be side-by-side across the start-finish line with just one lap remaining.
Diving low into turn one for the final time Miller would slide up in front of Nienheiser to hold the lead going down the back stretch only to have Nienhesier charge right back to the bottom in turn three with a slider to re-take the lead. As Nienhesier slid up the track in turn four though, Miller executed the crossover to perfection and powered ahead down the front stretch to take the win by no more than a car length over Nienheiser. The crowd was absolutely buzzing as I made my way down to the front stretch to interview the happy winner and you can bet that they will be talking about this one for some time to come! Wehrle solidified his point lead with just two events remaining with another impressive run in third, and the Schneiderman brothers Josh and Jarrod filled out the top five. Justin Bucholz had one of his best nights in a Sprint Car as he captured a heat race win and then was solid in the feature finishing in sixth. Nick Breuer had a 360 back under the hood of his #78 and Kaley Gharst drove it to a seventh place finish. John Schulz who ran sixth at the UMSS show at the Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota the night before finished eighth here at Quincy as Dustin Barks and Brayden Gaylord completed the top ten.
The Sprint Invaders will close out the 2018 campaign on Friday and Saturday September 28th and 29th at 34 Raceway west of Burlington with the first ever Fall Haul. The Sprints will run a complete show each night with $2,000 going to the winner on Friday and a stout $3,400 up for grabs in victory lane on Saturday night!
The racing was solid in the other divisions at Quincy Sunday night as well as they too found the track conditions to their liking. I was especially impressed with the Sport Mod division where the sixteen drivers only had a few incidents through the night, much different than what has been the norm here the past several seasons where this class has been a caution festival just waiting to happen. You can always count on Austen Becerra to put on a show and he did just that again on this night racing high and low, wherever he needed to go to get to the front and take the win.
Getting the races over earlier on a Sunday night has been a point of emphasis as well for Jason Goble and his staff and proof of just how seriously they are taking that came with tonight's Sport Mod feature. They were second on the schedule following the Midgets and when the Midgets ran their twelve lap feature in green to checker fashion only two of the Sport Mods were in staging and ready to go. Therefore those two drivers were moved to the front row of the main event with the rest of the field starting behind them in the order that they were to originally line up.
Sometimes it takes hard actions like this to change a culture that has been in place for a long time. Is it working? Our Sprint Car feature, the fourth of six feature races on the schedule took the checkered flag just before nine o'clock and I was home at 10:30. Now that I like!!
Bill and I absolutely love working with Quincy's track announcer Doug Mealy who does a fantastic job of informing and entertaining the fans and who always gives us a chuckle or two along the way. One of the smoothest voices in motorsports I have referred to him in the past as the "Velvet Fog" in reference to singer Mel Torme, somebody that Warren Busse will have heard of but for those of you who are big into Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, etc. click here to get the reference.
There might a few things to discuss as the week goes on and if so I will be back with a Notebook entry before the weekend. Otherwise family fun and college football will keep me away from the track this week until Sunday night when we make the road trip to the LaSalle Speedway where the IRA Sprints and the Super Late Models will be action. Check out the schedule at Positively Racing and get out to the race, or races of your choice this week!
Just like the last two years it was unseasonably hot for mid-September on Sunday with a bright sun beating down on a racing surface that I have to admit looked way too dry as it sat there already packed in and waiting for hot laps to start at 5:30. I guess that just shows that I know less about track prep than I'd like to think as the quarter-mile was not only wide, but also had a nice cushion once racing was set to get under way at 6:30 for the twenty-two Sprint Cars and the other four divisions that were scheduled for action.
Sprint Car fans know that you sometimes sacrifice passing during the heat races so that the cushion can build and be pushed up the track as the night goes on in order to provide a great track for the feature. Nice and wide where drivers can catfish around the bottom, sail around the top, or use any of the space in between. For the second year in row though Jason Goble and his track crew somehow found a way to provide that "feature type" of track surface for the heat races as well and the fans were treated to plenty of passing in the three Sprint Car heats. In fact the seventh starter in each of the three heats were able to race their way forward with Joe B. Miller getting to fourth in the first heat, Brayden Gaylord moving to fourth in the second heat and Dustin Adams, making his first appearance with the Sprint Invaders since two years ago here at Quincy, was able to work his way up to third in the final heat earning him enough passing points to go from the pole position of the Budweiser Shake Up Dash. Adams would then fight off the challenges of Paul Nienheiser to take the win in the Dash, but when he drew the #6 that would put Nienheiser, the night's guest driver of the Midland Performance car #50 on the pole position for the 25-lap main event.
Fresh off of his victory the night before at the Spoon River Speedway driving his own 410 car in the Tom Knowles Memorial, Nienheiser would be a tough catch starting up front but the current Sprint Invaders point leader Cody Wehrle kept him in sight once the race found a groove after a couple of early cautions. Wehrle who himself captured his first career feature win with the series at the last event at 34 Raceway on August 18th even made a run at the lead with just a handful of laps remaining as Nienheiser had to leave his preferred top groove to work traffic. The man on the move though was Joe B. Miller who, just like Chris Martin two years ago, had started ninth and was steadily making his way to the front with a variety of moves depending upon where the car ahead of him was running and how the lapped traffic was involved. Let's just say that he was able to make his #51B work pretty much anywhere!
Just after Wehrle's missed attempt at the lead, Miller would drop him to third and with just three laps remaining the new challenger would pull even with Nieheiser in turns one and two. Paul would use the momentum off the top side to retain the lead though and Miller would regroup to make another run at him a lap later. Coming to the white flag Miller would again pull even with Nienheiser in turn three and four and they would be side-by-side across the start-finish line with just one lap remaining.
Diving low into turn one for the final time Miller would slide up in front of Nienheiser to hold the lead going down the back stretch only to have Nienhesier charge right back to the bottom in turn three with a slider to re-take the lead. As Nienhesier slid up the track in turn four though, Miller executed the crossover to perfection and powered ahead down the front stretch to take the win by no more than a car length over Nienheiser. The crowd was absolutely buzzing as I made my way down to the front stretch to interview the happy winner and you can bet that they will be talking about this one for some time to come! Wehrle solidified his point lead with just two events remaining with another impressive run in third, and the Schneiderman brothers Josh and Jarrod filled out the top five. Justin Bucholz had one of his best nights in a Sprint Car as he captured a heat race win and then was solid in the feature finishing in sixth. Nick Breuer had a 360 back under the hood of his #78 and Kaley Gharst drove it to a seventh place finish. John Schulz who ran sixth at the UMSS show at the Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota the night before finished eighth here at Quincy as Dustin Barks and Brayden Gaylord completed the top ten.
The Sprint Invaders will close out the 2018 campaign on Friday and Saturday September 28th and 29th at 34 Raceway west of Burlington with the first ever Fall Haul. The Sprints will run a complete show each night with $2,000 going to the winner on Friday and a stout $3,400 up for grabs in victory lane on Saturday night!
The racing was solid in the other divisions at Quincy Sunday night as well as they too found the track conditions to their liking. I was especially impressed with the Sport Mod division where the sixteen drivers only had a few incidents through the night, much different than what has been the norm here the past several seasons where this class has been a caution festival just waiting to happen. You can always count on Austen Becerra to put on a show and he did just that again on this night racing high and low, wherever he needed to go to get to the front and take the win.
Getting the races over earlier on a Sunday night has been a point of emphasis as well for Jason Goble and his staff and proof of just how seriously they are taking that came with tonight's Sport Mod feature. They were second on the schedule following the Midgets and when the Midgets ran their twelve lap feature in green to checker fashion only two of the Sport Mods were in staging and ready to go. Therefore those two drivers were moved to the front row of the main event with the rest of the field starting behind them in the order that they were to originally line up.
Sometimes it takes hard actions like this to change a culture that has been in place for a long time. Is it working? Our Sprint Car feature, the fourth of six feature races on the schedule took the checkered flag just before nine o'clock and I was home at 10:30. Now that I like!!
Bill and I absolutely love working with Quincy's track announcer Doug Mealy who does a fantastic job of informing and entertaining the fans and who always gives us a chuckle or two along the way. One of the smoothest voices in motorsports I have referred to him in the past as the "Velvet Fog" in reference to singer Mel Torme, somebody that Warren Busse will have heard of but for those of you who are big into Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, etc. click here to get the reference.
There might a few things to discuss as the week goes on and if so I will be back with a Notebook entry before the weekend. Otherwise family fun and college football will keep me away from the track this week until Sunday night when we make the road trip to the LaSalle Speedway where the IRA Sprints and the Super Late Models will be action. Check out the schedule at Positively Racing and get out to the race, or races of your choice this week!
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Irvine Dominates for $2,222 Hobby Stock Win At FCS
The inaugural Tim Gebel Memorial did not draw in a bunch of outsiders looking for the big money on Saturday night so it was distributed nicely throughout the field of 74 drivers, for the most part track regulars at the Fayette County Speedway in West Union. And frankly Gebel, the former Hobby Stock racer here who passed away from a massive heart attack this past year would have probably preferred to have it that way. And, even if the outsiders had come they would have a had a hard time beating the talented field that races here weekly anyway!
The Hobby Stock division was the headliner on the night with $2,222 going to the winner (Gebel's car number was 2) and the twenty-one car field would have to go forty-four laps, two segments of twenty-two with a fifteen minute break in between to earn it. Just as impressive as the winner's amount, the runner-up would take home $1,500 so this would not be one of those big money support class events where drivers up front make "all or nothing" moves in the closing laps, but as this one turned out that would not have mattered anyway.
Mike Darnall would go to the lead at the drop of the green with most of the field using the bottom line and on lap five, when Darnall left the bottom open, third starting Tim Helle would slip by to become the new pace setter. It was a large and tight lead pack through the early laps with the first caution coming on lap ten when a lapped car that was in the mix and one of the heat race winners Adam Speicher tangled off of turn four turning Speicher nose first into the front stretch wall and ending his evening.
On the restart Helle would again lead the pack as Benji Irvine went up to the top side and found some speed. Irvine had worked his way up to second and had a run on Helle when the caution waved again on lap eighteen for a B.J. Dahl spin in turn four. When green flag racing resumed Irvine went right back to the top and he would take the lead coming back to the line for the nineteenth time and would even pull away a bit before the mid-race caution.
During the break drivers could "move their tires around", but if they put a new one on they would have to go to the rear and the only tire change that I saw was by Jamie Songer who suffered a right front flat on the final lap before the caution. In fact after the first couple of minutes nobody was really doing anything and there was still enough time perhaps to grill a couple of hot dogs and have a picnic in the infield before the fifteen minutes expired.
What the crews should have done was distract Irvine and his crew while others let the air out of his tires as once racing resumed the driver from just down the road in Oelwein was in a class of his own riding the rim and driving away from the rest of the field. One more caution waved on lap thirty-five when Brady Link and Scott Dobel went off the back stretch and while Irvine did not again pull away over the final seven laps he was never seriously challenged as he captured the big money win. Neil Franzen started seventh just behind Irvine and he would be the happy well paid runner-up with Joshua Ludeking coming from twelfth to finish third. Justin Lichty started tenth and finished fourth and unofficially I had Weston Koop by a bumper at the line for fifth.
With $1,000 going to each of the winners of the B-Modifieds and Stock Cars both divisions had more cars than the headliners and both put on some good racing throughout the evening.
All twenty-eight B-Mods would start the thirty lap feature with front row starter Kyle Anderson leading lap one. The caution would wave before the second lap could be scored when fifth starting Junior Boyer spun in turn three and collected Jeremy Schaufenbuhl. The damage would essentially end the night for Boyer who had won his heat and for Schaufenbuhl who had started last and finished second in his. On the restart Troy Hovey would drive under Anderson to take the lead and a pair of cautions on lap eight and lap twelve kept the field tightly bunched.
Justin O'Brien who had won the Season Championship feature here the night before moved to second and he would keep the heat on Hovey. And after two more cautions in the final five laps Ryan Maitland was there to make it a three car race to the checkers. There would be no getting around Hovey though as the veteran driver from Decorah scored the win ahead of O'Brien and Maitland. Alex Zwanziger had the drive of the night using the top shelf to charge all the way up to fourth after starting on the outside of row ten and Jason Schlangen passed Shawn Walski on the final lap to complete the top five after he started fourteenth.
The Stock Cars here at West Union may be as talented from top to bottom as you will find anywhere in a field of twenty-three and they too would work for thirty laps to try to win a grand on this unusually warm September evening. After winning his heat race from the back of the pack, Kyle Falck earned a front row start in the feature and he wasted no time building up a straightaway lead while the rest of the pack jostled for position. Fifth starting Mitch Hovden broke from that bunch on lap four and he would begin his quest of tracking down the leader. The process was was slow until lap fifteen when Flack had to deal with lapped traffic and soon Hovden was within striking distance as the lead duo now had a half a lap advantage over the third running Josh Zieman.
When Falck had to leave his favored top line to get around a lapped car in turn one on lap eighteen, Hovden used the top in turns one and two to get a run and he then went to the bottom in three and four to complete the pass and take the lead. Falck tried to use the bottom a lap later to regain the lead, but he could not clear Hovden so he settled in waiting for traffic to give him one more opportunity. That nearly happened four laps later when Jesse Brown spun in turn two just ahead of the leader, but Hovden was able to avoid contact and he would lead the field back to green.
Both Falck and Zieman would be able to keep pace over the final eight laps, but neither could mount a challenge on Hovden who captured his fifteenth feature win at an All Iowa Points paying track in 2018. Falck and Zieman would join him on the podium with Brian Mahlstedt and Dan Jones completing the top five.
I was told that the track conditions were much drier and slicker than usual, perhaps because of the hot, dry weather and it being the second night of racing here for the weekend, but there were no complaints from this reporter as I saw four-wide racing in the first Stock Car heat and five, yes count 'em, five-wide racing off turn two during the final Hobby Stock heat race. It was a fun return to a track that I have always enjoyed in the past and it had been way too long since I was here, perhaps going all the way back to 2001 with an appearance by the NKF Tour. Racing started right on time at 6:30 and while I was still on my way home by 10:30 that could have easily been a half hour earlier if not for a forty minute intermission after the heats and the extra ten minutes during halftime of the Hobby Stock feature.
I will wrap up a rare September four race weekend tonight as the Sprint Invaders return to the Quincy Raceways. Our last two shows down at the quick quarter mile have been good ones so hopefully I will see you there!
The Hobby Stock division was the headliner on the night with $2,222 going to the winner (Gebel's car number was 2) and the twenty-one car field would have to go forty-four laps, two segments of twenty-two with a fifteen minute break in between to earn it. Just as impressive as the winner's amount, the runner-up would take home $1,500 so this would not be one of those big money support class events where drivers up front make "all or nothing" moves in the closing laps, but as this one turned out that would not have mattered anyway.
Mike Darnall would go to the lead at the drop of the green with most of the field using the bottom line and on lap five, when Darnall left the bottom open, third starting Tim Helle would slip by to become the new pace setter. It was a large and tight lead pack through the early laps with the first caution coming on lap ten when a lapped car that was in the mix and one of the heat race winners Adam Speicher tangled off of turn four turning Speicher nose first into the front stretch wall and ending his evening.
On the restart Helle would again lead the pack as Benji Irvine went up to the top side and found some speed. Irvine had worked his way up to second and had a run on Helle when the caution waved again on lap eighteen for a B.J. Dahl spin in turn four. When green flag racing resumed Irvine went right back to the top and he would take the lead coming back to the line for the nineteenth time and would even pull away a bit before the mid-race caution.
During the break drivers could "move their tires around", but if they put a new one on they would have to go to the rear and the only tire change that I saw was by Jamie Songer who suffered a right front flat on the final lap before the caution. In fact after the first couple of minutes nobody was really doing anything and there was still enough time perhaps to grill a couple of hot dogs and have a picnic in the infield before the fifteen minutes expired.
What the crews should have done was distract Irvine and his crew while others let the air out of his tires as once racing resumed the driver from just down the road in Oelwein was in a class of his own riding the rim and driving away from the rest of the field. One more caution waved on lap thirty-five when Brady Link and Scott Dobel went off the back stretch and while Irvine did not again pull away over the final seven laps he was never seriously challenged as he captured the big money win. Neil Franzen started seventh just behind Irvine and he would be the happy well paid runner-up with Joshua Ludeking coming from twelfth to finish third. Justin Lichty started tenth and finished fourth and unofficially I had Weston Koop by a bumper at the line for fifth.
With $1,000 going to each of the winners of the B-Modifieds and Stock Cars both divisions had more cars than the headliners and both put on some good racing throughout the evening.
All twenty-eight B-Mods would start the thirty lap feature with front row starter Kyle Anderson leading lap one. The caution would wave before the second lap could be scored when fifth starting Junior Boyer spun in turn three and collected Jeremy Schaufenbuhl. The damage would essentially end the night for Boyer who had won his heat and for Schaufenbuhl who had started last and finished second in his. On the restart Troy Hovey would drive under Anderson to take the lead and a pair of cautions on lap eight and lap twelve kept the field tightly bunched.
Justin O'Brien who had won the Season Championship feature here the night before moved to second and he would keep the heat on Hovey. And after two more cautions in the final five laps Ryan Maitland was there to make it a three car race to the checkers. There would be no getting around Hovey though as the veteran driver from Decorah scored the win ahead of O'Brien and Maitland. Alex Zwanziger had the drive of the night using the top shelf to charge all the way up to fourth after starting on the outside of row ten and Jason Schlangen passed Shawn Walski on the final lap to complete the top five after he started fourteenth.
The Stock Cars here at West Union may be as talented from top to bottom as you will find anywhere in a field of twenty-three and they too would work for thirty laps to try to win a grand on this unusually warm September evening. After winning his heat race from the back of the pack, Kyle Falck earned a front row start in the feature and he wasted no time building up a straightaway lead while the rest of the pack jostled for position. Fifth starting Mitch Hovden broke from that bunch on lap four and he would begin his quest of tracking down the leader. The process was was slow until lap fifteen when Flack had to deal with lapped traffic and soon Hovden was within striking distance as the lead duo now had a half a lap advantage over the third running Josh Zieman.
When Falck had to leave his favored top line to get around a lapped car in turn one on lap eighteen, Hovden used the top in turns one and two to get a run and he then went to the bottom in three and four to complete the pass and take the lead. Falck tried to use the bottom a lap later to regain the lead, but he could not clear Hovden so he settled in waiting for traffic to give him one more opportunity. That nearly happened four laps later when Jesse Brown spun in turn two just ahead of the leader, but Hovden was able to avoid contact and he would lead the field back to green.
Both Falck and Zieman would be able to keep pace over the final eight laps, but neither could mount a challenge on Hovden who captured his fifteenth feature win at an All Iowa Points paying track in 2018. Falck and Zieman would join him on the podium with Brian Mahlstedt and Dan Jones completing the top five.
I was told that the track conditions were much drier and slicker than usual, perhaps because of the hot, dry weather and it being the second night of racing here for the weekend, but there were no complaints from this reporter as I saw four-wide racing in the first Stock Car heat and five, yes count 'em, five-wide racing off turn two during the final Hobby Stock heat race. It was a fun return to a track that I have always enjoyed in the past and it had been way too long since I was here, perhaps going all the way back to 2001 with an appearance by the NKF Tour. Racing started right on time at 6:30 and while I was still on my way home by 10:30 that could have easily been a half hour earlier if not for a forty minute intermission after the heats and the extra ten minutes during halftime of the Hobby Stock feature.
I will wrap up a rare September four race weekend tonight as the Sprint Invaders return to the Quincy Raceways. Our last two shows down at the quick quarter mile have been good ones so hopefully I will see you there!
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Miller And Seavey Take Headliners At Jax Herb Barlow Memorial
The stands were full and the pits were packed with more than one hundred race cars as the Jacksonville Speedway hosted the annual Herb Barlow Memorial on Friday night featuring the Midwest Open Wheel Association (MOWA) Sprint Cars and the POWRi National Midget Series. The POWRi winged Micros and the Midwest Street Stock Championship were also in action and while the show was well presented the shear size of the field along with several incidents made for a late night at the quarter-mile fairgrounds oval nestled within the city limits of Jacksonville, Illinois.
Logan Seavey from Sutter, California, is being touted as the next big star in motorsports and he is backing that up by expanding his talents to other forms of racing where he was in contention at the end of the NASCAR Truck Series race at Eldora and was the winner recently in the ARCA Stock Car race on the one mile dirt oval at the DuQuoin Fairgrounds driving for Billy Venturini. Seavey would pull double duty on the night in his familiar Keith Kunz Motorsports #67 Midget and for the first time taking the wheel of Scott Bonar's Midland Performance #50 Winged Sprint Car.
The Midgets would be the first of four features to take to the track that had developed a nasty ridge up at the top of turn one challenging drivers to either miss it, or to use it to the their advantage by precisely kicking off of it to get some extra speed through turn two. Seavey would start to the right of his KKM teammate Tanner Carrick on the front row of the thirty lap event with Carrick racing out to the lead on the opening lap. Seavey would sweep around the outside of Carrick to take the lead coming to lap two, but when the exit of turn four became a parking lot with eleven cars involved the lap was not scored giving the lead back to Carrick for the restart.
Tanner would not let that happen again following the restart and he opened up a nice advantage before lapped traffic allowed Seavey to close in once again. It was an entertaining battle as they raced through heavy traffic and Zeb Wise made it a three car chase until the left rear tire went down on Carrick's car drawing a caution for the quick tire change. He would restart as the final car on the lead lap in tenth and the race was halted three laps later when Brayton Lynch went for a wild ride down the back stretch. Lynch quickly climbed out the car uninjured and once back to racing Seavey went unchallenged for the win. Carrick was the show over the final nine laps pulling slide job after slide job in turns one and two to get all the way back up to second and if he would have had a few more laps he would have likely surprised Seavey. Wise would finish in third and Jake Neuman was headed for fourth until he flipped off the cushion in turn four coming to the checkers. That would put series point leader Tucker Klaasmeyer in fourth with the young lady from Tulsa, Holly Hollan in fifth.
With his primary challenger in the point standings Ryan Robinson taking a hard roll on the first lap of his heat race, the first driver to find that ridge, Klaasmeyer might have just wrapped up the championship on Friday night.
After Seavey snapped a few photos in victory lane he hustled over to his Sprint Car ride where he would start third behind Joe B. Miller and Jim Moughan for the twenty lap main event. Miller would win the drag race into turn one and he would stay well away from that ridge as he paced the field for the first six laps. The red flag would then wave when Jamie Ball went end over end once at the exit of turn two and after the restart Miller would again set the pace. The caution flew on lap eleven after Austin O'Dell bicycled off the ridge and then came to a stop on all fours and three laps later Cory Bruns spun in turn three. All of these cautions were likely welcomed by Miller as the traffic was thick at the back of the field, but when Seavey slipped by Moughan for second and with Paul Nienhesier jumping up to third the leader now had some company. Seavey would make a run at Miller, but could not make it stick on the bottom and when Nienheiser tried to slide him for second Miller was again able to pull away. After the white flag waved Nienheiser hit the ridge turning him hard right into the turn two wall nose first sending him for a quick rollover. The young local favorite would walk away dejected, but uninjured to a nice round of applause.
On the restart Jason Keith would slide Seavey for second in turns one and two, but as he tried to chase down Miller the driver from Farmington, Missouri, spun in turn four to produce another green-white-checkered restart and on this one it looked like the leaders were content with where they were as they navigated the final two laps without incident with Joe B. Miller scoring the flag to flag win. Seavey would add a runner-up finish in the Sprints to his Midget win, current MOWA point leader Jacob Patton would be happy with third, Jim Moughan would take fourth and Bret Tripplet returned to racing with a solid fifth place run.
It was now 11:15 and with a two and a half hour drive ahead of me I headed for the car disappointed that I would miss the final two feature races. I have become a fan of the 600cc Micros, especially on short tracks, and there was a nice field of twenty-nine of them on hand with Aaron Andruskevitch taking the win from the pole position over Joe B. Miller and Harley Hollan. I was also impressed with the Midwest Street Stock Championship cars with twenty-five of them in action and Jerrad Krick from East Park, Indiana taking the win.
The MOWA Sprints and the POWRi Midgets will be in action again tonight at the Tom Knowles Memorial at the Spoon River Speedway south of Canton, Illinois.
It was an enjoyable night of action in west central Illinois and now I prepare for another two hour plus road trip, this time to the north for the inaugural Tim Gebel Memorial at the Fayette County Speedway in West Union tonight headlined by a Hobby Stock feature paying $2,022-to-win and a solid $1,500 for second. Plus the B-Mods and the Stock Cars are paying $1,000-to-win. It has been several years since I have been to West Union and I am looking forward to the visit. Then tomorrow night I will close out a four race weekend with the Sprint Invaders at the Quincy Raceways. Hope to see you there!
Logan Seavey from Sutter, California, is being touted as the next big star in motorsports and he is backing that up by expanding his talents to other forms of racing where he was in contention at the end of the NASCAR Truck Series race at Eldora and was the winner recently in the ARCA Stock Car race on the one mile dirt oval at the DuQuoin Fairgrounds driving for Billy Venturini. Seavey would pull double duty on the night in his familiar Keith Kunz Motorsports #67 Midget and for the first time taking the wheel of Scott Bonar's Midland Performance #50 Winged Sprint Car.
The Midgets would be the first of four features to take to the track that had developed a nasty ridge up at the top of turn one challenging drivers to either miss it, or to use it to the their advantage by precisely kicking off of it to get some extra speed through turn two. Seavey would start to the right of his KKM teammate Tanner Carrick on the front row of the thirty lap event with Carrick racing out to the lead on the opening lap. Seavey would sweep around the outside of Carrick to take the lead coming to lap two, but when the exit of turn four became a parking lot with eleven cars involved the lap was not scored giving the lead back to Carrick for the restart.
Tanner would not let that happen again following the restart and he opened up a nice advantage before lapped traffic allowed Seavey to close in once again. It was an entertaining battle as they raced through heavy traffic and Zeb Wise made it a three car chase until the left rear tire went down on Carrick's car drawing a caution for the quick tire change. He would restart as the final car on the lead lap in tenth and the race was halted three laps later when Brayton Lynch went for a wild ride down the back stretch. Lynch quickly climbed out the car uninjured and once back to racing Seavey went unchallenged for the win. Carrick was the show over the final nine laps pulling slide job after slide job in turns one and two to get all the way back up to second and if he would have had a few more laps he would have likely surprised Seavey. Wise would finish in third and Jake Neuman was headed for fourth until he flipped off the cushion in turn four coming to the checkers. That would put series point leader Tucker Klaasmeyer in fourth with the young lady from Tulsa, Holly Hollan in fifth.
With his primary challenger in the point standings Ryan Robinson taking a hard roll on the first lap of his heat race, the first driver to find that ridge, Klaasmeyer might have just wrapped up the championship on Friday night.
After Seavey snapped a few photos in victory lane he hustled over to his Sprint Car ride where he would start third behind Joe B. Miller and Jim Moughan for the twenty lap main event. Miller would win the drag race into turn one and he would stay well away from that ridge as he paced the field for the first six laps. The red flag would then wave when Jamie Ball went end over end once at the exit of turn two and after the restart Miller would again set the pace. The caution flew on lap eleven after Austin O'Dell bicycled off the ridge and then came to a stop on all fours and three laps later Cory Bruns spun in turn three. All of these cautions were likely welcomed by Miller as the traffic was thick at the back of the field, but when Seavey slipped by Moughan for second and with Paul Nienhesier jumping up to third the leader now had some company. Seavey would make a run at Miller, but could not make it stick on the bottom and when Nienheiser tried to slide him for second Miller was again able to pull away. After the white flag waved Nienheiser hit the ridge turning him hard right into the turn two wall nose first sending him for a quick rollover. The young local favorite would walk away dejected, but uninjured to a nice round of applause.
On the restart Jason Keith would slide Seavey for second in turns one and two, but as he tried to chase down Miller the driver from Farmington, Missouri, spun in turn four to produce another green-white-checkered restart and on this one it looked like the leaders were content with where they were as they navigated the final two laps without incident with Joe B. Miller scoring the flag to flag win. Seavey would add a runner-up finish in the Sprints to his Midget win, current MOWA point leader Jacob Patton would be happy with third, Jim Moughan would take fourth and Bret Tripplet returned to racing with a solid fifth place run.
It was now 11:15 and with a two and a half hour drive ahead of me I headed for the car disappointed that I would miss the final two feature races. I have become a fan of the 600cc Micros, especially on short tracks, and there was a nice field of twenty-nine of them on hand with Aaron Andruskevitch taking the win from the pole position over Joe B. Miller and Harley Hollan. I was also impressed with the Midwest Street Stock Championship cars with twenty-five of them in action and Jerrad Krick from East Park, Indiana taking the win.
The MOWA Sprints and the POWRi Midgets will be in action again tonight at the Tom Knowles Memorial at the Spoon River Speedway south of Canton, Illinois.
It was an enjoyable night of action in west central Illinois and now I prepare for another two hour plus road trip, this time to the north for the inaugural Tim Gebel Memorial at the Fayette County Speedway in West Union tonight headlined by a Hobby Stock feature paying $2,022-to-win and a solid $1,500 for second. Plus the B-Mods and the Stock Cars are paying $1,000-to-win. It has been several years since I have been to West Union and I am looking forward to the visit. Then tomorrow night I will close out a four race weekend with the Sprint Invaders at the Quincy Raceways. Hope to see you there!
Friday, September 14, 2018
Tyler Erb Powers To Victory In Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals Opener
Twenty-one-year old Tyler Erb powered past Mason Zeigler on lap seventeen and then drove away to a convincing win during Thursday's opening night of competition at the 15th Annual Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores. With the win the young Texan collected $7,000 and currently ranks third in the accumulated points that will determine the starting field for Saturday night's $40,000-to-win 100 lap finale.
Zeigler and Erb would start the twenty-five lap sprint together on the front row with Zeigler using the pole position to take the early lead. Fourth starting Chad Simpson would drop Erb to third and it would be Simpson who would take the lead from Zeigler on lap four, but before he could get back to the line to make it official the caution would wave for Jeremiah Hurst who had coasted to a stop in turn two.
On the restart Zeigler would hold off his two primary challengers until lap eight when Kyle Bronson's engine went up in smoke down the front stretch. Once back to racing Erb would takeover the second spot and go to work on Zeigler with the leader running wide around the cushion and the challenger working the low side. On his first charge to the bottom on lap eleven Erb would nose ahead in turn one, but when he clipped the inside berm in turn two his car turned hard right nearly collecting Zeigler in the process. Somehow Erb was able to make the save losing several car-lengths and now racing again side-by-side with Simpson.
It was obvious that Erb was on a mission though as he drove away from Simpson and steadily erased the gap on the leader once again diving to the inside in turn one. The two would race side-by-side off two with Zeigler edging ahead again on the back stretch, but when the young Pennsylvania driver jumped the cushion turn four that was all that Erb needed to power to the lead.
The caution waved one lap later for a stalled Bobby Pierce, but following the restart nobody had anything for Erb as he cruised to the win. Second-place was decided in the final two turns in dramatic fashion as Earl Pearson Jr. threw a big slider on Chad Simpson in turn three with Simpson having to turn the car completely sideways to avoid hard contact. Pearson would take the runner-up spot while Simpson made a great recovery to hold on for third, Jimmy Owens started tenth and finished fourth while third starting Frank Heckenast Jr. completed the top five. Quick qualifier Scott Bloomquist finished sixth, Brandon Sheppard had to win the B-Main to start nineteenth and he raced his way up to seventh, Chase Junghans had a solid showing in eighth, Chris Simpson was ninth and Zeigler faded to tenth.
Thursday Notes......Fifty-seven drivers signed in to compete in one of the most fan-friendly qualifying formats in the sport. More on that in a bit.....The field was split into two groups for qualifying, but the fastest overall time of the night was set by Scott Bloomquist who flat footed his car around the big half mile on lap one for a time of 17.231 seconds. This was just over a half a second faster than everybody else and even more impressive was the fact that he did it as the next to last driver out to take time. Bloomquist still had the speed in his heat coming from eighth to second, but after picking up three positions quickly in the feature after starting eighth he could not advance any further and even dropped a spot to finish sixth. The performance was still good enough to rank second in points for the night......Jeremiah Hurst ran the last six laps of the first heat race with smoke trailing from the Roberts Racing #58 as he held off Zeigler and Tim McCreadie to finish second, so it was no surprised when the mechanical gremlins returned early in the feature. It has been a solid 2018 season for Hurst as he nears his first All Iowa Points Late Model championship.....The second heat race had a dramatic late race change when Billy Moyer slowed with mechanical issues while running second with three laps remaining. Jimmy Mars was comfortably in the lead and appeared to be on his way to victory, Don O'Neal had charged up to third and looked to be a sure bet to capture the final transfer spot, Chase Junghans had faded out of the top three and Chris Simpson was struggling back in sixth. After the restart it was a completely different scenario. Junghans charged back to the front to take the win, Simpson found his speed and finished second, Mars held on for third and O'Neal dropped to fifth after being passed on the final lap by Mike Mataragas. And remember, under this format every position counts!......In his first appearance at Knoxville Austin Rettig spun in turn two while running second early in the third heat......After a less than stellar qualifying effort Brian Birkhofer came back to win the fifth heat race in the Jason Rauen owned "Dirty 30". Birky then started fourteenth in the feature and finished eleventh in his return to this event that he won in 2014 in dramatic fashion before announcing his retirement.....Shane Clanton was running strong and looked like a sure top five finisher in the main event before he jumped the turn two cushion on the final restart. The World of Outlaws regular dropped from fourth to sixteenth at the checkers......This past Tuesday night on Dirt Late Model Live on Dirt On Dirt Jason Feger was the chosen advocate for the "let's qualify and start the fast guys up front" qualifying format in a conversation that included promoter Tony Izzo Jr. taking the opposite side. Feger qualified twelfth in Group A starting him fifth in the third heat where he would have three faster qualifiers starting behind him in the eight car invert needing to finish in the top three to make the A-Main. Feger though faded to seventh at the checkers putting him on the inside of the third row for the C-Main where he finished fifth missing a transfer to the B-Main by one position. You can bet that this night did not change Feger's opinion on his chosen format, but then again it wasn't the format that produced this result. The Highside Hustler will get a chance to redeem himself tonight.....After a Friday night incident in last year's Knoxville Nationals Tyler Erb also had some less than favorable words about the Knoxville format. On this night Tyler qualified seventh fastest in Group B, tenth best overall, started his heat race from sixth and raced his way up to third which landed him on the outside of the front row for the main event. The difference from last year? The young man got up on the wheel and "raced" his way to success. It would be interesting to see if his perspective on the qualifying format has changed from one year ago......How can anybody complain about a format where every position matters? Earl Pearson Jr.'s slide job on Chad Simpson on the final lap earned him two extra points, just enough to give him the high point total for the night listed below. They line 'em up and do it all again tonight at Knoxville!
Thursday Point Totals (courtesy of the Knoxville Raceway website)
1 1 Earl Pearson Jr. 488
2 0 Scott Bloomquist 487
3 91 Tyler Erb 482
4 25S Chad Simpson 480
5 1S Brandon Sheppard 476
6 20 Jimmy Owens 474
7 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr. 473
8 32S Chris Simpson 467
9 76 Brandon Overton 463
10 25C Shane Clanton 459
11 5 Don O'Neal 458
12 18 Shannon Babb 453
13 25Z Mason Zeigler 452
14 18J Chase Junghans 448
15 30 Brian Birkhofer 448
16 1R Josh Richards 447
17 32 Bobby Pierce 442
18 40B Kyle Bronson 442
19 49 Jonathan Davenport 439
20 28M Jimmy Mars 424
21 1777 Jared Landers 422
22 00S Jesse Stovall 422
23 58 Dave Eckrich 418
24 14 Darrell Lanigan 416
25 58H Jeremiah Hurst 409
26 14J Jake Neal 407
27 39 Tim McCreadie 405
28 3S Brian Shirley 395
29 51M Joey Moriarty 395
30 20RT Ricky Thornton Jr. 392
31 51 Matt Furman 387
32 16T Tyler Bruening 378
33 33 Nick Marolf 376
34 83 Scott James 376
35 22 Greg Satterlee 375
36 56S Chris Spieker 373
37 39T Rob Toland 366
38 28 Dennis Erb Jr. 366
39 1M Mike Mataragas 359
40 25F Jason Feger 352
41 14M Morgan Bagley 351
42 37 Scott Ward 347
43 29D Spencer Diercks 337
44 1GRT Justin Zeitner 331
45 14Z Zach McMillan 328
46 94 Austin Rettig 319
47 93 Jay Johnson 319
48 21 Billy Moyer 316
49 15D Justin Duty 312
50 54 Mike Fryer 312
51 B1 Brent Larson 304
52 40 Joel Callahan 296
53 9 Lyle Zanker 294
54 22B Jonathan Brauns 293
55 4W JC Wyman 293
56 6H Al Humphrey 287
57 10C Junior Coover 281
Zeigler and Erb would start the twenty-five lap sprint together on the front row with Zeigler using the pole position to take the early lead. Fourth starting Chad Simpson would drop Erb to third and it would be Simpson who would take the lead from Zeigler on lap four, but before he could get back to the line to make it official the caution would wave for Jeremiah Hurst who had coasted to a stop in turn two.
On the restart Zeigler would hold off his two primary challengers until lap eight when Kyle Bronson's engine went up in smoke down the front stretch. Once back to racing Erb would takeover the second spot and go to work on Zeigler with the leader running wide around the cushion and the challenger working the low side. On his first charge to the bottom on lap eleven Erb would nose ahead in turn one, but when he clipped the inside berm in turn two his car turned hard right nearly collecting Zeigler in the process. Somehow Erb was able to make the save losing several car-lengths and now racing again side-by-side with Simpson.
It was obvious that Erb was on a mission though as he drove away from Simpson and steadily erased the gap on the leader once again diving to the inside in turn one. The two would race side-by-side off two with Zeigler edging ahead again on the back stretch, but when the young Pennsylvania driver jumped the cushion turn four that was all that Erb needed to power to the lead.
The caution waved one lap later for a stalled Bobby Pierce, but following the restart nobody had anything for Erb as he cruised to the win. Second-place was decided in the final two turns in dramatic fashion as Earl Pearson Jr. threw a big slider on Chad Simpson in turn three with Simpson having to turn the car completely sideways to avoid hard contact. Pearson would take the runner-up spot while Simpson made a great recovery to hold on for third, Jimmy Owens started tenth and finished fourth while third starting Frank Heckenast Jr. completed the top five. Quick qualifier Scott Bloomquist finished sixth, Brandon Sheppard had to win the B-Main to start nineteenth and he raced his way up to seventh, Chase Junghans had a solid showing in eighth, Chris Simpson was ninth and Zeigler faded to tenth.
Thursday Notes......Fifty-seven drivers signed in to compete in one of the most fan-friendly qualifying formats in the sport. More on that in a bit.....The field was split into two groups for qualifying, but the fastest overall time of the night was set by Scott Bloomquist who flat footed his car around the big half mile on lap one for a time of 17.231 seconds. This was just over a half a second faster than everybody else and even more impressive was the fact that he did it as the next to last driver out to take time. Bloomquist still had the speed in his heat coming from eighth to second, but after picking up three positions quickly in the feature after starting eighth he could not advance any further and even dropped a spot to finish sixth. The performance was still good enough to rank second in points for the night......Jeremiah Hurst ran the last six laps of the first heat race with smoke trailing from the Roberts Racing #58 as he held off Zeigler and Tim McCreadie to finish second, so it was no surprised when the mechanical gremlins returned early in the feature. It has been a solid 2018 season for Hurst as he nears his first All Iowa Points Late Model championship.....The second heat race had a dramatic late race change when Billy Moyer slowed with mechanical issues while running second with three laps remaining. Jimmy Mars was comfortably in the lead and appeared to be on his way to victory, Don O'Neal had charged up to third and looked to be a sure bet to capture the final transfer spot, Chase Junghans had faded out of the top three and Chris Simpson was struggling back in sixth. After the restart it was a completely different scenario. Junghans charged back to the front to take the win, Simpson found his speed and finished second, Mars held on for third and O'Neal dropped to fifth after being passed on the final lap by Mike Mataragas. And remember, under this format every position counts!......In his first appearance at Knoxville Austin Rettig spun in turn two while running second early in the third heat......After a less than stellar qualifying effort Brian Birkhofer came back to win the fifth heat race in the Jason Rauen owned "Dirty 30". Birky then started fourteenth in the feature and finished eleventh in his return to this event that he won in 2014 in dramatic fashion before announcing his retirement.....Shane Clanton was running strong and looked like a sure top five finisher in the main event before he jumped the turn two cushion on the final restart. The World of Outlaws regular dropped from fourth to sixteenth at the checkers......This past Tuesday night on Dirt Late Model Live on Dirt On Dirt Jason Feger was the chosen advocate for the "let's qualify and start the fast guys up front" qualifying format in a conversation that included promoter Tony Izzo Jr. taking the opposite side. Feger qualified twelfth in Group A starting him fifth in the third heat where he would have three faster qualifiers starting behind him in the eight car invert needing to finish in the top three to make the A-Main. Feger though faded to seventh at the checkers putting him on the inside of the third row for the C-Main where he finished fifth missing a transfer to the B-Main by one position. You can bet that this night did not change Feger's opinion on his chosen format, but then again it wasn't the format that produced this result. The Highside Hustler will get a chance to redeem himself tonight.....After a Friday night incident in last year's Knoxville Nationals Tyler Erb also had some less than favorable words about the Knoxville format. On this night Tyler qualified seventh fastest in Group B, tenth best overall, started his heat race from sixth and raced his way up to third which landed him on the outside of the front row for the main event. The difference from last year? The young man got up on the wheel and "raced" his way to success. It would be interesting to see if his perspective on the qualifying format has changed from one year ago......How can anybody complain about a format where every position matters? Earl Pearson Jr.'s slide job on Chad Simpson on the final lap earned him two extra points, just enough to give him the high point total for the night listed below. They line 'em up and do it all again tonight at Knoxville!
Thursday Point Totals (courtesy of the Knoxville Raceway website)
1 1 Earl Pearson Jr. 488
2 0 Scott Bloomquist 487
3 91 Tyler Erb 482
4 25S Chad Simpson 480
5 1S Brandon Sheppard 476
6 20 Jimmy Owens 474
7 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr. 473
8 32S Chris Simpson 467
9 76 Brandon Overton 463
10 25C Shane Clanton 459
11 5 Don O'Neal 458
12 18 Shannon Babb 453
13 25Z Mason Zeigler 452
14 18J Chase Junghans 448
15 30 Brian Birkhofer 448
16 1R Josh Richards 447
17 32 Bobby Pierce 442
18 40B Kyle Bronson 442
19 49 Jonathan Davenport 439
20 28M Jimmy Mars 424
21 1777 Jared Landers 422
22 00S Jesse Stovall 422
23 58 Dave Eckrich 418
24 14 Darrell Lanigan 416
25 58H Jeremiah Hurst 409
26 14J Jake Neal 407
27 39 Tim McCreadie 405
28 3S Brian Shirley 395
29 51M Joey Moriarty 395
30 20RT Ricky Thornton Jr. 392
31 51 Matt Furman 387
32 16T Tyler Bruening 378
33 33 Nick Marolf 376
34 83 Scott James 376
35 22 Greg Satterlee 375
36 56S Chris Spieker 373
37 39T Rob Toland 366
38 28 Dennis Erb Jr. 366
39 1M Mike Mataragas 359
40 25F Jason Feger 352
41 14M Morgan Bagley 351
42 37 Scott Ward 347
43 29D Spencer Diercks 337
44 1GRT Justin Zeitner 331
45 14Z Zach McMillan 328
46 94 Austin Rettig 319
47 93 Jay Johnson 319
48 21 Billy Moyer 316
49 15D Justin Duty 312
50 54 Mike Fryer 312
51 B1 Brent Larson 304
52 40 Joel Callahan 296
53 9 Lyle Zanker 294
54 22B Jonathan Brauns 293
55 4W JC Wyman 293
56 6H Al Humphrey 287
57 10C Junior Coover 281
Monday, September 10, 2018
Front To Back To Front, Struck Jr. Wins Ron Marks Jr. Memorial
A Sunday morning change of plans found us at the Quad City Speedway in East Moline, Illinois, Sunday night where the high-banked quarter mile would provide bonus racing to round out its 2018 season. Three feature races, including the $2,001.01-to-win Ron Marks Jr. Memorial event for the Street Stocks had to be finished up after being halted by rain last Sunday night and, to do it, the track added an extra night of racing for those same three divisions, Modifieds and Four Cylinders as well plus added in the Sport Mods for a night of racing in near perfect weather for early September.
The Four Cylinders would be the first of the three make up features with Dustin Frymoyer going the distance from the pole position to win the twelve lap event. Bobby Taggart would be a distant second, Eric Stogdell finished third, Josh Lane was fourth and Rob Harding Jr. started scratch on the twelve car field and finished fifth.
Tim Hamburg would take the lead at the drop of the green in the twenty lap Modified feature with Matt Werner quickly into second after starting fourth. On the fourth lap Werner dove low into turns one and two to take the lead for a split second before Hamburg charged back on the outside, so in turns three and four it was Werner swinging wide and using the momentum off the banking in turn four to take the lead. The caution waved a lap later when Jason Veloz shucked a drive shaft and following the restart Werner was gone as he would build up a half lap advantage before taking the checkers. The battle for second was entertaining though with four drivers slugging it out in the final laps as Milo Veloz Jr. came from the fifth row to take second and Jim Sandusky passed Hamburg in turn four of the final lap to finish third. Greg Durbin would complete the top five.
Twenty-four Street Stocks would line up next for the big money event honoring the memory of Ron Marks Jr. who was the point leader in the division when he lost his life in a car/pedestrian accident in July of 2012. Forty-laps would be the distance, considerably more than the fifteen that the division is accustomed to and it would be fair to say that most of the drivers did not remember the motto "to finish first, one must first finish." Outside front row starter Joe Bonney would lead the way as the field struggled through six cautions in the first fourteen laps, the sixth one coming when the second place car of Jeff Struck Jr. spun in turn two as he challenged Bonney for the lead.
With his primary challenger now restarting at the rear of the field Bonney would open up a bit of a lead until he jumped the cushion in turn four on lap twenty-two and nearly tagged the wall. This would allow R.J. Gonzalez driving Jeff Petersen's #6J car to grab the lead as Bonney now struggled with damage to his nose piece as he tried to mount a comeback. The caution would wave again on lap twenty-nine when Bonney's nose piece folded under the front end of the car bringing it to a halt in turn three and he would be towed back to the pits.
On the restart Struck was now back in contention and he would take the lead on lap thirty-one. As Gonzalez pushed hard to keep pace the right front tire would blow on his car a lap later taking him out of the race. It would be all Struck from there as he would add the four figure win to the $10,000 that he won over a field of 51 cars at the Plymouth Speedway in Indiana back in late July. The checkers fell just at the right time though as his right rear tire was going down even before he turned a donut of celebration on the front stretch. Rob Nylin started twelfth and finished second, Brad Durbin came from seventeenth to third, Cary Brown was fourth and Jesse Owen finished fifth after pitting mid-race for a tire change.
We were now ready for the new program of racing with the twelve car, fifteen lap Sport Mod feature up first. Dave Engelkens would pace the field early with James Thompson in hot pursuit and Dustin Schram charging to the front after starting seventh. Thompson would take the lead on lap five, but it was a short stint up front as Schram swept by a lap later. It was all over but the shouting from there as the 2017 Illinois Points Champion in the Limited Mods, and the current state point leader cruised to (at least) his fifteenth win on Illinois dirt this season. Thompson was impressive in second, Logan Veloz was third, Engelkens wound up fourth and Dubuque's Jake Murphy completed the top five.
The Four Cylinder car count swelled to the point that a B-Main event was required and it would be a field of nineteen that would start the twelve lap main event. The #257 car (I didn't catch his name) would lead the first lap before retiring to the infield and Burlington, Iowa, visitor Ashton Blain would pace the second lap before he slowed on the speedway. Eric Stogdell would pick up the lead from there until the mid-race point when the winner of the B-Main, Dirk Davis drove by him and would go on to take the checkers first in the A-Main as well. Brandon Setser came from deep in the field as well to finish second, Stogdell was third followed by Bobby Taggart and Kyle Rhoads. Alyssa Steele made the trip up from Keokuk, Iowa, and was a respectable seventh.
There was a bit of deja vu as the Modifieds lined up again for their twenty-lap main event as for the second time tonight it was Bruce Hanford and Tim Hamburg drawing the front row with Matt Werner starting fourth. Hanford would lead the opening lap before Werner charged by on lap two looking for his second win of the night. Milo Veloz was on the charge though from the fifth row and as Werner cleared a lapped car on the high side in turn four on lap ten, Veloz dove to the bottom and slid up out of turn four. The two made hard contact just before Doug Haack's flagstand and while neither of them crashed, both suffered flat tires and they headed for the pits under caution.
Greg Durbin would pick up the lead on the restart and while Hamburg stayed close he could not mount a challenge as Durbin scored the win. Chris Lawrence would follow Hamburg in for third while Werner and Veloz were able to make their way back into the top five running fourth and fifth respectively. Love him or hate him, Milo Veloz definitely gets the fans involved at the Quad City Speedway! From getting to know him back in the old NKF Tour days, I still love him ;)
Another stout field of twenty-two Street Stocks would close out the full evening of action, this time for their more accustomed fifteen laps of racing, but in this one you just had the sense that this class was just worn out for the evening. Eight, count 'em, eight caution flags would wave through the first six scored laps of racing and by that time we felt that it was time to head for the gates. Jeff Struck Jr. was the early leader only to again spin in turn two and when he retired from the event a few laps later that took away the possibility of another "spin to win" scenario. Nick Hixson had the lead when we left, but checking the results today I see that Joe Bonney took the win over Rob Nylin, Mike Anderson, R.J. Gonzalez and Mark Anderson.
If you noted the end of my previous entry you know that the original plan was to head out to Eagle, Nebraska, for a night of SLMR Late Models, IMCA Sprints and WAR Wingless Sprints. Let's just say that my age is showing as the prospect of only doing four hours of driving to watch seven features at East Moline rather than the ten hours of driving that the trip to Eagle would have required won out and while I am sure we missed a fun night in southeast Nebraska, it was definitely a good decision as we enjoyed some entertaining racing with several friends at QCS.
This week's plan starts off with a trip to the Knoxville Late Model Nationals on Thursday night and the weekend will wrap up with the Sprint Invaders at the Quincy Raceways on Sunday night. In between my choices are wide open for Friday and Saturday. Where will you be enjoying some races this week?
The Four Cylinders would be the first of the three make up features with Dustin Frymoyer going the distance from the pole position to win the twelve lap event. Bobby Taggart would be a distant second, Eric Stogdell finished third, Josh Lane was fourth and Rob Harding Jr. started scratch on the twelve car field and finished fifth.
Tim Hamburg would take the lead at the drop of the green in the twenty lap Modified feature with Matt Werner quickly into second after starting fourth. On the fourth lap Werner dove low into turns one and two to take the lead for a split second before Hamburg charged back on the outside, so in turns three and four it was Werner swinging wide and using the momentum off the banking in turn four to take the lead. The caution waved a lap later when Jason Veloz shucked a drive shaft and following the restart Werner was gone as he would build up a half lap advantage before taking the checkers. The battle for second was entertaining though with four drivers slugging it out in the final laps as Milo Veloz Jr. came from the fifth row to take second and Jim Sandusky passed Hamburg in turn four of the final lap to finish third. Greg Durbin would complete the top five.
Twenty-four Street Stocks would line up next for the big money event honoring the memory of Ron Marks Jr. who was the point leader in the division when he lost his life in a car/pedestrian accident in July of 2012. Forty-laps would be the distance, considerably more than the fifteen that the division is accustomed to and it would be fair to say that most of the drivers did not remember the motto "to finish first, one must first finish." Outside front row starter Joe Bonney would lead the way as the field struggled through six cautions in the first fourteen laps, the sixth one coming when the second place car of Jeff Struck Jr. spun in turn two as he challenged Bonney for the lead.
With his primary challenger now restarting at the rear of the field Bonney would open up a bit of a lead until he jumped the cushion in turn four on lap twenty-two and nearly tagged the wall. This would allow R.J. Gonzalez driving Jeff Petersen's #6J car to grab the lead as Bonney now struggled with damage to his nose piece as he tried to mount a comeback. The caution would wave again on lap twenty-nine when Bonney's nose piece folded under the front end of the car bringing it to a halt in turn three and he would be towed back to the pits.
On the restart Struck was now back in contention and he would take the lead on lap thirty-one. As Gonzalez pushed hard to keep pace the right front tire would blow on his car a lap later taking him out of the race. It would be all Struck from there as he would add the four figure win to the $10,000 that he won over a field of 51 cars at the Plymouth Speedway in Indiana back in late July. The checkers fell just at the right time though as his right rear tire was going down even before he turned a donut of celebration on the front stretch. Rob Nylin started twelfth and finished second, Brad Durbin came from seventeenth to third, Cary Brown was fourth and Jesse Owen finished fifth after pitting mid-race for a tire change.
We were now ready for the new program of racing with the twelve car, fifteen lap Sport Mod feature up first. Dave Engelkens would pace the field early with James Thompson in hot pursuit and Dustin Schram charging to the front after starting seventh. Thompson would take the lead on lap five, but it was a short stint up front as Schram swept by a lap later. It was all over but the shouting from there as the 2017 Illinois Points Champion in the Limited Mods, and the current state point leader cruised to (at least) his fifteenth win on Illinois dirt this season. Thompson was impressive in second, Logan Veloz was third, Engelkens wound up fourth and Dubuque's Jake Murphy completed the top five.
The Four Cylinder car count swelled to the point that a B-Main event was required and it would be a field of nineteen that would start the twelve lap main event. The #257 car (I didn't catch his name) would lead the first lap before retiring to the infield and Burlington, Iowa, visitor Ashton Blain would pace the second lap before he slowed on the speedway. Eric Stogdell would pick up the lead from there until the mid-race point when the winner of the B-Main, Dirk Davis drove by him and would go on to take the checkers first in the A-Main as well. Brandon Setser came from deep in the field as well to finish second, Stogdell was third followed by Bobby Taggart and Kyle Rhoads. Alyssa Steele made the trip up from Keokuk, Iowa, and was a respectable seventh.
There was a bit of deja vu as the Modifieds lined up again for their twenty-lap main event as for the second time tonight it was Bruce Hanford and Tim Hamburg drawing the front row with Matt Werner starting fourth. Hanford would lead the opening lap before Werner charged by on lap two looking for his second win of the night. Milo Veloz was on the charge though from the fifth row and as Werner cleared a lapped car on the high side in turn four on lap ten, Veloz dove to the bottom and slid up out of turn four. The two made hard contact just before Doug Haack's flagstand and while neither of them crashed, both suffered flat tires and they headed for the pits under caution.
Greg Durbin would pick up the lead on the restart and while Hamburg stayed close he could not mount a challenge as Durbin scored the win. Chris Lawrence would follow Hamburg in for third while Werner and Veloz were able to make their way back into the top five running fourth and fifth respectively. Love him or hate him, Milo Veloz definitely gets the fans involved at the Quad City Speedway! From getting to know him back in the old NKF Tour days, I still love him ;)
Another stout field of twenty-two Street Stocks would close out the full evening of action, this time for their more accustomed fifteen laps of racing, but in this one you just had the sense that this class was just worn out for the evening. Eight, count 'em, eight caution flags would wave through the first six scored laps of racing and by that time we felt that it was time to head for the gates. Jeff Struck Jr. was the early leader only to again spin in turn two and when he retired from the event a few laps later that took away the possibility of another "spin to win" scenario. Nick Hixson had the lead when we left, but checking the results today I see that Joe Bonney took the win over Rob Nylin, Mike Anderson, R.J. Gonzalez and Mark Anderson.
If you noted the end of my previous entry you know that the original plan was to head out to Eagle, Nebraska, for a night of SLMR Late Models, IMCA Sprints and WAR Wingless Sprints. Let's just say that my age is showing as the prospect of only doing four hours of driving to watch seven features at East Moline rather than the ten hours of driving that the trip to Eagle would have required won out and while I am sure we missed a fun night in southeast Nebraska, it was definitely a good decision as we enjoyed some entertaining racing with several friends at QCS.
This week's plan starts off with a trip to the Knoxville Late Model Nationals on Thursday night and the weekend will wrap up with the Sprint Invaders at the Quincy Raceways on Sunday night. In between my choices are wide open for Friday and Saturday. Where will you be enjoying some races this week?
Friday, September 7, 2018
Eleven Hours Of Racing In One Day.....And I Didn't Even See It All
I knew that it had been several years since I had made the trip to Boone for at least one night of the IMCA Super Nationals, but when I went back to the archives of the Back Stretch to find that my last visit here was in 2009 I was surprised that it had been that long! With my son Morgan now living and working in Des Moines it was his wish to get his first experience of this mega event that brought me back on Thursday and with all of the rain over the first three days it gave me an opportunity to get the absolute most out of my return.
With the Wednesday Modified program pushed to an 8 a.m. start on Thursday I set my alarm for 4:40 in the morning and was soon on the road leaving Mt. Pleasant in a steady rain that took me nearly half the trip to drive out of. The roads were dry when I reached Boone, but that was the only thing that was dry and as I walked around the outside of the pit area and through the grounds to get to the ticket office I was amazed by the sheer mess of it all. Mud was everywhere, but somehow the haulers for more than 400 race cars had found some place to park in the muck in preparation for a full day of action. How this place managed to get any racing in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is simply remarkable and it became very obvious to me that anybody who had been lobbing potshots on social media on how things were being handled each time Mother Nature threw a curve ball had obviously not been here in person.
It was odd to be watching hot laps at eight in the morning, something that I had never done before, the closest being when we used to go to the Saturday morning race at the Iowa State Fair where the hot laps may have started that early, but we never made it until race time at 10 a.m. after a full night at Knoxville the night before. Actually the drive up reminded me of a trip that I made back in my late teens when the NSCA ran a day night doubleheader at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia where we left home in the dark, but on that early April day there were snow flurries in the air rather than rain. I am getting off topic......
Catching the morning show allowed me to see all 229 Modifieds in action and the time passed quickly chatting with friends Dick and Joyce Eisele and David Schlise, plus it was nice to catch a few minutes here and there with Ryan Clark who along with Jerry Van Sickel somehow announce the entire week without losing their voices, or at least they haven't done so yet. And by the way, make sure that you listen closely to these two and try to catch some of the humor that they slip in with all of the other information. Denny and Toby were legendary, these two are there as well.
The Boone Speedway crew has the track prep down to a science, even with the extra added moisture this week, and "farming sessions" are scheduled as part of the program to provide the best racing possible. They may have learned something though for the future when the schedule gets altered and requires a day race as before each of the day's two 25-lap qualifying features there were three 8-lap B-Mains run right after track prep. The track was nice and wide for those three B's and for the early laps of each A-Main only to then see the groove lock down to the bottom under the intermittent mid-day sun. So perhaps in the future, if ever in this situation again, only one or at the most two B-Mains will be contested between farming and the feature.
The first A-Main saw northern Iowa's Ryan Ruter drive by Californian Ethan Dotson on lap eight and then survive a series of four cautions to take the win. Wisconsin's Josh Long was one driver who found some success off the bottom late in the race to get to second at the checkers, Doston finished third and another Californian Cody Laney made his way up from a fourteenth row start to take the fourth and final transfer to Saturday's "big dance".
Kansas driver Clay Money was in the top four through the first sixteen laps only to get shuffled back a few positions on a Delaware double-file restart before coming back to finish fifth. Tom Berry Jr. who raced in Iowa last year while giving a home address of Medford, Oregon, and who is now racing in North Dakota this year was running solidly in fourth when another Oregon driver Collen Winebarger tried to squeeze under him on lap eight. Contact sent Winebarger for a spin pushing him back in the thirty car field. Berry didn't have the same luck late in the race when contact from Randy Foote turned both of them sideways leaving Michigan hot shoe A.J. Ward with no place to go taking all three of them out of contention for a top four finish.
Texan Kevin Sustaire struggled in the early laps of the second feature first spinning from his tenth starting spot as the field came through turns three and four to the green and then again getting sideways in turn four on lap two. This time both Richie and Jimmy Gustin had no place to go with Jimmy getting the black flag for not coming to a complete stop once inside the poles in the infield before returning to the track, a rule that is in place to keep the infield personnel safe. Jay Noteboom would lead the opening lap before yielding to Jeff Aikey and the track really locked down in this one with the only passing up front happening when Noteboom left the inside line open exiting turn four allowing Riley Simmons to get under him. There was plenty of contact as the two tried to get to the low line in turn one first, but both kept their head and kept their cars straight as Simmons would be the runner-up to Aikey's win with Noteboom in third.
The race for that fourth and final transfer was wild on the final lap as Mitchell Hunt, Troy Cordes and Troy Foulger went three-wide into turn one all looking for that low line. Somehow they kept from wrecking and it be Hunt who would prevail as the Michigan driver punched his ticket to the big show.
The morning session wrapped up at 2:05 so after the ten minute hike to my car I drove to Ames to get a late lunch before going to Des Moines to pick up Morgan. We returned to the track just past 5:30 in time to catch the last four of the twenty Stock Car heat races and it was good to see that Paul Vetter was able to join us once again. I have to mention Paul and David, because along with you, they make up my five or six regular visitors to the Back Stretch and I thank you all for taking the time to read this stuff!
With both Morgan and I having to be at work again on Friday morning we had agreed to go back to my old way of sampling the Super Nationals setting a 10:30 curfew to give Morgan a five hour "spoonful" of action. He is a veteran fan of the Knoxville Sprint Car Nationals and as we again walked around the jam-packed pit area and the mud covered grounds he made the comment "this is incredible" a couple of times.
The timing of the track prep during the regularly scheduled action was perfect and the wide, high-banked quarter-mile served up plenty of action as drivers raced hard for each and every position trying to make their way into Saturday's main events. The two Stock Car qualifying features would fall within our five hours of attendance and both 25-lap events transferring four cars to Saturday would be won in flag-to-flag fashion. Nebraska's Kyle Vanover would go the distance in the first one not once getting even a good challenge for the lead despite several restarts. The action was intense behind him though as drivers scrambled for position. Jeff Tubbs from Colby, Kansas, would make his way to second after starting twelfth and when Chad Clancy clipped Scott Davis while racing for third with four laps remaining that would open the door for Jeff Mueller and Jason See to finish the race in third and fourth after starting fifteenth and sixteenth respectively. It was an impressive run for Mueller who did it despite the fact that he had some damage on the right front suffered in an early race scuffle. Burlington, Iowa's, Chad Krogmeier was impressive in fifth and will have two more opportunities to race his way into the big show for the first time.
With the West Liberty Raceway sitting idle in 2018, Johnny Spaw made the pull over to Boone from Cedar Rapids on Saturday nights this year where he finished second in the Stock Car point standings. That weekly experience really showed in this night's second feature as Spaw went unchallenged in winning the 25-lap event. Luke Lemmens slipped by Hunter Marriott late to take the second spot and long after finishing the race in the third position it was announced that Marriott had been disqualified for a non-working rev limiter. This would move Brian Rigsby up to third and would lock Wisconsin Stock Car veteran Jeremy Christians into fourth.
The final ten Modified heats would follow another farming session and we "broke" our curfew by just five minutes to see that last heat race take the checkers before we headed for home completely satisfied with a full five hours of watching some great racing along with friends. On the way home Morgan said that as long as he is in Des Moines, he would like for us to continue to make it to at least one night of the Super Nationals. And this is coming from a Sprint Car snob!
One not so positive comment that I do have though is that I really do NOT like Jerry's motto of "On your feet until you see green" as apparently short people and children are not allowed to watch the start of a feature race. My preference has always been to remind race fans after the parade lap that when everybody sits, everybody sees. After all this is dirt track racing, not NASCAR, we don't have to stand just to make it look more exciting. Even World of Outlaws Sprint Car announcer Johnny Gibson has finally come on board with this in 2018 and from this thread on Hoseheads it is very much appreciated.
It looks like the weather should cooperate the rest of the way for this year's Super Nationals, something that everybody involved truly deserves!
Speaking of NASCAR the announcement that the Championship team from 2017 will now close its doors at the conclusion of 2018 has sent shock waves through the sport. Michael Waltrip who closed up his own team a few years back noted that they need to put the word "Stock" back into the world of Stock Car racing and in a video Kenny Wallace said that we need to "dumb it down" again, referring to the costs of being competitive. If they want to see proof of how this might work on a much smaller scale, the head honchos at NASCAR need look no further than the success of the Cash Money Dirt Late Model Series based in southwest Missouri. With a rules package meant to take Late Models back to how they handled some twenty years ago, the series debut had 17 cars at the Tri-State Speedway in Oklahoma on March 30th and the last two events, both held at the Springfield Raceway, have drawn counts of 28 and 35 racing for just $1,000-to-win.
Taking a bunch of money out of both the front end, and the back end so that fans don't have to have a second mortgage to attend a NASCAR race would help and it will probably improve the actual racing as well. That would be a huge step to take though, and one that a corporate giant who still remembers its meteoric rise will not likely accept.
Rain has forced some changes to the schedules for some other events this weekend headlined by the World 100 at the Eldora Speedway. With remnants of tropical storm Gordon set to drift over the area the next two days the most prestigious event in dirt Late Model racing will now be completed on October 12th and 13th. After a rain delay they did get in last night's opener with Scott Bloomquist and Jimmy Owens winning qualifying night features over a field of 101 entries. Brian Birkhofer drove the Jason Rauen owned car #30 to a second-place finish behind Owens so it is safe to say that the rust has been shaken off and the combo will be threat to win at next week's Knoxville Late Model Nationals.
As if this season hasn't already been challenging enough for the Farley Speedway Promotions team, of which Rauen is a part of, the rescheduled World 100 now plops right down on their rescheduled date for the Farley Super Modified weekend where both Scott Bloomquist and Tim McCreadie were original entries.
Other changes in the schedule from this weekend includes the Tom Knowles Memorial at the Spoon River Speedway in Canton being postponed to next Saturday September 15th. The Michael Petersen Memorial at the Eldon Raceway has been moved to September 22nd and tonight's Cheater Night races at Davenport will now be held on September 29th.
After eleven hours of racing on Thursday I am going to take the next two nights off before making the road trip out to Eagle Raceway on Sunday where the SLMR Late Models will be in action along with IMCA Sprints and the WAR non-wing Sprint Cars. That is a combination that I cannot resist, perhaps I will see you there!
Thanks for visiting the Back Stretch!
With the Wednesday Modified program pushed to an 8 a.m. start on Thursday I set my alarm for 4:40 in the morning and was soon on the road leaving Mt. Pleasant in a steady rain that took me nearly half the trip to drive out of. The roads were dry when I reached Boone, but that was the only thing that was dry and as I walked around the outside of the pit area and through the grounds to get to the ticket office I was amazed by the sheer mess of it all. Mud was everywhere, but somehow the haulers for more than 400 race cars had found some place to park in the muck in preparation for a full day of action. How this place managed to get any racing in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is simply remarkable and it became very obvious to me that anybody who had been lobbing potshots on social media on how things were being handled each time Mother Nature threw a curve ball had obviously not been here in person.
It was odd to be watching hot laps at eight in the morning, something that I had never done before, the closest being when we used to go to the Saturday morning race at the Iowa State Fair where the hot laps may have started that early, but we never made it until race time at 10 a.m. after a full night at Knoxville the night before. Actually the drive up reminded me of a trip that I made back in my late teens when the NSCA ran a day night doubleheader at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia where we left home in the dark, but on that early April day there were snow flurries in the air rather than rain. I am getting off topic......
Catching the morning show allowed me to see all 229 Modifieds in action and the time passed quickly chatting with friends Dick and Joyce Eisele and David Schlise, plus it was nice to catch a few minutes here and there with Ryan Clark who along with Jerry Van Sickel somehow announce the entire week without losing their voices, or at least they haven't done so yet. And by the way, make sure that you listen closely to these two and try to catch some of the humor that they slip in with all of the other information. Denny and Toby were legendary, these two are there as well.
The Boone Speedway crew has the track prep down to a science, even with the extra added moisture this week, and "farming sessions" are scheduled as part of the program to provide the best racing possible. They may have learned something though for the future when the schedule gets altered and requires a day race as before each of the day's two 25-lap qualifying features there were three 8-lap B-Mains run right after track prep. The track was nice and wide for those three B's and for the early laps of each A-Main only to then see the groove lock down to the bottom under the intermittent mid-day sun. So perhaps in the future, if ever in this situation again, only one or at the most two B-Mains will be contested between farming and the feature.
The first A-Main saw northern Iowa's Ryan Ruter drive by Californian Ethan Dotson on lap eight and then survive a series of four cautions to take the win. Wisconsin's Josh Long was one driver who found some success off the bottom late in the race to get to second at the checkers, Doston finished third and another Californian Cody Laney made his way up from a fourteenth row start to take the fourth and final transfer to Saturday's "big dance".
Kansas driver Clay Money was in the top four through the first sixteen laps only to get shuffled back a few positions on a Delaware double-file restart before coming back to finish fifth. Tom Berry Jr. who raced in Iowa last year while giving a home address of Medford, Oregon, and who is now racing in North Dakota this year was running solidly in fourth when another Oregon driver Collen Winebarger tried to squeeze under him on lap eight. Contact sent Winebarger for a spin pushing him back in the thirty car field. Berry didn't have the same luck late in the race when contact from Randy Foote turned both of them sideways leaving Michigan hot shoe A.J. Ward with no place to go taking all three of them out of contention for a top four finish.
Texan Kevin Sustaire struggled in the early laps of the second feature first spinning from his tenth starting spot as the field came through turns three and four to the green and then again getting sideways in turn four on lap two. This time both Richie and Jimmy Gustin had no place to go with Jimmy getting the black flag for not coming to a complete stop once inside the poles in the infield before returning to the track, a rule that is in place to keep the infield personnel safe. Jay Noteboom would lead the opening lap before yielding to Jeff Aikey and the track really locked down in this one with the only passing up front happening when Noteboom left the inside line open exiting turn four allowing Riley Simmons to get under him. There was plenty of contact as the two tried to get to the low line in turn one first, but both kept their head and kept their cars straight as Simmons would be the runner-up to Aikey's win with Noteboom in third.
The race for that fourth and final transfer was wild on the final lap as Mitchell Hunt, Troy Cordes and Troy Foulger went three-wide into turn one all looking for that low line. Somehow they kept from wrecking and it be Hunt who would prevail as the Michigan driver punched his ticket to the big show.
The morning session wrapped up at 2:05 so after the ten minute hike to my car I drove to Ames to get a late lunch before going to Des Moines to pick up Morgan. We returned to the track just past 5:30 in time to catch the last four of the twenty Stock Car heat races and it was good to see that Paul Vetter was able to join us once again. I have to mention Paul and David, because along with you, they make up my five or six regular visitors to the Back Stretch and I thank you all for taking the time to read this stuff!
With both Morgan and I having to be at work again on Friday morning we had agreed to go back to my old way of sampling the Super Nationals setting a 10:30 curfew to give Morgan a five hour "spoonful" of action. He is a veteran fan of the Knoxville Sprint Car Nationals and as we again walked around the jam-packed pit area and the mud covered grounds he made the comment "this is incredible" a couple of times.
The timing of the track prep during the regularly scheduled action was perfect and the wide, high-banked quarter-mile served up plenty of action as drivers raced hard for each and every position trying to make their way into Saturday's main events. The two Stock Car qualifying features would fall within our five hours of attendance and both 25-lap events transferring four cars to Saturday would be won in flag-to-flag fashion. Nebraska's Kyle Vanover would go the distance in the first one not once getting even a good challenge for the lead despite several restarts. The action was intense behind him though as drivers scrambled for position. Jeff Tubbs from Colby, Kansas, would make his way to second after starting twelfth and when Chad Clancy clipped Scott Davis while racing for third with four laps remaining that would open the door for Jeff Mueller and Jason See to finish the race in third and fourth after starting fifteenth and sixteenth respectively. It was an impressive run for Mueller who did it despite the fact that he had some damage on the right front suffered in an early race scuffle. Burlington, Iowa's, Chad Krogmeier was impressive in fifth and will have two more opportunities to race his way into the big show for the first time.
With the West Liberty Raceway sitting idle in 2018, Johnny Spaw made the pull over to Boone from Cedar Rapids on Saturday nights this year where he finished second in the Stock Car point standings. That weekly experience really showed in this night's second feature as Spaw went unchallenged in winning the 25-lap event. Luke Lemmens slipped by Hunter Marriott late to take the second spot and long after finishing the race in the third position it was announced that Marriott had been disqualified for a non-working rev limiter. This would move Brian Rigsby up to third and would lock Wisconsin Stock Car veteran Jeremy Christians into fourth.
The final ten Modified heats would follow another farming session and we "broke" our curfew by just five minutes to see that last heat race take the checkers before we headed for home completely satisfied with a full five hours of watching some great racing along with friends. On the way home Morgan said that as long as he is in Des Moines, he would like for us to continue to make it to at least one night of the Super Nationals. And this is coming from a Sprint Car snob!
One not so positive comment that I do have though is that I really do NOT like Jerry's motto of "On your feet until you see green" as apparently short people and children are not allowed to watch the start of a feature race. My preference has always been to remind race fans after the parade lap that when everybody sits, everybody sees. After all this is dirt track racing, not NASCAR, we don't have to stand just to make it look more exciting. Even World of Outlaws Sprint Car announcer Johnny Gibson has finally come on board with this in 2018 and from this thread on Hoseheads it is very much appreciated.
It looks like the weather should cooperate the rest of the way for this year's Super Nationals, something that everybody involved truly deserves!
Speaking of NASCAR the announcement that the Championship team from 2017 will now close its doors at the conclusion of 2018 has sent shock waves through the sport. Michael Waltrip who closed up his own team a few years back noted that they need to put the word "Stock" back into the world of Stock Car racing and in a video Kenny Wallace said that we need to "dumb it down" again, referring to the costs of being competitive. If they want to see proof of how this might work on a much smaller scale, the head honchos at NASCAR need look no further than the success of the Cash Money Dirt Late Model Series based in southwest Missouri. With a rules package meant to take Late Models back to how they handled some twenty years ago, the series debut had 17 cars at the Tri-State Speedway in Oklahoma on March 30th and the last two events, both held at the Springfield Raceway, have drawn counts of 28 and 35 racing for just $1,000-to-win.
Taking a bunch of money out of both the front end, and the back end so that fans don't have to have a second mortgage to attend a NASCAR race would help and it will probably improve the actual racing as well. That would be a huge step to take though, and one that a corporate giant who still remembers its meteoric rise will not likely accept.
Rain has forced some changes to the schedules for some other events this weekend headlined by the World 100 at the Eldora Speedway. With remnants of tropical storm Gordon set to drift over the area the next two days the most prestigious event in dirt Late Model racing will now be completed on October 12th and 13th. After a rain delay they did get in last night's opener with Scott Bloomquist and Jimmy Owens winning qualifying night features over a field of 101 entries. Brian Birkhofer drove the Jason Rauen owned car #30 to a second-place finish behind Owens so it is safe to say that the rust has been shaken off and the combo will be threat to win at next week's Knoxville Late Model Nationals.
As if this season hasn't already been challenging enough for the Farley Speedway Promotions team, of which Rauen is a part of, the rescheduled World 100 now plops right down on their rescheduled date for the Farley Super Modified weekend where both Scott Bloomquist and Tim McCreadie were original entries.
Other changes in the schedule from this weekend includes the Tom Knowles Memorial at the Spoon River Speedway in Canton being postponed to next Saturday September 15th. The Michael Petersen Memorial at the Eldon Raceway has been moved to September 22nd and tonight's Cheater Night races at Davenport will now be held on September 29th.
After eleven hours of racing on Thursday I am going to take the next two nights off before making the road trip out to Eagle Raceway on Sunday where the SLMR Late Models will be in action along with IMCA Sprints and the WAR non-wing Sprint Cars. That is a combination that I cannot resist, perhaps I will see you there!
Thanks for visiting the Back Stretch!
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