How nice it was on Saturday to finally be able to go to the races without having to check on a weather forecast or look at a radar every fifteen minutes to see if you were going to be able to get a show in! And with it being a Saturday in June the choices were numerous with a last minute decision being made to visit the West Liberty Raceway for the first time in 2015 for a night of IMCA weekly racing complete with inverted lineups determined by a driver's average points for the season. So nice!
A solid field of cars was on hand in all five divisions with even a few visitors making their way to West Liberty for the first time this year as well. Mechanical issues a couple of weeks ago thwarted a great run by Iowa City's Rob Moss, so with his average points sitting low after a DNF he would start from the pole position in the 25-lap Late Model feature. Moss had already dominated his heat race earlier in the evening so even though he had another hot driver in Nick Marolf starting directly behind him, it looked like the grandson of the late Johnny Moss would be the man to beat.
Moss would jump to the lead at the drop of the green and as Marolf battled Jonathan Brauns for second that lead quickly grew to a half straightaway. While the youngster Brauns fought of Marolf for position the man on the move was Brian Harris driving the brightly colored numbered 15R owned by Lynn Richard. Harris was able to make it stick up high, down low and in between as he advanced his way up from a fifth row starting spot. With no cautions to slow the field Moss was working traffic over the final ten laps and when Harris completed the pass of Brauns for second on lap twenty-one he was still a full straightaway behind the leader. While Harris was fast, so was Rob Moss and there was no way that he would be caught in just four more laps around the fast half-mile.
Moss would take the win, the first time that he has even been in the top five this season, in convincing fashion while Harris would no doubt be pleased with his solid run up to second. Brauns ran a nice race to finish third ahead of Andy Eckrich while Marolf nipped Cayden Carter at the line by inches for fifth.
While the final event of the the night, the Late Model feature ran non-stop so too did the first feature of the night, the 15-lap Sport Mod main event. Colton Livezy and Justin Conklin would bring the fifteen-car field to green with Livezy taking early control leaving Conklin to try to ward off the charge from several would be contenders. Dan Keltner, Austin Kaplan and Tim Plummer would make their way to the front with Kaplan taking the lead from Livezy with four laps remaining. Plummer, who has been racing on the asphalt at Hawkeye Downs for several years and has one Late Model feature win to his credit there in 2015, pulled even with Kaplan on the low side of turn three with two to go. And, as Kaplan fought off that challenge, Keltner found the cushion to his liking and was now making a charge on the outside.
After taking the white flag Keltner would ride the top around one and two to take the lead as the trio raced down the back stretch one last time, but Kaplan drove it deep into turn three and then shut the door on Keltner in four. Plummer tried to use the opening on the inside to make one last charge and at the checkers it was Kaplan, Keltner and Plummer in tight order. Brayton Carter crossed the line in fourth while Livezy would hold on for fifth in this thriller.
West Liberty has a reputation for having one of the best weekly fields of Modifieds and tonight's twenty-nine car roster did nothing to hurt that reputation as four heats and two B-Mains would set the 24-car feature field. When Scott Dickey lands on the front row for a feature anywhere you can usually bank upon a dominant win by the second generation driver from Packwood and if not for four different caution periods that likely would have been the case tonight.With each of the first two restarts Dickey would pull away from the field as the rest of the pack shuffled for position behind him, but when the caution waved on lap nine both Brad Tyler and Dakota Hayden were now able to match the leader's pace..
Hayden would take over second from Tyler and appeared to be inching closer to the leader when the caution waved one last time with three laps remaining. On the restart Hayden went too high entering turn one and that allowed Brandon Banks to power into the second spot. Banks would then set his sights on the leader pulling even with Dickey as they raced under Doug Haack's white flag. Being the age that I am now I wondered just how many times in the past had Dan Dickey and Denny Banks raced wheel-to-wheel for the lead on the final lap as I watched their talented sons do the same down the back straightaway and into turns three and four where Dickey found the bite on the high line that he needed to edge out Banks by a car-length at the checkers. Tyler was impressive in the third spot while Bruce Hanford and Brad Dierks each made big runs through the field to finish fourth and fifth. Hanford had won a B-Main and started thirteenth on the grid while Dierks came from twelfth.
Veteran driver Tom Cannon would lead the opening lap of the Stock Car main event before John Oliver Jr. from Danville took over on lap two. Oliver, a Saturday night regular at 34 Raceway in Burlington, was here due to his track taking the night off after what was supposed to have been their World of Outlaws Sprint show that fell to wet grounds the day before, and he was looking good for a win here in the early going. Johnny Spaw was a man on a mission though and after starting tenth Spaw was able to drive by Oliver on the outside to take the lead on lap seven. As Spaw tried to pull away Bandon Jay slipped by Oliver for second and was doing his best to keep pace with the leader before the caution waved with just two laps remaining.
Current point leader Greg Gill had been in a three-wide battle for fourth with John Hemsted and Harold O'Brien before Gill spun in turn two and the field was reset for a green, white, checkers finish. Jay tried to make a run at the lead, but there would be no catching Spaw who returned to victory lane about a month after he had refused an engine claim here. When announcer Jerry Mackey greeted him in victory lane with "it's good to have you back", Spaw quipped, "yea, I'm out of IMCA jail now." Jay would take the runner-up position followed by Oliver in third, Hemsted was fourth and O'Brien took fifth while Gill battled back up to seventh at the checkers.
Front row starter Bobbie Lake would have to ward off the eighth starter Ryan Walker just to lead lap one of the Sport Compact headliner before the caution waved after the opening lap. On the restart Lake did not come up to speed and had already dropped to sixth as they went by the flag stand with Walker now taking the point. With such an impressive early run to the front you would have thought that Walker would dominate this one, but his teammate Jason Klerk de Ruess had other plans taking the lead on lap five and then going the rest of the way to take the win. Shane Evans, who suffered a flat tire as he was making a pass for the lead on the final lap of his heat race, started at the back of the fifteen car lineup and finished second. Walker wound up third ahead of Bill Whalen Jr. and Brendon Schultheis.
I mentioned earlier that the trip to West Liberty was a last minute decision between two other events where I actually had driven a half hour in another direction before making the turn and heading back to West Liberty. One of the deciding factors in that last minute decision? I knew that I would be able to watch video of the feature races from the two other events on the internet first thing on Sunday morning.
Even doubling the usual one hour drive to West Liberty I arrived early enough to have a great conversation with promoter Keith Simmons while watching Kevin Feller check in the 94-car field. I look forward to returning to West Liberty on Tuesday July 7th for the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models and again on Wednesday July 29th when the Lucas Oil ASCS National Sprint Car Series makes its debut at the Muscatine County Fairgrounds.
Next up for me will this Thursday night, July 2nd, when the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders return to the Iowa State Fair Speedway in Des Moines. Hope to see you there!
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