Since Independence Motor Speedway's special was canceled Thursday night, I made my way west for the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models/Karl Performance Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds double-dip at Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City.
Quality fields in both the Late Model and Modified divisions, along with SportMods and Hobby Stocks turned out for the event, which was rescheduled from a rainout two days earlier. (feature results listed at the end of this entry)
Pole-sitter Spencer Diercks took command at the drop of the green in the 40-lap Deery Series headliner. The 16-year-old surged into the lead while second row starter Jeff Aikey settled into second. After briefly challenging the low side of the leader on lap two, Aikey let Diercks pull away before caution slowed action a trio of times on laps six and seven.
When racing resumed, Diercks again pulled away from traffic with Aikey in tow, while sixth row starter and series points leader Brian Harris made his way to the front running the top side of the fast half-mile. Harris raced the top side around series ironman Darrel DeFrance on lap 11 and continued to reel in the leaders.
In the meantime, Aikey was able to cut into Diercks' advantage when the youngster had trouble navigating the exit of turn two. While Diercks had little difficulty making his way off turn four, he struggled for a handful of laps exiting the first set of turns. He slid the #29 from the bottom to the top numerous times before his luck ran out on lap 16 when he made contact with the retaining wall, ending his impressive run.
With the leader gone, Aikey and Harris started side-by-side to lead the field back to green. Aikey powered to the front on the low side of the speedway, while Harris again went to work upstairs. Harris pulled the switcheroo on Aikey in turn two one lap later. Exiting turn two, Harris shot to the low side of the leader and escaped down the back stretch with the lead.
Harris continued to extend his advantage, pulling away by half of a straightaway with a dozen laps to go. His progress was cut short when the caution flag waved a final time on lap 32 for a spinning DeFrance, who sat idle on the low side of turns three and four.
On the final restart, Harris led the field to green with Aikey in second and Ray Guss Jr. now in third. After spotting Harris a few car-lengths over the pack, Guss closed late, but came up a few car-lengths short at the line, leaving Harris standing in victory lane for the second straight series event. Guss ran second ahead of a hard-charging Denny Eckrich and Andy Eckrich. Aikey faded to fifth.
Richie Gustin took command at the drop of the green in the Hawkeye Dirt Tour 25-lapper. Like a rocket, Gustin quickly pulled away from the pack, leaving Scott Olson to do battle with Ryan Ruter for second. Jimmy Gustin, Mark Elliott and Mike Van Genderen joined in a six-car breakaway at the front of the pack before the event's only caution flag waved on lap eight.
On the restart, Ruter quickly shuffled Olson back to third, then raced the top side into a challenge for the lead. Ruter surged ahead of Gustin off turn four on the 10th circuit to take command at the starter's stand. He won the event going away ahead of Gustin and Olson.
In other action, 28 IMCA SportMods signed in to do battle in a non-track points draw/redraw special. Doug Smith, Matt Lettow and Carter VanDenBerg made it clear that it would be one of those three standing in victory lane after 16 laps as that trio of drivers pulled away and entertained the crowd in a close battle throughout the race.
Following three early cautions, the event went green a final time following a lap three caution. At that time, pole-sitter Smith paced the field back into action with Lettow running the low side and VanDenBerg up top. The leaders ran in that same formation as they pulled over half a straightaway ahead of the pack by the midway point.
Lettow was able to pull ahead of VanDenBerg late, then stick his nose to the inside of Smith's #12 over the final laps, however Smith held on by a car-length to score the exciting win.
Ten IMCA Hobby Stocks battled to the checkers in that 14-lapper. Ty Griffith took command from his outside front row starting spot with Randy Embrey and Devin Smith in pursuit. The leaders ran in that order until Embrey challenged to the low side of Griffith when the leaders made their way down the back stretch on the fifth lap. This allowed Smith to sneak between his competitors as they made their way off turn four as he surged ahead at the line to take charge. Smith led the remainder of the event to score the victory over Embrey and Griffith.
Race Notes:
* Jeff Aikey fans may have been disappointed with his fifth place run after he spent time at the front of the Late Model feature, however a late-race caution in his 10-lap heat race qualifier may have prevented a much worse outcome for him. Aikey was running two positions out of a redraw spot in his heat when the caution flag waved with a couple laps to go. He was able to race his way into the redraw after that stoppage, then redrew #3 for the 40-lap feature.
* Craig Jacobs was the only one of 25 Late Models not to take the green flag in the feature. He fought his #95 during his heat race qualifier prior to an early exit.
* HDT series opener winner Cayden Carter suffered mechanical problems in his bid to start the 2013 campaign with back-to-back wins. The series winner at Benton County Speedway in Vinton last month, Carter pulled off with nine laps complete in Thursday's 25-lap feature to finish 23rd.
* Jay Noteboom's ninth place run was not what he bargained for at the start of the night, but he worked his tail off to get there. After dropping out of his heat early, Noteboom started the Modified feature 24th on the grid. Despite only one caution, he made a nice run through the pack to earn the top-10 finish.
* Likewise, in the SportMod division, defending track champion Joel Rust failed to make the redraw for that 16-lapper, however he came from near the back of that 24-car pack to finish ninth. If you haven't seen Rust pilot a race car, he's worth the price of admission alone and is always a threat to contend regardless where he is on the starting grid.
* Thursday's HDT event was the first-ever for first-year IMCA Modified
driver Jesse Sobbing. The former IMCA Northern SportMod champ, Sobbing
was impressive in his first go-round against the top Modified drivers in
the region, racing to an eighth place finish after starting 12th.
* Track promoter Mike Van Genderen wore two hats Thursday night. In addition to running the show and keeping a close eye on track conditions, Van Genderen signed in his #57V Modified to take part in the Hawkeye Dirt Tour portion of the program. Van Genderen raced the high groove to a 10th place finish.
* Speaking of Van Genderen, rescheduled events are always a crap shoot when it comes to car count and attendance. It makes things even tougher when you are forced to consider available make-up dates to accommodate not just one, but two traveling series and the schedule is already loaded with special events. That level of uncertainty is even greater when an event is rescheduled for two days following the original date. While the two-day turnaround didn't provide a lot of time for drivers and fans to make adjustments around their work and family schedules, a quality field of cars and good number of fans turned out for the make-up event. On top of that, Mike and his crew did a fantastic job preparing the track for the program. As I told him following the show, if anyone walked away from Thursday night's show at all disappointed, they aren't true race fans. My hat is off to Mike and his crew for a well-run show on a near-perfect race track.
* It's rare when I spend any race sitting in the grandstands. After working at area tracks for many years, I've found it difficult to sit still and take in a show without walking around or keeping myself busy. I was able to do that Thursday night in Webster City in the company of fellow Positively Racing bloggers Dick and Joyce Eisele. We shared a number of great stories and even more laughs throughout the night and I thank them for letting me spend the evening with them. Be sure to read their report from Thursday's show in the 4dfan Report.
Originally, I was planning to attend the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series event at 34 Raceway tonight, however last night's trip to Webster City and other obligations today have forced me to change those plans. Although I won't be there tonight, I'm certain a number of Positively Racing representatives will be on-hand to report the action. Be sure to visit the site over the weekend to check out the stories from Burlington and other area tracks. If you're a Sprint fan and are able to make it to Burlington tonight, do it! Not only are they the best Sprint Car drivers in the country, but 34 has some of the greatest facilities in the Midwest. The 305 Sprints will be joining the 410s tonight, so it will be a quality show that should have you on the road home by a reasonable hour.
Tomorrow, I'll be back at Independence Motor Speedway for Ferguson Enterprises Scout Night at the Races. All Scouts in uniform will be admitted free and offered a concession special. In addition, Jarod Weepie, Curt Martin and Darin Duffy will have their race cars on display behind the grandstands prior to race time for the kids to get a close-up look at some of the competitors. Also, Superior Cleaning Services and Independence Plumbing, Heating & Cooling will sponsor a candy dash for the kids during intermission. Saturday promises to be another great night of Fast Family Fun at the Buchanan County Fairgrounds!
Have a great weekend!
HAMILTON COUNTY SPEEDWAY RESULTS
DEERY BROTHERS SUMMER SERIES FOR IMCA LATE MODELS
1. 15R Brian Harris; 2. 58 Ray Guss Jr.; 3. 50 Denny Eckrich; 4. 56 Andy Eckrich; 5. 77 Jeff Aikey; 6. 16 Tyler Bruening; 7. 40 Joel Callahan; 8. 26JR Corey Zeitner; 9. 15K Justin Kay; 10. 1M Rob Moss; 11. 15C Curt Schroeder; 12. 99D Darrel DeFrance; 13. 76 Jason Hahne; 14. 29X Nick Pedersen; 15. 12 Ron Klein; 16. 15X Ryan Griffith; 17. 74 Ron Boyse; 18. 46 Nate Bueseling; 19. 16S Dan Shelliam; 20. 33 Nick Marolf; 21. 38 Colby Springsteen; 22. 29 Spencer Diercks; 23. 2 Jeremiah Hurst; 24. 98 Travis Smock; 25. 95 Craig Jacobs.
KARL PERFORMANCE HAWKEYE DIRT TOUR FOR IMCA MODIFIEDS
1. 555 Ryan Ruter; 2. 19G Richie Gustin; 3. 8X Scott Olson; 4. 15 Mark Elliott; 5. 69X Jon Snyder; 6. 19 Jimmy Gustin; 7. 2L Adam Larson; 8. 99 Jesse Sobbing; 9. 7N Jay Noteboom; 10. 57V Mike Van Genderen; 11. 27M Mark Schulte; 12. 5 Todd Shute; 13. 47 Greg Elliott; 14. 21CZ Tim Czarneski; 15. 22T Tyler Prochaska; 16. 10K Ronn Lauritzen; 17. 13H Travis Hatcher; 18. 21 David Brown; 19. 71W Jeff Waterman; 20. 1BC Tony Cox; 21. 64 Casey Greubel; 22. 21K Kyle Brown; 23. 10C Cayden Carter; 24. 20L Zach Less; 25. 99M Tim Murty.
IMCA SPORTMODS
1. 12 Doug Smith; 2. 21 Matt Lettow; 3. 7 Carter VanDenBerg; 4. 23JR Nick Roberts; 5. 24 Aaron Benson; 6. 14E Chase Ellingson; 7. 69 Kyle Germandson; 8. 85T Brandon Toftee; 9. 26J Joel Rust; 10. 46 Matt Northrop; 11. 4ORD Bob Sutherland; 12. 63R Rick Fasse; 13. 51X Matthew Webb; 14. 66 Levi Chipp; 15. 99 Rocky Caudle; 16. 49X Cody Knecht; 17. 2 Jerid Ratzke; 18. 02A Coty Albers; 19. 22A Shawn Albers; 20. 64 Brandon Leeman; 21. 20 Gerald Curry; 22. 11H Mike Hay; 23. 23K Ben Kates; 24. 10H Jack Housely. DNQ: 1R Brad Ratcliff, 10L Levi Laymon, 26B Bryan Johnson, 138 Jon Peed.
IMCA HOBBY STOCKS
1. 81 Devin Smith; 2. 40 Randy Embrey; 3. 56 Ty Griffith; 4. 8R Cory Rose; 5. 2013 Bill Bonnett; 6. 29N Cody Nielsen; 7. 13G Craig Graham; 8. 4D Daniel Ayers; 9. 20B Ben Bruck; 10. 21 Myles Michehl.
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