One is Better than None

With September rolling around and racing opportunities winding down, last Friday looked particularly enticing. So I took a vacation day and decided to let the weatherman dictate where I would go. after all, there were four tracks racing within 2 1/2 hours, surely someone would get a show in... Fulton, Mo. and Davenport, Iowa pulled the plug early, so along with Darryl and Fred, I headed towards the St Louis area. None of us had been to Bell Clair Speedway in Belleville, Il., where the UMP late models were running for $1500 to win, and Tri City Speedway in Pontoon Beach,Il had a regular weekly show. As we motored through St Louis, the skies opened, and both tracks were forced to cancel within minutes of each other.
  A church function kept me away from the tracks on Saturday, but after two weeks of rain outs, Quincy Raceways roared back to life on Sunday.
  A nice total of 91 race cars filled the pit area, including 20 UMP super late models and a season high 25 UMP modifieds. Sunday was the first night for the new format which added time trial qualifying to the program, eliminating heat race passing points. The mods timed in groups of three during their hot lap session, while the late models did the same after hot lapping. There are some issues with qualifying three at once on a 1/4 mile - one late model actually got passed, but for the most part, it worked okay. Matt Dotson made the trip up from Sturgeon, Mo. and paced the mods with a fast lap of 15.512, while Micheal long wheeled the Frankel Racing # 33F to a quick time of 14.067. The fast six were set to be in a heat race by themselves, and that would set the first three rows of the feature, making it sort of a heat race/dash combo. The top qualifiers then rolled a dice on the front straightaway to determine the heat race invert. Dotson rolled a two, while Long put himself in row three with a six.
  Fourteen races set the feature lineups, and after a brief intermission, we were ready to go.
  The IMCA classes all ran draw - redraw shows, as Sunday was held as the rain date for the Boone Supernationals - kind of amazing if you think about it, and the stock cars ran feature number one. Only six cars took the green, with Terry Houston bringing out an early caution as he stopped in turn one. Gabe Harrison held the top spot until contact with Michael Larsen sent both cars to the back. Houston assumed the lead on the restart, but Abe Huls quickly moved to the front. Houston held on to second, and Larsen worked past Darrin Weisinger to come home third. It was feature win number ten for Huls.
  The IMCA sport mods were up next, and Tony Dunker took the lead right awy, cruising to win number eleven. Dunker has finished first or second in 17 of 18 features this season. Two time winner Bobby Anders went to the back after an early caution, but worked his way back to the runner up spot after Vance Wilson, piloting Jamie Fierges # J2, pulled out while running second on a lap seven caution. Anders also retired early during a lap 13 stoppage. Joe Bliven then outdueled Brandon Dale and Tanner Klingele for the second spot.
  The 20 UMP late models then took the green, with first time visitor Steve Thorsten from Milford, Il setting on the pole in his # 7T by virtue of the fast heat win. A first lap melee at the front of the pack resulted in a complete restart, and a false start came next, with Vance Wilson going pitside. As we went green, outside polesitter Mark Burgtorf shot out front in his # 15R, with 13 year old row two starter Jake Griffin in pursuit. As the field passed by the flagstand completing lap one, Griffin eased ahead, and Thorsten retired to the infield. Jake, sporting a new ride and a new look on his # 08, began to open a lead as cousin Dustin Griffin moved to third on lap six from his seventh starting spot. As we stayed green, Dustin shot by Burgtorf four laps later, and ninth starting Kevin Weaver advanced to sixth. Jake continued to lead Dustin, and on lap 13, Weaver moved to fourth with a highside move and began to challenge Burgtorf. As Jake caught slower traffic, Dustin closed the gap, and the younger Griffin seemed to get a bit tentative.
Once he made his first move through the back of the pack, he seemed to get comfortable, and with no cautions coming, he threaded the needle, picking up his second UMP super late model win of 2012 and first ever at his hometown track.
D, Griffin took second, while Burgtorf held off Weaver for third. Long used a late pass of brother in law Jason Frankel for fifth. Jason was out for only the second night in his sharp new # 0F, having debuted the ride the night before in Pevely, Mo. Jim Moon, track points leader Jason Perry, Clint Kirkham, and Keith Pratt completed the top ten.
  The hobby stocks were up next, and things started slowly as Jeremy Buss broke a front end on lap one. Jeff delonjay then led lap one, before second half hotshoe Brian Hoener took over on lap two. Hoener held serve throughout the 20 lap event, with point leader Jake Powers and number two points man Brandon Symmonds filling the next two spots. Delonjay came  home in fourth.
   The UMP modifieds were up next, and with all 25 cars taking the green flag, well...  Dotson had led the fast heat/dash for the first eight laps before Dave Weitholder took the spot. Dave then spun on the final lap, was hit by Dotson,  and Robbie Reed drove by for the win and the feature pole. As it turned out, that was the move of the night, as Robbie would not give up the spot throughout the caution plagued feature. Steven Delonjay started in row four, moving to fourth on lap five, the to second following a lap 16 restart. Weitholder followed Steven through, grabbing third on the same restart, but Dave again lost the handle two laps later. Mercifully, the time limit had expired, with the race called complete seven laps short of the scheduled 25. Dotson took third behind Reed and Delonjay, and Jake Griffin completed an excellent night by claiming fourth.
  The sport compacts finished the night, running ten green flag laps before the yellow waved, setting up a two lap shootout. With the draw format, Austen Becerra started up front and powered to his seventh feature win in the second half of the season. Brandon Lambert challenged Becerra, but settled for second, while Kimberly Abbott, back from her first year of competition in Boone, took third. Casey Lambert rounded out the top four.
 The final checkers waved around 9:30.
  Two more race nights are scheduled at QR, with season championships next Sunday along with Hall of Fame inductions, and the season will conclude with a King of the Hill show on September 23.