After losing its two day show to weather a couple of weeks ago the Lee County Speedway decided to add a Friday night of racing prior to the annual Shiverfest event and right around one hundred cars in five divisions made their way to Donnellson, Iowa, for the rescheduled Fall Extravaganza.
The Sport Compacts would be first up come feature time with pole sitter Alex Hayes leading the opening lap of the fourteen lap main event. His fellow front row starter Alyssa Steele would power to the front on lap two and as Steele opened up a lead drivers were battling three-wide behind her for second. Kimberly Abbott would soon emerge from that pack at the mid-race point and she would begin the process of reeling in the leader. With three laps remaining Abbott was within striking distance and it looked like the young ladies would decide this one between themselves as the third place car of Chuck Fullenkamp was ten car lengths back.
Abbott would pull even with Steele with two laps remaining only to have Alyssa nose ahead once again, but as they were going down the back stretch coming to the white flag contact between the right front of Abbott's car to the left rear of Steele's ride sent Alyssa sliding sideways across the front of Abbott and into the infield. Abbott would take the white flag as the leader with Fullenkamp now within striking distance and somehow Steele made the save and returned to the track now running a distant third. When the checkers waved it was Abbott crossing the line first followed closely by Fullenkamp and after crossing the stripe in third Steele would chase down Abbot on the back stretch to express her opinion of what had just transpired.
Fullenkamp would be sent to victory lane as the winner and I assumed that both Abbott and Steele had been disqualified for the two incidents, but it was a bit of a surprise when it was later announced that Abbott would be credited with second. I believe that David Prim was listed as third and Cody Bowman fourth, but the way that the race was scored was definitely a topic of conversation for the ans seated around us.
The Sport Mod feature would be next and with several top drivers drawing the fourth, fifth and sixth rows this looked like it would be a good one. That changed quickly though when the outside front row starter Reed Wolfmeyer spun in front of the field in turn two collecting several cars. Tyler Soppe and Kyle Olson were both eliminated with heavy damage while Brayton Carter had to restart at the rear of the field after making repairs in the work area.
Austin Heacock would take the lead on the second start setting a solid pace with Tony Olson applying the pressure while Carter quickly made his way up through the field. Soon it was a three car battle for the lead with Olson working the leader from the top while Carter tried to squeeze underneath him. As the trio worked to score lap eleven Carter dove to the bottom in turn three and then drifted up the track and when Heacock went to pull the crossover Olson joined him to make it three-wide to the line just as the yellow flag waved for a Lee Rouse spin in turn one.
On the restart Carter would take the lead from Heacock and then pull away over the final nine laps to take the win in an event where he was "racing angry" after getting caught up in the opening lap melee. Heacock was impressive as the runner up with Olson in third, Logan Anderson was fourth and Colton Livezy battled his way back to fifth after spinning while running fourth on lap two.
The Stock Cars were up next and with the track in ideal condition the fans who are familiar with the Lee County Speedway knew that they would be in for a treat and the drivers definitely delivered. Todd Reitzler would get out to the early lead in the twenty lap event with Jason Cook coming from fifth to second and now trying to keep pace. Johnny Spaw would move to third, but Reitzler appeared to have this one well in hand until lap twelve when Jason See spun in turn one while racing Abe Huls for fourth.
After the restart Reitzler, Cook, Spaw and Huls would put on a show in a tight four car battle with Reitzler still out front at the line each time as his challengers swapped grooves with the pack exiting turn four four-wide nearly every lap. On the next to last lap Spaw got a run off the top of turn two and would take the lead as the white flag waved with Huls moving to second on the bottom. The lead quartet would now have John Oliver Jr. just behind them to make this final lap even that much more exciting and in the final set of turns Huls drove deep into turn three and then drifted up the track in four looking to close the door on Spaw. The veteran driver from Cedar Rapids had other ideas though as he did not flinch using the momentum off the cushion to squeeze between Huls and the wall to take the win by a nose at the checkers with Reitzler, Cook and Oliver who had started nineteenth next in line in as good of a race as you will ever see.
The ten car field of Late Models would have the difficult task of following that one with Brian Harris wheeling the Lynn Richard owned #15R to the early lead. Another Quad Cities based driver Chuck Hanna would chase him down and take the lead on lap seven opening up a big advantage before the caution waved as Terry Gallaher slowed in turn one with three laps to go. Tommy Elston would use the restart to get to second, but he could not make a run at the leader as Hanna scored the win. Elston was second, Harris fought off Nick Marolf for third and Sam Halstead completed the top five.
A twenty-one car field of Modifieds would close out the evening and with Michael Long drawing the pole position for the twenty lapper you had to figure that this one would be a race second. The start of the race was a bit ragged as Derrick Stewart and Matt Bodman made contact with each other coming to green and they would both slow in turn two to cause a caution after the first lap was scored. Once back to racing Donovan Lodge tried to keep pace with Long, but as the leader pulled away it would be Bruce Hanford moving to second. Mark Schulte was in the mix as well and when the caution waved for a Rob Jennings spin with four to go, Long would be brought back to the pack for the restart. Another caution was needed before lap seventeen was scored though when Milo Veloz spun in turn four collecting Levi Smith.
Once back to green Long was gone leaving this one to be a race for second (as expected) and it would be Hanford prevailing as the runner-up ahead of Lodge, Logan Anderson and Schulte. Dennis LaVeine who had started from the seventeenth position finished in sixth.
Friday night racing action wrapped up by 10:45 allowing drivers and fans to get some rest before returning on Saturday for the 20th edition of the end of October event "Shiverfest". With sunny skies and temperatures in the low sixties predicted look for several more drivers to join the field as the Hobby Stocks will make it a six division show. Hayrack rides through the pits start at 3 p.m., box car races for the kids will be at 4:00 and Trick or Treating with the drivers will take place at 4:30. Hot laps are scheduled for 5 p.m. with racing to follow.
Hope to see you there!
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