On a near perfect night weather-wise the West Liberty Raceway delivered a near perfect Tuesday night racing program featuring the Deery Brothers Summers Series for IMCA Late Models along with the IMCA Modifieds racing for a $1,000 top prize. There were thirty-two Late Models and twenty-four Modifieds in attendance, and the final checkered flag waved at 9:05 p.m. following an exciting battle between Nick Marolf and Justin Kay. Actually, on second thought throw out the "near", it was a perfect night of racing for a mid-week special event!
The four qualifying heats for the Deery Series Late Models did not see much action up front, but the race for the third and final transfer position in each of them delivered some excitement as drivers not only needed the spot to lock themselves into the show, but to also have a shot at the pole position in the A-Main during the Casey's General stores re-draw.
In the first heat Joel Callahan made a big move on the opening lap to go from eighth to fourth, but then he had a hard time making up any ground on the third-place car of Kevin Kile. Denny Eckrich and Justin Kay were well out in front and with the laps winding down Callahan began to close in on Kile and as the white flag waved Callahan moved under the hometown driver to secure that third and final qualifying spot.
Colby Springsteen won the Deery Series race that opened the 2014 season here back in April and in the second heat he looked like a sure thing to transfer in third behind Nick Marolf and Spencer Diercks. But up and coming driver Scott Fitzpatrick had something else in mind as he reeled in Springsteen and then passed him on the bottom line of turns one and two on the next to last lap. Springsteen was not about to give in though and in the final set of turns he used a nice high-to-low move exiting turn four to regain the third position at the checkers.
The third heat race was stacked with talent and as Brian Harris and Andy Eckrich drove away from the field the all-time winningest driver of the Series, and the most recent winner on this year's schedule, Jeff Aikey was working his way toward the front after starting in the fourth row. Aikey passed Tom Darbyshire for third mid-race and then cruised the rest of the way to join Harris and Eckrich in the re-draw.
The battle for third in the final heat race was one that spanned a couple of generations as Ron Boyse, who I believe told me recently that he was now 62 years old, was trying to hold off young Jonathan Brauns who has yet to put his teenage years behind him. Youth prevailed in this battle as Brauns would go on to finish third behind Kyle Hinrichs and Jay Johnson.
Two B-Mains and four provisionals later the twenty-four car starting field was set with local driver Nick Marolf drawing the pole alongside another teenage hot shoe Spencer Diercks. Current Deery Series point leader Justin Kay started third and immediately following the drop of the green Kay was hounding the leader Marolf. With Kay digging down low and Marolf using a higher line the two leaders entertained the crowd with several side-by-side moments and while Kay would ease ahead entering turn three, Marolf was able to get back out front before they crossed the stripe each time until lap six when Kay officially secured the lead.
Marolf did not let go though and two laps later, now using more of a middle groove on the wide and smooth racing surface, he was able to get back around Kay for the lead. What worked well for a few laps soon went away though as Kay continued to mine the gold at the bottom and as Kevin Feller scored lap number ten it was Kay back in front once again.
Lapped traffic now loomed ahead for the leaders and with Jeremy Grady and Jason Rauen racing side-by-side it would cause more issues for Kay who stayed committed to the bottom. Marolf was able to split the two lappers while Kay was pinned down low and on lap fourteen Marolf was again the leader and started to put some distance on Kay. Justin would spend the next twelve laps cutting into that lead and with twelve laps remaining another pair of drivers racing for position in front of the leaders would come into play.
Tommy Elston and Joel Callahan were having their own battle when Marolf and Kay joined them and this time it was Kay who took advantage of the traffic to drive under Marolf and go back into the lead with eleven trips around the sweeping half-mile remaining. As Kay pulled away, Marolf could not recover and one of the hottest Late Model drivers in the nation right now built upon his point lead as he cruised to victory lane and collected the $3,000 winner's check. A new father just a couple of weeks ago, Marolf was also proud of his runner-up effort tonight. Kyle Hinrichs ran a solid third throughout the forty lap distance fighting off one last challenge from Brian Harris at the checkers while Andy Eckrich completed the top five. Denny Eckrich started eleventh and finished sixth, Jay Johnson was seventh, Colby Springsteen finished eighth, Tyler Bruening was ninth and Ryan Dolan completed the top ten.
Deery WLR Notes......Curt Martin drove the #60 car normally wheeled by Dean Wagner, but did not qualify for the main event......It was nice to see Allan Hopp make the long trip over from Harlan although he too failed to qualify......Nate Beuseling held off Ray Guss Jr. for the fourth and final transfer out of the first B-Main, but Guss was one of the four provisional starters in the main event. The Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member was the events first retiree though when he suffered a flat tire on lap seven.......Ron Boyse took the final transfer position in the second B-Main just ahead of Jay Chenoweth......The next event for the Deery Brothers Summer Series will be this Sunday night July13th at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway. Who is the pre-race favorite? Well, Justin Kay has won every Late Model feature contested at Dubuque thus far in 2014. Do you want the Corn and Soybean Express or the rest of the field?
The West Liberty Raceway boasts one of the best weekly field of IMCA Modifieds in the nation on their Saturday night shows and when I was here to help out Jerry Mackey a couple of weeks ago they had twenty-six cars in attendance. Some of those weekly drivers stayed home or had to work on this Tuesday night, but other non-regulars such as Richie Gustin, Brandon Banks, Brandon Durbin, Mark Schulte, Rob Henry, Ben Carpenter, Derek Oberle and Tim Petitgout filled in to make up a talented field of twenty-four that would take the green flag for twenty-five laps with $1,000 going to the winner. Jerry Luloff who has made West Liberty his regular Saturday night destination in 2014 would lead the opening lap, but only by a nose over Cayden Carter who then raced to the front in turns one and two. Gustin was there as well to make it a three-car battle for the front and when Richie found the bite on the bottom exiting turn four he would officially hold the lead on lap two.
The caution waved for Carpenter a lap later and on the restart Gustin would put some distance on the rest of the field while they battled for second on back. When Larry Herring stopped on the track with ten laps remaining the field was once again brought back up to the rear bumper of Gustin and on the restart things got real interesting going down the back stretch. Andrew Schroeder, Cayden Carter, Chris Zogg and Bruce Hanford raced four-wide for second nearly the entire length of the straightaway. Now I am not just talking about four drivers using four different lines and being somewhat staggered within one or two car-lengths of each other, these guys were wheel-to-wheel, door-to-door lined up side-to-side better than they could have parked them and doing over eighty miles per hour with a left hand turn quickly approaching.
As the four contenders sorted things out over the next few laps, Gustin again opened up a comfortable advantage that he would then maintain the rest of the way to the checkers. Hanford, who started the race eleventh, would prevail in the battle for second while Carter, Zogg and Schroeder would make up the top five. Banks would come home in sixth followed by Luloff, eighth went to Kurt Kile, Derek Walker was ninth and Schulte filled out the top ten.
Thanks again to Keith Simmons, Carey Feller and the entire SPI crew for their hospitality and especially to announcer Jerry Mackey for his kind words about our efforts at Positively Racing. I will look forward to my next visit to either Farley, West Liberty or Dubuque and that may come on Tuesday August 5th when the annual Open Late Model Shootout will be held at West Liberty.
My weekend race plans are completely contingent on the weather at this point, but three events that I want to make sure that you are aware of, besides the Deery show at Dubuque mentioned above, are as follow. Friday night the Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders return to the Cedar County Fair in Tipton. Saturday the UMP Summer Nationals "Hell Tour" will be at 34 Raceway in Burlington for a big $10,000-to-win show and on Sunday the annual Hogan Memorial will be held at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. I'm not sure yet where you might find me, but wherever it is I hope that we will meet up again on the Back Stretch.
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