Klingele, Girard score feature victories in highly competitive sport mods class at Speedway

QUINCY — The sport mods arguably have been the most competitive class this season at Adams County Speedway.

Sunday night — and early Monday morning — helped cement that claim.

Tanner Klingele and Dakota Girard collected sport mod feature victories before an appreciative July 4 weekend gathering that saw six classes and a whopping 103 entries in action, not to mention more than an hour delay due to electrical problems.

When the long night of racing finally concluded at 12:39 a.m., that merely set the stage for a post-race fireworks display and an outdoor concert that provided the perfect punctuation for what had been a wacky, but highly entertaining night of dirt-track racing.

Klingele won the first sport mod main event and then finished second to Girard shortly after midnight in a Hart Limited Modified Series feature. The Hart Limited Mod class, making its first appearance at the track, is virtually identical to the Adams County sport mods, only with different branding.

There has yet to be any back-to-back sport mod feature winners over the first 11 weeks of racing at 8000 Broadway.

Klingele’s flag-to-flag victory saw him outdistance Reed Wolfmeyer, Logan Anderson and Adam Birck.

“The changes we made (after the heat races and) before the feature made a big difference,” said Klingele, who is now tied with Shane Paris for the most feature wins in the series with three.

Klingele was almost prophetic following that victory.

“This was feature win No. 3, and we’ll be back in about an hour to get No. 4,” he said.

Well, almost.

Girard held off a late charge by Klingele to garner his first checkered flag of the season in Quincy. He had won the feature Saturday night at Spoon River Speedway near Canton, Ill.

“I’m just glad to be here (in victory lane),” Girard said shortly after his victory and shortly after midnight. “It’s going really good right now. (Modified driver) Austen Becerra has helped us get this car really dialed in.”

Klingele and Girard entered the night Nos. 4 and 5 in the most recent Muddy River Sports sport mod rankings. Both should climb even higher when the new rankings come out later this week. 

Klingele inched closer to series points leader Birck with his two high feature finishes. Birck (379), Klingele (363), Logan Cumby (356) and Girard (341) are the frontrunners for the track championship.

Other feature winners were Becerra, Rudy Zaragoza (street stocks), Derrick DeFord (4-Cylinders) and Mark McMahil (D2 midgets). The crate late models were idle.

Shortly before dark, about half of the track’s lighting system failed to either come on or stay on, forcing action to be halted and repairs made.

“I can’t say enough about our fans,” said Blake Dotson, the first-year race director at 8000 Broadway. “We really appreciate their patience in working through some unforeseen problems, and then staying with us until the last race was completed.

“We had people volunteering to help, to do anything they could. Fortunately, it all worked out. We’ll get the needed repairs done before next Sunday’s races.”

Becerra won his third modified feature in four weeks, turning back Rock Conoyer, Dave Wietholder and Kenny Wallace. Becerra led the final 12 laps of the 20-lap feature.

Becerra (606) and Wietholder (584) continue to pace the mod points. No other driver has more than 408 points.

“It was a little hairy to begin with, but the car wound up being good everywhere on the track,” said Becerra, who trailed Wietholder for the first eight laps.

Zaragoza collected his third straight feature win in the street stock class, rallying past Beau Taylor in the closing laps. Zaragoza did not gain the lead until lap 16 of the 18-lap finale. 

Derrick Hufford, Steve Grotz and Taylor completed the top four finishers.

Zaragoza has built a 303-273 advantage over Robert Thompson in the points standings.

DeFord took the 4-Cylinder feature lead on lap two and rolled to his third checkered flag of the season. Kim Abbott, Jeremy Reed and David Lauritson filled out the top four.

“It was kind of a tricky track tonight, but it was a fast track,” DeFord said. “It was tacky in some spots. I just kept the wheels rolling.”

Jimmy Dutlinger (402 points), Jeffrey DeLonjay (401) and Abbott (392) have emerged as the chief title contenders among the 4-Cylinder drivers. 

In case you missed it …

Shannon Babb, who has always been one of the most popular visiting super late model drivers to compete at Adams County Speedway, set UMP Summer Nationals Hell Tour history late last week.

Babb — a.k.a. “The Moweaqua Missile” — posted his 101st career Hell Tour victory to become the series’ all-time victory leader. Billy Moyer has 100.

Babb finished second to Bobby Pierce at the June 22 Hell Tour race in Quincy.

Babb is currently 12th in Hell Tour points. Continuing to lead the six-week marathon is Bobby Pierce, followed by Brian Shirley and Jason Feger.

The Hell Tour runs through the end of the month.