After losing their first two scheduled events to weather in mid-April, the crew at the 300 Raceway had the track tacky and fast for what would now be the 2021 season opener on a beautiful Wednesday night in Farley. When the sun dropped below the horizon though, it definitely felt like mid-April still but a nice crowd was kept warm with an entertaining night of racing where four drivers that you might expect to be in the winner's circle picked up victories.
The IMCA Stock Cars would be first on the docket with Justin Kay and Kyle Merkes drawing the front row for the twelve-lap feature. Kay would get a miserable start though and as he faded to fourth on the opening lap it would be Merkes leading the way with heat race winner Chase Zaruba in hot pursuit. Sixth starting Johnny Spaw soon joined the battle and when Zaruba took a peek underneath the leader in turn one on lap three, Spaw immediate filled his position on the cushion to grab the second spot.
Next the veteran from Cedar Rapids would drive to the bottom of Merkes and they would cross the stripe door-to-door on lap five with Merkes holding the advantage by inches over Spaw. In true Stock Car fashion they would continue that side-by-side battle on the next trip around the 3/8th-mile oval and this time it would be Spaw by inches at the line.
Entering turn one, Spaw drove it in deep and slid up the track to close the door on Merkes and he would then pull away for a convincing win telling the fans in victory lane that he was still a bit short of breath after having to leave Bristol in March when battling Covid. Merkes and Zaruba were both impressive in completing the podium while Kay maintained fourth and division rookie Jason Doyle finished in fifth.
A talented field of twenty-two IMCA Modifieds all made the call for their twenty-lap main event with pole-sitter Tyler Madigan setting the early pace. Current All Iowa Points leader Jeff Larson was hot on his tail though and on lap nine Larson would throw a nasty slider in turns three and four causing Madigan to check up and lose the lead. That pass was soon negated though as the fourth place car of Joel Rust slowed just behind them and the caution would wave before the lap was official.
On the restart Larson would again drive under Madigan, this time entering turn one, and would clear him with ease to take the lead. The caution would wave again with ten laps scored when Timmy Current slowed suddenly in turn two leaving Eric Pollard and Dylan Thornton with no place to go. All three hard chargers would be done for the night.
One more caution would wave when the sixth place car of Jaden Fryer went for a spin in turn four and that would be the last delay to Larson's celebration in victory lane. Troy Cordes came from sixth to finish second, Jeff Aikey was third, Beaver Dam Wisconsin's Brandon Schmitt started seventh and finished fourth while Kip Siems filled out the top five.
The Sport Mods were up next and with only ten cars and a good group of drivers us chilled race fans figured that this one would go flag-to-flag. Wrong!
The first caution would wave on lap three when Michael Heister spun into the infield in turn four, but was not quite far enough off the racing surface to keep it green. Tyler Soppe would take the lead from T.J. Fortmann on the restart only to have the caution wave again when the tenth place car of Justin Schroeder slowed exiting turn four, but continued to coast around the high side all the way to turn two. On the restart Shane Barrett absolutely smacked the outside wall at the entrance of turn one, but continued to race on. Just before he returned to the scene of the crime though the drive train and one of the rear shocks bailed out on the front stretch for another caution with six laps now in the books.
Two more laps would be scored when Fortmann went too hard into turn one, hit the wall and continued to keep his foot in it making more contact with the concrete in turn two, the back stretch and turn three before he finally came to a stop. As entertaining announcer Jason "Big Boy" Frommelt described it, Fortmann had "hit the wall eleven and a half times" before grinding to a halt.
Troy Bauer had snatched the lead from Soppe just before that final caution and on the restart Bauer would ward off a couple of strong challenges from Soppe to take the win. California native Kaylin Lopez would take the third spot, Jason Roth was fourth and Heister was the fifth and final car on the track at the checkers.
Twelve of the fifteen IMCA Late Models that had signed in would make the call for the final race of the night. During heat race action National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Jeff Aikey slowed suddenly exiting turn four and when Ryan Hill spun to avoid contact he collected Sport Mod graduate Bryan Moreland. Both Aikey and Moreland were scratched for the night and Travis Smock who was scheduled to start third did not make the feature call as we had noticed some smoke from his #98 during his heat race.
Logan Duffy and Joel Callahan would bring the field to green with Duffy taking the early advantage, but Callahan would muscle under the youngster exiting turn four to officially lead the opening circuit. As the field went through turn two for the second time Steve Hunter would get sideways and while he was able to make the save Late Model rookie Jim Cruise would spin his car to avoid and bring out the caution. Two laps later Cruise would again be a victim of circumstance as contact from Hill in turn four would send him for another spin and a second caution.
Once back to racing Matt Ryan would take aim at the leader and on lap five Ryan made a strong move to the inside of turn one to move to the front. One more caution would wave for Colton Leal with four laps to go and on the restart Ryan would again drive away to score the win in championship fashion. Matt is the two two-time defending and three-time overall Late Model All Iowa Points Champion and he currently leads the pack early in 2021. Duffy would get past Callahan to take the runner-up spot, another three-time All Iowa Points champion Justin Kay would finish in the fourth spot with Chuck Hanna filling out the top five.
My Positively Racing colleague Danny Rosencrans joined me for the trip and it is always good to see several of my northeast Iowa friends at Farley, hopefully I can make it back again sometime soon. It was also good to see Super Fan and Super Writer Ed Reichert as well.
I will be watching the weather to determine where I will be headed this weekend with several interesting options available within a short distance. It is great to be a dirt track fan here in the Midwest!
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