By Jay Hardin Track Enterprises
Rain on Saturday led to a herculean effort by the track crew of the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds and Track Enterprises to put the mile of clay into shape and they did an admirable job. By the time the 7:30 start rolled around for the 70th Southern Illinois 100 ARCA stock car race the track was raceable with more than one groove. It was just about perfect for a 16-year-old dirt track ace who managed to lead every lap Sunday night.
Brent Crews just missed the Performance Seed Dirt Double last year becoming the youngest winner ever of the Allen Crowe 100 at Springfield then finishing second to teammate and friend Jesse Love at DuQuoin. The Okie was on a mission Sunday night from the start, posting second quick time then engaging in a power move from the outside to take the lead from pole sitter William Sawalich. Crews was never headed managing to pull out to a ten second lead at times and managing to hold off Sawalich on an overtime restart.
Crews became the fifth driver in 70 years to lead all laps of the Southern Illinois 100, leading all 102 in the overtime contest. He is the fourth teenager in the last five years to win the ARCA sanctioned event. He gave Toyota a seventh win on the Magic Mile and the eighth win for General Tire. He is the first driver from Oklahoma to win the Southern Illinois 100. He also gave the Venturini camp their sixth win at DuQuoin. His night wasn’t completely perfect, as he brushed the turn 4 wall in practice.
With 7 wins in 10 starts Sawalich came to DuQuoin as the odds-on favorite with railbirds conceding that Crews would challenge. Sawalich threw down the gauntlet in General Tire Pole Qualifying going out sixteenth and posting quick time, while Crews went out last and nearly knocked him off the pole. He and Crews had a drag race on the start and Crews ripped the top to take the lead and continued to do so throughout the 100-miler. Sawalich couldn’t keep up after restarts and the race break. He came closest to taking the lead on the lap 100 restart, with some apparent contact between the two leaders. He also made a strong run off four to the checker finishing less than a car length behind Crews.
While he missed out on the 20 grand put up by Performance Seed, he did pick up the consolation bonus of $7500 for the best finish between the 2 dirt miles. Performance Seed ponied up $5000 for the second-best finish, and $2500 for third.
Through 16 races on the schedule none of the top ten in points can claim a win, all being denied victory lane at DuQuoin.
ARCA Menards point leader Andres Perez continues to improve on the dirt. His Max Siegel Chevy was a strong runner most of the night taking home third. Venturini driver Kris Wright wasn’t as strong Sunday as he was at Springfield but still managed a top 5. Lavar Scott had a steady run to sixth for his second dirt track start. Christian Rose soldiered on to an eighth one lap down.
While the ARCA ladies wowed the crowd at Springfield, their battle at the front never materialized at DuQuoin. Taylor Reimer was fastest in the half hour practice session but fell short of the pole qualifying eighth and finishing seventh. She and others had trouble in practice with damage to the front ends of machines. Toni Breidinger ran a steady race to ninth, two laps in arrears. Amber Balcaen was in the top ten until her late race spin on the back stretch put her behind and she wound up eleventh.
Veterans Kelly Kovski, Will Kimmel and Brad Smith had varying results but continue to move up the leaderboard at DuQuoin in several categories. Kovksi was a strong second up until the break utilizing the outside groove many times. After the break he started to slide back and at one point was sixth, but managed to regain fifth and that’s where he ended the night. His 18 starts place him eleventh on the all-time list, he jumps to twelfth on the all-time miles completed list with 1535. Kovski is also 8th in top ten finishes with 11.
Smith made his 22nd start at DuQuoin, tied now for third all-time with the late Sal Tovella. Smith is 25th in miles completed with 1188.
Kimmel had one of the neatest sounding cars Sunday, a higher pitched scream coming out of the left side pipes. The 2017 pole sitter wants nothing more than a 100-mile ARCA dirt win, he was strong early running sixth and biding his time. Unfortunately, mechanical woes took him out on lap 31. Will’s 14 starts are in the top 25 and he is 5 miles away from 1000 at DuQuoin.
Andy Hillenburg brought 4 cars and drivers to the Magic Mile. Cody Dennison and Michael Maples are in the ARCA top ten, Dennison managed a 12th 6 laps down while Maples made 80 miles before dropping out. Part-timer Tim Monroe continues his strong runs on the DuQuoin dirt for Indiana Andy. Monroe, from Elmwood, Illinois, posted his 4th top 10 in 4 DuQuoin starts Sunday night.
Eight DuQuoin rookies were in the field Sunday, about the average for the last decade.
*Rich Corbett Photo