Chuck Gurney continued his domination of Illinois one-mile dirt ovals with a victory at Du Quoin.
Du Quoin, Ill. (September 4, 1989) – There’s something about Illinois one-mile fairground ovals that brings out the best in Chuck Gurney.
On August 19, Gurney used a victory in the Tony Bettenhausen 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds to take the lead in the USAC Silver Crown point standings. Eight days later, an early withdrawal from a series event at Indianapolis resulted in Gurney relinquishing the top spot in the standings to Johnny Parsons.
Monday afternoon, Gurney moved back on top of the point list by capturing the circuit’s annual 100-mile contest at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in record-setting fashion.
Gurney led all but the first five trips around the one-mile oval after passing early leader George Snider. Rich Vogler came on to finish second, ahead of fast qualifier Jimmy Sills, Tony Elliott, and Jim Mahoney.
Gurney completed the 100-mile distance in 57 minutes and 29.03 seconds, to erase Rick Hood’s four-year-old standard of 58 minutes and 58.93 seconds from the record books.
While Gurney was dominating the Labor Day contest, Parsons was struggling. Parsons, who entered the show with a 504-367 lead over Gurney in the point standings, had problems all day long. After timing in only 25th fastest among the 39 competitors, Parsons had to earn his feature spot with a second-place finish in one of two qualifying races. However, Parsons’ woes continued in the feature as he managed only a 13th place finish.
As a result, Gurney now leads Parsons 567-509 in their battle for the USAC Silver Crown championship.
Results –
1. Chuck Gurney
2. Rich Vogler
3. Jimmy Sills
4. Tony Elliott
5. Jim Mahoney
6. Mark Alderson
7. Andy Hillenburg
8. Danny Smith
9. Jim McElreath
10.Walt Kennedy
11.Dave Feese
12.Greg Staab
13.Johnny Parsons
14.Larry Rice
15.Steve Butler
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