I have often stated here that the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway is one of my favorite tracks of any that I have seen over the past forty years and Sunday night's 2017 season opener featuring the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models did nothing to diminish that thought. As the third event of the weekend for the series the car count was down from the previous two nights where the field was in the mid-thirties, but the twenty-one drivers who closed out the Highway 20 Challenge did so on a track that was wide, smooth and fast allowing for plenty of action on this beautiful April evening.
Joel Callahan and Joe Zrostlik would bring the field to green for the fifty-lap headliner and when Callahan charged to the cushion in turns three and four on the opening lap he turned completely sideways in front of the field. Contact from fourth-starting Jesse Sobbing would straighten him out, but both drivers faded into the field with Sobbing dropping to eighth as the initial lap was scored. Zrostlik would lead laps one and two before the seventh starting Cayden Carter sailed by him on the outside on lap three.
Carter would open up a full straightaway advantage as the field sorted out behind him with Justin Kay coming from the outside of row four to take second around lap fifteen. As Carter closed in on traffic running in his preferred high line, Kay ate into that lead at a fast pace and on lap twenty he was within a couple of car lengths of the leader. As Carter had to use a different line to get around Travis Denning and Darrel DeFrance, Kay went to the low side and powered off the bottom of turn four to take the lead on lap twenty-one only to have Carter come charging back to lead lap twenty-two by a nose.
The next handful of laps were a battle of the two primary grooves around the banked 3/8th-mile as Carter pounded the cushion and Kay hugged the rail with Cayden leading by no more than two car-lengths at the loop. Carter's night almost came to a sudden end though on lap twenty-eight when Lyle Klein smacked the turn three wall just in front of the leader who had to take evasive action as the first caution of the race waved.
Following a lap twenty-nine caution for DeFrance, Carter would bring the field back to green with Kay and Jake Neal side-by-side behind him and when Carter went to the bottom in turn one to block his challenger, Neal would fly by both of them off the cushion of turn two and down the back stretch to take the lead. The leading rookie-of-the-year candidate on the Deery Series, Neal would open up a ten car length lead as Kay disposed of Carter, but once into second Justin would again chase down another cushion rider by taking the short way around.
Kay would take the lead from the Omaha, Nebraska, driver on lap thirty-nine and he would then show his versatility as he himself moved up to the cushion for several laps as he approached a couple of lappers on the bottom. Neal was able to stay close over the final laps, but he was unable to mount a challenge as Justin Kay proved that he is still the man to beat at Dubuque. Matt Ryan was flat out flying around the top during the final fifteen laps as he finished third after starting fifteenth. Chad Holladay passed Carter on the final lap to finish fourth while Cayden held on for fifth. Jeremiah Hurst was sixth, Luke Merfeld seventh, Zrostlik faded to eighth, Sobbing was ninth and Saturday's winner at Independence Richie Gustin was tenth.
Dubuque Deery Notes......Five "official" lead changes among four drivers and many more taking place within a lap! Yes, there will occasionally be a flag-to-flag winner in this series that uses a draw and redraw format, but as a fan I will always prefer this to the "qualify and then start the fast guys in front" format that now almost every other Late Model series has gone to......There were two notable absentees from tonight's roster. All-time series wins leader Jeff Aikey was missing after what I assume was a DNF the night before in Independence where he was credited with a 22nd place finish. And defending Deery series champion Tyler Bruening was a no show after being disqualified the night before for an illegal rear axle housing......Kay was also the winner on Friday night at Farley, but took the night off on Saturday.....The Summer Series point chase seems to be wide open at this point as Luke Goedert entered the night as the leader, but could only muster an eleventh place finish at a track where he is usually more competitive. Don't be surprised if Jake Neal now sits atop the standings with the next event coming on Mother's Day May 14th at the Quad City Speedway.....It was great to see Gary Webb racing in the top five for the first fifteen laps after starting third. Webb was nearly impossible to beat here at Dubuque for a couple of seasons back in the 1990's and he would hug the bottom the entire distance on this night finishing in 16th.....I heard that Jeremiah Hurst and Jesse Sobbing had a run in at Farley on Friday and in the Casey's Pizza redraw tonight they swapped numbers back and forth with "my buddy" being used once or twice. As it turned out they were just trading the four and the five although with Sobbing ending up with the four he was the driver aimed at Callahan when he went sideways on the opeing lap. So I guess that Hurst "wins" that one after all......If you were wondering if Keith Simmons is still alive and well following the ownership change, the answer is "yes" and he still knows how to groom a fantastic racing surface here in Dubuque!
There was one bright spot and two black eyes when it came to support class action. The IMCA Modifieds provided fans with a nice preview to the Late Models by using every inch of the race track and by having just two cautions in their twenty-lap distance. Bryce Garnhart would lead the field early only to have Kenny Kostenbader take over on a lap four restart. Garnhart would chase him the rest of the way as the Freeport, Illinois, driver would win his first Dubuque Speedway feature. Including Kostenbader all of the top four had to cross a state border to get to the Speedway tonight as Garnhart from Shannon, Illinois, was second, Hunter Marriott from Brookfield, Missouri, was third and Jeff Larson, also from Freeport, finished fourth. Mark Schulte was the best of the Iowa drivers in fifth.
The IMCA Sport Mods had what appeared to be competitive field of twenty set to go for fifteen laps, but when pole sitter Andy Turpin spun in front of the field in turn four on the opening lap it must have set the storyline as nine cautions would wave, six of them for single car spins. The race ran green for two consecutive laps on laps three and four, then had a "long" run of three green flag laps for ten, eleven and twelve before closing out with two more laps under green before the checkers waved for Tyler Soppe. It was the seventh win at seven different tracks already for Soppe in 2017, taking this one after drawing the outside of the front row. Jerry Miles came back from mechanical issues in his heat race to finish second after starting sixteenth, Jarrett Franzen started tenth and finished third, Ryan Duhme who wasn't even able to run his heat race started last and finished fourth while Justin Becker was fifth.
Only four Outlaw Four Cylinders signed in with one of them breaking during the heat and another losing a motor midway through the feature. Dylan Flogel was the fastest of the four anyway so it was good that he ended up in victory lane.
A big thank you to the new ownership group and promoter Ed White for the hospitality and as always it was nice to visit with Kevin Feller, Doug Haack, Jerry Mackey and Kevin Yoder.
Next up, weather permitting, the season opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa this Wednesday. Let's hope that the Back Stretch stays dry!
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