Another race track was able to get their season started on Sunday night, May 8th as the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway raced for the first time in 2022. Like most tracks in the Midwest, they have been battling the weather as they tried to get their opening race of the season under their belts. And even this day was a struggle was early morning heavy thunderstorms just missed the Dubuque area and a light and intermittent rain started falling around the Noon hour. Fortunately, this precipitation didn't amount to much and under clearing skies management declared that racing was on and so the 2022 season would start.
Sunday tracks in my area are still too wet to race on so I was more than happy to make the winding trip South through Dickeyville and cross into Iowa and then up the hill to the Fairgrounds for racing. Upon arrival I found the track prep crew to be working busily, packing and rolling in the track and from my perspective, it looked like it would be more than adequate for racing tonight. As it turned out, the crew had hit on the track's "sweet spot" and it would be an excellent track to race on with all the feature winners raving about the surface. It was smooth, had multiple grooves, slicked up nicely and the drivers were able to race all over it, so it had just about everything to offer. Oh, and there was no dust either. Although, with the hurricane winds blowing once again, it would have swept any dust away and sent it toward Farley or Dyersville anyway.
Racing on Sunday would be the five IMCA classes that are the staple at Dubuque including the Hobby Stocks, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Mods and Late Models. The sixth rotating class would be the Limited Late Models on this night. I was just a bit leery with six classes on a Sunday but Dubuque runs their show off so quickly that it would not be a problem at all.
Also, so far at least for this year, all three of the tracks that run on Sundays in the eastern Iowa, western Illinois region are dealing with relatively low car counts. All five core classes here had enough cars for a couple of heats but barely that and with just eight Limited Late Models, the total car count of seventy two in six classes is just a bit low. However, as is the case with most tracks early season, some drivers still don't have their cars ready, the questionable weather on this night couldn't have helped and for many, Sunday night racing is just not as appealing as it used to be. That is why a speedy show on Sunday is paramount and later on this night, Dubuque officials would show us just how that was done.
Waiting for the gates to open on this night was Illinois driver Mike McKinney. He has been racing open Modifieds this weekend up in Wisconsin and would join the field for Sunday night's show driving a second car for Timmy Current. And after not doing much earlier, he would make a late race charge taht would get him up to second at the finish.
Once the call came out to get the program started, it was nearly nonstop racing. The program would be using a draw/redraw format as the opener for the IMCA season so doing well in the heats was important. The heat races literally flew by, aided by the fact that the one spin rule was in effect and the heats were all relatively small. The first and only yellow of the heats was displayed in heat number seven and all twelve heat races and all qualifying was done in one hour flat!
The break was no more that five minutes until track officials were calling for the Hobby Stocks to line up and we were feature racing. Scott Wetter would lead all fifteen laps to win the Hobby Stock main after starting on the pole. There was only a single yellow flag in this race and the long green flag session allowed him to build up a good sized lead.
David Crimmins would start in the fourth row and would eventually get to second and then would slowly cut into the lead that Wetter had built up. In the last few laps, Crimmins would repeatedly try to get under Wetter in the corners and each lap it would get closer and closer. That final lap saw Crimmins make one laps effort but he would come up just a half car length short as Wetter would hold on for the win. Kyle Jared would finish third.
The Stock Car feature would see Mitchell Evens lead the opening lap before Cole Mather would drive under him and take over the top spot. Mather would then lead the rest of the way without much of a challenge, slowed only by the three yellow flags that would wave for minor spins. Dustin Vis and Evens would battle for second until Vis was turned, bringing out the yellow.
Mather would go on for the win, his second over the weekend on area tracks while Vis would make a big charge back up through the pack and get to second with Richard Nelson completing the top three.
The Sport Mod feature would see the best charge of the night as Justin Becker would put on a show. He looked very fast in his heat but redrew tenth so he had some work to do. Meanwhile, Wes Digman would be the early leader with Tyler Soppe all over his for the top spot. Unfortunately for Soppe, he tried to put a nose under Digman in turn three, they touched and Soppe slowed with a flat tire, thus taking him out as a potential winner.
Digman would then lead over Jarett Franzen but Becker was on the move. He was up to fifth by the halfway point and would continue to charge, working the high side of the track. He continued to make progress and was soon up to second. He tried to make a high side pass but got pinched off so he instead made a brilliant cross over move, dove under Digman and took over the lead on lap ten.
Despite a late yellow setting up a two lap sprint to the finish, Becker would pull away for the win. Things went South for Digman following that late yellow though, as he fell back to fourth with Franzen and Ryan Schilling getting past him.
The Limited Late Model feature would see favorite to win Ron Klein spin on the first lap, get clobbered by another car and be done for the rest of the event. This completely opened up things and rookie driver in this class, T.J. Fortmannj would take the lead from the pole and lead the entire event for the win. The former Sport Mod driver was not challenged for the entire race and would win by a healthy margin over David Webster and D.J. Sweet.
We would see some great action in the Modified feature with a number of thrilling slide jobs for position as a pack of about six cars battled for the second spot. And while they were fighting each other, Jaden Fryer would maintain the lead from start to finish to win the race. While that may sound boring, it was anything but and as Fryer would be scored the leader of all laps, the pack was nipping at his heels the entire time.
A group that contained Steve Johnson, Ryan Duhme, Spencer Diercks, Jed Freiburger and Matt Gansen were going at it constantly, swapping positions and lanes on the track. Some of the best action included slide jobs between Freiburger and Diercks that were quite spectacular.
At the halfway point, Fryer got perhaps his toughest challenge as Duhme moved in and put the pressure on for the lead. However, he tried to squeeze past in turn three and spun and his night was done. There were a couple of late yellows that made things tense but each time Fryer would hold on and he worked hard to get this win. The late going yellows saw some scrambling and this is when McKinney was able to smoothly take advantage and move up to second with Freiburger settling for third.
The Late Model feature would see three different leaders before the issue was settled. Bryan Moreland would lead the first three laps before Eric Pollard would drive past him for the top spot. Pollard would then lead for six laps until Luke Merfeld, who started seventh, would roar past him on the outside to take over the top spot.
Merfeld was flying on the cushion and there would be no stopping him once he got the lead. Two late yellows would bunch the field, the first being when second place Pollard broke and was done.
The last six laps saw Merfeld pull away once again for the win with Ron Klein coming home second ahead of Mitch Manternach. "Dancing" Bobby Hansen would have a nice run too, coming from twelfth to finish fourth.
The final checkered flag flew at 9:07 pm, exactly two hours and thirty six minutes after the first green flag waved! It was the perfect Sunday night program. The action was good, the racing good and everything went off like clockwork. Truly, on a Sunday, you don't need two hundred cars in the pits to put on a good show, just some good racing action and on a track that was spot on.
The crowd was a bit modest on this threatening night but it was good to see Late Model Hall of Famer Ed Sanger among those enjoying the action. Thanks to the folks at Dubuque for staying the course, getting the show in and providing a fine night of racing.
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