A trip to the Iowa State Fair was on tap for us this past Monday, where the evening brought the running of the IMCA Deery Brothers show along with IMCA Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks, SportMods and the Dirt Trucks. We had arrived shortly after 8 a.m. and by the time for racing, we had walked miles touring the fairgrounds, and ready to sit and enjoy the traditional racing at the Iowa State Fair. Over 150 cars filled the infield and the huge grandstand had a great crowd.
After the heats and B's, it was feature time with the Hobby Stocks coming to the track for the first of two A main events. It turned into a great battle between the 99jr of Nick Murty and the 78 of Shannon Anderson. Those two challenged each other back and forth for the lead through much of race. There was contact between the two in turn two late in the race, with Anderson leading at that point. However, haulers parked in the infield prevented us from seeing exactly what happened, but Anderson would loose his lead due to the incident and Murty would then take the checkers. Eric Stanton who had been running third, was also able to get around Anderson, as he took second. Anderson recovered to take third placed, fourth was Justin Maschke and fifth went to Kris Walker.
The second Hobby Stock feature then immediately took to the track. The program was picked up a notch, as radar was showing some shower activity nearby. John Watson would lead this one, flag to flag to take the victory. He was tailed by the 31 car driven by Steve Jones much of the race, but Blaine Peterson in the 68+1 ride, was able to make the pass into second with one lap to go. The final run to the checkers saw a bit of bumping and jockeying for that top spot, but Watson maintained control for the win. Peterson was second and Jones held third. Fourth went to Ray Stock, Jr. in the 10S and fifth was Jeremy Purdy in the 4 car.
It was decided to run the main attraction of the night next as the IMCA Late Models pulled onto the track. The 35-lap feature had current point leader Ray Guss, Jr. sitting on the pole with Jay Johnson alongside. Just a couple of laps into the feature, brought out a yellow and on the restart, it didn't take long for Darren, "The Thriller" Miller to make his move around leader, Guss. The big mover of the race was Todd Cooney. Cooney qualified for the A by winning the first of two B mains, putting him starting from the 13th starting position and he made his way into fourth by the halfway mark. Miller would go on to take the feature win, and what we understood was his first Deery win since 2001. Ray Guss, Jr. kept his runner up position and padded his point lead, Cooney was able to slip by Tom Darbyshire as they finished third and fourth, and rounding out the top five was Dubuque driver, Jeremiah Hurst.
The IMCA Northern SportMods were up next and Jesse Sobbing shot to the lead from his outside starting position. A yellow flag situation stopped the action and took a while before the green flag was thrown. On the restart, Sobbing was leading and Kyle Brown had maneuvered around Tyler Gross and moved into the second spot. A bit later, Sobbing would pull high in turn four; off power from a shucked drive shaft. On the restart, it would be Brown, who had inherited the lead and Austin Kaplan on his tail. Only another few laps were scored when another yellow came out and while under caution, Mother Nature decided to water the track with a shower. The track was never lost as cars were kept on the track, and thankfully, the sprinkling ended. On the restart, Brown kept his lead but Scott Davis had made the pass on Kaplan to slip into second. The remainder of the race went caution free and Brown kept his line and took the State Fair win. Davis was scored in second, Austin Kaplan in third, brother Beau Kaplan and the track point leader, was fourth, and fifth went to Jeremy Embrey who had started well back in the starting field.
The Dirt Truck 16-lap feature was next. Early leader was the 16m driven by Todd Inman with Bret Moyer tailing him. Those two trucks would swap the lead several times until Inman took the final command at the checkers. Bret Moyer had to settle for second Steve "Scuba" Churchill from Creston was third, fourth went to Bryan Nevins, Jr. and fifth was the 03 of Ed Nelson.
One final feature remained, that being the IMCA Stock Cars. I counted right at 40 stock cars on hand to test the big half-mile oval and the final four cars in the starting field of 24 cars, was completed by running a B main. Jeff Johnson won that consy. Chelsea, Iowa driver, Damon Murty began his quest for another win, from the pole starting position. Murty had just recently won his 100th IMCA stock car feature up in Britt, Iowa, and was looking for win #101. Murty kept it pretty well in command and that 101st win was looking pretty good. That is until current track point leader, Mike Nichols, came calling late in the race. Nichols had eliminated some competition by getting by Todd Inman and Donavon Smith, gotten in to second place, and was wanting more. Nichols would gain that top spot a few laps later and take his #63 ride to the checkers first. Murty, had to settle for the runner-up spot. Third went to Todd Inman, fourth to Donovan Smith, last year's winner of this race, and scored in fifth was Mark Elliott in the #412.
So concluded another Iowa State Fair race, something that has been a traditional event for us for years and years. It's always a nostalgic race as the Des Moines track brings back fond memories of not only the many, many races we've watched there, but also of the Iowa State Fair itself, with it's colorful Midway lit up just off of turns one and two. We've watched many cars circling that track as we go back to the days of the 200-300 lap races.
For complete results of the features, check http://www.jjamracing.net/, and click on 2010 points under the Iowa State Fair Speedway. Until next time, Happy Racing!
No comments:
Post a Comment