Heavy rains on Saturday morning left the folks at the Quincy Raceways with a tough decision to make. Call the show and leave people wondering why you are not racing on a beautiful and sunny Sunday evening, or forge ahead and have drivers and fans wondering why your race track is not in better condition. It is the type of "no win" situation that promoters have been faced with way too often recently and on this occasion, with the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models set to make its first appearance here in eight years track owner Jason Goble said "let's go racing" and the show went on as scheduled.
Yes, the track was rough during the heat races, but after taking the time during intermission to scrape off the muck on top, the three feature races were contested on a surface that wasn't that bad after all especially if you identified a couple of areas to avoid. The result was pretty decent night of racing overall and hopefully we can see the Deery Series back here again in 2020.
Eighteen Late Models signed in, a couple more than I had expected given that the track's UMP Crate Late Model class has only mustered four cars on each of the past two weeks and just one of them was here to race tonight. Jeremiah Hurst would draw the pole of the thirty lap main event with Andy Nezworski to his right and it would be Hurst taking the lead at the drop of the green. At this stage of the race pretty much the entire field was racing around the bottom so there was not much movement until the caution waved on lap nine when Tommy Elston stopped on the front stretch apron.
On the restart Curt Martin would start on the outside of the first double row and he would test the high side with some success taking second from Nezworski and even putting a nose to the outside of the leader Hurst on a couple of occasions. That top side momentum would soon fade though as Nezworski regained the second spot and Martin then fell back in line on the bottom. The caution would wave again with eight laps to go when Ray Raker tried to get to the infield and on this restart a couple of drivers would find success on the high side.
Both Jay Johnson and Mark Burgtorf were outside of the top five coming back to green, but not for long as the top line was now coming in and both drivers were picking off a position or two each lap. Up front Hurst and Matt Ryan had separated themselves from the pack and it was a good thing that they did as Johnson, who won the night before at 34 Raceway in Burlington, was closing fast only to run out of laps before the checkers waved with Hurst taking the win. Burgtorf who was behind the wheel of Lynn Richard's #15R tonight was coming fast in fourth with Nezworski dropping to fifth at the finish. Joel Callahan was sixth, Martin faded to seventh, Joe Zrostlik was eighth, the "Ironman" Darrel DeFrance finished ninth and Matt Strassheim completed the top ten.
In support class action Beau Taylor went flag-to-flag to win the Open Stock Car feature. Top contender Abe Huls spun in turn one on lap six collecting Shane Myers and Cletus Coats with the damage too much for Huls to finish the race. Michael "Taco" Larsen had a night that he will choose to forget as when his driveshaft came out entering turn one in his heat race, he went off the track and rolled onto his top. Currently second in the points chase behind Taylor, Larsen was able to get a ride in Pete Stodgel's #82 for the feature race and after an impressive charge from the back to finish second, Larsen failed to go to the tech area after the race resulting in a disqualification. That would leave Steve Dieckmann as the runner-up with Jake Powers, Andy Gaines and Myers completing the top five.
The Sport Compacts would close out the evening with an entertaining race that would see four different leaders in the fifteen lap event. Landon Neisen would pace the first quarter mile before yielding to Chance Bailey who would lead laps two and three. Craig Bangert would take the lead from there and appeared headed to victory until two caution flags for debris bunched the field with just three laps to go. Kimberly Abbott would take advantage of the opportunity racing around the outside of Bangert to take the point as the white flag waved and the former All Iowa Points Four Cylinder champion would close it out from there to get her first win of 2019. Bangert, Bailey, Quinton Shelton and Jared Heuele would fill out the top five.
Goble has several more special events on the schedule still for 2019 with the next two being a return of the MLRA Late Models on September 1st and a rescheduled date for the Sprint Invaders on September 8th and hopefully the weather will cooperate so that the pits and the grandstands at the Quincy Raceways will both be full for the rest of the season.
I had planned to take in a night of the Yankee Dirt Classic at the 300 Raceway this week, but with a visit from my grandson starting Thursday it looks like this grandpa will be taking a week off from racing. I can't wait until he is old enough to go with me!
Get on out and support the track of your choice!
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