LOVES PARK, Ill. — With only a handful of laps to go, Dale Nottestad passed Jeremy Miller and raced to victory in the 46th annual Spring Classic for Big 8 Series late models at the Rockford Speedway Sunday afternoon.
Originally scheduled for Saturday, the event was postponed for a day because of cold weather that included some Spring snow.
The day’s racing marked the opening day for the Northern Illinois raceway, which is celebrating its “Last Lap Season.” The speedway will close at the end of this year after its 76th year of operation.
With the temperatures battling to get to the 40-degree mark Sunday and a few snowflakes still in the air, Nottestad wheeled his “trusty” Glass Works of Wisconsin/Smithback Farms-sponsored Chevrolet to the win in the 18-car/88-lap chase.
The 45-year-old Cambridge, Wis., racer, the defending Big 8 Series champion, scored his third career Spring Classic victory at the high-banked quarter-mile paved oval.
Taking the lead from Jeremy Miller on lap 85, Nottestad was up to the task after another late-race yellow flag for a green-white-checkered flag charge to finish, holding off Jon Reynolds Jr. with a .382-second margin of victory.
Reynolds, fast qualifier and a four-time Rockford late model champion, was chased by another former Rockford champ Alex Papini, Grant Brown, Mike Beyer and Kody King.
Miller, who was part of the second late-race caution with last year’s Spring Classic winner Max Kahler, finished eighth.
Defending Rockford late model titlist Jake Gille led the race during the opening laps only to be slowed by a mechanical problem. Gille finished 13th – seven laps behind the winner.
“I wanted to get the lead before (the) halfway (break),” said Nottestad. “I just couldn’t quite get him (Miller). On a restart, I got hung up on the outside and then had to battle with (Jon) Reynolds (Jr.). Miller got away too far and I was just kind of riding, hoping for a caution. I figured I would go to the bottom (groove there at the end) and see what I could do.”
Josh Nelms of Lockport, Ill., was the winner of the 44-lap feature race for Mid-Am Racing Series cars and drivers, which saw a field of 21 take the green flag.
The 45-year-old Nelms scored his first career Mid-Am victory, driving his McMahon Transport Group-sponsored Chevrolet to the checkered flag over Clay Curts who led the race for most of the way. The series’ fastest qualifier, Nelms held a 5.566-second victory margin at the end. Dale Lectus Jr., Andrew Meyerhofer, Vince Cooper and Steve Blair rounded out the top six.
Nick Schmidt, from Watertown, Wis., scored the victory in the 25-lap main event for four-cylinder competitors. Schmidt finished ahead of Bart Brockman and Zakary Chanda.
The finish:
Dale Nottestad, Jon Reynolds Jr., Alex Papini, Grant Brown, Mike Beyer, Kody King, Gregory Borchardt, Jeremy Miller, Max Kahler, Shane Radtke, Randy Sargent, Jerry Mueller, Jake Gille, Trevor Robinson, Jerry Stafford, Hannah Raley, Austin Nason, Josh Lundy.