Rain and Wrecks, Saturday Rockford NSTC

For much of the day Saturday, these were the only vehicles on the track. There was a persistent rainy drizzle. Whenever we had breaks we were able to get cars on the track for some practice and qualifying.

The weather continued to hamper the event. After the Opening Ceremonies, the racing started with Midwest Dash "40". This race was rain delayed from the previous night.

Kyle Stark #192 took the win!

We continued the racing with the Qualifying  and Last Chance races, however before we could start the Features it started to rain again. There was a 2 hour rain delay before we could start. After the track was dry, the Illini Midgets hit the track for their 30-Lap Feature. Patrick Bruns took the lead early and led the rest of the way to take the checkered flag.

Next up was the Big Eight Late Model Series for the 108-Lap Feature. This race had problems from the very start with crashes. There was a total of 11 caution periods and three red flags. The race could not get a rhythm. It was the old saying, "Cautions breed cautions!".

Jake Gille in the red #35 led most of the early part of the race, but on Lap 75 Michael Bilderback #2 passed Jake. From that point forward things did not go well for Jake. As the laps approached one hundred, Jake  was running down the backstretch when he and Dale Nottestadt got together. Jake bounced off the outside wall and continued straight into the large tire protecting the concrete wall at the entrance to the pits. What followed looked horrific!

Fortunately, Jake was able to exit the car under his own power and appeared to be unhurt! After the cleanup, it was determined to shorten the race by five laps. On the restart, Casey Johnson was able to grab and hold the lead to the finish.

The last race of the night was the Vintage Racers of Illinois  15-lap Feature.

Everything was going pretty smoothly until with four alps to go there was a dust up in turn three. Gene Pennington hit the concrete wall head-on in turn 3.

Gene was injured and had to be assisted out of his car and taken to the ambulance. He was awake and alert. It was decided to end the race and the win was awarded to #5 Pat Heaney.

To see all the images from Saturday's racing, please click here.