While John Emerson and Josh Sherbon experienced much success in the IMCA Stock Car and IMCA Northern SportMod divisions, respectively, both drivers earned their first career wins in their current divisions Saturday night at Independence Motor Speedway.
Emerson led all 25 laps of the IMCA Late Model feature to earn his first win in that division. After piloting Kenny Pint's Late Model a few nights last year, Emerson took just three nights this season to reach victory lane in his first full year in the division.
Emerson survived numerous stoppages in the first six laps and then held off Rick Wendling in lapped traffic to score the milestone victory. The Late Models have seen three different winners in the first three weeks of the season for the 11th time in the last 12 years.
With the win, Emerson became the 100th different Late Model winner in weekly racing at the speedway since the start of the 1967 season. He became the 23rd driver in the division to earn his first career win during the month of May.
When combined with his 10 career Stock Car wins, Emerson's 11 total wins in weekly racing history in Independence tie him with Dave Myers, Duane Bentley, Kevin Vorwald, Mike Krall, Patrick Stansbery, Quinton Miller, Scott Hogan and Todd Temeyer for 57th on the track's all-time list.
Josh Sherbon has fought demons throughout his brief two-plus years in the IMCA Modified division. After a strong career in the IMCA Northern SportMods, Sherbon earned his first Modified win in dominant fashion Saturday night. He pulled away from the pack to win convincingly ahead of Ronn Lauritzen.
Sherbon became the 82nd different Modified winner in weekly racing history at the speedway and the first new face to grace Modified victory lane in Independence since Tyler Droste nearly one year ago. Of the 82 different Modified winners, Sherbon became the 27th to earn his first win during the month of May.
Like the Late Models, the Modifieds have seen three different winners in as many weeks this season. This is the ninth straight year there were no repeat Modified winners in the first three weeks.
When combined with his two B Mod wins and 12 Northern SportMod wins, Sherbon has 15 career wins in weekly racing history at the speedway. That ties him for 35th on the all-time list with Denny Osborn, Jeff Aikey, Norman Chesmore, Tom Hanson and Tom Schmitt.
The trend of first-time winners continued in the IMCA Stock Cars. Not only did Jesse Brown become the third first-time winner of the night, he became the third straight first-time winner in the division.
Brown took the lead on the fourth of 18 laps and then held off a late charge from Jarod Weepie to earn his first win in Independence and the second Stock Car win of his career.
There have now been 47 different Stock Car winners in weekly racing history at the speedway and 13 of them earned their first win during the month of May. Saturday night marked the first time in track history that the Stock Car division produced three straight first-time winners to start a season. The last time any division had three consecutive first-time winners to start a season was in 1989 in the Hobby Stocks. That was the first season the Hobby Stocks were a part of the weekly program in Independence.
Rod McDonald won the IMCA Northern SportMod feature in convincing fashion. McDonald led the entirety of that 15-lapper to earn his first win of the year and the second of his career in Independence. McDonald is now alone in 11th on the division's all-time wins list at the speedway.
There have been three different SportMod winners to start the season in Independence four times in the seven years they have been a part of the weekly program. The SportMods have never produced four straight different winners to start a season.
Benji Irvine became the track's first repeat winner as he took top honors in the 15-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Irvine took the lead from Jamie Whitaker on the 10th lap to drive to victory, the seventh of his career at the speedway.
All-time, Irvine is now tied with Justin Lichty and Rod Grother for 13th on the division's all-time wins list. His seven victories in weekly racing place him in a tie with 20 other drivers for 98th on the track's career wins list. His seven wins match Bob Bennett, Carl Severson, Dave Rice, Deon Turner, Don Erger, Duane White, Ed Thomas, Jerry Holbach, Johnathan Thimmesch, Justin Lichty, Larry Schmidt, Mark Noble, Max Corporon, Merv Chandler, Mike Sampson, Mitch Fretheim, Rick Dralle, Rod Grother, Ron Barker and Tim McBride on that list.
Other trends following the completion of Saturday night's program include:
* The first three weeks of the season mark the first time in track history that there were three first-time winners in three consecutive nights of weekly points racing. It had never happened during any three week stretch of any season prior to 2014.
* For the first time since the 2007 season, the first three scheduled nights of weekly points racing were completed without a rainout. Next week we will attempt four straight shows to start the season without a cancellation for the first time since 2007. That has only been done six times in the last 47 years.
* Looking ahead, only once since 1999 have we gone through the month of May without a single cancellation and only eight times in track history has the month of May had a perfect track record. Keep in mind, this season is one with five Saturdays during the month of May. Although the odds may be against us (and we definitely dodged a weather bullet Saturday night), we can hopefully buck those trends this year.
Weather permitting, I'll be across town at Benton County Speedway later today for the third night of weekly points racing in Vinton. That will be followed up by a return trip to BCS this Tuesday for the 2014 opener of the XSAN Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! Have a great Sunday!
No comments:
Post a Comment