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The long racing weekend began early last week with the rescheduled IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series event kicking things off on Thursday night along with IMCA stock cars and hobby stocks. Even though the reschedule was a quick one and a few drivers were not able to make the trip to Quincy Raceways, 40 late models made for a more than acceptable car count. Going in to the night, QR drivers had captured both Summer Series events that had been held, one to Jason Frankel and one to Mark Burgtorf. Both drivers appeared up to defending the home turf, Mark had the edge, aided by a second row starting slot in the 50 lap finale. Burgtorf chased down his longtime nemisis from the days when QR was a NASCAR weekly track, Ray Guss, Jr., then pulled away for the win. Frankel, meanwhile came from the eighth row to over take Jerry Weisenberger and veteran Jeff Aikey, running out of laps as he closed in on Guss. For Jason, it was the first of four straight nights finishing in the third position. Longtime track favorite Terry Schlipman emerged from " retirement," subbing for rehabbing Burlington driver Tom Goble in his # 69, and collecting a sixth place finish. Keith Pratt earned the hard luck award, when he flipped his #33 off turn one in the B-main. Keith was in line for a provisional feature starting spot, but his night and his car were done. Despite somewhat threatening skies, Quincy Raceways was able to open the IMCA late model point season on Sunday night. 17 cars signed in, and at first glance, this is likely to be about an average late model count for 2009. As mentioned earlier, Kevin Tomlinson is now competing quite sucessfully in the IMCA stock car division, Steve Grotz is helping sons Trent and Troy in the UMP modified division, and 2008 rookie of the year Rick Coats sold his ride just before the start of the season, leaving us without three competitors from last year. And after a mishap during the opening laps of the main event, we will likely be without veteran Terry Gallaher for the short if not the long term. After winning his heat race, Terry caught a turn one rut just at the wrong angle and vaulted off the corner, flipping onto the concrete barrier protecting pit road. Although Terry appeared uninjured, the same could not be said for his # 0 ride, which suffered substantial damage. Competing in his 45th season, Gallaher should never be counted out, but his outlook was not terribly positive after the wreck. While Terry does not have a backup car at home, Keith Pratt was able to pull another ride from his garage after his incident on Thursday night. And Keith proved more than competitive after thrashing to get the car ready. A lucky redraw of the number two spoon put the " Cool Cat " on the outside pole, and he rolled to his first feature win of the season. Matt Bailey started alongside Keith and chased him all the way, while Frankel came from fifth to third at the checkers. Justin Reed ran fourth, and Weisenberger turned in his second fifth of the week. While Pratts luck turned positive, Burgtorf went the other way. Mark followed up his Thursday win with a feature win Friday in Donnellson, Iowa. In the process, he lost the thrust bearing in his engine. The crew changed power plants for a Saturday show, but pulled a piston apart early on. so on Sunday, they rebuilt the original engine. But after hot laps on Sunday night, the bearing problem reappeared, and the # 7 team was loaded and headed home early, preparing to send both engines in for work. Marks protege, Nick Ingalls, faired little better, tagging the back of the main event for a lap or so with problems. The modifieds were dropped from the card when the Summer Series show moved to Thursday, but 18 of them came to race on Sunday. Not surprisingly, the early laps of the feature were marred by cautions, but after things sorted out, the laps clicked off. Sophomore mod hot shoe Steven Delonjay looked to be in control, but with four laps to go, Michael Long found an opening on the top side of the speedway, and picked up his third feature win of the weekend. Michael is wheeling an IMCA modified on Fridays and Saturdays for former QR track champion Jim Gillenwater, and racing his own car on Sundays. Delonjay grabbed second ahead of double duty driver Justin Reed, Robbie Reed, and visitor Donavan Lodge, from Moline,Il. One advantage of the switch to UMP mods is the possibility of drawing some different drivers to the track. This week, in addition to Lodge, Russ Coultas brought his #9c from Bluffs,Il. Ben Huff was a scratch for the night after a hot lap incident, and youngster Aaron Schlipman had engine woes in his heat race and was a no show come feature time. The track was not kind to early leader in the feature, with both Shawn Deering and Tony Dunker losing the lead in turn four incidents. The IMCA stock car numbers have not increased dramatically, but the competition sure has! 16 cars turned out on Thursday, and 14 made the Sunday show. Kevin Tomlinson has taken over as the man to beat, adapting quickly to his new class. Much like the modifieds, first was not a good place to be for the stockers. Doug Huls, who rolled his # 10 on friday night, then started in back up and finished the race, took an early lead Sunday, but slipped off turn two on a lap 14 restart. Andrew Griffin assumed the lead, but another newcomer to the class, former mod driver Terry Houston rolled by and looked to be on his way to the win. Coming to the white flag, the Mt Sterling, Il pilot slipped off turn three, turning the lead over to Tomlinson. On the restart, Houston was out, and Griffin slipped off turn two. Kevin grabbed his second feature win in a row, followed by Levi Long, Huls, cousin Abe Huls, and Chris Wibbell, who continued his amazing streak of not missing a feature lap at the track. The streak is now at 22 nights and 440 laps. Last season, some people were predicting the demise of hobby stocks at the track. The early returns of 2009 suggest anything but. 17 drivers checked in on Thursday for a non points event, and 16 were back on Sunday. And we are seeing new cars, always a good sign. One of those newcomers will have lot of work to do after a hard feature crash on Sunday. Eddie Kamm, in the suggestively numbered # .08% slammed hard into the front stretch wall. On Thursday, Justin Bartz suffered a hard crash, and was a no show on Sunday. Wes Mayfield left the midweek show with heavy right front damage, but replaced a tie rod, brake caliper, and several other parts to make it back three night later. Wes barely got going before his front end was again crumpled up, but this time he was able to complete the show. A special treat on Thursday was the appearance of former track champ Jeff Klingele behind the wheel of son Tanners car. Jeff added a " 7 " in front of Tanners " 3 ", recreating his old number. Handling problems kept Jeff busy all night. The Sunday show was marred by two heat race disqualifications, proving that the only non sanctioned class at the track will have their rules enforced. Veteran Hannibal pilot Jim Powell took the feature checkers for both shows, as he has his # 48j dialed in! Jimbo outdueled Travis Booher, Mayfield, early leader Steve Carlin and first heat winner Steve Carlin, and second heat winner Jake Powers for the 20 lap points victory. Track officials are doing a good job of getting the races over before 10:00 PM, so if you have not been to the speedway yet this year, make this week your first. The weather will be heating up, and the racing already has! The winged sprint cars will be coming in a few weeks, keep reading for more info.
See you at the races!
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