Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Rauen posts first ever Deery win at the Marshalltown Speedway

The IMCA Deery Brothers made their annual appearance at the Marshalltown Speedway on Tuesday night.  Thirty one of the "boys of summer" came to play on the high banks.  Joining them for the night's racing were the IMCA Northern SportMods, Mod Lites, and for the first time ever, the INEX Legend cars.

Josh May made his mid-week trip to the track pay off, taking the win in the Mod Lite 20-lap feature.  However, stamping his name in the winner's column was only decided at the last moment.  Pole sitter Tim Hennigar led nineteen of the twenty laps, only to have his victory disappear on the last lap run to the checkers.  The caution plagued race ended under a green-white-checkered dash to the finish, and May's swing to the outside paid off as they came out of corner four looking at the waving checkered flag.  Third place went to Randy Bryan, fourth was the winner's father Jimmy May and marking the first time at the track this year in the car #20, was Jeff Stensland who was fifth.

The IMCA Northern SportMods were racing for a $1,000 win last night.  Twenty-six cars were on hand and all ran the 20-lap feature event.  At least ten of those did not finish the race in what also became a marathon of yellow flags flying.

Brayton Carter, brother to Modified/Stock Car/Late Model racer Cayden Carter, led the opening lap, only to have the race slowed for a caution after that first lap was scored.  By the time the sixth yellow had waved at lap seven, Carter was still holding down the top spot.  He had not been able to shake off Sam Wieben however, who had been challenging him the entire time to that point.  Also on the move was visiting racer from Oskaloosa, Iowa, Curtis VanDerWal, who had moved from starting seventeenth, up to the fourth spot, right behind Brandon Williams in third.  VanDerWal shot to the topside of the track as the racing resumed, passed Wieben by lap eleven, and flew by Carter by lap twelve. The final caution flew at lap seventeen and it was a fight to the finish between VanDerWal and Sam Wieben. Wieben had gotten around Carter and challenged VanDerWal by dipping low.  VanDerWal was able to stand his ground on his preferred top side, and took the checkers first.  Wieben took the runner up spot, Carter held third place, fourth went to Jared VanDeest who had started in the eighth row, Clint Luellen was fifth and Doug Smith finished sixth after having to recover from an earlier caution he was involved in, tag the field and come through the pack.

The INEX Legends visited the high banks for the first time ever.  They are a league of cars the size of the Mod Lites, but full fendered.  These cars came from all over the United States, and they were vying for a $1,000 in a "Race for the Cause".  Each car carried the name of a fallen police officer from their respective state.  They ran a 25-lap feature and receiving the accolades in this one was the #38 of Joplin, Missouri racer, Justin Comer.  He took the comfortable win over the #13 of Timothy Brockhouse from Illinois, third was Dave Comer from Missouri, fourth went to the 6B of Vince Bartolotta from Wisconsin, and fifth went to Nelson Stewart from Indiana.  Stewart is the 74 year old father of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart.

The 50-lap Deery Brothers race had their starting field whittled down via two B mains.  Winning those were Ray Guss, Jr. and Joel Callahan.  Earlier there had been the "pick the pizza box" for the top 12-qualifiers from the heats to determine their starting spots in the feature.  The lucky recipients were Scott Fitzpatrick with the #1 and young Tyler Droste with the #2.

The ONLY yellow of this 50-lapper came at lap four.  Tyler Droste had established the point spot by lap two by putting his ride to the top side.  When things picked back up, he quickly took back to the top shelf, and pulled away from his competition.  He masterfully worked his line and through lap traffic.  Jason Rauen had taken over the second spot, and as the race wore on, he began reeling in the leader.  At lap forty, Rauen attempted a slide job out of corner four, but wasn't able to pull it off.  However, the following lap, Rauen got the job done, taking over the top spot.  From there on, Rauen pulled away, and took the checkers.  Droste finished in the runner up spot, third went to last year's winner Jeff Aikey, Fitzpatrick held on to fourth place and Justin Kay completed the top five.  It was a happy Jason Rauen in victory lane after the race, finally able to get his first ever Deery Brothers Summer Series win.

Earlier in the evening, the top 2 finishers of the four heats drew for starting positions for an Australian Pursuit race.  In this unique contest, if you are passed, you are out.  Second place starter Jeff Aikey quickly eliminated pole sitter Tyler Droste and easily took the 10-lap contest, going home with an extra $500.

Marshalltown Speedway will be back in action this coming Friday night for their regular season racing.  Hot laps are scheduled for 6:50 and racing at 7:30.

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