After being rained out for the fourth time in five attempts of getting a weekly show in on a Friday night, the Lee County Speedway took advantage of an open date on the schedule at nearby 34 Raceway and ran a non-points event on a beautiful Saturday night in Donnellson. A solid field of ninety-two cars in five divisions thought the idea sounded good to them and despite the short notice, the crowd filled in just fine as well. When the first set of hot laps took the green there was dust flying from the racing surface, but it didn’t take long for that dry layer to peel away and there was plenty of moisture left behind underneath from yet another rainy week here in southeast Iowa.
The Sport Mod feature was first up and it was a race that Jim Gillenwater would dominate from the pole position leading all fifteen laps and pulling away on both restarts after two cautions slowed the event. Mike Shelton started right behind Gillenwater but couldn’t quite maintain the quick pace as he settled for second. Jason Cook started fourth and finished third with Joe Bliven and Derek Coleman completing the top five. Bliven started the event on the inside of row five and believe it or not, the two caution flags in this race would be the only two that we would see through all five features!
The four cylinder Wild Things were next up for their non-stop twelve-lapper and pole-sitter Jerry Ostby was gone from the drop of the green. Two top contenders, Chuck Fullenkamp and William Michel avoided disaster early in the race when they nearly collided in turn four, but both drivers were able to fight their way back to the front after fading deep in the pack. Fullenkamp would wind up second with Devin Still finishing in the third spot. Michel, who won the last time out at LCS, was fourth and defending track champion Dakota Fenton took fifth.
The Hobby Stock feature turned out to be a heartbreaker for Jeremy Pundt as the hometown driver looked like he had his first-ever feature win in the bag before disaster struck. Pundt started the race in third and drove past Josh Tripp for the lead on the third lap. From there he stretched out his advantage while an entertaining battle for second waged on well behind him. Pundt had a full straightaway cushion as he took the white flag, but as he raced down the back stretch for the final time his left front controlling arm broke loose, dug into the track and forced him to spin into the infield. Jim Lynch had been chasing Pundt in second, but his pace was slowing quickly as smoke was rolling out of his hot engine, so Dave Cloke made a run on him entering turn three for the lead. Just then the right rear tire went flat on Cloke’s car and Lynch had just enough power to ease back by him to be the first to reach the checkers in a wild finish. Cloke would have to settle for second with Tripp finishing third, Lane Kauffman was fourth and Tanner Thomann completed the top five.
Corey Strothman appeared to be the man to beat in the fifteen-lap Stock Car main event, but with five laps to go his car started showing signs of overheating as well. Then to make matters worse his left rear tire went flat a lap later and in the scramble Jason Cook passed both Strothman and Dave Warth to take the lead. The defending track champion, Cook then pulled away over the final three laps for his second win in two outings this season at the Lee County Speedway. Warth would be the runner-up, Abe Huls finished third followed by Chris Webb and John Oliver Jr. Cook started the event next to Oliver on row five.
Modifieds rounded out the evening and they too ran a caution free event. Wyatt Lantz brought the field around on lap one, but on lap two Michael Long put the slider on him in turn three and then rocketed away from the pack. When Long had to deal with heavy lapped traffic late in the race Lantz made things interesting by closing ground quickly using the high line around the speedway. But he ran out of laps and came up a few car lengths short as Long earned the victory. Josh Foster started eighth and could only chase the leaders in for third, Jeff Waterman came from a sixth row start to take fourth while Dustin Crear finished where he started in fifth.
LCS Saturday Notes……The "off night" event did not require any track registration fees so several non-regular drivers made the trip in tonight including USRA B-Mod drivers Mike Shelton and Bill Gibson. Bob Woodrow of Hannibal and Corey Botkins of Columbia came up from Missouri after 24 Raceway in Moberly was forced to cancel due to wet grounds. Lane Kauffman is a top competitor in the Hobby Stocks on Friday nights in Columbus Junction while CJ Raceway Stock Car regulars Brett Timmerman, Devon Timmerman and Travis Finke were also on hand. Also in the Stock Cars Michael Jaennette from Newton, who is usually found in Marshalltown on Friday nights, made the trip down and finished tenth after starting fourteenth…..L.Z. Coleman won a bunch of races when the Modified division was introduced to southeast Iowa in the 1980’s and he debuted a sharp looking new Sport Mod tonight. It will be interesting to see if dad can keep up with his son Derek in the coming weeks.……Pundt was credited with a ninth pace finish tonight and while this one slipped away, I'm guessing that it won’t be long until he captures that first career win. And look for the second and third to be this year as well……Former Hobby Stock track champion Doug Fenton subbed tonight for Dane Fenton in the #3D and finished sixth in the Hobby Stock feature…..Jeff Mueller was trying out a new Stock Car tonight and was running near the top five before dropping out of the feature mid-race. His father Jim Mueller Jr., another guy who won his share of races back in the ‘80’s, was behind the wheel of Jeff’s other car and was credited with 13th in the fmain event……The show started right on time at 7 p.m. and the final checkered flag waved at 9:10…...This coming Friday May 28th will be the Casey’s General Stores Fan Appreciation Night at the Lee County Speedway featuring six divisions as the IMCA Late Models will join the five that ran tonight for what should be a great show. Fans can stop by the Casey’s stores around the area to grab a coupon that will get you admittance to the show for just five dollars. Then on Saturday night it will be motorized mayhem on the "Eve of Destruction" at the speedway. For details on both events visit http://www.leecountyspeedway.com/
The Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, was too wet to run on Saturday so they will be racing this Sunday night May 23rd. It will be the season opener and the first event for new promoter Wayne Messamaker. Details can be found at http://www.scotlandcountyspeedway.com/
Quincy Raceway will be running their weekly program on Sunday night and you can find out more by clicking on their logo in the left border of this blog.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Series will be at 34 Raceway this Sunday night May 23rd along with the 305 c.i. winged sprints. The grandstand opens at 3 p.m. with Late Model qualifying scheduled for six o’clock. There were forty-eight cars at the Lucas event at LaSalle, Illinois, on Saturday night so I am looking forward to another stout field at 34, hope to see you there!
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