After two years of sitting idle the Adams County Speedway, formerly known as the Quincy Raceway for ,many years, reopened on Sunday night, April 24th after their first attempt to open one week earlier was rained out. Weather would again be a factor on this night but while some thought they might cancel once again, they decided that for a variety of reasons they needed to get the season started so they proceeded onward and were rewarded with a successful and interesting opening night of racing.
Adjustments had to be made for the opener. The starting time was set back one hour from the original plan which gave them more time to get track drying and prep done was well as do some packing in the parking lots and pit areas. As far as I know, only the wreckers in the infield managed to get stuck during the night but some racers parked out in the spectator parking lots to be on the same side. The regular pit gate was a sea of mud and couldn't be used with that area due to get more fill and reworking this coming week so for the opener they opened up a new gate on the East end of the facility and the sign in and draw was done using temporary facilities. In the end it all worked out and racing would commence with the first green flag at just about 6 pm.
Jimmy Lieurance is the new promoter at Adams County, having previously run things at Moberly last year. He has a one year lease on the track from owner Paul Holtschlaug with the option to purchase said track. He has Blake Dotson as his Race Director. Interestingly, Dotson told me that his real job is managing the farm owned by Late Model driver Todd Frank. On this night, Dotson was doing just about every job under the sun under his broad work description.
Getting a track ready for opening night is a tough enough preposition, much less a track that hasn't been raced on for an extended period of time. Throw in the uncertainty of some rain in the morning on top of already wet conditions and it just magnifies the problems. The track started out extremely dusty during practice but some water cured much of that and for most of the night the track stayed pretty smooth too. It did slick up from top to bottom, making it tricky and probably leading to the biggest controversy of the night during the Modified feature, but we'll get to that later. The track has been widened out just a little bit, the banking cut down some and the flat spots partway out in the corners filled in so that the banking is more progressive.
Five classes were in racing action on Sunday night including three under UMP sanctioning which would include Mods, Crate Late Models and Sport Compacts. The Sport Mods were under IMCA sanction and the Street Stock class was a combination class of area Streets plus Stock Cars from various sanctions too.
Normally the Mods would qualify but on this night, for whatever reason, they did not. However, all classes except for the Sport Mods under IMCA rules where they redraw, started the features straight up how they finished their heats.
Once they got racing, the heat races moved through smoothly and after a pause for the cause, it was time for the five main events. We would see some dominating runs, a late race pass for a win and the Modified controversy plus one wild crash that was a scary one.
Street Stocks would be first and eight of the ten on hand would run the main. Robert Cottom would start on the pole and he would lead all fifteen laps for the win. Two yellows would slow the action but following each one he would pull away, eventually getting the win over Jake Powers and Leremy Jackson.
Twenty five Four Cylinder cars would take the green in the class that had the most entrants. With some extra sponsorship they would be racing for $275 to win, big money for them. They took off into the first corner and with the top cars in this class all set up to carry their left rear tire in the turns, the leaders looked like a bunch of dogs lifting their legs when they found a fire hydrant!
Michael Grossman was very fast and he took the early lead. Unfortunately for him however, the motor didn't last too long and he blew up in a big way while in the top spot and was done.Jeffery Delonjay would inherit the lead and he would lead the last nine laps of the race to take the win. It was quite wild as the front runners weaved through the heavy traffic. Jimmy Dutlinger and Cyle Hawkins got into a hammering battle for second with they laying the bumper on each other rather briskly as Dutlinger held on for second.
There seems to be one race every night that proves to be a "stinker" and on this night it was the Sport Mod feature. Eighteen cars managed to produce ten yellow flags that included more spins that the County Fair Tilt-A-Whirl.
Shane Paris would lead all laps and had to have been wondering just what was going on behind him as the yellow kept flying and flying and flying. Dakota Girard would eventually move into second and he would make a race of it, sticking his nose under Paris on several occasions but not able to make the winning move.
The last yellow was by far the most violent and scary as Josh Holtman rode the guard rail down the back chute before flipping and pivoting so that in the air the roof of the car was facing traffic. Lots of cars and no where to go and he got hailed in what appeared to be either the driver's door or the roof while he was in the air. Thankfully he was uninjured but it was the kind of freaky looking accident where bad things happen from time to time.
Paris would lead the last two laps over Girard and Tanner Klingele to take the win in perhaps his longest race of the year.
There were only four Crate Late Models but they produced a crowd pleasing effort. Denny Woodworth was expected to run away with things but for whatever reason, on the extremely slick track he opted to run the middle line instead of hugging the tires as most had done. It worked for awhile but eventually Sam Halstead caught him in the low groove and the last few laps saw them run side by side. Sam made a good corner on the last lap and was able to edge in front to score the surprising win over the racing attorney.
The Modifieds wrapped things up with their eight car feature but as any good promoter will tell you, the last race you're hoping that something will happen that will cause the crowd to be talking on their way out and anxious to get back the following Sunday. And boy, did that happen on this night!
With the track super slick, everyone was hugging the extreme low groove as Dave Wietholder took the early lead. Austen Becerra, running his IMCA car, proved to be very competitive. He closed in on Wietholder and made a move for the lead. Just as he got the top spot, suddenly Michael Long showed up out of no where to challenge and he was using a previously undiscovered line. The reason being was that no one was running that low as Long had all four tires well below the inside barriers in turns one and two especially and he was making great time racing below the slick track in the loose dirt.
He blew past Becerra by making the quarter mile oval about a sixth mile and as he flew by and drove away, there were howls of protest from some in the crowd while the Long backers were in heaven. Long continued to use that line as he drove away and you could sense that there would be some blow back on this.
Long would pull away to take the checkered but just after he crossed the line, the announcer reported that Long was being disqualified for "cutting the pie", as they say. In the meantime, Becerra reported his displeasure by playing some bump and run with Long as there were clearly some unhappy campers on the grounds.
In my judgement, there was no doubt that the DQ was justified but it would have been nice if Long could have seen a black flag as soon as he did his deed, rather than wait until the race was over. The official rundown would see Wietholder get the win over Becerra and Michael Vanderiet Jr. Long would be in line for the "Infield Tractor Tire" award if nothing else. But the crowd was stirred up and you can bet they will want to be back next week to see what happens.
The crowd was a great one for the opener and despite a few hiccups during the night, the racing was still done by around 9 pm. Yes the track was too dusty early and yes the intermission went way too long and there will be few other things that need to be fine tuned. More cars are needed in several of the classes but hopefully those will build in the coming weeks. But those are all correctable things and as they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Sometimes a little patience is needed by all.
Thanks to Jimmy and his staff, all very pleasant people to work with. They can all now take a deep breath with the opener under their belts and congratulate themselves on a successful first night as they overcame the odds.
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