Bruening Dominates SLMR East at Dubuque

 It was a rare week night race near the end of September as the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway hosted the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series on Thursday night, September 23rd as the fast third mile at the Fairgrounds in Dubuque. Thursday night would be the first of three straight nights of SLMR racing in eastern Iowa, topped by the Iowa Governor's Cup event on Saturday night at the Davenport Speedway. 

Along with the Late Models there would be racing in three IMCA divisions, the Modifieds, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. The Nostalgia Late Models and Jalopies would also be racing on this night and if you were like me, your first thought was that was too many divisions for a Thursday night program with work and school awaiting on Friday am. However, the folks at DRT TRAK Promotions, under the direction of Bob Wegener, knew what they were doing and they produced a very fast paced program that got us all on the road early for those that had to get up early or otherwise had a four and a half hour drive home. 

This would be the first appearance of the SLMR East at Dubuque this year and the first promotion of DRT TRAK Promotions at Dubuque also this year. They would also be in charge of the following two nights of racing. Steve Kosiski was on hand to run things for the SLMR and Wegener's top notch crew took care of the other five classes. 

Thirty Late Models were on hand to perform on this evening, a fine turnout that saw twelve of the top fourteen in East points on hand for the show missing. Surprisingly missing was second in points Todd Cooney who was only twenty two points behind point leader Justin Kay coming into Thursday night's show. No explanation was given for his absence but the other driver missing, Jeff Aikey, was racing his Modified at the big show in Batesville Arkansas this week. Replacing Aikey on this night was Hall of Famer Ray Guss Jr who was also driving a Nostalgia Late Model for Keith Simmons. 

Guss did struggle with the Late Model, not making the show but as "Raymie" explained in victory lane after he won the Nostalgia feature, he hadn't been in a Late Model since 2016 and the cars have changed quite a bit and with just a few practice laps, it was asking a lot of him to jump right in and whip some pretty good competition. 

Also appearing as a replacement driver on this night would be Chad Simpson who was driving the car normally driven by Wisconsin's David Webster. Simpson was having a good top ten finish until he got dumped by another driver and only eleven laps left and ended up near the tail of the field. 

Before the show, I ran into an interesting gentleman in the pits. Galen Muller is from Monticello and along with Tom Muller, they run the big Rod and Custom show in Monticello every year in February. He is very much interested in all forms of racing and was on hand to check out the Late Models. He would like to have a Late Model as a part of his Rod and Custom Car Show to be held on Feb. 26 and 27, 2022 at the Berndes Center in Monticello so if their is any Dubuque area Late Model driver that would like to put their car on display and get some great advertising for their sponsors, contact Muller. 

I also ran into award winning photographer Mike Ruefer in the pits also. He was able to get back from his work assignment early this week and was able to drive up to Dubuque from Davenport where he lives. He tells me that his retirement, planned for this December, is still on track and with no work and travel to worry about starting next year, one can only image how many races he will cover next year which is great news to all the race fans he entertains with his crack photography. 

I also had the chance to talk to promoter Bob Wegener briefly before the show and it is always a pleasure to cover races put on by his group as they understand that a quick show is a good show and they crank off the program with the best of them which is particularly important on a week night. Later, a good crowd would be on hand to see the first green  flag of the night wave.

Shane Davis, voice of the Davenport Speedway and East Moline Speedway, would be calling the action on this night, and the Nostalgia Late Model would give him ample opportunity to fill in many of the fans on the history of racing in the state of Iowa. I only had wished that I had my latest issue of Speedway Illustrated magazine with me that had a great interview with Ed Sanger as the Hall of Famer and most successful Late Model racer of my generation was sitting two rows in front of me in the grandstand, as he frequently does for races at Dubuque. 

Jeff Tharp has one of the more interesting sponsors in the sport on his car as his Late Model is sponsored by the Tri State Cremation Center! No sure how much business his sponsorship generates among the racing crowd but Jeff told me he is also a family friend. 

Four heats and a pair of B Features would set the field for the Late Model thirty lap main event. SLMR uses and interesting variety of formats to set their race lineups. They time trial the cars, then invert six for their heat races and then take the top sixteen in passing points for the main with the rest going into B Features. I'm not sure why they would both qualify and then use passing points as one seems to defeat the purpose of the other. I never am a fan of time trials but they did run them off very quickly and for once, the extra laps didn't seem to hurt the racing surface which was in excellent shape all night and promotes lots of side by side racing from start to finish. 

Tyler Bruening was home on break from the World of Outlaws Late Model tour and he would dominate the later half of the feature to get the win after having a good dog fight early on with Andy Eckrich. Erkrich would lead the first four laps of the race before Bruening would pass him on the high side and then a classic side by side battle, Eckrich low and Bruening pounding the cushion would last through lap sixteen with them exchanging the lead three times before Bruening would claim it for good. 

Luke Goedert seemed to be a real challenger but he would be the victim twice on restarts that would hamper his charge. Following a lap seventeen spin, on the restart Goedert seemed to have a good run on the leader until he got squeezed up into the wall and lost time and two laps later, on the only other restart of the race, he would get wacked again on the green and have to regroup with him still finishing fifth. This was the restart triggered when Simpson got dumped in turn one by heavy traffic. 

Bruening would experiment with the low side briefly but his car worked better on the cushion and with the final eleven laps green to checkered, he would get his momentum going and would pull away for the win. Eckrich would run a strong second and Spencer Diercks would come from eighth to finish third. Jason Rauen would get up to second for a bit but then he would fade back to finish behind Diercks with Goedert holding on to complete the top five. 

The support classes had just the right number of cars for their classes, just as DRT TRAK had predicted as they had a couple of heats and their main events. Their classes didn't exactly provide a great deal of drama as all three were runaways with two of them going smoothly and the third a debacle. 

The Hobby Stocks would go green to checkered and after an early battle that saw Jimmy Doescher and Kodey Miles exchange the lead on the opening two laps, Doeschner would buckle down, take the top spot and proceed to run away from the field for a dominating win. He would finish far ahead of Miles with Scott Wetter third. 

The Modified feature would produce an even more dominating run as after Tyler Madigan would lead the first four laps, Matt Gansen would get up on the banking and blast into the lead and once in front, he was gone. The last seventeen laps of this race would go nonstop and Gansen would dominate with his only trouble be in fighting through all the lapped traffic he would come up on. 

He had three lapped cars between himself and Madigan when the checkered flew as he had the better half of a full straightaway over the field. Mike Burbridge would best Bill Roberts Jr and Mark Schulte in a good battle for third.

The Sport Mods had one of those nights where they all couldn't get their act together and it seemed like they took turns spinning out, maddening to the crowd and also the track officials. Tony Olson had started on the pole and had a big lead anyway as it seemed that no one would touch him for the win but it would have been nice to see a few more green flag laps strung together. 

The only driver that seemed a threat, Tyler Soppe, did a good job moving up from the eleventh starting spot into second as he used every one of the copious number of yellows to gain positions. 

Finally they put out the word that the next yellow would end the race and they couldn't even make it to turn one before a couple more cars turned turtle and the checkered flag flew. Olson was ruled the winner over Soppe and Kyle Hoffmann as they did get around eleven laps in before the track officials stuck a fork in the proceedings. 

With the Jalopies yet to run and it being an early evening, I did a rare early exit with the long highway home awaiting me. With the road pretty much to myself except for a couple "loonies", I rolled into my driveway at 1:59 am. 

Thanks to Bob Wegener, Carrie and all the staff at DRT TRAK Promotions for an excellent night of racing and as we all know, midweek shows are just a special bonus at this time of the year. Hopefully I will be back in the Hawkeye State a time or two more before the snows fly. 

Kay Nips Ryan As 300 Raceway Concludes Regular Season

 It was championship night on Wednesday night, September 1st at the 300 Raceway very near Farley Iowa. On the eve of their historic and famous Yankee Dirt Track Classic, the folks at 300 had reset championship night to this night after having had their planned regular season opener a couple of weeks ago weathered out. 

Point titles would be decided in all four classes that race on a regular basis at 300 and that would be the IMCA sanctioned Sport Mods and Mods, Stock Cars and the Late Models. All four point races were close with only the Modifieds showing a double digit lead going into the finale. However, that statistic is slightly skewed due to the smaller car counts that generally race here which makes it tougher for one driver to separate himself enough from another competitor to gain a significant number of points. 

Again on this night, as it has been the two other times I have been here this year for Wednesday night racing, the field of race cars was quite small with only two small heats in each class except for the Stock Cars who could only muster a single heat. 

However, I could think right off hand of a couple of reasons why the count might be smaller for this event. Number one, it is a rain dated event and often there are just some drivers that have conflicts for rescheduled races. Also, and perhaps more telling, with the Yankee coming up this weekend and all four classes that are racing on Wednesday a part of that event, unless you are right in the midst of a point fight, many would opt to save their equipment for the weekend when the stakes are much higher that they were on Wednesday. 

A reoccurring theme that I heard in the pits on this night and hadn't considered before was that some drivers are staying away from this track  because it is too high speed and they never lift which puts a strain on the motors and in order to save their equipment, they aren't racing here. I guess I can't speak to that other than to say that it indeed is a fast track for its size and they really do fly around it and on the other two times I have been here it has been rather heavy and "hammer down" but I guess you would have to poll the drivers to get a feeling whether that sentiment trends strongly or not. 

Seven qualifying heats would set the running order for the four main events to follow and to the credit of management, they took just a very short break before moving into the main events after the heats were completed. Some would fell compelled to stretch things out a bit to make up for the lack of races but the 300 staff moved quickly into their features. 

With Kevin Miller scratching from the pole after slamming the wall in his heat race and Ron Klein never finding the track after reported truck trouble on the highway, only eight cars would take the green for the main in the Late Models but their feature would be the most entertaining and closely fought of all four. 

Bryan Moreland would be the early leader but he had Eric Pollard all over him trying to get by and take over the lead. Behind them, Matt Ryan and Justin Kay were moving into third and fourth and closed to make it a four car race. Pollard would attempt lap after lap to get by Moreland on the inside but he just couldn't quite get it done with Moreland leading past the halfway point. 

Then Pollard tried the outside and that helped him pick up speed. He was just ready to pass Moreland down the front chute on lap fourteen when his motor went up in a cloud of smoke and steam. This provided the only yellow of the race and on the green, Ryan would drive past Moreland and take over the lead. 

Kay would quickly follow and it became a two car race with Kay looking lap after lap to the inside of Ryan who appeared to be struggling just a bit as the low side of the track began to dry out and blacken up. Kay nearly got by with five to go but Ryan fought him off. 

Kay then backed up a bit and made one more late run, getting close as the white flag waved. He stuck his nose under Ryan in turn three as they approached a lapped car and Kay was able to squeeze past coming off turn four in what was a tight but clean move. At the line, Kay won by just under a car length in what was a thrilling finish to the evening. However, because Ryan finished only one position behind Kay, Ryan would take the point title by the narrow margin of two points. 

Jeff Aikey would just into Joel Callahan's car for the feature race, start in the back and come home third. This is interesting because in my area, drivers are not allowed to be switched once the racing is started but apparently it is perfectly fine in IMCA as Aikey was left without a car after motor problems with his Modified in the heat race. 

Earlier, Tom Schmitt won a tight battle with Johnny Spaw to take the Stock Car feature. They went three wide for the lead on the opening lap with Chase Zaruba getting the lead but the three wide battle saw him get turned sideways and by lap two, Schmitt had moved into the lead. 

Spaw was on the move as he squeezed into second with Zaruba catching a piece of the wall and eventually dropping out. The battle was then on between Schmitt and Spaw and the last half of the race saw Spaw try a multitude of moves to get past Schmitt but Tom hung tough on each one and continued to hold a very small lead. 

Spaw would try one last time on the final lap but Schmitt held his ground and Spaw, to his credit, raced him clean and did not try a nasty slider or try to move him up the track and Schmitt would cross the line for the win with Phil Holtz third. Spaw would be point champion by nine points. 

The Sport Mod feature was another two car battle that boiled down to a battle between Justin Becker and "King Kong" Bauer. Becker had a great opening lap as he moved to the tall side of the track and swept from the outside of row two into the lead before one lap could be completed. Bauer had to come from the fourth row but would eventually move to second in the nonstop main and then zero in on Becker. 

Justin was running the higher side of the track and Bauer would have to drive under him for the lead and it took him several laps as he gained inch after inch with each lap completed as he worked to Becker's inside and gradually would move under him, finally clearing him on lap ten for the lead. 

Becker tried to move even higher on the track to get a run on Bauer and it almost worked as he caught back up but it was too tricky up there and Bauer was just a bit too strong as he would drive on for the win and also take the track title by thirteen points. Becker would settle for second with Jason Roth third. 

With Aikey out after heat race problems, there would be twelve to start the Modified feature race and Tyler Madigan would lead the first twelve laps of this event. He started on the pole and set a fast pace with Eric Pollard staying with him and setting up a very interesting battle as they raced side by side for a number of laps. Pollard tried his best to get by but Madigan was just quick enough to hold him off. 

Meanwhile, on the move from farther back in the pack were Timmy Current and Bone Larson . Current was really flying and on lap ten he was able to drive under Madigan and take over the lead. Just after that, the only yellow of the race would fly from Doug Haack when Jamie Pfeiffer slowed on the track. 

The last seven laps saw a shootout with Larson trying his best to get under Current but Timmy was too strong and would drive home for the win with Larson a close second. Bone would also earn the point title by thirteen with Mark Schulte coming home third in the feature. 

Of course it would have been better to have a few more cars on hand and make the feature races just a bit bigger. However, all four feature races were good, close contests with passes for the win coming late in most and they were entertaining and not plagued by a bunch of yellow flags. Management did a good job of moving things along and the final checkered waved just around 9 pm with quite frankly, is not a bad thing on a week night with a long holiday weekend ahead. 

I enjoyed the show and the crowd seemed satisfied in the racing that they saw. No doubt both the crowd and the car count will be substantially bigger for this weekend's Yankee events at this long standing racing tradition. 

Thanks to the folks at 300 for allowing me to be on hand on this beautiful Wednesday night.