The Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models returned to the track where it all started Tuesday night where a stellar field of 37 drivers signed in for action as the series made its 50th appearance at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. And you know for sure that at least two drivers who were in action tonight were also at the inaugural event here as "The Ironman" Darrel DeFrance continued his amazing streak of being at each and every event and the winner of that first Summer Series race, Jay Johnson was also on hand.
In fact it would be DeFrance who would set the pace from the pole position for the fifty lap main event with Ryan Dolan to his right and while DeFrance was the first to reach turn one, it would be Dolan with the run off the top side who would take the lead on the opening lap. With DeFrance trying to fend off the challenges of Tyler Bruening, Dolan would open up a full straightaway advantage over the first ten laps before he encountered the first lapped car.
Bruening would finally take away second from DeFrance on lap eighteen and as Dolan struggled to put a lap on Jay Johnson, Bruening quickly erased the gap. As starter Kenny Dixon signaled the mid-race point Dolan finally squeezed past Johnson and Bruening came right with him now just a car length back from the leader. Dolan would again put some distance on his challenger though until lapped traffic once again came into play. By now the favored groove was around the high side on both ends and as Dolan looked to put a second lap on Curt Schroeder, once again Bruening closed the gap and even took a look to the inside of the leader with no luck.
Even though Bruening showed him his nose, Dolan stayed patient and when he drove by Schroeder on lap thirty-six there was clear track ahead. With no traffic to deal with it was obvious that Dolan was faster, but with just five laps to go he was right behind the cars of Rob Moss and Sam Halstead who were racing for position. The leader elected to ride it out in the favored groove despite the fact that Bruening was twice able to pull even with him in the turns, but in both cases the high side momentum allowed Dolan to pull ahead on the straightaways. On the final lap Bruening gave it once last shot on the low side off turn four, but came up short as Ryan Dolan scored the win in flag-to-flag fashion. Bruening was second and you had to go a ways back to third where DeFrance had settled in behind the lapped car of Johnson. Rob Toland finished fourth, Matt Ryan was fifth and series point leader Justin Kay advanced from twelfth to six at the checkers. Andy Eckrich finished where he started in seventh, Terry Neal was eighth, ninth went to Denny Eckrich and Charlie McKenna filled out the top ten.
34 Deery Notes......All four heat race winners, Bruening, Dolan, DeFrance and Toland started from the pole position although Toland had to work for his win after dropping back to fourth in the opening laps in the third heat. Once he found the high side bite though Toland stormed back and won the ten lap event going away......The two B-Main winners, Jeremiah Hurst and Sam Halstead also won from the pole position and both of those drivers had started seventh and finished fourth in their heat races. That would have given each of them the same number of passing points that Justin Kay tallied after starting seventh and finishing fourth, but since Kay did it in the first heat that must have been the tie-breaker......Terry Neal's drive from eighth to third in the third heat race earned him the most passing points as he started the feature fifth behind the heat race winners......The new format where the heat race winners do a "grudge" draw is nice, but it would be more fun if you also allowed the top couple of passing point drivers participate. "Oh I'm sorry, you started on the pole of you heat and won tonight, so I'm going to give you my 6 for the feature"......Chris Horn appeared to have the fifth and final transfer out of the first B-Main locked up until a late caution waved. On the restart Horn tried get around Curtis Glover for fourth and that allowed Joe Zrostlik to make a late move passing both drivers in the final two laps. To make matters worse for Horn, when the feature field later came to the track one car was missing from the 24-car lineup and that was Glover......I have to admit that I was just hoping for a full field of twenty-four to be on hand tonight given that 34 Raceway no longer has its own base of Late Model competitors so the Series's largest car count of 2018 with 37 was a pleasant surprise.....One of those 37 was Mike Hynes driving a plain white #05. Hynes is from Fairfield, California, and a quick Google search shows that he raced a UMP Late Model at the Antioch Speedway in California last season. I didn't get a chance to track down his story and how he ended up racing here in Iowa, but hope to learn more soon.....The next event for the Deery Brothers Summers Series will be on Wednesday July 18th at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction during the Louisa County Fair.
The Stock Car feature was a wild one with drivers using every bit of the racing surface and on at least two occasions just plain running out of room. On the first attempt to get the twenty lapper underway the eighth starter Brandon Rothzen went for a spin in turn two. On the second try as Jason Cook led the field down the back stretch drivers went four wide racing for fourth and when two cars touched in the middle that sent Jim Lynch hard into the wall and several other cars scrambling. Abe Huls spun to avoid heavy contact, Jason See suffered right front damage and both Greg Gill and David Brandies headed to the pits to change tires and, or make repairs.
Everybody but Lynch reassembled for a third attempt and this time it stuck as Cook would set the pace. The caution waved again on lap three when Ray Raker slid off the top of turn one and shortly after the restart Tom Bowling Jr. would take the lead from Cook. The racing action behind the leaders was amazing as drivers raced two and three wide with both Rothzen and Brandies trying to climb back the front as Huls was also founding a bite down low. Another caution on lap twelve set the stage for another four wide battle out of turn four on lap thirteen and this time it would be Brandies who would be sent spinning to the infield. The front end damage on the #71 would be too much to overcome and after a couple of more laps Brandies was forced to retire for the evening.
Chad Krogmeier who has improved greatly in 2018 nearly swiped the lead from Bowling when the leader went high in turn three with four laps remaining, but when he closed the door on Krogmeier it opened up the bottom for Huls and he would nose ahead to the lead on lap seventeen. Bowling was still fast though and he tried to use a high to low move in turns three and four on each of the last two laps coming up short as Abe Huls celebrated the hard fought win. Bowling was second ahead of Krogmeier and Rothzen while Cook settled in for fifth at the finish.
A diverse field of twenty-two Legend Car drivers were on hand racing in support of COPS - Concerns of Police Survivors as the track paid tribute to local law enforcement officials. Tim Brockhouse would lead the first sixteen laps of the twenty-five lap A-Main before Jason Utter drove under him. The former Super Late Model driver from just up the road in Columbus Junction would then go on to take the win ahead of Minnesota drivers Brockhouse and Baiden Heskett. Drew Papke from Bismarck, North Dakota, finished fourth and Dave Comer who made the pull from Joplin, Missouri, was fifth.
Weekly racing action continues this Saturday night at 34 Raceway and the next special event for the high-banked 3/8th-mile oval will be held on Sunday July 29th when Tony Stewart's Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars return.
I hear that drivers from this area had a pretty good night at the Hogan Memorial in Vinton as Josh Barnes won the Sport Compacts, Austen Becerra took a thriller in the Sport Mods and Jeff Mueller (yes, I still claim him as a hometown Mt. Pleasant driver) won the Stock Cars. Kyle Brown was the headliner in the Modified division.
Some social and business commitments may now keep me from the track for the next eleven days, but hopefully not as the Back Stretch closes in on Page View number 500,000. Thanks for reading!
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