Complete weekly lineup ready to drop green flag Sunday night at Adams County Speedway

QUINCY — Call it Opening Night II.

Dirt-track race fans will get their first opportunity to see the regular lineup of classes Sunday night at Adams County Speedway when the crate late models, modifieds, sport mods, stock cars and 4-Cylinders are all on the same card.

A week ago, the Lucas Oil MLRA series, featuring the super open late models, christened the season at 8000 Broadway, accented by three weekly series — mods, stocks and 4-bangers. The crate lates and sport mods sat the week out.

It should be interesting to watch the continued growth of the crate lates.

“I think we’ll probably average about 20 cars in that class,” said Jim Lieurance, who with wife Tammy are beginning their third season operating the 28.5-acre site.

The crate lates averaged 12.8 cars in 2023, which was up from 9.2 when the track reopened in 2022.

“We know there’s going to be quite a few new cars this season,” Lieurance said.

Only four times in track history have late models averaged 20 per week — all at the height of the former Quincy Raceways’ affiliation with the Iowa-based IMCA. Those banner seasons included 2006 (25 cars per week), 2007 (22), 2008 (20) and 2005 (20).

Other track averages a year ago included 17.5 for mods,15.6 for sport mods, 13.3 for 4-Cylinders and 11.1 for stocks. Lieurance is expecting increases in all but the 4-Cylinders, which he expects to hold steady at around a dozen.

Lieurance remains confident the weekly average will see more than 100 cars, especially with the addition of the Crown Vic class later this month. A year ago, the average car count was 69.5, which followed an average of 78.1 in 2022.

All five defending track champs are scheduled to return — Tommy Elston in the crate late models, Austen Becerra in mods, Logan Cumby in sport mods, Jake Powers in stock cars and Jeffrey DeLonjay in 4-Cylinders.

Rough road ahead?

It’s not going to be easy for Becerra to win another track championship in the modified series. And it will likely be even tougher for Kim Abbott in the 4-Cylinder division. Both drivers encountered disastrous opening nights and are buried in the points races entering week No. 2.

Becerra, a two-time modified champ (and four-time overall) encountered a number of on-track mishaps in the modified feature and eventually withdrew to the pits with a 20th-place finish. He’s 44 points away from the series lead.

Abbott, a three-time track champ and three-time runner-up in points, saw her No. 71 4-Cylinder entry not be able to answer the call for last week’s main event. She currently sits 12th and is 36 points away from the top spot.

The new dominator?

Remember Mark Burgtorf’s domination of the late model class that began in the early 1990s and continued through the late 2000s?

Or how about Hank DeLonjay, Michael Long, Steven DeLonjay and Dave Wietholder in the modified division, taking turns controlling the series from the early 1990s to when the track shut down due to the pandemic?

Then there was Tony Dunker in the early years of the sport mods, starting in 2012, not to mention Abe Huls for much of the first decade of stock cars that began in 2008.

Well, I think it’s time we had another name to this list: Jeffrey DeLonjay.

When DeLonjay won the season-opening feature in the 4-Cylinder series, that marked his 22nd checkered flag in that division in just 2-plus years. DeLonjay has won 22 of 37 features since the start of the 2022 season, including all but one since May 28, 2023.

DeLonjay has currently won five in a row, dating to the end of the ’23 season. That streak would be 15 if not for Travis DeMint’s Aug. 27 victory.

DeLonjay streak reminiscent

DeLonjay’s current success is beginning to mirror that of Long’s in the old “A” modifieds back in 2009-10. Over the course of late 2009 and the first half of 2010, there was no more impressive driver at the Broadway Bullring than Long. He was as close to unbeatable as a driver could be.

Long won 12 consecutive “A” mod main events in which he raced, spread over a 21-week stretch over parts of two years. Of the nine times he did not race, it was because of weather-related postponements, racing at another site, or on one occasion, his engine breaking down during a heat race and being unable to run in the feature.

Otherwise, Long collected every possible checkered flag.

Sunday night schedule

Hot laps are again scheduled for 5:30 p.m., with heat races following immediately afterward. The goal of track officials is to have the program completed by 9:30 p.m.