The storied half mile oval dirt track in West Liberty, Iowa roared to life on Wednesday night. An auto racing community staple for longer than I can remember, this would be the only scheduled action for 2024. The Darkside Promotions team of Ryan Duhme and Timmy Current would be in charge of the special event, staged as part of the Muscatine County Fair. Five divisions of cars would fill out the card, with Late Models running for a $1,500 top prize utilizing SLMR rules. IMCA sanctioning would be in effect for Modifieds, Sport Mods and Stock Cars, and after a bit of back and forth, "outlaw" 4 stocks would complete the card. With no regular season racing at the track this season big car counts might not be expected, but the fast high mile is always worth the trip, especially when there is fair food involved!
As might be expected, all things considered, the car count was a bit light at fifty eight, with sixteen Modifieds leading the way.
Racing kicked off with hot laps at 6:30, and the first qualifying heat rolled out at 6:58 by my time piece. Thirty five minutes later and with zero cautions the eight preliminary events were in the books.
Following a brief intermission, the huge crowd settled in for feature racing. A dozen IMCA Northern Sport Mods would line up first, battling for fifteen trips around the fast half mile oval. Shaun Slaughter and Tim Plummer would fill out row one, with Slaughter grabbing the lead as Plummer was shuffled back several positions after getting up in the crumbs off turn two. Plummer would soon recover and after running down the leader he would use an inside move to take over on lap four. With flagman Doug Haack giving the half way signal eight laps in, he would then wave the yellow flag for the first time, bringing Plummer back to the pack. Back under green Plummer would again pull away in his #66 machine before a final caution three laps later for Rusty DeShaw who smacked the turn three wall while battling in the top five. On the restart Slaughter would need to fend off a strong challenge for second from seventh starting Tony Olson. As the checkers flew it was Plummer, Slaughter, Olson, Ryan Walker and Justin Schroeder scoring top fives.
Fifteen laps would be the distance for twelve IMCA Stock Cars. The yellow flag was displayed before one lap was scored for a multi car mix up in turns three and four that eliminated four competitors. With an original restart, John Oliver Jr. would lead Tom Cannon through lap one, then Dustin Vis took up the chase one lap later. But it was David Brandies on the move, as he was third on lap three, then second on the following circuit. One he climbed to the runner up spot he quickly closed on Oliver, whose lead had shrunk to a front bumper as lap six was scored. With the front pair driving away from the others, Brandies had the top spot with seven in the books. As Brandies then began to pull away, Kaden Reynolds came up to challenge Oliver for second. Lap twelve saw the #1 car take over as runner up, but Brandies remained in command to the checkers. Reynolds, Oliver Jr. and Keegan Wells followed, with Vis narrowly outdistancing Cannon for fifth.
All sixteen IMCA Modifieds lined up for twenty laps of action. Jeff "Bone" Larson redrew the pole position, and left little doubt about the outcome of this one. As he quickly opened a nice lead, there was a three car tussle for second. Early on Dylan Thornton and Denny Eckrich raced side by side for the runner up position, with Thornton soon falling to fourth as Ethan Braaksma moved up to challenge Eckrich. By lap seven Braaksma had secured the spot, and with Larson now working slower traffic, Ethan began to quickly cut into his sizable lead. However his potential charge to the front was halted when Scott Brau came to a stop against the turn one wall. Back under green, the top five then put some distance on the rest although Larson faced no more serious challenge. Braaksma crossed the line in second chased by Eckrich, Chris Zogg and Thornton.
Seven of the nine car scheduled 4 Stock main event would line up for ten non stop laps. Jake Benischek would make the winning moving entering turn one on the opening lap as he powered from fifth through a gaggle of cars to emerge as the leader down the backstretch. Fourth starting Josh Starr would take up the pursuit of the leader, holding the spot throughout. Cyle Hawkins came home in third followed by Alex Hayes and Trent Labarge.
Late Models would cap off the evening by doing battle for twenty laps. Long time West Liberty regular Andy Eckrich would redraw the lucky number one pill, lining up beside Quad City driver Jesse Bodin. Andy would quickly open a commanding lead as third starting Chad Holladay followed in second. Running in third early on, brother Dave Eckrich would suddenly pull to the infield, his night over. A single caution period came just past the mid point as Dustin Schram was crossed up in turn two. With the Delaware Style restart in use, Nick Marolf outgunned Holladay to the first turn to take over the pursuit of the leader. However this race belonged to youngest of the Eckrich trio in action at their "home" track. Marolf would settle for runner up honors while Holladay held third. Bodin won a battle with Matt Ryan for fourth in front of Ron Boyse, Tim Simpson, and Schram, with Dave Eckrich credited with ninth.
The final checkers came just a few minutes past 9:00 leaving plenty of time for folks to enjoy the excitement of the midway or get home in good time on a week night!
Thanks to the Darkside crew for stepping up to give us a night of racing at the legendary West Liberty Raceway.
This is hopefully the beginning of a "racing vacation," as I look forward to a wrap around weekend of action beginning FRIDAY night at Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment