In what turned out to be one of the most successful promotions of the year to date in the Hawkeye State, Jeff Aikey topped the first annual Denny Osborn Memorial Race on Tuesday night, July 6th at the Independence Motor Speedway. Aikey would take the lead one lap short of the halfway point and would hold the top spot the rest of the sixty lap distance.
Independence typically holds an open Late Model race during the annual Buchanan County Fair which was just in the setup stages on Tuesday night which unfortunately meant that the "Fair Food" was not yet available. This year however, event promoter Travis Smock and area businessman and former promoter here Todd Summers decided to call it the Denny Osborn Memorial in honor of the local driver who was a star performer here for several decades and passed away in May after battling cancer. Much money was raised from the business community, such that the race paid $7,200 to win when it usually pays three grand and many other positions also got a purse boost. The IMCA sanctioned Modifieds and Stock Cars also got a boost in pay with both paying a grand to win their respective events.
It was a brutally hot and steamy July night but the grandstand was packed come race time and probably hadn't seen a crowd this large since perhaps in the glory days of Iowa Late Model racing when Osborn was one of the king pins of dirt track racing in the state of Iowa.
In a nice touch, the Late Model driven by Ben Seemann and the Modified of Troy Cordes both wore special tin for this race as both cars were adorned with the bright orange colors that Osborn made familiar and racing with his #72 on both cars.
A very large field of thirty eight Late Models signed in to race along with twenty three Stock Cars and twenty eight Modifieds as everyone wanted to be a part of this special show. Particularly interesting were the number of driver changes for this night in the Late Models as many drivers that apparently didn't have legal cars for this race still wanted to be a part of it and made arrangements to have a ride for this show.
Among the many driver changes were Darin Duffy in the car that Aikey has driven so far this year as Jeff would debut a new Rocket chassis for this show. Jeremiah Hurst would be driving the #40 car for Joel Callahan, Chad Simpson would be driving the #93 for Jay Johnson, Brian Harris would be driving the #99 Curless Motorsports entry, Ryan Gustin would be driving the #87 for Johnny Emerson and with Smock busy being the promoter, Dallon Murty would be taking his first Late Model ride driving Smock's #98 car. One could have made some good coin with a printed program with on this night with all the driver changes. Inde open rules would be used on this night which I believe mirror the SLMR rules while the other two classes would be running IMCA rules.
Three heats and a feature race using the draw/redraw method would set the field in both the Stock Cars and Modifieds while passing points(eminently fairer) would be used to set the field for the Late Models with four heats and a pair of B Features to set the twenty four starters. Some strong runners such as Darrel DeFrance, Bobby Hansen, Seemann, Nick Marolf and Jill George would all be left off the starting field, not making it with their two chances in either a heat or a B and no provisional starters for a twenty four car field.
Racing started right at 7 pm and with no more than a single yellow in all the qualifying events, it was not long at all before announcers Ryan Clark and "Big Boy" were ready to introduce the lineups for the main events with Stock Cars being first on the agenda.
In this race we would be treated as a crowd to probably the best passing performance on the night as Dallon Murty one again left the crowd in wonder with the marvelous job of driving that he did as he almost with scientific precision, picked apart the Stock Car field. It was a joy to watch him as he moved high and low on the track, searching for the holes to make passes and always seemingly one step ahead of the field in figuring just where exactly on the track he needed to be to make passed and hook up in the fast lane.
He would start in the third row of the race and would maneuver past Tom Schmitt, Cole Mather and Phil Holtz before batting it out with Johnny Spaw for the lead. Murty would go to the cushion against the low riding Spaw and would drive past him on lap ten to take over the lead.
A couple of yellow flags would bunch up the field between laps ten and twenty and Spaw, not giving up, was able to nose back into the lead for a lap before Murty again resumed with the top spot. Late in the race, Spaw continued to pressure and with the top side of the track seemingly slowing down just a little, Murty found a new line that saw him diamonding off the corners which worked better and allowed him to open up a slight lead which he would hold to the finish. I can't say for sure but I believe that Murty was actually driving his father's car on this night. Spaw, Mather, Holtz and Dusty Vis would complete the top five in a race that saw only four starters not go the distance but they were so evenly matched that not a car was lapped in twenty five laps. Murty reported that his win Tuesday was number twenty five already this season!
The Modified feature presented a great battle, but unfortunately it was for second as Chris Simpson had the field covered easily for twenty five laps to get the win in this race, stopped only twice for minor spins.
The Mars brothers and A.J. Diemel are trying to expand the MB Customs brand of Modified chassis to this part of Iowa and to whit, they have put one of the state's best drivers behind the wheel of their open wheel brand for special events and on this night Simpson was the class of the field. Of course, it didn't hurt that he redrew the pole but he powered away from the field to the extent that there was little doubt who was the fastest in class on this night.
Simpson held a comfortable lead for most of the race while a great battle for second saw Mike Burbridge, Timmy Current and Troy Cordes battle for the runner up honors. Cordes and Current took turns trying to dislodge Burbridge from second but Mike proved tough to get past and he held off multiple challenges for that position. Late in the race Current would fade back a bit and the challenge came from Joel Rust who was pounding the cushion and came from the sixth row.
He too would challenge Burbridge for second but come up short as the Delhi racer had one of his strongest runs that I have seen in quite some time. Cordes and a steady Derrick Stewart would complete the top five.
The Late Models would wrap up the evening with their sixty lap main event. Since early in the afternoon, the discussion among many in the pits was how well would the race track hold up under the brutal weather conditions and the pounding of the big field of Late Models. Tracks "rubbering up" has been a constant issue for many Late Model events already held this year and I personally think I have seen more "rubbered up" Late Model shows already this year than I have for many years. Whether it is the tires, the weather, the tracks themselves or some other dark force, there have been a lot of one lane, follow the leader types of race tracks this year and unfortunately, despite their best efforts to water and scrape the track, Inde would follow that pattern once again on this night.
It was less that ten laps into the race before it was apparent that the track had went one lane, with a rubber trail that the racers had to be in to go fast and if they slipped out of that lane, they dropped like rocks. It was necessary to go one lane racing and passing became very tough indeed.
Before this came to a head, there was a scramble for the lead with Brian Harris leading the opening lap until he was challenged by Sean Johnson. Sean took over the lead on lap four when Harris slipped over the banking on the back chute.
Johnson would lead for eight laps but with his car not being able to hold the bottom lane, he slipped out of the groove and Justin Kay, who had moved up from sixth, took over the top spot. He then built up a comfortable lead until he caught lapped traffic and with the tail end cars not wanting to yield their spots and everyone at nearly the same pace, Kay got hung up there.
The rest of the front five cars gradually caught up with him with Aikey making the most moves. He started tenth and was the best at moving forward as his very aggressive style of driving traffic gave him success but he was also doing a good share of leaning on other drivers to get by in the corners. He closed on Kay and the battle would begin. However, the sole yellow for a spin with twenty nine laps complete would change the course of the race and alter any strategy that might have been forthcoming.
The Delaware double file restart would tell the tale of this race as Aikey got a great jump and was able to get up beside Kay and then drop past him down the back chute to take over the lead. Forgive me for playing the "Devil's Advocate" here but that restart looked for all the world to me like a jumped start by the #77 car and one that seemed to be more blatant than a couple of other starts over the course of the night that were called back. However, no call was made and the race continued.
Aikey would eventually catch the back of the pack and he would have his issues too. Twice he tried to pass cars on the outside of turn four, got out of the rubber and almost gave up the lead. On the second one, he had to make a panic move to the bottom, diving down so hard that he forced a closely following Kay to have to steer under the ute tire in that corner, costing him second to Simpson as Kay seemed to be in the wrong place all night.
Simpson would have nothing for Aikey and a very popular win was achieved by Aikey in front of the home track fans. Aikey has raced at Inde forever and raced against Osborn and from being from the area, he well knows the significance of this win as it had special meaning to him, knowing the Osborn family well. Logan Duffy and Johnson would complete the top five in this race that saw only seven of twenty four not complete the distance.
Despite a slightly less than scintillating Late Model feature, this was certainly a great event and the huge crowd mostly loved the finish with the home town driver taking the big money. All those responsible for organizing this event and gathering the contributions are to be applauded for their efforts. I happened to be sitting in the next section to the Osborn family reserved section and many of them were wearing racing t-shirts of their era and they alone were worth the price of admission. This was one of the "feel good" events of the year to date and it is always a good thing to honor the legends of our sport that drove it into the modern era. I don't know whether this race is destined to become an annual event or if this would be just a "one of a kind" but either way, it was a great way to spend a Tuesday night with the Fair atmosphere at the dirt track.
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