East Moline, Ill. (August 1, 1971) – Once they finally got going, mid-season point leader and defending champion Ron Weedon of Pleasant Valley made short work of the late model modified mid-season championship feature at Quad City Raceway on Sunday – once they got going.
The weatherman had teased the late model drivers the past two Sundays, raining out both programs only after the track had already been worked into shape. Then, since they hadn’t raced in three weeks, some of the drivers seemed to be trying to get in enough knocks for the missed action – especially the novice feature that took seven restarts to go 20 laps.
But once the 50-lap mid-season feature got underway, it went non-stop for 20 minutes with Weedon leading all the way from the straight-up point standing start.
At the start, Herb Shannon of Peoria, second in the point standings, cut in behind Weedon and the chase began. And that was it…
Weedon pushed his lead to a quarter-lap advantage by the midway point and cruised from there. The real battle was for second place between Shannon, Ernie Speth of Davenport, Iowa, Ray Guss of Milan, and Steve Lance of Peoria. They whizzed around, lap after lap, in that order but never more than a bumper or fender apart. And that’s the way they stayed.
No semi-main was run because of the length of the feature but heat wins were picked up by Ray Guss, Benny Hofer of Rock Island, and Del Williams of Aledo.
Don Lenth led the novice feature from start to finish. But each time he grabbed a slight lead, it was nullified by a restart. Dennis Marion, Johnny Larson, and Bernie Miller seemed to have the most problems keeping their cars headed in the right direction. Buzz Southwick finished second followed by Lyle Gehn.
Results –
1. Ron Weedon, Pleasant Valley, Iowa
2. Herb Shannon, Peoria
3. Ernie Speth, Davenport, Iowa
4. Ray Guss, Milan
5. Steve Lance, Peoria
6. Jerry Reinhart, Moline
7. Benny Hofer, Rock Island
8. Lloyd Ewing, Kewanee
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