MORRIS, Ill. — Friday night saw Grundy County Speedway celebrate 50 years of racing with twin 25-lap feature races on tap for four stock car divisions with Paul Shafer Jr. and Nathan Kelly scoring victories in the track’s late model division.
The third-mile paved speedway, located at the Grundy County Fairgrounds, opened for the first time on May 30, 1971, replacing the old Mazon Speed Bowl with Friday night racing being pretty much the staple for 50 years.
A field of 19 cars took the green flag for the first late model 25 lapper with James Gregait leading the way. Shafer, who started fifth, got a good run after the race’s second yellow flag with seven laps complete and was the race leader several laps later.
Nineteen laps were in the books when Keith Tolf and six-time track champion Eddie Hoffman tangled as they battled for third place, sending Hoffman, the evening’s fastest qualifier, to the pits with a damaged race car.
It was all Shafer the rest of the way as the 23-year-old Portage, Ind., driver wheeled his Paul’s Auto Yard-sponsored Chevrolet to the checkered flag with a 0.399-second lead over Dave Gentile, Jr.
Gregait, Larry Middleton, Jr., Austin Maynard and Tony Brutti rounded out the top six.
“I got down to him (Gregait) and I did my best not to get into him,” said Shafer. “I wanted to race him clean and get around him fair and square. The car was pretty good and I was able to drive away. (The win) is going to help us in the points.”
Kelly, who was involved in an early race tangle in the first 25-lap chase, scored the victory in the second feature race of the night. With Blake Brown missing from the lineup, 18 cars started the second 25 with an eight-car pileup occurring in turn three on the opening lap.
A long clean-up process took place with Middleton, Hoffman, Tolf and Dean Patterson not able to line up for the complete restart. Bubba Brooks paced the early laps with Kelly, the 24-year son of three-time Grundy champion Pat Kelly, moving into the lead.
Kelly and his Elite Tradeshow Services/Greg & Sons Construction/Morrissey Racing Inc. Chevrolet never were challenged with the Wilmington, Ill., racer taking the checkered flag with a 1.407-second advantage at the finish over DJ Weltmeyer.
Last year’s rookie of the year, Clay Curts turned in his best late model performance, finishing third. Maynard, Gentile and Shafer made up the rest of the top six.
“We got a good starting spot after screwing up in the first segment,” said Kelly. “I was being a little too impatient in the first race. “We only ran half throttle the whole race. The motor was missing real bad. I was worried about blowing it up.”
Twin 25s for the Mid-American sportsman division saw David Einhaus and Kevin Murphy score victories.
Einhaus won the first feature over Kenny Benson, Ron Vandermeir Jr., Cory Clougherty and Marqus Hoover. The 30-year-old Murphy, last year’s division champion at Grundy, defeated Blake Brown, Darryl Philips, Benson and Hoover.
Timmy Stewart and Eddie Ligue were winners of the twin street stock 25s. Stewart finished ahead of Scott Gardner and Pat Ligue, while Eddie Ligue came out of a wild-looking, three-wide scramble, to score his win over Cheryl Hryn and Salvador Lozano.
Matt Clemens and his fast Saturn won both 25-lap features for four-cylinder competitors.