Great Weather, Good Racing at Donnellson

Friday night, I headed straight from work to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for my only racing this weekend. Hot laps started on time, concluded quickly, and we actually had down time waiting for race time. The heats ticked off quickly, followed by the briefest of intermissions. First in the feature lineup was the 15 lap IMCA sport compact finale. All but one of the 15 cars signed in took the green flag, with Jake Dietrich on the trailer. Daniel Fellows took the early lead from his front row starting spot. followed by Brandon Lambert and third row starter Barry Taft. By the second lap, Fellows and Taft were racing side by side for the lead, with row four starter Kimberly Abbott closing in third. The third trip around saw Taft out front with Abbott in second. Lambert took the second spot on lap six, but drifted high in turn two, falling to fourth. With the front duo leading the way, Fellows and Lambert staged a great battle for third. Abbott kept up the pressure, but the front pair swapped spots from the week before, with Taft taking the checkers ahead of Abbott, Lambert, Fellows, and Travis Demint. The race went non stop. The most competitive class at LCS week in and week out has been the IMCA stock cars, and Friday was no exception. The car count again was down a bit, but all 13 on hand took the feature green. Jason Cook powered from row two to lead the first lap, with row three starter Abe Huls jumped to second. Cook was running the high line in turns three and four and the low groove through one and two, while Huls used the inside line all the way around the 3/8 mile oval. As the laps clicked off, Abe moved his line higher, meanwhile John Oliver Jr was on the move, coming from row five to fifth on the sixth circuit. Cook stretched his lead until the caution waved just before halfway, on lap nine. On the Delaware restart, Huls and Jason See ran side by side for second while Oliver took over fourth. With five trips around remaining, Oliver used the top groove to charge to second, but by now Cook had opened a nice lead. Oliver whittled down the margin, but it was Cook first to the checkers. In victory lane, he said it was 17 years to the day since his first feature win. Meanwhile, it was said the 44 years ago to the day, John Oliver Jrs grandpa Jim picked up the feature win on the old Donnellson half mile! Pretty sure I was there for that one, too...Oliver, Huls see, sixth row starter Dustin Griffiths and Jeremy Pundt followed Cook to the checkers. The UMP Pro late models ran next. A dozen cars took the green flag, with Chase Frank on the trailer after smacking the front stretch guardrail in his heat, and Derek Liles also failing to make the call after running third in his heat. Jeff Guengerich started outside row one and took the early lead. But fourth starting Denny Woodworth applied pressure early as the two veterans ran side by side for laps two through four. Woodworth was losing ground coming off turn two, and by lap five, Guengerich had pulled slightly ahead. A lap six yellow bunched the field, and the yellow waved again one lap later for debris. Again Woodworth applied pressure, with another caution at the halfway mark on lap ten. Back under green, third starting Sam Halstead, who had fallen back a bit, rebounded to challenge Woodworth for second, while row five starter Tommy Elston powered to fourth. Again, Guengerich was dominant coming off turn two, and while Woodworth made it close, the # 15R lead the distance for his first win of the season. Woodworth cdame home in the runner up spot, followed by Halstead, Elston, and IMCA hot shoe and first heat winner Nick Marolf. Brandon Savage led the second five ahead of Todd and Gunner Frank, veteran IMCA racer Greg Kastli, trying out a crate engine, and Charles and Laine Vanzandt. Derek Sammons was the only DNF in the main event. With the high paying special this weekend in Farley,Iowa, both modified classes were down a bit, but a dozen cars took the green in the IMCA modified finale. Dennis Laveine grabbed the point from row two to lead early. Jeff Waterman came from row four to third on the second circuit, taking second one lap later. Lap six saw Waterman take the lead in the battle of # 71s. Jeff opened a big lead, while Laveine also held a sizable advantage over third running Dakota Simmons. With no cautions to slow the action, Waterman cruised to the win. Laveine claimed second, while Blake Woodruff out ran Simmons for third. Dean McGee completed the top five. With two full days of graduation activities for grandson number two ahead, I took my leave before Austen Becerra outdueled Tony Dunker to take the 12 car IMCA sport mod win. As I write this, area racers competing at Farley include Brandon Lennox on the front row of the $20,000 to win sport mod event at Farley tonight, with Michael Long rolling off in row five of the $50,000 to win modified headliner. Good luck to both! A quick reminder that Quincy Raceways will be idle this Sunday for Mothers Day. For those wanting a racing fix, the IMCA Deery Brother late models will be in action at East Moline, always a fun and action packed track, and The MARS late models will be battling for a $5,000 top prize at Spoon River Speedway near Banner,Il. I am not sure yet how next weekend will go for me, but hopefully it will include a nigft or two of racing!