After a brief hiatus Slingin' Dirt returns!
I took some time away from the Slingin' Dirt blog to concentrate on the Ronnie Weedon Memorial shirts I was selling and more importantly the IMCA One Night Stand I co-promoted at the LaSalle Speedway. I couldn't have been happier with how both ventures turned out. The racing community really had my back on both and I can't thank them enough.
Now on to dirt track racing in the Quad Cities. After some rain showers Saturday night into Sunday morning, mother nature decided to play nice and put forward a beautiful Sunday evening for racing.
The first feature of the night was the 15 lap Street Stock feature. East Moline's Mike Anderson and Bettendorf's Keith Blum put on arguably the best feature of the night. They battled side by side for nearly the entire 15 laps. Anderson was hugging the tires on the bottom while Blum ran the high side struggling with brake issues. Blum would take control of the lead has the white flag waved but Anderson would not give up and he threw it in hard going into turn 3 and was a rocket ship coming out of turn 4 and won the drag race to the checkered flag with a photo finish. Korey Peterson had a front row seat for the show with his solid third place finish.
Shon Sanders returned to his summer residence Sunday night, the Quad City Speedway victory lane. Sanders once again dominated the Mod Lite feature.
The IMCA Sport Mods put in their bid for race of the night with their 15 lap thriller. Maquoketa's Jarett Franzen wasted little getting to the point with an impressive move in turns one and two on the opening lap that shot him out in front. Meanwhile, Jake Waterman, who started at the rear of the field, started picking off spots and moving towards the front. A late caution was exactly what Waterman needed. Franzen had built an unsurmountable lead and had it set on cruise control before the caution. Waterman took full advantage of the caution though and on the last lap going down the backstretch, he took the lead and held off Franzen the rest of the way. Waterman is now two for two in the IMCA Sport Mods, both feature wins were in different cars too.
The IMCA Modifieds rolled out next. Over the last few weeks Kewanee's Ray Bollinger has been on the verge of putting the VerVynck owned 19C machine in victory lane but one thing or another has prevented that. Sunday night, Bollinger would not be denied en route to a convincing feature win. R.J. Gonzales and Matt Werner put on a great show for second with Gonzales second and Werner third.
The IMCA Late Models continued the streak of great racing Sunday night. Early on it truly looked like Todd Malmstrom was going to run away with it. He was on a rail but mechanical failures ended his night prematurely. Matt Ryan and Ray Guss Jr. had been making their way through the field and after the caution for Malmstrom they both shot to the front. As the laps ticked down Ryan seemed to have the "W" wrapped up but Guss would not quit. Guss would pull side by side with Ryan and going into turns three and four he would get under Ryan and make the pass for the win.
Dustin Forbes was untouchable in the 4-Cylinder feature with Brandon Setser taking second and Ryan Walker finishing third.
Racing continues in the Quad Cities next weekend with racing at the Davenport Speedway Friday night, after their annual two week break for the Mississippi Valley Fair, and racing at the Quad City Speedway Sunday night. Sunday night is the annual Quad City Speedway Hall of Fame night featuring the cars of the Vintage Racing of Illinois series. Last year they tore the house with the race of the year.
