He had two of the best in the business right now running behind him making the accomplishment even sweeter as Mike Murphy Jr. earned his first career Deery Brothers Summer Series victory Tuesday night on the half-mile oval at the Farley Speedway. Mark Schulte and Timmy Current were also winners on a hot and windy night that literally stripped the moisture out of the track surface.
Murphy served notice that he would be a contender when he walked away from the field in the second Late Model heat race though most in the house likely felt that he would be chasing defending series champion Ray Guss Jr. when the two drew the front row for the forty-lap main event. With Guss on the pole and Murphy to his outside the two ran most of the first lap wheel-to-wheel until Murphy connected with some of the remaining moisture coming off the high side of turn for to edge out Guss at the stripe for the lead. Murphy then closed the door into turn one and began to slowly put some distance on Guss with each lap. The lead had grown to a full straightaway by lap fourteen and Murphy was going to soon have to deal with lap traffic all running in the preferred low groove, but that changed suddenly when Jason Rauen slowed in turn two to produce the only caution of the race.
On the double-file restart Guss poked his nose under Murphy as the green flag waved and the resulting contact was what Andy Eckrich needed to move past Guss into second. Once again Murphy drove away from his stout contenders and by the time the checkers flew they were way back in turn three leaving no doubt who was the best on this night. Eckrich would notch the runner-up finish ahead of Guss, Joel Callahan was solid all night taking fourth and Tyler Bruening finished where he started in fifth. Sixth through tenth were Brian Harris, Nate Beuseling, Dan Shelliam, Terry Neal and Todd Cooney, an impressive run for Shelliam who started the race inside of row eleven as the Hard Charger provisional. Darrell DeFrance edged out Tom Darbyshire, who came into the night as the series point leader, for the eleventh spot. With his runner-up finish coming on the heels of two straight wins, Andy Eckrich left Farley now on top of the point standings.
After watching Shelliam kick up a huge rooster tail while trying to run the high side during the second Late Model B-Main, promoter Keith Simmons sent the track crew out to water and pack the top two thirds of the speedway in an effort to try to keep up with Mother Nature’s drying attack. The extra effort did payoff giving the drivers another racing groove for the features, especially during the Stock Car and Modified main events.
The new moisture actually caused a problem for Timmy Current as the ten-car Stock Car finale took the green. Starting outside of row one Current slipped too high coming to the green and was spinning his tires as the rest of the field motored by him before turn one. Jerry Miles came from the third row to take the lead on that first circuit as Current gathered himself and began to focus on coming back to the front. By mid-race Current was locked in a three car battle for the second spot with Austin Heacock and Chip Kohl and when they tried to go three wide into turn one contact flattened the right front tire on Current’s #12. A quick tire change by his crew allowed him to restart as the last of the eight remaining cars and once again he worked his way toward the front. With two laps remaining, Current used the same high line into the new moisture that had set him back at the beginning, only this time the traction was there and he drove past Miles for the lead and the eventual victory for the driver that currently leads the All Iowa Points in this division. Kohl also slipped by Miles late to take second while Jarret Franzen and Tyler Soppe finished behind Miles in fourth and fifth.
The IMCA Modifieds were running for track points tonight and, while Farley has been averaging over twenty cars a night so far this season in the division, drivers either didn’t like the Tuesday scheduling, the fact that the event was being run on the half-mile, or a combination of the two as only ten cars showed with one of them being A.J. Fike pulling all the way in from Galesburg, Illinois. If you don’t have quantity it is good to have quality and that was the case tonight as most every driver in the field could have ended up in victory lane, although for most of the race it was veteran Ron Barker who was disproving that notion by driving away to a huge lead. Barker had started sixth and used that high groove to fly to the front to pass Jed Freiburger for the lead on the second lap. From there he was literally gone only to have the caution fly with two laps remaining when Zach Less backed his car into the turn one wall. On the restart Mark Schulte had a run on Barker to the high side exiting turn two but Barker moved up to shut the door going down the back stretch. On the final lap though Schulte again tried the same move off turn two and was able to get the nose of car up to the door of his future father-in-law and the two ran wheel-to-wheel hard into turn three. Both pitched it sideways to scrub off the extra speed and it was Schulte who found the bite that he needed to take the lead and the win in a thrilling fashion while Barker would now have to accept the runner-up position after being so dominant throughout the twenty-lap event. Matt Stagman was very impressive tonight finishing in the third spot while Freiburger and Patrick Flannagan completed the top five. (Note: I learned on Wednesday that Stagman had been disqualified in post-race tech)
A big thanks to Keith Simmons and his entire crew for the hospitality and for their efforts in fighting the hot, dry, windy weather to provide a racing surface that allowed for any passing at all as it was far from an ideal night for dirt track racing. With the stiff south wind I left the track without a spec of dirt on me, however I am confident that it was the completely opposite situation for everybody in the infield and for those who chose to watch from the back stretch. I will look forward to returning to Farley again this season, especially for the Yankee Dirt Track Classic in September.
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