Saturday night, April 21st, the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models kicked off their season as the series marked opening night for the thirty second year of this traveling series for the IMCA Late Models. Amazingly, Saturday night's show will mark the first time ever that the Cedar County Speedway in Tipton has been the opening race for any of the thirty two years of this series. The Deery Brothers Automotive Group has now sponsored this series for twenty seven consecutive years.
Along with the Late Models, IMCA rules Modifieds and Sport Mods, although not sanctioned on this night would also race along with the Street Stocks which were a combination of the Quad Cities Streets and a few IMCA Stock Cars.
Huge questions surrounded the opening night's action and all focused on the Late Model class. It is no secret that it has been a stormy off season for the Late Model division in the state of Iowa, and even though I am not in the middle of the issue, I, along with many others, were still watching to see just how things would shake out. IMCA lost some of their Late Model tracks during the off season to the rules package that allows both open and spec engines to compete and several tracks in the state of Iowa moved away from the IMCA for this new set of rules, most notably Farley, Dubuque and Webster City. Which drivers would continue to run IMCA and which would switch their cars over to the new rules was the sixty four thousand dollar question. And there didn't seem to be a lot of people that had the answers either. Many were just waiting to see who would show up.
I talked to IMCA Deery Brothers Director Kevin Yoder before the show started and he was about as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof. And he claimed to not really know more than anyone else. He really had no idea how many cars would show up and just who would be racing on this night. Plus, he had several other issues on his plate for opening night.
One of the changes that the Deery Series has made for 2018 is that they have gotten away from the old draw/redraw format to a modified passing points format. The heat winners still redraw for the top positions but the rest of the top twelve are filled in from passing points, not how they necessarily finished their qualifying events. Brett Root has been pushing for the passing points method while Kevin hung tough that winning a heat race should have extra value, thus the compromise made that utilizes a modified passing points format but still gives the top starting positions to the heat winners. We will have to see what the reaction is of the drivers after they use this method a few times.
But not only was the new format a big change, other things are also going on too. The Deery Series is now using transponders and Kevin was over to Tipton early on Saturday to lay the wire under the front chute. While most tracks now have a wired buried on the front chute for scoring, by luck of the draw it turns out that the first three races on the Series this do not have a wire crossing the track, thus just one more complication in what has already been a complicated off season. At least they weren't fighting the weather here on Saturday, as that has been an issue so far, just as it has for most tracks in the Midwest. They are also going to the My Race Pass program so in the future race fans should be able to monitor the series in real time, anywhere they have access to a mobile devise. So, Kevin had lots of things going on, all at once for the opener. Ryan Bergeson is also not the Official Starter any more for the series as he is also doing computer work on the new programs on race night and Saturday the regular starter from Davenport was utilized on the flag stand.
When the gates were finally shut and all cars accounted for, twenty nine Late Models had signed in for opening night action. Twelve of the top twenty in 2017 Deery Brothers points returned for the opener although the top two from last year were missing. Jesse Sobbing has retired and Jake Neal has apparently went the open motor route for this year. Eastern Iowa supplied the majority of the entries and I did not see any new faces to the division in the opening night roster. Significant also was that all time Deery Brothers feature win leader Jeff Aikey was on hand with his Modified but did not field a Late Model on this night. With the other three classes on hand, unofficially ninety three cars signed in to race.
Four heats and two B Features set the twenty four car starting field for the fifty lap main event with no provisionals on this night. The Late Model main turned out to be an excellent race with much battling for position throughout the field. Despite the fact that there were only two leaders, that statistic does not tell the story of how competitive the race was and how much passing and side by side racing took place. And just because Justin Kay was the winner, don't be misled by that as he had to work like the devil to take the win, making the winning pass with only four laps to go.
Ryan Dolan led the majority of the race, building up a big lead early but then having the field drawn back toward him after long green flag stretches. Kay and Andy Echrich and a prolonged battle for position with Todd Cooney, Terry Neal and Matt Ryan among others that charged toward the front while surprisingly, Denny Eckrich slipped back in the field after a good starting spot and he would eventually drop off the pace.
After an early yellow with nine laps complete, they raced thirty six nonstop laps with much happening on the track. Dolan continued to lead and Kay was interesting to watch as he tried both high and low on the track with the racing surface being excellent for multi groove racing.
But the driver that really picked up the pace was Neal. Working the inside line, he drove past Andy Eckrich and Kay and sailed into second but just as he was setting up a possible winning pass, the motor let go and he was done. Kay then altered his line and moved back to the top side where he found some momentum and he blasted past Dolan, who was starting to slip and slide near the end, for the lead. Just then the yellow flew for a stalled car and a three lap dash for the finish was required.
Kay pulled away on the start and drove home unchallenged but Dolan was the loser as he gave up second to Ryan at the finish with Cooney and Andy Eckrich in the top five. Jeremiah Hurst finished eighth as after hot laps, his car was scratched and he took over the ride of David Webster for the balance of the night. Only two yellows in fifty laps and not a lapped car at the end made it a solid opening night for the Deery Series.
Twenty seven Modifieds signed in to race and speed the show, Bob Wegener made the call to skip the B Feature and start all twenty seven which included three drivers that hauled all the way down from Wisconsin for the evening.
In this race, two drivers shined about the rest and they were Brad Dierks and that same Justin Kay. Dierks started on the outside pole and he showed incredible speed as he drove away from the field, building up nearly a straightaway lead before a late yellow set up a four lap sprint to the finish.
Meanwhile, Kay was showing just how much passing you could do in a twenty lap feature race. He had earlier been leading a heat race when he suddenly drove into the pits, I believe the victim of a deflating tire but I can't say for sure.
This forced him to start twenty first in the main event but that didn't seem to deter him. He went to the cushion on the start and flew by cars and when that lane was blocked, he dove to the low side. While the field was battling three wide throughout, Kay drove through the pack like a hot knife through butter, soon finding himself in the top five. But he didn't stop there and soon raced into second.
When the late yellow waved, it seemed like we were in for a shootout. However, Dierks got a great start and showed again his blazing speed while Kay didn't get a good start and actually had to fight his way back past Aikey for second and thus had nothing to offer Dierks in the way of a challenge for the win. Behind those three, Mark Schulte and Stephan Kammerer completed the top five.
The twenty four car Sport Mod feature race remains a mystery to me at this point. About all I can say is that Austin Heacock was the winner. He started on the outside pole and used the top side to drive past Kyle Olson and take the lead early. From that point on, he maintained the lead while drivers like Tyler Soppe and Tony Olson came charging through the pack.
Heacock continued to show the way but there was a wild scramble for position behind him which included a late race five lap dash to the finish. Heacock maintained the top spot and drove home for the win but behind him, things were nutty. On the last corner, Soppe got clipped by a lapped car and spun while he was running second. A mad scramble saw cars going every which way and the yellow waved and as the cars slowly circled the track, the checkered came out.
However, no ruling was announced and no finishing order was announced either. I'm assuming that Soppe was restored to second and they scored back to the white flag, but that is just an assumption at this point as I have not been able to find any official finish. Stay tuned.
Enough Street Stocks were on hand for two small heats and a main, split about evenly between Streets and Stock Cars. When Jeff Struck Jr drew the pole, based on his strong performance from the previous night, it seemed to be bad news for the field. and that's just how it turned out. He led all the way, although he didn't dominate like I thought he might. Tony Von Dresky, driving a second car for Jesse Owen, pushed Struck Jr throughout the race but could never make a serious bid for the win. Chuck Fox, Jeremy Gustaf and Greg Gill finished off the top five.
The track was in excellent shape for the opening night racing action. It was very smooth and after being a little heavy early, it slicked off very nicely from top to bottom, black and icy and made for good racing. There was a cushion to work off of, but many of the drivers were also able to make the low groove work, thus plenty of side by side racing and multiple ways to get to the front. And on top of all this, no dust at all. It was a very fine racing surface.
Shane Davis stepped in the call the action on this night. It must have been a frustrating night for him as a couple of prolonged technical issues left him "speechless" for long periods of time. Trouble before the show made for a later than planned start and then half way through the heats things went dead again for a long period of time.
Fortunately repairs were made and he was able to call all the feature racing action uninterrupted. He did a good job getting the names straight and identifying who everyone was for the crowd. Speaking of the crowd, it was a very late arriving group on Saturday but appeared to be decent sized once everyone finally got there.
It was a good night of racing and thanks to Drt Trak Racing, Inc. for a very entertaining two night experience. And for perhaps the first time all year, it was two straight nights of racing with no chasing things because of the weather. Perhaps we have finally turned the corner.
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