With the continuation of the cranky spring weather, many tracks postponed or canceled their events this weekend. Yes, that is the same sentence that opened last weeks' blog, and it is STILL TRUE. But once again there were some brave or lucky souls that found a way to put on a show on Saturday night. With a couple of options available, we decided to make the two and a half hour jaunt to the Peoria Speedway for the UMP late model Garry Swibold Memorial. $5,098 - 98 being Cole Swibolds' car number - was the advertised winners purse. But donations began to pour in, including $1,300 in lap money, $598 for quick time, and other bonuses for things like longest tow, first car to not make the A main, and more. With all this, a large and talented field of drivers was expected to compete for a spot in the fifty lap main event. A mods, B mods, and Hornets would fill out the card at the quarter mile facility.
Thirty one late models paced a field of ninety plus race teams. For unknown reasons, the action was about forty five minutes late getting started, and with both modified classes as well as the late models taking two lap time trials, it was about 7:50 before the first heat race hit the track.
Bob Gardner picked up the time trial bonus with a lap of 12.317 seconds around the quarter mile facility. And with straight up starts, all four heats were won from the front row, as Gardner, Justin Reed, Mike Chasteen Jr., and Myles Moos took the checkers. Reed, back racing his familiar #1ST family ride, also grabbed the $750 to win cash dash from the pole position. With the top four from each heat qualified for the finale, the fifth place car from each heat claimed the final four feature starting spots in the B main, with Winona, Minnesota driver Jake Timm taking the win.
Hornets were first in the feature order, with Jeremy Hancock advancing from row two to nab the fifteen lap victory followed by Kyle Dearing, Rick Deford, Nick Johnson, and Jimmy Dutlinger.
The late models then came to the track with the pace car and Swibold in his #98 leading the four wide parade lap as a fireworks display lit the sky on what turned out to be a very pleasant evening, with temps hovering in the seventies. Unfortunately, Swibold failed to qualify for the main event, and somewhat surprisingly was left off the starting grid. Reed and Gardner led the twenty car field to green, however the yellow flew quickly, as a multi car scrum in turn two stopped the action. With the no fault rule in play, the field was reset to the original lineup, and racing resumed. Reed jumped out to the early lead, gradually pulling away from Gardner in second. He had a several car length advantage as he caught the back of the pack on lap twelve. Three circuits later, the caution came for the second time, and back to racing Gardner stayed glued to his bumper for the next several laps. As the halfway flag was displayed, however, Justin was once again stretching his lead, catching slower traffic on the thirty sixth trip around. As he worked the lapped cars, Gardner and Moos quickly closed in. With the laps quickly winding down, Gardner tried his luck on the high side as he and Reed exited turn two on lap forty six. He was able to pull alongside, but the track appeared to suck him into the turn three wall, ending a solid run for the #4G. While Gardner was being towed to his pit, the now second place Moos suddenly exited the track, his charge also over. It was now Mike Spatola, track regular Todd Bennett, Ohio traveler Rusty Schlenk, and Ryan Unzicker lining up Delaware style behind Reed. The action was stopped one lap later as Dewayne Kiefer spun in turn three, and yet one more caution came before another lap could be scored. Through it all, Reed kept his composure, and although Bennett made a late run at the top spot, it was the #1ST scored the leader for all fifty laps. For his efforts, an excited Reed collected not only the $5,098 check, but also all $1,300 in lap money to go along with his dash cash. His late run saw Bennett take the runner up spot, followed by Schlenk, Spatola, and Unzicker in the top five. Jason Feger ran sixth, chased by Rich Bell, hard charger Timm, who advanced from row nine, fifteenth starting Jake Little, and Kevin Weaver, who was shuffled back on the late restarts.
Both modified features remained, but it was now about 10:30, and we three all had to be up early, so we headed for the parking lot. Congratulations to Daniel Braymeier for his B mod win, and to Dave Weitholder, who followed up a runner up finish Friday in Lincoln, Illinois with the $1,000 victory in Peoria.
Kudos to the track workers at Peoria Speedway, who crafted a quality racing surface which stayed tacky and reasonably smooth all night considering the amount of rain we have had and the many laps laid down on Saturday.
Tonight, we are hoping to kick off the Jimmy Lieurance era at the newly christened Adams County, Illinois Speedway ( formerly Quincy Raceways.) Start times have been moved back one hour, likely to allow for some extra drying. Hot laps are set for 5:15 with five classes in action. Maybe we will see you there!
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