Following a night where he had to win the B-Main, start seventeenth and work his up to ninth at the checkers in Oskaloosa, Chris Simpson was looking forward to his return to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Friday night. After all it was here just over four weeks ago that he had finished a strong third behind two national tour drivers that would not be in attendance this time around and the Mount Vernon, Iowa, driver was more than ready to step up and make his claim to victory at the 3/8-mile oval in the southeast corner of the state. But he had to work for it!
Another solid field of 35 Super Late Models checked in to the track that continues to build a reputation for great racing and following the four heats and two B-Mains using the passing points system it would be Jimmy Mars and Tony Jackson Jr. starting from the front row just ahead of two drivers who ran very strong the night before, Osky winner Jesse Stovall and third-place finisher Rodney Sanders. Simpson lined up fifth and as the green flag waved it would be Mars who would race out to a comfortable lead with Jackson trying to stay close.
As usual drivers were using multiple lines around the racing the surface and, while the front half of the field stretched out a bit, the back half of the pack was tightly bunched with two and three-wide racing being the norm. Simpson was hugging the rail and gradually made his way to the front taking second away from Jackson just as Mars was closing in on the traffic jam. Showing great patience the leader started to put drivers a lap down and while Simpson was able to stick a nose under him from time to time, Mars did not give up his favored line that was no more than one car width higher than Simpson was running. The difference tough was that Mars was exiting turn four with a wider arc, while Simpson was coming off of the bottom with a straight run down the front chute and with just seven laps remaining Mars drifted just a bit off four and Simpson pounced.
Mars tried to make a run back at the new leader in turns one and two, but his wider line was no match for Simpson's short way around and Chris held him off over the final laps to score the popular win. Mars would ride in for second ahead of Jackson while Stovall and Sanders filled out the top five. Tad Pospisil and Ricky Frankel rode the high line throughout most of the 40-lap distance and finished sixth and seventh respectively, Tommy Weder Jr. advanced from fourteenth to eighth in the non-stop event while Justin Kay and a B-Main winner Ryan Gustin completed the top ten.
MLRA Notes......Last night's runner-up and World of Outlaws regular Jordan Yaggy had his night end abruptly when he smacked the back stretch guardrail on the opening lap of the second heat race.....22 of the 24 starters were running at the finish......The field was stout leaving drivers such as Justin Reed and Jason Rauen in the pits come feature time. Those two waged one of the most entertaining races for last in a B-Main that you will ever see....It was great to have Indiana drivers Joe Godsey and Nathan Vawter in attendance both nights. Godsey ran a strong second in his heat tonight and finished 13th in the feature......Jason Feger joined the roster tonight, but was relatively quiet finishing 16th and Terry Phillips had another tough night at Donnellson finishing 15th. The all-time leader feature winner with the MLRA needs to have somebody else draw for him tonight when the series closes out the tripleheader at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly.
Race Director Mike Van Genderen and his crew once again proved that you can run a six division "special event" in a smooth and efficient manner as the local classes all behaved nicely with the final checkers waving just past 10:30.
The Lee County Late Models had two IMCA cars in action tonight with both of them, Cayden Carter and Kevin Kile, drawing the front row ahead of the Crates with Carter taking the lead at the drop of the green. Tommy Elston was on the move though quickly coming from fifth up to second and he was reeling in the leader as the 25-lap event reached the halfway mark. As they raced past a pair of slower cars down the back stretch Elston took the lead going into turn three only to have one of those slower cars, Gunnar Frank run into the back of him. To keep from spinning the new leader, Frank jammed the breaks and spun to bring out the caution and since the lap had not been scored complete it would be Carter that would lead the field back to green on the restart.
Elston first had to fight off Sam Halstead to retain the second spot before he could go back to work on Carter, but on lap nineteen Elston was able to complete the pass for the lead and the eventual win much to the delight of the Lee County crowd. Halstead dropped Carter backed to third at the checkers with Todd Frank and Jeff Guengerich completing the top five.
Jeff Mueller started eighth in the Stock Car main event, but it only took him five laps before he was challenging for the lead in three-wide fashion with Jeremy Pundt and Andrew Hustead with Mueller's signature low line prevailing. From there he pulled away to win his fifth straight feature here in convincing fashion. The race for second was a good one though as Abe Huls fought off Greg Gill in a side-by-side battle over the final laps with John Oliver Jr. and Corey Strothman next in line.
The Sport Compacts were the first of six features on the night and even though Josh Barnes was able to come from the inside of the fourth row to take the lead on the opening lap, he gave it back up to front row starter Brandon Reu on lap two. Barnes came right back to the lead on lap three though and then drove away to a comfortable victory over Reu and defending track champion Kimberly Abbott. Brandon Lambert finished fourth and Ron Kibbe was fifth.
The two Modified divisions ran their features after the MLRA main event and the wide, rubbered up surface gave drivers plenty of options in regard to lines around the speedway. Brandon Dale found the low groove to his liking after starting from the front row in the Sport Mod main event while others behind him searched for a groove that would allow them to reel him in. Tony Dunker found one by entering the turns high and then racing off low and he steadily moved to the front after starting ninth. With five laps remaining Dunker drove past Dale and then put some distance on the field before taking the checkers. Dale would be a solid runner-up followed by John Oliver Jr., Austen Becerra and Austin Howes.
Hunter Marriott showed his strength during heat race action and was the obvious pick come feature time in the IMCA Modifieds marching from ninth to first in just five laps. Dennis LaVeine started eighth and his drive to the front was more methodical as he took second from early leader Dean McGee just before a caution waved with four laps remaining. There were some thoughts that LaVeine might be able to make a challenge on Marriott on the restart, but those thoughts were quickly put to rest when the green flag waved as Marriott again pulled away to score the dominant win over LaVeine and McGee. Jerad Fuller recovered from a lap four spin to finish in fourth while Jeff Waterman was fifth.
After six races in seven nights I will take the rest of the weekend off before what might be another busy week ahead. Thanks for checking in on the Back Stretch!
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