Okay, so if that headline doesn't spark some memories for you readers that are my age or older, I don't know what will!
Saturday night I made my annual trip up to the Independence Motor Speedway to visit some good friends and to take in one of the best weekly shows going right now under the promotion Dana Benning. Believe me, if I didn't have a couple of other great Saturday night tracks much closer to home I would be at Independence much more often, but as it is I always make a point of going at least once a year and with a six division show featuring 107 race cars that took less than three hours to run off, you can bet that I will continue that tradition.
Sixteen IMCA Late Models lined up for a 25-lap feature with birthday boy Bobby Hansen earning the pole position following a convincing win in his heat race. It would be Hansen leading the opening lap before a caution waved for John Emerson who went spinning down the front stretch from apparent contact as headed for the work area to remove his right side body panel. The field was in turn three coming to green when Emerson returned to the track just ahead of them in four and he was saved from being early a full lap down when Travis Smock spun before he could get off of turn four.
Emerson would take advantage of the gift and started to work his way through the field as Hansen opened up a solid lead before the caution waved for debris on lap eight. Tyler Droste had started ninth and was now in the top five for the restart where he then picked up a few more positions before a lap eleven caution. Jon Passick had been using the low line to go from eighth to fourth, but he had slid sideways in turn four and when Russell Hesse set his car sideways to keep from drilling Passick, it straightened Jon out while Hesse stalled and was dinged for the caution.
Once back to green Droste tried to get under Hansen, but Bobby was protecting the low line so Tyler went to the top and the race was on. The two leaders would cross the stripe in nearly a dead heat for the next three laps before Droste was able to get the momentum that he needed off the cushion to clear Hansen and take the lead on lap sixteen. From that point Droste would drive away to take the feature win with Hansen running an impressive second. Passick held down the third spot ahead of Sean Johnson and veteran driver Curt Martin kept Emerson out of the top five by a car-length at the checkers.
Thirty IMCA Modifieds signed in for the evening, but due to some attrition during hot laps and the heats no B-Main was needed as Benning decided to start twenty-six cars in the main event. Josh Sherbon raced out to a nice lead from his pole position start, but that lead would start to fade away once Zach Less worked his way into second. The young driver from Hopkington, who is also testing out the pavement Late Model division in 2016, had come from row four and with six laps remaining he was now ready to challenge Sherbon for the lead. Exiting turn two Sherbon drifted a bit allowing Less to drive under him down the back stretch but as the entered turn three the soon to be lapped car of Brett Baumgardner spun right in front of the lead duo. Both were able to take evasive action, Less down low and Sherbon up high with the caution erasing the pass for the lead since the lap was not completed.
Sherbon would bring the field back to green only to have the same scenario play out exiting turn two with Less again taking the lead and this time it would count as he would pull away for the win. The battle for the rest of the top five was fun to watch over the closing laps as fifth row starters Scott Hogan and Ronn Lauritzen would finish second and third respectively. Corey Dripps was the last holdout on the high line and he would take fourth after starting eleventh while Ryan Maitland made an impressive charge to fifth after starting next to his brother Brandon in row eight.
Kyle Bentley would lead the first four laps of the IMCA Northern Sport Mod main event, but we are in that mode now where you pretty much expect Tony Olson to take the win as he quickly moved to second by lap three after starting tenth. A caution on lap four for hard contact between Andy Hunter and Steve Wimer only delayed the inevitable and on the restart Olson drove under Bentley in turn four to take the lead. Two more cautions would keep the field close with Kevin Hurst moving to second with five laps remaining, but he could only keep the leader's pace as Olson captured his thirteenth feature win of the season that is nearing its mid-point. Hurst was second ahead of last week's first-time winner Andy Edwards, Bentley finished in fourth with Jim Buhlman completing the top five.
A solid field of eighteen Stock Cars were in action tonight and it took three tries to get the 15-lap main event underway. Here just like everywhere else we see them the Stock Cars ran in tight formation with Jerry Schipper leading the way until the mid-race point when Roger Ciesielski stormed by on the outside of turn four. The new leader had come from the outside of row four and nobody was going to catch him as Ciesielski (pronounced Ciesielski) scored the win. Norman Chesmore started ninth and finished second, Jarod Weepie recovered from a chain reaction tangle in his heat race to come back and take third in the feature just ahead of Chris Luloff and Tom Schmitt.
Brett Vanous started on the pole of the 15-lap Hobby Stock feature, survived two restarts and still drove away to a convincing victory. Benji Irvine has been the driver to beat at Indee in this division but he was turned by another driver in turn three on lap five and then suffered a flat tire the following lap ending his evening. Leah Wroten started eighth and finished second. Luke Bird was third, Neal Miller finished fourth with Tyler Ollendieck coming from deep in the field to finish fifth.
I swear that every time I see the Micro Mods run, or Indee Cars as they are called here, Don Erger wins and tonight was no different although he had to fight off a last lap challenge from young Dallon Murty to do so. Murty slowed exiting turn four coming to the checkers allowing Cole McNeal to pick up second and it was hard to tell if Carson Less also snuck by Murty before he could limp across the line.
I never did get a chance to thank Dana Benning for his hospitality, but I did get a chance to slip over to the infield during the short intermission to say hello to Race Director Bucky Doren, announcer Jim Roper and my longtime friend Kevin Kemp who is the scorekeeper. They are just part of this great crew who presented a great night of racing that had the final checkers waving at 9:50.
As I sat there in the stands it really struck me about the tradition at this facility as by my count at least fifteen
All Iowa Points championships were represented. Of course you had the defending Sport Mod champion Tony Olson in victory lane and in the stands it was cool to see Ed Sanger and Curt Hansen sitting with each other enjoying the evening. Sanger has eight Late Model titles while Hansen has three. Two-time All Iowa Points Pro Stock champion Vern Jackson was running a Modified and the 2005 Pro Stock champ Scott Welsh was in a Late Model. Take it from there and the Late Model feature winner was the grandson of the 1967 AIP Late Model champion Red Droste and the son of the 1996 Modified champion Steve Droste, plus it is a good possibility that Scott Braun (1978 Street Stock champion) and soon to be inducted IMS Hall of Famer Jack Mitchell, the 1983 Modified champion may have also been in attendance.
A ton of tradition here!
