Dominating performances were the order of the night on Wednesday night, June 24th at the Stuart International Speedway as the second annual Jake Durbin Memorial race was held on a spectacular night for dirt track racing in central Iowa.
Tom Berry Jr, Buck Schafroth, Chuck Madden Jr and Owen Richards led for most of their respective feature races to take wins while only the Sport Mods found a late race change as a lap fourteen yellow allowed Brian Osantowski to make andoutside pass and drive on for victory in that race.
It was another busy Wednesday night at the track with another special event featured on the schedule with the second annual Jake Durbin Memorial race being held. The schedule at Stuart holds many more special events than "regular" races during the course of the season and as long as the sponsors and fans continue to support the track, that is the plan they will take.
Certainly for this event they had a huge number of businesses and individuals they threw many and product into the purse that swelled it and made it a very attractive midweek stop. While I thought the crowd was down just a bit from perhaps some of the earlier specials here, that may have just been a reaction to the fact that this is a pre holiday week and many people may have been trying to just plan for a big week over the fourth. A factor to be considered also is that while there may have been a few less "butts in the stands", we don't know how many people bought the "pay per view" that might have been more handy for them as they get ready for the fourth of July holiday. That's a wild card that also must be fashioned into the equation these days.
Ninety four cars signed in to race in the five IMCA divisions that I monitor with the largest turnout being the Modifieds with twenty eight that required a B Feature and twenty four Stock Cars were all would start the feature.
A source of early evening entertainment even before the racing begins is the occasional controversy over the pit parking situation. It doesn't break out every week but every so often you can witness an entertaining and interesting flare up as crews "discuss" who should be parked where and how much room they should be allowed. It is interesting to watch them as they "arrange" just who should be parked where and to make sure that they aren't an inch over where they are supposed to be. These same people will them park their pick up trucks all kitty wampass in the McDonalds parking lot, take up three spaces and never give it a second thought! Figure that out.
Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Modifieds all used the draw/redraw format for racing on this night with the other divisions using their regular point average system. Did that have anything to do with the dominating performances that two of these three divisions had? Probably not, at least on this night as one of the winners came from the second row, one the third and one from the fourth row.
The track was in excellent shape once again, both smooth and fast and while later promoter Mike VanGenderen had to a couple times either sprinkle the track or scratch it slightly, that was done just to try and "even up" the track if one groove looked to be dominating more than the other. None of this took much time or slowed down the speed of the program.
Good track conditions probably had much to do with the fact that once again, the program moved by so quickly. There were only a total of two yellow flags in thirteen qualifying events and not a single event all night that saw more than two yellow flags. All this has much to do with spinning off a quick program which is very important for mid week shows.
The feature that was most contested was the Sport Mod main and it did come at a bit of a surprise as Brayton Carter was the driver that was overtaken by a late race pass and generally speaking, if he is in front near the end, he will likely win. But not so on this night. He had driven into the lead following an early yellow when he was able to make the pass on early race leader Cam Reimers.
Once in front, Carter dropped to the low groove and seemed comfortable there. However, Reimers started to work the top side and seemed to be gaining ground when a spin by Cody Thompson with fourteen laps complete really changed things up.
Reimers had a bad restart and dropped back but Osantowski went to the cushion himself and Carter found himself to be a "sitting duck" as Brian drove around him in the few laps that remained and Carter was unable to fight back and had to settle for second behind the Nebraska driver. Dusty Masolini came from eleventh to finish third.
Dominating the Sport Compact feature race was Owen Richards who started on the pole, led all laps and was never really challenged. Last week's winner Hunter Patrick settled for second with Brian Fiebelkorn third.
Riley Songer led the first two laps of the Hobby Stock feature until the yellow waved and following that slow down, Chuck Madden Jr drove past on the high side and pulled away for a comfortable win in a race that was not stopped again. Dylan Nelson got second over Brandon Ross.
Jeremy Gettler was the early leader in the Stock Car feature but it didn't take Schafroth long to come charging up from the third row and once he got to the top side of the track, he blasted into the lead and pretty much left the field behind him. Gettler was involved in a big battle for second when the lone yellow for a spin came out with fourteen laps complete.
Things really got shuffled on the restart, as they often do. Schafroth was not involved as he was long gone but Gettler and Mike Goldsberry both were the losers as they lost several positions at the end. The Murty's came charging to the front with Dallon and Damon ending us second and third as they tore to the cushion and gained some positions near the end.
The Modified feature did see three different leaders before Berry Jr took over. Dylan Thornton led at the beginning before being passed by Jordy Nelson for the top spot. A lap six yellow proved to be key as Berry Jr, who had started eighth, had worked his way up to third before the yellow waved.
On the green, he got a great run into turn one, slid up the track and was able to get past both of the cars in front of him to take over the lead. Once in front, he was gone as he pulled away from the pack.
Following a lap thirteen yellow, Richie Gustin was the challenger as he tried a couple sliders to get past Berry Jr but was unsuccessful as he experimented with an unusual line around the track. The last few laps saw Berry Jr draw away from the field and complete the win in style. Gustin held on for second while a late charge saw Cayden Carter finish third.
All racing was complete by 10 pm as another MVG promoted race ran off with a quick and organized fashion. Jeff Broeg was pinch hitting as the announcer on Wednesday with Tony Paris predisposed and he did his usual fine job, jumping right in and unless you knew that he wasn't the regular announcer, you would not have known the difference as he had the upcoming schedule, sponsors and other key facts covered. It helps that Broeg is one of the few announcers that still takes a tour of the pits to see who is on hand and what is going on, rather than just show up and be "fed" the script.
Next week its another special event at Stuart and a really big one. Racing on Thursday next week, it will be the twenty first annual Ron Little Memorial race which is a part of the Midwest Madness Tour this year which means it is a special for all five classes that race and will be traveling with the tour next week so expect a gigantic field in all five classes.
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