1979 – Sanger Takes Quad City Raceway 100

Ed Sanger

East Moline, Ill. (July 17, 1979) – Ed Sanger of Waterloo, Iowa, started on the pole position and led from start to finish Tuesday night to win the Quad City Raceway 100 and pocket $3,000 along the way.

Sanger picked up $20 in lap money for each of the laps he led and also earned the $1,000 top prize.

Even before two spinouts early in the race caused two restarts, Sanger had taken a commanding lead and had proceeded to lap and re-lap slower cars.

From the 28th lap on, he methodically lapped all cars in the field except the second-place car, Gary Crawford of Independence, Iowa. Sanger received repeated challenges from Crawford, and earlier from Mike Niffenegger of Kalona, Iowa, but successfully held them off.

Sanger also set fast time for the night with a clocking of 15.907 seconds, the only sub-16 second round of the night.

Ken Walton of Viola, Iowa, Jerry Wolland of Peoria, and Crawford were heat winners. Larry Armstrong of Moline, Ill., won the 25-lap semi feature.


Results –


Time trials – Ed Sanger, Waterloo, Iowa (15.907)
Heat #1 – Ken Walton, Viola, Iowa
Heat #2 – Jerry Wolland, Peoria
Heat #3 – Gary Crawford, Independence, Iowa
Semi-main – Larry Armstrong, Moline, Ill.
Feature –
1. Ed Sanger
2. Gary Crawford
3. Mike Niffenegger
4. Ron Weedon, Pleasant Valley, Iowa
5. Dave Birkhofer, Muscatine, Iowa