By Jay Hardin Track Enterprises
A terrible weather forecast, a good 70th running of the Ted Horn 100 and a very strange day were just some of the story lines of the annual 100-mile national championship dirt car race held on the mile dirt track carved out of reclaimed strip mine land. A lot of additions and changes were made to the history books Saturday afternoon and yet perhaps the most viral event of the day didn’t happen during the Horn 100.
Justin Grant and chief wrench Dennis LaCava appear to have the miles figured out, maybe in the spirit of the late Junior Kurtz and his driver Chuck Gurney. Even with a different chassis for 2024, the NOS Energy Drink DRC (Devin Race Cars) Chevrolet was flawless again Saturday. After starting on the pole and leading all 100 at Springfield, Grant set quick time at DuQuoin. Logan Seavey grabbed the lead at the start and led until Grant snatched the lead on lap 32 and led the rest of the way. In doing so, it was the 23rd time a driver swept the two Illinois dirt miles and the first time since Chris Windom in 2018. Grant’s mount looked like it was on rails most of the day and his Hoosier tires looked better than most at the end.
Grant became the 17th driver with more than one champ car win at DuQuoin. He gave DRC its first win on the Magic Mile and the 37th win for the small block Chevy engine. It was the 23rd win for a car shod with Hoosier rubber. Justin is the 16th driver from California to win the Ted Horn 100 and it was the 19th victory from the pole position. It also was the second win for LaCava as chief wrench and Ron Hemelgarn as car owner.
Kody Swanson ran a steady second and appeared to challenge Grant at times. Swanson was never able to pass and posted his 8th top 10 finish in 13 DuQuoin starts. He moved over the 1000 mile mark at DuQuoin as well. Unfortunately for Kody, he also saw his point lead in the Silver Crown series shrink down to 12 over Grant heading into the Four Crown at Eldora.
2022 Ted Horn 100 winner Logan Seavey started second and grabbed the early lead, looking like he had something for Grant and the rest of the field. Once Grant got by on lap 32, Seavey held down second before dropping to fifth at the end. He is now 67 points behind Swanson for the title.
Saturday was a fine sendoff for the Bateman Racing Team of nearby Murphysboro. Team Principal Patty Bateman has carried on since Randy passed in 2017, employing Casey Shuman and Jerry Coons Jr. behind the wheel. The relationship of the team and the big cars goes all the way back to 1982 when Randy made his first of 26 attempts at the Magic Mile, making the main event 16 times starting in 1983. Patty gave an emotional command to start the 70th Horn 100. Her driver gave them a fine 4th place run and moved up substantially after halfway. In fact, Coons was able to put his name solidly in the DuQuoin record books.
Jerry is now the all-time mileage leader in champ cars at DuQuoin, with 1980 laps completed, passing George Snider. Jerry Coons 23rd Ted Horn 100 start ties him for 4th all-time. He is now tied for the most top 10 finishes at DuQuoin with Snider and A.J. Foyt, each with 15. He is third in starts from the top 10, and fourth for most times running at the finish. One record he would like to break is most starts without a victory, 23.
Russ Gamester also moved up in the statistical realm of the Magic Mile. He has 24 starts, good enough for 3rd all time. His 1604 miles complete is 8th on the all-time list.
Nine DuQuoin rookies made the call for the 100 mile grind, and the new blood certainly stood out Saturday. Mitchel Moles has been making a name in the USAC sprint and midget divisions and Saturday he qualified 4th and ran in the top 5 for quite a while in a spirited battle with fellow rookie Saban Bibent. Moles fell to 15th stopping on the main cute out of fuel right before the rains came. Bibent garnered a lot of attention with his run for the small Sammy Fetter team out of Missouri. Bibent hauled their Beast around in practice like it was a sprint car, qualified 12th then battled Moles hard for a number of miles. Bibent was on track for a top ten and maybe a top five until issues forced him out 9 laps before the end. Okie Kip Hughes had a great run going from 25th to 14th.
Others didn’t fare as well. Don Droud Jr. qualified ninth in the Cornell 8 and then hit the turn one outer gate/wall flipping and tearing off the front end of the car. He was helped from the car but otherwise OK. Danny Jennings, a familiar winner out at the Hutchinson, Kansas half mile has enjoyed running the miles, even after barrel rolling in turns 3 & 4. Surprisingly they rolled the car out of the pit area in the rain. Trey Osborne was hauling the mail in practice but was forced out early and finished 26th.
The “local”contingent had some worthy runs. Mario Clouser, driving a car carrying a paint job and number reminiscent of Greg Weld’s 1969 STP Plymouth ran hard all day to sixth. Kyle Steffens, the youngest winner of the companion UMP modified event, fell in love with the big cars and has been improving ever since. He was a strong seventh Saturday. Korey Weyant, fourth generation of the Weyant family, ran eleventh. Much to the chagrin of driver and the partisan crowd, two-time winner Shane Cockrum never found the speed in the Hans Lein 97 with tire issues dropping him to 16th.
Another record of sorts was set Saturday, most red flags in the Ted Horn 100. Five in all, four for accidents. In addition to the aforementioned Droud and Jennings crashes, Jimmy Light got upside down in turn 2, and Danny Long seriously damaged his Beast when he flipped coming out of four putting a dent in the turn four crossover gate. Long was banged up slightly while Light climbed out unhurt.
Two more story lines, one being the crazy weather. The forecast early on was depressing and even 48 hours out looked bad. It kept changing and while it rained all around DuQuoin practice went off without a hitch. Clouds a sun mixed though the day and then a shower that didn’t appear on radar hit the track just at the time Moles slowed at the pit exit. Strangely, it rained harder in turns 3&4 than it did in 1&2. The crew tried to start running it in but soon it was evident the race was going to be called with the field on the main chute. Ironically the 1974 Horn 100 was cut short by rain as well just past halfway. In another bit of irony, another time the Horn 100 was cut short was 70 years earlier when an accident on pit road injured many and took the life of mechanic Clay Smith.
And finally the event that has drawn a lot of attention was the exhibition put on by a new class in Illinois the “Crown Vic’s”. Crown Vics are about as close to true stock cars as you can get, with simple rules and the only cars eligible are the Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car. They all shared a common body style and were V-8 rear drives. Several contacted the race promoter at the last minute wanting to tackle the mile. Five showed including 3 former police cars. On lap 4 of their exhibition, one of the former squad cars got loose in turn 2, snapped back to the right and hit the turn 2 concrete nearly head on. The driver staggered out of the car and was checked in the ambulance, the car destroyed. The video replay has gone viral on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.
*Allen Horcher Photo