DeJong, Eckrich, Vis, Anderson, Havel and Hayes Take Season Opening Wins at West Liberty

When your local track canceled their races this weekend due to the cold, wet and windy conditions, if you jumped on Facebook and said" you should be racing", or something similar to that, shame on you. I officially strip you of your "Race Fan" status on a temporary basis until you realize that the people who put on this sport for our pleasure, the drivers and the promoters, have to use common business sense in weather like this.

Yes, there are drivers and crews who are so excited to get the season started that they will come out to compete in cold and windy conditions, but I believe that they are outnumbered by those who sit back and look at the forecast for next weekend and say, "yea, I'll just sit this one out." If that wasn't true there would have been 250 cars at Marshalltown when they were the only show in Iowa on Friday night and there would have been more than the 74 cars that came out for the season opener here at the West Liberty Raceway on Saturday. Yes, there were 138 cars at Boone tonight, but with them being the only other show in the state tonight, some might consider that a bit low.

Knowing that the weather plays a role in who will come out to compete makes a weekend like this even more of a risk for the track promoters who have to make a wise business decision as to forge ahead, or wait for better days. A lot of work goes into presenting a race program at a dirt track and the track crew will be out in that cold and wind far longer than any brave fans who make the trip, and there is nothing more miserable than to put forth all of that effort only to lose money while freezing your ass off. Something that we all need to keep in mind is that we all live in the day and age of live streaming racing and if you don't think that the lure of watching a race from wherever in your easy chair isn't more tempting than bundling up and supporting your local track, then you really don't understand what I have been trying to say here for the past few years.

That brings me back to West Liberty. The Kile Motorsports Racing Events team including  Bud, Kurt, Katie and many others have taken on the challenge of bringing the West Liberty Raceway back to life in 2022 with eight nights of racing on the schedule. When that schedule was first announced, one would have had to question the season opener on April 16th, what with other season openers at Maquoketa and Independence as well as the Slocum 50 on the schedule just down the road at 34 Raceway for the same night. As it turned out, scheduling the opener for this weekend was a stroke of genius as with every other track in the region waving the surrender flag due to the cold and wind, the Kiles decided to give it a try as the "only show around".

It made sense too because a race fan like me knew that the big old covered grandstand would partially protect me from that persistent northwest wind and they knew that there is a level of excitement out there about bringing this track that is so rich in racing history back to a somewhat regular racing schedule. For me, it brought back memories of going to the annual Spring Championship where one year there were snow flurries in the air as I watched Curt Hansen, Ed Sanger, Mike Niffeneggar, Duane Steffe, Mel Morris, Gary Webb, Pokey West, Roger Dolan, Darrell Dake, Rollie Frink, Ken Walton, Dave Birkhofer, Tom Hearst and so many more put on a show that kept me warm though the night.

Now don't get me wrong, tonight's program was nothing like those old days, but on this night it would be names such as Eckrich, Bridge, DeJong, McKinney, Zogg, Schmitt, Anderson, Paris, Vis and Spaw that in twenty years I hope that I am still around to have fond memories about how they too kept me, and a pretty good sized crowd warm on a chilly night in April at the West Liberty Raceway. So let's give you the details!

A full moon rises over the back stretch

The Stock Cars would be the first feature to the track after the intermission lasted ten minutes, just as advertised. Michiah Hidelbaugh who had made the long pull in from Menlo would draw the pole with this year's Bristol champion Dustin Vis to his outside. Vis would blast out to the early lead before caution waved for Brock Haines on lap four and following the restart it didn't take long for Johnny Spaw to move to second after starting the 15-lap race from eighth.

Spaw would close to a couple of car lengths, but could not get any closer to the leader until the final lap when he made a run to the inside of Vis entering turn three. Dustin would shut the door though by driving into the corner a bit lower than he had been and he would take the win just ahead of his car builder Spaw. Hidlebaugh would follow them in for third followed by Matt Picray and Tom Cannon.

Only six of the ten Sport Compacts that had signed in for the evening would start the ten lap main event and it would be pole-sitter Alex Hayes that would go the distance for the dominating win. Michael Lundeen was a distant second while the remaining four cars waged an entertaining battle mid-race that saw Trent Lebarge finish third ahead of Colton Stewart and Ashton Blain.

Fifteen laps for the Sport Mods were up next and with defending All Iowa Points Champion Logan Anderson drawing the pole this one was pretty much decided at the drop of the green. Caution waved for Justin Schroeder who was coasting down the front stretch on lap two and, after Anderson had taken the white flag, Jefferson City, Missouri, visitor Matt Speiss would spin in turn two to produce something that I haven't seen in awhile. A yellow/checker finish of a feature race.

Nobody was going to touch Anderson anyway as he scored the win after racing the night before over five hours away in Osborn, Missouri. Shane Paris went the distance in second, Shaun Slaughter was making a bid for that runner up spot when the caution waved, Ryan Walker was fourth and Wisconsin visitor Skylar Woods took fifth.

The ten lap Hobby Stock feature would be the only main event of the night that saw a pass for the lead and it came with a nifty move on lap seven when Ryan Havel went high into turn one, kicked it off of the cushion and then drove under Randy Lamar at the exit of turn two. Lamer would stay close over the final three laps, but there was not stopping Havel who scored the victory. David Crimmins made the trip down from Dubuque to finish third, Cody Staley was fourth and when Jacob Floyd dropped out of the race late that would give fifth to James Pilkington.

Even with being the only Late Model show in Iowa on this night, just seven cars signed in and one of them made the long tow from Waverly, Nebraska. That would be Jake Bridge who drew the pole for the sixteen lap A-Main that would see the other row one starter Andy Eckrich cruise to a flag to flag victory. Bridge tried to keep it close early on, but in the closing laps he had to ward off Matt Ryan to finish second. In the battle for fourth Jacob Waterman would fight off Ron Boyse who kicked off his 50th year in racing. Kurt Stewart drove Nick Marolf's back up car to a sixth place run while Marolf retired mid-race while running fourth.

A stout field of Modifieds would close out the evening with twenty laps the distance around the fast half-mile with veteran driver Ray Cox Jr. on the pole and teenager Maguire DeJong to his outside. In this being his first race ever in a Modified, DeJong was lightning quick opening up a big lead over the rest of the field. Meanwhile, fourth row starters Brandon Schmitt and Mike McKinney, along with eleventh starting Chris Zogg were working their way through the field and when the caution waved for Charlie Mohr's spin in turn two on lap twelve, DeJong would have some heavy hitters now lined up directly behind him for the restart.

McKinney looked like he was trying to get into the kid's head a bit during the caution, but since he was in Timmy Current's #21T instead of his own UMP ride, and the fact that DeJong in his first Modified start probably had no idea who that was pulling alongside of him during the caution, the intimidation attempt had no effect. When the green flag returned DeJong was cruising the cushion like a veteran as he again pulled away to score his first feature win after stepping up from the Sport Mods. (Sunday morning update, Maguire absolutely knew that it was one of his heroes pulling alongside him during the caution. And then he drove away from him!)

McKinney and Zogg had a good battle going for second until the final lap when McKinney went too high in turn four. He then over corrected and came down the track giving Zogg no place to go and contact sent both cars spinning as the checkers waved over DeJong. That would hand second over to the Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, driver Brandon Schmitt, Kurt Kile would pick up third, Schmitt's teammate Dan Roedl would come from thirteenth to fourth while Ray Cox Jr. would complete the top five.

If it is a cold night at the race track there is nothing better than an efficiently run show and Race Director Larry Richardson delivered with the final checkers waving at 9:10 p.m. The covered grandstands did their job by blocking the wind and even though it was twenty-five degrees colder, I was more comfortable here than I was when the wind was blowing into our faces last Saturday night in Kansas. The next event on the schedule here at West Liberty is on Saturday May 7th and it would be a good bet that it will be much warmer than the 29 degrees that showed on my car's output as I left the parking lot. 

I consider 34 Raceway to be my "home track", but I grew up here at the West Liberty Raceway listening to the great Denny Wachs on the microphone. This past week his son Mitch resigned after 30 years of coaching the girls basketball teams at Winfield-Mt. Union high school with a stellar record of 412-288. I had the pleasure of doing the play-by-play of a few of those wins on KILJ radio and he is a classy man. Maybe now along with the fishing and golfing we can get Mitch back out to the dirt tracks as well.

Next up for me if the weather cooperates will be the season opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday night. Hope to see you there!

Growing up going to the races at West Liberty I thought that all race tracks were supposed to have trees in the infield