[Task Force]

Gass bags first career feature victory at Sycamore
By Zach Tasker
Saturday night May 18 marked the initial race of the 2013 campaign for the Illini Racing Series. After a long off season many teams were hungry to get back into competitive action. 20 cars arrived to the 3/8 mile clay oval known as Sycamore Speedway in front of a near capacity crowd.
The field would be split into two 8 lap heat races to begin the night. The first of those two would see series veteran Lamont Critchett lead the field to the green. The story of the first heat was undoubtedly that of Brad Greenup. Greenup was making his first career start of any kind of dirt. The Plainfield native usually runs on pavement with the STARS midget group. None of this seemed to phase him though as he sliced through traffic with ease and passed race leader Aaron Schuck with a couple laps remaining. The driver #4 QRock 100.7/Window World/Swamp Chicken/Pizza for u/Conrads Harley Davidson Stealth/Ecotec would go on to win in his maiden IRS heat race over Schuck but not after a frighting last lap crash by Danny Drogemuller. The driver of the #76 National Animal Welfare Society Spike/Ecotec clipped an inside tractor tire coming off of turn #2 then begin to tumble violently down the back straight. Fortunately Drogemuller was able to climb out of the car under his own power.
Heat race #2 was next on the docket and it proved to be a replay of the championship battle from last season. Sean Murphy would take the victory after a hard fought battle for most of the race with Patrick Bruns. The “Smurfinators” night wouldn’t be able to continue after that though as he would brake a rear axle almost immediately after taking the checkered flag. The #5 SET Racing Engines Twister/Ecotec would have certainly been a threat for the feature win if he was able to continue.
Next up was the 20 lap feature event and with the invert that meant Mike Gass would be lining up on the pole alongside Critchett. The track proved to be difficult to handle all night as Sycamore Speedway brought in new clay and changed the banking in turns 1 and 2 from last year during the off season. Most cars found the bottom of the track to be the way to go but for Brad Greeup, who won the nights first heat race, he found a liking to the upper grove. Greenup once again showed that he was very quick to adapting to a dirt racing surface by passing many cars on the upper grove and making up many positions on restarts. By the halfway point the event had turned into a two horse race. Gass and Greenup would slug it out like two heavyweights in a title bout. Neither had seen victory lane in IRS competition and neither one wanted to back down. The fans were given a treat as both cars raced side by side for multiple laps and both giving each other plenty of room. A yellow flag with two laps to go for a Scott Koerner spin would set up a green-white-checkered. Gass made no doubt over who would be the victor as he rocketed off to a flawless restart and held station the final two circuits to win the season opening event for the Illini Midgets.
The driver of the #52 Boomba Specialties/SET Racing Engines/Bell Helmets Stealth/Ecotec knew he had driven a perfect race “Its real nice to win one of these things. We almost had one last year and missed and we started this year real well and Ive been learning things throughout both of my cars and I transferred some of the stuff to this car and the car was great. I have to thank my Dad, Matt Konter, especially Matt Schuck. This deal came together because of him last year. I also have to thank all my teammates Mike Anderson, Aaron Schuck, Jeff Zelinski, Sean Murphy, Brad Greenup for racing me clean and giving me a whole lot of help but I knew I had to stay on the bottom. Also I want to thank Larry Cleveland for all the help he has given me and my Mom.”
For the entire SET Racing team, this was a great morale boosting win as their Joliet, Illinois based race shop was underwater a month ago with severe flooding “Lets put it this way we were in a flood and two weeks later we ran 7th in Montpelier, Indiana and a month later we go and win a feature. I think we are doing pretty well. “
Greenup wound up taking the checkered flag in 2nd place but was disqualified from the field after failing post race inspection. IRS officials found the offset to be out of range with what the rule book specifies, but that didn’t seem to dampen his spirit at all “We came out of the box pretty strong I was a little surprised at the beginning but its a whole different world on the dirt man. I had a lot of fun. I was pretty much going where they weren’t. On the start everyone kind of fought for the bottom so I was just like well I might as well try it up here. I got a couple guys up there but at the end it was the only way to try to pass so its try that or follow the leader and I was going for it. It was a good learning experience. “
Because of the DQ that meant that the #21 Callahan Motorsports/Weiland Racing Enterprises/Coast Fabrication/MWR Technology Buzzard/Ecotec driven by Kurt Mayhew secured the runner up spot. “The track was pretty slicked off and kind of a one laner and Greenup was working the outside pretty good and he had some good looks and he passed me on the outside I believe. He was doing pretty good, for me I couldn’t get off the bottom much. ” The is the first race with a new engine package for the Roselawn, Indiana native “We are not quite there yet but MWR racing, and Mike Wallace has been working real hard on this thing trying to get it straightened out and its coming along pretty good, I’m happy so far. “
For the 2012 series champion, Patrick Bruns, a 3rd place finish is a good way to kick off his title defense “We were really a fourth or fifth place car tonight. Unfortunately for someone who didn’t meet tech it worked out in our favor that we got a third place finish out of it. So all in all still a good night. We still have a lot of bugs to continue to work out with the new car and the new setup we have here and just hats off to (crew members) Brad and Scott and Paul for a lot of hard work this past winter to get this car ready to go and hoping for a good season. ” The #83 Full Throttle Racing/JET Motorsports/Cains Marine Welding/Tin Cup RV Park/Advanced Financial/Mobil 1/Triple T Car Wash & Lube/Depke Gases & Welding Supplies Beast/Ecotec found it difficult to keep up with the lead battle as the feature wore on. “The track is different they have added quite a bit of clay to the track and it really forced everybody down to kind of do a huggy pole follow the leader around the bottom and it kind of took the raciness out of the track that we used to see in past races here. But I think as the summer goes on you will see that hopefully the higher line will work in a little bit more.”
The great racing of the Illini Racing Series continues next weekend (May 25-26) with the first of three doubleheader weekends this season. Two complete shows will be ran at the legendary Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. For live updates visit the Illini Racing Series facebook page at “Illini Racing Series”

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
Feature (20 Laps) 1)#52 Mike Gass 2)#21 Kurt Mayhew 3)#83 Patrick Bruns 4)#77 Lamont Critchett 5)#6 Eddie Sauer 6)#2 Tom Schnabel 7)#7 Mike Anderson 8)#0 Doug Orseske 9)#53 Aaron Schuck 10)#15 Jeff Zelinski 11)#31 Kourtnay Borman 12) #24 Ray Seach 13) #9k Scott Koerner 14)#2 Andrew Hennig 15)#9a Bob Adams 16) #5d Al Drangmeister 17)#3 Rich Drangmeister 18)#4 Brad Greenup-DNQ 19)#5 Sean Murphy-DNS 20)#76 Danny Drogemuller-DNS

Heat race #1 (8 Laps): 1)#4 Brad Greenup 2)#53 Aaron Schuck 3)#6 Eddie Sauer 4)#77 Lamont Critchett 5)#7 Mike Anderson 6)#24 Ray Seach 7)#9a Bob Adams 8)#5d Al Drangmeister 9)#76 Danny Drogemuller 10)#3 Rich Drangmesiter

Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1) #5 Sean Murphy 2)#83 Patrick Bruns 3)#21 Kurt Mayhew 4)#52 Mike Gass 5)#0 Doug Orseske 6)#15 Jeff Zelinski 7)#9k Scott Koerner 8)#2 Tom Schnabel 9)#31 Kourtnay Borman 10)#2 Andrew Hennig

[John P Huss]

Cool to see the great finishes of Mayhew-Sauer!
Congrats Kurt @ Eddie!!
Best Regards,
John