With all of the heavy rain in the area the past couple of days it was the dedication of Dave Sapp, Mike Van Genderen and the entire Lee County Speedway crew that made this event possible as they rescued a quagmire and produced a usable racing facility with only a few peeks of the sun on a humid day. The Late Models had to park their big rigs outside of the normal pit area in the gravel parking lots and even Austin Seibert found that to be a bit treacherous as a tow truck was pulling his hauler out of a mud hole when I arrived. Nearly all of the other tracks in the area had cancelled due to wet grounds so each of the five weekly divisions had a few visitors on hand giving this the feel of a mid-week special and a good crowd was on hand to take in the action.
Twenty-seven Late Models signed in with the top sixteen in passing points from the three heat races moving directly on to the main event. California driver Jason Papich, who I found to be a bit of a surprise entrant after running the first two events of the UMP Summer Nationals, ran away with the win in the first heat. Defending series champion Chad Simpson came from sixth to finish second while Ryan Gustin struggled dropping from third to fifth at the checkers. Jason Utter gave a preview of things to come by charging to the win in heat race number two. Current point leader, and the race winner here last year, Terry Phillips looked like a lock to win this one from the front row, but Utter blew by him with four laps remaining to take the victory. Having started fifth this would tally enough points to put Jason on the pole for the main event.Jesse Stovall and Denny Eckrich swapped the lead back and forth through the first half of the third heat race before Stovall pulled away to take the win. After starting third in the heat, Stovall would earn the outside front row start in the main event.
Both R.C. Whitwell and Clint Kirkham would scratch from the B-Main, each suffering damage in a first lap tangle with Dick Weber in the second heat race although Whitwell would later start the A-Main as a series provisional. Jamie Wilson, who won the UMP Late Model feature at Quincy on May 31st, would take the win in the B-Main over Dustin Griffin while IMCA Late Model regular Jay Chenoweth would take third.
Stovall would get the jump at the drop of the green for the forty-lap headliner and he would lead the field down the backstretch only to have Utter drive it deep into turn three to officially hold the lead on lap one. Stovall would again use the high side in turns one and two to go to the front, but before the second lap would go in the books the only caution of the race would wave when Austin Seibert would spin in turn two collecting both J.C. Wyman and Chenoweth.
Utter would be placed at the point for the restart with one lap scored and on lap four Stovall again used the high line in one and two to take his first official lead of the race. Chad Simpson was making it an entertaining three-car race for the front and on lap six he powered by on the inside to take the lead. The top three were using any and all lines around the speedway to negotiate lapped traffic and when Simpson found himself pinned behind a lapper for a split second Utter took advantage and regained the lead on lap seventeen.
Jason would have a skirmish of his own with a lapped car first making contact on the front stretch that would then cause him to clip the track tire entering turn one as Simpson returned to the point on lap nineteen. The three contenders would continue to entertain the crowd as they all stayed close together while working through the slower cars that even late in the race included Phillips and with just four laps remaining Stovall again used a higher line to drive past Simpson for the lead. We were setting up for a big finish now as Chad was set to fight back, but when he appeared to make contact with the lapped car of Scott Lewis the following lap, the ball joint on the left front broke and he drove the car into the infield. Utter's chance to make one last bid for the win went away when his right rear tire went down as he was taking the white flag so after battling two other drivers throughout the race, Stovall now just had to ease it on in for the checkers and the $3,000 top prize.
Utter had enough of an advantage over the third-place car that he was able to limp around the final lap and still take second by a car length over Jason Papich. Denny Eckrich had raced Papich for position throughout the event and he came home fourth while Ryan Gustin came from the sixteenth starting spot to finish in fifth.
Outside of a few too many cations and one red flag in the Sport Mods, support class action was solid as well. The Sport Compacts would kick things off with a non-stop fifteen lap event that saw "The Party Animal" (well at least that's what we called him thirty years ago!) Mike Reu take the lead for the opening laps. Kimberly Abbott would take over the lead on lap three and would then hold it for one more circuit before a hard charging Josh Barnes would go by. Barnes had started tenth and his colorful "Darkside" #13B was lightning quick as he pull away to take the win over Abbott and Mike's son Brandon Reu. Former track champion Darin Smith would take the fourth spot while Papa Reu completed the top five.
Last week only two IMCA Hobby Stocks were on hand for weekly racing action and one of them did not return tonight. Fortunately a few more made the trip tonight and the six-car field put on an entertaining fifteen-lap event that saw Leah Wroten and Brandon Symmonds racing hard for the top spot. Those two swapped the lead three times over the course of the race with Wroten prevailing at the checkers. Symmonds would take second, Brandon Potts was close behind in third, early leader Kevin Koontz was fourth and Daniel Wauters completed the top five.
Twenty-eight Sport Mods required four heats and a B-Main to set the feature field and the first six laps went green with Dan Keltner leading the pack. The first caution waved when Phillip Cossel slowed on the front stretch and on the restart, when Keltner bobbled in turn four, Joey Gower was right there to take advantage. The caution waved for Brett Lowry's spin in turn two and following the restart a great three-car battle ensued between Gower, Jim Gillenwater and Dustin Crear. The caution flew again with just three laps remaining for a slowing Austen Becerra and on the restart a mad scramble in turn one sent cars looking for open space and Crear was one of a couple who were eliminated.
With the field set to go back to green Adam Birck was now in the first row behind the leader and, after starting fifteenth, he wanted to complete his march to the front. Birck moved to second with two laps to go only to spin at the exit of turn four and that caused them to literally stack up as six cars were involved with Keltner's car lifted up and wedged up next to Birck's on its side. The red flag waved and safety crews worked to pull apart the mess after making sure that all drivers were okay.
One last restart then saw Gower hold off the challenge from Gillenwater to take the win. Tanner Klingele and Brandon Lennox finished third and fourth respectively while Brandon Dale returned from a late race tire change to finish in fifth.
Stock Cars and Modifieds would run their features after the Late Models and all but the die-hard Late Model fans knew to stick around for this action. The Stock Cars had a few more cautions than usual with four in their twenty-lapper, but each were more of an opportunity to catch your breath rather than a nuisance as Todd Reitzler tried to hold off the challenges of several drivers throughout the race. While he was officially scored the leader for every lap, Reitzler gave up the lead on at least three occasion only to come right back at the stripe by sticking to his low line around the speedway. Four cars were in contention for the win as the white flag waved and as they came off of turn two it looked like hometown driver Jeremy Pundt would capture a thriller as he pulled even with Reitzler going down the back stretch and had the momentum to the high line in turn three. All it took though was one slight bobble and Pundt dropped back to fifth at the checkers as Reitzler scored the victory. Abe Huls edged Nathan Wood in a photo-finish for second while Jeff Mueller aboard the 3D Roofing #3 for the first time this year nipped Pundt at the line for fourth.
With the Hawkeye Dirt Tour next on the schedule here for next Thursday, June 18th, there were several Modified visitors on hand tonight including long-distance traveler Levi Nielsen who pulled in from Mason City. They would all end up chasing a track regular though as Tyler Groenendyk drove past the front row of Lonne Heap and Steve Stewart to take the lead on the opening lap and he would go the distance for the win. Track point leader Scott Hogan, who makes the long pull down from Vinton every Friday night, came from seventh to finish second, Bill Roberts Jr. was third, the current National point leader Kyle Brown was fourth after starting tenth and Brandon Rothzen who was originally slated to start sixth, but for some reason took the initial green from the back of the twenty-one car field finished in fifth.
It was another memorable night of racing at the Lee County Speedway and as a fan who has not been to a race in just short of three weeks I have to thank everybody who worked so hard to get the facility ready for the night's action. And, little did I know just how close we were to an earlier ending as just two miles north of the track it was raining quite hard on the way home. Two years in a row now. I am sure that I don't have to beg Mike Van Genderen to book the MLRA Late Models at Lee County again in 2016!
I see that at least one track has cancelled racing for tonight due to some morning rain here in eastern Iowa. If the weather holds off I am looking forward to filling in for my good friend Rich Adams at 34 Raceway in Burlington tonight, perhaps I will see you there!
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