After enjoying three headliners in concert at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Saturday night, we closed out the Memorial Day weekend with a pair of races. On Sunday night, 34 Raceway west of Burlington was the only track in the region to survive the overnight rains and be able to host the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders, while on Monday night the Davenport Speedway somehow dodged the storms to be able to present the SLMR series event that was originally rained out on Friday.
For the full story and results from the Sprint Invaders show, check in with Bill Wright's story here, and since I was sharing the microphone with him on Sunday I left the notebook in the car, but will offer up a few tidbits from memory.
Colton Fisher and Jimmy Davies had paired up at the start of the season running the first two Sprint Invader shows as well as a couple of other events, but with the results being less than they had hoped for it was an early split for the team. Davies the once driver and now long time car owner of the #99 put the call out to Dustin Selvage and Fisher returned to his familiar #11 on Sunday night and, wouldn't you know it, they would finish in first and second with Selvage taking the win.
Australian visitor Allan Woods was the early race leader, but when he encountered traffic on lap seven he made one mistake that sent him for a spin exiting turn two. That would hand the lead over to Selvage for the restart and he would have Fisher in hot pursuit until with just five laps remaining, Colton showed his nose to the leader in turns one and two. That seemed to spark Selvage as he then quickly disposed of a lapper that he had been following for a couple of laps before the caution waved with four laps remaining.
With open track in front of him there would be no catching Selvage who scored his fifth career series win here at 34 just ahead of Fisher. Two-time champion Cody Wehrle had a nice outing coming from seventh to finish third, Tasker Phillips lost several positions after going off the top of turn two mid-race but then rallied to take fourth, while defending Invaders champion Ryan Bunton was fifth. Current point leader and the winner of the first two events with the series in 2024, Paul Nienhiser had a bit of an off night as he held off a hard charging Alex Vande Voort to take sixth in a photo finish.
With a few drivers making the trip in from other rained out events the Sport Compact field grew to sixteen by race time and they would put on a good show for the fans throughout the evening. Darin Smith would use his front row starting spot to get to the early lead and he would hold off a late challenge from Tim Schnathorst to take the win in flag-to-flag fashion. Nolan Tuttle who made the trip down from Vinton felt as though Schnathorst had roughed him up a bit while getting to second and he would express his opinion in the infield after the race where he had held on for third. Dyllan Bonk came from eighth to fourth while Noah Kayser found some speed between the heats and the feature as he charged from eleventh to fifth.
The Mini Haulers division of pickup trucks continues to steadily grow, thanks in part to long-time 34 racer Roger "Fireball" Brockett and his family. "51 Years of Fireball" is painted on the back of his truck and he quickly pointed out to me that it doesn't mean that this is his last year! With his son J.R., his grandson Sheldon and a variety of friends and family they added another new entry to the field on Sunday with long-time four cylinder driver Ashton Blain at the wheel. Unfortunately Ashton was not able to take the green for the main event though as he dropped the drive shaft while getting in position for the start.
Brian Tipps is still the man to beat in this division as he quickly moved from fourth to first and would go on through a series of stoppages to take the win. That first red flag came when Caleb Ealey got sideways exiting turn two, was clipped by James Ruble and then tipped over onto his driver side door. It was a tough break for Ealey who had charged from eighth to second before the incident.
At the checkers it would be Tipps taking the win over Sheldon Brockett who had come from ninth. Jeff Bockes and Eric Detlefson were next in line while the ageless Fireball Brockett finished fifth just ahead of thirteen-year-old Grady Jones.
34 Raceway will get back to weekly action this Saturday night June 1st with seven divisions on the card.
Looking at the future radar on Monday it would have been an easy call to stay home, but instead we decided to take the risk and head to the Davenport Speedway for the rescheduled SLMR event. I was happy to see that twenty-six Late Models had signed in after what was supposed to have been a three-day swing at Davenport, Maquoketa and Dubuque on Friday, Saturday and Sunday was now chopped up to a Saturday and Monday combo due to the wet weather.
That future radar was actually pretty accurate as a round of showers and thunderstorms did surround the Quad Cities area from between 6 and 7:30 p.m., but somehow other than a few sprinkles here and there, the race track was spared and we were even treated to a double rainbow as the Late Models prepared to come to the track as the first feature of the night for twenty-five laps.
Pole-sitter Luke Pestka would lead the first eight laps with both Chad Holladay and Chad Simpson in hot pursuit. On lap nine Holladay would drive deep into turn three and then drift to the top in turn four with a big slider that saw Pestka do what he needed to do to try to cross him over. Meanwhile, Simpson had charged the bottom so the trio would exit turn four three-wide to get the crowd buzzing as Holladay would lead the lap by a nose as Simpson moved to second.
The only caution of the race would wave two laps later when the fourth place car of Nick Marolf slipped off the top of turn four and slid to a halt. After the restart the chase was on as Holladay and Simpson first opened up a gap between themselves and the rest of the field, but as the laps wound down Derrick Stewart started to reel them in.
The cushion was definitely the fast way around, but it was steep and a bit treacherous in spots so when Simpson ducked under the leader on a couple of occasions, he could nearly pull even before Holladay would rocket off the top to maintain his lead. However, after scoring lap twenty, Holladay would jump the cushion in turn two, driving off the top of the track and before he could save it and return to the back stretch he would give up the lead to Simpson and second to Stewart.
With a couple of lapped cars just ahead, Stewart still had a chance, but the veteran driver from Mount Vernon would hold him off as Chad Simpson scored the win. Holladay had to settle for third, Luke Goedert was fourth and Justin Kay filled out the top five.
The Sport Mods were up next for fifteen laps with Kevin Rasdon setting the early pace. Both Perry Gellerstedt and Logan Veloz were there to challenge and on lap five they would race three-wide out of turn four with Gellerstedt having the slight advantage just before the third caution of the event waved for a second solo spin by Phoenix Blakely.
After the restart Gellerstedt had two of the best in the region breathing down his neck in Veloz and Shane Paris and on lap ten Shane would make a nifty move in turn four to go from third to first. Veloz then tried to keep pace over the final five circuits, but he could not mount a challenge as Paris took the win. Dakota Cole finished third, Gellerstedt slipped to fourth as Kevin Goben rounded out the top five.
Twenty-five laps would be the distance for the $1,000-to-win headliner for the IMCA Modifieds and, with former National Champion Jeff Larson starting from the pole, one might have assumed that this would be a race for second. Matt Werner had other ideas though as he would throw a nasty slider on Larson in turn four of the opening lap to take the lead while Larson slipped back to about fourth. Things would only get worse for Larson as a few laps later he skipped the cushion in turn three and after driving off the top of the racing surface he simply drove straight to the pit area for an early end to his evening.
Spencer Diercks, who had started directly behind Werner from sixth, was now the primary contender and he would stalk the leader throughout, even throwing a couple of big sliders of his own in turns three and four. Werner was up to the challenge on both occasions executing the crossover to perfection and as the laps wound down Diercks tried the lower line to see if it could get him to the front. On the final lap, as Werner sailed to victory, Diercks left an opening for Joel Rust who had come from a sixth row start and he would take second away from Spencer at the stripe. Chris Zogg advanced from tenth to fourth as Eric Barnes took fifth.
With the first day of a shortened work week ahead of us we decided to give the Hobby Stocks up to two cautions before we would hit the road and, unfortunately, they would burn those two before a single lap could be scored. A look at the results today shows that Daniel Wauters took the win after starting from the outside of row one.
It was a good night of racing and I look forward to returning to the Davenport Speedway one week from tonight, Tuesday June 4th as the High Limit Sprint Car series comes to town for one of their Mid-Week Money events featuring Kyle Larson.
Before that one I plan on being at the Bloomfield Speedway this Thursday May 30th for some IMCA racing action and then on Sunday we will be heading to the Stuart Speedway as the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders will run a co-sanctioned event with the Malvern Bank 360 Sprint Car Series. Plus, added to the calendar on that night will be the Dynamic Drive Lines Dirt Duel for the IMCA Stock Cars. It should be a good one and we hope to seen you again soon here on the Back Stretch!
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