There was plenty of action and movement within the twenty-four-car feature field at the Marshalltown Speedway Tuesday night, but the one constant was the lead position as six-time and defending series champion Jeff Aikey paced the final forty-six laps to win the annual Deery Brothers Summer event on the high-banked quarter-mile.
Greg Kastli and Jay Johnson made up the front row for the fifty-lap feature race with Kastli getting the advantage at the drop of the green. The first of five cautions waved on lap four when Darrell DeFrance spun in turn two and the field was lined up double-file behind the leader for the restart. Jeff Aikey wasted no time and drove past Kastli and Johnson to take the lead on lap five while drivers raced two and three-wide behind him. On lap eleven the face of the race changed immensely when Rob Toland, who was running mid-pack, had the driveline break apart on his #39 spreading debris and rear-end grease down the backstretch and into turn three. The caution waved and the field slowed, but when the third-place car of Mark Burgtorf encountered the fluid on the track, that and perhaps some contact from another car spun him sideways to a halt in turn three. Apparently the Deery Series has a rule in place that if a car stops under caution for any reason, other than being requested to do so by an official, that car will be penalized to the back of the field for the restart. Obviously Burgtorf did not agree with what he was being told and he pleaded his case with a couple of track officials before promoter Toby Kruse came out to the frontstretch to further explain the situation.
Burgtorf took his spot at the back of the field for the restart and the focus of most of the capacity crowd became elsewhere from the race upfront between the leader Aikey and his new challenger Ray Guss Jr. Never mind that Guss had clawed his way into contention after starting eleventh, there were other things to watch and it wasn’t just the progress of Burgtorf. Darrell DeFrance only gets to race on his hometown track once a year and he was making the best of it. After restarting twenty-third after his lap four caution “The Ironman” was picking his way through the field to the delight of his many fans and by mid-race he had cracked the top five. His amazing run would come to an end though on lap thirty-seven when his left rear tire blew forcing him to park the #99D on the frontstretch necessitating the final caution of the event.
Once back to green Guss was able to stick closer to Aikey’s rear bumper as they pulled away from the pack, but he could never mount a challenge over the final thirteen laps and Aikey picked up the $2,000 victory. It was the 54th career series win for Aikey adding to his lead in that category. Burgtorf worked his way past Jay Johnson and Terry Neal during the final green-flag segment and was reeling in the leaders over the final laps, but he would have to settle for third while Johnson and Neal rounded out the top five. Sixth through tenth at the finish were Tyler Bruening, Andy Eckrich, Boone McLaughlin, Tom Darbyshire and Matt Strassheim.
Marshalltown Deery Notes……Despite a little dust flying the high-banked quarter was in prime shape allowing the drivers to make runs at many different grooves through the fifty-lap distance. Aikey started fifth while Guss, as mentioned above, came from eleventh……Burgtorf started sixth, moved to third, was sent to the back and returned to finish third……Terry Neal started nineteenth and was all the way up to third mid-race only to be shuffled back to fifth at the checkers……Tyler Bruening started his #16 in the sixteenth position and on the final restart he had me asking Dick Eisele “where did Bruening come from!”…..Andy Eckrich was running in the top ten when he spun in turn two on lap twenty-three bring out the caution. He then raced his way back to seventh at the finish……Boone McLaughlin made a nifty high-to-low move on Jason Perry to garner the third and final transfer position out of the second B-Main. He then started from row ten and consistently moved forward to finish eighth…..Tom Darbyshire advanced three spots from twelfth to ninth while his teammate Matt Strassheim used a provisional to start twenty-third and made the most of it by taking tenth……Jeremiah Hurst, along with Strassheim, used a Series points provisional while Mark Preston passed the most cars in the heat and the B-Main to earn the Hard Charger or “I just sucked at drawing tonight” provisional…..The ruling on Burgtorf I’m sure will be much discussed and if the rule states that no driver can stop on the track during a caution unless he is told to do so by an official, then the ruling tonight was correct. However, you can bet that at least one crew is going to be very intent on watching what drivers do now under caution for the rest of this year. What if a driver stops for a moment to adjust his own safety equipment, cinch the belts a little tighter or make sure that the steering wheel is on tight, will that driver be sent to the rear for the restart? I can understand the primary intent of the rule, especially when you go to an event on another series that allows drivers to make stops on the track to have an official look a car over and pull out body panels as needed, but perhaps a provision needs to be made going forward when the cause of the car stopping is due to fluid or debris associated with the original reason for the caution……Forty-three Late Models were on hand for the event with the next race on the Deery schedule coming on Memorial Day, May 31st at the Boone Speedway.
Thirty IMCA SportMods were on hand in support of the event with seventeen-year-old Brett Moffitt going flag-to-flag to take the fifteen-lap feature victory. Moffitt held a big lead early and on a lap nine caution it looked like we would be in for a battle up front as young Cayden Carter, who already has two wins here this year, was set to restart second. As they raced into turn one Carter got sideways and spun his #10 sending the field scrambling. They all missed him, but Moffitt’s top contender would now be starting from the back. As Moffitt cruised the final six laps for the win, the race for second was a good one as Kyle Brown gained the spot on the lap nine restart only to have Zach Rawlins come charging back on the high side to take it back at the finish. Defending IMCA Northern SportMod National Champion Jesse Sobbing made the trip over from Glenwood and finished fourth after starting twelfth while Rod McDonald held off Brad Iverson at the line to finish fifth. Moffitt, who is a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver, will be in action this weekend at the Iowa Speedway in Newton during the NASCAR Grand National East-West Shootout.
Nineteen Mod Lites and eight Dirt Trucks were also on the card making the total count for the night right at 100. Joel Huggins, Josh May and Tim Hennigar were your top three in the Mod Lites while Pat Fagan was a happy winner of the Truck feature ahead of young Bryan Nevins and Ed Nelson.
A big thanks to promoter Toby Kruse for the hospitality and to announcer Blake Anderson for giving PositivelyRacing.com a plug. There were more PR.com representatives there last night than I had dates in high school, so check out the other blogs for their points of view as well on this entertaining night of racing.
Up next for the “Back Stretch” will be the premier of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds. Hope to see you in Independence!
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