Less than two weeks ago it was 91 degrees out. Tonight in Dubuque it is 43 degrees and the pavement is almost dry after nearly a full day of steady rain. There is no racing at the Farley Speedway tonight, but with a sunny day in the forecast for Saturday the 47th Annual Yankee Dirt Classic will be able to close out in style with full programs for both the Late Models and Modifieds, a pair of Last Chance races for the Sport Mods, and feature races for the Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks. It will be a busy night with racing scheduled to begin at 6:30 sharp.
When Wednesday's opener was washed out it was combined with Thursday's show and that made for a long night of racing with seven divisions in action plus the Late Models and Modifieds were given the opportunity to test and tune. The Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders were the featured division for the night with eighteen 360 c.i. winged sprint cars racing for their first time ever on the 3/8th-mile oval. Terry McCarl was on board Jimmy Davies' #99 again tonight and when the green flag dropped "T-Mac" quickly went from fourth to first on the opening lap. But when his son Carson spun in turn three the caution waved before the lap was scored and the field was returned to its original lineup. On the restart Bret Tripplett and Josh Schneiderman raced to the front and the chase was on. Austin Johnson was the driver on the move early advancing up to second and when traffic came into play suddenly the top five became tightly bunched.
Terry McCarl was pinched off entering turn one while racing in third and his spin would give Tripplett an open race track once again while the race for second heated up between Johnson and Ryan Bowers. A first year Sprint Car driver from Ham Lake, Minnesota, Bowers raced Johnson hard for several laps but could not complete the pass as Tripplett benefited from that battle. When McCarl dropped a drive line with seven laps remaining the caution waved again and Bowers took full advantage on the restart. First he drove around the outside of Johnson for second and on the following lap he used that same line to dispose of Tripplett for the lead. Bowers was then flawless over the final six laps to secure the win in his first ever appearance with the Sprint Invaders. Series point leader Jon Agan made a big move late to finish second after starting ninth, Johnson was solid in third, Tripplett dropped to fourth and Schneiderman completed the top five.
The Sprint Invaders will close out their 2014 campaign on Saturday September 27th at 34 Raceway in Burlington.
Forty-five IMCA Sport Mods helped fill the pits and current IMCA National points leader Clint Luellen was holding off the challenges of Austin Moyer before breaking just past the mid-point of the night's qualifying feature. Moyer picked up the lead from there with Tony Olson now providing the challenge and when the white flag waved Olson was able to drive past Moyer for the lead in turn one. Austin was not about to give in though and he used a nice high to low move from turn three to turn four to drive under Olson and nip him at the line by a bumper for the win. Tyler Soppe came from the final row to finish third, Ty Griffith was fourth and Sam Wieben completed the top five.
The IMCA Stock Car feature was poised for a thrilling finish with Damon Murty ready to pounce on leader Jerry Miles before the caution waved with two laps to go. There would be no stopping Miles from there as he would take the win ahead of Murty, Scott Pippert, Phil Holtz and Roger Cielielski.
Brian Happel got around early leader Cory Tharp to secure the Hobby Stock qualifying night victory ahead of Eric McDonough. Tharp, Shane Oberbroeckling and Randy Byerly completed the top five.
Keeping in mind that this was a double show, the checkers waved on the Sprint Car main at 1:10 a.m. and I headed for the hotel instead of staying for the final three races of the night. Tim Brockhouse was Yankee champion in the Legends cars, Brannon Bechen won the Sport Compacts and Nate Yoerger was the champ in the SPI Stock Car division.
It is frustrating that the weather has played havoc with the event's schedule and, as usual, there are several forum board jockeys who are complaining about this or that like there was anything that could be done about it. My favorite are the folks who attempt to make the point that an event like this should be scheduled "a month earlier" as if that would guarantee warm and dry weather. Of course, an August run Yankee would not be near as big since every other track in the region would still be racing as well, but hey, why consider all of the other variables when the hot topic for this week is the weather?
And that weather should be ideal on Saturday for the final night of the Yankee Dirt Classic, hope to see you there!
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