The pit gate opened as the skies cleared and for the next three hours the flow through pit road was steady as just shy of 160 cars filled the pits for the opening night of the annual Fall Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. With the late addition of the combined Mod Lite and Micro Mod division mid-week, this was definitely a big show with seven classes in action on a track that sported a heavier cushion than we are use to seeing here at LCS. On a few occasions promoter Mike VanGenderen used the box blade to try to knock the cushion down, but on this cool, crisp autumn evening the ridge kept coming back giving the high line the advantage at a track that normally slicks off from bottom to top. Still, there was plenty of room to race and the action kept a nice crowd entertained through nearly five full hours of racing.
A makeup feature for the Sport Mods would start out the evening to complete a race that fell to rain after just four laps back on August 19th and leader Jim Gillenwater would not be challenged as he drove away from the field over the final fourteen circuits. John Oliver Jr. would finish second followed by Brandon Lennox, Tony Dunker and Joey Gower.
A full compliment of heat races, plus two B-Mains each in the Modifieds and Sport Mods would set the field for the seven feature races with the late invitees, the Mod Lites/Micro Mods up first for a fifteen lap main event. Young Dallon Murty had put on quite a show in winning his heat race so he had our attention and as the twelve car field took the green he was slow off the start and dropped back from his third starting spot. This was the same way that the youngster had started his heat before storming back for the win and, as Josh May paced the field, Murty found his speed and started to make his way back to the front. Erick Knutson appeared to have lost a left rear wheel though on lap three as he stopped on the back stretch and when the caution waved Murty pulled to the infield with apparent mechanical problems to end his night. Many time Micro Mod winner Don Erger took over second on the restart, but even he could not mount a challenge on May who drove his Mod Lite to the flag-to-flag victory. Mod Lites filled out the rest of the top five in Jason Masengarb, Devon Rouse and Joel Huggins who had started eleventh and while in victory lane May speculated that there will be more cars making their way to Donnellson on Saturday night.
The Lee County Late Model division was up next with a nice mix in tonight's seventeen car field between the Crates and the IMCA legal cars and with the heavier surface it was assumed that the IMCA cars might have the advantage. Front row starters Luke Merfeld and Chad Holladay established a blistering pace with Merfeld out front until lap five when it appeared that something broke on the leader's car as he veered right into the turn four guardrail. Holladay would bring the field back to green and as he raced into turn one Richie Gustin dove into turn one and pulled off the slider to take the lead. It only took a few laps for Gustin to open up a straightaway advantage as track champion Tommy Elston snared the second spot from Holladay. The battle for second changed hands again with less than ten laps to go when a lapped car forced Elston above the cushion in turn four and in the closing laps Holladay was closing in on the leader, but he could not get close enough to mount a challenge as Gustin earned the $1,000 payday. Elston was the best Crate on the night in third, Jeremiah Hurst brought the Roberts Motorsports #58 in for fourth while Todd Frank's Crate powered him from twelfth to fifth.
A full field of 24 Stock Cars were up next for twenty laps and with Cayden Carter on the pole, even though track champion Jeff Mueller was to his outside, you had the sense that this one was already decided following Carter's weekend sweep last week in Oskaloosa and knowing the Mueller's favorite bottom groove here at Lee County was not the place to be on this night. As expected The Gasman raced out to a comfortable lead that was wiped out twice by cautions for Randy Exline on laps ten and thirteen. On the second restart Mike Hughes would take over the second spot and he would find the bite that he needed on the bottom to mount a challenge on Carter for the lead. With that cushion pushing higher that bottom line was getting better and as starter Kevin Eggleston prepped the checkered flag Hughes pulled even with Carter in turn four and it would be a drag race off of four that Carter would win by a bumper. Mueller finished in third, John Oliver Jr. was fourth and Kirk Kinsley completed the top five.
That would be a tough race to follow, but believe it or not the Hobby Stocks would top that by giving the fans a finish that would take a few seconds for the scorers to confer before Tony Paris was able to announce a winner as it was that close. Veteran driver Bill Bonnett started from the pole and would set the pace with Justin Lichty and Nick Ulin racing behind him in tight formation. Lichty had to be careful with how he challenged Bonnett because Ulin was right there to fill his spot should he choose a slower line so when the white flag waved it was now "go time" for the challenger. Knowing that Lichty would be coming at him on the bottom Bonnett chose to leave the cushion in turns three and four on that final lap and as he drove through the middle Licthy went low and it was another drag race to the checkers with Licthy scoring the win by inches. In victory lane the Waterloo driver thanked Bonnett for all of the help that he had given the winner over the years, a theme that we hear quite often about the long-time Hobby Stock competitor, and admitted that he thought that the race was a dead heat. Ulin was right there behind the lead duo in third while Neal Miller and Mike Kincaid trailed in fourth and fifth.
Similar to the Stock Car feature, with 2016 UMP Modified National Championship runner-up Michael Long drawing the pole position for the 25-lap event, the race winner was essentially a foregone conclusion and Long lived up to that expectation by leading from start to finish to take the win. The race got off to a slow start with a caution for debris as lap one was scored and on the second lap a grinding crash involving Scott Dickey and Jason Murray on the front stretch put the field under red as the cars were towed away. Both drivers escaped uninjured.
On the restart Cayden Carter, who was looking for his fifth straight Modified win, moved to second after starting sixth and tried to reel in Long. The lead was erased on lap thirteen when smoke billowed from the car of Patrick Flannagan, but on the restart Carter missed his mark in turn one, jumped the cushion and faded to mid-pack allowing Richie Gustin to move to second. Not even Gustin could keep pace with Long though and he would chase him all the way to the checkers. Bill Roberts Jr. was the driver on the move as he worked his way up to third after starting twelfth, David Wietholder came from the fifth row to fourth and Jenae Gustin had an impressive run from eighth to join her older brother in the top five.
The Sport Compacts were the penultimate feature of the night and they too provided the die hard fans with a close finish as Kimberly Abbott mounted a late race charge at Josh Barnes who had paced the field since the drop of the green. Abbott had started sixth and had gradually picked her way to the front and on the final lap she drove to the inside of Barnes, but came up about a half a car length short at the checkers. Barry Taft was close behind in third, Darin Smith finished fourth and Nathan Chandler was fifth.
The clock struck midnight as the Sport Mod feature field formed up for the 32nd and final race of the night and a hard crash in turn three as the opening lap was scored would require a red flag. Jason McDaniel and Creston Williams tangled mid-pack and both crashed into the guardrail with the rest of the field still coming at them. Paul Howard clipped Williams car with his left rear turning him sideways and when Carter VanDenBerg then collided with him Howard's car turned over onto its side. All four cars suffered extensive damage, but thankfully all drivers were okay as Howard's mangled ride required a flat bed to carry it back to the pits. Brayton Carter was scored the leader by inches on that first lap and he would bring the field back to green only to see three top contenders, Jim Gillenwater, Tony Olson and Curtis Van Der Wal get tangled up in turn two sending all three to the back of the pack.
Carter would again bring the field back to green only to have Brandon Lennox take over the top spot on lap two. The man on the move though was the driver from Waseca, Minnesota, Jared Boumeester who started fifth and on lap five he would drive under Lennox for the lead. A caution for Austen Becerra on lap nine would tighten the field once again and while John Oliver Jr, could keep the leader in sight for the remainder of the race he could not get to Boumeester who closed out the night with a win. Lennox finished in third, Richie Gustin scored his third top-five finish of the night in fourth and Tyler Soppe completed the top five.
#FallEx Notes.......Uggh, did I just use a hashtag? I hope that will be the last time!......Obviously Richie Gustin had a great night doing triple-duty driving the Gheerd Up Kay Motorsports Late Model and Modified while he was in the #5Jr car in the Sport Mods.....The last hauler to arrive at the track was the beautiful Musco Lighting rig that used to carry Pat Gordin's Dirt Truck. However, with the recent announcement of the closing of the Truck's only weekly track in Des Moines, on this night Gordin debuted his black #19 Late Model......Chris Wiltse towed his sharp looking Mopar Stock Car down from Huxley, Iowa......Leah Wroten was a bit of a surprise guest driver in Dean Kratzer's #4K Stock Car.....Bobby Six has made the move from Sport Mods to Modifieds and he would win one of the two B-Mains......Kimberly Abbott's runner-up finish moves her to the lead in the All Iowa Points Four Cylinder division by just three points over defending champion Jay DeVries with four points-paying races still on the schedule.....Even though Jared Boumeester pulled in all the way from south central Minnesota, his drive to the southeast corner of Iowa might have still been shorter than that of Kinser Ellis who towed his Hobby Stock in from Spencer.....Other than a couple of breaks to make the track wider, something that produced three side-by-side finishes during the features, the show moved along at a fast pace just like you can always expect with a Mike VanGenderen led event showing just how long it does take to run a seven division program.....And, before any of you want to think that my attitude changed from one race night to another, there was no advertised promise to have a certain feature on the track by a certain time and there was no rain approaching. Huge difference!......With a chance of rain in the forecast for this Saturday night, the show will start an hour earlier than originally scheduled with hot laps slated to take the green at 5:00 p.m.
No racing for me tonight though as I have other commitments so make sure that you check in with Brian Neal's Midwest Racing News and Racin' Down the Road with Danny Rosencrans to get the news on night number two just in case you cannot be there in person to enjoy the action!
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