This and That

Saturday night, January 12, Keagan and I attended the Quincy, Il. Raceway awards ceremony. When we began our journey, it was just beginning to snow a bit, and we knew the forecast was dicey at best, We arrived at Turner Hall in Quincy just before 6:00 PM for an hour of bench racing before things officially kicked off. Talking to track officials, we learned that track announcer Doug Mealy, who was to emcee the event, traveled from his Fulton, Missouri home as far as New London, Missouri before icy conditions caused him to turn around and head back home. But we were there, so...
The biggest news of the evening was the announcement that the $2,000 to win ALMS late model show on Sunday April 21will now be tripled sanctioned along with the Cornbelt Clash series and MARS, with the purse now $3,500 to win and $400 to start the main event. This ties in nicely with the MARS, Cornbelt $4,000 to win show the night before at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. The April schedule really looks good for us, hopefully the weatherman cooperates!
 We talked to 14 year old phenom Jake Griffin, who enjoyed a solid run in the Florida Governers Cup race on the asphalt at New Smyrna, Florida in November. The # 08 crew will be racing in Georgia later this month, the heading back down for Speedweeks action on both the dirt and asphalt in February. Jake should again be a fixture at QR in 2013 in both the UMP late model and UMP modified classes.
 Rickey Frankel will be back wheeling a brand new late model, while brother Jason has sold his # 0F and is not sure of his plans for 2013 yet. Jason says he is 80% recovered from the badly broken wrist that ended his 2012 season and required surgery to insert plates and screws. Frankel brother in law Michael Long, who is busy building and selling modified chassis from his new Quincy home will again be a two class racer at QR, wheeling his own modified as well as the Jennings Racing late model. Vance Wilson is looking to field two late models this season, a UMP machine for QR, and another ride for the reopened Moberly, Missouri track, which will feature the ULMA late models, of which Vance is a past champion. Rumor has it that modified ace Jared Schlipman will join the ranks of second generation late model drivers from Quincy, however we did not see Jared to confirm the rumor.
With the elimination of the hobby stock class for 2013, the plans of the drivers from that class is a hot topic. We did learn that track champion Jake Powers is making plans to move up to the IMCA stock car class, although there are still some details to work out. Points runnerup Kimberly Abbott has retired the # 71 machine she has raced for five seasons, but the team is constructing a new IMCA Sport Compact for 2013 as she searches for that elusive championship.
After we enjoyed a tasty meal and the awards portion of the evening was beginning, we got a phone call indicated that the roads had become quite treacherous. So reluctantly we headed home, traveling about 35-40 MPH and witnessing three cars that had slid off the road.
  The Quincy Mall car show is the weekend of March 16 and 17 - we hope to begin our 2013 season that same weekend, as the UMP late models are set to compete in specials that Friday night in Belleville, Il followed by a Saturday companion event in Highland, Il, both St Louis area tracks. Weather permitting, we will be able to attend one or the other. In the meantime, we are in the process of buying a new home nine miles up the road in Canton, Mo., after 34 plus years at the same address here in LaGrange. So wish us luck on that, and make your early season plans now for 2013. Only 8 1/2 weeks and counting!