With my six-day grounds pass to Burlington’s Steamboat Days Music Festival in hand and with storms on the radar marching east across Iowa, I had a decision to make at seven o’clock on this Friday evening. It was obvious that the rain was going to hit Burlington and Donnellson, where the Lee County Speedway was in action tonight, by about 9:30 so the question was this. Would I rather be standing in a crowd of eight to ten thousand people watching the rock band Theory of a Deadman with my car fifteen or twenty blocks away when the storms hit? Or would I rather be in the grandstands at the racetrack with my car just outside in the parking lot? That was a no-brainer so I turned to the south and headed for Donnellson arriving just in time to hear the National Anthem as I parked my car in a strategic location.
With nearly all of the tracks in Iowa rained out today due to the first round of storms that pushed through the state I thought that I might see some different cars at Lee County tonight and that was definitely the case. But not all of the new drivers came from rained out tracks, some were just making their first appearance for 2010. In the Stock Cars you had Nathan Wood and Devon Timmerman who are track regulars at CJ Raceway, while Quincy regular Terry Houston and Memphis, Missouri, driver Josh Robinson pulled in as well. John Whalen, Bill Whalen Jr. and Corey Sheetz brought their four-cylinders to Donnellson after CJ cancelled and Jason Doyle made the long pull down from Cedar Rapids for the first time with his Sport Mod. With Davenport not racing tonight anyway with a non-racing event at the fairgrounds, IMCA Modified drivers Jacob Waterman, Jerry Pratt and Andrew Burk were all in attendance tonight as well while in the Hobby Stocks CJ regular Alex Buffington and Quincy’s Bobby Anders beefed up the talent in that division.
With lightning flashing to the north the feature racing started around 8:40 with the IMCA Stock Cars and it turned out to be a dandy. Corey Strothman, racing with the confidence from a feature win here last Friday night, opened up a big lead while the rest of the pack sorted themselves out behind him. A caution for Josh Robinson’s spin in turn four with only four laps remaining was exactly what Strothman did not want to see as that wiped out his advantage and placed Jason Cook right on his tail for the restart. Cook had started eighth and was now ready to put the pressure on Strothman, but Corey fought him off until the final circuit. Cook pulled even with Strothman as they raced down the backstretch and he then drove hard to the low-side in turn three. Cook then drifted up the track and slammed the door on Strothman to complete the pass as the checkers waved. Pole-sitter Jim Redmann followed the duo in for third, John Oliver Jr. was fourth and unofficially I had Abe Huls ahead of a pack of four cars to round out the top five.
Current Stock Car point leader Jeff Mueller had a tough night as he slowed with a smoking motor in his heat race, changed motors before the feature, and then dropped out again with mechanical issues midway through the main event. Last Friday night, after finishing second to Strothman in the make-up feature Mueller’s crew swapped motors and he was able to go from back to front to take the win in the regularly scheduled event. Bot not so tonight.
After a quick picture in victory lane Cook ran to his IMCA Sport Mod that was waiting for him in the infield and strapped in just in time to start eighth on the grid for that feature race. A couple of laps into this one the wind shifted and strengthened and the temperature dropped about ten degrees as Jim Gillenwater came from row three to pass Rick Barlow Jr. for the lead. On lap eight a pack of cars racing for position in the top ten encountered the lapped car of Sarah Tweedy and when the cars in front of him parted Joe Bliven found himself with nowhere to go and drove up and over the left side of Tweedy’s car. Bliven was obviously upset with the circumstances as he had come into the night in a three-way tie for the points lead with A.J. Johnson and Derek Coleman.
It was déjà vu all over again on the restart as the leader Gillenwater now had Jason Cook just behind him and, just like in the Stock Car feature minutes before, Cook went to work on the leader using the low groove. The two cars crossed the stripe in a virtual dead-heat as Ryan Bergeson waved the white flag, but Gillenwater kept his cool and did not bobble on the cushion over the final lap to take the win by two car-lengths. Barlow would pick up the third spot followed by Thad Gaylord and A.J. Johnson who will now likely emerge as the point leader.
The wind actually calmed a bit as the IMCA Modifieds pulled to the track, but the lightning was getting more intense especially to the west of the speedway. When the green flag waved the winds howled again as outside front row starter James Leffew jumped to the point. Again on a lap three restart Leffew looked like he would drive away from everybody tonight, but on lap seven he bobbled in turn two and had to race through the infield to recover. That was all that Josh Foster needed as Leffew’s lead was now erased and Foster drove under him on lap eight to knock him back to second. As Foster, who had started ninth, pulled away for the win, Leffew regained his composure and cruised in for second. Rich Smith came from eighth to finish third, current point leader Brandon Rothzen was fourth and Adam Birck would tally a fifth-place finish for the night.
I moved down to the front row of the grandstands prior to the start of the next feature, but when Don DeMint spun in turn two on the first lap for the "Wild Things" it was obvious that the rain was just a moment away. My sprint to the car allowed me to hop in just before the first raindrops fell and by the time I was on the road at 9:40 p.m. I could barely see ten feet in front of me due to the heavy downpour. Track announcer Dewain Hulett had told me earlier that Steamboat Days had cancelled around nine o’clock, likely to get all of those people out of there before the storms hit, so yes I definitely made the right call on this Friday night.
The Wild Things and Hobby Stock features will be made up, perhaps on next Friday night’s Mid-Season Championship night at the Lee County Speedway. It should be noted that the track will line up their races by average points inverted for the mid-season event rather than straight up by points like some tracks do. And mark your calendar for Thursday night July 1st for the 3rd Annual Liberty Cup at the Lee County Speedway this year featuring the JR Motorsports Hawkeye Dirt Tour for the IMCA Modifieds and night number four for the Great America Shootout for the IMCA Stock Cars. This should be a great night of racing with a strong field of cars in each division, plus the Hobby Stocks will be on hand as well. For more details check out the Lee County Speedway website.
With all of this rain today it will be interesting to see who, along with Boone and Algona, will be able to race on Saturday night. Me? I have a wedding to go to otherwise I’d have to choose between 34 Raceway and Buckcherry. Get out to the races this weekend if you can and remember, be Positive and Support the Sport!
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