Ray Guss Jr. drove the #58 Roberts Motorsports IMCA Late Model to the 1st Annual Hershel Roberts Memorial Deery Brothers Summer Series win on Wednesday, July 20th at the Quad City Speedway in East Moline, IL. Photo courtesy of Tri-State Speed Review - Dewain Hulett.
East Moline, IL (Wednesday, July 20, 2011) - The 1st Annual "Hershel Roberts Memorial" featuring the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models took place on Wednesday, July 20th at the Quad City Speedway in East Moline, IL. Despite the hot and humid night the fans would pack the grandstand to honor the late Hershel Roberts. In action on the night, during the Rock Island County Fair, was the IMCA Late Models, Street Stocks and Mod Lites.
The first feature on the night was the 25 lap Street Stocks, with $1,500 going to the winner. Ron Marks Jr. and Cary Brown drew the front row for the event, with Brown grabbing the lead on lap 1. The first caution would appear on the completion of the lap, as Randy Exline spun in turn 4. On the restart Brown jumped back out front, with Jason Bahrs and Ron Marks Jr. battling close behind. Chuck Fox would spin his machine in turn 4 on lap 5 to bring the action to stop. Brown again grabbed the lead on the restart, only to be slowed again on lap 6. This time Justin Veloz, who was running 8th, would spin in turn 4 to bring out the caution. On the restart Nick Lawrence and Tyler Soppe got together in turn 1 to bring the yellow light back on. Bahrs would take advantage of the restart, as he jumped to the outside of Brown coming out of turn 4 to grab the top spot on lap 7. The three car battle up front was slowed on lap 8, as Joe Wagner spun in turn 4 to bring out the yellow. Then on lap 10 Veloz would spin in turn 2 and collected Jimmie Simpson to slow the action. Bahrs would grabbed the lead on the restarts, with Tim Current, who started 5th, challenging him. But Current would drift to high in turn 4 on lap 12 and got into the wall to fall from 2nd to 4th. Then on the next lap, lap 13, Bahrs' had a right front brake line break going into turn 3 which caused him to hit the wall and bring out the caution. On the restart Wayne Hora, who started 7th, inherited the lead, with Current close behind. Hora could only hold back Current for 1 lap, as he slipped under Hora coming out of turn 4 on lap 15 to grab the top spot. The only thing to slow Current down over the final 10 laps was two more cautions. The first was on lap 19 when Phil Anderson spun in turn 4 to bring out the yellow. The final caution of the event came out on the restart, when Wagner hit the turn 1 wall hard. On both restarts Current moved out into a lead in which he held to the checkered flag to claim the $1,500 top prize. Hora held on for 2nd, Brown settled for 3rd, Soppe, who started 15th, recovered from the lap 6 crash to come back to take home 4th, with Chris Hambright coming from 11th to round out the top 5.
Charlie McKenna and Mike Murphy Jr. led the field to the green in the 40 lap "Hershel Roberts Memorial" Deery Brothers Summer Series IMCA Late Models feature. Murphy Jr. took advantage of his draw to move out front on lap 1 over McKenna, Tyler Bruening and Mike Garland. Murphy Jr. set a fast pace early, as he started to come up on lap traffic on lap 10. The lapped cars would slow Murphy Jr. down enough to allow McKenna, Terry Neal, who started 7th, and Ray Guss Jr., who started 9th, to close in to make it a four car battle. The action up front was slowed for the first time on lap 13, when Jon Passick spun in turn 4. On the restart Murphy Jr. jumped back out into the lead, with Neal and Guss Jr. battling for 2nd. Guss Jr. was able to get by Neal for 2nd on lap 20 and then went to work on chasing down Murphy Jr. for the lead. Another caution on lap 26, for Bruening who spun in turn 3 while running 5th, would close the gap. The yellow light would come back out on lap 27 when Todd Mahlstrom spun his machine in turn 4 to slow the field down. On both restarts Murphy Jr. grabbed the top spot, with Guss Jr. close behind. Murphy Jr., who was working the top of the speedway, and Guss Jr., who was down low, would battle side-by-side on laps 33 and 34, with Guss Jr. getting the advantage on lap 35. On the completion of the lap, Colby Springsteen would spin in turn 1 and collected Gary Webb, Jon Passick and Sam Halstead to bring out the final caution of the event. On the restart Guss Jr. moved out front, with Nate Beuseling, who started 11th, battle Murphy Jr. for 2nd. Beuseling would try to get under Guss Jr. over the final 2 laps, but Guss Jr. would hold on to claim the win. Beuseling settled for 2nd, Murphy Jr. was 3rd, McKenna held on for 4th, with Neal coming home in 5th.
The final feature on the night was the 15 lap Mod Lites, with Cody Brown and David Norton leading the field to the green. Norton would take advantage of his start to grab the lead on lap 1. But the first caution of the event would come out on the completion of the lap, as Brown spun in turn 1. On the restart Andrew Smith, who started 5th, slipped under Norton to take over the top spot. Smith then held the lead until lap 6, when Jason Masengarb, who started 9th, slipped under him for the top spot. Masengarb then started to pull away, when the final caution came out on lap 13. Gary Snyder would spin in turn 4 to bring out the yellow. On the restart Masengarb again jumped out into the lead, but now had Greg Rossell, who started 10th, close behind in 2nd. Rossell tried the top side to get around Masengarb over the final 2 laps, but Masengarb was able to hold on to pick up the win. Rossell settled for 2nd, Dustin Masolini came from 6th to claim 3rd, Smith held on for 4th, with Shon Sanders coming from 8th to round out the top 5.
Notes from QCS: 24 Late Models, 22 Street Stocks and 17 Mod Lites signed in for competition on the hot night......Before the start of the Street Stock feature the top 4 starters, which included Ron Marks Jr., Cary Brown, Jason Bahrs and Emily Gade, were offered a $400 bonus to go to the rear. If they could win from the rear that would mean they would win $1,900, but all turned it down....Chuck Fox, who started 16th, spun on lap 5 and recovered to take home a 6th place finish....Nick Lawrence, who started 14th, would spin on lap 1 and came back from the rear to claim 9th....Randy Exline recovered from his spin on lap 1 to come back to take home 11th....Joe Beal drove Matt Marshall's car from a 17th place starting spot to finish in 12th....Phil Anderson came from 21st to finish 13th....Jamie Balensiefen came from 12th and was running 4th, when he had a flat tire on the lap 19 caution to end his run in 14th......The 1st Annual "Hershel Roberts Memorial" was held to honor the late Hershel Roberts. Hershel who raced Modifieds and Late Models for many years in the Quad City area passed early this year after a battle with cancer. Hershel, who along with his son Ken, hired Ray Guss Jr. to drive the #58 Late Model in late 2009 when Hershel decided to hang up the helmet. The team would have an awesome 2010, as they won the IMCA National Championship, Deery Brothers Summer Series Title and 3 track titles. The win on this night was very emotional for the team, which debuted a new body on the car to honor Hershel....Justin Reed started 16th and passed 10 cars to take home a 6th place finish in the Late Model feature....Mike Zemo Jr., who has won the last 2 Late Model features at the speedway, started 23rd. He would pass 14 cars, which gave him the hard charger award, to take home a 9th place finish....Andy Eckrich passed 10 cars from his 20th place starting spot to take home a 10th place. Eckrich now holds a 2 point lead over Terry Neal and a 4 point lead over Ray Guss Jr. in the chase for the 2011 Deery Brothers Summer Series title....Matt Ryan came from 17th to finish in 11th....Jay Johnson passed 8 cars from his 21st starting spot to finish in 13th....Darrel DeFrance arrived late and had to start in the back of his heat, which he finished 8th in. DeFrance then started the feature in 22nd and passed 7 cars to finish in 15th....Sam Halstead, who started 24th, recovered from the lap 35 crash to finish in 18th......Jonathan Huston started the Mod Lite feature in 15th and then went on to pass 9 cars to take home a 6th place finish....Evan Epperson passed 10 cars from his 17th place starting spot to finish in 10th....Dan Guss came from 16th to take home 9th.
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