East Moline Speedway honors Webb’s 50-year career with rescheduled tribute race Sept. 19

By Rob Hinckley

EAST MOLINE, Ill. – As well as he is running right now, he may even win it.

At age 72, Hall of Famer Gary Webb’s dirt track racing career is still at high speed. Webb is in his 50th season of speeding around tracks locally and beyond. The 50 years will be celebrated with The Salute to Gary Webb Eriksen Chevrolet IMCA Sunoco Late Model race on Sunday, Sept. 19 at East Moline Speedway.

The event was rescheduled from June 20 due to rain.

“Fifty years at anything is a milestone, but racing at the level Gary has for five decades means more,” EMS General Manager and Race Director Bret Sievertsen said. “We knew East Moline Speedway wanted to honor Gary, especially since he considers this track ‘home’ and won a lot here.”

The feature race will be 56 laps, in honor of Webb’s car number and pay $2,000 to the winner. Speedway Motors Weekly Racing National and KMJ Performance State points will be disbursed and line ups will be determined via draw/redraw.

More than 20 top IMCA Late Model drivers are expected, not only because of the payout, but to honor the Blue Grass, Iowa driver.

Front gates will open at 4 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled for 5:15 p.m. with racing to follow.

IMCA Modifieds, Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods and IMCA STARS Mod Lites also will be in action.

The evening will include the induction of the 2021 class to the EMS Hall of Fame.

Webb has 521 wins at 65 different tracks over his career. A significant amount of those checkered flags was earned at East Moline Speedway, including two this season. He also is a 17-time EMS champion and currently is in second place in 2021 track points.

The Davenport native belongs to the EMS Speedway Hall of Fame and the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame (Florence, Kent.). In 2018, he was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Iowa Racing Museum Hall of Fame.