Helle, Stander first time winners at Independence

Tim Helle and Justin Stander added their names to the history books at Independence on Saturday by earning their first career wins in weekly racing at the speedway. Those accomplishments, along with a few other notes on how Saturday's wins rank in relation to the weekly racing history of Independence Motor Speedway, are outlined below.

STOCK CARS
Helle, who led most of the way in the IMCA Stock Car feature, became the 41st different driver to reach the winner's circle in 20 years of Stock Cars at Indee. He was the first new winner in the division since July 2, 2011.

In victory lane, Helle mentioned that he had a few wins earlier in his career at Echo Valley Speedway in West Union, however this was his first career win in the Stock Car division.

For just the seventh time in the 20 year history of the Stock Car division at Independence, three different winners earned wins the first three weeks of the season. Only three times in track history have there been four different winners to open the season, the last time coming in 2008.

HOBBY STOCKS
Stander became the 88th different Hobby Stock winner in weekly racing history at Independence. He joined Nathan Ballard as first-time winners this season alone. It was the shortest span between first time winners in the division since Kevin Robinson and Matt Brown earned their first career wins in back-to-back weeks in 2006.

For the third straight year, and for the 14th time in 24 seasons, three different winners opened the season with wins in the Hobby Stocks. In the last two seasons, there have not been repeat winners in the division until the seventh (2011) and sixth (2012) weeks.

MODIFIEDS
Darin Duffy remains second on the all-time Modified wins list at the speedway. He now sits just one win shy of tying Vern Jackson at the top of that list. By virtue of his win on May 19, Duffy's first and most recent Modified wins at Independence now span 6,923 calendar days - the longest such span in the division.

When you add Duffy's 10 career Late Model victories at Independence, he has a combined 48 career wins in weekly racing at the speedway. Following Saturday night, he now sits alone in fifth all-time among all drivers in track history in that category. With his win on Saturday, he broke out of a tie with Brian Irvine, who won a combined 47 features in the Hobby Stocks and Stock Cars. Duffy now trails only Vern Jackson (95 wins), Curt Martin (93), Dan Trimble (69) and Greg Kastli (50). A total of 433 different drivers have won features in weekly racing history at the speedway.

His May 19 victory was his second trip to the winner's circle on that date in Independence. Duffy also won the Modified feature on May 19, 2001. He is the only driver in track history with multiple weekly wins on that date. Of Duffy's 38 Modified wins, seven have come in the month of May.

For the eighth consecutive year, there have been three straight different winners to open the season in the Modified division.

Through three weeks of the season, Modified driver Mark Schulte joins Stock Car driver Sean Johnson as the only two drivers with top-3 finishes every week.

SPORTMODS
Danny Dvorak earned his 10th career win in Independence in weekly SportMod racing and the 57th of his career in the division. He now sits two wins behind Josh Sherbon on the all-time list at Indee. Dvorak has spread out those 10 victories throughout his career; two have come in the month of May, two in June, three in July and three in August.

Dvorak now has 13 career wins at Independence, three of which came in Hobby Stock battles in the 1990s. Those 13 wins place him in a tie for 33rd all-time at the speedway.

For just the second time in five seasons, the SportMods have produced three different winners to start the season. There have never been four straight different SportMod winners to open the season at Independence.

LATE MODELS
Luke Peskta moved into a tie for 35th on the all-time wins list at the speedway in the Late Model division. His three wins in weekly competition tie him with Chad Lerch, Dave Bentley, Dave Gerner, Dave Thorsten, Gary Henderson, LaVern Carey, Tom Fitzpatrick, Tysus Pattee and Wes Merritt. He will look to catch Bill Beckman, Cal Swanson, Dennis Dugan and Karl Sanger on that list next weekend.

For the 10th consecutive year, there have been three straight different winners to open the season in the Late Model division. In seven of the last eight season, there have been four different Late Model drivers to visit victory lane during the first four nights of weekly racing at Independence.

When time allows, I plan to update my season and all-time stats prior to writing my weekly post-Independence blog. That way, I'll be able to include some information that isn't provided in the weekly press release, which can be found on the track web site.

Regardless what information is included in the weekly recap from Independence, the monthly Stats Blitz will return in 2012. The first installment of the season will be posted next week, following the event from the final Saturday in May.

Speaking of the Stats Blitz, I've been keeping weekly numbers on action at Benton County Speedway this season, as well. I'm heading back there tonight for the weekly program and will provide full results right here later tonight. In addition, I've been working on putting together the all-time wins list for BCS and hope to have that information compiled and ready to share sometime next week.

I hope to see everyone in Vinton tonight!