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?
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