Back Stretch: Catching Up: Sprint Invaders at Dubuque and All Stars at Knoxville

It was a busy week of racing last week here on the Back Stretch and I wanted to get caught up with some notes from two events that I attended, but had not yet been able to write about before I get into another string of three straight nights this coming weekend.

Thursday was our annual trip up to Dubuque to do some announcing for the Sprint Invaders at the annual Dubuque County Fair. Yes, they had a county fair in Dubuque this year that was condensed from six days down to four with the Invader race having originally been scheduled for Wednesday July 29th now being moved to the revised opening night of Thursday July 31st. The Sprint Car drivers love to have the opportunity to attack the high banked oval in Dubuque and despite the fact that most of them have to pull at least two hours to get there on a weeknight we established a new high car count for the event with twenty-two. Of course this included some drivers who do not run regularly with the series who are in the area hunting some extra races and with $1,800 going to the winner it has been fun to see just who shows up when we go to Dubuque.

This time it would be Snohomish, Washington, native Seth Bergman who would take home the top prize leading the entire distance with Paul Nienhesier driving the Midland Performance #50 to a runner-up finish. It was great to see young Colton Fisher shake off the bad luck that he has been experiencing in 2020 to pick up the third place check making an impressive run hugging the bottom of the speedway after starting fifteenth. Lynton Jeffrey making a rare 360 start for his Brian Ridge owned team finished in fourth and current series point leader Chris Martin had one of those nights that you need in order to win a championship in fifth.

Martin had jumped the cushion in his heat making hard contact with the turn four wall, but his crew went to work and had him ready for the feature where he charged to the top five after starting from nineteenth. If he is able to maintain the point lead over the final five events Martin would repeat his 2016 Sprint Invaders title.

Perhaps the star of the night though was Dylan Westbrook as the Canadian driver thrilled the crowd by sailing around the high side of turns one and two on the opening lap of the second heat race to take the lead and eventually the win. Then, during the Budweiser Shake Up Dash, Westbrook threw a big slider at Lynton Jeffrey on the final lap, smacked the outside wall in turn two, pulled a huge wheel stand going down the back stretch and still finished second before the right rear tire went flat from the contact. In the feature Westbrook had come from sixth to third when he bicycled the cushion in turn four and got upside down ending his evening. You can bet though that he made some new fans for his efforts!

The next action for the Sprint Invaders will come on Friday August 21st at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and Saturday August 22nd at 34 Raceway west of Burlington.

Three other classes were in action at the Fair in Dubuque and all of them put on some good racing on a well prepared surface. Kyle Jared of Troy Mills drove under Tyler Ball for the lead on lap five and then went on to win in a fifteen lap Hobby Stock feature that saw only one caution. After struggling for so many years to get a budget class to take hold at Dubuque it is good to see the Hobby Stock class growing weekly in numbers and on this night eighteen were in attendance. I believe that Jared usually spends his Sunday nights in Vinton, but he was definitely happy to win his first feature of the season on this night. Ball finished second, Kile Vohringer was third, Fort Dodge transplant David Crimmins finished fourth and Dakota Simonsen was fifth.

In the Sport Mods Gage Neal came from the outside of the third row to pass early leader Ryan Schilling to take the win. Schilling finished second while Tyler Soppe came from the back due to an early race incident with Scott Busch to finish third. Pole-sitter Jerry Miles was fourth and Bryan Moreland came all the way from sixteenth to post his first top five finish of the season.

Bryce Garnhart had a nasty accident during his qualifying heat when his Modified bicycled on the cushion and then rolled hard in turn four. It looked like something you would see at a non-wing Sprint Car race rather than in an IMCA Modified. In the twenty lap main event Matt Gansen got out front early and then held back the persistent challenges of Jeff Larsen to take the win. Larsen who now ranks second in the current All Iowa Points was the runner-up while two-time All Iowa Points champion (2006 & 2007) Mark Schulte finished third.

I still rank Dubuque as one of my current "top five favorite tracks" and here's hoping that when I return in 2021 the annual Dubuque County Fair can be back to full force fun!

After watching Kyle Larson win at Burlington on Friday night, I made the trip up to Knoxville on Saturday where there were 46 410's and 47 360's filling the pit area. With each class qualifying, running heats, a C-Main, B-Main, a couple of Dashes in the 410's and features in each it was a late night that was full of action throughout. And, once again at the end of the evening it was Larson standing in victory lane with his seventh straight All Star Circuit of Champions victory.

As you will see from one of Barry Johnson's photos below, Gio Scelzi was the early leader in the feature until Larson found a line that nobody else was running and it worked to perfection. Obviously most eyes were on Larson as he took the lead and then worked lapped traffic like a wizard, but I would soon wish that I had paid more attention to Rico Abreu who had come from a seventh row starting spot all the way up to second with several laps still to run. It looked like Rico was starting to cut into Larson's lead just a bit before he too had to work traffic and Kyle would win it going away. As you might already know though the streak ended abruptly on Sunday night when Larson crashed hard during his heat race at the grand reopening of the Husets Speedway.

In a field loaded with young talent it was a couple of grizzled 410 veterans who battled it out for the win in the 360's as Lynton Jeffery fought off Tim Shaffer to take the checkers. It would be Lynton's first career win in a 360 at Knoxville and a tip of the hat goes to my friend J.D. Wheaton who serves as the crew chief on the Ridge Enterprises #83. Shaffer was behind the wheel of Tony Stewart's #14 as Tony is recovering from injuries reportedly from a skate boarding accident. Hmmmm....

These two and about one hundred more drivers will be in action this week at Knoxville at the 30th Annual My Place Hotels 360 Knoxville Nationals with the field split for qualifying nights on Thursday and Friday and the finale will be on Saturday. That is my planned destination for the week and perhaps I will see you there on the Back Stretch!