Simmons Promotions Inc. brought in the open motor Late Models for a two night stand this week in Iowa and the mini tour started on Monday, August 8th at the Farley Speedway.
Sanctioned by the MLRA out of Missouri, the support class was the local IMCA Late Models so if you were a Late Model fan, this was the night for you to be on hand at the race track.
The open motor Late Models signed in with twenty eight cars while the IMCA Late Models brought a rather tepid fourteen cars to the grid. While there were several other drivers on hand that had cars they could have raced in both classes, only Dubuque's Joel Callahan chose to race in both classes with several others like Johnson, Rauen, Guss and Breuning choosing to focus on their open motor cars on this night.
One of the big positives in my mind about the MLRA is that they use passing points, rather than subjecting the fans and the track to time trials. It makes for much more interesting heat races with the field mixed up, rather than starting the fast cars right up front where they can just line up and cruise in order right into the feature. Of course, some of the "big shots" would never show for a race like this, no matter what it paid, because they have been spoiled over the years and believe that they have some inherent "right" to start up front because of who they are.
Well, they weren't missed on this night as the cars on hand put on quite a show as they really mixed up it on Monday. If anything, the track got a bit over watered on Monday as while there was not a whisper of dust all night, which is obviously good, the track built up a rather substantial berm which affected the racing early, making the track a little narrow and certainly affected those that instead of racing off the berm, jumped it.
Things got off to a wild start with slide jobs between Billy Moyer and Chad Simpson putting Simpson on edge before even a couple of laps could be completed. In the first heat alone, issues put those two plus Ray Guss on the trailer for the night. Attrition would be the theme of the night for the MLRA cars as they ended up with only seven to race for six spots in the B feature and some of the cars already qualified for the main not making the grid as only twenty one of the scheduled twenty four took the green.
It was kind of a shame that Paul Parker, the only one not to qualify for the feature out of the B, wasn't offered a spot in the main since they ended up taking the green with three open spots. I does cost money to drive down from Wisconsin too and since there were open spots, why not fill them?
The wild theme of the night continued in the MLRA feature as as outside pole sitter Jason Papich spun in turn one on the opening lap right into the field with a big wreck the result. Along with much torn up sheet metal, Papich and Tad Pospicil were eliminated before they could complete a lap.
There was plenty of good battling in the first half of the feature race with Mason Zeigler, Jesse Stovall, Chris Simpson, Terry Phillips and Tyler Erb the main players. A flat tire would set back Phillips and eventually the race boiled down to a two car battle between Stovall and Simpson.
Simpson would nose in front just as a yellow flew for a stalled car on lap twenty three and lined up in front for the Delaware restart, the race for all intents and purposes was now over. Simpson had been clearly superior prior to the yellow but Stovall was doing a good job holding him back. Once Simpson got an open track, he was gone. Later Stovall would be gone also as a cloud of smoke indicated that he perhaps lost a motor, one of many mechanical failures on what was an expensive night for many.
Ryan Gustin made a late charge and did get relatively close to Simpson as Chris fought with lapped traffic and was forced out of the rubber strip which had built up late in the race. However, he extricated himself from the difficulty just in the nick of time and drove home for the ten grand win. Erb prevailed for a good third place finish while persistence on the part of Rauen and Zeigler allowed them to claim top five finishes in a race that saw nearly half the field not finish.
The thirty five lap IMCA Late Model feature was probably one of the worst races seen anywhere all year. And yet, the potential was there for a good race to break out, and indeed, it came so close to being a dandy instead of a stinker.
There were actually four different leaders of the race and how often can you say that about any Late Model race? But with all the yellow flags, it instead became a battle of attrition and a test to everyone's patience, non the least of which was announcer Jerry Mackey who nearly had a case of apoplexy trying to figure out just what the heck was going on out there!
At one point the tally was eight yellow flags in the first ten laps and in total, the yellow flew a mind busting ten times. And you knew that there would be a late yellow that would set up a two lap sprint to the finish.
Once he got the lead, Nick Marolf was the class of the field and he survived the late yellow to take the win over Callahan. Only six cars completed the distance in a starting field of fourteen. It was also a little hard to explain why there were so few of the local Late Models on hand to race.
What a terrible night for veteran driver Darrel DeFrance. He probably made the longest tow of the IMCA drivers and was the last car in the pits, which is not abnormal for him. However, with the congested parking situation as all race cars were pitted outside the track in aid the viewing pleasure of the fans who had dropped thirty bucks to see all the action, it took DeFrance quite some time to find a "nesting place."
Then he had some sort of issues and he failed to take to the track for his heat race. Come feature time and the track officials dragged their feet as long as they could with DeFrance finally throwing on the hood of his car and making in on to the track just in the nick of time. He started in the back and had passed several cars before one of the many early race yellows slowed the field, at which time Darrel drove into the infield and then disappeared back into the pits, making his frustrating night complete.
While it was a frustrating night for DeFrance, it probably wasn't any worse than that suffered by motor builder Bill Schlieper. He pulled into the pits as he always does with his big transporter but he picked a bad route as he tried to navigate through the pits to find a parking spot. He hit a soft spot and buried the rig with it sitting at a nervously dangerous angle, very close to actually toppling over. and with all the heavy vehicles busy prepping the track, there he sat. Eventually Tegeler Wrecker and Crane, one of Rauen's sponsors, came with some heavy equipment and freed him from his awkward situation.
The MLRA will move on to West Liberty for Tuesday night racing. I'm guessing that with them having a very busy week including a trip to Minnesota before they head directly to Nebraska for another two day show, they really didn't need a night like Monday where most of the field will be working all day on Tuesday putting their cars back together, not just rolling them out of the trailer to wash the following day. Hopefully more IMCA cars will be summoned for West Liberty also as a small field would look even smaller on the big half mile at West Liberty.
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