Pushed back six days due to the heat and humidity last week, the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson closed out its regular season on Thursday night with Season Championship racing in four divisions plus the "Drive For Five" finale for the IMCA Late Models. In this promotion the Late Model feature winner would earn the $2,000 top prize, plus collect a $3,000 bonus if they had participated in a good percentage of the qualifying nights held throughout the regular season.
Twenty-two Late Models would sign in on a perfect night for racing from a weather standpoint and after hot laps took some of the grease off the top of the racing surface, the track was wide and multi-grooved for all but the final race of the night without needing any additional work. Qualifying was done using the double heat method with lineups from the first round of heats reversed for the second round, and passing points straight up would set the lineup for a fifty lap feature that would see a ten minute break at the midway point. Crews would be able to do anything except change a tire during the break and maintain their running position for the restart.
Despite having his weekly driver Jeff Guengerich eligible for the extra cash, car owner Lynn Richard had veteran Mark Burgtorf in the #15R and after winning both of his heat races, Burgtorf would earn the pole position alongside impressive newcomer Evan Miller. Burgtorf would have the advantage by a nose to lead the opening lap before Miller used the high line to take over on lap number two.
The young driver who has transplanted from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Silvis, Illinois, due to work began to open up a good lead as drivers shuffled for position behind him. C.J. Horn would soon take second and that gap would now start to close as we neared the lap ten mark. Horn was now within striking distance and when Miller got above the narrow thin cushion in turn three, Horn would take the lead on lap fifteen.
Ten more laps would be completed before the caution waved for halftime and as the field lined up in Delaware double file fashion, you might not have noticed the driver that was restarting from seventh. Driving Derek Hollenstine's #21 for just the second or third time, Modified ace Austen Becerra was about to thrill the crowd with a big move off the high side of turns one and two. During the first half of the race Becerra had come from twelfth to sixth without much fanfare, but he would go to third down the back stretch and then pass Nick Marolf for second on lap twenty-eight.
With Horn digging around the bottom he was a sitting duck for Becerra's high-side hustle and on lap thirty-one Austen would sail to the front and start to drive away. Everybody loves an underdog and despite his success in first the Four Cylinders, then the Sport Mods and most recently the Modifieds where he is currently trying to defend his 2022 All Iowa Points championship, nobody would have picked Austen to win this one, except for Austen, and you could hear the crowd gasp as he slapped the guardrail with the right rear as he continued to milk all that he could out of that cushion.
Horn was changing grooves trying to keep pace, but even with the right side of his spoiler knocked off, Becerra was still inching away. Then the caution that would change everything would wave on lap thirty-seven for Denny Woodworth who had spun in turn four.
Setting a very slow pace for the restart, when Becerra started to "turn downhill" out of turn four, both Burgtorf and Horn got on the throttle early and they would exit turn four three-wide with the right front of Burgtorf's car and the left rear of Becerra's making contact. The jumbled start would be called back, but with his left rear tire now flat Becerra waited for Burgtorf to drive past him under caution. He would then drive the nose of his car up over the left rear wheel of Burgtorf's in frustration. The move was inexplicable to those of us in the stands as it was not clear that Becerra had a flat tire and it looked like he was throwing away his chance to try to restart again as the leader.
With Becerra now sent to the pits, Horn and Burgtorf would bring the field back to green side-by-side and again there was contact just before the start as Marolf got into the back of Burgtorf. All would fire though and as the field came up to speed down the front stretch, Marolf would slow as he was pinched up to the wall with the car behind him making contact and turning him hard right into the guardrail at the entrance of turn one. The sickening sound of crumpling sheet metal would seem to go on forever as several cars piled in and once it finally stopped the nose of Marolf's car was wedged in the guardrail about ten yards from where his crumpled car ended up. Denny Woodworth also sustained heavy damage while Gary Webb was able to drive his damaged race car back to his trailer. Thankfully all drivers escaped injury.
After a long cleanup we would get back to racing with Horn, Burgtorf and now Andy Nezworski going three-wide exiting turn two to see who would finally lead lap thirty-eight. It would be Horn, but now we had a new upstart entering the battle in hometown driver Jeremy Pundt. Racing both a Stock Car and a Late Model weekly here at Donnellson, Pundt recently posted on Facebook saying that it was too much work to maintain both cars and he asked his friends for their advice as to which one he should keep. He would then go on to win the Stock Car feature here on August 18th surely giving it the leg up in this decision, but now here he was coming to the front in his Late Model with a potential $5,000 top prize in his grasp.
As Horn ran the bottom, Pundt was closing on the cushion until the leader started to use the high side as well in turns three and four. That seemed to slow the charge as the cushion had now gone away in turns one and two and while Pundt stayed within five car lengths over the closing laps it would be Horn that would collect the win and the Drive for Five bonus cash. Jeremy would still pocket $1,500 for second, more than he has made in one night in that Stock Car! (Can you tell that I voted for him to keep the Late Model in his comments?) Mark Burgtorf would outduel Nezworski for third and Sam Halstead filled out the top five edging Tommy Elston at the stripe.
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| Twenty-two Late Models were on hand, but this isn't one of them. This Street Legal Late Model was parked next to me in the parking lot |
The Sport Mod feature served as an appetizer for that Late Model race as they went eighteen laps with just one caution for debris. Tom Bowling Jr. would lead for the majority of the distance until the eighth starting Brandon Dale slipped by with four laps remaining and Brandon would then celebrate the feature win along with the 2023 track title in victory lane. Bowling held off Sean Wyett to finish second, John Oliver Jr. was fourth and pole-sitter Josh Holtman slipped to fifth.
Changing from a Friday to a Thursday likely held the Sport Compact count down a bit as there was a four car breakaway in the seven car field. A lap five restart would see Brandon Reu, Josh Barnes and Barry Taft race three-wide for the lead with Reu maintaining the advantage and then it would be Taft taking aim at the lead. Thank goodness for the transponder scoring as it was that close at the line for the final seven circuits with Taft edging ahead on lap nine and lap fourteen only to see Reu take the checkers by a nose on the fifteenth and final lap. Taft and Barnes would fill the podium while Josh's son Chevy would earn the track championship with his fourth place run.
Front row starters Kyle Madden and Dustin Kroening would run side-by-side for the first lap and a half until Chris Zogg shot the gap between them entering turn three. The move would stick and Zogg would take the lead on lap two and while he first drove away from his competition, with twenty-one Modifieds on hand there was a bunch of traffic to deal with in this eighteen lap feature. Picking his way up from sixth, Jarrett Brown would get to second with seven laps remaining and while he would close to within five car lengths at the checkers he could not catch Zogg who secured the win. Dakota Simmons raced from seventh to third, Brandon Banks came from eighth to fourth and Bill Roberts Jr. finished in fifth.
The Stock Cars would close out the evening with Leremy Jackson leading the opening lap before Jason Cook went charging by. By now the cushion was all the way to the rail on both ends so digging around the bottom seemed the way to go, especially after Neal Kohlmorgan showed how treacherous the top could be. With ten laps remaining Kohlmorgan got into turn three too hot and his car launched up and over the guardrail before rolling several times outside of turn four. Thankfully the driver from Keokuk was not injured in the scary crash.
Once back to green it was pretty much a parade around the bottom as Cook stayed well ahead of runner-up John Oliver Jr. Track champion Derrick Agee finished third, Jeremy Pundt rounded out a successful evening in fourth and visitor Jason McDaniel finished fifth.
It was good to catch up with colleague Brian Neal and as always I want to thank promoters Brian and Marcie Gaylord for their hospitality. I will look forward to the next event at the Lee County Speedway coming up on Friday September 22nd when the Sprint Invaders and the HART Limited Modified series will highlight the action.
Next up for me will be tomorrow night (Saturday) when the Sprint Invaders return to the West Liberty Raceway for the first time in several years and it will be a full night of action with Late Models, Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Sport Compacts also on the card. Then it looks like a one day visit to the IMCA Super Nationals in Boone to start next week.
Specials season is upon us, get out and support a track near you!
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| The sun is setting on the 2023 regular season. Make sure that you take in as many special events over the next two months as possible! |
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