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| A beautiful night for racing in Tipton |
Honestly I have delayed writing this story this morning in hopes of catching a glimpse of the official press release from IMCA first as in the non-stop 50 lap Late Model feature I have a different top five than what was announced following the checkers, but as of 9:15 a.m. there is still nothing out there, so perhaps they are still sorting it out as well. So here goes.....
Cayden Carter looked strong in his heat race using the high line to pick up the fourth and final transfer late in the event drew the front row for the feature and again used that high line to race out to a quick early advantage. Kurt Kile, who is a former Summer Series winner here, found the low line to his liking and he would gradually cut into Carter's lead until he was within striking distance as the leaders encountered traffic on lap fifteen. Justin Kay who had started fifth was now in third and as soon as traffic became a factor he quickly closed to make it a three car race for the lead.
Kile's line proved to be best, especially when dealing with the lappers and he took the lead in turn two on lap seventeen with Kay hot in his tire tracks. Four laps later when Kile left the bottom in turns three and four to go around a lapped car, Kay pounced and assumed the lead on lap twenty-one. Kile tried to keep the new leader in his sights, but hey this is Justin Kay that we are talking about and before long he had opened up a full straightaway advantage.
With no cautions to bring the field back to him, Kay continued to pull away and posted the convincing win at a track that is nearby his home of Wheatland. Kile was the clear cut runner up, but then things were a bit scrambled after that due to some late race action for positions within the top five. I had Luke Merfeld edging out Carter for third in the closing laps and on the final lap I noted that both Ryan Dolan and Chad Holladay passed Joel Callahan in turn two unofficially placing Dolan in fifth. Once the official finish is released by IMCA I will update this if needed. Thursday morning follow up: The official results show Carter ahead of Merfeld and Joel Callahan finishing fifth with Ryan Dolan in sixth and Chad Holladay a lap down in 17th. I obviously missed Holladay being lapped, and I might not have been at the proper angle to call the Carter/Merfeld finish, but I'm pretty sure that Dolan passed Callahan on the final lap. When it comes to scoring though, Kevin Feller is one of the best so I will defer to him.
Not that he needed it, but Kay may have had some additional motivation in his Late Model as earlier on the first lap of the Modified feature he uncharacteristically spun in turn two dropping him to the back of the field. On the restart, when outside front row starter Johnny Walker flared wide off of turn four to take the green, fourth starting Corey Dripps had to be thinking "gee thanks" as he filled the spot and grabbed the lead exiting turn two on the opening lap. HDT point leader Chris Abelson quickly moved from sixth to second on lap three and when the caution waved for Tim Ward on lap four Abelson was ready to attack on the restart.
Abelson dove to the bottom in turn three and slid up the track to go door-to-door with the leader in four, but Dripps did not flinch on the cushion and continued to hold the lead down the front stretch. As the lead duo approached turn three Abelson again tried to throw a slider at Dripps, but could not clear him and did a nice job of not making contact even though his bid for the lead was again squelched. Still with a long way to go in the 30-lap feature Abelson then settled into second also running the cushion, but I had to wonder if his spirit had been broken a bit as after Walker spun off the front stretch while running fourth on lap twelve there were no sliders coming from Abelson after the restart.
Instead Abelson had to contend with Kyle Brown who took the second spot away from the Sioux City driver on lap twenty, but there would be no catching Dripps who rode a solid lead all the way to the checkers. Brown finished second, Abelson was third, Darin Duffy started eighth and finished fourth while Joel Rust finished where he started in fifth.
Tipton Twin-bill Notes.......It was great to have Jerry Mackey as the emcee for the night at the track that he saw his first race at just a few short years, oh who's kidding who here, it was a long time ago! He did a great job as always and I appreciated his mention of Positively Racing along with the other media members who were in attendance......IMCA Executive Secretary and PR.com Blogger On Leave of Absence Ryan Clark handled the play-by-play on IMCA.tv last evening and I am sure did a spectacular job......Deery Series point leader Jeff Aikey put himself in a hole by going over the top of turn three while running second in the second heat race. Aikey came back to run the B-Main and did not make the top ten transfer positions so he had to use a provisional to start the feature where he finished a lap down in 14th......Hometown driver Jake Meier drove Jeff Johnson's #40J and looked good finishing second in his heat race, one spot ahead of Justin Kay. He dropped out of the feature early though and was credited with 23rd...... Joe Beal nipped Matt Fulton on the final lap to take the fifth and final transfer from the first Modified B-Main.....Ricky Thornton Jr. scratched from his heat, started 11th in the second Modified B and raced his way up to fifth to make the show. In the feature he was making some good progress after starting 22nd, but when he drove off the front stretch at speed under green he continued around the outside of turns one and two and headed for his back stretch pit area.....The next Deery Series event will be on Tuesday night August 16th at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway and the guest announcer will be none other than the guy who was the announcer at the first ever Summer Series event held back in 1987 as Mackey has another commitment that evening..... The Hawkeye Dirt Tour heads west with its next two events at the Clay County Fairgrounds in Spencer and the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta.....Thanks to Kathy Dlouhy and everybody at Tipton for the well run show that wrapped up just before 9:30, perhaps in part because there was no pizza swap.
Next up for me will be night one of the Arnold Motor Supply Knoxville 360 Nationals on Thursday. Perhaps I'll see you there!
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