Kay Holds Off Elston and Beats The Rain At Lee County's Drive for Five Qualifier

In this day and age where we all have access to radar, and worse yet future radar, Friday was one of those days that is tough on a dirt track promoter. A line of showers was moving across the state and while the hourly forecast for the southeast Iowa town of Donnellson showed a 47% chance of rain at six o'clock and then falling to 5% after seven, future radar showed the line of showers fading away before it reached the area. So the questions are, how many drivers decided to stay home? How many race fans chose to go out for dinner instead?

For promoters Brian and Marcie Gaylord, they really had no choice but to push on and sure enough as I arrived at the track just after 6 p.m. the skies were spitting, but nowhere near enough to ruin a track that was still being rolled in. And in fact, that extra moisture at the end helped make another perfect surface for three-wide racing at the Lee County Speedway and a solid field of cars signed in, parked, and for the most part kept their cars on or in their trailers waiting to see what would happen. Still there were some drivers that weren't here that you thought might be given that this was the only IMCA Late Model show in the state and I put the blame on the weather for that.

At seven o'clock the sprinkles had subsided and the skies to the west were brighter allowing for hot laps to start on time and by the time opening ceremonies rolled around, a very nice sized crowd had made their way into grandstand. It was soon after the first heat race took the green that I received a text from Barry Johnson who warned me that more rain had popped up to the west putting an early end to the soccer match that he was attending at Knoxville and sure enough, a check of the radar confirmed that and when I popped it over to future radar it showed that we would have until about 9:30 before this new batch of showers made its way to Donnellson.

Then again, future radar had been wrong earlier in the evening.

The program was hustled along and the heat race action was fantastic with drivers finding three or four lines around the 3/8ths-mile D-shaped track and by around 8:30 we were ready to go feature racing with a break in the clouds still visible in the west after the sun had faded away. A full field of twenty-two cars would make their way to the track for eighteen laps and let's just say that they did not make any new friends in the grandstands. I will withhold the names to protect the innocent, but there would be six cautions needed in the first four laps that were scored, and I say the word "scored" because in those there was only one lap where the entire field actually made it all the way around the track without someone spinning out.

The storyline with this feature would be Austen Becerra looking for his fourth win in a row to start the 2021 season here at Lee County and by the second lap he had advanced from tenth to second. On one of the restarts he would drive under Michael Joe Bliven to take the lead and after one more caution on lap eleven when a track tire had been punted onto the speedway, Becerra would take the win in dominating fashion. Reed Wolfmeyer would finish in second, Tom Bowling Jr. moved from ninth to third, Tanner Klingele advanced from eleventh to fourth and after dropping out of his heat race earlier in the night, Jim Gillenwater charged from eighteenth to complete the top five.

The twenty-five lap main event for the IMCA Late Models were up next and thank goodness that it was as five drivers from the Davenport Speedway had joined the field tonight for the second "Drive for Five" Qualifying events. Tonight's feature would pay $1,000-to-win and I believe that if a driver competes in four of the five qualifying events that they are then eligible for extra prize money at the finale on September 12th. With Davenport hosting the MLRA Late Models on this night track regulars Anthony Haines, Chuck Hanna, Matt Ryan, Andy Nezworski and Justin Kay had made the trip to Donnellson and I was surprised that none of the Independence or Farley/Dubuque cars had made the trip. I blame that on the weather.

With a draw and redraw format the first two rows would be stacked with Denny Woodworth and Justin Kay out front with Matt Ryan and Matt Strassheim lined up behind them. The infield track tires in turn two would come into play early in this one as Nick Marolf clipped the one at the exit sending it rolling down the back stretch, but since it stayed off the track and with Marolf pulling to the infield the race would stay green with Woodworth holding the lead. On lap three Sam Halstead would drill the other track tire in turn two bringing out the caution and on the restart Kay would get a jump on the leader. Justin and Denny would race side-by-side down the back stretch with Kay getting the bite on the bottom to move ahead in turn three.

As Kay built up a lead the battle to watch would now be for second as both Matt Ryan and Tommy Elston slipped past Woodworth before the caution would wave again on lap fifteen when Haines spun in turn four. The sprinkles started to fall as the field went back to green with Elston making the pass on Ryan for second entering turn one. As the rain increased a bit the field was put under caution with six laps remaining with the cars still circling the track trying to keep it in racing condition.

The rain did not stop, but it subsided enough for the race to go back to green and the final six laps were completed with Kay holding off Elston to take the win. Ryan would finish third ahead of Andy Nezworski who had started eighth and Mark Burgtorf would complete the top five.

Justin Kay (15K) from his win at Marshalltown - Barry Johnson photo

After a quick pic of Kay in victory lane the Sport Compacts were brought to the track, but when the rain increased to a point where the track was now shiny the decision was made to call it a show at just past 9:30. For once I guess you could say that future radar was accurate. 

Earlier in the night young Chevy Barnes and the only female ever to win an All Iowa Points championship Kimberly Abbott won heats in the Sport Compacts and despite only having eleven cars both of the Stock Car heats were entertaining with John Oliver Jr. and Jason Cook taking wins. Both of these classes will run their makeup features next Friday May 21st.

Since this was also a Drive for Five qualifier for the Modifieds their feature will be made up at the next Drive for Five event on June 11th. Heat race winners in the twenty car field were Michael Long, Ethan Braaksma and Bill Roberts Jr.

Other commitments over the next two nights will keep me away from the track and it looks like these scattered showers might be a pain anyway. Hopefully they will be cleared out of the area by Wednesday when the Castrol FloRacing Night in America series will be at the Marshalltown Speedway. Super Late Models on the high banks of Marshalltown, wow, I can't wait!