With several different options to chose from, I weighed all the different choices, threw in the chances that rain would mess up my plan, and ultimately selected the Deery Brothers Summer Series Late Model show at the CJ Raceway in Columbus Junction Iowa to attend on Wednesday night, July 18th.
Add another Fair to the list of those I have been at already, with the biggest part of Fair season just starting now. It was assembly day on Wednesday for the Louisa County Fair at the bottom of the hill and next door to the river in Columbus Junction. Along with the Deery Brothers Late Models, the Stock Cars and Modifieds would also both be racing with extra money on the line for both classes in their extra distance events.
It has been several decades since I was last at a race at Columbus Junction. I'm not sure but it might have been way back in the 80's but I'm not sure. I can remember attending a couple of races at Columbus Junction very early in the month of April, on perhaps a Friday night but that's kind of a guess on that also. Once I saw the track on Wednesday, i did kind of remember a number of things about it that haven't changed.
It is a true paper clip track with long straights, very tight and short corners and relatively little banking. It looks like it would be a "hug the tires kind of track" but it slicks up very fast and once it does so, I found that the drivers were able to run all over the track and there was a lot of three wide racing in the heats.
An old style wooden grandstand with a roof and multiple pillars to hold up same gave it a classic fairgrounds feel. The appearance of the track is somewhat unusual as there is a levee that starts right off the end of the grandstand, wraps all the way around the first and second corner, down the back chute and then straight off the property to protect the track and grounds from flooding for which the area is prone do do. There is a smooth transition right from the outside lane of the track to the levee and several of the cars got up on it on Wednesday and kept right on going. In fact, if you hit it just right I think it could be a nice propellant.
There is a wall in the third and fourth corner but according to Gary Webb, that wall is a left over from days when the track was even bigger and now is kind of a backup to stop the cars should they go off that end and not be able to stop in the runoff area over the top of the track.
The pits is off the corner of turns three and four for this event but normally in the infield. They are working to move all the pits outside the track but right now the Fairboard has rented the land outside the track to a construction company for storage space but fortunately they were between jobs and most of the outfield was available while about twenty or so cars still parked in the infield. They were mostly open and small enclosed trailers; good thing since even they did block the view of part of the back chute for the fans in the stands.
I met promoter Larry Richardson who characterized CJ as an understated gem of a track as they are averaging over one hundred cars per night and the area is really talking about the races again although all their supporters agree that the closing of West Liberty was a boon to them as well. But there is plenty of excitement in the air again about racing at Columbus Junction and it was reflected on Wednesday as the grandstand was jammed full for the Deery show.
Some familiar faces were on hand as Kevin Feller is working the scoring tower and Doug Haack is the starter at the track, both taking positions there this year. Paul Vetter flew in from California and I spotted him hanging out in the tower but his plane landed too late for me to make connections with him tonight.
Among the procedures they used on Wednesday that I really liked was that they lined up each heat in the infield and drove out on to the track on the back chute and they took the green when they came around the first time. No one more lap and then we go stuff. I really liked the quick way they moved from event to event.
The track features Musco lighting which does a great job of illuminating the track. However the grandstands are very dark and I hope a scoreboard is on the "wish" list too.
I believe the excitement the races generated on Wednesday was more important than how the races themselves actually came out. In point of fact, two of the three features were won right off the pole and all three winners dominated their main events.
The Stock Cars had twenty one of them on hand and all ran the feature. Damon Murty had looked extremely fast in his heat and he did the same thing in the feature. He started in the third row but it took him no time at all to get up and challenge for the lead. And once in front, he built up nearly a straightaway over the field. Only a late yellow made things interesting as Jason See put the pressure on him following that restart for a few laps until Murty gradually pulled away. See held on for second while the driver on the move was Adam Bell who started seventeenth and finished third.
Thirty Modifieds were on hand and four heats and two B features were needed to set their field for the twenty five lap finale. This turned out to be a two car race between Kurt Kile and Justin Kay. Kile started on the outside pole and led from start to finish but it got dicey at the end. Kay started right behind him and chased him for the whole race, sometimes getting closer and other times fading back. The race had only one yellow flag and the last seventeen laps went nonstop.
Near the end of the race, Kile started losing the handle, having a particularly difficult time getting through turn one. Kay started to reel in the leader as he seemingly always gets faster near the end of the race.
They were nearly side by side at the white flag and Kay drove low into turn one and took over the lead for a second but then Kile did a cross over maneuver and retook the lead. Kay then blasted into turn three using the high side and he had some momentum as he came out of the last corner. However, Kile used the whole track and drifted up to the wall and while Kay tried to squeeze by on outside, Kile was able to hold him off by a half car length, to the approval of the southeastern Iowa crowd. Derrick Stewart finished third and the "Big Show", Jason Walla, came from twelfth to finish on Stewart's rear bumper.
Virtually none of the Late Model drivers had raced at Columbus Junction before so it was a new experience for most of them. It didn't take Chad Holladay long to figure things out as he led from start to finish to win the forty lap Deery Brothers Late Model feature. He set a blazing pace and no one could keep up with him. Several times he had built up a big lead, only to have the yellow wave and he would lose his big advantage.
The last one resulted from a tie up between the lapped cars and some drivers battling for position and set up a five lap sprint to the finish. For Holladay, he just needed to maintain his line as the track had started to take rubber and just holding his line was his ticket to victory. And he did that spotlessly, flashing under Haack's checkered with room to spare. Denny Eckrich ran second for most of the race and Darrel DeFrance had a great run, coming home third.
It was disappointing that the announcer could interview the winners for TV but the paying crowd on hand got to hear no interviews from the winners. That's not right, period and it's a slap in the face for those folks who paid their money to be on hand and watch the race in the flesh, so to speak.
Early in the evening during a Late Model heat, Rob Moss took a wild ride down the front chute after he got turned by another car into the wall. He smashed and rode the wall, then slammed into the pole that holds the caution lights entering turn one. He was OK but his car was anything but, taking two wreckers to remove him to the pit area. And later, during the Late Model feature a bunch of cars came together down the front chute once again and Tim Simpson got launched up and one the wall where his car sustained significant damage.
By all regards, this was a successful night of racing and certainly this show will want to be held again next year with it opening up a new venue for the Late Models to appear at.
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