The Johnson parade continued at Independence Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Adam Johnson added his name to an exclusive list in the IMCA Modified division while Sean Johnson picked up yet another win in IMCA Stock Car action.
After taking the lead two laps into the IMCA Modified 20-lapper, Adam Johnson held off Troy Cordes to earn his third straight win in the division and his fourth in the last five weeks. Johnson is now one of only eight Modified drivers in the 30-year history of the division at the track to earn three consecutive wins. He joined Tom Bartholomew, Troy Cordes, Darin Duffy, Greg Kastli, Jack Mitchell, Mark Noble and Duane Van Deest as the only Mod drivers with three straight wins. Only Mitchell has ever won four straight at the speedway during a six-win stretch in 1984. Unfortunately for Johnson, that mark in unattainable since only two weeks remain in the season.
The 13th Modified win of his career in Indee, Johnson is now tied for seventh on the all-time list with Van Deest and Steve Droste. While another win will move him into seventh alone, he is six wins behind Jack Mitchell for sixth all-time.
Saturday's win was Johnson's third career victory in the month of August and his fourth following a rained out event. All-time Johnson has won 17 times in his career in Independence, placing him alone in 29th on the career list. He is, get this, half of a win shy of Dave Gerner on the all-time list and a full win behind Joe Docekal. Gerner and Dennis Dugan were declared co-winners in a 1987 photo finish in the Sportsman division.
Sean Johnson inched one step closer to locking up his second straight track championship in the IMCA Stock Car division. After chasing race-long leader John Emerson, Johnson raced past Emerson late in that 18-lapper to score his fourth win in six weeks and his sixth win of the year. Johnson needs only to finish 11th or better next weekend to lock up the track title a week before championship night.
Johnson now has eight career wins in the month of August, more than any other month. He has also won six times in events following rainouts.
For his career, Johnson has 23 Stock Car wins in Independence, eight shy of Brian Irvine for second on the all-time list. His 23 wins place Johnson in a tie with Roger Ciesielski and Justin Temeyer for 17th in overall career wins at the speedway.
Lucas Lundry earned his first win of the season in the IMCA SportMod division. Lundry shot to the inside of Kip Siems to take command in the waning laps of that event to drive to victory. Lundry now owns one win in each of the last four seasons in the division at Indee. His four career wins place him alone in fifth on the all-time list, two behind Austin Kaplan.
After making his way past Greg Hunter midway through IMCA Late Model feature, Chad Lerch held off Curt Martin in the late stages of that 25-lapper to take the win. His second victory of the season, Lerch now owns five career wins in the division in Independence. He is tied for 28th on that list with Dale Hackwell Jr., Les Verly, Rick Dralle, Terry Neal and Travis Smock.
Benji Irvine raced to the win and the points lead in the IMCA Hobby Stock division. Irvine went from fifth to first in a single lap following a mid-race caution to drive to victory, his second of the season. He holds a one point lead over Justin Stander heading into the final two weeks of the season.
The second win of his career, Irvine became the 60th driver in division history at Independence to earn multiple wins. The Hobby Stock feature Saturday night was the 350th in track history and he became the third with the last name Irvine to win milestone Hobby Stock features at the speedway. Ken Irvine won the first Hobby Stock feature in 1989 and Josh Irvine was the 300th winner in 2009.
After Steve Miedke and Duayne Herb lost the lead due to mechanical problems, Merv Chandler assumed command to drive to his second straight win in the IMCA Sport Compact division. Chandler and Miedke have now each won back-to-back features in the division's brief four week existence in weekly racing at the speedway.
A question arose last night concerning the IMCA Modified feature lineup. "How can the 24R start in the
second row when he's won the last two features and three of the last
four?" The answer? His 11th, 19th and 20th place finishes during the
first half of the season greatly affected his season average. For those who may not be aware, all lineups are based on inverting drivers based on their season point averages, meaning each driver's total points divided by his/her individual number of appearances for the entire season.
A lot of people believe lineups are done on a two week average. I'm not sure where people ever got the impression IMCA uses a two-week
average. That simply is not the case. It is a season point average as it has been for many, many, many, many years. The
only "two-week" item that applies is if a driver misses two consecutive
points nights. In that case, those drivers are treated as new cars and
start at the back of their respective heats and at the back of qualified
cars for the feature, assuming they qualify. The week following a driver's return, his/her season-long point average is then reinstated. (On a side note, which has nothing to do with the drivers in last night's feature, for
those who've made it a career habit of racing one week and taking
the next week off to "work" the points system, it does nothing to help
you. All it does is reduce the number of nights you race at a track, but
does nothing to affect your point average. Again, YOUR total points divided by YOUR appearances.)
I believe the reason the question came up Saturday is because many of the drivers who made the point invert haven't been at Indee every week, so it's common that hit-and-missers actually have better averages than some of the weekly guys. People just don't realize it because those drivers aren't near the top of the standings. The drivers who made the invert on Saturday, but have missed at least one night at the speedway this season include J.D. Auringer, Darin Duffy, Vern Jackson and Troy Cordes. In addition, two qualifiers were considered new, including Justin O'Brien, who was making his first appearance in weekly racing at the speedway this season, and Chris Snyder, who had missed the previous two weeks and was considered a "new" car. Both O'Brien and Snyder started at the back to the 12-car invert. The point averages of the remaining 10 qualifiers, listed in order of inverted season point averages and how they started Saturday night, follow below:
26P Kevin Pittman, 23.67
98 Jason Snyder, 28.50
75 Josh Sherbon, 30.22
24R Adam Johnson, 33.67
71 Troy Cordes, 34.00
F7 Patrick Flannagan, 34.17
64 Vern Jackson, 35.11
19D Darin Duffy, 36.50
00J J.D. Auringer, 37.00
10K Ronn Lauritzen, 37.00
I hope that helps clear up some of the confusion. Thank you to those who asked the question and didn't realize how lineups were made.
It was great to have Las Vegas Motor Speedway announcer Chet Christner in attendance last night. Chet, who lives in Vegas, spent recent weeks driving cross-country to visit family in Maryland. He was making his way back to Vegas and included Independence as one of a handful of race track visits on his way home.
Next month, Chet will be back in the Hawkeye State for the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals. I will join Chet and Boone Speedway announcer Jerry Vansickle to call the action at the six-day event. I'm looking forward to another great week in Boone!
Tonight, it's back to Benton County Speedway in Vinton for another night of weekly action. Although the prognosticators are calling for rain today, minimal moisture has fallen at the race track and we should be good to go for tonight's event. Chet will be on-hand tonight in Vinton, as well, so I hope Mother Nature allows for some racing tonight! Tomorrow, it's off to Iowa State Fair Speedway for the annual fair race, which includes the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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