Wenger Wins First at Quincy

 My three race weekend wrapped up with a Sunday night visit to Quincy Raceways. The beautiful weekend weather was again in force, and a large crowd came to witness some excellent racing action.
  Qualifying for the UMP modifieds and UMP late models got the evening going. Michael Long topped the mods with a lap of  14.637 seconds, and Fairbury,Illinois ace McKay Wenger rang up a quick time of 13.044 seconds on the .29 mile oval.
  A make up feature from two weeks prior for the IMCA sport compacts was next on the grid. Seith Woodruff led the majority of the 15 laps, with Brandon Lambert giving chase. In the closing circuits, contact occurred, with Lambert taking the lead and the win. Defending track champion Kimberly Abbott took third.
  In heat race action, rookie driver Kenny Bringer took a nasty flip in his IMCA sport mod. Fortunately, Bringer was uninjured. And with the first sport compact feature in the books, when their first heat was called, only one of the five cars came to staging. So Darin Weisinger Jr. became an odd footnote in my racing history, winning a one car heat!
  The IMCA stock cars ran the first of the regular five main events. Week one winner ( last weeks program was washed out before hot laps) Abe Huls started in row one and never looked back. Andrew Hustead and Brandon Savage took up the chase, with two cautions slowing the action on laps four and nine. In between, Savage moved to second, and soon found himself locked in a side by side duel with Hustead lap after lap. A final caution on lap eleven reset the field, and Savage set sail after Huls. Abe was up to the challenge, grabbing the win. Savage took second,, and as Hustead slow on the final circuit, Brian Hoener took third just ahead of Beau Taylor.
  Michael Long had rolled a six for the feature invert, putting himself in row three for the 25 lap finale. Spencer Havermale scored the first lap lead, but Long was already in the second spot. Following a lap three caution, Michael charged to the front on lap four. He then opened a straightaway lead over Dave Weitholder before Rick Conoyer took second on lap 17. A final caution on lap 22 brought Long back to the pack, but when the green waved, he was again in another time zone, completing a sweep of qualifying, the heat race and feature. Conoyer took runnerup honors, followed by Weitholder, Havermale, and Shawn Deering, who recovered from an early bobble.
  Wenger rolled a two for the late model invert, putting him outside of Denny Woodworth in row one. Those two crossed the line side by side at the end of lap one before Wenger edged ahead. A five car breakaway saw Rickey Frankel in his first night out in 2016, Justin Reed, and Mark Burgtorf chasing the leaders. On lap seven, Frankel moved to second as week one winner Jim Moon caught the lead pack. Frankel held the top spot as lap nine was scored, two circuits later it was Wenger out front. By lap 14, the leaders caught slower traffic, and they continued to swap the top spot. Woodworth joined the battle for the lead on lap 16. Woodworth grabbed second on lap 18, but two laps later Frankel tangled with a slower car, spun and was collected by Burgtorf, ending Frankels challenge. On the restart, Denny had the lead, but McKay pulled even once again. As the two battled side by side, Wenger edged ahead at the white flag, holding on for a thrilling win. Woodworth settled for second, followed by Reed, Clint Kirkham, and Moon in the top five. Keith Pratt, Burgtorf, Derek Fetter, Weitholder in the Moon back up car, and Chuck Mitchell completed the top ten.
  Mike Goodwin vaulted to the lead in the IMCA sport mod main event, holding on through three caution flags in the first six laps. On the next restart, a pile up sent Goodwin to the hot pit and taking out second running Austen Becerra. Back to racing, Joey Gower grabbed the lead with Brandon Lennox giving chase. Another yellow on lap ten was followed by Tony Dunker coming up to challenge Lennox for second. One circuit later, Dunker took second. Gower and Lennox ran the low line on the by now black slick track, with Dunker running a higher line. A final caution on lap 16 created a green white checker finish. At the stripe, it was Gower out front ahead of Lennox, Dunker, Nathan Bringer and Tanner Klingele.
  With the clock approaching my 9:15 self imposed curfew, I headed to the car before the regular feature for the IMCA sport compacts. What I missed was Lambert scoring his second feature win of the night, with Abbott in the second spot and Weisinger Jr. third.
  Next Sunday night, the UMP late models will not be racing at Quincy Raceways. Instead the 305 sprint cars will join the mods, sport mods, stock cars and sport compacts in action with a reduced admission price.