Pierce Grabs ALMS Win at Quincy

Sunday night the American Late Model Series topped the racing card at Quincy Raceways. It was the second visit by ALMS in 2013, although the first time the event was co sanctioned by the Corn Belt Clash and Mars series. The car count in the late model division was a bit disappointing, with 17 entries, but the racing was top notch. Youngsters Brandon Sheppard, 20, and Bobby Pierce, 16, are locked in a duel for the UMP national points lead, and with ALMS awarding national points, both drivers were in the pits at QR. Sheppard has two wins this season at QR, and he started things off by setting overall quick time at 14.006 seconds around the .29 mile oval. Pierce turned a lap of 14.095, and with the two in different heats, each started on the pole of their ten lap qualifier. Each made short work of the competition, with Pierce taking the first heat ahead of Denny Woodworth, Mark Burgtorf, and Brian Dively. Sheppard nabbed heat two over track regulars Jason Perry and brothers in law Rickey Frankel and Michael Long. When the 40 lap feature hit the track, Pierce got the jump on Sheppard, and on lap two Woodworth slipped around Sheppard for second, pulling alongside Pierce briefly. Top contender Kevin Weaver did not qualify well, and then had heat race issues, relegating him to a row eight start. By lap six, he was up five spots to tenth, and also on lap six Sheppard regained second. When Long headed to the pits on lap ten, Weaver was up to eighth. At the same time, the only caution of the race came out for Jared Schlipman. On the restart Pierce held the lead, while Weaver moved to seventh, and three laps later he eased around Burgtorf for sixth. As the race neared the mid point, Sheppard mounted a charge on the high side, pulling even with the low riding Pierce several times. On lap 20, Weaver cleared Frankel for fifth, and Sheppard bobbled briefly, giving Pierce a chance to pull away. As the front runners worked slower traffic, Weaver began to fade, finally settling in seventh. With no more stoppages, Pierce cruised to the win, lapping up through ninth place, and although he struggled to put Clint Kirkham a lap down, Sheppard could not make up much ground. The win was the first in several tries at Quincy for Pierce. Sheppard came home second followed by track regulars Perry, Woodworth, Frankel, and Burgtorf. Weaver finished seventh ahead of Ron Elbe, Kirkham, and Diveley. Steve Thorsten, Brandon Thirlby and Bill Genenbacher also completed all 40 laps.
  Keith Pratt was back on the track Sunday with a new UMP modified, but it was Shawn Deering setting quick time. Terry Gallaher was involved in a qualifying crash with another car - QR time trials three modifieds at a time - and loaded up before other drivers and crew members banded together to get his # 0 back out by feature time. Dave Weitholder outran Deering in the dash, setting the front row for the 25 lap finale, with 18 of 19 cars taking the green. Weitholder took the early lead, with nine time feature winner Steven Delonjay moving up to challenge for the lead by lap four. Weitholder held the smallest of leads before Delonjay slipped past in traffic on  lap 14. From that point it was all Delonjay as the mods performed the unlikely feat of running 25 caution free laps. Weitholder, Deering, Chris Spaulding followed, with Justin Reed taking fifth in the Mike Begley # B4.
One need not look much past the mod class to see why QR is a bit short of lated models, with Reed, Pratt, Gallaher, and Jake Griffin all settled in the mod class.
  Brandon Savage has been on fire in the IMCA stock car class, and he made it six straight weeks in the top three with his second win of 2013. Point leader Abe Huls started tenth, moving to third by lap three. He then moved to second following a caution period, and was locked in a battle for first with Terry Houston. By lap nine savage had taken the runnerup spot from Huls, and he grabbed the lead for good on lap ten. One more yellow slowed the action, but Savage was not to be denied the win. Houston and Huls battled it out for second, crossing the line in that order.
  For the second straight week, a mid race incident in the IMCA sport mod class saw point leader Tony Dunker forced to restart at the back of the pack. And for the second straight week, Tanner Klingele opened up a commanding lead. Dunker restarted ninth, in one lap he was fifth, one more lap saw him in third, and it took another lap for him to take second. And once again, a lap 16 caution wiped out Klingeles straightaway lead. On the restart, Dunker grabbed the lead and the win, giving him 26 consecutive weeks of top two finishes! Klingele held off Brad Holtmeyer for second.
  The always entertaining IMCA sport compacts were short in numbers, but still finished the night off with plenty of action. Brandon Lambert led lap one while Austen Becerra came from eighth to second. On lap three Becerra took the lead following a caution for Jeffrey Delonjay. On lap five Laine Vanzandt powered into second, and the two ran side by side all the way to the checkers, with Becerra taking the win. Kimberly Abbott held on to the point lead by edging Pat Dunker for third.
 Action continues at QR through the end of September, and Sunday Sepember first will feature both UMP late models and MOWA 410 sprint cars. Starting with the August 25 show, racing will begin one hour earlier, with hot laps at 4:45.
 This Saturday will be no racing for me, but I will be reporting on next Sundays action at QR. Hope to see you there!