Two drivers who cut their teeth racing on the big half-mile in Oskaloosa transferred those talents eighty-eight miles to the east on Saturday night where promoter Bob Wagener and DRT TRAK Racing, Inc. hosted the Mod Time 2K at the West Liberty Raceway. The event paying $2,000-to-win for the Modifieds and $1,000 for the Sport Mods had twice been rescheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions and on this hot, sultry night with three other tracks within 86 miles racing for points it proved to be a tough pull for cars as while a good field of twenty Sport Mods signed in, there were just thirteen Modifieds in the pits.
The two pre-race favorites landed on the front row of the fifteen lap Sport Mod main event in Logan Anderson and Brayton Carter. Anderson had already posted two wins this week at Oskaloosa on Tuesday night and Columbus Junction on Friday, plus he was the runner-up at Osky's Caleb Hammond Memorial on Wednesday. After finishing third during Tuesday's show at Oskaloosa, Carter was a winner at Stuart on Wednesday and at Marshalltown on Friday so it was pretty much a given that the winner would come from the front row and it would be Anderson setting the pace as the top two drove away from the field.
The caution waved on lap seven when Justin Schroeder slowed to a halt in turn two and on the restart Dan Brockert looked like he might make it a three car race for the win as he had come from eleventh to fourth, Once back to racing Anderson and Carter again pulled away from the pack and this time Brayton was hanging closer to the leader. After looking strong for a lap or two after the restart, Brockert started to fade and with just two laps remaining while running sixth his car belched a big plume of smoke entering turn one to end his night.
The race stayed green as Brockert limped to the infield and while Carter took a couple of peeks to the outside of Anderson he could not mount a challenge as it would be the driver from Eddyville who would score his third win of the week. Carter was a close second, Tim Plummer came from eighth to finish third, Ryan Walker was fourth and Matt Fulton filled out the top five.
The thirty lap Modified feature would follow with Jarrett Brown going from the pole position and charging out to a comfortable early lead. Denny Eckrich soon moved to second and began to cut into that lead while Cayden Carter was quickly coming to the front after starting ninth. As lap ten was scored Eckrich was closing in on Brown and Carter was catching them both and on lap thirteen they were nose to tail crossing the stripe. Eckrich made his move to the inside of Brown in turns three and four to take the lead on lap fourteen with Carter right in his tire tracks and on the following lap it would be Carter making the same move to drive past Eckrich and take the lead.
Denny would fight back with a big run down the back stretch driving to the inside of Carter entering turn three, but with the lapped car of Kyle Madden in that low line Eckrich had to back off allowing Carter to then pull away.
The only caution of the race came with seven laps remaining when Kurt Kile stopped in turn three and on the restart Spencer Diercks would takeover the second spot and he was able to keep pace with the leader. Running a slightly higher line Diercks would make several attempts at the lead, but Carter was able to maintain the advantage and score the win. Diercks put on a good show in second, Brown prevailed over Eckrich in a good race for third and Dakota Simmons finished fifth.
There was $500 on the line for the Stock Cars as they battled for twelve laps and they would race three-wide into turn three on the opening lap for the lead with Johnny Spaw down low, Brock Haines in the middle and Stan O'Brien up top. O'Brien would be at the top of the score sheet on lap one, but Spaw would then power under him in turn one to take the lead.
Haines would coast to a halt in turn two on lap four to bring out a caution and on the restart David Brandies would take up the chase for the lead. Any hopes of another classic Spaw vs. Brandies showdown at West Liberty would go by the wayside though as Spaw drove away for a convincing win. Brandies fought off O'Brien for second while Jared Miller and Matt Picray completed the top five.
The Nostalgic Stock Car Racing Club brought in a nice field of vintage Late Models, several of them bringing back memories of nights gone by here at the track that I spent most of my pre-teen race nights at with my parents and grandparents. Kurt Zimmerman driving a Fred Horn replica started up front and built up a fill straightaway lead before Ray Guss Jr. driving the Keith Simmons owned #38 moved to second after starting twelfth. Guss was able to steadily close the gap and as the white flag waved he was within striking distance. Zimmerman bobbled just a bit on the cushion in turn three on the final lap giving Guss an opening on the bottom and it was a drag race to the checkers with Zimmerman taking the win. Ben Hamburg finished third, Mark Claeys was fourth and Tom Honts driving a replica of one of my all-time favorite cars of Dave Birkhofer, the orange #25 finished fifth.
A six car field of 4-Stocks would close out the evening with Cody Staley coming from the fourth starting spot to take the lead on lap one and he would then cruise to the win. Brad Havel and Cody Van Dusen waged a good race for second that would see Van Dusen prevail while fourth and fifth went to Cody Montgomery and Alex Pace.
The track was perfect and the show was runoff in fine fashion with the final checkers waving shortly after 9 p.m. There are two more nights of action scheduled for the West Liberty Raceway this season with Mid-Summer Madness coming on Saturday August 8th and then on August 22nd the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series will headline the action at the historic half-mile.
I now look forward to a busy week of racing with the World of Outlaws Late Models at Davenport on Tuesday, the Sprint Invaders at the Dubuque County Fair on Thursday followed by two nights of action with the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway on Friday night and at the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night.
We will turn the calendar page to August next Saturday so the racing season is starting to wind down. Get out there and support the tracks of your choice as often as possible!
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