The weather was fantastic on Sunday, April 14th and it was not a day that could be allowed to slip by without attending a dirt track race somewhere. However, it is still early in the game, so to speak, and not a lot of race tracks are yet open so to find some racing action on this Sunday might require a bit of a drive.
However, that is my way of doing things when necessary so an early Sunday morning start after a late night at another track is just a way of life for me, for as they say, once you're dead you can always catch up on your sleep then!
So, six hours later, I pulled into the parking lot at the Rock Island County Fairgrounds for the 2024 season opener at the East Moline Speedway. This is one of the very first tracks I used to go to when I first started invading the Hawkeye and Illini States for additional racing action and I have many memories of attending races here very early in the year under the Bob Toland regime. The place still looks very much like it did back then from the outside but upon closer inspection, you can see that much has been done to the race track in the last couple of years to make it racier and wider for the drivers.
2024 will mark the first full year of new promotor Chuck Hanna's tenure at East Moline as construction delays kept them from opening until a considerable part of the season last year had already been completed but they are ready to go right away this year.
A seven class program will be presented on this Sunday which seems like quite a few classes to run and yet get the show done early which is most important on a Sunday night. However, a couple of the classes had only enough cars present to run a single heat and feature so that would help speed things a bit. IMCA classes would dominate with Hobby Stocks, Sport Mods, Mods and Late Models all running under their banner and they would be supplemented by Outlaw Street Stocks and Sport Compacts that weren't sanctioned. Oops, the Mod Lites I think were also sanctioned so correct my previous statement. Eighty three race teams would sign in for the opener including ten Mod Lites.
Racing action would kick off about twenty minutes after the advertised starting time but that does happen on occasion on opening nights and is not an uncommon thing. However, after that, the heats races would click off very quickly and we were in good shape once intermission time was reached.
The new racing surface has a much browner appearance than the one that used to be here and it seems like it will be a good one, once it lays down just a bit more. It seems like it will be dust free and a good one for racing on, but right now it is still a little loose and tends to roll up in the corners. So this required a complete blading of the entire track before the feature races could be started and while I didn't time it, it was indeed a long break but one that I'm sure the drivers were requesting.
Sport Mods, the largest class in numbers on this night, would be first up for their feature race and after a very smooth heat race session, the yellow flag would get a much bigger workout in the mains as several were plagued by multiple yellow flags. The Sport Mods had a crazy start to their event with spins by the leader three straight times in turn four before a lap could be completed. Keith Wiersma, Matt Speidel and Brad Salsberry all were leaders going into turn four on the opening round of this main and all four would spin right out of the lead, triggering yellow flags for each adventure.
Finally, C.J. Durbin would take the lead on the fourth try and maintain it for a full lap to be scored the leader. However, he pushed up the track on lap two, Logan Veloz went by him and the race was essentially over at that point. Veloz would pull away, by nearly a full straightaway and go on for the win over Jarett Franzen and Ryan Reed.
The Street Stocks would be next and they had only a handful of cars. This truly "Outlaw" class has the local Outlaw Street Stocks, hard to find anywhere else but in the Quad Cities area, racing with Stock Cars and I guess, anything else with fenders that shows up to race. Rob Nylin would be the early leader but would soon be joined by Rob Henry in a battle for the lead. They would go side by side for the top spot until Nylin plunked the wall hard enough to slow his charge and cause him to fade back into the pack, leaving Henry to drive on for the win with Jess Owen second and Ben Hamburg third.
Hobby Stocks would be next up with only six of them on hand to race. Still they provided plenty of action and got the crowd stirred up as well. Randy Lamar, who invokes as much crowd reaction as any driver on the grounds, would take the early lead with Daniel Wauters chasing him. A pair of spins would slow the action and as the second one flew, Lamar was also slowed as he had rolled a tire off the rim. The skinny tires on the Hobby Stocks often fall victim to these kinds of track conditions with Wauters having the same issue in his heat race.
Wauters would inherit the lead but when Lamar came flying out of the pits with a new tire, the crowd was anxious to see what he would do in the four remaining laps. However, turn one would bite Lamar as he would hook a rut, spin and nearly flip before getting nailed by another car, thus ending his night. Wauters would go on for the win with Don Cole second and Jordan Patz third.
The Sport Compact feature would be a breeze for Cyle Hawkins after his main competition, Rick Zifko, left with a flat tire early. Hawkins would win by a full chute over Jason Rhoads and Drew Wise.
A strong performance by Matt Werner would see him win by a full straightaway in the Modified main event. Jed Freiberger would take the initial lead after Jim Sandusky slid up the track and opened the door for Jed. However, no one could maintain the pace set by Werner, who moved up from the third row and would blow past Freiberger on lap four to take the lead.
Once in front he found a smooth and fast line up high that no one could match and he would pull away in a race that would see the last seventeen laps ran under the green, a rarity on this night. Matt would build a full straightaway over the field as only six cars would finish on the lead lap. Freiberger would be well behind but would still finish a solid second while Bone Larson came back up to third after an early spin. Larson was in one of the Current cars tonight that has been rebranded to Bone's #B1 so that looks like his ride for 2024.
The Late Model feature would be by far the wildest event of the night with plenty for the fans and teams to "discuss" after the checkered flag waved. Fifteen cars would take the green for twenty five laps and with Matt Ryan on the pole for the draw/redraw night, it might have been assumed that he would just pull away and take the win.
However, there were plenty of fireworks that kept that from happening. Ryan would take the early lead but Mitch Morris moved into the second spot and was keeping Ryan close as he tried to get past. The leaders quickly got into lapped traffic and that made things even more exciting. Ryan made a poor choice behind one slower car and that gave Morris the chance to get beside him down the back chute. Neither driver lifted going into turn three and both went flying up the track with Ryan on the outside and he was escorted right up into the concrete wall where be knocked his deck loose and gave himself a flat tire. He and Morris divebombed each other under yellow before Ryan went tearing to the pits. He returned on foot seconds later to salute Morris as the cars circled the track under yellow.
Morris would inherit the lead with Evan Miller second and Andy Nezworski now up to third. Slowly working his way to the front was Cody Overton. Overton, apparently in this area while working the WoO Late Model series plus other upcoming events, was driving the car of promoter Hanna on this night and as a veteran of crate Late Model racing, was fitting right in with the action. Soon he would find himself right in the middle of the biggest "pot boiler" of the night.
Morris would continue to hold the lead and would appear to be home free until a late yellow changed things. This gave Overton the chance to be right up behind the leader and when the green flew, Cody threw a ridiculous slider at Morris in turn one but one that Mitch was able to cross over to the roar of the crowd. Overton then backed up to try it again and on the last lap, he again sprang at Morris in turn one. This slider was a more controlled one and Morris didn't react quite quickly enough and had to tap the brakes. That allowed Overton to get beside him and as they raced down the back chute on the final lap, they banged together with Morris sliding down into the infield. He tried to barrel through the infield and get back to attempt his own slider but he lost control and ended up sliding in a cloud of dust to a near halt as Overton crossed the line while the crowd went wild. Nezworski would avoid all the craziness and drive home second with Jesse Bodin third while Morris crept across the line to finish eighth.
I'm not sure that I liked all that happened on the final lap but some would also say it was Karma for what happened to Ryan at Morris' hand earlier in the event. For sure Overton did a good job at stirring up the crowd and likely sold some tickets for next week's show and the MARS Series event the following week. Either way, the fans passing out the gates were buzzing and for promoter Hanna, that is good news indeed. The final checkered waved at around 9:30 pm as East Moline upheld that old tradition as a bit of a wild and crazy Sunday night track. Thanks to Hanna and his crew for a good time and good to see Kevin Feller again at one of the three or four tracks he still scores at.
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