Gary Webb for many years has been and continues to be a force in late model racing in the midwest. And no where has his dominance been more on display than at the Rock Island county fairgrounds in East Moline, Illinois. Now racing into his seventies, Webb has garnered more than a dozen track titles at his "home track" alone, with many of his five hundred plus victories recorded on the tight quarter mile, the most recent coming one week ago. So it seemed only right that we would make the nearly three hour journey for Gary Webb Tribute Night, a chance to honor the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer. The highlight of the six division program would be a fifty six lap IMCA late model main event, the number reflective of his long time car number, which for the last several years has been prefaced with a large "W."
Ninety eight cars signed in, including twenty three late models, in front of a solid Sunday night crowd. Joe Zrostlik, Justin Kay, and Matt Ryan picked up late model heat race wins. Following all preliminary events, the track did their Hall of Fame inductions during an extended intermission.
Back to racing, the first feature was a twelve lapper for the thirteen Nostalgic Auto Racing Club entries. They had a difficult time getting laps in before finally settling in, with Ben Hamburg edging Ray Guss Jr. by about a half car length at the checkers.
The late model headliner ran next, with all but David Norton making the call. The drivers exited their cars for a group photo op and driver introductions before firing off. With Kay redrawing the pole position, he immediately became the favorite to collect the $2,000 top prize. True to form, he jumped to the early lead, and by the time lap number two was scored, he had opened a sizable advantage over fourth starting track champion Andy Nezworski. Kay was ready to tackle slower traffic when the first yellow flag came with five laps in the books for a stopped Jacob Waterman. Webb ducked to the pits for service at this time, then tagged the tail for the restart. Following the Delaware style realignment, Nezworski now had his hands full with B J Jackson, who was driving another of Webbs' #W56 machines. A multi car mix up on lap nine brought a second caution period, then the yellow came out a final time one lap later. This incident proved to be the end of the night for Webb, who retired to the pits with a seventeenth place finish. It was another thirteen laps before Kay found himself back in lapped traffic, but the veteran had little trouble moving through the slower cars. As the laps wound down, Brian Harris gave up a top five run as he ducked quickly to the infield, and just six circuits from the checkers, third running Jackson also saw his strong run come to an end. At the checkers, it was Kay lapping all the way to fifth position in his flag to flag victory. Nezworski trailed in second, with Fred Remley, Ryan, and Waterman also on the lead lap. Zrostlik came home sixth, leading Shawn Mulvany, Gage Neal, Darrel Defrance, and Bobby Hansen to complete the top ten.
At this point we decided to call it a night. Congratulations to Troy Cordes ( IMCA modifieds,) Tony Olson ( IMCA sport mods,) Jeffrey Delonjay ( sport compacts,) and Mike Zemo Jr. ( IMCA mod lites) on their feature wins.
There are several good options for racing in the area this coming weekend. As of now, we have our eye on the opening night of the three night SLMR Iowa mini series, Thursday night at the Dubuque Speedway. After that, ? What ever your choice, grab your jacket, and lets go racing!
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