In the middle of the afternoon Thursday, I decided to head to Farley Speedway for the final day of the After Market Nationals. The event was run under IMCA rules with the exception that crate motors were not allowed in the Modified or SportMod divisions.
After a majority of the qualifying was completed during Wednesday's portion of the show, a last chance qualifier in each division was run prior to the feature events Thursday night. The final spot in the Modified field was auctioned off to the highest bidder, Levi Nielsen of Mason City, who offered up $900 to start at the tail of the 50-lapper after failing to make it out of Thursday night's last chance race.
Wednesday night's dash winner Brandon Wilson led the field to green from his pole position start. The first-year Modified driver was accompanied on the front row by fellow Wisconsinite Shawn Kilgore, who raced into the early lead.
Kilgore quickly pulled away from the pack, gaining half of a straightaway on Wilson by the seven lap mark. In the meantime, Richie Gustin, who started outside of row two, reeled in Wilson and challenged to his low side for second.
By the time Gustin made his way into the runner-up spot, Kilgore was a straightaway ahead of the field. Lapped traffic in front of the leader allowed Gustin to challenge. Kilgore came upon the backmarkers on the 16th circuit, which allowed Gustin to trim his lead in half by the 18 lap mark. Gustin was within a car-length of the leader in heavy traffic when the event's first yellow - a mandatory midway caution - was displayed on lap 25.
The stoppage on the front stretch was to allow for a refill on fuel and to add tear-offs to the drivers' helmets. No other changes or work were allowed on the cars. Any driver doing additional work, along with those who pulled into the pit area, were sent to the tail for the ensuing restart.
Following one final caution prior to the completion of lap 26, Kilgore again took charge. Wilson restarted alongside Gustin and was able to take over the second spot while Andy Eckrich was making his way through the pack. After an original ninth row start, Eckrich restarted the second half of the event seventh, and continued his march to the front driving Jason Snyder's #98.
Eckrich slipped past Mark Schulte into the top five on lap 30, then battled Jordan Grabouski for numerous circuits while Kilgore built a comfortable lead ahead of Wilson. With the top two comfortably ahead of the pack, Gustin was holding onto third when Eckrich made his way past Grabouski for fourth on lap 37.
Eckrich reeled in Gustin and cleared him for third as the white flag waved, however Kilgore and Wilson were still comfortably ahead of their nearest pursuers. As the leaders worked their way through traffic in the late stages, Kilgore maintained the point to lead the event in its entirety and earned the biggest payday of his racing career - $10,000.
Wilson ran second ahead of Eckrich, Gustin and Grabouski. Schulte finished sixth ahead of Kyle Strickler, who started 25th after qualifying from the last chance race. Jason Schueller ran eighth and Brandon Davis, driving Kevin Stoa's #98, finished ninth. Jerry Luloff came from 18th to round out the top 10.
Benji LaCrosse came home 11th after starting 22nd and Kelly Shryock both started and finished 12th. Kyle Brown was 13th and auction winner Nielsen advanced nearly halfway through the field to finish 14th after his 26th place start.
J.D. Auringer ran 15th and last chance winner Darin Duffy finished 16th. Bobby Moyer, Matt Gansen, Tim Murty and Vern Jackson completed the top 20. Ron Barker, Bob Dominacki, Tyler Droste, Cayden Carter, Colt Mather and Brian Mullen rounded out the 26-car field.
The Modified feature went 50 laps in 20 total minutes of race time. Even with the 14-minute mandatory midway caution, the event was completed in just 34 minutes.
The SportMod feature, while very entertaining, had a few more problems with the caution flag. Eric Pollard led the distance to score the victory in that event, but it was not without being forced to survive 10 cautions and a hard-fought challenge from Aaron Benson in the final laps.
Pollard, who earned the pole position after Wednesday night qualifying, assumed command at the onset of that 30-lapper. Running the top groove of the fast, smooth 3/8-mile speedway, Pollard maintained the point through five cautions in the first seven laps.
During the race's longest green flag run from laps 7-17, Pollard held the lead while Ryan Schilling worked the low groove into second. He slid beneath Paul Nagle for that position on lap 14.
Meanwhile, Austin Moyer raced from a sixth row starting spot into contention and made his way into the top three following a lap 17 restart. Pollard, Schilling and Moyer ran in that order until caution slowed action on the 22nd circuit.
When racing resumed, Moyer made his way past Schilling for second until action was again halted on lap 28. On that restart, Moyer and Schilling came together on the front stretch, which forced Moyer high and dropped him back to fifth. He caught Schilling exiting turn two and additional contact at that time between the two drivers sent Schilling into a spin. Due to their involvement in the incident, both drivers were sent to the tail for the restart.
Benson, who started 13th after qualifying by winning the last chance race earlier in the evening, restarted in second. He was able to pull alongside Pollard a couple of times over the final two circuits, however Pollard held on for the $5,000 victory. Nagle came home third ahead of Mark Massey, who started 18th. Dan Mohr ran fifth. It was a great win for Pollard, whose work in the armed forces
will take him out of state for a couple years. Thursday night's race was his
last in quite a while.
While both winners led wire-to-wire tonight, I was most impressed with Andy Eckrich. Not only has Eckrich spent very little time in Jason Snyder's Modified, it was only the Late Model driver's fourth career event in an open wheel car.
It was nice to return to Farley, a place I hadn't visited in nearly 11 years. My last trip to the Palace of Speed was in September of 2002 during Brian Birkhofer's memorable run to the Yankee Dirt Track Classic title. That was the year he left the event to repair an axle before coming back to shock the crowd with his thrilling victory.
It was nice to visit with a number of people in the stands Thursday night. Special thanks to Gary and Karen Crawford for inviting me to the Crawford Farms suite. I also enjoyed watching the features behind the flagstand with SportMod drivers Brennen Chipp and Ryan Maitland and their fathers. By the way, guys, nobody was exactly right on their picks for the winner of the Modified feature or the number of cautions for that event, but there were a couple of close guesses. Ryan had the highest finishing driver (he had Brandon Wilson) and Brennen was closest to the number of cautions (he guessed three). I guess youth prevailed!
Depending how my day goes, I hope to head south for the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models event Friday night at Davenport Speedway. It's also been a little while since I attended a race in Davenport - the spring Deery Series race of 2010.
I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!
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