With distant lightning gradually becoming not so distant, the Lee County Speedway ran off a six division 101 car program in just under three hours Friday night with the final checkered flag falling just five minutes before the first raindrops hit. Elder Implement and Summy Tire sponsored the evening’s events and race fans who wore John Deere attire were admitted for half price.
A high standard was set by the first feature race of the night as the IMCA SportMods went fifteen laps caution free to end in a photo finish. Jacob Smith who moved to this division this season from the Hobby Stock ranks built up a nice cushion after taking the lead from his row two starting spot and he would need every inch of it. Rodger Dresden was working his way to the front from a fifth row start and with seven laps to go he made the pass for second, but found himself nearly a half straightaway behind the leader. Lap by lap Dresden made up ground and on the final circuit he was within striking distance. Dresden dove low in turn three and powered off the bottom of turn four only to come up just inches short at the finish line as Smith claimed the victory. Thad Gaylord came home third followed by Rod Staats and Rick Barlow Jr. The SportMods will have extra money on the line next Friday night for the Steve Kirchner Memorial event.
The Pilot Grove Savings Bank/Ideal Ready Mix IMCA Late Model main event was up next and Sam Halstead owned lap number one before Tony Fraise blew by him on the second trip around the 3/8-mile oval. Fraise, who has numerous career wins driving a Modified, purchased an IMCA Late Model for this season after the series was announced last October, but has struggled by his standards up until tonight. In this race he looked like the same driver that ran off and left a lot of strong Modified fields in the distance over the years as he opened up nearly a half-lap advantage by mid-race. Tom Goble who won two feature events last weekend took second away from Halstead and was able to cut into the lead a bit when Fraise encountered lapped traffic, but there was no stopping the hometown hero tonight. Many in the crowd stood and cheered as Tony Fraise earned his first-ever IMCA Late Model feature win. Goble had to settle for second with Mark Burgtorf slipping past Halstead late to finish third and build upon his point lead. Jeff Aikey rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Modified feature was one of those races that kind of drove you nuts. There was a fantastic battle going on up front involving five or six cars with all of them running different lines and swapping positions back and forth. The rub was that they were only able to do it for two or three laps at a time as drivers in the back of the field kept spinning out and causing cautions. In the end it turned out to be a two-car battle for the win featuring Rich Smith on the low groove and defending track champion Josh Foster on the cushion. These two traded the lead at least four times over the final few laps before Smith prevailed at the checkers. Rob Kirchner who ran out front early finished in third followed by another early leader Brad Ford in fourth while Andy Krieger completed the list of the top five.
The Hobby Stocks suffered a few early cautions of their own before they settled in and ran the final ten or so laps under green. Sixteen-year-old Derek St. Clair has become the driver to beat in this division in this area and he proved that once again tonight starting twelfth and driving to the front to pick up the feature win and pad his point lead here. Running only two nights a week St. Clair’s eight wins on the season has him flirting with the top ten in the All Iowa Points. The father-son tandem of Dan and Jake Wenig were next in line with the kid, Jake, taking runner-up honors while Dan put on quite a show after spinning early and restarting from the rear. Defending track champion Dean Kratzer finished in the fourth spot with Brent Hartley taking fifth.
Jeff Mueller’s #77 Stock Car had an oil leak develop in hot laps and it lasted all night as the crew kept adding lubricant prior to each event. Whatever the issue, it sure didn’t hamper his performance tonight as the driver from New London hugged the bottom groove and drove from the tenth starting spot to take the win. Corey Strothman, who picked up his first career feature win here last Friday night did his best to hold off Mueller, but would end settling for second. Aaron Brocksieck, Jason Cook and Paul Lawson would fill out the top five.
With the lightning getting closer and closer the Wild Thing Four Cylinder feature took to the track and there was a swarm of bumble bees racing four and five wide at the front of the pack. Seth Woodruff paced the field early, but with smoke pouring from his car he soon slowed and later retired from the event. Gabe Harrison then emerged from the pack and pulled away for his first career feature win. Young Kimberly Abbot looked like she had her first heat race win of the year in the bag early in the night before another competitor dumped her on the final lap. She must of used the frustration of the incident as motivation at feature time as she started seventeenth in the twelve-lap main event and drove all the way through to finish second to Harrison. Dakota Fenton picked up the third spot, while Jacob Darbyshire faded to fourth when his engine started smoking in the final laps. Chris Loring Jr. would round out the top five as the remaining crowd headed for their cars to beat the impending rain.
The Lee County Speedway will have two nights of racing action this coming week as on Wednesday night July 29th the 360 c.i. Sprint Cars will headline Budweiser Night at the speedway and weekly racing action returns on Friday night July 31st. For complete details visit http://www.leecountyspeedway.com/
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