If It's September,This Must Be La Salle

 
Sunday afternoon, I rode shotgun with fellow blogger Jeff Broeg and super fan Gary Lee as we made our second annual trip to what was the eighth annual Gary Waite Jr. Memorial at the 1/4 mile La Salle,Il. Speedway. A large gathering of like minded folks turned out on a beautiful late afternoon to witness IRA/Mowa 410 sprint cars and UMP super late models vying for a $6,000 and $5,000 big check respectively. The 2018 addition also included the Wisconsin Wingless sprint cars.
  Jeff has the details on the "Backstretch" at Positively Racing, I will just add a few thoughts on the full night of racing.
  My home base in northeast Missouri puts me solidly in the middle of several different sanctioning bodies for both late models and sprints and while I do not claim a favorite, the contrasts are sometimes striking. This weekend magnified this for me, as Friday night the IMCA program at Davenport Speedway hosted 138 cars in four classes with the program complete in just over four hours. Sunday night the three classes at La Salle saw 103 teams sign in to a program coming in just shy of six hours. While two classes of sprint cars which needed to be push started obviously added time, the overriding factor was time trial qualifying used on the east side of the Mighty Mississippi. One at a time time trials of two laps for the 35 IRA sprints followed by 37 UMP late models qualifying two cars at a time for two laps resulted in heat race action coming about 1 1/2 hours after the advertised start time for hot laps. I am not looking to debate the pros and cons of qualifying, straight up starts
( late models), qualifying with partial inverts ( sprints), versus draw for starting spots with passing points or redraws, but the older I get, the more I can appreciate less seat time in the bleachers. Rapidly falling temperatures along with being four hours from home may have clouded my judgement a bit, as well.
 That being said, there was plenty of action around the smooth, well lit oval. Unfortunately, the track was not at its raciest as hot laps and qualifying " used up " the track somewhat, leaving a narrow and treacherous cushion inches from the concrete wall.
  The wingless cars spent most of their twenty lap main event - five laps less than our announcer had advertised - playing follow the leader around the bottom of the track. Alan Hafford led flag to flag, trailed all the way by Craig Compton, with the only caution of the race coming at an opportune time on lap 13, just as the leader caught slower traffic.
  The thirty lap sprint main was the highlight of the night, both as the headliner class and in terms of racing. The open wheel warriors used the entire track, with the top line the preferred way around, Pole sitter Parker Price-Miller shot to the lead as the green waved, with teammate Gio Scelzi advancing quickly from row three to the runner up slot, the duo in nearly identical #71 machines. Fast qualifier Kerry Madsen was caught up in an early accident, ending his run as he was headed to the front, the first of only two times the action was interrupted. No doubt there were folks in the crowd who paid their money to witness Tony Stewart in his #14 put on a show. While the NASCAR superstar made his way to third, he could not run down the front pair, but held off Scotty Thiel and Brandon Wimmer in the top five spots.
   For this late model fan, the best was saved for last, although the forty lap feature was mostly settled by the first turn. Fresh off a $5,000 win Saturday at Peoria Speedway, Brian Shirley set quick time at 14.299 seconds, putting him on the pole of heat number one, which he led flag to flag, earning the pole for the money race. " Squirrel " bested heat two winner, outside row one starter Chris Simpson into turn one, then negotiated slower traffic masterfully in a flag to flag win. But before I decide to trump the advantages of draw - redraw, it was basically the same scenario Friday for Andy Nezworski, who drew the front row for his heat, picked up the win, drew the pole for the feature and led from start to finish. So...
  Only a lap two caution for a Paul Parker spin slowed the event, with Simpson coming home second. Third starting Billy Drake was shuffled back on the start, but moved to third on lap five, holding the position until the checkers, Allan Weisser gained six spots to take fourth ahead of Jason Feger. Rich Bell, Shannon Babb, Kevin Weaver, Scott Schmitt, and Mike Spatola completed the top ten.
  There will be no racing for me this weekend, as grandson Keagan, my racing companion since about age seven, will tie the knot with his lovely fiancee Megan! Talk about feeling old...
  There are lots of excellent choices to feed your racing fix this weekend, so make plans and head to the track!