0 for the Weekend

The weatherman was the big winner this weekend as far as my racing plans went. Friday night I had plans to head to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa for night one of the Fall Extravaganza. However, rains on Thursday night followed by a gloomy rainy day on Friday resulted in the two day show being pushed to Saturday and Sunday. I was already committed to an overnight outing on Saturday in southern Missouri. Although we drove in rain well into Saturday afternoon, the weather to the north was good enough for the show in Donnellson to go on. Sunday I arrived back home in plenty of time to head to Quincy,Illinois Raceways for racing in five divisions, including the crate late models. When I got to the track, the grader was broke down, and the track crew spent the next couple of hours on repairs. Meanwhile track packing continued until about 7:15, when word came down that the track was a lost cause, and the nights events would be cancelled. There had simply been too much rain in the area over the previous three days. By this time, we decided that it would be futile to head for Donnellson, as the hour trip would likely put us in the middle of feature racing given their early start time. So it was back home to watch playoff baseball. With the car count and cheering sections being split between tracks, both were a bit short at Quincy. There were a couple of surprise entries in the late model division, however, with Tegan Evans making the long pull down from Clinton, Iowa, while Jeff Ray made his first visit to Quincy. Jeff typically can be seen racing around central Illinois. Additionally, Denny Woodworth has purchased the car driven previosly by Trent Grotz, and it now sports a #B1, with veteran driver Vance Wilson behind the wheel. The crate lates have been added to the card next Sunday at Quincy along with the D II midgets, modifieds, sport mods, stock cars, and sport compacts. The track is also scheduled to run on Sunday, October 22 before calling it a season. Up next for me is night one of the three night Darkside Fall Bash at Cedar County Raceway in Tipton, Iowa this Thursday, October 12. This night will feature topless late models and IMCA stock cars both racing for a $1,500 top prize. Also in action will be modifieds, sport mods, 4 stocks and my first 2 man cruiser race in several seasons. Friday night there are a couple options on the table, including UMP super late models and MOWA sprint cars in Jacksonville,Illinois, and UMP late models and modifieds in support of a $3,000 to win B-modified special at Tri City Speedway in Pontoon Beach,Il. So far, the weather looks good for any of these excellent choices. The forecast is not good so far for Sunday, but hopefully that will change as the week progresses. The 2017 season is winding down quickly, so try and support the tracks that are still giving us our racing fix!