I would be willing to bet that 98% of the big crowd that gathered at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa Saturday night had no idea who was driving the orange #6 Late Model. After all, if you combined the folks who were either adorned with Justin Kay or Brian Birkhofer apparel that made up about 90% of the throng, but it was the driver of that #6, Travis Dickes out of Madison, Nebraska, who fought off an early challenge from Birkhofer and then went on to post the win in the first-ever appearance here for the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models.
A solid field of thirty open Late Models were on hand with the passing points from four heat races, plus a last chance race setting the twenty-five car starting field for the forty-lap main event. The third heat race had Friday night's winner Chris Simpson and crowd favorite Ryan Gustin starting deep in the pack along with that guy that nobody really knew and while Simpson and Gustin scrambled to improve their finish by a position or two, Travis Dickes started fifth and won to earn the pole position for the feature. Another driver who made a big move to win his heat, John Anderson joined Dickes on the front row and the two Nebraskans came across the start/finish line on the first lap in a virtual dead heat. Using the bottom line around the quarter-mile, Dickes moved to the lead on lap two as Brandon Sheppard moved in to challenge. Sheppard tried the next line up in both sets of turns, but could not quite pull even with leader before the caution waved on lap six for a three-car scramble involving Dave Eckrich, Jason Bodenhammer and Jordan Yaggy.
On the Delaware double-file restart Brian Birkhofer was able to take over second and he immediately went to work on Dickes. The crowd buzzed as Birky showed some progress as he patiently worked the second line and on lap nine he pulled even with Dickes as they came off of turn four. Despite the pressure from one of the Midwest's best, Dickes did not flinch holding his tight line through one and two to maintain the lead. As Birkhofer continued to try to work the higher line he began to fade as Chad Simpson moved to second and when the caution waved again on lap seventeen for debris off of the car of Scott Lewis it would be Simpson and Birkhofer who would pair up behind Dickes for the restart.
With what was left of the higher line now all but completely gone, Birkhofer would be a Delaware victim as Sheppard and Chris Simpson would go by him before he could get back down to the bottom and as the track locked down for the final half the race Dickes pulled away by several car lengths to post the convincing win. Chad Simpson would chase him home in second, Sheppard was third with Chris Simpson fourth and Brady Smith completed the top five. Ryan Gustin started ninth and finished sixth, Birkhofer wound up in seventh with Jeremy Payne, Brad Looney and John Anderson rounding out the top ten.
The track's full compliment of six weekly classes ran in support of the MLRA and with sixteen IMCA Late Models on hand, fans of the division had a nice doubleheader to take in. Pole-starter Chuck Hanna would lead the first three laps of the IMCA feature until Andy Nezworski muscled by on the inside. Defending IMCA Late Model National Champion Justin Kay has been unbeatable here at Maquoketa so far this year though and that continued tonight as he mastered the middle groove and marched to the front from his fifth row starting spot. Kay would take the lead at the mid-race mark and go on to win by nearly half a lap over Nezworski. Jeff Tharp was impressive coming from seventh to third, Brian Beaudry posted his third straight top-five finish here by taking fourth and Hanna filled out the top five.
"The Legend of Big Rock", Kelly Meyer drove around Mike Burbridge on lap four and was never challenged the rest of the way as he won the twenty-lap IMCA Modified main event. Jake Bowman would secure the runner-up position ahead of Burbridge, Tyler Madigan and Todd Reed.
Josh Neal enjoyed the fact that there was a constant three-car battle for second going on behind him as he went flag-to-flag for the win in the Outlaw Super Bomber division. Joe Bonney edged out Shawn Flagel by a bumper to prevail in that battle for second that also involved fourth-place finisher Justin Yarolem throughout the event. Rick Schriner had his own race-long battle with Kevin Brame that he won to take fifth.
I do have to say that I was a bit irritated with how the IMCA Sport Mod feature was scored at the finish.Matt Short was leading at the white flag with Tyler Soppe charging on the outside. Soppe pulled even down the back stretch on the final lap and drove deep into turn three as one of the cars at the complete tail of the pack spun to a halt at the bottom of turn two. Soppe was able to make it stick and would win the race to the checkers that was soon also was joined by a wave of the yellow flag. And since the decision was made to include that yellow flag for a car that was sitting nearly off the track in turn two where the next drivers to come upon him would have been those who were slowing after finishing the race, the official finish went back to the white flag lap giving the win to Short. Soppe had to be frustrated with second as he also had a pass for the lead earlier in the race negated by a caution. Austin Moyer came from twelfth to finish third, Bryce Garnhart was fourth and Jenae Gustin also came from the sixth row to take fifth.
Cody Brundage went flag-to-flag for his first career win in the Hobby Stock feature and we did not stick around for the Four Stock finale that closed out the evening.
A big thanks to Ryan Duhme, Timmy Current and everybody from the Darkside for their hospitality and for a full program that saw the final checkers wave just past ten o'clock. MLRA announcer Sam Stoecklin and track announcer "Big Boy" did a great job of keeping the crowd informed and entertained as well.
Next up for me will be the Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton Tuesday night and I plan to catch up with the MLRA again on Thursday May 22nd for the "Cowboy Classic" at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland to kickoff the Show Me 100 weekend. Hope to see you at the track!
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