Jon Passick drew the pole position for the 40-lap Late Model headliner with Fitzpatrick lined up beside him and it would be Passick who would secure the early lead. Fitzpatrick would keep the pressure on and on lap five he powered to the inside of Passick and muscled his way into the lead. Dan Shelliam spun into the infield and then returned to the racing surface to draw a caution on lap eight and soon after the restart Denny Eckrich would take away the second spot from Passick.
Even with the veteran Eckrich on the chase, Fitzpatrick maintained a solid lead while working with some lapped traffic before the final caution of the race waved for debris with twelve laps remaining. The field was realigned in Delaware double-file fashion and even though Fitzpatrick had such names as Eckrich, Matt Ryan, and Jeff Aikey right behind him, the most likely driver to make a move was Tyler Droste who was now in sixth after starting thirteenth. With ten laps to go Droste was up to fourth and closing, but as Fitzpatrick maintained his quick pace to the checkers an overheating motor would thwart the charge of Droste as he nursed his #31 to the end.
Fitzpatrick moves to third in the series point standings with the win as Eckrich and Ryan crossed the line in second and third. Deery point leader Jeff Aikey had another solid run coming from ninth to fourth while the leading Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Cayden Carter made a late charge on the cushion to finish fifth after starting fourteenth. Tyler Bruening also made a nine position advancement to finish sixth while Droste crossed the line in seventh. Chad Holladay won one of the two B-Mains and finished eighth in the feature, Andy Eckrich made the most of a provisional and came from 24th to ninth while Travis Smock completed the top ten.
Indee Deery Notes......Future IMS Hall of Famer Curt Martin was driving Droste's second car and held off his young teammate for the third and final transfer spot from heat two. Droste would come back to win the first B-Main to earn the thirteenth starting position......Martin was running in the top five early in the feature before he overshot turn three and went over the backing momentarily losing several positions. The same thing would happen just a few laps later to another star veteran as Ray Guss Jr. dropped off the top of the track entering turn three while running in the top ten and by the time he returned to the track off of turn four he was in last......Justin Kay was doing double duty on the night, but his Late Model portion of the event was definitely not a highlight for the former champion. Kay suffered a flat tire early in the fourth Late Model heat landing him at the back of the second B-Main that was run on a freshly reworked surface after intermission. During that race the track was fast and around the top and, if not for a late bobble by Rick Wendling, Kay would have finished where he started. There was no time to dissect being a Late Model non-qualifier with his crew though as he was scheduled to start on the pole of the firt B-Main for the Modifieds, a race that he would win on the final lap when leader Josh Sherbon got sideways coming out of turn four. More on Justin's Modified feature later......Richie Gustin was behind the wheel of John Emerson's #87 tonight although it was being scored as Gustin's #19G. As Richie was getting lined up for the feature the left rear wheel came off the car ending his race before it even started.....Fitzpatrick thanked the wizardry of Tyson Gheer in victory lane and I will add that one the crewmen on the winning car is Spencer Watts, the son of former Late Model driver Steve Watts popularly known as "The Mayor of Jimtown"......The car count was a solid 35 Late Models on a Wednesday night and the Deery Series has two more stops to make this week. Tonight (Thursday) the Boys of Summer go to the Kossuth County Speedway in Algona, a track that took on a heavy rain overnight, but as of 10 a.m. they are syaing on Facebook that the races are still on. Then on Sunday night the Deery Brothers Summer Series will attack the highbanks at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway.
In addition to the Late Models, the pits were packed with Modifieds and Sport Mods with the Mods running the Dale Miller Memorial here during the Buchanan County Fair. Dale's brother J.R. stopped to talk with me for a bit as he was busy greeting drivers and passing out coozies to fans and he told me that he has been a reader of the Back Stretch ever since it got its start in the Hawkeye Racing News. And I knew that he was serious when he asked where my son Morgan was now living knowing that it has been several years since I have had my usual sidekick with me. J.R. I cannot tell you how much that meant to me and you should take great pride in the efforts that you put forth in memory of your brother Dale! The track received more than an inch of rain overnight on Tuesday and, had it not been during the fair and such a big special event, this show would have likely been cancelled due to wet grounds. But hard work by promoter Dana Benning and his crew got the track into racing condition and while it looked like it might be a rutty mess early in the evening, constant efforts between every race actually resulted in a pretty darn nice surface as the night wore on. However, with that extra time that was needed to produce a good show, plus a Sport Mod feature that was long on cautions, more on that in a minute, it turned into a long night causing me to leave part way through the final event of the night, Modified feature.
Tyler Droste who was also doing double duty grabbed the lead from the pole in that one and hel it until lap eight when contact sent Troy Cordes over the top of turn one and into the guardrail. When the race went red for safety officials to check on Cordes it was 11:12 and I decided that I needed to hit the road. As I hiked to my car on the other side of the fairgrounds I was glad to hear the announcement that Troy was okay and at 11:20 as I drove away it sound like the race was going back to green. From the track's website I see that Droste went on to win the Dale Miller Memorial with Brian Irvine running second. Richie Gustin, Joel Rust and Ronn Lauritzen completed the top five while the three drivers next in line Hunter Marriott, Justin Kay and Zach Less made nice runs after starting 11th, 17th and 18th respectively.
The Sport Mod feature definitely had some drama to it including some paint swapping by two of the National points contenders in a feud that has perhaps been ignited by a recent story in Jeremiah Davis' Inside Track and then has had the flames fanned by a challenge this week offered up by Simmons Promotions.
Dan Drury would take the lead at the outset of the 18-lap race with first caution waving for Justin Temeyer who had slowed entering turn one. Drury would lead another lap before the caution waved for Lucas Lundry who had gone off of the back stretch and on lap four Greg Barnett spun in turn four collecting six other cars including Tony Olson. With the number of available wreckers maxed out, Olson had time to make repairs and return to the track before the restart that was immediately waved off for debris in turn two after drivers made contact. On lap ten Leah Wroten spun in turn two and the stage was now set for that interesting battle for the fifth position. After failing to finish his heat race, Tyler Soppe had started deep in the field but was now in the top five and Olson was on the move back to the front of the pack. As they entered turn three on lap twelve, Olson went to the bottom and then slid up the track forcing Soppe over the cushion as he gave up the spot. Two laps later, as Olson was trying to make a move on Curt Hilmer, Soppe returned the favor essentially making the same move in the same place of the race track on Olson to regain the fifth position. Were the moves aggressive? Yes. Were the moves dirty? Not by my definition, but they were definitely enough to generate some colorful conversation afterward from both drivers as you will see here. With two laps to go now and with Olson breathing down his neck again, Soppe went too hard into turn three and clipped Hilmer spinning him around and taking him out of a top-five finish so if you have to label a "villian" here, it would be Soppe for that incident and not for the hard racing that he had with Olson.
Both drivers are at the top of the All Iowa Points as well by the way.....
Drury would go unchallenged over the final two laps to take the win in what he described as a marathon not knowing when and where some of the top drivers behind him would be coming from. Joey Schaefer finished second, Ben Chapman held off Olson by inches to finish third and Brian Hilbert rounded out the top five.
Yes, it was a long night of racing, but hey it was much better than no races at all which probably would have been the case if not for the reasons that I noted earlier. A big thanks to Dana Benning, Kevin Kemp, Bucky Doren, Jim Roper and the rest of the Indee crew as well as to the IMCA team of Ryan Clark, Bill Martin, Brett Root, Jim Stannard and Grant Ostvig for all of their efforts.
And after some heavy rain early this morning the folks at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson are faced with a similar scenario as they will try to salvage tonight's Stock Car Shootout at the fair. As of noon, the show is still on with an update to be given around 2 p.m. If it stays a "go" I hope to see you there on the Back Stretch!
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