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Past the Pit Gate.......
by Danny Rosencrans

QUINCY, IL. (August 31, 2010) - All too soon, it seemed, Sunday night was Season Championship night at Quincy Raceways. 55 drivers signed in on a hot humid night, and although the point battles had been close all season, it was going to take some big events to change the course of things. Keeping things interesting, track promoters had the individual point leaders in the IMCA late model, IMCA stock car, as well as the hobby stocks come to the front straightaway after their heat races to flip a coin to decide if the championship feature for their class would line up with the point leaders up front, or in a regular weekly invert. Only late model point leader Denny Woodworth was able to reward himself with a straight up start. The UMP modifieds used their regular heat and dash format to determine the lineup per UMP rules.

  The first feature out was for the IMCA stock cars. Kevin Tomlinson had borrowed the # 14 car of Jason Leapley for the night, and the Hannibal driver took off as if on a mission. Things took a bad turn, as Aaron Brocksieck pounded the backstretch guardrail, ending his night. On the restart it was Tomlinson out front again. The sparse nine car field began to dwindle, including second place point man Abe Huls. During a mid race caution, Tomlinson suddenly headed for the pits. With a track title in hand, Terry Houston charged to the front, collecting the feature win as well as his first track championship. Steve Steinkuhler and Jerry Jansen followed the # 97 to the checkers.

  The UMP mods boasted a 19 car turnout, although only 16 were around to take the feature green flag. After ending last week upside down, and following a lot of hard work by his crew, Steven DeLonjay took off from the front row like a bullet. Dave Withholder was shadowing Steven, as Michael Long slipped by point leader Jared Schlipman for third. On an early restart, Michael dove off turn one to his pit with apparent rear end issues in his # 18. Longs rare misfortune left Schlipman only needing a tenth place finish to lock in the title, but Jared was having none of taking it easy. He quickly challenged Wietholder for second, and the contact resulted in both cars going to the back of the pack with only three laps to go. DeLonjay held on for a flag to flag win, with Justin Reed and Ryan Meyer also gaining podium finishes. The track title locked in with his sixth place finish was the first for the Mendon youngster, and was an early birthday present for his crew chief father, Terry. Despite his early exit, Long edged DeLonjay for second in points, despite missing three points features.

   Up next was the 13 car IMCA late model finale. For the second consecutive week we had a driver making his first appearance of the season. "Retired" driver Jerry Weisenberger returned to the oval behind the wheel of a # 79 car out of the Warner racing stable. The car was the one raced earlier this year by Tony Dunker, and was entered partly as insurance for Woodworth, should he encounter troubles with his # 45DW. Starting the 30 lapper with a nine point lead and a pole position, Denny watched as outside pole sitter and point runner-up Jason Perry vaulted to a quick lead. Jason did all he could do, leading all 30 laps to take his third win of 2010, but Woodworth also did what he needed to do. He kept his ride in the middle to high groove, stayed out of trouble while dueling with third running Justin Reed, and came home in the second spot. In so doing, Denny captured his first Quincy Raceways late model title, matching one from a few years back at Memphis, Mo.

He also set a record for the longest time between QR titles, having won the modified championship in 1993. Only seven cars finished the main event, with both Darin Weisinger and Clint Kirkham experiencing rear end issues. Clint decided the failure of his # 28 was related to last week’s breakdown while leading the feature. For his part, Darin still had a smile on his face after finishing solidly inside the top ten in season points.

  The hobby stock finale got off to a scary start, as Adam Scott blew a tire, which sent him into Mike Wiley. Mike flipped his # 26 hard on the backstretch. Mike was uninjured, but his car suffered extensive damage. After two false starts, the field went green in single file formation, with Travis Booher on the point. Booher had failed to make the feature last week, and was looking good before he suddenly retired from the 20 lapper. Needing only a ninth place finish to lock in his fourth track title, Steve Carlin picked his way through the pack, collecting his second feature win of the season to go with his track championship. Bobby Anders took the runner-up slot in both the 20 lapper and the point battle. Hard luck Jake Powers crossed the stripe in third.

   The track point’s season may be over, but there is still plenty of action left in 2010. The next event will be a rare Friday night show, as the Deery Brothers IMCA late model Summer Series rolls in to town, a make up of the rained out Titan Wheel Shootout in June. Veteran Ray Guss Jr. holds a commanding lead in series points over Andy Eckrich and Jeff Aikey. the UMP mods, IMCA stock cars and hobby stocks will also be on the card, with action starting with hot laps at 7:00 PM. The late models will be raising for $3,000 to win and $300 to start, a healthy increase over the normal series purse. Then on Sunday, all four classes will be on hand for a night of special racing. It is difficult to say what will be the featured attraction. The late models will compete in their annual trophy dash finale, while the top modified points finishers will contest the second annual River City Rumble. A new event will be the King of the Hill challenge combined with the Front Row Challenge. You can look elsewhere on the QR website for details, but all cars in all classes will time trial, there will be bracket racing to determine the feature lineups, and the King of the Hill in each division can give up his front row feature starting spot, start in the back and earn a 50% bonus if he wins the feature event. The regular payout for the main events will be $1,000 for late models, $500 for mods, $400 for stock cars, and $250 for hobby stocks. And this is only the beginning of an aggressive autumn schedule, which features 360 C.I. Sprint Invaders on Sunday, September 12. Hope to see you at all of these special nights!