The storm that rolled through Iowa on Monday was devastating. Worse than a tornado, this derecho was like a sixty mile long line of tornadoes that marched across the state and into Illinois leaving behind fallen trees, beat up buildings and cornfields where only the stripped stalks were left standing. Two race tracks that I know of were directly effected. At the Marshalltown Speedway the two light poles that once stood behind the grandstand were brought to the ground and one of the catwalks was nearly twisted into a ball. Racing there has been canceled for this Friday and it will be a week by week process to see when repairs can be made as power was still out in Marshalltown on Wednesday. My guess though is that the old men's bathroom still survived. On the Cedar County Fairgrounds in Tipton the iconic wooden grandstand is no longer covered as the roof was lifted off like a pop top. A post from Kathy Dlouhy said that the fair board had discussed for years about tearing the old relic down, now they have no choice.
I saw some of the devastation firsthand on Wednesday as I made my way up to the 300 Raceway in Farley for one of their Wednesday night "weekly" shows and, due to storm related traffic backups around Cedar Rapids, my Waze app routed me through the beat up towns of Solon, Mount Vernon and Martelle. My heart goes out to all who were effected and I hope that you get your power back soon.
Sixty-four cars in four divisions signed in on a beautiful evening for racing and there was a better crowd than I expected as perhaps some fans from the south took a break for storm cleanup to take in an evening of racing action. Several changes have been made to the facility since I was here just a month ago, the most notable of course being the loss of patriarch Roger Simon. I am sure that he is proud of his family and their staff as they continued to make improvements removing the scorer's tower and the scale area to build the pulling track that will be used this weekend when the Lucas Oil National Pulling Series will be here on Friday and Saturday. The scorers now sit up atop the grandstand and with a brand new sound system installed you could catch the sweet tones of announcer Jason "Big Boy" Frommelt as clear as a bell. They have also added gravel to the area between the front stretch wall and the grandstand that will now be used as an up close and personal victory lane area and the flag stand, that tonight held veteran stick man Doug Haack, has been moved from the exit of turn four down to the middle of the front stretch.
Tonight's track was dark, fast and heavy requiring a great deal of packing throughout the night to try to make it as wide as possible and while it got to be four to five lanes wide in turns one and three, the exits in turns two and four narrowed down to two lanes not only making for some interesting racing, but also for some door banging starts and restarts.
The twelve lap Stock Car feature was up first with outside front row starter Kyle Merkes taking the point. Phil Holtz made a big move on the opening lap coming from fifth to second and these drivers would break away from the rest of the field as they staged an entertaining battle for the lead. Holtz was able to use the bottom to pull alongside Merkes on several occasions, both in the turns and on the straightaways, but each time Kyle was able to ward off the challenge. On the final lap Holtz made one last charge on the inside of turn four only to come up a half a car length short as Merkes celebrated the win at his hometown track. The race for third was a good one too, just nearly half a lap behind the lead duo as Chase Zaruba fought off Jarod Weepie and Andrew Chelf.
Twenty-laps of IMCA Modified action would follow with California's Dylan Thornton taking the lead from his second starting spot. A caution on lap five for Keith Pittman's spin in turn two brought the field back to Thornton and he would have The Darkside duo of Ryan Duhme, with a car wrapped like Alan Kulwicki's #7 Hooters ride, and Timmy Current in a car reminiscent of Harry Gant's #33 Skoal Bandit, paired up right behind him.
Current would get a boost off the cushion in turn four and he would use that momentum to put a slide job on Thornton in turns one and two to take the lead. On the following lap it looked like Thornton tried to return the favor, but when the tie rod broke on his right front the car went straight up to the wall in turn one and the caution waved once again.
For this restart Duhme had Mark Schulte to his outside behind the new leader Current and when that first double row drifted wide coming to green Schulte was briefly pinned against the wall causing an accordion effect behind him. Jeff Larson would be the victim in this one as the right front of his borrowed, or perhaps recently purchased ride, would sustain too much damage to continue. "Big Boy" had noted earlier in the night that Larson had destroyed his usual #B1 car in Darlington, Wisconsin, last Friday night and that was the reason he was in Justin O'Brien's #12J on this night.
Schulte expressed his thoughts to Duhme as the field reassembled for the restart and once back to green it would be Current, Duhme and Schulte going the rest of the way to the checkers in that order. Jed Freiburger would chase them home in fourth while the three car battle between Kollin Hibdon, Tyler Madigan and Jeff Aikey was the one to watch. It would be the veteran Aikey who would prevail for the position after starting eleventh while his young student from Nevada, Hibdon would edge out Madigan for sixth.
Only ten of the eleven Sport Mods on hand would start the fifteen lap feature, but this one again proved that you don't need a big field of cars to put on a great race. Chance Huston would lead the way until lap nine when Troy Bauer put the slider on him in turn four and seventh starting Jason Roth would soon follow him into second. Bauer was driving the line that brought him to the front, entering the turns low and exiting high, while Roth was sizing him up on the cushion. After scoring lap eleven Roth had a run on the leader and he was able to get under Bauer entering turn one to take the lead. Troy would have a run down the back stretch though and he would throw a slider that Roth countered with perfection executing the crossover off turn four to take the lead. Roth would then ease away over the final three laps to take the win in the non-stop event. Bauer was a stout second, Huston held down the third spot, Tyler Soppe finished where he started in fourth and Justin Becker did the same in fifth.
It was a pleasant surprise to see a full field of twenty-four IMCA Late Models signed in for action and all but one of them would line up for the twenty-five lap main event to close out the evening. On the first try at a start Lyle Klein got the jump on pole-sitter Ryan Hill before the orange cone and the start was waved off after the drivers made their way through turns one and two. On the second try at a start the front row got on the gas very early and when they made the transition to the front stretch Hill would spin up the track sending the rest of the field scrambling for an opening. The sound of sheet metal crunching in front of you is never good to hear and when it all stopped there were seven cars involved with three of them, Hill, Joel Callahan and Travis Smock having to be towed back to the pit area.
After the cleanup Klein had been moved to the back of the lineup and it would be Mitch Manternach and Jeff Aikey who would finally bring this race to green. Manternach would lead the opening lap before Aikey flew by on lap two and the caution would wave on lap seven when Manternach slowed while running second. Following the restart Logan Duffy and Matt Ryan would take up the chase on Aikey, but Ryan would slow and pull to the infield two laps later.
With the race staying green there would be no catching Aikey on this night as he would drive away for a convincing win over the steadily improving Duffy. Andy Nezworski who originally lined up in thirteenth and Eric Pollard who was seventeenth on the original grid would finish in third and fourth respectively while Nick Marolf would complete the top five.
It was a perfect night to be at the races with a beautiful sunset and the need for a sweatshirt after it and, if not for the pileup at the start of the Late Model main, I would have been home before midnight after my two hour and ten minute drive. If you get the chance make sure you check out all of the improvements at Farley with another Wednesday night of racing on August 26th followed by the annual Yankee Dirt Track Classic on September 3rd, 4th and 5th.
Next up for me will be a return to the Davenport Speedway where the Hoker Trucking SLMR Late Model series will be on the racy little quarter-mile on Friday night. Perhaps I'll see you there!
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