A trio of drivers earned their first wins of the year (for one, the first of his career) during the seventh annual Dick Frye Memorial on the final night of the Buchanan County Fair. Jeff Aikey, Shawn Ryan and Brandon Smith made their first trips to victory lane as 112 signed in to compete at Independence Motor Speedway.
Aikey scored the win in the IMCA Late Model division driving the primary car of friend and competitor Rick Dralle. After starting in row six, Aikey worked the top side through the field while Luke Pestka and Jon Passick battled for the lead.
Pestka and Passick put on an entertaining show for the top spot before Aikey swept past the leaders at the midway point. He ran away in lapped traffic to score the victory, his first of the season. With the win, Aikey became the fifth straight different Late Model winner at the speedway. It was his first Dick Frye Memorial win. It was also Aikey's second win of the season in Dralle's ride - he also scored the win during a Late Model special earlier this year at Benton County Speedway in Vinton.
In his weekly racing career in Independence, Aikey now owns 10 Late Model wins. He sits tied for 17th on the all-time list with Doc Mayner and Darin Duffy. Believe it or not, Saturday's win was Aikey's first-ever in the month of July in weekly racing history in Independence.
A total of 10,262 days span Aikey's first Late Model win in Independence (June 15, 1985) and his most recent. That is the sixth longest span in track history for the Late Model division.
Shawn Ryan took the lead from Josh Sherbon following a lap three restart to drive to his first win of the year in the IMCA Modified division. Ryan raced the top side to victory ahead of a hard-charging Ronn Lauritzen.
His first win of 2013 in Independence, Ryan now owns three career wins in weekly racing history at the speedway. He is tied for 38th on that list with Owen Grube, Randy Trefz and Travis Heyer. The win was Ryan's first during the Dick Frye Memorial.
Ryan has now earned four straight top-10 finishes in Independence and Lauritzen continued his recent hot streak of impressive runs. Lauritzen has finished first or second each of the last five weeks.
Brandon Smith rounded out the list of first-time winners Saturday night. Smith survived numerous cautions to earn his first career IMCA Northern SportMod win in an event that timed out after nine laps.
The fifth first-time winner in the SportMods this season, that mark now ties the 2008 and 2009 seasons for the most in division history in Independence. Smith is the 22nd different SportMod winner in track history and became the sixth straight different winner in the division.
John Emerson raced to his sixth win of the season in the IMCA Stock Car division. Emerson raced from the fourth row while Jarod Weepie held the lead. Emerson worked past Weepie with two laps to go to take the victory.
The 10th win of his career in Independence, Emerson is now alone in ninth on the division's wins list. He was the fourth different winner in as many weeks in the Stock Cars. It was Emerson's first win during the Dick Frye Memorial.
Benji Irvine took over the lead when front-runner Jeremiah Wilson was sidelined with mechanical problems halfway through the 15-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Irvine led the remainder of the event to score his third win of the year and his second straight at the Dick Frye Memorial.
With five career Hobby Stock wins in Independence, Irvine is now tied with Bret Dage, Doug Otto, Jamie Whitaker, Jerry Luloff, Justin Temeyer, Kevin Hoehne, Lon Gadow and Rick Suckow for 19th on the all-time list.
All five of Irvine's wins have come in the last calendar year. In fact, his most recent win fell one day shy of the anniversary of his first win at the speedway (July 21, 2012). Irvine has now earned seven straight top-3 finishes and has not finished outside of the top four through 11 nights of racing this season.
Adam Gates scored his ninth win of the year in the IMCA Sport Compact division. Gates battled Steve Miedke early before driving to victory. He has won every Sport Compact feature he has started this season.
Tonight, weather permitting, it's back to Benton County Speedway for the weekly racing program in Vinton. I hope to see you there!
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