The IMCA Modifieds took center stage Saturday night at the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway, the final night of two for the Rumble On The River, and the feature race came right down to the wire with Darin Duffy stealing the $3,000 win from Mark Schulte. Luke Goedert, Scott Busch, Joe Bonney and Brett Marshall were also winners as the 2017 season came to a close at the wide high-banked 3/8th-mile oval.
Thirty laps would be the distance for the Modified headliner with Schulte going to the lead from the pole position. Fellow front row starter Travis Denning went to the topside only to give up the second spot to fifth starting Jason Schueller. With both drivers hugging the bottom Schulte and Schueller were pulling away from the field until the caution waved on lap eight when Rob Toland got sideways in turn one and collected four others.
On the restart Kenny Kostenbader made a run at the leaders, but he soon faded as Denning again picked up the chase in third. Bryce Garnhart was running fourth until Darin Duffy swept by him on the outside and when Denning sailed around Schueller for second with nine laps remaining, suddenly Schulte was the only one of the top five still running the bottom. The caution waved a lap later though for debris and on the restart drivers scrambled to decide what line they should be using to try to catch Schulte.
The leader appeared to be on his way to victory, but another caution for debris on lap 26 would set the stage for a thrilling finish as Schueller and Duffy lined up side-by-side behind Schulte for the final restart. When the green flag waved Duffy went to the top and steadily picked up ground and, if you have never been to Dubuque before, there is quite a difference in the distance around this place from the bottom to the top.
As the white flag waved Schulte and Duffy crossed the stripe in a virtual dead heat and on the final lap Duffy again worked the cushion to perfection on both ends of the speedway to sweep past Schulte off of turn four and win by two car lengths. Schulte would have to settle for runner-up pay, not too tough of a pill to swallow at $2,500 while Schueller held on for third. Denning used the high side for nearly every lap to finish fourth while Garnhart completed the top five.
Sport Mod ace Tyler Soppe was impressive behind the wheel of the #116 Modified normally driven by George Spence III as he came from deep in the pack to win a Last Chance race early in the evening. Soppe then started the A-Main from thirteenth and raced his way up to seventh at the checkers in the stout field.
A nice field of twenty-one Late Models were a part of tonight's program as well with Luke Goedert leading the way from the drop of the green. Goedert's short way around the track was putting some distance on Dan Shelliam who was chasing around the top before the caution waved on lap nine for Luke Merfeld who had been racing in the top five. On the restart a lot would change in just the one lap that would be scored before the caution waved again for two separate incidents. Racing into turn three Joel Callahan door slammed Dirk Hamilton sending Callahan for a spin while just ahead of them the second place car of Eric Pollard spun coming out of turn four. The fifth-place car of Ryan Dolan clipped Pollard knocking down the right front on Dolan's car brining his night to an early end..
Once back to green Goedert again pulled away until he closed in a on three cars racing for position at the back of the field. Showing great patience Goederrt worked carefully through the traffic over four laps of racing allowing both Shelliam and Terry Neal to cut the lead to just a couple of car lengths. With eight laps remaining Goedert cleared traffic and then left his challengers behind to take the $1,000 victory. Shelliam and Neal were next in line as Doug Nigh and Dirk Hamilton completed the top five.
The Sport Mods had a tough night with multiple cautions interrupting what could have been a pretty good race up front. Justin Becker would lead the first three laps before a debris caution would unleash the yellow fever. Jacob Arp would spin in turn two on lap four and following the restart Scott Busch would slip under Becker for the lead on lap six. Right after giving up the lead Becker would spin in turn four, but apparently a caution for debris had been called just before allowing Becker to restart from the second position.
A four car pileup would slow the race on the restart and two laps later Darren Clendenen spun in turn three. On this restart Nic Coates and Tyler Soppe lined up behind Busch and when the green waved Soppe tried to get to the bottom entering turn one. Coates was already there though and did not yield and the two seemed to turn into each other until they ground to a stop at the exit of turn two. Both drivers would hustle into the infield to change flat tires before restarting at the rear and one more lap was scored before Cody Calam spun in turn three.
Under track rules the lap count would click up one more with each caution so the race would officially restart with ten laps down and ten to go and this time we would actually get five laps of racing in. Troy Bauer was able to get under Busch coming off of turn two, but the leader shut the door and Bauer had to back off to keep from spinning them both. Jarrett Franzen had raced into the top five from the seventh row, but with smoke pouring from the back of his car it finally came to a stop on the back stretch with the scoreboard now showing sixteen laps scored.
When two cars couldn't make it to the green flag for the restart the lap counter moved to seventeen and it would be a three-lap race to the checkers that would see Scott Busch hold on for the feature win. Bauer would take second as Jaden Fryer came from nowhere in the final laps to take third. He had started in the sixth row. Tony Olson would finish in the fourth position while Jerry Miles was fifth.
The Stock Car feature was an official's nightmare as the seven car field all clamored for the bottom line with nobody willing to even try the top. Brett Wenzel who had made the tow in from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, (Keep 'er Movin') started on the pole and essentially dared somebody to go around him on the outside by hugging the inside guardrail. Jesse Owen would spin on lap three and on the restart Greg Gill would take up the challenge on Wenzel. After trying the next line up unsuccessfully Gill then tried to squeeze under the leader and he would spin with three laps remaining to cause the caution. The race went downhill from there. Owen would spin again in turn four with two laps to go, but perhaps due to the low car count he was allowed to stay in the race. On this restart Joe Bonney got a run on Wenzel and entered turn one door-to-door with him entering turn one. Tim Schneider then tried get under Wenzel and contact would send the leader for a spin off of turn two.
The drivers circled the track for several laps until the field was reset with only Wenzel going to the rear behind even Cory Murphy who had completed a couple of 360's while racing well behind the field and had just returned to the track from the infield. Bonney would bring the group back to green, but as the white flag was waving for the leader first Schneider would spin in turn three and Wenzel would get dumped again, this time by Kyle Merkes exiting turn four. Mercifully the checkers would then wave along with the caution with Bonney officially leading just one lap to take the win. Owen would be credited with second, Merkes third, Murphy fourth and Wenzel fifth.
Coming to the track after the Sport Mods and Stock Cars the Sport Compacts reset the mood by going flag-to-flag for ten laps with Brett Marshall taking a convincing win. John Campbell was more than a half-lap behind in second while Brian Marshall was third.
All in all it was an entertaining night of racing that wrapped up early with the final checkers waving not long after 9 p.m. On Sunday I will get my pavement racing fix in for the year by attending the National Short Track Championship finale at the Rockford Speedway. Look for Doug, Kevin and I on the Back Stretch.
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