It was only our second time ever visit to the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton, Iowa on Tuesday night. We immediately recalled two unique aspects of the track. The track appears to be UP hill from the bottom of the grandstands and you face west. Two traveling series only were on the docket for the night---the IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds, and the Deery Brothers Summer Series for the Late Models.
Forty-four of the IMCA Modifieds checked into the pits and they ran five heats with only the top two advancing to the main. They ran three B mains, taking four each directly to the feature, and added two provisionals to tag on to the tail.
It was announced earlier that the HDT feature would be 35 laps, but the announcer then said it would be 30 laps during the running. Polesitter Mitch Morris quickly jumped to the lead with the guy starting right behind him, Jesup, Iowa's Ronn Lauritzen, falling into second. But who was that flying on the topside? It was the 19D of Darin Duffy taking flight from starting in row three. Duffy took over the lead with a handful of laps in the books and would never relinquish that top position. Only one yellow flag would stop the action, that coming at lap sixteen. At lap twenty, there were two guys who had come from a B main making themselves known. Richie Gustin, had started in twentieth place and was now in third, and fifteenth place starter, the "Hartford Hustler", Jacob Murray was running fourth. When the checkers flew, it was Duffy taking the win, Ronn Lauritzen ran his steady as ever race around the bottom of the track, taking the runner up spot. Richie Gustin and Jacob Murray held on to third and fourth, and finishing in the fifth spot was Ryan Dolan. Veteran racer Dan Chapman, "The Flying Embalmer" came from starting twelfth and winning his B, to finish in sixth, and another driver coming from a B and starting twenty-first, was Kellogg's Kyle Brown in seventh. That made it four out of the top seven, coming out of a B main qualifier. The track was smooth and slick but there was plenty of passing.
After the always entertaining intermission "draw your pizza slices", for starting position in the Deery Brothers 50-lapper, it was Justin Kay with the lone slice in his pizza box. This was after a bit of back and forth passing, etc. of box after box. The #2 draw went to Stephen Kammerer. Kammerer was looking strong in the opening laps of the race, putting his car to the topside. That dangerous topside would be his undoing at lap eleven, when he slipped off of turn one, bringing out the race's only yellow, and sending him to begin again at the tail. The restart was begun double wide (since the leader had dropped out) with Kay at the point and Denny Eckrich along side. Kay and Eckrich battled back and forth for the lead for numerous laps...until the familiar 15R of Brian Harris came into the picture. Then it was the three of them going at it, giving the crowd their money's worth! Harris finally established the lead at lap twenty-six, but the fight was far from over. With the race continuing under green, would lap traffic come into play? Not for Harris on this night, as he motored home to the win....his third Deery Series race in a row, and padding his points lead. Kay barely took second over Andy Eckrich and nipping out brother Denny Eckrich at the line to go third and fourth. It was a tight one at the checkers. Fifth went to the wily veteran Ray Guss, Jr.
So ended another night of fun racing for us. We thoroughly enjoyed our grandstand "bunch" and as we've always said, it can be so much more enjoyable when you get to share it with racing family. There were four of us Positively Racing folk sitting in a row at the top of the wooden bleachers...and though we all watched the same race, from the same vantage point, do make sure you check out Jeff Broeg's "Back Stretch" and Ryan Clark's "In Staging" blogs at www.positivelyracing.com as well. We can all see it differently you know.
We enjoyed getting to join the "Lauritzen throng" as well. It was kept lively in our area all night long with the jibs, jabs, etc. flying all over the place. Fun times.
We watched lightning all of our 100 mile drive home last night, thankful it stayed far to the north and west.
Summer had finally hit yesterday, making our night of racing the warmest by far of any this season. Now as I write this blog, I am hearing of possible storm threats AGAIN, something we can all do without! We will be heading south tonight, for our weekly visit to the Southern Iowa Speedway. Tonight, grandstand admission is FREE. Yes. FREE. It is Fan Appreciation Night at Osky, so the stands should be packed with race fans far and wide. Happy racing!
No comments:
Post a Comment