I made my first-ever visit to Lee County Speedway on July 2 to take in the Liberty Cup special. The event paid $1,500 to the winner of the I.M.C.A. Modifieds, $1,000 to the I.M.C.A. Stock Car victor and $500 to the I.M.C.A. SportMod winner. A nice field of 87 cars signed in for the second annual event, including many travellers from throughout the region.
Nearly half, 43, of the cars signed in were in the Modified division. Four heats and 2 Bs were used to pare down the field to 24 feature starters. When that 25-lap feature went green, a trio of drivers tried to take the early reins. Wyatt Lantz, Troy Cordes and Shawn Fisher made it a three-wide battle on the first lap with Cordes nosing between his competitors to take the advantage.
Michael Long, who started in the third row, made his way through traffic and onto Cordes' heels on lap five. Long shot to the inside of Cordes to take the advantage. From that point it was all Long as he built up a straightaway lead on the 3/8-mile oval by the 10th lap. He was half of a track ahead of second place before he entered lapped traffic late in the event.
Long went on to score the win in impressive fashion ahead of hard-charging Josh Foster and Dusty Kraklio. Cordes ran fourth ahead of Nate Caruth.
Thirty-four I.M.C.A. Stock Cars were present. Following four heats and two features, 24 drivers made the starting call for the 20-lap feature. Missouri driver Rick Girard and division rookie Aaron Brocksieck exchanged the lead for the first five laps. While they battled, Jeff Mueller was working his way to the front running the low groove of the speedway.
Mueller shot to the inside of leader Brocksieck exiting turn two on the fifth lap and into the lead down the back straghtaway. Darin Thye and Mike Van Genderen entered into the battle out front.
Mueller mastered the low groove on his way to the exciting win ahead of Van Genderen, who made a late pass on Brocksieck for second. Brocksieck ran third ahead of defending event champion Abe Huls who qualified for the feature through a last-chance race. Thye ran fifth.
Jason Cook took the lead on the sixth lap of the 15-lap I.M.C.A. SportMod feature to drive to his first career win in the division. Jacob Smith and Rodger Dresden completed the top three.
My first visit to Donnellson was long overdue and it was a great way to kick off the holiday weekend. The car count, concessions and view from the stands in the pits provided for a great evening. Despite a small rough spot in turn four, the track was in excelent shape, as well.
Thanks to Jeff Broeg for inviting me down. I certainly won't wait quite so long before my next visit. I'm thinking either the next weekly show with late models following the holiday or Shiverfest later this fall. Maybe both!
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