All Iowa Points Mid-Term

After a slow start due to weather and that virus thing the 2020 racing season has hit the mid-season mark, at least in regard to the calendar. Will there be more events in the second half of the season than the first? I sure hope so, but if there is one thing that the past few months have taught us, it is that things don't always go as planned.

Before we flip the calendar over to July I wanted to take a moment to look at the All Iowa Points in each division to see where things stand and, since the Webmistress has already uploaded the June 28th update to the Points page at Positively Racing, here we go!

In the Late Models two-time and defending champion Matt Ryan has raced out to a somewhat comfortable lead over three-time champion Justin Kay. And, since the two of them can usually be found at the same track each night, Kay is going to need to have Ryan fail to run in the top five a few times to make up ground. Even though Justin stole two away from Matt last Thursday night, that was only a net gain of two points under the All Iowa five-point scale. You can't count out Jeff Aikey who  is looking for his second All Iowa Points Late Model title. He also won the Sportsman championship in 1984 and how about young Logan Duffy making his mark through the first half of the season ranked in fourth?

Tom Berry Jr. - Barry Johnson photo

He first came to us from Oregon and while he has called Newburg, North Dakota, home the past two seasons it is my understanding that Tom Berry Jr. is now based in Des Moines. Wherever he is staying right now, Berry has had the best first half of the season lead the AIP Modified points by thirteen over three-time champion Chris Abelson. Jeff Larson and Michael Long are tied for the third position, the same spot that Larson finished the 2019 season in behind Joel Rust and Kelly Shryock. The 2009 Modified champion Jeremy Mills is off to a good start in fifth.



The closest battle at the top here at Mid-Term will be found in the Limited Modified division where only two points separate the top three drivers. Doug Smith would become the fourth different Smith brother from Lake City to be an All Iowa Points champion if he is able to remain at the top of the list come the end of the year, but 2018 champion Cody Thompson is one point back in second and just behind him is eastern Nebraska's Shawn Harker. Brayton Carter and Ty Griffith are also off to good starts and will likely be contenders to the end of 2020 as well.

Damon Murty (99D) and Mike Nichols (63) - Barry Johnson photo

If the Stock Car standings end up the way that they look right now Damon and Dallon Murty would be the first father/son duo to go first and second in any All Iowa Points division. For Damon it would be his fifth All Iowa Points championship and for Dallon it would be a first. Defending champion Mike Nichols is tied with Elijah Zevenbergen for the third spot and Buck Schafroth is fifth.

South Dakota's Dustin Gulbrandson is setting a quick early pace in the Hobby Stock division with defending champion Eric Stanton not far behind. Kaden Reynolds made a big move this past weekend up to third, the 2016 champion Cody Nielsen is fourth and Brandon Nielsen is fifth.

Talk about a wide open race, all you have to do is look at the Mid-Term Four Cylinder standings and it is hard to pick out a favorite. Keep in mind that this is the only All Iowa Points division where the car count sets the scale each race night (10+ cars = 5-point scale, 6 to 9 cars = 3-point scale and 3 to 5 cars = 1-point scale) and current leader Ryan Bryant is going to need to continue to compete against good car counts to maintain his lead. You have to go down to 21st on the current list to find a former champion, two-time winner Nate Coopman, so it is very likely that we will have a new name to add to the Wall of Fame in 2020. Perhaps Ashley Reuman or Kaytee DeVries could join Kimberly Abbott as the only female drivers to win an AIP title? Abbott did it in the Four Cylinders in 2016.

All three of the Sprint Car classes are wide open right now and the schedule for the second half of the season will go a long way in determining these point chases. World of Outlaw regulars are dominating the 410 class right now with Brad Sweet leading the way, but keep your eye on Austin McCarl who looks to join his dad Terry, a twelve-time champion, on the list. Jack Dover will be tough to catch in the 360 division in what would be his third straight and fifth overall AIP title in the class. In the 305's Dusty Ballanger leads the way at Mid-Terms and if he can hold off two-time and defending champion Tyler Drueke and the rest of the field it would be Ballanger's second AIP championships having won the 360 title in 2003.

Do your part to keep the spread of the virus down both at, and away from the racetrack and hopefully we will have a full second half of the season.

With my wife's birthday on Wednesday, I look to get back to the track on Thursday for the 21st Annual Ron Little Memorial at the Stuart Speedway and then on Friday it will be the 12th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. I will then wrap up the holiday weekend on Sunday night with a return to the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly for the Sprint Invaders.

Be safe, take care, stay healthy and we hope to see you at a six foot distance on the Back Stretch!

Van Gogh to the races!

Heckenast Initiates A New Era for MARS, Kay Doubles Up At Davenport

It took an extra three months, but Tony Izzo Jr. was finally able to bring his new brand of the MARS Late Model Series to the track on Thursday night at the Davenport Speedway and it was an entertaining program to say the least. Not only was the racing good for the Supers, but a pair of IMCA Late Model features had the nice sized crowd on the edge of their seat as well on the first of two straight nights of racing action on the quarter-mile oval at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds.

After purchasing the long running series during the offseason, Izzo had planned to run his traditional Thaw Brawl at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa, to debut his version of MARS on the final weekend of March. Well we all know what happened with that plan, so over the past two weeks with tracks in Illinois finally able to get back to racing, Izzo quickly pulled together a three race swing at Davenport, Donnellson and Peoria to start the 2020 series.

Twenty-one Super Late Models might have disappointed some, but as I have mentioned here before there is a lot of Super Late Model racing being scheduled now in an area that frankly had little or none over the past ten years. So the bottom line is, I will take this car count and the quality of drivers that it included anytime of the week at this point. The second MARS heat race was worth the price of admission in itself, with numerous slide jobs, jumped restarts and so much back and forth action it was hard to believe that it was only a ten lap race.

The show was delayed by nearly a half hour when MARS officials were unable to get the transponder loop to function and while this caused some of the fans to get a little impatient, for me at least it was well worth it as the probable "qualify and start 'em straight up" format was ditched for a draw/redraw set of three heat races that would have otherwise been more of a follow the leader affair. With the top two out of each heat having the chance to pull the front row for the forty lap A-Main it would be Jonathan Brauns and Bobby Pierce leading the field to green.

Pierce would sail around the cushion to open up a big early advantage as the rest of the field tried to find the line that suited them the best. With Ricky Kay and Al Dlouhy now doing the track work, the surface is wider than I have ever seen it and while the cushion was strong all night, it became treacherous as well once it reached the very top of the banking and while it looked like they were putting around the bottom, the sheer difference in the distance made that groove a winner at the end of the night.

Chris Simpson was the first to make up ground on Pierce using that bottom line and after a couple of cautions on laps twelve and fourteen, Brian Birkhofer became a factor running the rim as well. Frank Heckenast Jr. had started ninth, but he was now the king of the putters, by all appearances creeping around the very bottom of the speedway while still reeling in the leaders who were tearing around the top. Heckenast was up to third, then second and was about to overtake Pierce when suddenly the leader got the signal to go low to try to block off the charge.

He did not get low enough though as Heckenast eased into the lead on lap twenty-five and Pierce went back up to the top to try to return to the point. Birkhofer was now right behind him in third and when Pierce went searching in the middle on lap twenty-nine, Birky was ready to pounce but he slipped off the top of turn four and lost several positions before he could recover. Just after that Jake Miller slowed on the back stretch just ahead of the leader and when Heckenast had to stand on the brakes as Miller pulled to the infield, that gave Pierce new life.

Bobby was cutting into the gap and was poised to challenge for the lead when he too slipped off the top of turn four with just seven laps remaining. This allowed Allen Weisser, another catfisher to pick up the second spot, but he could not close in on Heckenast despite some lapped traffic over the closing laps as the second generation driver out of suburban Chicago picked up the win. Weisser was impressive in second, Brian Shirley came from eleventh to third, Simpson was steady in fourth and Birkhofer recovered to post a top five finish.

As noted earlier, the opening weekend for MARS continues tonight in Donnellson and on Saturday at the Peoria Speedway.

This was a dream night for Danny Rosencrans as the only other division on the card was the track's weekly IMCA Late Models who would start off the night with a 25-lap makeup feature from last Friday's rain out and they would then run a full program of three heats and another 25-lap main event. Let's just say that Matt Ryan probably had an orange #15 in his nightmares overnight.

In the makeup feature National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer and eight time All Iowa Points champion Gary Webb paced the field for the first seven laps before Ryan was able to dive under him in turn one. Meanwhile Justin Kay who had started deep in the pack due to arriving to the track as the heat races were being run last Friday, after initially going to Columbus Junction, was picking his way to the front and had the high side working as the laps ticked away. Ryan's lead was nearly a straightaway when Kay moved to second, but the gap closed quickly and as the two exited turn four coming to the white flag Kay sailed around Ryan to take the lead and one lap later the exciting win. Andy Nezworski finished in the third position, Chuck Hanna was fourth and the seventy-two-year-old Webb held down the fifth spot.

Gary Webb still putting on a show at Davenport - Dennis Krieger Imagery

In the second 25-lapper for the IMCA cars Ryan started from the outside of the front row and used the high line to again open up a big lead. Joe Zrostlik was the only driver making the bottom work mid-race as he was running third, but when he tangled with the lapped car of Shaune Lewis, Zrostlik spun on the front stretch to produce the only caution of the race. Kay had started the race in eleventh and was now lined up sixth on the restart with eight laps remaining. When the green flag waved Ryan again put some distance on the field, but soon young Logan Duffy was making up ground running the inside with Kay following in his tracks. Duffy went under Nick Marolf for second with Kay still in tow, but when the youngster missed his mark in turn one with four to go, Justin drove under him and into second.

The crowd went nuts as Kay again carved away at Ryan's advantage and this time as they came to the white flag it was Kay digging down low to take the lead, and one lap later the exciting win! It would be a pair of runner-up finishes on the night for the the two-time and defending All Iowa Points champion Ryan. Marolf finished in third with Brian Harris nipping Duffy at the line for fourth. And, while we are recognizing All Iowa Points championships, there were plenty represented on the night as Justin Kay is also a three-time champ and Harris won the title in 2008.

It was a great night of racing on the quarter-mile at Davenport and as I put the finishing touches on this story I am ready to make the same trip north as tonight the Sprint Invaders will join the Modifieds, Street Stocks, Sport Mods and Sport Compacts for a Friday night of action in Davenport. Then on Saturday night the Sprint Invaders will headline the racing at 34 Raceway west of Burlington.

Hope to see you there!

Reutzel, Ball and Kline Celebrate Hy-Vee Night Wins at Knoxville

After being rained out at two different tracks on Friday night (thanks future radar!), and then having our Saturday night destination washed out early in the day, we set our sites on the Knoxville Raceway for a full night of social distanced Sprint Car action. The Sprint Car Capital of the World is taking every precaution to keep everybody safe during the pandemic including temperature checks for anybody going to either the infield or one of the suites and, in the grandstands, race fans were directed to sit in only even numbered rows and leave at least three seats between each individual or traveling group. so fans were evenly distributed throughout the front stretch grandstands. And while I have nothing similar to compare it to, it looked like a pretty strong crowd for a weekly show presented by the Knoxville Hy-Vee conveniently located right across the street from the track.

Cans of Busch Light were also on sell for just one dollar and after setting quick time in the 410's Brian Brown donated $100 to cover the beer for the first one hundred fans to visit the beer stand near the main entrance. I notice that a tweet of that gesture and how it compares to other professional athletes haggling over money has "gone viral" so to speak on this Father's Day morning.

With lightning to the southeast, one little non-threatening cloud produced a pretty heavy mist during the final two heat races of the night, but it ended as the B-Main for the 360's was under green and the extra moisture likely helped an already fast and two grooved racing surface for the night's three main events.

The Pro Sprint Series was up first with perhaps a new record car count for the division at seventeen since they went exclusively to the crate engines and it would be the top two drivers in career wins in the class that was formerly known as the 305's starting from the front row. Devin Kline would get the jump on Matthew Stelzer and would lead the entire fifteen lap distance to take the win, the twelfth of his career now putting him in a dead heat with Stelzer who could only chase him in for second tonight. During his victory lane interview with Mike Roberts, Kline noted how winded he was after a two year layoff and that this was a one-time stint in a car that will be driven by Matt Allen for the rest of the year. Russ Hall finished in the third spot, Mike Mayberry was fourth and Evan Epperson completed the top five.

Another stout field of thirty-three drivers signed in for the 360 class with four heats and a B-Main setting the field for the 18-lap headliner. Defending track champion Carson McCarl would set a quick early pace from his pole position with Jamie Ball quickly coming from fifth to second. Caution on lap three for a Stu Snyder spin allowed Ball to challenge down low on the restart, but McCarl's high side momentum kept him out front until the caution waved again two laps later, this time when Tom Lenz slowed to a halt at the top of turn two.

On the restart McCarl went low into turn one while Ball went to the cushion and Jamie would sail to the lead down the back stretch. Matt Juhl was also on the move after starting eighth and once he got to second he found himself a full straightaway behind the leader. That gap had been cut in half by the time that the white flag waved and just as Ball was about to exit turn four and take the win the red flag waved for an incident in turn two.

Reportedly Kelby Watt had spun in turn two and as he tried to save the spin Matt Moro had no place to go with contact launching him directly into the turn two guardrail. Thankfully Matt crawled out of the car shaken, but uninjured and the race was delayed for about ten minutes as the track crew repaired some fencing at the scene.

This would now leave us with a green-white-checkers restart with Juhl right on the tail tank of Ball. Jamie would set a very slow pace all the way to the exit of turn four and you could see the sparks coming off the brakes of Juhl as he tried to anticipate the start. The strategy worked to perfection for Ball and he drove away from his challenger to take the popular win in his hometown. Juhl spent the final two circuits fighting off Clint Garner to finish second while McCarl and fellow front row starter Joe Beaver went fourth and fifth at the checkers.

The 410's would round out the evening with twenty laps and after watching his dominating run from sixth to first in his heat race, all eyes were on the beer drinkers' favorite Brian Brown who lined up eighth in this one. Young Sawyer Phillips was impressive from the pole position hugging the bottom on both ends to lead the first four laps with Austin McCarl and Aaron Reutzel in hot pursuit. The top three were in a tight formation coming to score lap five and Reutzel would make a nifty move exiting turn four to go from third to first. McCarl followed him into second with Brown, who moved from eighth to fourth on the opening lap, soon passing Phillips as well to take up the chase in third.

Reutzel was on the fly and making quick work of the slower traffic allowing him to maintain a full straightaway advantage as the race went green to checkers. And, even though he earned the pole position for the finale of the 2019 Knoxville Nationals, this would be Reutzel's first career feature at the hallowed speedway. The battle for second was a good one that was decided when the contenders closed quickly on Tori Knutson and McKenna Haase who entered turn three side-by-side with just a couple of laps remaining. Thankfully both former track champions showed patience or this could have gotten ugly and when the inside line opened up Brown was there to take it and race past McCarl for the runner-up position.

Sawyer Phillips posted his career best finish in a 410 placing fourth while Matt Juhl completed a successful evening of double duty finishing in fifth.

For any of you race fans who might be on the fence in regard to attending a dirt track race during the pandemic, the Knoxville Raceway and its large facility would be a good place to start. And besides, you know that you are going to be treated to a great night of Sprint Car racing as well.

That being said, keep in mind that Knoxville will not be in action next week due to the Jackson Nationals being run up in southern Minnesota. But they do come back with two days of racing on the holiday weekend running weekly shows on both Friday and Saturday nights July 3rd and 4th.

With Knoxville taking next weekend off, I will be with the Sprint Invaders next Friday night June 26th on the quarter-mile at the Davenport Speedway, then on Saturday night June 27th the Invaders return to 34 Raceway west of Burlington. Before that, on Wednesday June 24th I look forward to returning to the Stuart Speedway where I will sub in on the microphone for Tony Paris during the 2nd Annual Jake Durbin Memorial.

Hope to see you somewhere along the line on the Back Stretch!

Mullens, Donlan and Carter Make Quick Work of Tipton

Three divisions, seven heat races, no B-Mains and three feature races with only three caution flags between them made for a quick night Wednesday as the United States Modified Touring Series and the USRA Iron Man Series for Stock Cars and B-Mods visited the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton. In fact the final checkered flag waved just past nine o'clock allowing for my drive home to be mostly in twilight conditions.

The B-Mods were up first for twenty laps and with Tuesday's winner at Stuart, Dan Hovden drawing the outside of the front row, chances were good that we would see a repeat performance. Pole-sitter Josh Roney did not agree with that assessment though as he would take the lead at the drop of the green and while Hovden tried to work the cushion it would be third-starting Brayton Carter who would apply the pressure down low. "Speedy Bray" would take the point on lap three, one lap prior to the first caution of the race needed when Alex Zwanziger went over the top of turns one and two.

Following the restart it looked like Roney surprised Hovden by moving to the cushion in turn three and when the two locked bumpers momentarily that allowed Ben Moudry to move into the second spot. Moudry would stay right with Carter through lap twelve when Tony Kraklio spun just in front of the leaders in turn one and on the restart Moudry again waited for an opening. Carter did not budge off the bottom though and the Oskaloosa driver would get the win here after finishing a close second the night before. Moudry was right there in second, Hovden rode the high line to third, Roney finished fourth and Ryan Walker edged out Ben Chapman at the finish line for fifth.

The Stock Cars were up next for twenty laps with Todd Staley getting past front row starters Troy Hansmeier and Austin Bouzek to take the lead from his third starting spot on the opening lap. Staley's second row companion Kevin Donlan was on the move as well and he would use the middle groove to make his move to the front on lap three. Also making a drive to the front was Mitch Hovden and he was easy to track as the sun was setting beyond the turn two end of the back stretch as his #15 was smoking heavily as he raced through the corners. Whatever the problem though it was not slowing him down as Hovden advanced from seventh to second just before the caution waved on lap thirteen for the Missouri visitor Bouzek who had spun in turn two.

I thought that Hovden might have something for Donlan over the final seven laps, but perhaps the issue causing the smoke did actually slow him down some as he could not mount a challenge as Donlan scored the win. Hovden and Staley went second and third respectively, Pat Graham moved from eighth to fourth and Hansmeier wrapped up the top five.

The twenty-one car Modified field would lay down forty straight laps of green flag racing to wrap up the night and while a few drivers went searching up high early in the distance, by mid-race everybody but the lapped cars were running the bottom around the quarter-mile. Tanner Mullens started on the pole and was able to open up a nice lead, but Zack VanderBeek was able to reel him back in late in the race getting up to the back bumper of the leader with just five laps remaining. One peek to a different line though allowed Mullens to again pull away and capture his second career USMTS feature victory. VanderBeek settled in for second, Jason Hughes was third, fourth went to series points leader Rodney Sanders and Jacob Blees was fifth.

Weather permitting the "Iowa Speed Week" for these series continues tonight at the Mason City Motor Speedway where lights have now been installed for the new track configuration. The action moves to Rock Rapids on Friday night at the Rapid Speedway and on Saturday the five race swing concludes at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City.

My calendar has a pair of Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series events circled for this weekend with Friday night racing at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction and then Saturday at 34 Raceway in Burlington.

Get out and support the track of your choice this weekend for some live and in person action!

Ramirez Snares USMTS Debut At Stuart

After watching Jacob Blees somehow squeeze between the front stretch wall and three other cars that were battling side-by-side below him USMTS PR whiz Jeff Nun shouted out to series President Todd Staley, "why did it take twenty-two years for us to come here?" The Stuart Speedway welcomed the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) in for the first time Tuesday night to give the Modified pros their first crack at the racy quarter-mile oval and I would have to think that the drivers, and the large gathering of fans that were on hand to enjoy the debut felt the same way as Dereck Ramirez pulled into victory lane to put a wrap on a great night of racing.

Twenty-four cars for fifty laps was the finale for the evening with defending champion and the current USMTS point leader Rodney Sanders drawing the pole from the eight drivers who had accumulated the most passing points during the three qualifying heat races. Rookie-of-the-Year contender Calvin Iverson would start to his outside and it would be the series rookie that would gain the advantage at the drop of the green. Sanders would apply the pressure though and on lap eight he would take the point leaving Iverson to now deal with Jason Hughes in the battle for second.

Two laps later, as Hughes drove up in front of Iverson exiting turn four causing him to stab the brakes, Iverson then drove through Hughes entering turn one sending the veteran driver from Oklahoma for a spin and bringing out the first caution of the race. Officials sent Iverson to the rear for the incident while Hughes would stay in second for the restart. Two more laps were completed before Casey Skyberg stopped on the back stretch after smacking the universal barriers in turns one and two and on this restart Tanner Mullens would take over the second spot and pickup the chase of Sanders.

Two distinct grooves, high and low, were soon expanded to a couple more in between leading to a few "edge of your seat" moments including the one mentioned in the opening paragraph as drivers grappled for position. Up front Mullens was trying just about everything with no luck until lap twenty-five when he had a run on Sanders entering turn one. With the leader committed to the cushion, the soon to be lapped car of Cole Ferguson climbed the outside barrier with his right side just in front of him and when Sanders made contact it brought Ferguson down off the wall. Amazingly Ferguson continued down the back stretch as Mullens took the lead and when the damaged car pulled into the pits off the top of turn four, the race stayed green with Mullens now setting the pace.

After starting sixth Dereck Ramirez was now in the hunt running a lower line and he soon dropped Sanders back to third while reeling in Mullens. With sixteen laps remaining, Mullens found himself briefly pinned behind the slower car of Iverson and that was the break that Ramirez needed to take the point.

Mullens tried to mount a comeback, but over the final ten laps the track locked down a bit and once Ramirez slipped around one more lapped car he would be on his way to victory. Mullens was close behind in second, Kyle Brown rallied mid-race to come from twelfth to third, Jason Hughes finished fourth and Sanders held on for a top five finish.

The USRA Ironman Series for Stock Cars and B-Modifieds were also in action with those drivers getting their first-ever look at Stuart as well and doing battle with several of the track regulars.

Chalk one up for the travelers in the B-Mods. Corning's Josh Sink would lead the way for the first four laps in the twenty-lap race before Decorah's Dan Hovden swept around the outside. Brayton Carter who makes the trip over from Oskaloosa often worked his way up from fifth to second, but was not closing the gap much on Hovden until a pair of cautions flew on laps fourteen and sixteen.

Now with the leader in his sight, Carter tried to hold a grip on the bottom to get around the high flying Hovden and as they came to the white flag Hovden's lead was by just a bumper at the stripe. Going down the back stretch for the final time Hovden used his high line momentum to retain the lead and he wisely moved to the low line entering turn three to take away Carter's line and secure the win. Josh Roney moved up from seventh to third at the checkers, Trevor Fecht was fourth and Minnesota's Taylor Skauge was fifth after starting twelfth.

A local favorite would take the win in the twenty-five lap Stock Car main event as Buck Schafroth went straight to the top of the track after setting the pace from his pole position. Darrin Korthals appeared to lose an engine on lap two and Steve Jackson's return to a track that he raced at regularly several years ago was interrupted by a flat tire on lap three.

Once back to racing it was the story of two grooves as Schafroth again pulled away using the cushion while Doug Keller dug around the bottom in second. Schafroth appeared to have this one in the bag until Jeremy Gettler spun in turn two with two laps remaining and the crowd was then treated to a green-white-checkers restart. Keller looked like he might be able to mount a charge on the final lap, but when he slipped off the bottom entering turn one that allowed Josh Daniels to squeeze under him and Schafroth to drive away for the win. Daniels completed an impressive tenth to second charge to give the track regulars a one-two finish with Keller having to settle for third. Todd Staley started eighth and finished fourth with Chad Legere coming from row five to take fifth.

The nine car field of USRA Hobby Stocks featured the two most recent National Champions battling it out for the win as South Dakota's Dustin Gulbrandson came from third to first on the opening lap only to yield to pole-sitter Eric Stanton on lap two. With the chosen line down low in this one, Guldbrandson gave it a try up top and ended up losing a couple of spots mid-race, but as Stanton scored the win with another former champion Chris Hovden in second, Gulbrandson edged out Solomon Bennett at the line for third. Tyler Schlumbohm would complete the top five.

Denny Berghahn Jr. would lead the opening lap of the USRA Tuner feature, but after Hunter Patrick slipped by  on lap two he would lead the rest of the way to take the win. Berghahn was second, Kolby Sabin finished third, Cody Pierce was fourth and Logan Richards finished in fifth.

Here's hoping that Stuart will be on the USMTS schedule once again in 2021 and don't forget that there is no weekly racing action tonight at the Stuart Speedway as they will return to action next Wednesday June 24th with the Jake Durbin Memorial.

"Iowa Speed Week" for the USMTS Modifieds and the USRA Ironman Series for Stock Cars and B-Mods continues tonight, Wednesday June 17th at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton. On Thursday the Mayhem moves to the Mason City Motor Speedway and on Friday the road warriors will visit far northwest Iowa and the Rapid Speedway in Rock Rapids. The five night tour of Iowa winds up on Saturday at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City. Pick out one or more of these events and add it to your schedule!

Burgtorf Wires Drive For 5 Qualifier, Long Continues To Dominate at Pepsi Lee County Speedway

On an absolute perfect night for racing weather wise Friday, the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson played host to the first of six special events for the IMCA Late Models known as the Shottenkirk Parts Express "Drive for 5". Each of the first five events pay $1,000-to-win and, if a driver simply competes in four of the first five events, in the finale on Saturday September 12th a feature win will be worth $5,000 instead of $2,000 for a winning driver who has not met the participation criteria.

Fourteen drivers signed in for the opener with a pair of cars housed out of my hometown of Mount Pleasant drawing the front row for the twenty-two lap main event. Mark Burgtorf in Lynn Richard's #15R and Matt Strassheim in Blaire Barton's #7B brought the field to green and as Burgtorf slid up in front of Strassheim in turn two, Matt gave him a pretty good shot in the rear bumper launching Mark to a sizable lead down the back stretch.

With those two driving away from the field, the battle for third was the one to watch as Tommy Elston and Darin Duffy, driving Curran Beckler's #35, went at it with another pair of 45's, Denny Woodworth and Dustin Griffin in hot pursuit. Nick Marolf was joining the group as well at the mid-race point and when he pulled alongside the fifth-place car of Griffin going down the front stretch they also had the lapped car of Patrick Shumaker to their outside. Entering turn one, both Marolf and Griffin were going for the same piece of real estate and contact nearly turned Griffin's car upside down as Marolf slid up the track and into the guardrail. Shumaker was involved as well and the next pack of three, Luke Pestka, Dalton Simonson and Jay Johnson had no place to go as they did the best that they could to avoid hard contact. Once everything was cleaned up, both Marolf and Johnson had been eliminated due to damage.

Once back to green Elston took second away from Strassheim and a lap later Matt slowed in turns three and four perhaps a result from that opening lap contact. Duffy established himself in third, but they were still chasing Burgtorf and the field would get one more shot at the leader when Pestka slowed to a halt in turn four after slowing from fifth. On this restart Duffy took second away from Elston and he was able to keep pace with Burgtorf, even peeking a nose under the leader on a couple of occasions, but he could not mount a challenge as Burgtorf scored the wire to wire victory. Duffy was impressive in second, Woodworth picked up third late from Elston while Griffin, in Woodworth's second car, recovered to finish in fifth.

All IMCA Late Model drivers still have a chance to keep themselves eligible for the $5,000-to-win finale by competing in the second "Drive for 5" qualifier on Friday June 26th.

Sport Compacts were the first feature of the night and, with this being an IMCA sanctioned weekly points race, the average points invert system for setting the lineups were in use and it was obvious that the front row drivers have had nothing but bad luck in the opening points races. Josh Barnes and Jason Ash are consistent winners, but would start up front in this fifteen lap main event and they would race door-to-door through the opening lap before Barnes edged ahead at the stripe.

Kyle Francy spun in turn two on the second lap and on the restart Barndon Reu joined the race for the lead going three-wide with Ash and Barnes in turn two on lap four. Ash would emerge with the lead and a lap later Barnes would extend his bad luck as he slowed and pulled to the infield with mechanical issues. Reu would chase Ash for the remainder of the race waiting for a mistake and in the closing laps he looked like he might have a run on the inside, but when he had to dodge a slow car exiting turn two on the final lap that allowed Ash to pull away and take the win. Reu was the runner-up followed closely by Adam Christy in third. Craig Bangert had a nice run from twelfth to fourth in his first appearance here in 2020 and Chuck Fullenkamp finished fifth after starting tenth.

Nicholas Profeta looked good leading the first half of his heat race earlier in the evening and his fourth place finish in that event landed him on the pole position for the eighteen lap Sport Mod main event. As the green flag waved Profeta drove up across the nose of fellow front row starter Derek Goble and then continued toward the outside wall before collecting the cars stating on the outside from row four on back including Trent Brink, Ron Kibbe and Jace Morrow. Once the track was cleared a second try at a start was waved off when Brian Berghager stopped at the exit of turn four with a broken right front.

When the race finally went green it was the new pole-sitter Jim Powell racing out to the lead for the first two laps before Brandon Dale challenged to his inside and Austen Becerra went to his outside in turn two. Becerra emerged from that three-wide battle as the leader and he would try to drive away before Joe Roller stopped on the apron of the front stretch to pull a caution on lap six. Adam Birck would take up the chase of Becerra on the restart and when the caution waved on lap sixteen when Powell spun in turn three we were setup for a green, white, checkered finish.

With Becerra riding the cushion, Birck dove to the bottom and pulled even with the leader in turns three and four coming to the white flag, but Becerra's high side momentum prevailed and he would take the win a lap later a couple of car lengths ahead of Birck. Dale was close behind in third, Carter Vandenberg finished fourth and Barry Taft filled out the top five.

Just one early cation slowed the Stock Car feature as Chad Krogmeier found the heavy cushion to his liking taking the lead from the start. John Oliver was soon there to challenge and on several occasions he would dive to the bottom and even pull ahead briefly only to have Krogmeier maintain his composure, hit his marks and come back to maintain the lead heading down the straightaway. At some point you thought that Krogmeier would have flinched under the constant pressure from Oliver, but he did not and after showing a puff of smoke in turn four Oliver's bid for the win ended with three laps remaining as he slowed and pulled into the pit area.

Abe Huls was now right there waiting for the mistake that never came as Krogmeier completed the flag to flag victory, his first win for 2020. Huls was second ahead of Jason Cook, Jeremy Pundt and Beau Taylor.

The twenty lap IMCA Modified feature would close out the night with twelve drivers trying to figure out a way to keep Michael Long out of victory lane. Daniel Fellows would give it his best effort racing out to a big lead early only to have the field brought back to him when Jardin Fuller had issues in turn three that then collected Mark Burgtorf and Dennis LaVeine. When the race resumed Long moved quickly to second and would start to put the pressure on Fellows.

Much like the Stock Car feature just before this one, the hunted was hoping to stay perfect on the cushion as the hunter explored the inside line on both ends of the speedway and while Fellows was able to fend off the first few challenges, Long made a bold move on lap ten driving deep into turn three to then slide up in front of Fellows in four and take the point. It was all over but the shouting from there as Long pulled away for his fifth win in six nights of action here in 2020. Fellows scored his best finish yet after jumping up to the Modified division late last season with his second place showing, Jeff Waterman was behind him in third with Burlington, Iowa, veterans Bill Roberts Jr. and Dennis LaVeine next in line.

A sincere thank you to Brian and Marcie Gaylord for their hospitality as it is not often that my wife chooses to join me for a night of racing. This was a big week for us with the birth of our second grandson and our 31st wedding anniversary, so it was good to have her at the track!

We will take tonight off to celebrate with friends and then on Sunday I look forward to making the drive down to Moberly, Missouri, where the Sprint Invaders will be in action at the Randolph County Raceway along with the A-Modifieds and the Four Cylinders. Perhaps I'll see you there!

No Rain In Stuart, Pospisil Snares Malvern Bank SLMR Checkers

"I figured that we had a one percent chance of racing," Stuart Speedway owner/promoter Mike Van Genderen said to Malvern Bank SLMR series founder Joe Kosiski Wednesday night as the twenty-four car feature field saluted a large turnout of fans before the green flag waved for thirty-five laps of action. Soaking rains from tropical depression Cristobal stayed just east of Stuart during the day on Tuesday and then the storms from a passing cold front somehow missed the small town about a half hour west of Des Moines overnight on Tuesday and into Wednesday. So what had been a forecast of more than four inches of rain turned out to be just a few sprinkles and the Stuart Speedway was the only one of four events originally scheduled in Iowa for Wednesday that was able to run. And, once the wind subsided by feature time, it was a perfect night for racing.

In my story for Saturday's USAC show at 34 Raceway I talked about how the format promoted racing all throughout the night. I must give the same credit to the SLMR series, especially now that fans in the eastern part of the state will be more exposed to it beginning next weekend. Time trials are run off quickly with four cars on the track at one time each getting two laps on the clock, with the best lap counting. From there, and this is very important, they set the heat race lineups with six cars inverted in each of the heats and a passing points system the transfers the top sixteen cars from the heats to the A-Main. With thirty nine cars on hand last night, two B-Mains were then run with the top two finishers from each locking themselves in and, since this was both an East and a West Series event, four provisional starters were added to complete the twenty-four car starting field.

So why is this such a good format? Well here's a preview, the fastest qualifier started from sixth in heat one and advanced to fourth. This earned him the fourth starting position in the A-Main where he then worked his way to the front to win the "race". Note that I have quotations around the word race, because in other prominent Super Late Model series here is how the format would have worked. The fastest qualifier would start from the pole of the first heat where he would likely win without having to pass anybody and he would then start on the pole of the feature where, if he would go on to win, it would have likely been in a flag-to-flag fashion, or in other words a "chase". In both formats, the fastest qualifier won, but do you as a fan see the difference?

I am Race Fan, not a chase fan.

Jake Neal driving Glenn Robey's "8-Ball" and Charlie McKenna would bring the field to green, but before a full lap could be scored the caution waved when Dave Eckrich and Ben Scahller tangled in turn four. On the second try McKenna vaulted to the lead pounding the cushion on both ends and opening up a nice advantage over the first five laps before Joel Callahan slowed on the front stretch. Once back to green McKenna again pulled away from the pack as both Justin Kay and Tad Pospisil worked their way to the front.

The high line held an advantage for the leader, but as he started to work lapped traffic both Kay and Pospisil quickly closed the gap and behind them Bill Leighton Jr. was on the move after starting thirteenth. On lap twenty-one Kay would drive under McKenna to take the lead and the crowd was on the edge of their seats as the top four raced in a tight formation down the back stretch with traffic still in play. Pospisil made his move in turns three and four to steal the lead from Kay, and Leighton made a nifty move going from fourth to second as lap twenty-two was scored.

It was clear now that the low line was the place to be as McKenna continued to fade on the top and soon the entire field was circling the quarter-mile at a high rate of speed in pretty much the same line. Pospisil showed his patience by settling in behind the lapped cars rather than trying to get around them and when he made one slight mistake late in the race, getting a bit wide exiting turn four, Leighton took a look but could not get alongside the leader before entering turn one. And that is how this one would end with the fourth starting, fastest qualifier of the night, Tad Pospisil rising to the top to take the checkers. Leighton was the hard charger advancing eleven spots to finish second, Kay held on for third ahead of defending SLMR champion Kyle Berck in fourth. Jason Hahne started tenth and finished fifth, Jeff Aikey was sixth, Jeff Tharp advanced five positions to finish in seventh, McKenna dropped to eighth at the checkers, last year's winner here at Stuart Jason O'Brien was ninth and Darrel DeFrance filled out the top ten.

The Malvern Bank SLMR East and West Series moves to the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City tonight for a special Thursday night event and the West Series wraps up a three-night swing at the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska on Friday night. Next week the Hoker Trucking East Series will be at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction on Friday June 19th and on Saturday the East Series continues at 34 Raceway in Burlington. On Sunday June 21st the three race swing for the Hoker Trucking East Series wraps up in East Moline at the Bullring at Rock Island County Fairgrounds.

Four of the track's six weekly divisions were also in action Wednesday night with the Outlaw Mini Mods being the first main event of the evening. Cody Housby was scheduled to start from the pole position, but he elected to go from the rear putting Kamdyn Haggard in charge of starting the race. After two failed chances to deliver a clean start, Haggard was sent to the rear of the lineup and it would be Luke Daniels who would finally lead the field to green. Haggard would spin to cause a caution on lap two and another caution on lap eight would slow the field, but nobody was going to challenge Luke Daniels over the final four laps as he scored the win. The Prehn's, Tanner and Matt finished second and third, Haggard recovered to take fourth and Lukas Schroeder used the high line to gain three positions over the final two laps to finish in fifth.

The IMCA Sport Mod division at Stuart has provided some of the best racing that I have seen anywhere over the past two years and this night was no exception. An accordion effect caution in turn four slowed the field on lap two and on the restart Brayton Carter used the low line to go from fourth to second and put the heat on leader Matt Webb. With Webb circling the top and Carter digging down low the leader of the next several laps was hard to tell unless you were sitting right at the line as it was that close lap after lap, but Webb's momentum off the top side would score him as the leader until lap nine.

This time Carter came out of turn two with more than a car length's advantage and he was poised to finally take the point only to have the caution wave when Maguire DeJong spun in turn four while racing in fifth. The restart would put Webb back out front and he would lead lap ten only to have Carter nip him by a nose on lap eleven. Webb's high line would prevail to lead laps twelve and thirteen, but with four laps remaining Carter was able to take the lead for good and he would go on to post the entertaining victory. Webb was a solid runner-up with Dusty Masolini taking third. Tyler Inman came from eighth to fourth and Cam Reimers was fifth after starting from the fifth row.

The IMCA Stock Car feature followed the Late Models and after a quick manicure by Van Genderen the surface was back to two and three wide action with Shawn Ritter leading the first of twenty laps. Coming to score lap two though, the second place car of Brad Derry got into Ritter exiting turn four causing the leader to spin and both drivers were sent to the rear for the restart. That would hand the lead over to seven-time National Champion Mike Nichols and as he opened up a lead the battle for second mid-race was spectacular going four-wide at one point between Josh Daniels, Damon Murty, Todd VanEaton and Buck Schafroth.

Murty would finally clear that group and would set his sights on Nichols who now had nearly a full straightaway lead with less than ten laps remaining. The leader was running low and, of course, Murty was using the cushion and the gap closed quickly with Murty, the four-time All Iowa Points Champion, ready to pounce. Just as he was about to take the lead the caution waved with three laps remaining when Jason Hall spun in turn four and, while under caution, somebody gave the signal to Nichols that he needed to move up to the high line.

As the green flag waved again, Nichols went straight to the cushion in turn one while Murty tried the middle and the final three laps were an intriguing game of cat and mouse between two of the best Stock Car drivers ever. On the final lap Murty had a run off the top of turn two and was poised to throw a slider, but Nichols went low into turn three to block it off and he would hold on to win this thriller by a car length at the checkers. Murty would have to settle for second as VanEaton, Daniels and Schafroth had their own entertaining battle over the final three laps to finish in that order.

A star-studded field of Modifieds would close out the evening for twenty laps and when John Davis had trouble bringing the field to a start, he would drop to the rear moving Ricky Thornton Jr. to the pole position. And, well, you can probably write the rest of this paragraph from there.

One caution slowed the race when Ronnie Hults and Jaxon Saathoff tangled on lap eight and on the restart Tom Berry Jr. made a nifty move to go from fourth to second. But not even he could mount a challenge on Thornton as this one was a "chase" to the checkers with Thornton taking the convincing win. Berry ended up starting the race from the inside of the fourth row and finished second, Todd Shute moved from fifth to third, Josh Gilman finished where he started in fourth and Matthew Meinecke completed the top five.

It was another full and fantastic night of racing at Stuart with the final checkers waving at 10:12 p.m. and the track now looks ahead to next Tuesday night June 16th when Todd & Janet Staley will bring the United States Modified Touring Series to town for the first time ever. The USRA Ironman Series for B-Mods and Stock Cars will also be in action along with the Hobby Stocks. Wednesday night racing returns the following week, June 24th with the Jake Durbin Memorial at the Stuart Speedway.

I will take tonight off to catch up on some sleep and then on Friday I hope to be at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson where it will be $1,000-to-win for the IMCA Late Models as the first qualifier for the "Drive for Five" promotion. Then, after a social engagement on Saturday, I look forward to making a long awaited return trip to Moberly, Missouri, where the Sprint Invaders will headline the show at the Randolph County Raceway on Sunday evening.

Get out and support the track of your choice and please come back to join us on the Back Stretch often.

Grant Wins in USAC's Return to 34 Raceway; Pundt, Becerra, Wagoner and Reu Do Too

It has been seven years since the USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series has visited 34 Raceway in Burlington and and it would have been at least another year more if not for the pandemic. Saturday's appearance by the best of the non-wing contingent was not on the track's original schedule, but with racing in the state of Iowa opening up before tracks in Indiana, the series was looking for a place to race and what better place to find than a track that thrives on open wheel action and that is just about a five hour drive from central Indiana?

Forty-four drivers signed in and went through one of the best qualifying procedures in the sport with time trials setting the heat races lineups where six cars are inverted with the top four finishers in the four heat races advancing to the A-Main. With this car count a C-Main was required and that would be the slowest ten cars that did not finish in the top four of the heats. The top four in that race would join fourteen more drivers that did not make the A from the heats in the Semi-Main that would be lined up straight up by qualifying times. The top six from that event would then make the A-Main and those drivers would "get their time back" for how the Feature race field would be set with the only stipulation being that they could not be included in the invert of the top six qualifiers who transferred out of the heats.

So do you see the beauty in this and how it promotes "racing" all night long? With six cars inverted and only four advancing out of the heats, that produces great action for the fans and widens out the race track instead of what you see in the "qualify 'em and start 'em straight up" system that other race series have embraced. And, if a fast qualifying driver does not make the transfer from the heat, he starts at the front of the Semi-Main where a simple transfer could still start him as far up as seventh in the feature.

I would love to see more series, Late Models, Sprint Cars, Modifieds, whatever, adopt this qualifying procedure as it also eliminates incidents like we saw in heat race action the night before, where a passing points system was being used and a driver who should not have been starting from the pole position eliminated one of the top contenders on the first lap.

One of the best moves of this night came on the final lap of the Semi-Main when Kory Schudy swept around the outside of Matt Goodknight and Slater Helt in turns one and two to go from eighth to sixth to make the show.

The thirty-lap main event would require a second try at a start as Rookie-of-the-Year contender Anton Hernandez from Texas slowed and stopped just over the top of turn one, but on the second start it would be Justin Grant vaulting to the lead. Defending series champion C.J. Leary would take up the chase driving a car that was not familiar to him as on Friday night Leary launched his own #30 up and out of the ballpark during a WAR Series heat race at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. Kent Schmidt, who had scratched for the night at Donnellson, offered up his #5K to Leary to drive at 34 and C.J. proved to be a quick study with the car.

With the leaders setting a torrid pace the race to watch was for third as both Kevin Thomas Jr. and Brady Bacon were working on Chris Windom. After a series of slide jobs Thomas would now race third and Bacon in fourth and they started to reel in the lead duo as well. With ten laps remaining the track was now locked down with Grant turning the fastest laps of the night, but just ahead of him was a long line of traffic and this one was about to get interesting. Just as the leader caught the traffic Leary made his move and briefly took the lead from Grant in turn two, but Justin roared back down the straightaway and was now searching for a path around the first backmarker when the caution waved for Brandon Mattox who had slowed on the back stretch.

With no lapped traffic to contend with over the final four laps, it was a high speed chase to the checkers with Grant taking the win over Leary, Thomas, Bacon and Windom. Logan Seavy finished in sixth, Robert Ballou who had earlier thrilled the fans with a great drive to win his heat race finished seventh in his return to USAC racing after nearly a full year recovering from injuries suffered at Kokomo. Wyatt Burks finished eighth, Carson Short was ninth and Chase Stockon was tenth.

Kevin Thomas Jr. in action during qualifying - Photo by Dennis Krieger

With a full field of cars, two Sprint Car classes to push off, a few rollover incidents across three classes and a half hour delay to treat a heat distressed gentleman in the grandstands, the USAC feature and the full victory lane interviews of the top three finishers wrapped up at 11:35 and there were now four feature events still to come and some of the large crowd began to filter out.

The Sport Compacts would be first out for twelve laps and the Four Cylinders were really sailing around the 3/8ths-mile. Cody Staley would set the quick pace with Larry Miller in hot pursuit until lap four when Ashton Blain sent Colton Keck for a spin exiting turn two. Jerrod Nichols and the "Pink Pig" had no place to go making hard contact with Keck who nearly got upside down after backing into the back stretch wall. Once back to green Staley had his hands full with both Miller and Brandon Reu, but he held them both off until lap seven when Reu edged ahead for the lead.

Miller soon followed him into second and while he was able to keep pace with the leader, he was unable to mount a challenge as Reu posted the victory ahead of Miller and Staley. Josh Barnes who was driving the #3J normally wheeled by Jason Ash finished in the fourth position with Jared Heule moving from tenth to fifth.

The winged 305 Sprint Cars had another stout field of twenty-one including a few drivers making long tows from states that are not yet back to racing. Despite the rubbered up race track, the winged cars were still able to find two or more grooves to race with but it would all be behind Ben Wagoner who started on the outside of the front row and went flag-to-flag for the victory. Austin Archdale kept pace with Wagoner before he slowed and pulled to the infield on lap six making the battle behind him now a race for second. Nick Guernsey was holding off Dugan Thye, but Dan Keltner was now finding a higher line to his liking and he would soon get past both of those drivers. Young Mason Campbell had searched out a lower line and he too was on the move and at the checkers it would be Campbell as the runner-up, Thye third, Keltner fourth and Andy Huston coming from ninth to complete the top five.

The Stock Car feature would be fifteen laps with Jeremy Pundt leading lap one before Jim Redman and Les Blakely spun down the front stretch. On the restart David Brandies spun in turn one sending him to the rear and on the next try Chad Krogmeier swept around Pundt to take the lead and he would hold it until the fourth lap when Blakley again had issues on the front stretch.

For this restart John Oliver Jr. had moved up from seventh to third and both he and Pundt would go to work on Krogmeier. On lap eight, Pundt went to the bottom and Oliver to the top making it a three-wide battle for the lead off turn two and it would be Pundt who would return to the point. Oliver did not go away though and he would keep the heat on the leader all the way to the checkered flag as Pundt scored the win. Krogmeier was right there still in third holding off Jason Cook who finished fourth while Redman recovered to post a top five finish.

A fifteen lap Sport Mod feature would close out the night with A.J. Tournear leading the way through a series of cautions involving drivers racing at the back of the pack. On a lap twelve single-file restart Austen Becerra timed it just right to pull out and around both Adam Shelman and Tournear to go from third to first and he would even have to hold the lead through one more restart when Kaleb Nevers was involved in his third caution of the race after the white flag had waved. Austen would do the green-white-checkers in style coming from the ninth starting spot for his second win of the weekend ahead of Tournear, Shelman, Ron Kibbe and James Roose.

The final checkers waved at 12:50 a.m. and despite the long night there were still several fans for promoters Brad Steven and Jessi Mynatt to say "thank you" to as they exited the speedway. It was great to have fans back in the stands!

I was the announcer at the first ever IMCA Late Model Summer Series race held at 34 Raceway on April 11, 1987, and won by Jay Johnson. And I was scheduled to be the announcer at the 500th event of the series last Fall, but that fell to the wayside when rains washed away the event at 34. Over the offseason it was announced that the Summer Series would end, but coming up this Tuesday during the Dale DeFrance Memorial at the Marshalltown the event will be designated as the "500th and Final" Deery Brothers Summer Series event to honor "The Ironman" Darrel DeFrance who amazingly was there for all 500 races over the thirty-three year span of the series. I would have loved to have been there too, and I would have wrestled away the microphone from Jerry Van Sickel to call at least one heat race to complete the cycle, but I too have something to celebrate on Tuesday June 9th. That will be the 31st Anniversary of the day that my lovely bride said "I do" so it will be dinner and flowers for me instead of a night the races. Hopefully they have a great show, and a great sendoff to the Summer Series.

Windom Wins The WAR, Long and Becerra Also Victorious In Front Of Fans at Pepsi Lee County Speedway

After presenting four nights of racing in May on a Pay Per View basis in front of empty grandstands, the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson welcomed back the fans with a three division special event on a beautiful Friday night in the southeast corner of Iowa. The POWRi Wingless Auto Racing (WAR) Sprint Cars, thirty strong, would be the headliners while the track's IMCA Modified and IMCA Northern Sport Mods would also run a draw/redraw program.

It was a beautiful night for racing in Donnellson!

The two-level guardrails around the turns of the 3/8th-mile D-shaped speed plant could not contain the Sprint Cars during qualifying events. On the opening lap of the second heat race pole sitter Chuck Alexander got out of shape in turn one and when C.J. Leary could not avoid him, Leary's car flipped up and over the fence between turns one and two. He was not injured and after climbing over the guardrail he made sure that Alexander knew how he felt about the situation. Strangely at the end of that event, well after the checkers had waved for all of the cars, Alexander tumbled down the back stretch on the cool down lap.

On the opening lap of the B-Main former Modified driver A.J. Johnson of Oskaloosa hopped the wheel of the car in front of him entering turn one and that launched his car up and over the guardrail as well. He was uninjured. Then, a few laps into the race, the right front wheel came off of Justin Standridge's car going down the back stretch and it sailed over the guardrail and over the fence making its way almost out to the old highway before settling down. Thankfully nobody was out there and no cars were parked in that area as this one totally left the ol' ballpark.

Thankfully things settled down come feature time and a field of twenty-two Sprint Cars assembled for twenty-five laps. Well actually there were three cautions over the first five laps, then things settled down. Chris Windom started on the outside of row one and he would go the distance to take the win with only one instance where you thought this one was in doubt. On a lap three restart Dave Darland had charged past Anthony Nicholson for second and late in the race as Windom had to pause behind a pair of lapped cars who were using both of the preferred lines, Darland was able to draw within five car lengths only to have Windom clear the traffic and then drive away to the victory.

The battle for second was a good one over the closing laps as Wyatt Burks threw a failed slider at Darland with six laps remaining and on the final lap Burks was able to make it stick as he would take second away from "The People's Champ" Darland. Matt Westfall finished where he had started in fourth and Mario Clouser advanced two positions to take fifth.

The twenty lap Modified A-Main also had a dominating performance as Michael Long drew the pole position and was never seriously challenged in posting his fourth win in five events here at Donnellson in 2020. Mark Burgtorf chased him the entire distance in second while attrition and a lap thirteen incident shaped up the remainder of the results. Dennis LaVeine and Jeff Waterman were side by side for fourth entering turn one racing for fourth when contact sent both cars spinning. LaVeine was able to return from the work area in time for the restart while Waterman could not get a flat tire changed and make other repairs in time to continue.

Denny Eckrich would drop out of the race while running third with five laps to go so it would be Austin Howes joining Long and Burgtorf on the podium. LaVeine came back to finish fourth, Jardin Fuller was fifth and Levi Smith was the final car on the track at the checkers for sixth.

In the Sport Mod eighteen lap feature Tanner Klingele would lead through two early cautions before being passed in spectacular fashion on a lap five restart. With Jim Gillenwater coming on the low line and Austen Becerra going around the top, Klingele could not defend his position from the middle as Becerra would pick up the point.

Two more single car spinners would slow the field on laps eight and thirteen, but that did not seem to trouble Becerra who sped on to victory. Gillenwater fought off a strong challenge from Adam Birck to finish second, Joe Docekal drove Ron Kibbe's #89 to a solid fourth place finish and Klingele clung to the top five in fifth.

The Pepsi Lee County Speedway will be back in action next Friday night June 12th with the regular five classes highlighted by a Drive
For Five qualifier for the IMCA Late Model division.

The non-wing Sprint Car action now moves to 34 Raceway west of Burlington on Saturday night as the USAC Amsoil National series will attack the high-banked 3/8th-mile oval. 305 Winged Sprint, Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Sport Compacts will also be in action with hot laps scheduled for 6 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

Zevenbergen and Logue Are Dirt Duel Winners, Carter Scores Davis Memorial Victory

During the offseason when Stuart Speedway promoter Mike Van Genderen scheduled the 2nd Annual Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel for June 1st, 2nd and 3rd little did he know that it would be the first opportunity for race fans in Iowa to be back in the stands. In fact it would have been beyond anybody's wildest dreams, but as it turned out this three day event showcasing the IMCA Northern Sport Mods and the IMCA Stock Cars each racing for $3,000 to win was perfectly timed and then throw in the IMCA Modifieds on Wednesday night looking for a $1,000 top prize in the Bill Davis Sr. Memorial and you had the perfect way to say "Welcome Back Race Fans!"

Qualifying action from Monday and Tuesday had set the first four rows in both the Sport Mods and Stock Cars with sixteen more drivers completing the field from Wednesday's heat races and Last Chance events. Both divisions would race for fifty laps on the quarter-mile that was groomed to perfection before each main event yielding plenty of three and four wide action along with the occasional slide jobs that would bring the crowd to their feet.

The Sport Mods were the first Duel to take the green with defending champion Brayton Carter racing to the early lead from his outside front row starting spot. After staring third, Cody Thompson was on the hunt and his low line would prove to be the best as he took the lead from Carter on lap seven, one lap before the first caution of the raced waved for Brandon Patava's spin in turn two. One the restart Carter's high line picked up speed and he would sail past Thompson to lead again on lap ten with a second caution waving on lap fourteen when Hunter Longnecker sat sideways in turn three.

On the restart Jonathan Logue who had started eighth, and Josh Most who had come from ninth joined the battle for the lead as Carter continued to set the pace until lap twenty-seven when Patava slowed with suspension issues in turn three. On this restart the first slider of the race was thrown by Thompson as they entered turn one, but as he drifted to the cushion Carter drove back under him to maintain the lead. The action at the front was tight and with traffic getting involved as the laps clicked away something must have happened to Carter as something broke on the left front of his car allowing Thompson to go back to the point as lap forty-one was scored. As he tried to steer his damaged mount into turn three, perhaps a tap from Most as he darted to the cushion sent Carter for a spin and the caution waved as the defending champion retired to the pit area.

Logue and Most were now poised to challenge Thompson for the win and when Logue attempted a slide job in turns three and four with seven laps remaining he lost momentum allowing Thompson to pull away. But the caution would wave again with four laps to run when Adam Bohlman spun in turn two and that brought Thompson back to his challengers for the restart. Again Cody started to pull away and he had victory in his grasp racing through turns three and four for the final time when the caution had to wave for a three car stack up in in turn one. It would have been too risky to have drivers racing hard for position to the checkers in this high paying event with cars sitting on the track just beyond the finish line, so now Thompson would have to withstand a green, white checkered restart.

Logue was now up to the challenge though and instead of using the slide job to make his move, the second generation driver stuck it on the bottom and kept it there pulling even with Thompson as the two took the white flag. Both drivers did their best to hit their marks on two separate grooves over that final trip around the quarter-mile and the crowd came to their feet as they exited turn four with Logue winning by no more than a foot at the checkers. Thompson had to be a dejected runner-up after having the race well in hand not once, but twice during final ten laps. Most would finish in the third position with Colby Fett taking fourth. Nebraska's Colby Langenberg made a late charge on the cushion to complete the top five after starting from the tenth row.

It would be a tough act to follow, but you knew that the Stock Cars would be up to the challenge with a stout field of twenty-four going for fifty laps. Monday night's winner Elijah Zevenbergen would start from the pole and after the first start produced an accordion effect stack up that sent Jay Schmidt for a spin in turn three, Zevenbergen would set a quick early pace. The battle for position behind him was intense with young Dallon Murty making his way up from sixth to second and his father, Damon also quickly moved into the top five after starting twelfth.

Wisconsin visitor Luke Lemmens was racing in the fourth position on lap twenty-one when he went for a spin in turn three and after the caution he found his way up to the side of Wisconsin native Troy Jerovetz, perhaps to exchange pleasantries or disdain for possible contact leading to the spin. When the lineup was reset Zevenbergen now had both of the Murtys and their #99 cars behind him and after a few laps back to green another #99, this one driven by Jesse Sobbing who had started thirteenth, was now racing in fourth and looking to advance further.

Dallon was riding the leader's bumper around the top, but when the youngster bobbled slightly in turn two that allowed Damon to move to second on lap thirty-seven. Dad would start to search for a different line than Zevenbergen's and when he tried to go low with six laps remaining that allowed his son to sail back around him and into second just before the caution waved for Chance Hollatz who had slowed entering turn three.

We were now set up for six laps of action as Zevenbergen would try to ward off the trio of 99's and it would be Dallon once again right on his bumper waiting for a mistake. When the white flag waved Murty kicked it off the cushion in turn two and then drove to the bottom in turn three again bringing the crowd to their feet. As he slid up to the cushion in turn four though, Zevenbergen calmly turned down the track and used his momentum to win the race by a full car length at the checkers. Dallon would settle for second ahead of his father Damon as Sobbing finished fourth, and fifth went to Abe Huls who spent most of the race digging around the bottom.

If one hundred laps of exciting racing wasn't already enough, the Modifieds would come to the track to run twenty-five plus one in honor of Bill Davis Sr. and it would be Todd Shute leading the way with Joel Rust and Cayden Carter in hot pursuit. It would take until lap fifteen before the leaders were in traffic and to show how strong of a field this was one of the first cars to go a lap down was Anthony Roth, the driver from Columbus, Nebraska, who won eleven feature races in 2019.  Shute had cleared him but as they raced into turn three on lap seventeen, contact from the second place car of Carter would send Roth for a spin bringing out the first caution of the event.

On the restart Shute maintained the lead for another lap before the caution flew again when Jesse Dennis smacked the outside barrier in turn two and it would be this next restart that would decide the race. As Shute brought the field through turns three and four, Carter timed it perfectly going to the top to get a run off the cushion. He would then drive to the bottom of Shute entering turn one and complete the pass by shutting the door on him in two. There would be no catching "The Gasman" from there as he would pull away over the closing laps to collect $1,000. Eighth starting Tim Ward and ninth starting Tom Berry Jr. both slipped by Shute over the closing laps to finish second and third respectively while Shute and Rust completed the top five.

IMCA Hobby Stocks were also in action tonight for a track points race and their sixteen lap main event was the first of the night. Dylan Nelson would come from fourth to take the lead on the opening lap, but when he pushed up the track on the second circuit that allowed pole-sitter Brandon Long to get to the point. Brandon Cox was on the move from fifth taking the lead from Long on lap four and he would maintain the advantage through two restarts for spins by opening night winner Chuck Madden Jr.

On lap ten Nelson would battle back on the inside of turn four to regain the advantage, but when he again pushed up the track in turn four a lap later that allowed Cox to return to the lead and the eventual victory. Solomon Bennett would be the runner-up with Nelson in third, Miciah Hidelbaugh was the hard charger coming from thirteenth to fourth and Travis Fenton edged out Jason Kohl by a bumper to take fifth.

There is one thing that I want to point out, because I know that some Race Directors actually do read and listen to things like this. In the 36 car field for the Modifieds there were four heat races with the top five advancing to the main event and one B-Main where four cars completed the twenty-four car feature field. Read that again, just ONE B-Main is needed in this format, not two where you run the risk of unbalanced counts due to scratches and,or unbalanced fields from a quality standpoint. In this writer's opinion, two B-Mains in a field of up to forty cars is the equivalent of giving participation trophies to everybody so that they can all go home happy.

With 142 laps of exciting feature racing this show still wrapped up by around 10:30 and it was a happy drive home thinking about how I could give my best effort at describing the great action. A big thank you to Mike Van Genderen and his entire staff for the hospitality and I am hoping that I can return again next Wednesday night June 10th when the Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models will be in action!

My attention now turns to some traditional non-wing Sprint Car racing close to home this weekend with the POWRi WAR and Iowa Sprint League cars at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday night and the USAC National Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway west of Burlington on Saturday. Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!

Paris and Zevenbergen Will Be Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel Pole Sitters

With a stiff wind howling out of the south along with bright sunshine Monday evening, Stuart Speedway promoter Mike Van Genderen was worried about losing his race track. With a field of thirty-eight drivers in both the Stock Cars and the Sport Mod divisions on hand for the opening night of the Dynamic Drivlines Dirt Duel a one lane dry dust bowl was a distinct possibility. But, with a few well-timed shots of water along with some "roughing up" of the cushion here and there, the quarter-mile oval once again offered up some great racing action with drivers running high, low and everywhere in between with the night's feature winners earning the pole-position for Wednesday night's finale.

The twenty-five lap Sport Mod main event was up first with a pair of Oskaloosa drivers Carter Vandenberg and Dylan Van Wyk drawing the front row and the two groove surface was evident from the drop of the green. With Vandenberg working the bottom and Van Wyk up on the cushion they would swap the lead back and forth depending upon who had hit their marks the best on a given lap. Van Wyk would be scored the leader on the first two circuits with Vandenberg nosing ahead on lap three only to have Van Wyk come back to the front a lap later. Just behind them Shane Paris, who had started fourth, was finding his best line and he would soon make it a three car battle for the lead while following Van Wyk around the cushion.

As the leaders got into traffic, the front of the field tightened up even further with Tyler Inman and Cody Thompson closing on on the lead trio. But when Inman tangled with the lapped car of Matt Webb in turn two on lap seventeen that would produce the only caution of this race. Paris would pounce on the restart taking the lead from Van Wyk and while he eased away a bit the battle was now for second with Thompson trying to outrun the Osky duo. At the checkers it would be Paris who had made the long pull over from Muscatine taking the win while Thompson prevailed for the runner-up spot. Van Wyk and Vandenberg would also lock themselves in to Wednesday night's main event by finishing third and fourth respectively while Brian Osantowski will have to try again tonight to get qualified despite coming from an eighth row starting spot to finish fifth.

The Stock Cars were up next for twenty-five laps and let's just say that the action was intense. Three and four-wide racing was commonplace in this one whether it was in the front of the pack, the middle or the back as while only the top four would qualify for Wednesday's $3,000-to-win headliner, every position counted as points from Monday and Tuesday will set the lineups for Last Chance qualifiers on Wednesday.

Jake Masters started from the pole and pulled out to a comfortable lead while the field behind him shuffled for position. Once again two lines were prevalent, cat-fishing the bottom or running the rim, but in this one there were a couple of drivers who found something in the middle as well and that just made it all even more intriguing to watch. Elijah Zevenbergen was reeling in Masters and was about to mount his challenge for the lead when the caution waved for a Bob Daniels spin in turn one with eight laps remaining.

On the restart Zevenbergen's high line was the best as he would lead laps eighteen and nineteen before a three car tangle exiting turn four brought out another caution. On this restart Masters was digging back and looked to have a run entering turn three only to have the caution wave again for a spin in turn one.

The final six laps would belong Zevenbergen, from the far northwest Iowa town of Ocheydan, as the battle behind him raged on for the remaining three transfer positions. Illinois traveler Abe Huls had hugged the bottom for the entire race after starting ninth and at the checkers it would payoff with a runner-up finish while the leader of the middle groove racers, Luke Lemmens would make his trip from Wisconsin worth it coming from the twenty-first starting spot to finish in third. Masters would hold on to finish in the fourth position just ahead of Derek Green who had made it up to second from his seventh starting position early in the race only to drop back a bit at the finish.

A fifteen car field of Outlaw Mini Modifieds were up next for their feature, plus their were Manufacturer challenge races for both the Sport Mods and Stock Cars still on the card with the clock edging just past 9:30, but during the first caution of the Stock Car main event a check of Facebook showed that there were rumors of "busloads of looters" heading to my small town Iowa home. Of all the things that I have left races early for over the years, this was a new one and thankfully as it turned out it was just a rumor on this night. As I drove by our local Wal Mart store this morning one of the two main entrances was still barricaded by stacks of pallets so apparently this threat still remains.

My original plan was to return to Stuart on Wednesday night for the finale of this great event for the Sport Mods and Stock Cars, plus a full program for the IMCA Modifieds that will be racing for $1,000-to-win in the Bill Davis Sr. Memorial. However, I will only make that trip if I can be comfortable with being over two and a half hours away from my wife and my home during this troubled time.

The one thing that we can all see clearly now is that the year 2020 will be one that we will never forget.