Eight Features Fill the Card at Quincy Raceways

Last Sunday family matters took me out of town, my first missed night at Quincy Raceways this season. As it turned out, I did not even miss an entire show, as rain washed out the final nine laps of the hobby stock main event as well as the 12 lap IMCA sport compact finale. So the night began with the nine remaining hobby stocks lined up for the final nine laps. Tanner Klingele led the Delaware style restart, andheld the lead until turn four of the final lap, when Brian Hoener gathered momentum on the high side and edged Klingele at the stripe. The top two in points, Jake Powers and Brandon Symmonds trailed the top two.
  Next up was the 4 cylinder make up, with Eleven returning starters. The fast track created some carnage, and a hard crash in turn two took out our two lady racers, as Kimberly Abbott got sideways and was hit hard by Kelsey Paisley. When things finally settled down,  Brandon Lambert turned in a dominant performance for the win over Pat Dunker, Austin Becerra and points leader Seth Woodruff.  As the regular race program began, the Abbott crew, assisted by uncle Jeff Waterman tried to make repairs on the # 71, as Kim was a close second in the points chase. When it became obvious that the damage was too severe, Pat Dunker turned over his # 5 to Kimberly for the rest of the night. Kudos to " Skippy. "
  The stock cars started out the regular show, and Beau Taylor, who Keagan accompanied on Saturday night for his first ever visit to Bloomfield Speedway, picked up the heat race win. Unforunately, Beaus' feature run ended early. The 15 lapper belonged to Michael Larsen who  survived a couple early cautions, and dominated the field for his first feature win of the season. Abe Huls suffered a flat in the heat, then worked his way through the feature pack to nose out Gabe Harrison at the checkers for second. Jerry Jansen ran fourth.
  There were a couple new cars in the IMCA sport mod class, but the end result stayed the same. After a false start, Charles VanZandt led lap one, Bobby Anders took over on lap two, but by lap five, it was Tony Dunker out front. The ten car field ran caution free until the final lap. With Dunker coming through turns three and four, a slower car spun in turn four. Incredibly, the yellow came out instead of the checkers, and the field was reset for a green, white, checkers finish. I kept thinking how unhappy I would be if I were in Dunkers spot, but he simply pulled away to pick up his eleventh win in 16 nights. Anders took runner up honors, while Tanner Klingele edged past Joe Bliven for third.
   The UMP late model field was 17 strong, with Michigan driver Brandon Thirlby making his first visit of 2012, and national points runner up Kevin Weaver back for the second time. The first heat had been a true battle, with Mark Burgtorf taking the win, while seventh starting Weaver and ninth starting Michael Long charging side by side through the pack to finish third and fourth behind Kevin Tomlinson. With the # 56J down for a bit, Long has taken over the driving chores of the # 33F car normally driven by his brother in law, Rickey Frankel. Michael was coming off a feature win Saturday at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo. Thirlby nabbed the second heat win, and started in the front row with Long in the dash, as Michael gained enough passing points in his heat to gain the dash pole. Long then charged to the six lap win, with Burgtorf in second. With the track slicked up by feature time, it seemed the race to turn one might decide the race, and Long won that battle. However, Burgtorf took over on lap two, and quickly opened a straightaway lead. By lap twelve he was in lapped traffic, but no one is better in traffic at QR than Burgtorf. On lap 14, one lap short of the halfway point, fourth starting Weaver took over the second spot. Although he tried to run down the
# 15R, the caution flag never waved, and Burgtorf remained in control. Weaver, who took the checkers in his other visit to Quincy, held second ahead of Long. Justin Reed advanced from row four to take fourth late from Clint Kirkham. Robby Warner led the second five ahead of Matt Bailey and point leader Jason Perry. Dustin Griffin broke a fifth arm in the first heat, started 16th and finished ninth, the final car on the lead lap.
  The UMP modifieds broke the streak of quick main events. All but one of the 18 cars signed in started the 25 lapper, which surely came close to the time limit.  The open wheelers just could not seem to get ahold of the slick surface. Several newcomers from the St Louis area made for some interesting battles, as Rob and Joe Pendergrass and Mark Enk ventured north. QR is a tough track to tame if you have never been there, and the battle up front was dominated by familiar faces. Jared Schlipman led the first nine circuits, with points leader Steven Delonjay taking over after one of the many restarts. A lap 19 restart helped Dave Weitholder get around Schlipman for second, and another caution two laps later saw Jake Griffin grab the third spot. Shawn Deering found himself at the tail after the lap nine mixup, but took advantage of the cautions to charge back to fifth.
  In the regular hobby stock 15 lapper, Klingele took off from the pole, and this time was not to be denied. The racing was intense behind him, with Hoener, Symmonds, and Powers pushing hard. However, it was Nathan Hayes who found the fast line, and moved up to third. Symmonds bobbled late, dropping to sixth, but on the final lap, Powers and Jeff Delonjay got together in turn one. Powers was scored ninth, and Delonjay was penalized to tenth. Symmonds benefitted with a fourth place finish.
  The survivors of the 14 car sport compact field took the green falg in the evenings finale. A lap one collision sent second half sensation Austin Becerra to the tail. bucky Gallaher led the first two circuits before Josh Barnes took over. the two dueled until  a lap eleven caution set up a green, white checkers finish. On the restart, Becerra powered to third, then charged past Barnes out of turn four at the
checkers for the win. Barnes held second, while Tony Becerra picked up third in his first visit to the track. Abbott moved to fourth late in the borrowed car, ahead of point leader Woodruff.
 Despite the 21 race card, the final checkers waved just before 10:00. And much to my delight, the start time has been moved up one hour starting next week until seasons end. Hot laps begin at 4:45, and racing at 5:30. Also, the family of  PhotoBilly is scheduled to be on hand with his QR photos this Sunday.