Familiar Faces in Victory Lane at Donnellson

Tommy Elston, Jeff Waterman, John Oliver Jr. Brandon Lennox and Josh Barnes all picked up wins Friday night at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson,Iowa on a cool, breezy evening. A nice sized crowd was on hand to watch the nine heat races click off in good time with the exception of a delay for the IMCA modified # 3T, as Robert Thompson backed it in to the turn one guardrail. The car became entangled in the steel, and it took several minutes to extricate his ride. He was able to start the feature later in the evening. The IMCA sport compacts ran first in the feature lineup, with all but one of the twelve cars taking the green for 15 laps. Josh Barnes put his # 13B out front on the opening circuit, with Daniel Fellows and Mike Reu in hot pursuit. Although Barnes opened a commanding lead at one point, Fellows began to chip away by mid race. As the front three held their spots, the action came further back, with Barry Taft, Brandon Reu and Brandon Lambert sliced and diced for fourth through sixth positions. With no cautions to slow the action, Barnes held on for the flag to flag win. Fellows, Mike Reu, Taft, and Brandon Reu completed the top five. IMCA sport mods turned out the biggest field of the night, 15 strong, with all taking the feature green. After a false start, John Oliver Jr led Vance Wilson as lap one was scored. The next time around, eighth starting Brandon Lennox had joined the leaders, and following a lap three caution, Lennox took advantage of the side by side behind the leader Delaware restart to move to second. Austen Becerra also joined the fray after the restart, taking third from Wilson on lap five. While those two waged a battle for third, Lennox pulled alongside Oliver for laps seven and eight, finally gaining an advantage on the ninth trip around the 3/8 mile oval. After a caution on lap eleven, Oliver drifted too high on the cushion, and Becerra sneaked past into the runner up spot. Now it was those two slugging it out as Lennox stretched his lead. With five laps to go, Becerra lost the handle, spinning his #22 in turn two and bringing out the caution. Back to racing, ninth starting Tony Dunker powered from fourth to second. Again Lennox stretched his margin, but one more yellow gave Dunker a chance. He used a dandy high to low line move in turns one and two to challenge for the lead, but at the checkers, it was Lennox who prevailed. Dunker was a close second followed by Wilson, Oliver and Kyle Hill, who turned in a strong performance. A dozen IMCA modifieds came to the oval next, with a multi car mix up bringing out a lap one yellow. Rich Smith took off from row one on the retry, ahead of Dakota Anderson and Bill Roberts. The second lap saw Roberts take over second and Dennis Laveine move to third. One more trip past the flag stand had Laveine in second, and Jeff Waterman joining the front group in fourth. Laveine grabbed the top spot the next time around, and Waterman charge to second. Smith looped his ride in turn two, a trouble spot all night, on lap five, bringing out the caution as he was hit by the # 33 Fuller machine. The restrart saw Laveine and Waterman running nose to tail on the low line while Roberts searched the top side for some traction. About lap eight, Waterman moved to the top side and powered to the lead, immediately putting distance on the rest of the field. One more caution with nine laps to go bunched the field, and back under green, Dean McGee moved up two spots to third. But the night belonged to Waterman, who cruised to the win over Laveine, McGee, Jerad Fuller, and Roberts. The IMCA stock car turn out was light, only nine cars, but again the action was intense. Jason Cook led the opening circuit from row one, with a caution at the end of the lap. Back to racing, an intense four car scrum developed for second between Oliver Jr., Jeremy Pundt, Jason See, and Corey Strothman. Cook ran the bottom groove, with Oliver running the high line. At about the half way mark, Oliver Charged to first, three laps later the leaders all moved to the higher line behind the #. Cook then returned to the lower line, and soon found himself in third as See move to the runner up spot. See closed the gap as the white flag waved, and the front duo split a lapped car out of turn four coming to the checkers, See low and Oliver high. But Oliver carried enough momentum to cross the stripe first. Cook, Pundt, and Strothman rounded out the top five. Last up it was the ten UMP Pro late models. Sam Halstead took off from the pole to lead the first lap, with Denny Woodworth on the bottom and Tommy Elston up higher in pursuit. The two ran side by side on lap two, with Elston jetting to the lead on the next trip around. Meanwhile, an entertaining battle for fourth developed between the father and son duo of Todd and Gunner Frank, with Gunner actually putting a slide job move on Pop in turn four! With four laps to go, Derek Liles had a good run spoiled when he spun in that treacherous turn two - Brandon Savage had smacked the guardrail there earlier in the race. On the restart, Woodworth cleared Halstead for second, but could not run down Elston. The final rundown was Elston Woodworth, Halstead, Todd Frank and Jeff Guengerich. Gunner Frank was sixth, followed by Chris Richard in the # 73R, Savage, Liles, and Derek Sammons. Although the show ended about 10:12, it was a choppy program, unusual for LCS. A 360 sprint car was on hand and was given three separate hot lap sessions totaling about 25 laps, and Austin Howes was also granted a pair of solo sessions in his outlaw modified. along with a 30 minute or so intermission for slip and slide contestants, the down time saw a fair amount of the nice crowd depart early. Next up for me is the rescheduled $2,000 to win UMP Big Ten late model show Sunday at Quincy Raceways.