Racing Home and Away

Saturday afternoon, Darryl, Fred and I loaded up and headed for night number three of Mod Mania at Tri City Speedway in Granite City,Il. Over the past twelve years, this has become a premier event in the Midwest, and the Saturday  finale drew a whopping 74 UMP modifieds and 38 UMP late models, with the mods racing for a $5,000 top prize and the late models vying for a $3,000 check. Amazingly Saturday was not even the highest car counts, as the mods had 80 cars sign in on Friday, while the late models saw 43 teams on Thursday, with all three nights stand alone shows with increasing purses.
 Bobby Pierce was looking for a three night sweep as he paced qualifying for the lates with a lap of 15.094 seconds around the 3/8 mile, while Chad Kinder led the mods with a lap of 16.312. Following eight mod  heats, only the winners were qualified for the position dash and the 40 lap feature. A pair of C-mains and two B- mains rounded out the A- main lineup. For the late models, it was four ten lap heats and two twelve lap B-mains, plus a pair of provisionals setting the 22 car 30 lap finale.
 The mod heat winners drew for their starting spots in the dash, with Trent Young and Mike Harrison setting on row one. On the opening lap, UMP national point leader Michael Long made it three wide in turn three, and he came out on the short end with a flat tire. Young took the win followed by Harrison. 
 In the first mod B-main, Jeremy Payne spun while running in a transfer position, and Shannon Babb claimed the final spot in B-main two coming out of turn four to the checkers.
 In the first late model B. Jeff Herzog was shuffled out of a transfer spot following a caution, and in the second twelve lapper, Kolby Vandenbergh had the same problem, however he was able to rebound to claim a spot.
  As the modified main took the green, Harrison pounded the turn two wall, falling back several spots. However, the caution waved for debris, and the 24H was able to restart outside row one. Back to racing, Young paced the opening lap with Lucas Lee in second. After babying his ride for a few laps, Harrison jumped to the high line, overtaking Lee on lap six, and Young one lap later. As he stretched his lead, Long entered the top five before a lap eight caution. on the Delaware restart, Long moved to fourth, but all eyes were on Babb, who was flying through the field. By the mid point, Long began to fade, and traffic became an issue on lap 25. The caution waved again on lap 28, and Babb, now seventh after starting 21st, looped his ride, and retired to the pits. On lap 30, fifth running Nick Hoffman smacked the turn four wall., ending his charge. It was now local favorite Josh Russell on the move. He had started alongside Babb, and was flirting with the top five following a lap 36 restart.  But the race belonged to Harrison, who celebrated his birthday with his second win of the three night show, closing within three points of Long in the national title chase. Lee took the second spot, followed by Young, who is third in national points, Kenny Wallace, Brent Mullins, and Russell.
 The modifieds move on to Eldora next weekend to settle the championship, with a $20,000 top prize on the line.
  Next up was a  ten lap non qualifiers event won by Steve Mulenberg, leaving only the late model feature to go.
  The late models started straight up, with heat winners Jason Feger and Tanner English in row one, with double duty Babb and Pierce in row two. Feger paced the opening lap, but Babb was making a move when the yellow waved. Shannon elected for the outside line on the restart, but Pierce used the low line to grab the second position. Pierce stayed on the inside line, with Feger one groove higher. Pierce was ahead slightly as lap four was scored, but the front pair continued to run side by side lap after lap. Feger was out front at lap seven, and it was Pierce again on lap eight. With slower traffic coming into play on lap ten, Pierce began to build a lead. Meanwhile Feger worked the barlet there cushion, making contact with the concrete wall, damaging his rear spoiler. By the 16th circuit, Frank Heckenast Jr. was putting pressure on Feger for second. By now, the leaders were all running the low line, and after Heckenast took second, Babb found a way around Feger on lap 27. At the checkers, it was Pierce sweeping the weekend, followed by Heckenast, Babb, Feger, and Jim Shereck.
 Although the show moved right along, it was past the midnight hour when the checkers waved, and this old head hit the pillow just after 03:00!
 A bit more than twelve hours later, I was pulling into Quincy Raceways for championship night. Abe Huls had already wrapped up the IMCA stock car title, and Denny Woodworth was well on his way to the UMP late model title despite not winning a feature all season. With Michael Long absent, Dave Weitholder had his first UMP modified title in hand, and when only five IMCA sport mods checked in, Kimberly Abbott had another championship. But the IMCA sport mod title was wide open, however it would be the final race of the night before that would be decided.
  The night began with qualifying, and McKay Wenger with a now smaller cast on his broken arm, set quick time for the late models at 13.543 seconds. Weitholder paced the mods at 15.132 ticks of the clock. Following heat race action, Rudy Zaragoza jumped to a big lead, with Dean Kratzer grabbing second on lap two. Soon a three car battle for second developed , with Huls taking the spot on lap six. A lap eleven yellow saw Huls challenge for the lead before looping his ride. Back under green, Brian Hoener and Michael Larsen took up the chase, but no one could catch Zaragoza, who picked up his first win of 2016. Larsen took the runnerup honors ahead of Hoener, Kratzer and Huls.
 First heat winner Wenger sat on the pole for the late model 25 lapper. To his outside was Michigan driver Eric Spangler making his first ever visit to QR , as he looked for national points in his # 27.
McKay jumped to the lead running the low line. On lap nine, Wenger made contact with a slower car, bringing out the caution, however he kept going and was restarted out front. As the green waved, Mark Burgtorf jumped to the high line, moving to second. Meanwhile, Alan Westling in the Jim Moon backup car charged from his row four starting spot to third on lap twelve, and even edged ahead of Burgtorf on lap 14 running the low line. Lap 20 saw Burgtorf regain second and he was closing on the leader when the caution came out just as the white flag was about to be displayed. It was now a green, white checkers finish, and again it was Wenger and Westling running the low line and Burgtorf up top. As the leaders came to the checkers, Wenger moved to block the on coming Burgtorf, earning his third win of 2016 at QR, gaining enough points to move into second in the national title chase. Burgtorf crossed the line in second, with Westling in a QR career best third. Spangler came home fourth, with Clint Kirkham fifth in the Vanzandt # 21V. Woodworth wrapped up the track title in sixth ahead of Trace Westling, Terry Wilson, Trent Grotz, and Charles Vanzandt.
 Darin Weisinger Jr. led the early laps in the sport compact 15 lapper, but Brandon Lambert took over the top spot, racing to the win. But he fell short in the title chase to Abbott, who took the checkers in second ahead of Weisinger Jr. and Darin Weisinger Sr.
 Weitholder sat on the pole of the modified main, and he soon opened a commanding lead. Shaun Deering and Frankie Wellman staged an entertaining duel for second as Weitholder  soon led by a straightaway. The race ran caution free, with Wellman winning the battle for second over Deering, Gary Bentley, Joey Gower, and first time visitor Dugan Thye.
  A solid field of 17 sport mods took the green flag for 18 laps of action. Nathan Bringer held a slim point lead over second half sensation Brandon Lennox. Justin Bartz led lap one, with a caution waving on lap two. Justin Ebbing grabbed the lead following the restart, with Austen Becerra taking second on the fifth circuit. Bringer nabbed fourth on lap 8 as traffic came in to play. Lennox entered the top five on lap eleven. One circuit later, Lennox moved to fourth and Bringer fell to sixth. Following another restart, Lennox took third, but Tony Dunker was on the move on the high side. Lennox lost one spot, as Bringer was shuffled back mid pack. Again the caution flew as the white was ready to be shown, creating another green, with checkers finish. It was Dunker moving to the front and picking up the win, with Ebbing in the runnerup position. Todd Reed scored a third, Becerra ran fourth, and the fifth place run for Lennox secured the track title for Bringer.
  Promoter Ken Dobson has announced one more race night at Quincy, Sunday, October 9, running in conjunction with a Saturday night show at Jacksonville,Il Speedway. as of now, classes running are late models, modifieds, sport mods and stock cars. There is still plenty of racing to be had, and the weather forecast will help us decide where we will land this weekend.