The Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models made its annual visit to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday night joining four of the track’s regular divisions on Mid-Season Championship night. It was another hot, dry, sunny day with a stiff southerly breeze, but the radar was being watched all evening as a solid line of storms was advancing east and the leading clouds eventually hid the sunset over turns three and four.
Twenty-two Late Models made the trip into Oskaloosa, a number that was about what I had expected and that has been seen the last couple of visits here to a track that does not run Late Models but once a year. Four drivers that would have had to have been considered pre-race favorites here on the fast half-mile drew the first four starting spots for the 35-lap A-Main and as expected they quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the field. Ray Guss Jr. and Denny Eckrich ran the first lap side-by-side before Eckrich established himself as the leader under the flagstand while Todd Cooney and Andy Eckrich also stayed in door-to-door fashion behind them until Cooney pulled ahead into third. And from there the chase was on.
Jeff Aikey made a big move early coming from row six up to fifth by lap three, but even in that short of time he now had a long way to go to catch the lead quartet. Guss started to reel in the leader just a bit as Denny Eckrich worked through some lapped traffic, but on the wide racing surface there was plenty of room for the leaders to negotiate the slower cars. With lightning now flashing to the west the caution waved on lap twenty when Justin Diercks stuffed his car into the turn one guardrail and the field was tightened up for the double-file restart.
Once again Denny Eckrich pulled away from Guss who pulled away from Cooney while Aikey went to work on Andy Eckrich for fourth. As the laps wound down and the south breeze started to smell of rain Eckrich maintained his advantage while Cooney was making up a bit of ground on Guss by using the extreme low line through turns one and two. There would be no changes up front over the final laps though as Denny Eckrich dominated for the $2,000 victory ahead of the two-time defending series champion Guss. Cooney would finish in the third spot with Aikey in fourth and Andy Eckrich completing the top five. Current point leader Mike Murphy Jr. made a final lap pass of Kurt Kile to finish in the sixth position while Jay Johnson, fifteen-year-old Spencer Diercks and the “Ironman” Darrel DeFrance completed the top ten. The checkers waved right at ten o’clock and likely just a few minutes ahead of that line of storms.
In the track’s weekly divisions the IMCA Sport Compacts got the ball rolling with a bit of a family feud as Merv Chandler and his son Brad swapped a little paint as they battled for the lead midway through the eight-lap feature with Dad prevailing for yet another win here at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Bill Whalen Jr., Cody Thompson and Ricky Kay were next in line.
The Stock Car feature got off to a wild start when pole-sitter Leroy Groenendyk slid sideways in front of the field exiting turn four coming to the green. The scramble sent Todd Reitzler and Zack Vanderbeek straight toward the judges stand on the infield with Vanderbeek’s car even getting airborne briefly, but somehow both recovered, kept them on all fours and only Vanderbeek made minor contact with the guardrail in front of the judges stand before stopping over in turn one. If I would have been announcer Tony Paris, I would have had to excuse myself to make a change of clothing. On the next start it was Alan VanGorp who would set the pace as the field shuffled about behind him. Matt Greiner and Damon Murty soon emerged from the pack and they were quickly putting pressure on VanGorp for the lead. First it was Greiner who made a run at the leader and then Murty, but VanGorp was up to both challenges. On lap eleven though Greiner was able to make it stick and drove past VanGorp to the lead coming out of turn two while at the same time Murty started to fade a bit as his left front tire had gone flat. Greiner would pull away over the final laps to take the win while VanGorp would have to settle for the runner-up title. Murty looked like he might be able to hang on despite the flat tire, but he was passed in the final two laps by Vanderbeek who had charged from the back of the sixteen-car field to finish third. Nathan Wood finished in the fifth position while two first-time visitors to the track for 2012, Jim Lynch and Cole Simmons were just behind.
When early leader Justin Hook got loose off of turn four on the opening lap Jamie Songer took advantage to secure the lead that he would not surrender as he earned his first Hobby Stock feature win at Oskaloosa. Last week’s winner Bobby Greene chased him all the way in second, Shannon Anderson came from the fifth row to finish third while Danny Thrasher and Mike Hughes rounded out the top five. The IMCA Sport Mods had a bit of caution fever tonight and that made the crowd nervous with the storms approaching. Despite all of the restarts Bryon Weyer was not to be denied as he pulled away from Jesse Sobbing over the final green flag laps to take the win. Curtis VanDerWal, Carter VanDenBerg and Jason Hall filled out the top five.
Tonight I’ll make the short drive south to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for Budweiser Night featuring the Sprint Invaders, Stock Cars and Sport Mods. The weather has cooled off a bit and with a little rain overnight the track surface should be lightning fast tonight. Hope to see you there!
No comments:
Post a Comment