After we dodged the rain to the south (although threatened by occasional sprinkles at the track), Saturday night was a memorable one at Independence Motor Speedway. A number of milestones were reached during the course of the program, all of which were years in the making. To add to the excitement of the evening, Late Model legends Ed Sanger and Curt Hansen joined Gary Crawford to pace all five features to green.
IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Chris Luloff took the lead on lap five, then led the remaining 10 laps to score his third win of the season and the 21st of his career in the Hobby Stock division at the speedway. With the win, Luloff passed Chris Wessner and now sits alone at the top of the all-time Hobby Stock wins list at the speedway. Wessner, who moved into a tie at the top of the list with Ken Irvine and Rick Johnson on July 8, 1995, held that position all alone since July 29, 1995.
Luloff's first win in the division came nearly eight years ago, on June 19, 2004. He was the 58th different winner to earn a win in the Hobby Stocks in weekly points racing in track history. He now leads a total of 88 drivers who have earned at least one feature win in the division.
His win on Saturday night was the third straight trip to victory lane for Luloff. He entered the night already one of only six drivers to accomplish that feat in the 22-plus years the division has competed weekly at Independence. He joined Wessner and Brian Irvine as the only three drivers with multiple Hobby Stock win streaks of three or more races. Next week, Luloff will look to extend his winning streak to four, which was last accomplished by Josh Irvine in 2009. Wessner and Nick Wroten hold the all-time winning streak mark for the division, which is five straight wins. Of Luloff's 21 wins, six have come in the month of June.
When considering all-time wins at the speedway, Luloff has now won 24 career features in weekly racing at Indee (Hobby Stock and SportMod). He ranks tied with Tom Bartholomew for 15th on the all-time list.
IMCA MODIFIED
Darin Duffy took the lead with only a couple of laps to go when leader Ronn Lauritzen suffered mechanical problems in the Modified feature. After Lauritzen and Patrick Flannagan engaged in a thrilling two-car battle throughout the middle of the race, Duffy worked through traffic and emerged victorious for his 40th career IMCA Modified win in weekly racing history at Indee. The win broke the tie he had with Vern Jackson atop that list.
The 10th Modified win of his career in the month of June at Independence, Duffy now has a total of 50 wins all-time at the speedway when also considering his Late Model wins. That places him in a tie for fourth all-time with Greg Kastli. Duffy has a way to go to reach number three as Dan Trimble sits in that position with 69 career wins at Independence.
IMCA SPORTMOD
Danny Dvorak ran the high side to victory in the IMCA SportMod main event. After starting in the third row, Dvorak worked around Jim Buhlman to take the lead at the approximate midway point of that 15-lapper en route to the win.
The 12th SportMod win of his career at Independence, Dvorak tied Josh Sherbon at the top of the division's all-time wins list. Dvorak has evenly spread out his success at Independence. Of those 12 wins, he has earned three wins each in the months of May, June, July and August.
With 15 career wins at Independence, Dvorak now ranks tied for 32nd on the all-time list. Joining him in that spot are Denny Osborn, Tom Hanson and Tom Schmitt.
IMCA STOCK CAR
One week after earning his first-ever victory in the IMCA Stock Car division, John Emerson wasted no time returning to victory lane as he scored career win number two on Saturday night. In those wins, Emerson led all 36 laps of feature racing.
Emerson, now one of only 24 drivers with multiple Stock Car wins at the speedway, became the first Stock Car driver since Damon Murty in 2005 to earn his first two Independence wins in back-to-back fashion. Emerson is only the sixth Stock Car driver at Independence to earn his first wins in consecutive weeks. Lon Gadow (1993), Chris Wessner (1998), Justin Temeyer (2001), Brad Holtkamp (2002) and Murty are the only other drivers in the division to do it.
IMCA LATE MODEL
Tyler Bruening earned his first win of the season in the IMCA Late Model division. Bruening took control just past the midway point when he worked the top side around Dean Wagner to drive to victory. Bruening became the sixth different Late Model feature winner in seven weeks this season.
The 11th win of Bruening's career at Independence, he now sits alone in 16th on the all-time list. Bruening now has four wins in the month of June, more than any other month on the calendar.
Saturday night was nothing short of an awesome night of racing. Due to the threat of weather, we were able to dodge any inclement weather in the area and complete the program at 9:09 p.m. Fantastic job by Todd Summers, Darin Burco and Don Burkey for providing a perfect racing surface which saw three and four-wide racing throughout the night.
It was a humbling experience to share the tower with Crawford, Sanger and Hansen. Those three drivers earned nearly 100 feature wins in weekly racing alone at the speedway. Prior to the night, Hansen asked if it was okay if they watched from the tower. As I told him last night, he was one of the drivers who helped establish the rich tradition at the speedway so they were welcome to join us anywhere anytime to take in the races.
Thanks also to the fans in attendance who braved the questionable weather to take in the show. I'm certain those folks will be sure to tell their friends what a great night of racing they missed.
On a sad note, Saturday night was Modified driver Ronn Lauritzen's first night back in action since the unexpected passing of his father earlier in the week. Ronn put on a tremendous battle in the Modified main and appeared to be on his way to victory when mechanical problems ended his run early. Thank you to Ronn, his family, crew and fans for making the trip to Indee last night. I'm sure it had to be a tough night, but I'm sure your dad would be proud of you for making the trip on putting on one hell of a show.
Starting next week, we're going to add IMCA Sport Compacts to the schedule on a trial basis for a couple of weeks. The division will be IMCA sanctioned for state and national points in a pair of draw/redraw shows. A number of drivers in that division have been wanting to make the pull to Indee so we're going to give it a shot and see what develops. June 30 will be Budweiser Mid-Season Championships and all of the regular weekly divisions will run features only, but the Sport Compacts will be draw/redraw that night.
Tonight, I have the honor of filling in for scorer Kevin Kemp at Benton County Speedway in Vinton while he enjoys some family time away from the track. I hope to see you there!
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