Not only did Justin Kay continue his mastery of the IMCA Late Model division by scoring his sixth Deery Brothers Summer Series win of the season, he also showed that he can compete with the best in his IMCA Modified Tuesday night at the Cedar County Raceway. Colt Mather kept Kay from recording the clean sweep though as he won the Hawkeye Dirt Tour main event on an absolutely beautiful night for racing in Tipton, Iowa.
Thirty-one IMCA Late Models signed in for action at the quarter-mile oval and when Justin Kay pulled the Casey's pizza box with just three slices the general feeling was that tonight's 50-lap finale would be a race for second. Dan Shelliam, who has been able to beat Kay in Dubuque a few times over the past six weeks, had other ideas though as he would lead early with young Brunson Behning holding off Kay for second through the first twelve laps.
As the three leaders closed in on lapped traffic on lap thirteen, Kay slipped under Behning into second and two laps later when Shelliam chose to use the high line to lap Darren Ackerman, Kay went low and took over the lead. Behning also used the traffic to move to second and he appeared to be closing in on Kay when the caution waved on lap 25 as Sam Halstead parked his car just off of the front stretch.
Behning chose the inside of the first double row for the Delaware double file restart and he was immediately shuffled back to fifth as not only Shelliam, but also Ray Guss Jr. and Joel Callahan moved ahead of him. As Guss and Shelliam raced wheel-to-wheel for second, Kay pulled away and as Behning was trying to get back around Callahan for fourth he spun in turn two to cause the second caution of the race with twelve laps remaining.
On the restart Kay again drove away from his challengers and would cruise to the $3,000 victory ahead of Shelliam and Guss. Kevin Kile worked his way up to fourth after starting tenth and Richie Gustin slipped past Scott Fitzpatrick in the closing laps to take the fifth position.
Kay's Late Model win would come just moments after he completed the 30-lap feature for the IMCA Modifieds that saw him start fourth, directly behind Colt Mather. More known for his prowess on the fast half-miles, such as his home track the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Mather may have surprised even himself as he took the lead from pole-sitter Mike Burbridge at the drop of the green and then started to pull away from the pack. Kay did his best to keep pace about ten car-lengths back and then you had the fifth-starting Mitch Morris about that same gap behind in fourth. A lap four caution for Bruce Hanford only paused the scene as the top three checked out while the rest of the pack shuffled for position two, and sometimes even three-wide.
With the green flag prevailing the rest of the way that is how they would finish with Mather taking the win declaring "this is my first BIG short track win!" in victory lane. Kay would finish second ahead of Morris while Brad Dierks powered his way forward from sixteenth to fourth. Mike Burbridge would complete the top five.
With this being the next to last event for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour in 2015 I was also checking in on the two championship contenders as the defending champ Mike Van Genderen entered the night with a one-point lead over Kyle Brown. Van Genderen started seventh, but faded to twelfth at the checkers while Brown started 22nd and raced his way up to seventh to give him a four point lead going to the series finale at the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley on September 19th.
Tipton Notes.....You would have never known that this was only the second race of the year here at Tipton as Kathy Dlouhy assembled a stellar crew and they presented a very professional program with the huge field of 43 Modifieds and 31 Late Models. And, while Kathy is definitely the one in control, it was the dirt work of "Doctor Al" Dlouhy that delivered a racing surface that offered up three or more grooves from the first drop of the green flag all of the way to the final checkers. Somebody who was not there might look at the results and the story above and think that the racing was not that great due to the lack of lead changes and that would be a completely wrong assumption! Even in a draw/redraw format sometimes the fast guys start up front, but there was absolutely no lack of action behind them as in one instance I saw the Modifieds go five-wide off the exit of turn two......Jerry Mackey was the perfect choice as the announcer for this special event, not only because it is his former hometown, but because he continues to be one of the best in the business.....Okay, so here is my challenge to everybody who was at the show last night. Do not let the success of this show trick you into thinking that "there should be weekly racing again at Tipton", and instead perhaps consider that the fact that there is not regular racing here this season just might have contributed to the success of this one. Maybe add one or two more races to the schedule in 2016, but keep them "special".......Five Modified heats advanced only two in each to the main event. Justin Kay ran away with heat one while Matt Werner was impressive coming from deep in the field to finish second.....Hunter Marriott started ninth in the second heat and made a run at Scott Powell for second as the white flag waved. With local driver Ben Chapman taking the checkers all eyes were on Powell and Marriott as Powell prevailed by a bumper.....Mike Burbridge's third heat race win would allow him to later draw the pole for the feature while the battle for second was a wild one. Ronn Lauritzen had just taken the position from Tony Von Dresky as the white flag waved, but when Lauritzen's car hesitated exiting turn two both Von Dresky and Kurt Kile went flying by him and it would be Kile taking the final transfer.....Mark Schulte came from the back in heat four, but he would have to settle for third behind Colt Mather and Mitch Morris who were both poised for bigger and better things later in the evening.....The fifth heat may have been the race of the night as Patrick Flannagan, Bruce Hanford and Mike Van Genderen locked into a three-car battle for the only two qualifying spots. "The Flash" Flannagan held the point as the other two literally swapped lines and position several times right behind him until Van Genderen broke free and then passed Flannagan for the win in the final two laps. Hanford would have to run one of the three B-Mains that would transfer four cars each......Personal opinion here, but a B-Main should never transfer twice as many cars than what does out of your heat races......The first Modified B had plenty of intrigue as early on Jacob Murray caught a break when he spun in turn two and dropped several positions, but fortunately for him George Spence III also spun and sat there until a caution waved. Since the lap was not scored, Murray returned to his fourth-place position for the restart. Bill Roberts Jr. would spin out of fourth late in the race and then while coming to the white flag something broke on David Brown's second-place car sending him over the top of turn three. Mark Schulte would take the win with Murray in second followed by Brad Tyler and Zach Less.....The second B-Main saw three drivers who came up just short of qualifying in their heats, Hunter Marriott, Ronn Lauritzen and Bruce Hanford, run one-two-three and when Dakota Hayden went over the top of turn two late in the race it handed over the final transfer spot to Johnny Walker......Brian Irvine, Brad Dierks and Ray Cox Jr. would lead the way in the third and final B-Main and much to the chagrin of Tony Von Dresky he was passed in the closing laps by Kyle Brown. For you see if Brown would have run fifth he would have still started the feature as a provisional in 23rd rather than 22nd, so the late pass in the B knocked out Von Dresky and allowed Chris Zogg to claim the second provisional. Kyle's father David Brown would take the other one after making repairs......Four heats of Late Models would transfer three out of each and just as he did earlier in the Modifieds, Justin Kay would walk away with the win in heat race number one. Joel Callahan would win the second heat while Ray Guss Jr. would take heat race number three. In that one Richie Gustin passed Jeff Tharp on the last lap for the final transfer. Joe Zrostlik paced the field for the final heat race......Four cars transferred out of each of two B-Mains that were won by Scott Fitzpatrick and Matt Ryan......The Deery Series' next action will come during the Liberty 100 which has this year been moved to Labor Day weekend, September 4th and 5th at the West Liberty Raceway.
It was good to squeeze in a night of Late Model and Modified action just before the start of the 55th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores. The weather looks great for four nights of Sprint Car action at the Knoxville Raceway so be sure to check back in daily for reports from Sprint Car racing's premier event here on the Back Stretch!
No comments:
Post a Comment