Friday began the 11th annual Harvest Hustle at Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. Two nights of IMCA racing would be on the card this year, with Late Models Modifieds, Sport Mods, and Stock Cars all racing for increased purses. Sport Compacts would also be in action, with an open rules package. Originally, Stocks and Sport Mods were scheduled to run make up feature events from September 10 immediately following hot laps on Friday, with the Compact make up due on Saturday. However after talking with some of those qualified drivers, it was decided to run all three make ups on Saturday. This turned out to be a wise decision, as temps dropped into the thirties before the final checkered flag fell!
A solid but manageable one hundred sixteen cars signed in to race, with thirty Sport Mods topping the count. It took fifteen heat races and a pair of B mains to get there, then following a brief intermission it was feature time.
Modifieds kicked things off, with all twenty one cars lining up for twenty laps. Columbus Junction track champion Jarrett Brown picked up the pole position start on the redraw, and he shot to the lap one lead with fourth starting Drew Janssen in tow. As Brown opened a good sized lead and Janssen also gained separation, cars raced side by side and nose to tail for positions three through eight. Brown caught the tail of the field on lap six, but two laps later the caution flag would fly. Back under green, Spencer Diercks, who had started eighth and was up to fourth, now gained another spot to third. Janssen found extra speed and was pressuring the leader when a second and final caution came for debris with eight laps remaining. Diercks now found himself in a four car scrum with Dustin Smith, Turtle Lake, North Dakota driver Marcus Tomlinson, and row six starter Denny Eckrich, with those four racing through turns three and four all side by side at one point! With four circuits left to go, Janssen set up a slide job exiting turn four, but Brown was able to crossover and maintain the lead, and after that he held about a three car length advantage to the checkers. Behind those two, Eckrich advanced to third, with Diercks in fourth, and outside row one starter Daniel Fellows rebounding to fifth.
It would now be Stock Cars, and again all twenty one cars came to the track for twenty laps. Following a caution on the start, front row starters Dustin Vis and Beau Taylor paced the early laps. John Oliver Jr. quickly made his way from row four to third, and began to apply pressure to Taylor. While Vis ran a middle groove around the smooth as glass three eighths mile, Taylor and Oliver "catfished" around the bottom as the race passed the halfway mark. With eight laps left on the Avis scoreboard, Oliver tried to squeeze inside Taylor off turn two and smacked the tractor tire, sending it rolling on the track to bring out the yellow flag. With front end damage, Oliver Jr. was done for the night. Back to racing, it was twelfth starting Johnny Spaw the man on the move. Lining up fifth, he quickly cleared Jason See and Kirk Kinsley to move to third. With Vis and Taylor running their lines and most of the field running low behind Taylor, Spaw was pounding the cushion in turns three and four, then tucking in low at the other end of the track. A caution with five remaining helped Spaw climb to second on the Delaware style restart. Two more cautions marred the final circuits, but try as he might, Spaw could not overtake Vis, who like Brown before him, led flag to flag for the win. See drove to third in the closing laps and Andrew Schroeder was steady if not spectacular coming from seventeenth to nip Taylor for fourth.
Sixteen Late Models would now race for twenty laps, with only Austin Russell failing to make the call. A knock on the crate type late models is that it can be difficult for them to pass, but such was not the case on Friday, with plenty of action during the event. Darin Weisinger Jr. and heat two winner Mack Mulvany, a Quad City area high schooler, redrew the front row, with Weisinger leading the charge. Mark Burgtorf was doing double duty behind the wheel of the Richard Racing #15R, and he joined the leaders in third. With three laps down, Bryan Klein slowed on the front stretch, and Sean Johnson stopped in turn four, where he was apparently hit by track champion Tommy Elston. All three cars were sidelined for the remainder of the race. Back under Green, Burgtorf grabbed the runner up spot as sixth starting Nick Marolf raced into third. With the top three putting distance on the pack, Burgtorf cleared Wesinger for the lead with six in the books. When the crossed flags by starter Rodney Bleisner signaled the half way point, Marolf drove around Weisinger for second, setting his sights on the #15R. As the laps wound down the front pair pulled slightly ahead of the field, and Marolf nearly made the pass when Burgtorf briefly gave up the inside line. Finally, with the wave of the green warning of two laps to go, Marolf used the high groove to power to the top spot. The checkers waved over his #33, topping Burgtorf, Weisinger Jr., tenth starting Jaden Fryer, and twelfth starter C. J. Horn. Darrel Defrance ran sixth ahead of a trio of Quad City hot shoes, Chuck Hanna, Gary Webb, and Andy Nezworski. Surprise entrant Evan Miller, Sioux Falls, South Dakota drove his plain blue #88 to a tenth place finish.
The Sport Mod field had been whittled down to twenty four and they would go at it for eighteen laps. A first lap yellow saw a pair of cars hooked on the front stretch, but the first scored lap went to outside pole sitter Sean Wyett over his front row mate Joe Roller. Tony Olson advanced four positions to the second spot on lap three, and Logan Anderson moved from row four to fourth one lap later. Wyett and Olson were well out front when the yellow came for Colby Heishman seven laps in. Anderson took third on the restart, then moved in to battle Olson for second. Tony finally broke free, and was closing fast on the leader in heavy traffic when the caution came with two to go for a slowing Cole Gillenwater. The clear track ahead looked like good news for Wyett, but Olson was able to execute a successful slider on the restart to grab the lead. He claimed the win while Anderson and twelfth starting Dakota Girard slipped past Wyett as well. Jesse Bodin completed the top five, gaining five spots.
Compacts saw their field trimmed from twenty seven to twenty four, however Noah Kayser was a no show for the fifteen lap finale, giving up a front row start. This moved Cincinnati, Ohio driver Jack Pflum, no stranger to LCS, to the front row, and he grabbed the top spot in front of Chandler Fullenkamp. Michael Grossman was on the charge, and he drove from row three to the front on lap two. Just after halfway, the red flag came out as Blake Driscoll rolled his #31D up against the guardrail in turn four. As the safety crew began their job, we decided to head for the exits, well chilled but satisfied having seen a quality show. It was no surprise to see that Grossman held on for the win, topping Pflum, the Fullenkamps, Chuck and Chandler, and Kimberly Abbott, Chuck and Kimberly advancing from row six!
It was a cool 39 degrees as Fred fired up the van just after 11P.M.
In addition to the travelers mentioned, Compact driver Joe Pflum, also from Cincinnati was on hand, along with Stock Car racers Rob Brillhart and his #77B from Crystal, Michigan, Brent Wenzel, #0, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Mike Tomlinson, also from Turtle Lake, North Dakota in his Modified, probably wondering why we thought it was so cold! This list does not include drivers from more than a few hours away in Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois, as well.
Thanks as always to Brian and Marcie Gaylord, Brian Neal, and the staff for their season long hospitality. Remember, racing will begin one hour earlier tonight, hot laps at 6:15. The forecast is for warmer temps, so bundle up and come watch a full night of racing PLUS three make up features! See you there!
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