We made our way to Maquoketa on Tuesday, for our first time ever visit to the Jackson County Speedway. On tap for the racing action were the IMCA Deery Brothers Late Model series, the IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds, and SportMods as a support class.
There were 29 IMCA Modifieds on hand for the running of the HDT. Twelve cars qualified through four heats, and it took two B mains to complete the 24-car starting grid. The lucky recipients of the redraw, found Ryan Maitland and Ben Chapman sitting on the front row for the start of the 25-lap feature.
Maitland and Chapman took advantage of their front row starting spot, leading the field past the halfway mark of the 25-lapper. Meanwhile, on the move was the #41 car of Jeremiah Hurst. Hurst had started in row four, and was up to third and challenging second place Chapman at lap fifteen. A couple of laps later, Hurst took over the runner up spot, and began reeling in leader Maitland. Maitland was doing a good job, holding his lead as the white flag flew, but Hurst, who is the point leader at the track, wasn't done yet. On the final run to the checkers, out of corner four, Hurst was able to get a run on Maitland, beating him to the finish line by inches! Maitland had to be content with the runner up spot on this night. Third place went to Justin Kay. Kay, most familiar to us handling his Late Model ride, had started deep in the field about row eight, and made a late race run to get his top finish. Ben Chapman finished fourth, and defending champion of the HDT series, Mike VanGenderen, held on to his machine with a damaged front left, to finish fifth. Hurst, who we are also most familiar with piloting a Late Model, took his first Hawkeye Dirt Tour win. The race went flag to flag.
The night ending 40-lap IMCA Deery Brothers Late Model feature had the top twelve qualifiers through the heats, have their starting spot determined by the usual "pick the pizza box" game. Wisconsin driver, Dan Shelliam and Justin Kay, who was doing double duty this night, ended up with the lucky front row starting spots. Thirty of the Late Models were on hand for the night, and two B mains were run, taking the top four finishers from each to the A, plus a hard charger, and three Deery provisionals tagged the field.
Shelliam got off to a good start, taking the lead and distancing himself from the rest of the competitors. Third place starter, Jon Merfeld tucked into the the runner up spot, and Kay rode his bumper in third. Kay opted to go to the outside line, and by lap seventeen, took the lead from Shelliam. Kay would then go on to withstand three caution flags, retaining his lead and taking the win by a comfortable margin. Shelliam took the runner up spot, holding off Tyler Droste in third. Fourth place went to Joe Zrostlik who had started eleventh, and veteran Jeff Aikey rounded out the top five.
We earlier said this was our first trip ever to the Jackson County Speedway. It was about a 2 1/2 hour trip for us. The small 1/4 mile track, facing the usual north and with a covered grandstand, flanked by two open bleacher sections, had a typical picturesque Iowa farm scene to it's north. We were surprised to see that the track was not packed in prior to the running of hot laps.....something that neither of us could recall at any other track we've attended. It was unfortunate for the 19 Sportmod drivers on hand, that they did not get to run their feature race, due to the 10 p.m. curfew.
Up next on our agenda of races, is the Thursday night long anticipated Lucas Oil MLRA Late Model and Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modified race at the Southern Iowa Speedway. The IMCA Late Models will also be racing, as well as the IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Sportmods, and the IMCA Hobby Stocks. The latter three classes will run features only for their mid-season championships. The Monster Half Mile will spring into action on Thursday with hot laps at 6:45 and racing at 7:15. It will also be the night for fans and drivers to vote for three new inductees into the track's Hall of Fame.
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