" Hammer Down " Takes the Yankee Win

 We decided to kick off the Labor Day holiday weekend with our first visit of the season to the Farley Speedway for championship night of the Yankee Dirt Track Classic featuring the Malvern Bank Super Late Models slugging it out for $10,000 to win. Three IMCA classes, modifieds, sport mods, and stock cars would fill out the lineup, with a cool $5,000 going to the modified winner. With 164 cars signed in for the Friday night portion of the show, we were prepared for a long and full night of racing. We were rewarded with that and more. After hearing stories of mass carnage on Friday, plus it being the Prelude to the Nationals night at Boone it was not surprising that the car counts in all but the sport mod division were down a bit on Saturday. Still a solid total of 131 cars made for a busy pit area. And with the memory of the final checkers flying at nearly 2:00 A.M. Saturday morning, it was decided to move the start time up one hour. As the program moved along, a couple of complete farming sessions of the 3/8 mile oval were held and it was announced that the running order would be altered to afford the late models and modifieds the best possible racing surface.                                                                                           Thus hot laps kicked off a few minutes after 5:30, with large groups of car per session with a green, white, checkers format moving things along quickly. The forty late models ( minus the one phantom car listed but not on the grounds ) then time trialed, four at a time for two laps. Veteran Jeff Aikey came out in group one and held the top mark until late in the order when series point leader Tad Pospisil turned the fastest lap at 15.768 seconds. This would start Tad sixth in the first heat, as the SLMR uses a combination of time trial points plus heat race passing points to set the first eight rows of the feature lineup. The passing points had a big impact on feature qualifying, as three of the cars that crossed the line second in their heat race plus one third place finisher wound up needing to run a B main. Heat race wins were dominated by Nebraska drivers. Friday night feature winner Justin Zeitner, Richie Gustin, Bill Leighton Jr., Cory Zeitner, and Cory Dumpert all picked up wins. B main victories went to Charlie McKenna, Dave and Andy Eckrich. Dave was one of those who finished second in his heat. Four provisional starters filled out the twenty six car feature field.                                                         With qualifying events for the forty six mods, thirty one sport mods and fourteen stock cars complete, next on the card was the $2,000 to win non qualifiers race for the SLMR late models. Fourteen cars would be eligible for the race, but only nine would make the call. The winner would have the option of taking the two grand or tagging the tail of the main event. Eric Pollard shot to the lead of the nine lapper and cruised to the win in front of Ben Seeman, Gary Webb, Logan Duffy, and the #02 of Kent Rosevear, who made the trip to Farley from Yuma, Arizona. Eric elected to take the money and call it a night.                                                                                            Following a second farming of the track, the late models were called ( more than once, I might add ) to the grid. As the twenty six starters mixed parade and warm up laps, provisional starter Darrell Defrance ducked to the infield with a trail of smoke following his #99D. When we finally went green, pole sitter Jason Rauen shot to the lead with his row one mate Leighton close behind. The racing surface was holding the moisture, was lightning fast and by lap eight, the hometown driver was encountering slower traffic. The front of the pack was racing pretty much in formation when the first caution came with nineteen of fifty laps in the books. Jeff Aikey was stopped facing the grandstands at the exit of turn four. Although I did not see what happened, Jeff was sure to let everyone see his displeasure with another driver as the cars circled the track waiting to be realigned.  It was now just before 10:00 P.M.. doing good, huh? Not so fast... As the lineup was being reset, the track lights in all but turn three went out. Upon inspection, it was found that the transformer behind the turn one concession area was on fire. The result was a nearly two hour delay as power company personnel arrived and changed out the faulty tranformer. During this time quite a few from the large crowd headed for the exits, including a handful of race teams. When action resumed, Rauen picked up where he left off. Clean and green, he was again in lapped traffic by lap twenty six. Although he was setting a blistering pace and negotiating the heavy traffic well, Leighton was methodically closing the gap. By lap thirty four Bill was bumper to bumper with the leader, and as the next ten laps clicked off, he was side by side coming out of the turns, looking for that extra bite while Jason kept to the preferred line. With Leighton looking ready to make his move, the yellow waved again with just four laps to go. Pospisil had been running a solid third, but slowed with a flat tire. This final restart would be single file, and with clean air in front, the driver known as " Hammer Down " Jason Rauen stretched his lead and picked up a flag to flag $10,000 Yankee Dirt Track Classic win. He also collected I think $500 in lap money. Leighton went the distance in second chased by Jeff Tharp, Dumpert, and Justin Zeitner. Gustin moved up ten spots to sixth in front of Darin Duffy. McKenna, Matt Ryan, and Andy Nezworski in the Tharp team car. The fifty fifty winner collected nineteen hundred plus dollars, and he donated back five hundred for the hard charger which I believe went to provisional starter Curt Schroeder who gained twelve spots after starting last.                                                                                         Following the power outage, the excellent new track P.A. system was no longer working, so with no post race interview, the modifieds came to the track quickly for what would now be a scheduled twenty laps. As lightning flashed to the west, Kyle Madden  took the early lead from the outside pole position. Chris Simpson was doing double duty, and he soon put his Busch Light #32 in the runner up spot, applying pressure to the #32XP of Madden. Meanwhile Jeff " Bone " Larson, the Friday night winner, had started seventh, and moved quickly to third. On lap ten he charged into turn three, blowing past both of the leaders, then promptly put distance on the pair. It took four more circuits for Simpson to clear Madden for second, and he then set about trying to run down Larson. About this time, sprinkles began to fall, and they quickly increased to the point that starter Doug Haack waved the yellow flag followed by the checkers with eighteen laps scored. Larson had made it back to back wins, with Simpson, Madden, double duty Jeff Aikey, and Denny Eckrich scoring top fives.                                                                           Another scan of the radar along with the fact that it was now officially Sunday morning sent us scurrying to the parking lot. We were convinced, as many others seemed to be, that the racing was over for the night. Surprisingly a check of results indicated that both the sport mod and stock car features were able to run. Curtis VanDerWal topped the sport mods, besting Scott Busch, Tim Plummer, Jason Roth, and Austin Stamm. Damon Murty scored the stock car win in front of Philip Holtz, Andrew Chelf, Johnny Spaw, and Matt Picray.                                                                                Power issues aside, it was a fun night of racing, and we all agreed that we made a good choice in making the three hour plus trip. Thanks go out to Michelle and the staff at  the spruced up 300 Raceway for their hospitality. Certainly my companions were appreciative of the free admission for those seventy and older, as well!                                                                                                       It is now time to get ready for Sunday night racing at Randolph County Raceway outside Moberly, Missouri, as the MLRA late models make their second visit to the high banked speed plant, backed by B modifieds and 4 cylinder cars. Check back tomorrow for highlights fron there, as you continue to enjoy your holiday weekend!