Oliver Snakebit Twice As Birck And Agee Snare Late Race Wins At Lee County

With a last minute opportunity to go racing on Friday I made the short trip south to the Lee County Speedway for some IMCA weekly racing action at one of my favorite tracks in nearby Donnellson. One of the things that I love about an IMCA weekly show is the average point invert lineup procedures used by most tracks as it is seldom that you will see a feature race where the winner leads from green to checkers and that was definitely the case on this night. Even the non-sanctioned Mini Haulers who used a draw and redraw format produced a good back and forth battle making for a very entertaining night of racing.

A solid field of eighteen Late Models signed in and their twenty-five lap main event would be first on the card. Hometown driver Jeremy Pundt has had a rough start to 2026 and that is why he would start near the front and after an impressive heat race victory he would move from third to first on the opening lap. Jackson Frankel and Jake Griffin would fall in behind him and that lead trio would break away from the rest of the field until the first caution waved on lap fifteen for debris in turn two.

Jake Griffin - MF Photography

Pundt had been able to keep about a five car length advantage over his chasers prior to the caution, but on the restart Frankel went to the top and sailed around the leader to take the point on lap sixteen and Griffin soon dropped Pundt to third. Now it was the young Quincy driver that looked in control until Christian Miles slowed and drew a caution with just two laps remaining. Again the restart would write the story of this one as Griffin found a bite on the bottom of turns one and two to drive past Frankel and then cruised to his first win of the season as he has returned to dirt late model racing for the first time in twelve years in the Warner Racing #79. You may remember Jake as the driver who once turned heads as a twelve year old racing Late Models for a few years before moving on to pavement racing and more recently he was wheeling a Winged Sprint Car around the Midwest. One of his more notable victories in my book was a pavement Late Model win in Alaska I believe in 2019. 

Frankel would settle for the second spot, Pundt fought off the ninth starting Spencer Havermale for third while the defending track champion Darin Weisinger Jr. came from eleventh to finish fifth.

The Northern Sport Mods would be up next for twenty trips around the D-shaped 3/8th-mile with front row starter Brandon Lambert leading lap one before yielding to John Oliver Jr. in the Goble Racing #55 car. Oliver would stretch the lead over the next few laps until Cole Gillenwater made his way to second after starting eighth and he would then quickly eat away at the margin,

Coming to score lap eleven, Gillenwater would make a nifty high to low move exiting turn four to squeeze under Oliver as they entered turns one and two. Gillenwater would take the lead down the back stretch but then he nearly slapped the guard rail after going too high in turn three. A quick recovery would find his high side momentum enough to edge out Oliver for the lead on lap twelve and on the next visit to turns three and four that same scenario would play out as again Gillenwater nearly grabbed some iron.

After leading lap thirteen he would then take the low line into one and two where he slid sideways at the apex nearly collecting Oliver before coming to a halt and drawing the caution with seven laps remaining. As Oliver brought the field back to green for the restart the back half of the field jumbled up with Olivia Hofmann and Chevy Barnes getting the worst of it as they got tangled up against the front stretch wall. With just one wrecker on hand it took a crowbar and some ingenuity to finally separate the two Sport Mods creating a long delay in what had been a quick moving show.

Once back to green Oliver would lead the field as Cody Agee and Adam Birck battled for second behind him and once Birck cleared Agee he would set his sights on the leader. Adam would make his move in turns one and two to take the lead at the white flag and he would then ease away for his first victory over two abbreviated seasons. Oliver would take the second spot, Agee was close behind in third, Brandon Dale who earlier in the evening made a thrilling high side charge on the opening lap of his heat race to go from sixth to first exiting turn two would take fourth in the finale while Gillenwater was the fastest car on the track making his way back up to fifth.

Caleb Ealey - MF Photography

Nick Wilkerson had won in his last two outings here at Lee County so when he drew the pole position for the twelve lap Mini Hauler main event, the smart money would have been on him. Caleb Ealey had other ideas though and after starting fourth he would put the challenge on Wilkerson making a pass for the lead on lap six. Nick would battle back though and regain the advantage on lap seven only to have Ealey drive back by him on the following lap. This time Caleb would put some distance on him as the final four laps clicked away with Ealey taking the entertaining victory over Wilkerson. Dawson Tipps was not too far behind them in third while Tate Kronfeldt and Austin Meeker closed out the top five.

It is sad that the track that introduced the Four Cylinder division to this area with the "Wild Things" over twenty-five years ago now has such a struggle to draw a double digit field of Sport Compacts anymore, but what was once dubbed as a class that weren't "race cars", but rather "cars that race" has been anything but that in this area with the rules bouncing back and forth between IMCA and the more open UMP rules the past several years.

Only six drivers signed in on this night and when Luke Fraise broke during the Australian Pursuit in honor of the late, great Ramo Stott, only five would start the twelve lap main event. Kimberly Abbott would lead them on lap one before Brandon Reu sailed past and then drove away to another feature victory here at his hometown track. Abbott was second followed by the Prims, David and Ethan, while Bill Bennett was fifth.

Twenty laps for the Stock Cars would follow with third starting Beau Taylor nosing ahead of pole-sitter Rusty Zook at the stripe to lead lap one. The caution would fly after lap two when Jathan Fuller spun in turn three and the restart would see John Oliver Jr. make a thrilling move to be the third car from the bottom in a four-wide stack heading down the back stretch to pick up several positions after starting from ninth.

Derrick Agee - MF Photography

The two-time and defending All Iowa Points Stock Car champion, Oliver would soon make his way to second and he would drive past Taylor to take the lead on lap seven. Already with ten wins on the season, and a big lead at the Memorial Day weekend in the All Iowa Points, John looked like a sure bet to get win number eleven as he pulled away from the field, but in the closing laps Derrick Agee who had worked his way up from eighth was now closing quickly in second. A slower car ahead of him entering turn one on the final lap required the leader to check up a bit and now Agee would have a big run down the back stretch where he went straight to the cushion in turn three.

Oliver may have heard him up there as he would drift up the track exiting turn four to take away the high line, but Derrick had already aimed his car for the bottom and he would nip Oliver at the line by a nose in a thrilling finish! Taylor would hold down the third spot at the checkers with Jason See and Casen Keller who has been making the long trip down from Indianola weekly closing out the top five. 

The Modifieds would close out the evening with twenty laps with Jace Whitt leading the first four circuits before Austen Becerra blew by him. A three-time All Iowa Points champion himself, once in the Four Cylinders and twice in the Modifieds, Becerra was in a class of his own tonight as he would drive away to a dominating victory. The race to watch was for second as Whitt, Jared Eckrich and Mark Burgtorf waged battle and in the closing laps Whitt had to make a sudden move to the outside while passing a slower car allowing Eckrich to grab the runner-up spot. Whitt was third, Burgtorf fourth and Bill Roberts Jr. closed out the top five.

It is good to have Lee County back to Friday night racing and with the IMCA sanction as new promoter Darin Weisnger and his family are pouring their hearts into this effort. If you are in the area make sure the check it out as there needs to be some more butts in the seats to keep this historic track healthy for years to come! 

Heat race action at LCS - Special thanks to Micheil Farr and MF Photogrpahy for the us of his fine work!

Next up for me will be four nights in Independence starting Sunday with the IMCA Summer Nationals that has a banger list of pre-entries in all five divisions. Then I hope to make at least one of the MLRA Late Model shows at Davenport and Burlington on Friday and Saturday followed by a night on the microphone at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton on Sunday the 7th.

Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!