As I sit down to type out this week’s rendition of the “Back
Stretch” it is once again a cold, wet and rainy Saturday morning leaving
several area race promoters with a big dilemma. To race, or not to race, that
is the question. If you don’t race you may face the wrath of the drivers who
have put their hard earned dollars into their racing machines and want to get
out there and compete, as well as their friends and family who want to watch
them. On the other hand, if you do race, chances are that it will only be the
friends and family of the drivers who are there to buy a ticket and sit out in
cold and windy conditions to watch those drivers compete. With the result being
a substantial financial hit for the promoter. Then, to add insult to injury
when your track gets rough due to all of the snow that sat on top of it this
winter and all of the rain that has fallen on it recently, the internet jockeys
or AWP’s as Craig Kelley used to call them, start ripping your track
preparation skills. Now that I think of it, maybe it isn’t such a dilemma after
all. Here’s hoping that this weather straightens out soon!
I was fortunate enough to take in two events this week with
the first being on Wednesday night at the Quincy Raceway. This was the
rescheduled date for the Deery Brothers Summer Series and a solid field of
forty-two Late Models and nineteen Modifieds checked in on a warm and breezy
evening. The strong south wind dried out the track quickly and that made
viewing from the grandstand tough, but once again it was the weather that
caused track preparation issues for if you opened up the surface and watered it
hard you ran the risk of it being rough.
Rob Toland, driving Herschel Roberts’ #58, was the only one
that could make something other than the bottom work in the Late Model heats as
he came from row four to finish second. Toalnd’s pill draw skills again lacked
in the re-draw though as he pulled out the highest number to start tenth in the
main event. Mike Garland paced the field for the first six laps of the main
event until Denny Woodworth saw an opening on the inside and took the lead away.
Tom Darbyshire, who started right behind Woodworth in fifth, stayed glued to
his back bumper throughout the fifty-lap distance and with just three laps to
go he was able to stick his nose under the leader in traffic. Woodworth shut
the door though and then held his line to the checkers for the $2,000 victory.
Mark Burgtorf tried the high line much of the race to no avail as he settled
for third. Garland ran a nice race to finish fourth ahead of Sunday night’s
winner at Quincy Robby Warner.
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| Jared Schlipman races to the inside of Mark Burgtorf at Quincy in 2013 - Barry Johnson photo |
The Modified field was pretty stout from top to bottom still
nobody had anything for Michael Long. Starting fourth on the grid, Long split
the front row of Jared Schlipman and Jeff Waterman to gain the lead on lap two
and then ran away with the win. Brandon Lennox was the runner-up while David
Holder looked strong coming from twelfth to finish third. The pit area had a
little unexpected buzz to it at Quincy Wednesday night as the final car to
arrive, the Modified of Darrell Jones out of Ashland, Missouri, had Carl Edwards
serving as part of the pit crew for the night. Carl also spent some time
helping Roger Moser during the evening, two drivers that I’m sure that he raced
against many times at the old Capital Speedway in Holts Summit not so long ago.
Jones finished ninth while Moser followed him in tenth.
A big thanks to the Quincy Raceway staff for their
hospitality and for putting on this mid-week program, after all that seems like
the only time to catch a nice day anymore! We hope to be back down on Memorial
Day Monday when the Midwest All Star 410 Sprints make their first ever
appearance at the quarter-mile oval.
It rained all morning and then got cool and windy during the
afternoon, but when the sun started peaking out it was just enough to allow
Terry Hoenig to get the Lee County Speedway in shape for its season opener
Friday night. I swear that as then wind calmed it felt like it was twenty
degrees warmer by feature time than it was when I signed in. Or, it also could
have been the adrenaline that was being created by the fact that all five
feature races were decided in the final three laps on a track that was in near
perfect condition.
It was a tale of two generations in the final stages of the
IMCA Modified feature. Young Tyler Cale started on the pole and had led every
lap despite the persistent challenges of Josh Foster. But when the right side
body work on Foster’s car started to peel away and fall off with four laps
remaining, he was penalized for the resulting caution and was sent to the rear.
One lap after the restart Cale slipped high in turn two allowing veteran driver
Dean McGee to charge past into the lead and the eventual victory, his
first-ever at the Lee County Speedway.
Another young driver was the man to beat in the IMCA Stock
Car feature as Nick Fenton enjoyed a comfortable margin over his teammate Jason
Cook throughout the first eleven laps of the fifteen-lap affair. On a late
restart though Fenton suffered the same fate as Cale did in the Modifieds
getting too high in turn two allowing both Cook and Jeff Mueller to get by. The
youngster fought back though and the final three laps had the crowd on the edge
of their seat watching the three-car battle up front with Cook prevailing ahead
of Mueller and Fenton.
Chad Sovern survived a late challenge from Jim Gillenwater
to win the Sport Modified main event. Dean Kratzer passed Jeff Soper just
before the checkers flew on the Hobby Stock feature while Rob Hammel slid by
Dan Keltner late to win the Wild Things finale. It truly was a great night of
racing with the final checkered flag waving just past ten o’clock. As long as I
have all of my pre-graduation party chores complete I plan on returning to
Donnellson on Friday May23rd when the O’Reilly Auto Parts Winged Outlaw
Warriors make their first-ever appearance at the Speedway.
(Note: The limited reporting from three of the features was due to the word limit that I was working under at Hawkeye Racing News, something that would soon be eliminated hen we made the move online to Positively Racing)
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