The SportMods were the headliners Saturday night at the Lee County Speedway, an annual tribute to Steve Kirchner who raced in the division before his untimely death away from the track several years ago. And with $1,000 going to the winner, the action was intense and even got a little overheated in the final stages before a driver who is new to the division found his way into victory lane.
A solid field of thirty-two drivers signed in for the Kirchner Memorial and the racing was good throughout the four heat races and the B-Main that would set the 24-car starting field for the 25-lap main event. Jamie Duninck and Bobby Anders would lead the field to the green with Duninck rolling his triple sevens car to the lead until a caution slowed the field on lap four. On the restart Carter VanDenBerg used the cushion on both ends of the speedway to quickly move from fifth to first and as he opened up a bit of an advantage the battle raged on behind him. Another caution on lap ten realigned the field with VanDenBerg out front and everybody else paired up behind him, but after a couple of "no starts" the leader VanDenBerg was penalized two positions for getting on the gas prior to the designated "firing zone" in turn four.
This would put Derek St. Clair up front for the restart and the former Hobby Stock track champion and current Stock Car regular would put the Sport Mod that he recently purchased from Patrick Profeta up on the cushion to officially lead laps eleven through fourteen. This year's track champion, and the driver currently ranked third in the IMCA Northern SportMod National point standings, Tony Dunker had been working his way through the field after starting tenth and he used a run off the bottom of turn two to take the lead on lap fifteen.
With Dunker now out front many assumed that it would now be a race for second, but St. Clair stayed close and two laps later when Dunker moved up to the high line entering turn one St. Clair got a little too close and turn the leader sideways in front of the field. Both cars were able to recover, but the stack up behind them caused Brett Lowry and Tom Elsen to spin to a halt. Dunker would lead the field back to the green and went back down to the low line while St. Clair made up ground on each lap running up top. Plus, to add to the battle you had Phillip Cossel showing some strength on the bottom while Dean Kratzer had charged forward from an eighth row starting spot up to fourth.
St. Clair was able to take the lead from Dunker on lap twenty-one just before the caution waved once again setting up a four-lap dash to the finish with several drivers still having a shot at the $1,000 winner's check. St. Clair held his line on the cushion with Cossel, Dunker and Kratzer doing battle for second, but on the next lap contact between Kratzer and Dunker sent the track champion for a spin and the caution flew again. As the field came around under caution Dunker expressed his displeasure by driving into Kratzer, and then Kratzer backed up a few feet, put his car back into gear and then drove into the side of Dunker's car. Both drivers were sent to the pits for the incident and while their crews and interested pit spectators scrambled to see what would happen once they arrived in the pits, the rest of the field was lined up for one last restart.
Cossel would make an effort on the inside that would come up short as St. Clair would maintain the lead and take the win in front of his hometown crowd. Cossel would settle for the runner-up money, Lucas Lundry would finish third after restarting from the back earlier in the race, VanDenBerg was not a happy camper in fourth and newlywed Levi Smith finished in the fifth spot.
Kirchner Memorial Notes......The thirty-two car field brought an interesting mix of drivers to Donnellson that included northeast Iowa's Lucas Lundry from Maynard and central Missouri drivers Cale Turner (Columbia) and Chad Staus (Otterville).......Turner finished in the fourth and final transfer in his heat race only to be disqualified for an illegal carburetor. He made the necessary adjustments and then qualified out of the B-Main for the feature.....Donnellson resident Rob Kirchner was behind the wheel of another car from central Missouri as he drove Steve Bugg's #11 to a heat race win and was a contender early in the feature before dropping out.....One of the expected contenders Jim Gillenwater started next to Dunker in row five, but pulled to the infield following the drop of the green. Gillenwater's Discount Tire and Service was the title sponsor of the night's event.....VanDenBerg's right rear tire was flat after taking the checkered flag and he parked on the front stretch to ask the flagman about the penalty for jumping the restart as the leader. He then briefly interrupted St. Clair's victory lane interview before taking his car to the scale for post-race inspection......Levi Smith and his new wife Nicole were working hard at their Pit Side Parts trailer prior to the races and after congratulating them I said to Levi " wedding yesterday and races tonight?" To which he quickly replied "that's how I know that she's a keeper!".......The late race drama definitely shuffled the field up front with Lundry suddenly a contender. He was penalized earlier in the race for contact that caused a spin by Kyle Olson......Jesse Belez started 24th and finished sixth.
Three other divisions provided solid action as well on the evening. The Sport Compacts' feature was the first of the four on the schedule and the twelve lap race saw four lead changes and two rollovers as both Bucky Gallaher and William Michel climbed from their damaged cars uninjured. Corey Sheetz would lead the first lap before yielding to Chuck Fullenkamp. Darin Smith would grab the lead for a couple of laps mid-race only to lose it again to Fullenkamp, but it would be Ryan Anderson who would come from a sixth-row starting spot to take the lead with two laps remaining for the eventual victory. Smith and Fullenkamp would go second and third followed by Dennis Schulte and Adam Gates.
It was pretty obvious who would win the Stock Car feature shortly after the drop of the green, but the battle for second on back was very entertaining throughout the entire twenty-laps of green flag racing. Derek St. Clair tried to keep pace with Jason Cook, but on the second lap Cook began to pull away and would win by nearly a half of a lap. Two and three-wide racing within the top five went on behind him though as Jim Redman was able to hold off all challenges to finish second ahead of Jim Lynch, Matt Greiner and St. Clair. John Oliver Jr. would race his way up from 18th to sixth at the checkers.
Josh Foster's world was turned upside down nearly a month ago when his father passed away and this would be his first night back to action in his IMCA Modified since then. Just like he has done so many times before though, Foster went to the cushion when everybody else preferred the bottom line and on lap four he swept past Wyatt Lantz for the lead. Then, with perhaps some guidance from above, Josh was solid the rest of the way and took the checkers for an emotional win where he did not seem to want to ever stop hugging his mother in victory lane. Lantz would run a solid race to finish in second, Lonne Heap would take third, Brandon Banks advanced from tenth to fourth while Dean McGee rounded out the top five.
It was definitely an entertaining night of racing at the Lee County Speedway and I had a great time as part of the announcing trio with Ryan Clark and Terry Hoenig. Brandon Savage served as the promoter for the evening and after the extra-curricular activities you could tell that he was happy to put that behind him as he now looks ahead to his own wedding next Saturday night. As it was announced through a press release earlier in the day, Mike Van Genderen has been hired by Dave Sapp to be the track promoter for the two special events coming here in October as well as for the 2013 racing season at Lee County. Mike was busy racing up at Farley Saturday night, but you can bet that he will be excited to swing into action here for Shiverfest on October 13th and the Discount Tire and Service Fall Extravaganza on October 19th and 20th.
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