Perhaps the nicest weather weekend of the racing season to date wrapped up on Sunday night for me with a road trip to the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway on Sunday night. Along with it being the season opener at Dubuque, the Deery Brothers Late Model series was also making an appearance at the track. The Deery cars and drivers were looked a little on the tired side, after racing on both Friday and Saturday, and were getting ready to complete a grueling weekend of competition caused by previous rain outs along the way which caused rescheduled events.
Along with the Late Models, IMCA sanctioned Modifieds and Sport Mods were in action as well as the Outlaw Four Cylinder division. The car count was low, bordering on shockingly low for the Late Models. After drawing low to mid thirties at every venue so far this year, only twenty one Late Models signed in to race on Sunday at a track where the surface was in excellent condition and the cars would not be taking the beating that they have so far at a number of Spring induced bumpy race tracks.
There was news that defending Deery Brothers champion Tyler Breuning had been disqualified after the race on Saturday night in Independence and that a number of other drivers had passed on the Sunday show because they had the same issue with their cars that Breuning had been disqualified for. I was not able to confirm that with anyone associated with the Deery Series so that belief could have been a load of "horse feathers" but I must admit it did seem strange to have such a poor turnout at the track that normally carries a strong Late Model car count. I know that it was the last of three straight nights of racing and it was a Sunday but it still struck a note as being peculiar that less than two dozen cars were on hand. However, it should be noted that nine of the top ten in points and eleven of the top twelve in points were in attendance.
And by the way, has anyone ever heard of a Late Model being disqualified for having an illegal rear axle housing before? I heard of lots of things that could get a Late Model DQ''d before but never that.
I know better than to try and match a race report filed by "The Boss" here with his computer mind, so I'll leave Mr. Broeg to give you the blow by blow results and I'll instead concentrate on a few of the things I saw and heard during the night. I should add that while Jeff beat me to the punch on his report, I'll bet he didn't have a five hour ride home followed by work a very brief number of hours later!
It is always a pleasure to visit Dubuque for a number of reasons. Large among those is the cast of characters that help run the show there. For many years, people like Jerry Mackey, Kevin Feller and Doug Haack have been mainstays there and the natural order of things would be thrown out of wack is someone from that trio was not there.
There was much talk in the pits before the races that centered on the huge Modified show upcoming at Farley in just a few weeks. Many are still mind boggled by the fifty grand to win top prize as well as the twenty G's to win the Sport Mods. It was reported that about one hundred and twenty Mods had registered to this point with likely more yet to follow. At least a couple of gigantic names from the world of Late Model racing are expected to be on hand and many people have been speculating, likely correctly I might add, on just who they might be. Expect an announcement soon that confirms this as track management would like to take advantage of their presence to help sell more tickets. The latest Late Model driver to add a Modified to their arsenal was Joel Callahan who was racing it on Sunday.
Also this week, I heard some interesting news for those people that travel to Arizona for their January Late Model and Modified series or have considered going. 2018 might be the year to do that as I heard that come next year, immediately following the races at Queen Creek, a well known track owner from the Southwest will be putting on a four race series for Late Models and Modifieds at the track in Tucson where the series had prospered in recent years. If this comes to fruition, it could be a further incentive for race teams to head to the Southwest in January.
Former promoter Keith Simmons was on hand to handle at least some of the track prep for Sunday's show. It seemed apparent that with a lot of the pressure of being a promoter lifted from his shoulders, Simmons was a much more relaxed and approachable figure on Sunday. He seemed to be spending a considerable amount of time trading stories with many of the drivers and friendships that didn't have time to rekindle when he was far too busy were renewed on Sunday. I might add there were some dandy stories flying around too.
Speaking of the track, it proved to be in dandy shape for the opener on Sunday and for a number of the drivers that had been riding a bucking bronco at the tracks so far, it was far earlier to keep the tires on the ground on Sunday. The groove was wide with plenty of lanes of racing available and it reminded of "days of old" at the Dubuque track. There was a considerable amount of dust flying but most would say it was more than a fair trade off.
Pioneer Rest Area was the sponsor of the evening's activities and located as handy as they are to the track and seeming to offer some of the cheapest gas prices in the area, I always make a point of stopping there on my way to the track, just as I did Sunday.
Still waiting for the promised new scoreboard to be set up, but soon they say, this year the 50/50 as sponsored by the Fairboard will be for new bleacher seating at the track.
I finally caught up with Gary Webb to see him actually race his Late Model. I was ready to castigate him after I went to East Moline last Sunday to see him and he wasn't racing after having run the opener. I backed off though when I found out that while his friends were racing at East Moline last Sunday, Webb was in the hospital and on oxygen! It seems that while he was on the road hauling trailers, he started to feel ill and made it back home in time to go directly to the emergency room where he was discovered to have a blood clot on his lung. Gary said he got off lucky as he was a prime candidate for a heart attack with the symptoms he had, but he escaped that. Now on meds for it, he must remember to get out of his vehicle and get some exercise while on his long trips.
He ran well in his heat and made the Casey's redraw and his welcome by the crowd was the loudest of the night. It is incredible that he is now in his forty sixth year of racing and seemingly enjoys it just as much as ever, particularly when he is running good. He was fast at the start of the feature but the car went away as the laps ran off. He still needs to do some "dialing" on his Kryptonite chassis.
Kay was the driver to beat in the Late Model feature but he had to do some work to win. Young drivers Cayden Carter and Jake Neal both show much promise but Kay is able to use the whole track at Dubuque like no other driver. This is particularly handy when running in traffic and that seemed to be the big difference Sunday.
The Modifieds had a good run on Sunday and Kenny Kostenbader was strong on the high side and never once faltered as he held off a strong challenge from Bryce Garnhart. The Sport Mods seemed on the cusp of a good feature race several times, but each time it looked like a race might break out, the yellow flew for another spin. It was frustrating for everyone and caused a few laps to be eaten out of the race by the scoreboard. The Four Cylinder feature proved to be a good time to go for popcorn and hit the "head" as they started out with only three and the eventual second place finisher was a lap and two cylinders down to the winner!
It was comforting to see that even with the change of promoters the sense of urgency to keep the show moving, something particularly vital to successful Sunday night racing, hadn't been lost in the transition and I was in my car and heading out the gate by 9:30 pm. It was a good job by everyone and I hope to be back later this year.
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