Season Championship Night at Quincy

Although the 2014 season is far from over, Quincy Raceways staged their season championship night on Sunday, wrapping up track titles in the five weekly divisions. Ironically, one of the larger UMP late models fields of the season was on hand to compete for the $1200 top prize, with 17 cars coming through the pit gate. Ryan Unzicker sets second in UMP national points, and he made his second visit to the track in 2014, starting the night off with the quickest qualifying lap of 13.706 seconds. Heat race wins went to Jason Perry and national point leader Bobby Pierce, and the 30 lap feature lineup was set to go straight up, with no dice roll invert for the night. There was plenty of local drama as well, with 14 time track champion Mark Burgtorf coming into the night with a one point lead over defending champion Denny Woodworth. Denny tried to improve his chances by bringing along his nback up car with Keith Pratt behind the wheel just in case he had trouble with his ride. When Denny crossed the line second to Pierce in his heat and Mark dropped from the third starting spot in heat one to a fifth place finish, it looked like the late model lawyer had the advantage. When the green waved, Pierce, who had two QR wins already under his belt shot to the lead. As Bobby began to build a lead, Burgtorf looked like he found something, and he needed only three laps to come from his row five starting slot to drive past the third running Woodworth. The first caution came on lap seven as McKay Wenger , in his first visit of 2014 had a problem in turn four. Woodworth was back to seventh on the restart and Burgtorf in fourth. On lap 11 Denny gained one spot, and at the crossed flags he advanced to fifth. But three laps later Mark eased ahead of Perry for third. On lpa 21, Pierce had a big lead, but he suddenly went over the top of turn one. He recovered out of turn two to hold the lead, but Unzicker was now closing fast. Lap 23 saw last weeks winner, Gordy Gundaker go off the backstretch to bring out the caution, ending his night while running sixth. On lap 24 Pierce again flew off the track, this time in turn three, and he headed for the trailer, apparently out of brakes, turning the lead over to the second running Burgtorf. But it was Unzicker on top as lap 25 was scored, and Ryan held on for his second win in two tries this season at QR. As he mentioned in his post race interview, his other win also came when Pierce broke while leading back in May. Burgtorf came home second to secure his 15th track title, but first in the UMP years. Perry held off Woodworth for third, with Justin Reed and Wenger completing the top six.
 There was an equal amount of drama in the UMP modified division, as defending champion Steven Delonjay came into the night on a run of bad luck that saw his lead over Michael Long dwindle to two points. With all eyes on these two, Jared Schlipman went out and set fast time, adding a heat race win to his resume as well. Long started outside row one with Delonjay right behind. Robbie Reed jumped to the lead at the green followed by Long and Schlipman. Jared blasted to second on lap two, Long and Delonjay followed. On lap four, Schlipman passed Reed, and the caution waved one lap later. The restart had Schlipman, Long, and Delonjay out front. On lap nine Delonjay used the low line to overtake Michael for second, and he continued to hug the low line while Long pounded the cushion. As Schlipman clicked off the laps out front, Long eased ahead of Delonjay by the slightest of margins on lap 18. Just as it looked as though Micheal would take the runnerup spot and the title, the caution waved on lap 21. Long elected the inside groove on the Delaware restart, presumably to keep Steven from his preferred low line, but Delonjay won the battle to turn one, then went back to the bottom. Long again went to the cushion, but with his tires now cool, he could not catch the # 35. At the checkers it was Schlipman completing the sweep, with Delonjay cementing his fourth straight title in second. Long, who may have regretted missing one points night, took third ahead of Reed and Shawn Deering.
  There was little intrigue in the IMCA stock car title chase, and when point leader Abe Huls grabbed the race lead from Nathan Hays on lap two, the battle was for second. The only thing to slow Abe down as a lap 11 yellow that bunched the field, but back to racing he opened a commanding lead. Jake Powers powered his way around Brandon Savage and Jerry Jansen to take second on lap 13, and two laps later Savage moved to third. At the stripe, it was Huls,Powers,Savage,Jansen, and first time visitor William Dahl.
  Like Huls, Tony Dunker had another track title in hand in the IMCA sport mod division going into the 18 lap finale. Six cautions in the first five laps marred the action, with Patrick Phillips holding the early lead, while Dunker was caught up in two of the mishaps. Bobby Anders was shadowing Phillips, while Brad Holtmeyer recovered from a trip to the hot pit to pound the cushion and come back into the top five. With two circuits left, Anders spun in turn rwo as he tried to overtake Phillips. Holtmeyers comeback ended at the same time. On the restart, it was now Joey Gower in second, but Phillips held on to put his # 65 in victory lane for the first time. Brandon Dale also recovered from an early  trip to the tail to finish third , meaning the heat winners finished top three in the feature. Adam Birck and Tanner Klingele rounded out the top five, with Dunker an uncharacteristic seventh at the finish.
 Austen Beccerra was also unable to back up his track title with a feature win on championship night  - Huls was the only one - as he ran second to Kimberly Abbott. Kim has been the dominant driver the last month, but still finished a distant second in the points chase. Brandon Lambert, Austin McClean, and Spencer Coats turned in top five runs.
 Next up at Quincy is a visit by the MOWA sprint cars on Sunday the 21st, joined by the King of the Bullring sport mod shootout paying a whopping $1253.00 to win. For details and support classes, visit the Quincy Raceways website.
 We have a couple of interesting possibilities for the coming weekend, and at this point the weatherman may be our deciding factor. Until next time...