My original plans for Saturday included the 500th event of the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models that was scheduled to take place at 34 Raceway in nearby Burlington. But with rain imminent, after a check of the regional radar in the morning I identified four potential alternatives knowing that I would need to make a decision by one o'clock in order to make it to any of them on time.
Word came late morning that 34 Raceway had canceled, more on that at the end, and a couple of my options were also wiped out by rain so at one o'clock I loaded up and headed west for the Stuart Speedway where promoter Mike Van Genderen had moved up the start time to 4 p.m. in order to beat the rain that was in the forecast to move across Iowa later at night.
I picked up my colleague Barry Johnson in Pella and the prospect of seeing any racing looked bleak as we drove in a heavy mist through Des Moines as well as for the next twenty-five miles to the west with actual rain falling on us at the Dexter exit just five miles east of Stuart. Barry was checking Facebook though and track photographer Jim "Zipp" Zimmerline had just posted that it was dry in Stuart and that hot laps were about to begin so we continued on and to our amazement the rain stopped and the pavement was dry just as we pulled off the exit into Stuart.
Hot laps for the Mod Lites only, since they were the only class that had not raced here the night before in this two-day show called the Fever Heat 100 after the movie that was filmed here over fifty years ago, started right on time and we were into racing with four heats in the books before the mist became too heavy to continue. At this point it would have been real easy to throw in the towel, but Van Genderen checked the radar and put a tractor on the track to tear it up a bit as many of the drivers and fans headed for their cars to stay dry and to see how this would play out.
Sure enough about thirty minutes later the mist stopped and then the sun actually came out for a few minutes as all cars were called to the track to roll it back in. We were going racing after all!
The rest of the qualifying heats rolled along at a torrid pace, something that you can always expect at a show being run by MVG, and soon we were set for six feature races that would close out the 2019 season here at the quick little quarter mile with several of the state's top drivers in action.
The Mod Lites would be up first for their 25-lap $1,000-to-win main event and after running their heats first on the re-worked race track, here at feature time it was now much faster and that caused some issues early on. Michael Raffurty would take the lead on lap one, but on lap two as Joel Huggins and Jason Masengarb raced for third contact between the two would put Masengarb up and over in turn two.
Following the restart one more lap would be scored before Doug Pollock smacked the wall in turn one and then rolled his way into turn two. And, after that red flag period wrapped up, one more lap went in the book before Dave Nelson also got upside down in the same turn. All drivers involved would escape injury.
Thankfully things settled down from there and Joe Glick who had started eighth would chase down Raffurty to take the lead on lap nine. Glick would then build up a big lead and seemed to be headed for a certain win until Mike Kennedy spun on the front stretch to bunch the field back up for a restart with six laps remaining. Huggins would make a run at the leader in turns one and two only to have Glick shrug it off and again pull away to take the big win. Justin Kinderknecht from Salina, Kansas, would pick up the second spot after starting ninth dropping Huggins to third, Dillon Raffurty would charge from thirteenth to fourth with Michael Raffurty holding on for fifth. Kansas City area driver Ed Griggs also made a big run up from seventeenth to sixth.
The Sport Mods would be up next with the top three drivers in the current All Iowa Points, Tyler Soppe, Brayton Carter and Cody Thompson all in action. Twenty-two laps would be the distance with Dustin Lynch taking the lead from the outside of row one at the drop of the green. The caution would wave on lap seven when three cars at the back of the twenty-three car field tangled in turn one and on the restart Thompson was ready to go to work. The defending All Iowa Points champion from Sioux City was real close to loading up during the rain delay and heading back home to race at The New Raceway Park across the state line in South Dakota, but decided to stick it out here in Stuart instead and after starting seventh he would drive under Lynch to take the lead on the restart.
Dusty Masolini would put the heat on Thompson as Carter and the 2017 All Iowa Points champion Soppe tried to make their way to the front after starting together in the fifth row. Both were racing for fourth with just two laps remaining when the lapped car of Zach Hovell got into the wall on the front stretch and checked up right in front of Carter who could not avoid him. Debris from the two cars would cause the caution as Cater headed for the pits and in the green-white-checkers restart it would be the twelfth starter Tyler Inman who would apply the pressure for the lead. Thompson would fight him off though and take the win to confirm that he had made the correct decision to stay and wait out the rain. Inman was impressive in second, Soppe finished third, Nebraska's Cameron Meyer was fourth and Masolini filled out the top five.
Stock Cars were up next for twenty-two laps with two of the top three drivers in the current All Iowa Points in the field, Mike Nichols and four time champion Damon Murty, but it would be the driver who came into the weekend tied for sixth Jay Schmidt who would race out to the early lead. After getting a pair of cautions out of the way on laps five and nine, this one would be a good one with three drivers battling it out to the checkers.
Schmidt was committed to the cushion on both ends and would continue to lead as young Dallon Murty stayed glued to his bumper until Friday night's winner Elijah Zevenbergen was able to get to second. Zevenbergen would go to the bottom on both ends to try to take the lead and while he was able to exit the turns in front the high side momentum would allow Schmidt to sail back around him on the straightaways. This would happen lap after lap until Zevenbergen decided to try something different squeezing up in front of Murty in turn three to ride the cushion and then drive low into turns one and two.
Finally with just two laps remaining Zevenbergen would take the lead at the stripe, but Schmidt would try to rally off the top only to come up just short at the checkers as the northwest Iowa driver scored the weekend sweep. While his father was up to fourth for the lap nine restart, it would be the younger Murty, Dallon who would score three All Iowa Points tonight in third while Nichols who is a multi-time IMCA Stock Car National Champion added two more points to his total by finishing fourth tonight as he seeks his first All Iowa Points championship. Brandon Pruitt filled out the top five.
Two of the top six drivers in the state point standings were on hand in the Modifieds tonight with one of them, Jesse Dennis leading the field early. This would be twenty-five laps of non-stop action, outside of one brief caution for a track tire being pushed onto the surface, with drivers racing high, low and in between as Ethan Braaksma took the lead from Dennis with a slide job in turns three and four on lap thirteen. Joel Rust was on the move though after starting fifth and he would work under Braaksma with eight laps remaining and then ease away to take the win and pull himself even closer to defending All Iowa Points Champion Kelly Shryock as the season winds down. Braaksma, a rookie to the division in 2019 was impressive in second, Dennis held on for third, the 2008 All Iowa Points Champion Todd Shute backed up his Friday night win here with a fourth place run just nipping the 2009 Champion Jeremy Mills who finished fifth. The long pull award of the weekend though went to Casey Skyberg who headed home to Rapid City, South Dakota, after finishing in seventh.
Drivers coming into the weekend ranked third and fourth in the current All Iowa Points Hobby Stock standings were ready to compete for twenty laps as pole-sitter Brandon Cox set a quick pace around the bottom. One of those contenders, Jason Fusselman would bring out the only caution of the race as he spun in turn two with just three laps to go and that gave the other state contender, Corey Madden, the break that he needed. With Cox committed to the bottom on the restart, Madden went top shelf and had the momentum to take the lead as the white flag waved. Cox would try to battle back on the final lap, but he could not get it done as Madden scored the win and will move to second in the updated standings behind state point leader Eric Stanton. Jason Kohl finished in the third spot, Zach Hemmingson was fourth and Solomon Bennett moved from tenth at the start to fifth at the checkers.
The Sport Compacts would close out the evening, and the season with an exclamation point with fifteen laps of feature racing. After getting some cautions out of the way the battle for the lead was intense as Mitchell Bunch took it away from Jade Lange and then had to hold off a late charge from Curtis Miller to take the win by less than a car length.Tyler Fiebelkorn finished third, Lange dropped to fourth and Caine Mahlberg completed the top five.
With the final checkers falling around 8:15 we decided to head west, another twenty miles further from home to get our first taste of the food at Zipp's Pizzaria in Adair and move over Pagliai's, I have a new favorite pizza! Yes it is just over three hours away from Mt. Pleasant, but I am already planning a road trip to introduce some more of my friends to Zipp's and I know that Barry will be doing the same.
A big thanks to Mike Van Genderen and his crew not only for the hospitality, but for the spectacular way that they present a show, especially when you are racing the weather that, sure enough, saw the rain chase us out of Adair around ten o'clock. I will look forward to catching up with MVG again in mid-October at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri.
As for that 500th Deery Show, it has been rescheduled to run this Friday night along with the 360 Sprint Cars on the opening night of the Fall Haul at 34 Raceway in Burlington. This announcement was an exciting one for me as now the same guy who had announced the first Summer Series race at 34 back in 1987 will also be there to call #500 thirty-two years later.
Hope to see you there!
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