The 2013 Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models
has been streaky. After Denny Eckrich captured the series opener at 34 Raceway
near Burlington, Ray Guss Jr. won the next two races, Brian Harris reeled off
the next four and, with his win at the West Liberty Raceway on Wednesday night,
Justin Kay has now posted three wins in a row on the tour.
Number three did not come easy though as Kay lined up behind
the two all-time winningest drivers on the series as Jeff Aikey and Ray Guss
Jr. drew the front row. For Aikey it was a complete turn of fortune as he had
actually crossed the line in fifth during in his heat race, but when Nick
Marolf was disqualified for using illegal tires Aikey found himself on the
stage taking part in the Casey’s General Stores redraw rather than running the
12-lap B-Main. Aikey was able to lead the opening lap of the 40-lap finale
before Kay blew by and started to open up a nice lead. Harris had started
eighth and when he worked his way past Aikey for second on lap fourteen, Kay
was more than a straightaway ahead of him on the big half-mile.
With the leader working through traffic, Harris had cut into
that gap by nearly half before the caution flag waved as Tom Goble stopped in
turn four with mechanical issues. On the restart Harris was first able to keep
pace with Kay and then went to work on trying to make his move for the lead.
The current series point leader found a higher line to his liking and was able
to make a run on Kay and as the two passed by the flagstand on lap twenty-four,
Harris was scored the leader by a nose. Kay came roaring back on the inside
though to regain the lead on the following lap and, having thwarted the
challenge from his strongest rival, Justin then pulled away over the remaining
laps to take the convincing win.
“This car is just so easy to driver right now,” beamed Kay
in victory lane, “Tyson (Gheer) really has the setup right now, this is a lot
of fun!” With his runner-up finish Harris continued his amazing streak of
having been in the top three for all ten of the Deery races run so far in 2013
and he only gave up one point of his lead in the standings. Andy Eckrich moved
from fifth to third on the mid-race restart, but he could not keep up with the
lead duo and finished back in third. Tommy Elston had a strong run tonight
taking fourth while Aikey completed the top five. Kyle Hinrichs continues to
impress as he ran sixth, Denny Eckrich started thirteenth and finished seventh,
Jason Utter was eighth, Nick Marolf moved from the eighth row to finish ninth
and Ray Guss Jr. was tenth.
Seventeen IMCA Modifieds were on hand to run in support of
the Deery show and it was Richie Gustin coming from the twelfth starting
position to drive by Kurt Kile late and take the win. Ryan Dolan was able to
move to second late putting Kile back to third at the checkers as Steve Stewart
and Chris Horn rounded out the top five.
This event was originally scheduled for Tuesday night, but
after early morning rains forced the postponement track announcer Jerry Mackey
called and asked if I could fill in for him on Wednesday night. Jerry had
scheduled surgery on his shoulder for Wednesday morning and he knew that he
would be in no mood to be announcing races that night. The surgery went well
and, as I told the crowd, he won’t be able to pitch again until after Labor Day
but he will be back on the microphone this coming weekend at all three SPI
tracks. I have always wanted to welcome the crowd by saying “Hello Race Fans!”
and it was really cool when they did their best to make sure that Mackey could
hear them back at home when they responded “Hello Jerry!”
The next event for the Deery Brothers Summer Series will be
this Sunday night July 14th at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway
where Justin Kay will have the chance to join Gary Webb, Rob Toland and Brian
Harris as the only drivers to have won four straight series events. Kevin
Feller told me that Dubuque is where Kay won his first-ever Late Model feature
so you know that he has to be looking forward to it.
Travel is taking me away from three big events over the next
three nights as I normally would have been calling the action as the Brockway
Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders enjoy the county fairs in Tipton tonight
(Thursday) and in Donnellson on Friday night, then on Saturday night the UMP
Summer Nationals returns to 34 Raceway near Burlington. Get on out to those so
that you can tell me about them later?
Next week I look forward to three straight nights of racing
featuring the IMCA Modifieds at Oskaloosa Tuesday and Wednesday night, and
topped off by the Harris Clash at the Knoxville Raceway on Thursday. Hope to
see you there!
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