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“No! Seventy laps is just fine! Anything more than that would be sheer punishment.”,
an adamant voice squawked over the Teamspeak voice channel. This was in response to someone’s question about the scheduled length of the Galesburg event. I had asked the same question earlier during the current practice session and had received a similar, but less emphatic answer.   The week before, myself along with several other MCT-SRL drivers, popped over to the quarter mile, Galesburg Speedway, in order to check it out.  The radio chatter on that occasion was a lot more relaxed than it was now. As I thought about that, Mark Howland’s voice filled my headset. “Holy cow this place is flat!”, the driver of the No.57 Rudyard Auto sales Dodge yelled as he slid off the track onto the grass. There was a chorus of agreement to his comment.  It was shaping up to be a long night.

After adding more front brake bias to the fixed setup used by all drivers, as recommended by John Hernly, driver of the No.64 TV Land / ECCI Chevy, things were much improved. As practice continued everyone settled in and began turning some consistent laps. Well, all but one. League Administrator, Craig Bristol from Witherbee, Ney York, ejected the No.44 of KC Foote for aggressive driving. Foote who had been ejected a third of the way through the Kalamazoo race on April 2nd and had been the center of controversy for several incidents at the Mansfield race only one week ago, was showing no signs of altering his driving style.  Bristol said he dislikes having to eject anyone, but after repeated warnings to the No.44, he was left with no other choice.  It is likely that Foote will not be allowed to enter any races in the upcoming season.

Galesburg was the last scheduled race for the MCT-SRL Pre-season. Notables missing from the race were points leader, Craig Curtis of DeWitt, Michigan, Jason Snyder of Jonesville and Don Colbath of Midland. Curtis indicated that he was busy preparing his “real cars” for the weekend.  Driving in the MCT-SRL for the first time was Lansings’ Brad Skusa. Skusa in the No.20 made a substantial first impression by taking the pole with a 14.747 second lap. (61.029 mph)  An avid Sim-Racer, Skusa said that he doesn’t do any short track racing at the moment, but he does “help out the Finley’s with their Outlaw and ARCA cars.”   Sitting next to Skusa on the front row was Hernly, who posted a 14.773 second (60.922 mph) lap.

What many had feared was going to be a constant string of yellows, turned into the best race in the MCT-SRL series thus far.  After events at Toledo, Madison, Kalamazoo, Berlin, Mansfield and Motor Mile in Virginia, the grid was mostly filled with drivers that had become accustomed to each other’s racing style.  Skusa set the pace from the drop of the green flag. Behind him, Hernly in the No.64 and Howland in the No.57 were just beginning to lap the field when the yellow came out. Kalamazoo’s Doug TerMeer in the No.91 spun off the bumper of the No.39 of Pete Gibson during a battle for the seventh position.  Doug’s brother, Tom TerMeer in the No.89 got the free pass.

On lap 28 it was Gibson’s turn to get turned. New York’s Sean Case in the No.77 provided the bump that sent the No.39 around. Several cars took advantage of the caution and pitted to take on right-side tires. Gibson pitted twice, taking two tires each time and was able to stay on the lead lap. Up front, although Hernly in the No.64 had been applying considerable pressure to Skusa, he had not been able to make the pass thus far. Tom TerMeer once again received the lucky-dog. Phil Loedeman, the last car on the lead lap, actually restarted in front of first place Skusa.

I spun my No.73 Ultra-Tuff Safety Coatings Dodge into the infield exiting turn four on lap 47, but continued and the race stayed under green. A few laps after my little trip through the infield, Loedeman had been driving the wheels off his car to stay in front of Skusa and on the lead lap, had a good run on the lap car of Kenny Dwyer entering turn one. The two made contact and Dwyer’s car spun directly in front of Skusa. The first place No.20 missed it, but Hernly running second made contact with Dwyer’s car. Fortunately for Hernly, running second in the No.64, the field had already been frozen and he did not receive too much damage. Dwyer was not so lucky. His car was subsequently hit again by Sean Case in the No.77 and Dwyer retired for the night. Neither Case nor Hernly pitted for repairs.

By lap 61 Skusa and Hernly had opened about a four second lead over third place Howland who was battling with Case over that position.  On the exit of turn two, Hernly’s No.64 got into the back of Skusa, sending the No.20 around. Hernly checked up, to avoid being collected and amazingly, Skusa did a full 360 and continued, still in front of Hernly.  Mark Howland in the No.57 caught and passed the pair on outside of the back straight, causing him to take turns three and four very wide as a result. He led lap 62, but had lost a lot of momentum on the front straight, trying to keep it off the wall. Skusa was back under Howland in turn one and with a nudge against Howland’s door, closed the deal exiting turn two. With Howland now out of the way, Hernly made it past as well.  Three laps later, under hard pressure from Hernly, Skusa slipped up in turn two and Hernly took over the first spot and the checkered flag for the win.

Howland had fallen back into a four car battle with Loedeman, Case and last week’s winner, Bart Fuerstenberger. These drivers hammered it out door-to-door for the five remaining laps of the race. Howland managed to hang on to the third spot, Fuerstenberger fourth and Loedeman in fifth.  Howland was the overall winner of the Pre-Season segment.

Final Pre-Season Standings: