Aikey holds off Guss for Deery Series win at Independence

When defending series champion Ray Guss Jr. and current series points leader Mike Murphy Jr. drew the front row, I would venture to guess the range of predicted winners by those in attendance made a sharp decline. When 40 laps were completed, however, Jeff Aikey proved once again that he's tough to beat at Independence Motor Speedway as the scored the win in the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models event at Independence Motor Speedway on Monday night.

Guss led the field at the drop of the green, with Murphy, Aikey and Joe Zrostlik all in pursuit on the bottom side of the speedway. A caution on lap 10 changed the entire complexion of the race.

Starting outside of the second row on the restart, Aikey ran that groove past Guss to take the lead on lap 12. From then on it was obvious, there were many lanes from which to choose on the fast, smooth oval.

With Aikey up top and Guss down low, the leaders separated themselves from the pack and engaged in an incredible fight for the lead. They remained within a car-length of each other in their respective grooves until lapped traffic with 15 laps to go forced them to change things up.

With the backmarkers running mostly the bottom groove, Guss was forced to move to the top side, only for Aikey to shoot to the bottom as the leaders approached more traffic scattered in more grooves in front of them. The leaders swapped racing grooves with Guss on Aikey's tail in traffic until the second and final caution flag waved on lap 29.

On that restart, Aikey again went to work up top with Guss down low. Although Guss was able to pull alongside Aikey, the familiar red and yellow #77 was too strong on the high side as Aikey raced to the win. Mike Murphy Jr. used the late restart to make his way past Tyler Bruening for third.

RESULTS
DEERY SERIES LATE MODEL

Feature Finish/(Start)

1. (3) 77 Jeff Aikey (Waterloo);

2. (1) 58 Ray Guss Jr. (Milan, Ill.);

3. (2) 14 Mike Murphy Jr. (Colona, Ill.);

4. (14) 16 Tyler Bruening (Decorah);

5. (13) 60 Dean Wagner (Evansdale);

6. (12) 93 Jay Johnson (West Burlington);

7. (18) 45 Curt Martin (Independence);

8. (10) 73 Greg Kastli (Waterloo); 

9. (8) 56 Andy Eckrich (Oxford);

10. (21) 98 Travis Smock (Independence); 

11. (22) 40 Joel Callahan (Dubuque); 

12. (23) 50 Denny Eckrich (Tiffin); 

13. (15) 31 Jason Utter (Columbus Junction); 

14. (9) 15K Justin Kay (Wheatland); 

15. (6) 21B Joel Brasch (Dunkerton); 

16. (24) 56W Gary Webb (Blue Grass); 

17. (11) 2P Jon Passick (Waterloo); 

18. (20) 5J Jeff Mitrisin (Oskaloosa); 

19. (5) Z50 Joe Zrostlik (Long Grove); 

20. (17) 84 Sam Halstead (New London); 

21. (19) 16S Dan Shelliam (Hazel Green, Wis.); 

22. (7) 99D Darrel DeFrance (Marshalltown); 

23. (4) 41 Matt Strassheim (Morning Sun); 

24. (16) 7 Greg Hunter (Independence).

First heat (top 3 redraw) – 1. Murphy; 2. Kastli; 3. Brasch; 4. Halstead; 5. Utter; 6. 44 Luke Goedert (Guttenburg); 7. Shelliam; 8. Smock.

Second heat – 1. Guss; 2. Passick; 3. A. Eckrich; 4. Wagner; 5. Webb; 6. 76 Jason Hahne (Webster City); 7. 3X Chad Lerch (North Liberty); 8. 4D Rick Dralle (Waterloo).

Third heat – 1. DeFrance; 2. Aikey; 3. Zrostlik; 4. Hunter; 5. Martin; 6. Mitrisin; 7. 0 Rory Metcalf (West Union); 8. 4 Leon Thomsen (Waverly).

Fourth heat – 1. Strassheim; 2. Kay; 3. Johnson; 4. Bruening; 5. D. Eckrich; 6. Callahan; 7. 145 Dale Hackwell Jr. (Washburn); 8. 77S Stephan Kammerer (Blue Grass).

First B feature (4 transfer) – 1. Wagner; 2. Utter; 3. Halstead; 4. Shelliam; 5. Webb; 6. Smock; 7. Hahne; 8. Lerch; 9. Dralle; 10. Goedert.

Second B feature – 1. Bruening; 2. Hunter; 3. Martin; 4. Mitrisin; 5. D. Eckrich; 6. Hackwell; 7. Metcalf; 8. Kammerer; 9. Callahan; 10. Thomsen.

Provisional Starters – Smock (hard charger); Callahan, D. Eckrich, Webb (series points).

Austin Moyer earned his first-ever win in Independence by leading all 20 laps of the IMCA SportMod feature. After starting in row two, Moyer took charge by the end of lap one to drive to the victory.

IMCA SPORTMOD

Feature – 1. 25 Austin Moyer (Dubuque); 2. 14 Shane Ebaugh (Evansdale); 3. 96 Lucas Lundry (Maynard); 4. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 5. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 6. S16 Kip Siems (Cedar Falls); 7. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 8. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 9. 87 Aric Becker (Cedar Rapids); 10. 49 Brandon Smith (Rowley); 11. 25T Travis Peterson (Gladbrook); 12. 11M Mike Mitchell (Cedar Rapids); 13. 15B Troy Burkhart (Urbana); 14. 11S Al Sweerin (Waterloo); 15. 21R Randy Butterbrodt (Clarence); DNS 93 Josh Burrell (Dysart); DNS 63 Matt McCahen (Waterloo); DQ 198 Sam Wieben (Dysart).

First heat (top 5 redraw) – 1. Hilmer; 2. Siems; 3. Peterson; 4. Buhlman; 5. Wieben; 6. Chipp; 7. Lundry; 8. Sweerin; 9. Butterbrodt.

Second heat – 1. Dvorak; 2. Ebaugh; 3. Burkhart; 4. Smith; 5. Becker; 6. Mitchell; 7. Burrell; 8. Peterson; DNS McCahen.

Justin Stander took the lead at the drop of the green in the 20-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature. He showed the way while Benji Irvine and Brian Happel battled for second until caution slowed the event on lap five. Happel motored around the top side of Stander on the restart to drive to the win, his first in Independence since June 11, 2005. 

IMCA HOBBY STOCK

Feature – 1. 46 Brian Happel (Cedar Rapids); 2. 67 Justin Stander (Vinton); 3. 47 Scott Pippert (Elberon); 4. 99 Erick Knutsen (Center Point); 5. 4T3 T. J. Mortenson (Independence); 6. 23 Justin Hanson (West Union); 7. 73 Quinton Miller (Independence); 8. 26 Nathan Christie (Waterloo); 9. 78 Matt Brown (Dysart); 10. 1S Greg Sweerin (Evansdale); 11. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 12. 20B Matt Burmeister (Dunkerton); 13. 79 Benji Irvine (Cedar Falls); 14. 13G Craig Graham (Webster City); 15. 14G Curt Graham (Tiffin); 16. 258 Doug Laughridge (Vinton); 17. 77 Rod Grother (Cedar Rapids); 18. 8 Dave Wheeler (Fairbank); 19. 95 Matt Lundry (Oelwein); 20. 5 Marcus Wayne (Independence).

First heat (top 5 redraw) – 1. Pippert; 2. Knutsen; 3. Wacha; 4. Stander; 5. Curt Graham; 6. Craig Graham; 7. Mortenson; 8. Sweerin; 9. Brown; 10. Burmeister.

Second heat – 1. Laughridge; 2. Irvine; 3. Grother; 4. Lundry; 5. Happel; 6. Wayne; 7. Christie; 8. Miller; 9. Hanson; 10. Wheeler.

Race Notes: The track provided multiple grooves in all divisions throughout the features. Tyler Bruening and Jon Passick were the first to attempt the top lane prior to the lap 10 caution in the Late Model feature. Talking to track promoter Todd Summers during the caution, I mentioned that I hoped the rest of the field would take a chance up top to help that groove come in. He replied, "Oh, it's already there, they just need to get up there." Sure enough, on the restart, multiple grooves were chosen as the Late Models put on a tremendous show... Travis Smock made his way into the Late Model feature by virtue of the Hard Charger provisional. Although Smock actually only gained a few spots during qualifying, he made the provisional pay off as he raced from 21st to finish 10th. Series points provisionals Joel Callahan and Denny Eckrich, who started in the two positions behind Smock, also finished in the two positions behind Smock. All three drivers advanced 11 spots over the course of the main event... Darrel DeFrance was running sixth in the Late Model feature when engine problems forced him to the infield on lap 17... The lap 10 caution in the Late Model feature involved sixth and seventh-running Matt Strassheim and Andy Eckrich. That stoppage resulted in Strassheim retiring to the pits and Eckrich at the tail for the restart. Eckrich rebounded to finish ninth after restarting 22nd... Curt Hilmer drew the pole for the IMCA SportMod feature, however he required a push from staging and was forced to start the 20-lapper from the tail... Hobby Stock winner Brian Happel wanted me to mention that he now has two feature wins this season (the other win coming in Vinton a few weeks ago), which is one more than his friend Tom Schmitt has in the Stock Car division this season. Come on, Brian, didn't you know that Tom actually has to bring his race car to the track to have a chance at winning a feature?

All three divisions put on a great show Monday night, which concluded with the final checkered flag waving just before the 10 o'clock hour. Fellow Positively Racing blogger Jeff Broeg was in attendance tonight, so be sure to check out his thoughts on the Back Stretch. Also, Dennis Krieger was in the infield taking photos for www.speedblitz.net, as was Kyle Ealy for www.autoracingindependent.com. Be sure to check out their work, as well. As always, track photographer Scott Tjabring's excellent work may be found at www.actiontrackphotos.com. You can also check out Ed Reichert's views in an upcoming issue of Hawkeye Racing News.

After four straight days of watching race cars go in circles in 90-plus degree weather, I'm going to spend some quality time in the air conditioning for the remainder of the week. While cooling down, I plan to assemble the June Stats Blitz for Independence Motor Speedway, which should be posted sometime tomorrow night or Wednesday. Have a great week!