With his win on Memorial Day Monday night Brian Birkhofer
has now won five of the nine events that the World Dirt Racing League (WDRL)
has held at the West Liberty Raceway. That is a pretty impressive “batting
average” especially when you consider that he may not have even been there for
the four shows that he didn’t win! There was some speculation that “Birky”
might return to Kentucky Lake Monday for the postponed KLMS99, but when he was
one of the last of thirty-nine late models to pull through the gate at West
Liberty we all knew who was going to be the man to beat.
Dave Eckrich was strong all night and picked up the early
lead in the fifty-lap finale from his pole position start with Birkhofer in hot
pursuit. The top two quickly distanced themselves from the field and by lap
fifteen had begun to make their way through lapped traffic. Birkhofer was able
to beat Eckrich to the line on lap sixteen, but Dave charged back on the high
side of turns one and two to regain the lead down the back straightaway. The
turning point in the event however loomed ahead in turns three and four where
WDRL rookie-of-the-year contender Trent Follmer had started a series of barrel
roll along the wall midway through turns three and four. With Eckrich flying
high on the cushion and Birkhofer challenging him down low, Follmer’s car came
to rest on its top right on the cushion and Eckrich could not quite get stopped
in time before making contact. The youngster from Minnesota climbed from his
car unhurt, but Eckrich was forced to go pitside to make repairs to his car
forcing him to the rear of the pack for the restart.
Younger brothers Andy and Denny Eckrich tried to keep pace
with Birkhofer when the green flag reappeared, but the young man who grew up
racing here before moving on to national notoriety was just too much to handle
as he lapped the field up to fifth place and held a straightaway lead over Andy
and Denny at the checkers. Chad Simpson ran a solid race to finish in the fourth
spot while Kyle Berck was the final car on the lead lap in fifth after using a
series provisional to start twenty-second. Johnny Spaw was impressive in
finishing sixth while Dave Eckrich was able to come back for seventh. Brian
Harris, Jason Utter and Ace Ihm completed the top ten.
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| Brian Birkhofer (15) and Layne Meyer (21) from the early 1990's |
Twenty-eight USRA Modifieds were on hand to provide support
and they put on a good show as well on the perfectly prepared half-mile that
sported at least two grooves all night long. Doug Yates and Dan Albright
started on the front row of the twenty-lap feature, but it was the second row
starters Terry Walker and Ryan Dolan who came out of the first two turns in
first and second. As Walker tried to build a lead it was Larry Herring who was
making his way quickly to the front from row six and, by the mid-race point,
Herring was able to put his #96 out front. As Herring began to pull away our
attention was turned to two drivers who were making charges from the back of
the twenty-five car starting field. Rick Hixson was scheduled to start in row
four, but when he was only able to hit the track just before the green flag
flew he was forced to start at the rear. Robbie Verbeck started next to Herring
in row six, but when it was determined that he was involved in a lap one
caution he joined Hixson at the back of the field for the restart. Both drivers
were making a mad dash toward the front and with just two laps to go Hixson was
in fifth with Verbeck close behind. As the white flag waved though, Hixson
slowed on the front stretch ending his night just one lap shy of the checkers.
Walker took runner-up honors to Herring with Mike Zogg and Dolan finishing just
ahead of Verbeck in third and fourth.
West Liberty Notes…..Follmer will want to forget turn three
here as he clobbered the wall there on the first lap of the B-Main forcing him
to use a provisional to start the “A” and eventually roll his car in exactly
the same spot…..Wisconsin driver Todd Gehl was impressive finishing second to
Chris Smyser in his heat race and earned enough passing points to start on the
outside of row one for the dash. His night went downhill fast from there though
as he could not get his car to fire for the dash or the feature…..Nick Marolf
also qualified for the feature with his passing point, but he appeared to blow
a motor coming to the checkers in is heat ending his night too soon…..The two
scratches meant that the series used two more provisionals to start the
feature. Follmer and Berck were the first two while John Anderson, jumping into
Billy Koons car, and Al Humphrey were the extra two. I’m sure that the
fifth-place finisher in the B-Main, Kurt Kile, wishes that they just would have
gone to the next best finisher in the “B” instead…..While Chad Simpson scored a
top-five finish it was a sour night for his brother Chris who appeared to drop
a motor while leading the second heat race….Kyle Berck dropped out of the third
heat while running fourth with mechanical issues and then made a nice run up to
sixth from seventeenth in the B-Main before taking the provisional
start…...Steve Kempt made the long haul over from south central Nebraska only
to have mechanical issues end his night prematurely…...Ace Ihm’s tenth place
showing is the start of a long week for him as he was heading straight to North
Dakota after this show to run the next three nights with the World of
Outlaws……Modified winner Larry Herring proved that he could be a track
announcer someday as he had to fill time while a fuel spill from Robbie
Verbeck’s car was being cleaned up on the front stretch…...A big thank you to
the crew at the West Liberty Raceway as well as to Jim Wilson and his WDRL
officials who put on a very entertaining night of racing to wrap up the
Memorial Day weekend.
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