Sunday, June 28, 2009

Irvine sweep, Duffy domination on Saturday; Deery Series and Stock Cars to headline holiday at Independence

It was a family affair in the I.M.C.A. Stock Car and Hobby Stock divisions while Darin Duffy continued his domination in the I.M.C.A. Modifieds at Independence Motor Speedway. A total of 121 cars were on-hand to compete in 26 events to close out the month of June at the speedway. (A Stats Blitz through the month of June will be coming later this week.)

In the Stock Car feature, Justin Temeyer was hoping to make it two straight wins in the division. From his outside front row start, Temeyer took the early lead with pole-sitter Rick Suckow in tow. With Temeyer out front, Brian Irvine battled Dan Trimble for third. That pair made its way around Suckow on lap five to set up a three-car battle for the lead.

Irvine edged past Trimble for second as quickly as he entered the top three, then made his way around Temeyer on lap seven. Irvine extended his advantage over the final 13 laps to score the win, his third of the season. Trimble and Temeyer chased him to the checkers. Norman Chesmore and Phil Holtz completed the top five.

Irvine's cousin, Josh Irvine, made it an Irvine sweep as he took the checkers in the 15-lap I.M.C.A. Hobby Stock feature. At the on-set, it was pole-sitter Joe Sprague who held the advantage. He extended his lead early as Wes Stanek gave chase. Irvine and points leader Vince Buchholz entered the mix out front on the fifth lap to make it a four-car battle for the top spot.

Irvine and Buchholz made their way around Sprague and chased down Stanek, who took the lead on the seventh lap, for a thrilling three-car fight out front. Racing three-wide for numerous laps, the leaders swapped grooves in attempt to take the edge. Irvine eventually inched ahead with only a few laps to go to drive to the exciting win, his third of the year. Buchholz, Stanek, Justin Lichty and Marcus Wayne completed the top five.

Darin Duffy continued to set himself apart from the rest of the I.M.C.A. Modified field, and everyone else on the points sheet, as he drove to his third win of the year. Duffy, who held the largest points lead in any of the five weekly divisions with a 27-point edge at the start of the night, extended that lead with his victory and remains the only driver at the speedway with top-five finishes in all six features this season.

Pole-sitter Shawn Ryan held the early advantage and quickly pulled away from the 24-car field. While he led, Duffy worked the high groove from the 12th starting position and settled into second by the time the caution flag waved only four laps into the 20-lapper.

Duffy swept around Ryan two laps later and cruised to the impressive win ahead of Ryan. Troy Cordes, Max Corporon and Kevin Pittman ran third through fifth, respectively.

Jeff Aikey appeared to be on the way to his first I.M.C.A. Late Model win of the season, however a late caution period changed those plans. Aikey, who assumed command on the eighth lap from front row starter Jared Fuller, quickly extended his lead until the field encountered lapped traffic with seven laps to go.

Prior to the backmarkers interfering with Aikey's progress, Darren Ackerman was working his way through traffic from a fifth row start. Ackerman closed the gap quicker as Aikey worked the lapped cars. Meanwhile, Terry Neal, from a sixth row start, was also making his way through the field. Neal worked his way into third with 10 laps to go and cleared past the lapped cars, leaving nobody between himself and the leaders by the time the yellow flag waved on the 21st of 25 laps.

On the restart, Neal immediately went to the high groove, passing Ackerman for second just one lap later. As the flying green waved, Neal made his way around Aikey. He drove to the thrilling win, his second of the season, ahead of Aikey and Ackerman. Rick Wendling and Jon Passick ran fourth and fifth.

Caution flags early and often brought the I.M.C.A. SportMod feature to a slow crawl. Pole-sitter Kurt Hogan made his way out front early and survived the plague of yellow to score the win ahead of Mary Handberg and Drew Fish. Division rookie Chris Luloff took over the points lead by virtue of his fourth place finish. Kaleb Bentley finished fifth.

Overall, it was a good night of racing. Although the SportMods proved to be a slow-go, the line-up board was brought back for feature realignments at the request of some drivers and fans. It didn't prove to be beneficial as multi-car cautions early on made line-ups difficult to tackle, anyway. Hopefully, now that we've passed the mid-season mark, errors will be few and far between on the track.

Up next at the speedway is one of the biggest nights in recent memory. This Wednesday, July 1, will see the annual visit of the Deery Brothers Summer Series for I.M.C.A. Late Models, along with the American Stock Car Shootout for I.M.C.A. Stock Cars. The Deery Series has been averaging nearly 50 cars for its annual holiday stop in Independence in recent seasons and the Stock Car series will be making its first visit to the speedway. The Shootout, which originated around 10 years ago at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, found a home at Marshalltown (Iowa) Speedway in recent years until this season. For the first time, the Stock Car series is a three-day, three-track swing. It opens on Tuesday, June 30, at Buena Vista Raceway in Alta, Iowa, before the stop in Independence on July 1. It concludes in Marshalltown on Thursday, July 2.

Gates open in Independence at 4 p.m. for the July 1 special. Hot laps are slated for 6:30 with green flag racing set to begin at 7.

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