Lee County Speedway Opens Iowa's 2013 Racing Season

There was finally a touch of Spring in the air on Friday, and with perhaps the warmest temperatures of the year so far, hovering around 60 degrees, it made the call to "go racing" easy to do.  The sun was shining and with a light breeze from the southeast, we headed off to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa.  This would be our first race of the season and Iowa's opening race of 2013.  Mike VanGenderen, the new promoter at the track, held the Spring Extravaganza with IMCA classes of Modifieds, Stock Cars, SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts all on the program.

The IMCA SportMods started the night's feature racing and the final few laps were a doozie!  Minburn, Iowa driver Clint Luellen showed his muscle by grabbing the lead early on.  He held off the early challenges of veteran Jim Gillenwater and Tony Dunker, another guy who knows his way around a track. Gillenwater would come to a stop on the track bringing out the yellow. When racing resumed, young Carter VandenBerg  joined in the fun at the front of the field and in the waning laps, it was a three-way race for the checkers as Dunker, VandenBerg and Luellen fought it out in a battle to the checkers.  Luellen took the win, with VandenBerg nipping at his heels for second, Dunker, scored in third.  Fourth went to Brett Lowry with a good run from deep in the pack and Brad Iverson, came from well back in the starting field as well, to capture fifth.

Next up were the IMCA Stock Cars with their 18-lap feature.  It took a couple of tries before this one really got underway.  One of the incidents found Nathan Wood and Jeremy Pundt into the outside guardrail of turn one, leading to the end of their night. After the third try, the green stayed out.  The show was between Damon Murty, the "Chelsea Charger", and area favorite, Jason Cook as they circled the track, and mostly avoiding the dips and holes that had reared their ugly heads in the track.  Murty took the win, shaking off the challenges of Cook who took second.  Grinnell, Iowa driver, Todd Reitzler had a nice run to take third.  Fourth went to John Oliver, Jr. and fifth was Chris Wibbell.

The IMCA Modified's scheduled 20-lap feature, a $1,000 to win Fast Shaft qualifier for the IMCA All Star ballot, pulled onto the track next.  Scott Hogan, sporting a new car with an old familiar look of white and hot orange, jumped to the lead like a rocket ship.  He had earlier dominated his heat race, and it was looking as if he would also do so in the feature.  Yellow flags flew several times, as the cars were bouncing around on the track in teeth rattling form, leading to incidents all over the track.  The race was then shortened to 15-laps due to the rough conditions. On the restarts, Hogan would continue to maintain his lead and scored the dominate win and the $1,000 payoff.  Jacob Murray, the "Hartford Hustler" tried in vane to catch Hogan, but would go home with a second place finish on this night.  Third was  Brandon Rothzen, fourth went to Jeff Waterman and rounding out the top five was Steve Stewart.

The smaller tired IMCA Hobby Stocks rolled onto the track for their 12-lap affair.  Newton, Iowa's Garrett Eilander in his #500 ride looked to be taking home his first win of the season as he was getting around the track easily, avoiding ruts and bumps.  As the laps wound down, it was Dustin Griffiths and Shannon Anderson (who was racing the borrowed car of Jamie Songer, after Anderson's car went out during the hot lap session) challenging Eilander in what was beginning to look like a real fight to the finish.  Oops on that, as Anderson lost a rear axle in turn four, and gathered Griffiths with him in the process.  Yellow!  Anderson limped to the exit into the pits, and a very unhappy Griffiths, who was dead in the water in turn four, opted to jog to the now disabled Anderson car, to ask him if he'd like to go out for pizza later.  :)  After that was decided amongst themselves and numerous people in the pits, the racing would resume with a green-white-checkered finish.  This would take another couple of tries and more "bonus" laps, before the race would finally finish under green.  Eilander held the point, but Eric Knutson and Andy Coffman were right on his tail. Coffman, made the final push to the front and scored the victory at the flag, followed by Eilander in second, Knutson in third.  Fourth went to Jason See in the #79S car.  It is our understanding that this 25-year old had never driven a race car of any type and not even go karts, so a congratulations to him on a fine showing on his first ever attempt of racing.  Tim Pettibone took the fifth position.

By this time, the temps had dropped considerably and the crowd was thinning.  Those that left however, may have missed one of the best finishes of the night in the IMCA Sport Compacts.  It was a true photo finish at the flagstand as Skip Dunker in his #3 ride just nosed out Chuck Fullenkamp in the #48, who had lead much of the race.  The #22 of Austen Becerra was third, Craig Bangert fourth and Brandon Lambert was fifth.

It was really no surprise that the track got rough last night, given that frost is still coming out of the ground. It was a bonus that racing even happened last night, but because of the diligent work all week long by VanGenderen and his crew at the facility, and the continued regrading and packing all through the night, race fans were treated to their first race in Iowa for 2013.  Mother Nature has not been kind to us around here this early Spring, and the racing surfaces will pay for it.  Let's hope things improve very soon so we can all get started on our racing fixes for 2013!

A big thanks to Mike VanGenderen for his hospitality last night for the refuge in the "Positively Racing booth" we shared with fellow PR blogger, Jeff Broeg.  It was great catching up on some racing news, etc.  Be sure and catch Jeff's take of the racing on "Back Stretch".  Also check the calendar for the upcoming events this coming week, and the soon to be regular season openers of tracks in our area.  Happy racing!

 

Almost time for Midwest Racing!

Hello race fans.  It's been a while since we last checked in.  It's been a slow "racing info" time for us, but the more we hear of the Springtime specials being advertised, the more excited we become as we anticipate that first roar of the engines out on a good old Midwest dirt track!  We often make our way to Florida for the Daytona races and perhaps catch an area short track race too.  However, this year we opted out of racing and instead took a wonderful family vacation to Hawaii instead, which was absolutely wonderful!  Six Eisele's ---son, daughter-in-law, and 2 year old grandson and 7 month old granddaughter, and "Grandma and Grandpa Hawkeye", winged our way over the Pacific to paradise. I'm not sure who had to have more looking after, the grand kids or the grandparents!  We all survived the LONG flights and the airport check ins just fine and have now checked  Hawaii off of our "bucket list".  Actually, we got to check off two more!  We all did the HELICOPTER  tour of Maui and got to see the WHALES, which was an amazing sight.  We were all brought back to reality when the morning after returning home, we saw six inches of the white fluffy stuff outside!

Speaking of the Daytona racing, most of you probably saw the horrible wreck that happened on the front stretch in the Nationwide race.  From the violence of the projectile debris going into the stands as well as driver Kyle Larson getting caught up in a "wrong place, wrong time situation", I would say only by the grace of God, no one was killed.  Thank goodness that was the case.  I immediately texted some friends who we knew sat on the front stretch and near the finish line.  I was very happy to hear back immediately, that they were fine.  The young driver, Kyle Larson has had a fantastic career already, winning in about any type of race car he jumps into.  We got to meet the young man just last race season, when local area announcer Blake Anderson brought him into the grandstands at Marshalltown Speedway.  He was very nice and sat in the stands with us to enjoy some dirt track racing before he and Blake retreated to the pits.  

So now, back to the racing scene.  Our planned first racing of the season is but a week away.  We hope to see the 20th Annual Spring Nationals at Beatrice Speedway in Beatrice, Nebraska.  This has long been one of our annual "kick-off" races, having attended the majority of the races since it's beginning.  I guess time will tell if Mother Nature will cooperate, but we will cross our fingers and hope to see our first dirt track racing of the 2013 season.  There is practice scheduled for Thursday, March 14 and a complete racing show on Friday the 15th and another complete show on Saturday the 16th.  It will be $2,000 to win for the IMCA Modified EACH night.  The IMCA SportMods, IMCA Stock Cars, and the IMCA Hobby Stocks will also run a separate show each night.  The IMCA Sport Compacts join in on Saturday night for a full show.  For more information, you can go to www.beatricespeedway.com.  Click on the "registration" form for a complete listing of the two-day show.

Here's hoping the next time I write, it will be about seeing some good old dirt track racing!  Be sure and check Positively Racing for their race calendar, and you too may want to seek out some racing action.
Happy racing!