Josh Most swept around race long leader Jason Perry coming off turn four to the checkers to win the Deery Brothers Summer Series IMCA Late Model main event at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Saturday night. It was the second career Deery Series victory for Most in his first-ever appearance at the track that is in the opposite southern corner of the state from his Red Oak home.
Perry surprised front row starters Tyler Bruening and T.J. Criss by rocketing to the lead on lap one from his third starting spot. A driver who was looking for his first career Deery win, Perry looked like he would be tough to beat on this night as he opened up a nice advantage before the first caution waved on lap number four. Series point leader Ray Guss Jr. had slowed in turn three with a flat left rear tire and on the restart Perry again drove away from the field before the caution waved again two laps later. This time it was Most who had slowed in turn two thinking that he had a flat tire on his #92 after negotiating the heavy cushion on both ends of the speedway. Josh circled through the pits and was apparently given a "thumbs up" from somebody as he drove right back onto the track to restart twenty-third. Once back to green it was Rob Toland and Jeff Aikey who were on the move as they raced their way toward the front after starting in tenth and twelfth respectively. Track champion Mark Burgtorf was also lurking in fourth until he slowed in turn four on lap thirteen to produce the third caution of the event.
When back to green Toland began to apply the pressure on Perry, but Jason was not intimidated by the veteran driver and maintained the advantage before the curse of the fourth place car struck again as Lonnie Bailey went up in smoke. At this point Josh Most had worked his way back up to seventh as he was literally flying around the high side of the speedway and on the restart he picked up two more spots before the caution waved on lap twenty-three. Perry pulled away a bit as Aikey and Toland swapped the second spot between themselves and it looked like Most’s run to the front would be impeded by Toland who was now also using the top line around the 3/8th-mile oval. Most used a nifty high-to-low move to get by Toland and into second with four laps remaining and when the white flag flew he cut the distance down to a car-length behind Perry. As Perry stuck with his low line on both ends, Most kicked it off the cushion in turn one and then drove off turn two low and his momentum allowed him to put his nose around the outside of Perry’s right rear quarter-panel as they raced into turn three. Most didn’t really hit the cushion just right, but Perry also missed his mark just a bit and that was all that Josh needed as he blew past Perry in the final ten yards of the event to take the checkers and the $2,000 top prize. Perry had to be both frustrated and pleased with his solid performance that came up just short of a victory. Toland held off a late charge from Justin Reed to finish third while Jeff Aikey completed the top five.
The fans were buzzing about this one as they made their way out of the grandstands with the final checkers waving at 10:30 on the five division program.
In support class action, Mike Shelton picked up the first win of the night as he cruised in the Sport Mod headliner. Cayden Carter prevailed in the battle for second with Joe Bliven, Carter VanDenBerg was fourth and Derek Coleman came home fifth. The Hobby Stock feature had a bit of drama to it as Jake Wenig drove to the early lead with Matt Gavin mounting a pretty stiff challenge. When Gavin’s right rear tire went flat on lap number four, he slowed coming down the back stretch and made the right hand turn to the pit area. As I watched to see if Gavin would be able to clear the track, something happened in turn four that saw the new second place car of Rob Wilsey go for a spin bringing out the caution. As the field lined up for a restart Wilsey made a run at Dean Kratzer, apparently for what happened to him in turn four, and both drivers were shown the black flag. It took a bit for track officials to convince both drivers to leave the racetrack and, once they did, there was nobody who could keep up with Wenig who cruised to victory. Jim Lynch, who started sixteenth, passed Dane Fenton in the final laps to take second, Fenton was third, Jim Oliver Jr. took fourth and in fifth it was Matt Gavin who had plenty of time to change his tire during the long caution period.
Abe Huls paced the field for the first twelve laps of the Stock Car feature only to have 2010 track champion Matt Greiner drive by him on lap thirteen. Huls then slowed and pulled off the track leaving the door open for Jason Cook to make a late race challenge on Greiner. Cook was able to put a nose under the leader in turn one of the final lap and he then tried the high line in turns three and four, but Greiner fought him off to claim the victory. Cale Samberg who has been running very strong as of late finished in third, Phil Holtz made the trip down from Manchester worth while by running fourth and Andrew Griffin rounded out the top five. In the four cylinder "Wild Things" twelve-lap main event Nick Wilkerson went side-by-side with Wayne Noble in the early laps and then fought off Noble again late in the race to take the victory. Chuck Fullenkamp finished just behind Noble in third, Darin Smith finished in the fourth position while Bill Michel recovered from a flat tire on the first lap to then come from eighteenth to finish fifth.
It was great night of racing on a near perfect weather night with cool temperatures and little to no wind under a crystal clear sky, diversely different then the weather that the Lee County Speedway has had to deal with on most Friday nights this season. The track has three more events on the schedule for 2010 culminating with "Shiverfest" on Saturday October 23rd.
Look for more coverage of tonight’s action on Positively Racing as Ryan Clark, Danny Rosencrans, Brian Neal and Barry Johnson were all in attendance as was our webmaster Sue McDaniel.
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