It is not often that I leave a race track after a driver goes flag-to-flag to win the forty-lap main event thinking "wow, that was a heck of a show", but that was the case Tuesday night as the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models returned to the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton. Of course it didn't hurt that the support class feature saw eight lead changes between four drivers in its thirty-five-lap feature, but more on that later.
The Deery Series had not been to this quarter-mile oval for fourteen years and please put me down as voting for only a nine to twelve month absence this time around. Nate Beuseling, who just dominated a week ago at Knoxville to win his first career series race, drew the pole position for the main event here tonight and since I have already given away the fact that somebody led every lap I might as well just tell you now that he made it two in a row here this evening. First though, the young driver from Silvis, Illinois, had to earn his way to the re-draw opportunity after starting in the last row of the third heat race. Beuseling patiently picked his way through the field and on the final lap he muscled his way past T.J. Criss on the inside of turn four to take the third and final transfer spot. He then drew the "one" during intermission and, well you know the rest as far as Nate is concerned, win number two in convincing fashion.
Defending series champion Ray Guss Jr. started right behind Beuseling in third and after the race's second caution on lap four, Guss went to work on the leader. Ray tried to work the next groove up from the low-riding Beuseling and was able to draw even a couple of times on laps five and six before Beuseling shook off the challenge and pulled away. The focus now was on the young man from nearby Wheatland, Justin Kay. Kay had already thrilled his fans, especially Brenda (I'm pretty sure that's his Mother) who stood in front of us during most of the first B-Main, as he rode the extreme topside of the speedway to come from the back of the pack to run second to winner Justin Reed. She apologized and said that now that he was safely in the feature she would just sit and watch that one. But we told her that once he got into the top five, we expected and encouraged her to be standing! Starting on the inside of row eight Kay raced those first four laps down low just like most everybody else, but following the restart he went back up to that high side and magic happened once again.
Lap by lap he started to move forward and even though the leader Beuseling was nearly half a lap ahead of him at the mid-race mark, with lapped traffic starting to come into play you just knew that Kay might just have a chance. He was ninth, then eighth, then seventh, then he passed Reed who was also coming toward the front for sixth and being a smart driver himself, Reed moved up the track a bit as well and maintained Kay's quick pace. Brenda moved down a few rows in the bleachers just before Justin took over the fifth spot because there was absolutely no way that she was going to stay seated now. Andy Eckrich had now replaced Guss in the second spot and with the traffic heavy he was closing in on the leader as well. Kay drove past Guss for third with about five laps to go while Reed stayed right with him and as the white flag waved Kay was even with Eckrich for second with Beuseling about five car lengths ahead picking his way through traffic. As the pack went down the back stretch Kay's bite off two was phenomenal once again and he edged ahead of Eckrich for second, but there were lapped cars involved as well and it was mad scramble through the final two turns. Beuseling was smooth and hugged the bottom to take the checkers first while Kay slipped his right rear wheel off the top side of turn four.
That slightest of bobbles was enough to let both Eckrich and Reed drive by him for second and third and it appeared that Guss also edged out Kay by inches for the fourth spot. With the final checkers flying at 9:20 p.m. I took a moment to cross the track to see if I could get the official finish and I was told that the scorers were still trying to sort things out. So the top five as I give it to you here is completely unofficial, but I will update it with the proper finish if this is wrong. Yes folks, it was that wild of a finish and if they had a finish line camera system they might still be looking at it to determine the actual finish.
Late Model Notes......Thirty-six drivers checked in although only thirty-three ran in the heat races. Jeff Aikey's trailer had issues on the trip down from Cedar Falls and the #77 car never did make it to Tipton. Bart Miller had to be disappointed that he did not get to compete on the track that he has raced at so often in a Modified as he scratched after hot laps as did Rookie-of-the-Year leader Eric Sanders......T.J. Criss had a tough night as not only did Beuseling beat him on the final turn for the last transfer out of the heat race, Chad Patch did the same thing to Criss on the final lap of the second B-Main. Fortunately for T.J. he was in line for one of the points provisionals tonight so he ran the A-Main......Terry Neal turned up light at the scales after winning the second heat and then raced his way into the feature by running fourth in the first B-Main......Mark Burgtorf drove the Richard Realty & Auction #15 tonight and used one of his points provisionals to start the feature. He retired to the pits early......We are going to have to stop talking to Amber Moyer, as for the second time in a row her fiance' Nick Marolf was caught up in an early incident and did not get a chance to participate in this thriller.......The next stop for the Summer Series will be Monday, August 15th at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.
I have been to three Late Model specials here at Tipton over the last eleven months and each time the A-Modified division has set the table nicely by providing excellent racing action during their portion of the show, and tonight's feature may just have been the best. Johnny Spaw used the top shelf to snare the early lead, but when he slipped off the top of turn two on lap nine Noah Coppes was right there to take advantage and grab the lead. A caution on lap twelve bunched the field and Dan Chapman, who had started eleventh, would now restart in second. Once back to green Brad Dierks made his presence known and on lap sixteen it was Chapman, Coppes and Dierks three-wide for the lead much to the delight of the fans around us. Coppes and Dierks made contact going for that top groove in turn one with both recovering to chase Chapman before the final caution of the race waved on lap eighteen.
On this restart it was Dierks who blew by Chapman to take the lead and a lap later Coppes moved into second and went back to work down on the low line. With Coppes down low and Dierks up high, the race lead was pretty much up for grabs at the start-finish line each lap and from my vantage point down toward turn four a bit, I had 'em like this: Dierks 19-22, Coppes 23-24, Dierks 25, Coppes 26, Dierks 27-29 and on lap thirty Coppes went ahead to stay. Dierks nearly got back by him two laps later, but over those final three circuits Noah took away the need for a camera at the line winning this one by about five car lengths. Dierks was second, Chapman took third, Tom Pestka finished fourth and Nick Nevins was fifth.
A big thanks to promoters Al & Kathy Dlouhy and their entire crew for their hospitality and for once again putting on a fantastic mid-week program that concluded before 9:30 p.m. Racing continues here on Friday nights and their next special event is set for Friday August 26th as the USMTS brings their Hunt for a Championship to the Cedar County Raceway. I'm hoping to be back for that one as well!
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