It was a great night of racing at the Independence Motor Speedway last night and was the popular choice for 4 out of 5 of the Positively Racing members. I don't think any of us were disappointed as we saw great racing in the IMCA stock cars and the Deery Brothers late models. It was also nice to see that the track has rebounded with a wonderful new grandstand after their old one was taken down by a tornado last year. When we first arrived, the stands reminded us both so much of the facility at Denison, Iowa, which sadly, is no longer running. There appears to be plans to add VIP seating to the very top of the stands, which will make for a top-notch venue.
We counted fifty-one IMCA stock cars on hand to run the second of the three night series of the Stock Car Shoot Out. The first race was held the previous night at the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta, Iowa and saw David Smith take the win. Smith would not be in attendance at Independence. This series brings back fond memories of the old IMCA stock car series run in the 90's and early 2000's.
The 30-lap IMCA stock car feature had a great field of cars. We always enjoy watching "The Class too Tough to Tame". They have always been one of our favorite classes to watch. We both grew up watching "stock" cars and that may be one of the reason they are a favorite. Jarod Weepie from nearby Dunkerton, would take advantage of his pole position and lead the race early on. Soon it would be Oelwein's Brian Irvine putting his bright orange car up front with Mike Nichols, and Jeff Joldersma all three waging a great battle for that top position. At the finish line, Brian Irvine would maintain that top spot to take home the win. Jeff Joldersma from western Iowa would come home second, Justin Temeyer made his way into third spot, Jesse Colwell from Wisconsin took fourth, and Mike Nichols came home fifth. Two claims would be made as the 85 of Dustin Smith (who had been claimed the previous night in Alta) claimed the 67 car of Jesse Colwell, and the O1U of Chris Ullrich would claim the 26 of Irvine. The feature was run with only one yellow flag that flew at 26 laps down. As announcer and fellow Positively Racing member, Ryan Clark pointed out, the entire feature was run in just over 12 minutes.
The Deery Brothers 50 lap feature saw Rob Toland leap to the lead but it was the 28c car of Terry Neal who impressively made his way in to the runner-up spot from starting 9th, in just 9 or 10 laps. From there on, those would be the two cars to watch as they battled back and forth. Neal would make the pass on Toland but Toland would remain on his tail. Also making a very impressive move toward the leaders, was Jason Frankel in his 0F car. He started well back in the field in about 20th position and made amazing progress. There was only one caution flag to slow the action during the main. At the finish it was Terry Neal taking the checkers first, Toland would have to settle for second, Jason Frankel would come home with a great run to take third,
fourth went to Ray Guss, Jr., and rounding out the top five was Jeff Aikey.
We certainly enjoyed a great night of racing at Independence as I would think the rest of the nice size crowd on hand did. About the only "down" for the night was the dirt flying in our eyes for a while during the late model feature, making it hard to watch all of the action. We expect that though, at a dirt track.
There is lots of racing action coming up around our area, so try and get out to one of the tracks. Happy racing!
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