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.
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| 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.
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