Ron Weedon
East Moline, Ill. (June 13, 1976) – Nonstop. 100 laps NONSTOP!
On a night when it took 35 minutes just to complete the first lap of the first heat, Ron Weedon sat back and let the lead come to him in an incredible finale at Quad-City Raceway on Sunday.
And once he got out front in the Pabst Blue Ribbon 100, there was no stopping him – or anyone else for that matter – as the late model stock car event went the full 100 circuits without a hitch.
That’s almost unheard of a quarter-mile clay track where drivers generally try to squeeze 20 cars into the first turn side-by-side.
A couple of years ago, Raceway ran a 50-lap mid-season championship race without a restart, and Weedon remembers running 50 laps on a dirt track in Springfield, Ill., non-stop – but that’s a one-mile track.
Perhaps the distance that made the difference in this one. In the shorter events, the driver have to charge right from the start; while in the longer events, they can sit back for a while.
That’s exactly what Weedon did. “We started a long way back and I figured we’d take maybe second or third,” the popular Pleasant Valley driver said. That was about midway through the event when Weedon was lapped by leader Jim Gerber, who had started on the pole position and led most of the way.
But Weedon, who started tenth on the basis of afternoon time trials, fell in behind Gerber and some of the best racing of the evening came as he tried to un-lap himself.
Just a few laps later, on lap 65, telltale smoke started pouring from the rear of Gerber’s car, and soon after his tire popped from rubbing on metal that was bent from banging into the wall in one of the turns.
He hung on gamely until Ray Guss scooted by and only then headed to the pits for a tire change. Guss and Gerber were the only cars on the same lap at this point.
But when Guss suffered mechanical problems three-quarters through the race, the scoring was up for grabs. Weedon got out front and held on, but it took track officials almost an hour to determine the other placings and payoffs.
Bob Stogdell was second followed by Dan Bennett, Gary Webb, and Ernie Speth.
But while many in the capacity crowd didn’t know who was ahead after Gerber and Guss dropped out, Weedon knew right where he was. “I knew I had been lapped by Gerber – and Gerber only,” he said.
It wasn’t really a bad night for Gerber. The veteran turned in the fastest lap in time trials and led probably half the race – at $20 a lap, meaning he most likely matched the $1,000 Weedon received for winning. Of course, the champion also pocketed a sizeable amount of laap money as well.
Results –
Heat #1 – Duane Steffe, East Moline
Heat #2 – Ron Weedon, Pleasant Valley, Iowa
Heat #3 – Ernie Speth, Davenport, Iowa
Semi-main – Herb Shannon, Peoria
Feature –
1. Ron Weedon
2. Bob Stogdell, East Moline
3. Dan Bennett, Peoria
4. Gary Webb, Davenport, Iowa
5. Ernie Speth
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