With the World of Outlaws Late Model Series having the holiday weekend off, the series point leader Dennis Erb Jr. made the trip over from Carpentersville, Illinois, to West Burlington, Iowa, a profitable one by dominating the 14th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway Saturday night. It was the veteran driver's first win in the prestigious event and it continues one of his best seasons ever adding a cool $10,555 to his 2022 prize winnings.
Twenty-six Super Late Models signed in for the MLRA sanctioned event and one has to wonder if the Friday night rainout at Columbus Junction held down the field a bit as just seven of the top ten, and eight of the top twenty in the series' point standings were in attendance.
All twenty-six drivers would take the green for the fifty-lap finale with Erb taking the lead from the pole position. The first caution waved on lap two when young Kayden Clatt had a right front tire go down and on the restart it would be Ryan Gustin taking up the chase on Erb. With the large starting field, traffic quickly came into play and the caution would wave again twelve laps later when Rickey Frankel stopped on pit road entrance. It was at this point where about every car that had been lapped decided to call it a night with now sixteen cars ready to return to action.
Four cautions would plague the race over the next twelve laps and by the midway point twelve cars remained in competition. On the restart Chad Simpson would sail around Gustin to take second and after losing some ground on the leader for a lap or two, riding the cushion on both ends started to work and Chad would steadily close the gap. When it got down to about two car lengths someone must have signaled Erb as now he went up to the cushion as well, but when he stumbled for a split second in turn two on lap thirty-seven, Simpson was able to get his rear bumper.
Erb recovered nicely though and pulled back out to a solid lead with the race seemingly well in hand until the final caution waved with just three laps remaining. Leading Rookie-of-the-Year contender with the MLRA Kolby Vandenbergh had just been lapped by Erb, but when he pounded the cushion in turn two, his car slowed suddenly to a stop and required a hook to return to the pit area.
The single-file restart would give Simpson one last shot at the leader, but there was no keeping up with Erb who would score the flag-to-flag victory. Chad Simpson would gain some ground in the MLRA points chase with his runner-up finish, Gustin another WoO regular would take third with Chris Simpson fourth and series point leader Johnny Scott in fifth. Terry Phillips, Daniel Hilsabeck and Steve Stultz were the cars remaining on the track at the checkers.
In preliminary action Nick Guernsey took the lead at the drop of the green, opened up a big advantage by mid-race and then held off a quick closing Tanner Gebhardt to take the win in the 305 Sprint Car main event. I wish that someone would have had a microphone down in victory lane because I can guarantee you that Nick would have probably dedicated the win to race photographer Dennis Krieger who passed away on Friday. Both being military veterans, Krieger was always a big fan and supporter of Guernsey through the years and he would have loved to be the one there taking pictures as Guernsey celebrated, but you know that DK's spirit was absolutely there in victory lane.
Gebhardt had started the race from ninth and had made a nifty move to go from fourth to second in turn four on lap seven, but he could not run down Guernsey in the non-stop fifteen lap event. Nathan Murders finished where he started in third, Cody Wehrle was fourth and J.J. Beaver filled out the top five.
The Stock Cars also ran their fifteen lap feature in non-stop fashion with Dustin Vis going from third to first on the opening lap and then racing away for the win ahead of his car builder Johnny Spaw. It was the second win of the weekend here in southeast Iowa for the current All Iowa Points leader as Vis also won on Friday night at Donnellson. David Brandies would finish in the third spot ahead of Jason Cook and Chad Krogmeier.
The 34 Raceway track crew delivered in fine fashion tonight with a wide and fast surface that provided plenty of action despite the fact that all three winners went flag-to-flag. Don't forget that the track will host another mega event next Friday night July 8th when the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars return to the high banked 3/8th-mile oval. Hope to see you there!
I will close out my holiday weekend quadruple header Sunday night when the Sprint Invaders roll into the Benton County Bullring in Vinton. It will be a full and fun night of action with all of the track's regular classes on the card as well.
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| The four-wide salute with the missing man on the pole to honor the late Brent Slocum |
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