The IMCA and the Independence Motor Speedway served up the perfect combination Wednesday night with the Deery Brothers Late Model Summer Series and night number two of the Great American Shootout for the Stock Cars. Forty Late Models were on hand along with a stellar and diverse field of fifty-one Stock Cars, and the drivers did not disappoint as they raced hard throughout the night with minimal cautions.
Just making the twenty-four-car feature field for the Stock Cars was impressive and the parity of the field was obvious as despite only one caution in the thrity-five lap distance the leaders never did have to negotiate through lapped traffic on the 3/8-mile oval. Local favorite Jarod Weepie drew the pole and used it well to take the early lead while a fierce battle for second was being waged behind him. Brian Irvine, Jeff Joldersma and Mike Nichols ran three-wide for four straight laps before Irvine finally gained an advantage using the bottom groove. A consistent winner here with three victories already in 2009, Irvine then went to work on Weepie for the lead with Nichols and Joldersma still not far behind.
This three-wide battle lasted for four straight laps early in the Stock Car feature. Brian Irvine is on the inside, Jeff Joldersma in the middle and that's Mike Nichols riding the cushion - Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography photo
On lap twelve Irvine drove to the inside of turn three pulling even with Weepie and when the two of them made just a bit of contact that was all that Nichols needed as he rode the cushion around both to become the new leader. Irvine settled into second and once again used the low line to chase down a leader and on lap eighteen he was able to drive past the former IMCA Stock Car National Champion Nichols. The only caution of the 30-lap event came on lap 27 when John Oliver Jr., Damon Murty and Steve Meyer got together in turn four and the field was lined up double-file behind the leader for the restart. As Irvine pulled away to take the $1,000 victory, the race for second through sixth became intense as Joldersma prevailed to take the runner-up honors a car length ahead of Justin Temeyer. Wisconsin driver Jesse Colwell who had started fourteenth passed Nichols in the final two laps to finish fourth and another Wisconsin shoe John Heinz was just inches behind Nichols at the stripe to finish sixth.
After the solid performance that the Stock Car drivers provided, the pressure was on "the boys of Summer" and as usual they delivered with a 50-lap finale that had plenty of action and just one caution period on lap seven. At that one and only break in the action it was front row starter Rob Toland out front, but the driver to have been watching during that first seven circuits was defending IMCA Late Model National Champion Jason Frankel. Frankel had problems during his heat and did not finish forcing him to start thirteenth in the second B-Main. In that twelve-lap race he drove through the field and finished in the fourth and final qualifying position earning him a start on the outside of row ten in the main event. In the feature it took him just seven laps to move up to the tenth spot and on lap thirteen Frankel moved into the top five.
Meanwhile back up front, the race for the lead was very entertaining as it took Terry Neal only two laps after the restart to take the lead from Toland only to have Rob battle back to regain the advantage on lap twenty. Ten laps later, once again Neal used the very bottom line out of four to drive under Toland and into the lead as they started to work in lapped traffic. Frankel was now up to third using a line that was just a bit higher than anyone else and he was coming. With around ten laps remaining Frankel drove around the outside to take second from Toland and it looked as if he was within striking distance of the leader Neal if he could quickly dispatch the lapped cars of T.J. Criss and Darrell DeFrance. Now keep in mind that the Deery Series does not use the layover flag so when DeFrance and Criss went side-by-side for a few laps in their own battle for position, it blocked off Frankel's groove and his momentum was lost.
There was no catching Neal now as he went on to victory, his third in three visits to Indee in 2009, and Toland was able to get back around Frankel with five to go to take home the runner-up honors. The Quincy-based Frankel surely picked up some new fans here tonight with his third-place run while the top two in points Ray Guss Jr. and the point leader Jeff Aikey completed the top five.
Terry Neal makes the winning pass of Rob Toland - Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography photo
Indee Notes......The Stock Car field featured drivers from all four corners of the state of Iowa, plus representatives from Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Illinois.....Trent Murphy made an impressive run from row eleven to finish eight in the main event.....Dustin Smith who was claimed the night before by Wisconsin driver Larry Karcz returned the favor claiming Wisconsin's Colwell here tonight.....The second heat race was a thriller as the top five never had more than five car lengths from the nose of the leader to the tail of the fifth-place car throughout the entire eight lap distance with Oliver Jr. taking the win ahead of Weepie and Colwell while Smith and Abe Huls were forced to one of three B-Mains......Jeff Wollam was running second in the third heat when his right rear tire went flat on the final lap.....Wisconsin's Mark Schuenemann was the benefactor when Phil Holtz spun out of the third spot on the final lap of the fourth heat.....The three drivers who came up one position short of transferring out of the B-Mains were all pretty solid as Jeremy Christians, Dan Mackenthun and Jason Cook watched the feature from the pits......Ed Sanger was running a strong second in the first Late Model heat when he slipped off the banking exiting turn four and slammed the guardrail in front of the grandstand.....After several years in the Modifieds Chad Lerch is now a rookie competitor in the Late Model division and it looks like he will be making some noise there. Lerch was a heat race winner at the Deery show in West Union that was cut short by rain and will be made up on July 14th, and tonight he ran in the top five for the first half of the main event before Guss Jr., Aikey and Jay Johnson shuffled the rookie back to seventh.....
Just making the twenty-four-car feature field for the Stock Cars was impressive and the parity of the field was obvious as despite only one caution in the thrity-five lap distance the leaders never did have to negotiate through lapped traffic on the 3/8-mile oval. Local favorite Jarod Weepie drew the pole and used it well to take the early lead while a fierce battle for second was being waged behind him. Brian Irvine, Jeff Joldersma and Mike Nichols ran three-wide for four straight laps before Irvine finally gained an advantage using the bottom groove. A consistent winner here with three victories already in 2009, Irvine then went to work on Weepie for the lead with Nichols and Joldersma still not far behind.
This three-wide battle lasted for four straight laps early in the Stock Car feature. Brian Irvine is on the inside, Jeff Joldersma in the middle and that's Mike Nichols riding the cushion - Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography photoOn lap twelve Irvine drove to the inside of turn three pulling even with Weepie and when the two of them made just a bit of contact that was all that Nichols needed as he rode the cushion around both to become the new leader. Irvine settled into second and once again used the low line to chase down a leader and on lap eighteen he was able to drive past the former IMCA Stock Car National Champion Nichols. The only caution of the 30-lap event came on lap 27 when John Oliver Jr., Damon Murty and Steve Meyer got together in turn four and the field was lined up double-file behind the leader for the restart. As Irvine pulled away to take the $1,000 victory, the race for second through sixth became intense as Joldersma prevailed to take the runner-up honors a car length ahead of Justin Temeyer. Wisconsin driver Jesse Colwell who had started fourteenth passed Nichols in the final two laps to finish fourth and another Wisconsin shoe John Heinz was just inches behind Nichols at the stripe to finish sixth.
After the solid performance that the Stock Car drivers provided, the pressure was on "the boys of Summer" and as usual they delivered with a 50-lap finale that had plenty of action and just one caution period on lap seven. At that one and only break in the action it was front row starter Rob Toland out front, but the driver to have been watching during that first seven circuits was defending IMCA Late Model National Champion Jason Frankel. Frankel had problems during his heat and did not finish forcing him to start thirteenth in the second B-Main. In that twelve-lap race he drove through the field and finished in the fourth and final qualifying position earning him a start on the outside of row ten in the main event. In the feature it took him just seven laps to move up to the tenth spot and on lap thirteen Frankel moved into the top five.
Meanwhile back up front, the race for the lead was very entertaining as it took Terry Neal only two laps after the restart to take the lead from Toland only to have Rob battle back to regain the advantage on lap twenty. Ten laps later, once again Neal used the very bottom line out of four to drive under Toland and into the lead as they started to work in lapped traffic. Frankel was now up to third using a line that was just a bit higher than anyone else and he was coming. With around ten laps remaining Frankel drove around the outside to take second from Toland and it looked as if he was within striking distance of the leader Neal if he could quickly dispatch the lapped cars of T.J. Criss and Darrell DeFrance. Now keep in mind that the Deery Series does not use the layover flag so when DeFrance and Criss went side-by-side for a few laps in their own battle for position, it blocked off Frankel's groove and his momentum was lost.
There was no catching Neal now as he went on to victory, his third in three visits to Indee in 2009, and Toland was able to get back around Frankel with five to go to take home the runner-up honors. The Quincy-based Frankel surely picked up some new fans here tonight with his third-place run while the top two in points Ray Guss Jr. and the point leader Jeff Aikey completed the top five.
Terry Neal makes the winning pass of Rob Toland - Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography photoIndee Notes......The Stock Car field featured drivers from all four corners of the state of Iowa, plus representatives from Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Illinois.....Trent Murphy made an impressive run from row eleven to finish eight in the main event.....Dustin Smith who was claimed the night before by Wisconsin driver Larry Karcz returned the favor claiming Wisconsin's Colwell here tonight.....The second heat race was a thriller as the top five never had more than five car lengths from the nose of the leader to the tail of the fifth-place car throughout the entire eight lap distance with Oliver Jr. taking the win ahead of Weepie and Colwell while Smith and Abe Huls were forced to one of three B-Mains......Jeff Wollam was running second in the third heat when his right rear tire went flat on the final lap.....Wisconsin's Mark Schuenemann was the benefactor when Phil Holtz spun out of the third spot on the final lap of the fourth heat.....The three drivers who came up one position short of transferring out of the B-Mains were all pretty solid as Jeremy Christians, Dan Mackenthun and Jason Cook watched the feature from the pits......Ed Sanger was running a strong second in the first Late Model heat when he slipped off the banking exiting turn four and slammed the guardrail in front of the grandstand.....After several years in the Modifieds Chad Lerch is now a rookie competitor in the Late Model division and it looks like he will be making some noise there. Lerch was a heat race winner at the Deery show in West Union that was cut short by rain and will be made up on July 14th, and tonight he ran in the top five for the first half of the main event before Guss Jr., Aikey and Jay Johnson shuffled the rookie back to seventh.....
Rookie Late Model pilot Chad Lerch in action at Indee - Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography photo
Guss was behind the wheel of the #58 all night, the car normally driven by Hershel Roberts......Brian Harris drove the Dirt Late Model Magazine's Legends Series car tonight, but was unable to get qualified.....The Independence Motor Speedway crew, along with some assistance by a new turn two official, did a fantastic job putting on a well organized and well presented program that started right on time at 7 p.m. and concluded with a checkered flag at 9:50 p.m........It was great to see my long-time friend Kevin Kemp as I checked in for the night. Kevin has handled the scoring duties at Indee for several years now and Positively Racing's own Ryan Clark (In Staging) did a great job on the microphone keeping the large crowd up to speed on who all these visiting drivers were and where they were from.....Sitting high atop the new grandstands gave me the feel that I was visiting a track for the first time despite the fact that I have been here many times over the years. I will look forward to returning to Independence soon.
The "Back Stretch" will be down in Donnellson tonight (Thursday July 2nd) for the second annual Liberty Cup featuring IMCA Modifieds ($1,500-to-win), IMCA Stock Cars ($1,000-to-win) and IMCA Sport Mods ($500-to-win). Make sure that you click on the two race ads on the home page at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ as the IMCA Late Models will be running for $1,200-to-win this Saturday night the Fourth of July at 34 Raceway in Burlington, then on Wednesday July 8th the World of Outlaw sprint car drivers return to the high-banks of 34 Raceway! We invite you to attend both events and while you are in the area stop in and grab a bite to eat at the Finish Line Restaurant in nearby New London. You can get more info on this great racing themed restaurant by clicking their ad on the homepage as well.
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