This past Thursday evening, we headed to the famed Knoxville Raceway for the first of three nights of the 7th Annual Lucas Oil Late Model event. Sixty premier late models were in attendance along with 37 modifieds, providing the nice crowd of fans on hand a night of exciting racing action. For a change, the weather was near perfect.
The first feature was the modifieds who had earlier qualified through four heats and two B main events to fill in the 24-car starting field. Sitting on the front row of the 20-lapper, were a couple of #19s...Richie Gustin in the 19G and Darin Duffy in the 19D. Gustin dominated the entire race....pulling away even after caution flags flew. Duffy chased Gustin until past the halfway mark, when Ryan Ruter made the pass into second. Gustin took the checkers for the second time this year at the famed speedway as he'd also won the Harris Clash back in July. Quite an accomplishment to say nothing of the other dominating wins he has had at other Iowa tracks this season. Ruter finished in second place ahead of Duffy in third. Fourth went to Todd Shute who had a good run from starting in the 12th spot, and rounding out the top five was Mark Schulte.
The Lucas Oil Late Model 25-lap event was action packed. Tim McCreadie jumped to the lead from his outside front row starting spot and took off with the lead. Polesitter Josh "Kid Rocket" Richards was having none of that however, and made the pass for the lead with just a couple of laps in the books. McCreadie in turn, took back that lead with fifteen to go and was looking comfortable. Meanwhile, many eyes were on two favorites in the pack with Iowa ties...Billy Moyer and Scott Bloomquist. Neither disappointed the crowd in their move to the front with Moyer taking over the lead with about eight laps to the checkers. Earl Pearson, Jr. in the 44 car had also been making great strides and had worked himself into the third position with Bloomquist hot on his tail. When the final checkers flew, Billy Moyer found himself in a familiar spot...the winner's circle, and from the cheers in the crowd, it seemed to be a popular win. Moyer is a Des Moines native, and gained interest in racing through his uncle Carl Moyer, according to his profile we recently read on line. Second place went to Tim McCreadie, son of the legendary "Barefoot" Bob McCreadie. He has made a great recovery after an accident at the 2009 Chili Bowl left him with broken vertebra after rolling his midget. Third went to Scott Bloomquist, also an Iowa native born in Fort Dodge, fourth was Earl Pearson, Jr. racing for the Bobby Labonte racing stables, and fifth went to Brady Smith out of Wisconsin and a former winner of the Lucas Oil Nationals at Knoxville.
Though it was a great night of racing last night, we must mention the absence of one Super Fan...Gary Storey. Sadly, Gary lost his battle with cancer this past week. Gary, who lived in Oskaloosa, Iowa, could be found at most any track we might happen to attend...near or far. He truly was a Super Fan attested to by his naming of such in the National Speed Sport News publication. He was a wealth of knowledge about most any form of dirt track racing. He could tell you every short cut in the area to get to a racetrack too! His familiar laugh when he spotted a racing friend...and he had many...will always be fondly remembered. Unfortunately we were not able to attend his service on Wednesday, which was conducted by...fittingly, a racer, the Rev. Sonny Smyser. We were able, however, to make the trip to Albia for the visitation on Tuesday evening to pay our respects. Rest in peace Gary. You will be missed by the racing family.
Still a few more races to be found in the area. Check the racing calendar at Positively Racing. On our calendar next is Octoberfest at Beatrice Speedway in Beatrice, Nebraska. This has become a semi-annual trip for us as we also attend the Spring Nationals there. You can find more information about this upcoming event at http://www.beatricespeedway.com/. Happy racing!
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