Harris ties record with fourth straight Deery win at West Liberty

The streak for Brian Harris rolled on Tuesday night in the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models at West Liberty Raceway. After a lengthy battle with Andy Eckrich, Harris pulled away following a late caution to drive to his fourth straight win in series action. (complete results follow.)

Pole-sitter Nick Marolf jumped to a huge early lead in the 40-lapper, pulling to a near straightaway advantage by lap seven. While Marolf led, Eckrich battled Jason Utter for second. Ekrich, who started outside of Utter in the third row, worked the low side of the fast half-mile while Utter drove the top line. Eckrich powered to the bottom of turns one and two to pull ahead of Utter by the time Marolf built his huge lead.

Harris, not far behind, started outside of row five, but was already into the top five after just two laps. He pulled onto Utter's rear bumper just as Eckrich made his bid for second.

Out front, Eckrich quickly reeled in Marolf and was assisted when the front-runners encountered lapped traffic on the 11th circuit. Eckrich again powered to the low side of the first set of turns one lap later to take command. Harris ran down the leaders on the 13th lap as the top three ran nose-to-tail down the back stretch.

The trio ran in the same formation and distanced themselves more than half a straightaway ahead of the pack. Lapped traffic then allowed Harris to run the low side past Marolf for second in turns one and two on the 16th lap. Harris used the same maneuver in the same set of turns one lap later to challenge Eckrich for the lead.

Although Harris made his way down the back stretch with the lead, Eckrich fought back on the low side on the following lap to regain control, all while the leaders battled in traffic. Eckrich and Harris swapped the top spot numerous times until Harris worked the high side to the lead when they cleared traffic on lap 21. The lead pair pulled away by a straightaway before the race's only caution slowed action on lap 24.

When racing resumed, Marolf had a strong run to the green flag restarting outside of Eckrich in row two. He took over second, then briefly challenged to the outside of Harris before Harris pulled away. Marolf fell back into a battle for second with Eckrich on lap 30, over half a straightaway behind Harris.

Although he again came upon lapped traffic with five laps to go, Harris sailed to the exciting victory ahead of Eckrich. Justin Kay, who started inside of Harris in row five, took advantage of the caution to come home third. Ray Guss Jr., who started 15th after transferring from a B feature, finished fourth ahead of Marolf.

The win for Harris tied an all-time Deery Series mark of four straight tour wins. That record was set by Gary Webb in 1994 and matched by Rob Toland in 2004. Harris will have the chance to break the series record for consecutive wins when the tour makes its first of two stops this season at Independence Motor Speedway on Tuesday, July 2. Details for that event are in the flyer posted at the top of this page.

Stock Cars joined the Late Models Tuesday night in a draw/redraw event for track points. Sixteen cars signed in for that 20-lapper with Damon Murty leading the way early. Murty, who competed at West Liberty for the first time in around five years, paced the field while a handful of drivers battled for position behind him.

Nathan Wood raced the low side past points leader Tad Payne for second while David Brandies entered the mix from a third row start. Brandies slipped past Payne and Wood on the third circuit, then raced the low line to reel in Murty.

Brandies pulled even with Murty in turn four on lap six, then exited the corner with the lead. He survived the event's only stoppage on lap 16 to drive to the win ahead of Murty, Wood and Payne.

* Jeremiah Hurst saw an early end to his night in the Late Model division. Hurst suffered a broken drive shaft on his #2 during hot laps and scratched for the night. In fact, it was reported he loaded up and headed back home a short time later.
* It was good to see veteran Ron Boyse put together a solid run in the Late Model feature. The 40-plus year veteran had a solid top-five run through most of the feature. He slipped to eighth in the final running order following the late caution, but ran well all evening.
*  As always, it was nice to chat with race announcer Jerry Mackey prior to the show. Jerry is one of the best in the business and always does a great job updating the fans on qualifying procedures and race format. By the way, Jerry, yes, there were two sheep on the highway a few miles north of West Liberty on my way to town. If I hadn't been so lead-footed on my way to the track, you may have stumbled upon them before me!
* It was nice to chat with fellow Positively Racing blogger Barry Johnson throughout the night. Family obligations have kept his travels at a minimum this season, but he stated he intends to pick up a few more events as the busy mid-summer portion of the schedule approaches. Be sure to check out that schedule on our calendar page. Fellow blogger Jeff Broeg was also in attendance. Check out his take from the night on the Back Stretch.

Unless I decide to head south Thursday to Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for the Karl Performance Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds / Brockway Mechanical & Roofing Sprint Invaders Series double-header, my next race will be in Independence on Saturday. Remember, SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts will be racing for increased purse money this weekend!

As always, thanks for reading!

RESULTS
DEERY SERIES IMCA LATE MODEL
Feature - 1. 15R Brian Harris; 2. 56 Andy Eckrich; 3. 15K Justin Kay; 4. 58 Ray Guss Jr.; 5. 33 Nick Marolf; 6. 15 Kyle Hinrichs; 7. 40 Joel Callahan; 8. 74 Ron Boyse; 9. 69 Tom Goble; 10. 88 Kevin Kile; 11. 46 Nate Beuseling; 12. 38 Colby Springsteen; 13. 1M Rob Moss; 14. 45 Tommy Elston; 15. 77 Kurt Kile; 16. 99D Darrel DeFrance; 17. 29 Spencer Diercks; 18. 16S Dan Shelliam; 19. 16 Tyler Bruening; 20. 6 Jay Chenoweth; 21. 31 Jason Utter; 22. 50 Denny Eckrich; 23. 93 Jay Johnson; 24. 07 Matt Ryan
First heat (top 3 qualify/redraw) - 1. Utter; 2. A. Eckrich; 3. D. Eckrich; 4. Callahan; 5. 32C Chad Holladay; 6. Elston; 7. S. Diercks; 8. 17 Tim Simpson.
Second heat - 1. Harris; 2. Goble; 3. Marolf; 4. Guss; 5. Springsteen; 6. 4D Marty Diercks; 7. Ryan; 8. C4 Chad Lerch.
Third heat - 1. Hinrichs; 2. Shelliam; 3. Boyse; 4. Johnson; 5. Beuseling; 6. Aikey; 7. Kevin Kile; DNS 2 Jeremiah Hurst.
Fourth heat - 1. Bruening; 2. Kay; 3. DeFrance; 4. 77K Kurt Kile; 5. 22B Jonathan Brauns; 6. Moss; 7. Chenoweth; 8. 99 Luke Pestka.
First B feature (4 transfer) - 1. Callahan; 2. Guss; 3. Elston; 4. Diercks; 5. Springsteen; 6. Holladay; 7. Ryan; 8. M. Diercks; 9. Lerch; 10. Simpson.
Second B feature - 1. Moss; 2. Brauns; 3. Chenoweth; 4. Pestka; DNS Kurt Kile; DNS Hurst.
Provisionals - Hard Charger: Ryan - Points: Springsteen Moss, Chenoweth.

STOCK CAR
Feature - 1. 71 David Brandies; 2. 99D Damon Murty; 3. 52 Nathan Wood; 4. 6J Brandon Jay; 5. 44 Tad Payne; 6. 17C Shane Paris; 7. 2 Travis Finke; 8. 33 Jarrett Franzen; 9. 34 John Hemsted; 10. 4 Jake Wenig; 11. 566 Jim Lynch; 12. 9W Ryan Walker; 13. 31 Josh Woods; 14. Lane Kauffman; 15. 11 Cody Harris; 16. 68 Cole Simmons.
First heat (top 5 redraw) - 1. Brandies; 2. Payne; 3. Jay; 4. Paris; 5. Franzen; 6. Hemsted; 7. Kauffman; 8. Walker.
Second heat - 1. Murty; 2. Finke; 3. Lynch; 4. Wood; 5. Harris; 6. Wenig; 7. Woods; 8. Simmons.