Jason Rauen passed leader Dave Eckrich on the 10th of 35 circuits and drove away from the field to take the Corn Belt Clash Late Model Series win at Independence Motor Speedway on Wednesday.
At the drop of the green, pole-sitter Dave Eckrich pulled away from fellow front row starter Terry Neal to take command. Eckrich distanced himself by a few car-lengths over his competitors as Curt Martin and Kurt Kile also gave chase.
Rauen, who started inside the fourth row, quickly made his way through traffic and into the top five on lap three, then swept past Kile, Martin and Neal in just one trip around the 3/8-mile oval to take second place on the following circuit. Rauen spent little time running down the leader, pulling alongside Eckrich on lap nine, just after the leaders encountered lapped traffic. Rauen motored past Eckrich and into the lead on the following lap. Rauen quickly pulled away from the field and survived a late race caution to take the victory.
Jason Utter, who started ninth, made a strong run through traffic and into the third spot on lap 11. He made his way past Eckrich for second following the late caution on lap 26 to drive to the second place finish.
Chad Simpson, the winner of seven of the first eight series races and who started eighth on the night, engaged in a thrilling side-by-side battle with Martin throughout the entire second half of the race. Martin pulled ahead in the waning laps to take third. Simpson ran fourth ahead of his brother, Chris. Eckrich faded toward the end running the high side to settle for sixth.
CORN BELT CLASH LATE MODELS
1. 98X Jason Rauen
2. 31 Jason Utter
3. 45 Curt Martin
4. 25 Chad Simpson
5. 32 Chris Simpson
6. 58 Dave Eckrich
7. 88 Kevin Kile
8. 78 Rick Wendling
9. 20 Jake Meier
10. 28C Terry Neal
11. 15K Justin Kay
12. 29 Jeremiah Hurst
13. 16 Tyler Bruening
14. 40 Joel Callahan
15. 22 Jill George
16. 77K Kurt Kile
17. 3 Kevin Sather
18. 75 Clint Wendel
19. 98 Travis Smock
20. 21B Joel Brasch
21. 8 Randy Wheeler
22. 77 Jeff Aikey
IMCA Stock Cars and IMCA SportMods were also on-hand in a non-track points night.
Although small in number, the Stock Cars put on an exciting 15-lap feature. Front row starters Brett Mather and Jarod Weepie swapped the lead over the first two laps before Dan Trimble made his way to the front on lap three.
Trimble, Weepie and Sean Johnson entertained the crowd with an exciting three-car battle up front until contact from Johnson sent the Weepie machine into a spin in turn four on the eighth lap. Weepie, Johnson and Phil Holtz, who was collected in the incident, all restarted at the tail.
When racing resumed, Trimble maintained the point, but received heavy pressure from John Emerson, who made his way around Mather for second when the green flag waved following the caution. Trimble held on for the victory ahead of Emerson. Holtz made a nice run through traffic to rebound to a third place finish ahead of Dain Sires, who was in his first race of the season.
STOCK CAR
1. 20 Dan Trimble
2. 287 John Emerson
3. 7H Phil Holtz
4. 3D Dain Sires
5. 9E Austin Evens
6. 83E Thomas Thompson
7. 09M Brett Mather
8. 8R Sean Johnson
9. 3 Jarod Weepie
Austin Kaplan led wire-to-wire in the 20-lap IMCA SportMod feature. Kaplan took charge at the drop of the green when he pulled away from fellow front row starter Chris Luloff to motor to the victory.
Luloff ran the 20-lap distance in second place to come home in the runner-up spot. Ray Lundry, who was involved in a first lap yellow, made a great run through the field. He made his way around Danny Dvorak with just four laps to go to finish third at the line, not far behind Luloff.
SPORTMOD
1. 1 Austin Kaplan
2. 18 Chris Luloff
3. 196 Ray Lundry
4. 3R Danny Dvorak
5. 52R Marty Rouse
6. 10 Kaleb Bentley
7. 26J Joel Rust
8. 63 Matt McCahen
9. 22H Curt Hilmer
10. J2 Dave Schulze
11. 16X Mike McDonald
12. 92 Tyler Droste
13. 72 Mike Hogencamp
14. 00 Jim Buhlman
15. 40J Jason Doyle
16. 83 Russell Hesse
17. 54 Wayne Hesse
18. 96 Lucas Lundry
19. 20T Scott Thomas
20. 92C Craig Cordes
It was evident that the heat and threat of bad weather affected both the car count and the grandstand attendance tonight, however those in attendance were provided with some great racing. The track was in excellent shape, which allowed drivers to race in multiple grooves.
Motorsports events for the Buchanan County Fair continue this Friday night with the annual demolition derby. The word is, monster truck Bigfoot will be making an appearance at that event, as well. racing will resume this Saturday for weekly points racing and the annual Dick Frye Memorial, held in honor of the late longtime fair board president. A combione demo derby will close the "motorsports" portion of the fair on Sunday afternoon.
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