Aikey Holds Off Guss For Deery Series Checkers at Independence

The Independence Motor Speedway is known to have one of the best weekly shows in the Midwest drawing large car counts and filling the stands with loyal fans each and every Saturday night. On Monday night, promoter Darin Burco and his crew proved that they can present a fantastic weekday show as well when the “Boys of Summer”, the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models came to town with two of the region’s best locked into a duel that kept the crowd on the edge of their seats throughout most of the forty-lap main event.


Two-time defending series champion Ray Guss Jr. and current Deery point leader Mike Murphy Jr. drew the front row with Guss exploding out to a comfortable advantage over the early laps. The racing back in the pack was active on the well-manicured surface and on lap ten the first caution waved when two drivers who were racing for the fifth position, Matt Strassheim and Andy Eckrich, tangled in turn four. Up to that point all of the drivers running up front were working the low-line of the speedway and as the field lined up for the restart, the third-place driver Jeff Aikey found himself starting on the outside of the first double row. With the return of the green flag Aikey jumped up to the cushion in turns one and two and drove away from Murphy going down the back stretch. He found the cushion to be fast in three and four as well so the all-time winningest driver on the Summer Series stayed up top and on lap thirteen he drove past Guss for the lead.

You do not become a Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member if you just give up after being passed for the lead and, now in second, Guss proved that he belongs in that elite group as he started searching the track for where his car worked the best. First he went to the top on both ends of the speedway and after a few laps Ray determined that his best combination was to run low in one and two and up high in three and four. This moved him back into contention for the lead and, as the two veteran drivers started working through heavy traffic, the battle for the lead really heated up. Preferred lines were no longer available with the soon-to-be-lapped cars racing three different grooves and often side-by-side in front of them as Guss tried to outguess Aikey on where the best opening would be on the next corner and on a couple of occasions it looked like Guss might regain the lead. But Aikey was smooth and patient as always and even though he looked like he would be trapped a couple of times, he did not force the issue and continued to hold the lead before the caution waved again as Jon Passick and Joe Zrostlik came together in turn four.



Jeff Aikey (77) goes to the low groove to get around Gary Webb (W56) and Jeff Mitrisin (5J) - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography

 With just eleven laps remaining lapped traffic would no longer be a factor and the race was on with Aikey staying faithful to the cushion and Guss trying to find every bit of traction possible as drove deep into the corners on the low line. In turn four Ray would drift up the track nearly making contact with Jeff hoping to get him to flinch and, with just two laps remaining, it was in turn two where Aikey made just the slightest of bobbles on the cushion. This allowed Guss to pull even with him going down the back stretch, but Aikey recovered with a perfect set of turns on the other end to maintain the lead and in one more lap the victory that was worth $2,525 on this, the 25th appearance of the Summer Series at the Independence Motor Speedway. Guss was a worthy opponent in second, Murphy maintained his Series point lead in third while the track’s weekly point leader Tyler Bruening showed his “home track” prowess by coming from the seventh row to take fourth. Another veteran who knows his way around this 3/8-mile oval, Dean Wagner finished fifth after starting next to Bruening.



Challenger Ray Guss Jr. (58) pulls even with leader Jeff Aikey (77) in the final laps at Independence - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography

 Indee LM Notes……If you have not yet attended a Deery Series show this season, part of the entertainment is the re-draw process where IMCA’s Marketing Director Kevin Yoder introduces the twelve drivers who earned the right to re-draw and has them stand behind an oversized playing card that had been placed face down prior to the drivers arriving. Then one-by-one Yoder asks each driver if they want to keep the card that they are standing behind or swap it with any other driver. Having been to five Deery shows now I can almost predict who will hold and who will swap and some drivers have the reputation for being “lucky”. For whatever reason Andy Eckrich is often assumed to have a low card sitting in front of him so Andy’s card is often moved from driver to driver through the process, but on this night Andy’s card stayed in front of him until the next-to-last driver, Ray Guss Jr., decided to take it from him. When the cards were revealed, of course “Andy’s card” was the Ace putting Guss on the pole position for the main event while Eckrich picked up the 8 that was originally in front of Ray. It will be fun to see how this process plays out again next Tuesday night July 10th when the Summer Series visits Andy’s home track, the West Liberty Raceway…..Following the four-wide parade lap and after dropping off his flag, Aikey pulled even with the pace car to give a wave to currently retired driver Gary Crawford who was behind the wheel of the beautiful old Bonneville this evening…..After a couple of recent events with counts in the low 20’s it was good to have 32 Late Models in the pits tonight bolstered by several drivers who are among the twenty or so who race here weekly in the Late Model division. Home track knowledge was evident, not only in the winner Aikey who cut his teeth here many years ago, and in Bruening and Wagner, but also Jon Passick who was impressive in his heat race and was then closing in on the top five before his incident with eleven laps remaining. Independence resident Travis Smock started in twenty-first position after earning the Hard Charger provisional and then continued to be one of those by racing his way to a tenth-place finish……Darrel DeFrance who in action for his 394th Series event was racing in sixth when he pulled to the infield on lap seventeen…..Murphy, Guss and DeFrance won heat races from the pole position while Matt Strassheim took heat number four from the outside of the front row…….Tonight was my first time to see Rory Metcalf in action and while he was smooth and competitive all night, he was not able to make the starting field for the main event…..The second lap of the second B-Main saw the night change considerably for two top contenders when Joel Callahan clipped Denny Eckrich going into turn one sending both cars into a spin and putting them to the back of the ten car realignment. Eckrich fought his way back toward the front and made a last lap effort on Jeff Mitrisin for the fourth and final transfer spot, but came up short as the former Sprint Car driver held him off. Both Eckrich and Callahan would start the race as points provisionals and while they were never in contention they both posted respectable finished with Callahan in 11th and Eckrich in 12th……Colby Springsteen had perfect attendance on the Summer Series up until tonight……Looking at Jeff Aikey’s resume’ and his success on this Series it will not surprise me if his name is soon included on the ballot for the Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame.

IMCA Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks provided excellent support for the event with 18 and 20 cars signed in respectively. After posting his first win in the division late last season, Dubuque’s Austin Moyer may just be the most improved Sport Mod driver in the state in 2012 and he introduced himself to the fans at Independence in style Monday night. Starting fourth in the twenty-lap main event Moyer powered to the lead on the opening lap and drove away from the field before the caution waved on lap six when Randy Butterbrodt’s motor billowed smoke and then maintained a flame as he pulled to the infield. On the restart Moyer, who ranks tenth in today’s update of the All Iowa Points for the Limited Modifieds, again pulled away from the competition and cruised to the convincing victory. Shane Ebaugh settled into second, Sam Wieben crossed the line in third but was later disqualified for an illegal transmission. This handed third-place money to Lucas Lundry who raced his way up from a sixth row start while Danny Dvorak was credited with fourth. Curt Hilmer was slated to start on the pole position of the main event, but when he required a push start out of the staging area, by rule he had to then start at the back.



Austin Moyer was on cruise control Monday night on his way to victory in the Sport Mods - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography

 Brian Happel and current track point leader Justin Stander drew the front row for the 20-lap Hobby Stock headliner that was delayed a bit when the field needed to pack in some water that was added to the track surface just prior to their main event. Stander would pace the event early until the caution waved on the fifth circuit for a Matt Brown spin in turn two. On the restart Happel vaulted to the point while Stander then had to deal with a hard charging Benji Irvine who was looking for second. When Irvine slowed suddenly and pulled to the infield on lap 14 this allowed Stander to again focus on catching the leader, but he could not get the job done over the final six laps as Happel earned the win. Stander was not far back in second while Scott Pippert worked hard to come from tenth to third. Erick Knutson who had started next to Pippert in the fifth row finished in the fourth spot while T.J. Mortenson charged from thirteenth to fifth. Rod Grother was impressive tonight starting tenth and finishing third in the second heat race and he was in the top five in the main event before being sidelined with a flat tire on lap seven.



Brian Happel (46) and Justin Stander (67) race for the lead in the Hobby Stock main event - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography

 You can accuse me of being biased if you’d like, but give me an announcer with the voice, the knowledge of the drivers and all those statistics that Ryan Clark brings to the table any time! We are proud to be associated with him at Positively Racing and make sure that you check in with Ryan on a regular basis In Staging. I also had a great time visiting with colleague Kevin Trittien who is still down a computer and is going through one of those stages that I did as well when it was nice to just go and enjoy a night of racing without bringing along the notebook. He assured me that TapFan’s Tours will be back, someday, and we will be happy when that time comes. For now though he seems to be enjoying the company of quite a photogenic crew and I don’t blame him one bit!

When I first arrived tonight Warren Busse tested my memory with a nice photo album featuring cars and drivers from the mid-80’s and again it felt like a family gathering with Kevin B., Bob, Jeff, Gary, Ron and others all sitting in the same general vicinity. I want to thank Scott Tjabring with Action Track Photography who allows me to spice up my words with his great work and for more coverage of tonight's racing including some more great photography make sure that you check in with The Auto Racing Independent Kyle Ealy and the SpeedBlitz with Dennis Krieger. Both were in attendance and will likely be uploading their work soon.
Yes, the track was wet and still not packed in when the scheduled time for hot laps 6:45 p.m. rolled around, but the first heat race still took the green at 7:25 and the final checkers waved at five minutes before ten o’clock. Kudos to the track prep crew for proving that with some extra effort a dirt track can still be wide, racey and nearly dust-free on a sunny day with temperatures near 100 degrees. And that effort definitely paid off with a crowd that will be checking their calendars for the next time that they can return to the Independence Motor Speedway.

Tonight I’ll be making the short trip to West Burlington as the Sprint Invaders will entertain the crowd with two main events and, with the holiday on Wednesday, I am guessing that this show at 34 Raceway will draw a solid field of cars. Perhaps I’ll see you there?