With a huge Southern Iowa Fair crowd filling the stands to watch, Jeff Aikey dominated the field of Deery Brothers Summer Series Late Models Wednesday night in Oskaloosa to earn a victory that he dedicated to his mother. Brad Pinkerton, Nathan Wood, Brian Edel and Shane Weller also picked up wins on a beautiful night to enjoy a county fair in the great state of Iowa.
The current Deery Series point leader, Aikey drew the pole position for the thirty-five lap main event and ran the first lap side-by-side with fellow front row starter Jay Johnson. Aikey established himself as the leader on lap two as Tommy Elston used the low line to drive by Johnson for the second spot. The caution waved with three laps completed when Ray Guss Jr. slapped the guardrail between turns one and two and left his right rear quarter panel wedged between two rails. On the restart Elston went to work on Aikey taking the lead down the backstretch of the fast half-mile on lap seven, but Jeff stormed back on the outside of turn four to regain the advantage at the line. The score sheets will show just one leader in this event as Aikey gradually built a cushion over Elston and by the time the checkers flew he had a full straightaway advantage. Elston was comfortably in second at the conclusion while Jason Frankel, who started the race in tenth, passed Boone McLaughlin on the final lap to finish third. The battle for fifth was decided on the final lap as well with Johnson fighting off a challenge from Rob Toland.
The winner was emotional in victory lane as he dedicated the win to his mother who has supported him throughout his twenty-eight year racing career and is not in good health at this point. Congratulations to Jeff Aikey and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his mom.
The Modified feature followed a similar storyline as the week before with Scott Dickey looking like a rocket out front before Brad Pinkerton chased him down to take the lead mid-race. Then, just like last week, Dickey’s night came to an early end with mechanical woes as this time his #40 belched out a thick cloud of white smoke as it slowed to a halt below the flagstand. Pinkerton went on for his second win in a row followed by fellow New Sharon resident and Pro-Line Building sponsored driver Zack VanderBeek in second. Colt Mather ran a solid third with Josh Truman and Ron VerBeek completing the top five.
Brian Edel tried to return to action in the B-Mod division here at Osky last Wednesday night only to have mechanical problems put him on the trailer early in the night. His story was completely different tonight as he drove by early leaders Paul Underwood and Mike Shelton on lap six to take his first feature win of 2009 over a solid field of twenty-four competitors. Shelton would take home the runner-up laurels while Tyler Groenendyk was impressive coming to third from a sixth row starting position. Last week’s winner Andrew Schroeder moved from tenth to fourth while young Brett Moffitt turned a cameo appearance into a fifth-place run after starting thirteenth.
Bobby Greene paced the field for lap one of the Hobby Stock headliner, but when he jumped the cushion in turn two the following lap that was all that Nathan Wood needed as he drove away to a dominating victory. The race for second was interesting as five contenders seemed to settle in to running nose-to-tail around the top groove, but in the closing laps Jason McDaniel broke formation and was able to pick up a couple of spots to finish fourth behind Wood, Kris Walker and Green. Donovan Nunnikhoven rounded out the top five.
There was no doubt who had the fastest Stock Car tonight as Shane Weller started inside of row three, drove past early leader Nathan Wood on lap three and then cruised to victory in a dominating fashion. Wood, Brian Mitrisin, Zack VanderBeek and Mike VanGenderen were next in line well behind Weller.
Weekly Wednesday night racing action continues at the Southern Iowa Speedway on July 29th, then on August 5th the United States Modified Touring Series returns to town featuring appearances by NASCAR drivers Kenny Wallace, Bobby Labonte and, just announced last night, Michael Waltrip. With Wallace and Waltrip on hand, the voice of the speedway Tony Paris may just want to hand them the microphone, step back and enjoy the fun! Hope to see you there.
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