It started out with somebody wanting to add a little money to the purse and then blossomed from there as 115 cars in six divisions gathered to race in memory of Jim Oliver Sr. at 34 Raceway Saturday night. When all was said and done the Stock Car feature would pay $1,441 to win and the Modified winner would take home $1,041, "Grandpa Jim's" car number was 41, plus there were Hard Charger bonuses and several mystery positions would take home extra cash as well. All of that on its own would bring in extra drivers, but add to it the early cancellations of a couple other eastern Iowa tracks due to the heat and predicted rain and the result was a very intriguing mix of drivers from throughout the region.
The Mod Lites were the first class up come feature time and it was a rough night in this division as three cars got upside down during the evening starting with Jon Padilla in the very first heat race of the night. Brian Tipps would take the early lead with heavy pressure from both Devon Rouse and Mike Morrill. Rouse would pull even with Tipps as they scored lap three only to have Tipps retain the lead going down the back stretch. Entering turn three Rouse pitched the car sideways and the tacky track took hold as he executed a scary set of snap rolls before finally coming to a stop on all fours. It took a few moments for the young driver from Burlington to gather himself before climbing from the car uninjured.
Morrill would take the lead on the restart with Dallon Murty sliding into second and two laps later as he was trying to hold off a pack of drivers for third, Tipps would take a wild ride coming out of turn four. Once again the crowd was silent as track officials checked on the dazed driver before erupting in applause as he climbed out of the car under his own power.
Once back to action it would be a battle between Morrill's Mod Lite and Murty's Micro Mod, two similar but different divisions, and Murty would take the lead with four laps remaining. The young driver from Chelsea would then pull away for the apparent victory, however as he rolled up to victory lane officials redirected him to the scales where he was found to be too light. So a check of the rules as I write this shows that the Mod Lites must weigh 1,325 pounds with driver while the Micro Mods have a 900 pound minimum. The question is, were each running under their own set of rules or did Murty fail to meet the higher minimum off the Mod Lites? Either way the official winner was Morrill. Derek Knutsen's Micro Mod crossed the line in third, but I'm not sure if he made weight or not while the Mod Lites of Charlie Brown and Clint Morehouse took the checkers in fourth and fifth.
The Sport Compacts were up next for twelve laps and in this division there was a scary looking wreck during heat race action when David Prim went for a hard roll in turn one. Thankfully he too escaped injury and later joined friends in the stands to watch the remainder of the night's action.
Jake Houston would take the lead from the pole as three drivers made big early moves to the front. Larry Miller from seventh and Barry Taft from eighth were up to challenge for the lead by the second lap and on lap three Jake Dietrich, driving Taft's second car, actually passed him for third after starting sixteenth! Dietrich's run came to an early end though as he pulled to the infield a lap later with mechanical issues that also plagued him during the heat race.
Houston was able to hold off his two challengers until lap eight when Taft went from third to first off turn two and from there not even one late caution could keep the defending All Iowa Points Champion from reaching victory lane. Miller would be the runner-up, Houston ran third with Seth Keiser and Mark Dennis next in line.
The twenty-lap Sprint Car feature got off to a rough start when Harold Pohren started flipping in turn one at one point landing on top of the car of Justin Parrish. Both drivers escaped injury as Pohren's car was towed off with the top wing crumpled, but still intact while Parrish drove to the pits with his top wing peeled off and dragging behind. Once back to green pole-sitter Dan Keltner established a blistering pace that only Ryan Jamison could come close to keeping and with no cautions it would be a flag-to-flag victory for Keltner, his first in a winged Sprint Car. Jamison was second, Colton Fisher held third throughout, Nathan Murders fought off challenges for fourth and Brayden Gaylord passed Jarrod Schneiderman late for fifth.
Brandon Lennox would lead the first two laps of the 18-lap Sport Mod feature before Ron Kibbe spun off the top side of turn two. On the restart Justin Veloz went to the high side and was able to lead Lennox back to the stripe by inches on lap three only to slip too high in turns one and two dropping back to fourth. Fortunately for Veloz though Matt Fulton would spin in turn two allowing him to move back to the front for the next restart. That one was waved off though when Kibbe tried to squeeze under a couple of rows coming to the green, ran out of room and spun to the infield where he was again placed at the back as the field was again given the green.
Two more laps would be scored when Lennox, who was now running third, got sideways in turn one and was t-boned by Shane Paris who had no place to go. Another restart and we were back to racing with Austen Becerra executing a big slide job on Veloz in turns one and two to take the lead. The race would stay green from there and Becerra would drive on to victory ahead of the visiting Veloz. Austin Howes finished where he started in third, Adam Birck came from the fifth row to fourth and another visitor for the night, Gage Neal finished fifth.
It was now on to the two classes with big money on the top as Scott Hogan and Eric Barnes would lead a talented field of twenty-one IMCA Modifieds to the green for twenty laps. Caution would wave with just one lap in the books when Dustin Crear spun to the infield off turn four and Kurt Kile slowed in turn one and once back to green Hogan would maintain the lead. Dean McGee spun up into the infield in turn two to bring out a caution on lap eight and the driver on the move was Darin Duffy who had started twelfth and was now approaching the top five.
Duffy was now firmly in the top five when the caution waved again for Crear on lap fourteen and when the race was stopped one last time for a James Raleigh spin we were now setup for a three car battle between Hogan, Barnes and Duffy over the final seven laps.
Barnes would get a bite off the high side of turn two and make a run at Hogan following the restart, but he would soon yield to Duffy who moved to second and set his sights on Hogan. Getting a big run off the bottom Duffy was able to pull even with the leader on the back stretch before taking the white flag and after Hogan fought off that challenge Duffy was able to do it again on the final lap. A former track champion here at 34 Raceway, Hogan stayed cool, held his line through three and four and was able to pull back ahead to take checkers a car length ahead of Duffy for the win. Barnes ran a solid race in third while track regulars Bill Roberts Jr. and Jeff Waterman completed the top five.
Stock Cars would close out the evening with twenty-two drivers on hand, all having their pit passes paid for by Jim Redman at Preferred Auto Sales in Lockridge in honor of Grandpa Oliver. Brett Timmerman and Kevin Koontz drew the front row for the 25-lap finale, but it would be the third starting David Brandies who would lead the field back around on lap one. Damon Murty was on the move after starting tenth and he would take over the second position from Jeremy Pundt on lap eight now setting his sights on the leader Brandies. A lap thirteen caution for Austin Kemper's spin would tighten the field and that would soon produce trouble for the race leader.
Murty made a couple of attempts to pass that were not successful until lap seventeen when he drove under Brandies entering turn three. There was contact between the two as they exited turn four and that allowed Murty to take the lead and as Brandies tried to mount a comeback on the following lap using a high-to-low line in turns three and four he was tagged by Pundt sending the former leader spinning to the infield. Both Brandies and Pundt were sent to the rear for the restart.
Murty now had Mike Hughes who had started thirteenth and John Oliver Jr. who had started twentieth on his back bumper with seven laps to go, but neither could make a serious run at him. A pair of cautions with two laps remaining gave the challengers one more shot and Oliver gave the fans a thrill with a high to low effort in the final set of turns that came up a car length short as Murty captured the big money victory. Oliver, the current All Iowa Points leader, had Grandpa smiling up above in approval with his big run to second while Hughes finished third. Tom Bowling Jr. started eleventh and finished fourth while Dustin Griffiths cam from twenty-first to fifth! Needless to say the track was still quite racy at the end of the night.
It was a great night to be at 34 Raceway and to see the pits full of race cars! With the five roll overs and a few more cautions than usual the show ran a bit late with the final checkers waving at 11:40, but as I drove out of the parking lot I was already counting the hours until the Deery Brothers Summers Series Late Models return to 34 Raceway on Tuesday night. The INEX Legend Cars and IMCA sanctioned Stock Cars will also be in action and we hope to see you there!
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