After having everything within a four four drive of me washed out on Friday, and with Saturday greeting us with strong northwest winds and much cooler temperatures, I made the decision to head on up the road to the West Liberty Raceway for my Saturday night destination. This is where I spent most every Saturday night back in the 1970's and into the early 80's, and I just don't get there much anymore even though it is less than an hour from my home base. Knowing that the covered grandstands faced east providing a nice block to the wind I figured that the weather would be less of a factor there than some of my other choices tonight, plus I just had to go back to hear my old friend Jerry Mackey on the microphone. Jerry and his wife Marnee have returned to Iowa after being in California the past several years and it is great to have him paired up with the always entertaining Mike Becker at the SPI tracks. And yes, I would have written the same nice things about the two of you even if you hadn't given the website such a great plug!!
Hats off to Keith Simmons and his entire crew for even being able to race tonight as the track picked up over three inches of rain over the past three days. Their efforts definitely paid off for the fans who braved the chilly conditions tonight as drivers were able to run from top to bottom on the big half-mile with only a couple bumps developing from the over abundance of moisture.
On to the racing, the first main event of the night was the B-Modified feature where Jarrett Franzen moved quickly from his third row starting spot to grab the lead on lap one. By lap five Franzen had plenty of company as Zach Less oved to the lowside and Jason Speers went to the top to make it a three-wide race for the lead in turn three. Less emreged with the lead off turn four and never looked back over the final ten laps as he picked up the feature win. Speers and Franzen were second and third followed by Mark Winkel and Nick Hixson. Hixson looked as though he might challenge for the lead mid-race only to fall off the pace over the final five circuits.
Stock Cars were up next and it was pole starter Jamie Figg leading the first three laps before yielding to David Brandies. From the way he ran the rest of the race I was surprised to hear Brandies state that this was his first win here in the Stock Car division after seven years of trying as he outran many time winner Greg Gill over the final ten laps. Scotty Pratt, who failed to answer the bell for his heat race earlier in the evening, started from the rear of the sixteen-car field and made a nice run up to third whil Brad Tyler and Figg completed the top five.
The "Flyer" field was stacked with talent as four of the top six drivers in the All Iowa Four Cylinder Points were on hand and the whole field really got around the half-mile in high speed fashion. Jordan Walker was the lap one leader, but young Tyler Kelly, who started seventh went flying by on lap number two. Brad and Nathan Chandler tried to keep pace, but that would be the best they could do as Kelly rolled to his second win of the season at West Liberty. Brad prevailed over Nathan for second as the two went side-by-side on the final lap with Jarrod McMichael, Jeff Miller and Jeremy Campbell next in line. Tyler Kelly and his father Tim actually live on the same lane as my brother Kurtis does in the Williamsburg suburb of Parnell and the Kelly's had a little extra help, if needed, in the pits tonight as 2008 All Iowa Points champion Brannon Bechen was on hand after being rained out at Maquoketa.
The Modifieds featured the highest car count of the night with twenty-one and nearly all of them were capable of grabbing the trophy in their twenty-lap feature. Todd Hansen was able to hold off the challenges of Steve Stewart for the first two laps before Stewart snared the lead on lap three. A caution flag one lap later slowed the field and on the restart Ryan Dolan went storming past to grab the lead. Bruce Hanford followed him through into second and looked like he might have something for the new leader, but Dolan shook him off and then drove away to the win in the Jamison Racing #7. Hanford held off a late charge from Steve Boley who had his best night since returning to the Modified division finishing third. Former All Iowa Points champion Mark Schulte passed Stewart late to take fourth while Brad Diercks and Larry Herring came home sixth and seventh. During the lap four caution Diercks ducked into the pit area and returned just in time to restart from 19th and Herring, who had spun out on the final lap of his heat race, started the race on the outside of row ten. And yes, I did confirm that Larry still has "Kurt's Used Caskets" as one of the "sponsors" on his #96.
Eighteen NASCAR Late Models took the green in the evening's finale and it looked like Matt "Bones" Bodman might just be the man to beat. After all he had walked away from a strong field in the first heat race of the night and he was starting the feature from the pole position. Bodman started strong leading the race from the drop of the green with Denny Eckrich in hot pursuit. On lap number four Denny made the pass for the lead only to have the caution flag come out before the entire lap was scored. Following the restart, again Eckrich made the pass of Bodman only to again have to give it back when a second caution flag waved. Finally on lap seven Denny made the pass that would stick as he then went unchallenged the remainder of the distance to pick up the win. Chad Simpson started in row number nine and gradually made his way to the front to claim the runner-up title with Dave Eckrich and Andy Eckrich next in line. Kevin Kile slipped past Bodman on the final lap to finish fifth. Kurt Kile was supposed to start from the outside of turn one, but when he was forced to scratch his #77 he climbed aboard Dakota Hayden's #12 and was passing some cars before he slowed with a wisp of smoke.
The racing action got underway right at the advertised starting time of 7 p.m. and was completed by 9:50. My theory on the weather and the covered grandstand played out perfectly as I never did have to add any layers to my t-shirt and hooded sweatshirt, but man was it cold as I left the grandstands and headed for the car! Two special events that we will be adding to our Calendar at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ are coming up at the Farley Speedway as Simmons Promotions will host two "Tornado Tuesdays" featuring $10,000-to-win Late Models and $1,000-to-win Modifieds. Mark those dates of Tuesday June 16th and Tuesday July 7th and we'll hope to see you there!
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