Saturday night, October 17th marked the second night of the weekend special for the MLRA Racing series Late Model cars at the Gundaker's Tri City Speedway near Pontoon Beach Illinois. UMP Modifieds would be on the program once again as they were on Friday night and the B Mods would also be racing on this night. It was a warm but extremely windy Fall day in the St. Louis region and probably not an ideal one to get moisture in a race track, but the fans appreciated the relatively moderate temperatures and a good crowd was on hand to see the last Late Model appearance of the year at Tri City.
The race gained some added importance during the afternoon as the announcement was made that due to expected cold temperatures and rain that the MLRA season finale, which was planned as the event to crown a new champion at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly Missouri slated for Sunday had been cancelled so a point champion would be crowned along with the show here on Saturday night.
Forty five Late Models signed in to race on Saturday night with three local drivers not returning after Friday night action while Jimmy Miller from nearby Highland was the new addition. However, he had mechanical problems and never did see the track at all.
Friday night's format continued with time trials, four heats and two B Features to set the grid for the forty lap main event paying seven grand to win. Jason Papich and Billy Moyer were the quick qualifiers for their flights of cars but there was some drama as Papich turned one fast lap before the strong smell of antifreeze slowed his second lap and he took a push to the pits. However, the problems were severe and he was able to start in the front of his heat race.
Meanwhile, the battle for the point title was close and getting closer by the minute. Payton Looney had passed Jeremiah Hurst last night to take over the point lead with Tony Jackson Jr and Chad Simpson also still mathematically in the hunt. Of the four, Jackson Jr and Looney were the only two to make the grid through qualifying as both Simpson and Hurst failed to qualify through either a heat or B Feature and both were forced to take provisionals to start the main so things were likely to get very interesting in the feature from several different standpoints.
Twenty eight cars started the Late Model main event with Bobby Pierce using the high side to take the early lead. While he worked the cushion, he was challenged by Shannon Babb and Moyer for the lead. Ryan Gustin was busy knocking off the spoiler on his car as he charged to the front, using the concrete wall as a rub rail to get through the corners. The battle up front remained close as the first twenty five laps ran off nonstop until last night's winner Mason Oberkramer stalled suddenly in turn one when the front end locked up. Pierce almost clobbered him as he stopped but Bobby did clip him which did some damage to the right side said panel of the car but he was otherwise able to avoid something much more serious.
However, the yellow seemed to breed more yellows as the race would be slowed down four more times in the next four laps. A tangle on the back chute would involve Looney who had to stop and get a fender removed which sent him to the back. Tim Manville was running toward the front until he got crowded into the first turn wall that saw him topple over on his roof. He was unhurt but out of the race as was Rick Eckert who spun on the front chute with damage to create the last yellow and sideline him from the event.
Finally, with eleven laps to go, the race would conclude. Moyer, who was pretty quiet this whole time, suddenly began to be noticed as he was getting a great run off the bottom of the corners and with Pierce trying to hold on, Moyer shot past him down the front chute to take over the lead. Billy gained several car lengths until Bobby made one last charge in the final few circuits. Moyer was very willy though, as he used enough of the top side down the chutes to break Pierce's charge and Bobby was never able to get a big enough run through the corners to pass him and Moyer drove home by several car lengths to a warm round of applause from the crowd. Gustin finished a strong third followed by Jackson Jr who came from twelfth with Chad Simpson coming from twenty first to complete the top five as there was much shuffling of positions during the event and a number of drivers who parked partway through the forty laps.
When the points were calculated, Hurst had come from behind and finished just high enough that he would win the title by a mere five points over Simpson, or a position difference of just one. Just imagine what would have happened if Hurst's team mate Garrett Alberson would have passed him on the final lap as he finished right behind him. Wow, that would have been something. Looney finished only ten points behind and Jackson Jr twenty so just one bad night for either of them probably made all the difference. Hurst earned fifteen grand for the point title plus another twenty five hundred as he was also the series Rookie of the Year.
It certainly paid off nicely for Pierce to also bring his Modified to Tri City as for the second straight night he would win the Modified main event and bank another two grand. Unlike Friday night when he needed a late race miracle, on Saturday he would lead all twenty five laps after qualifying better and starting on the pole for both his heat and feature. He did receive a good challenge from both Mike Harrison and Kyle Steffens as they raced hard, not wanting a Late Model guy to best the Modified regulars. Harrison particularly did everything he could to get past Pierce but too many trips into the concrete didn't help his efforts as both he and Steffens would eventually retire with damage to their cars.
Pierce would continue to motor on and despite a late yellow that set up a one lap sprint to the finish, Pierce would pull away to take the win. Michael Long would come from the third row and survive to finish second as Will Krug came from row six to finish third.
B Mods would be tuning up for their big doubleheader race next weekend and with no other racing this weekend in the area for the class, a big field of forty seven cars would sign in to race. Despite some dread going into their finale, the B Mod drivers did a great job with their main actually being the only one of the three to go nonstop, green to checkered. On top of that, only three cars failed to finish the race and only a single car was lapped, so they did a great job of racing.
Treb Jacoby did a great job of moving to the cushion and he led much of the race, building up what seemed to be a comfortable advantage at one point. But there was a "ringer" in the house and that was Krup who was debuting a new car and once he got going, he was lightning fast.
He started in row seven and once the traffic had thinned, he was noticeably faster than anyone, passing cars in bunches as he tore to the front. He raced his way into second and was half a straight away behind Jacoby but caught him in just a couple of laps and blew by the former leader so quickly, it was almost too easy. Jacoby tried to respond by driving deep into the corners but he got into the wall and that cost him even more time.
At the end, Krup had a comfortable lead which he continued to build while Adam Birck, driving an IMCA Sport Mod, put on a determined drive as he came from the fourth row and worked the inside line to take second at the finish. Jacoby hung on for third. My suspicion is that the B Mod drivers will have to go back to the drawing board before next weekend's special if they want to catch Krup.
There was one scary moment during the B Mod feature when a car lost its filler deck cover, it sailed high into the air like a kite and cleared the front stretch wall and landed about three rows up in the main grandstand. Fortunately, it landed in an area where no one was seated, the spectators in that area gave the flagman a "thumbs up" which he acknowledged and returned and the race stayed under the green with not even a slowdown!
It was a good night of racing and a good weekend to be at the track. Thanks to Tammy and Kevin Gundaker, their staffs and all the officials of the MLRA as they all combined to put on two well coordinated nights of racing and a great way to wrap up the sanctioning bodies' season.
Unfortunately, later events during the night would dim the pleasure that I enjoyed at the track. When I returned to my hotel room, I found an e-mail notifying me that my friend and racing buddy from Nebraska, Ernie Tropp, had passed away unexpectedly on Saturday morning.
I first met Ernie in the pits at some track in the Midwest, hard to say where. But he would do the same as me, roam the pits and take pictures of the race cars and then always note the drivers name in the little ring notebook that he always carried.
He was a familiar face at the race tracks in the Midwest and while a lot of people probably didn't know his name, he was a very recognizable character as he roamed the pits, camera in his hand and a huge unlit cigar in his mouth. From I-80 to Beatrice to Junction, to Knoxville and Humboldt, the drivers, car owners and mechanics all knew him as he loved to talk racing and knew many of the competitors.
When I first met him, he would always sleep in the back of his pickup truck for the multi day shows but then he got tired of that and we would share a room from time to time and many pre race meals, talking about the races and other things too. He was a funny guy and always liked to give me a little crap from time to time. He always went to WalMart and got his pictures developed the morning after the races and we would go over them and check to see that he had the correct names on the back of each one.
He never went into the spectator grandstands but always stayed in the pits, saying that he could get his best pictures when the drivers were lined up for their heats or qualifying. He must have a fantastic collection of pictures that I would like to see some day. We never got to spend as much time together as I would have liked as the prairie of Western Nebraska is a long way from Wisconsin and right now I would give everything to be able to say hello one more time.
I weep as I type this out and he would probably laugh at me for doing so, but he was a fun guy, a genuine guy and a true racing friend. I dedicate this column and every column that I write for the rest of my racing life to my friend Ernie Tropp.
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