That Didn't Look Like A First Time Winner; Stewart Dominates At CJ

Usually when a driver checks out on the field and goes essentially unchallenged for a dominating victory a crowd will politely applaud and wish that maybe they could have seen a little more action upfront. That was not the scenario on Friday night though as the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series rolled into the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction as that dominating driver lives just ten miles down the road and got his start wheeling a Modified around this 4/10th-mile oval.

Twenty-nine-year-old Derrick Stewart set the tone early in the night by laying down the quickest lap during qualifying for the twenty-four Super Late Models in attendance and then raced his way from sixth to third in the first heat race on a track that, at this point, was pretty much one line around the top. Under the unique SLMR qualifying procedures this would land Stewart on the pole for the thirty-lap headliner in this, the second annual tribute to Tony Stewart. (No relation to Derrick and for us race fans who grew up watching the half-mile ovals in southeast Iowa, this was the "original" Tony Stewart).

Fellow front row starter Jeff Aikey had the jump at the drop of the green only to have Stewart drive deep into turn one and then drift to the cushion to take the lead headed down the back stretch. And from there, he was flat out gone!

As Derrick caught the back of the field on lap seven he already had a straightaway advantage over Aikey and when Luke Goedert moved to the second spot on lap eleven, Stewart was nearly a half lap ahead with six lapped cars serving as a major buffer. Some of his moves in lapped traffic might have made you cringe a bit as he was not letting them slow him down at all even though the very entertaining three car battle for second between Goedert, Aikey and Chad Holladay was far, far behind him.

As that battle for second was coming to score lap twenty, sparks flew as the right rear of Goedert's car slapped the retaining wall just before the flagstand and that would pull the car to the right where Luke's second place run would come to an abrupt end grinding to a stop at the end of the front straightaway.

On the restart Aikey would nearly pull even as the green waved overhead only to have Stewart again perfectly execute turns one and two and despite nearly getting over the cushion in turns three and four the next two laps, he was gone again leaving the race for second as the one to watch. The near capacity crowd would cheer loudly as Stewart scored his first ever Late Model victory here at his home track with his best finish before tonight being a fourth-place run in one of the split field qualifying features at Harlan in early April. Holladay would prevail over Aikey to finish second, series point leader Andy Eckrich was fourth while Jason Hahne filled out the top five.

The Sport Compacts were the first feature of the night, just ahead of the Late Models, and this ten lap event would be a good one with Darin Smith coming from the outside of row two to lead the opening laps. Caleb Giese had started from the pole and had dropped back to third or fourth only to come charging back on the outside in turn two to take the lead on lap three.

Smith would try to battle back, but as the race hit the midway mark he would now have to try to hold off Kolby Sabin who was coming from the eighth starting spot. The Des Moines based driver would take that second position on lap six with his sights now set on Giese, but when his first attempt at a slider was countered perfectly by the leader, it looked as though Giese might just get his first win of the season. Sabin isn't the current All Iowa Points leader for nothing though and in the final set of turns he threw out another slider that Giese tried to counter, only to come up half a car length short at the checkers with Sabin taking the win. Smith followed those two in for third, Cristian Grady finished fourth with Alex Hayes in fifth.

After a near fifteen minute victory lane celebration for Stewart, the field of ten Hobby Stocks would be up next for twelve laps with the pole-sitter Kaden Staley going for a spin in turn two on the first try at a start. When the green flag waved again the sixth-starting Luke Phillips went to the high side of turns one and two rocketing to the front heading down the back stretch. Randy Lamar who had restarted third would take up the chase as the field got pretty spread out until the caution waved again for Staley who had spun just after getting lapped by Phillips in turn four.

Lamer and last week's winner Tucker Richardson would now be on the leader's back bumper for the green-white-checkers finish, but there would be no stopping Phillips from rolling on to victory ahead of Lamar. Richardson spun in turn two on the final lap handing third over to Billy Stanford while Jason Schutterle and Preston McDonald filled out the top five.

The Stock Car feature would get off to a rough start when pole-sitter Austin McDonnell spun in turn two and collected Johnny Spaw who would duck into the pits for repairs and to change a flat tire prior to the second try at a start. Norman Bean would lead the opening circuit before yielding to Adam Bell on lap two. With Bean riding high and kicking off the levee in turn two and Bell digging around the bottom, it would be Bean that would regain the point on lap three of this sixteen lap affair.

Johnny Spaw's ride before the damage

The caution would fly on lap six when Kenny O'Donnell would tangle with Nathan Ballard in turn two and once back to green, Bell's low line would prevail over Bean. Spaw would battle all the way back to second, but he would run out of laps before he could challenge Bell who would take the win and celebrate with two of his daycare "classmates", Jaden Prottsman and the son of Tony, Steve Stewart who has won his fair share of races in a Modified over the years. Dustin Griffith would come from the fifth row to take third with Bean and Ballard next in line. 

It was getting late and I was tired from a short night on Thursday, but the track was now in great shape and serving up plenty of action so I decided to stay for the final two events of the night as long as they were not plagued by cautions.

The IMCA Modified feature would have just one and that would come just after the first lap was scored. Under the caution, leader Tim Simpson would head for the pit area returning in time for the restart, but now starting at the back. Kurt Kile would take the lead on the restart and then put some distance on the field until the eighth starting Jarrett Brown made his way into second.

Brown would steadily close the gap on Kile and with just a couple of circuits remaining we were now in for a race with Brown throwing a big slider at Kile in turns three and four coming to the white flag. When Brown slipped high at the exit of turn four, that would allow Kile to regain the lead and with lapped cars in the lower line here on the final lap, that took away Brown's option to try another slider for the win.

Just when it looked liked Kile had this one wrapped up, he too got to wide at the exit of turn four and that allowed Brown to slip under him and take the checkers first for the victory. Dakota Simmons would finish third and Shane Richardson fought off Kip Siems coming to the stripe for the fourth place money.

The Sport Mods would close out the evening with sixteen non-stop laps of racing that would feature an entertaining three-car battle for the lead. After Todd Hansen paced the first two laps, Carter VandenBerg would take the point from eighth on lap three. Sixth-starting Justin Becker would drop VandenBerg back to second on lap five and when Dylan Van Wyk joined the battle it was a tight pack of three racing at the front.

At the mid-race point Van Wyk would toss a slider at Becker only to have Justin cross him over so then on lap ten Van Wyk again went low into turn one looking to drift to the cushion in turn two. He did not have Becker cleared though and Justin had to slam on the brakes in order to avoid heavier contact. Van Wyk would take the lead with the move with VandenBerg still in the hunt, but Becker was now well back in third.

Carter would keep it interesting over the final laps, but there was no catching Van Wyk who would take the win and then get some displeasure from Becker on the back stretch during the cool down lap. VandenBerg and Becker joined the podium with defending track champion Trey Rock coming from ninth to fourth and Hansen holding on for fifth.

Some persistent cloudiness from nearby thunderstorms may have played a role in the track being heavy and narrow during the qualifying heats and it would be all of the extra wheel packing before each race started that would lead to a final checkered flag waving at 11:16 p.m. But hey, if it leads to a good multi-groove surface come feature time, then it is well worth the wait.

A big thanks to promoter Larry Richardson and the entire CJ crew for their hospitality and as always we appreciate it when announcer Jerry Mackey gives Positively Racing a nice plug. Weekly Friday night action continues next week here in Columbus Junction and the MLRA Late Models will be here on Friday June 30th.

I will be spending Saturday evening with my six week old grandson Beckett while his parents attend a wedding, then on Sunday night I am hoping to make my way up to the Stuart Speedway where the winged sprint cars will attack the quarter-mile oval for the first time in many years. Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!