Aikey Tops in Summer Series Return to LCS

 In 2016, with the help and encouragement of long time car owner/driver Lynn Richard, the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa made the decision to bring late model racing back to southeast Iowa. The plan was to use the Chevrolet crate engine option, which was available for about $5,000. The first night of racing, with Colby Springsteen picking up the feature win, saw a turnout of ten cars, not bad for a fledgling class. The count went to a dozen on night two, but held around there for the next three seasons. An attempt to build up the class was made by offering UMP Crate late model points, but still the counts remained low. Then for the 2019 season, with IMCA also seeing dwindling car counts for weekly racing, the decision was made to add the crate engine option to their spec engine rules. Already IMCA sanctioned for their other classes, LCS made the decision to add the late model sanction, and car counts began to creep up. The culmination of the experiment came Friday night, with the return of the IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series to the track for the first time since 2010. Twenty eight race teams signed in to do battle on the fairgrounds 3/8 mile.
  On this night, the other IMCA sanctioned classes would also be on the card, with sport mods, stock cars, and sport compacts running for track points. Some late sponsors came on board, so the modifieds were a late addition, and they would run a draw/redraw show with no track points awarded as they were not on the original schedule.
  Heat race action was mostly uneventful, except for the first late model ten lapper. Jeremiah Hurst, running third in Summer Series points, was cruising towards the win, when his car stopped suddenly in front of the grandstand, a loud "pop" ending his night. On the restart, Jeff Aikey powered from fourth to second, but it was John Emerson in the Richie Gustin #19G taking the win. Sam Halstead claimed the third and final qualifying slot. Nick Marolf topped heat two over third starting Tommy Elston and fifth starting Andy Nezworski. Chad Holladay led the distance ahead of fifteen year old Logan Duffy and Joe Zrostlik in heat three, while Andy Eckrich came from row three to take the final heat, besting Ron Boyse, and Eric Pollard.
  The remaining fifteen cars - minus Hurst - contested a twelve lap B main with the top ten moving on to the forty lap $2,000 to win headliner. Veteran Curt Martin took the win, outgunning Darrell Defrance, Justin Kay, series points leader Joel Callahan, Jay Johnson, Matt Ryan, Matt Strassheim, Mike Smith, Kyle Hinrichs, and Gary Webb. The final two starting spots went to the top two in series points not already qualified, and those spots went to late model rookie Dalton Simonsen and Brian Harris.
   Feature racing began with eleven of the twelve  sport mods taking the green for eighteen laps. Yellow fever then took hold, but after a pair of early cautions, fifth starting Sean Wyatt grabbed the lead after restarting third. Daniel Fellows restarted fifth in the Delaware formation and followed Wyatt to the front. After a lap six caution, Fellows took the outside on the restart, and third running Brandon Dale took advantage to nab the second spot. With seven laps left on the scoreboard, the front three went hard into turn one, and contact between Dale and Fellows sent Dale for a spin. Although he did not stop on the track, Fellows apparently took offense to the action, and gave Dale a nose to tail greeting as the field was reforming. For that he earned a trip to the trailer, his night over, while Dale lined up at the back of the dwindling field. Wyatt held on as the race stayed green, picking up the win. Tanner Klingele drove a steady race for second, with Dale rebounding to take third. Jim Walker and Steven Berry rounded out the five cars still running, with five cautions having marred the event.
  The stock cars turned out a disappointing eight cars, but they all came to the track for eighteen laps of action. Jeremy Pundt and Brandon Savage paced the field running door to door before Savage took over on lap four, using the high line around the fast, tacky 3/8 mile D shaped oval. Savage built a lead of at least a dozen car lengths, while Pundt ran comfortably in second ahead of an entertaing four car battle for third. With a pair of laps to go, Savage suffered a flat right rear tire. It looked as though he might be able to hang on to the lead, but as he drove through turns one and two, a piece of sheet metal blew off his car landing in the racing groove, bringing out the caution flag. It proved the end of the night for the #47S. Pundt was not yet out of the woods, as Tyler Moore made a strong run at the leader over the final circuits, but Pundt held him off to collect the first place trophy. Chad Krogmeier, Jake Powers, Kyle Boyd, and Jerry Jansen rounded out the field.
  It was now late model time, with Eckrich and Emerson having emerged from the Caseys pizza box draw to start on row one. Eckrich quickly established a sizable lead, catching the back of the pack on lap twelve. One lap later, the first yellow came, as Pollard, winner of the last series race at West Union, Iowa, saw his #P7 go up in smoke. A five car pile up near the back of the pack on the restart eliminated a handful of cars, and when racing resumed, Aikey powered to second. Following a three car scrum with Nezworski and Marolf, eleventh starting Elston entered the top five on lap seventeen. Just after the halfway mark, Aikey began to close quickly on the leader, who again caught slower traffic at lap twenty four. Two more trips around, and Aikey was challenging, diving low off the turns, moving around on the track, as Eckrich stayed married to the high groove. Eckrich used his mastery of lapped traffic to open up some breathing room, but with just six circuits left, Aikey was once again within striking distance. The front pair raced side by side for two laps before Eckrich bobbled in turns three and four as they raced lap thirty seven, his tires appearing to be losing grip. Aikey took advantage, then pulled away over the final three laps to collect his seventieth series win, which leads all drivers. Eckrich was probably a bit disappointed. but still took runner up honors. Emerson held off Elston for third while Zrostlik turned in a top five run. Kay came from fifteenth to finish sixth, besting Marolf, Holladay, Halstead, and Callahan. Harris was the unofficial Hard Charger, starting twenty fourth and coming home in eleventh.
  As much of the crowd filed out, all but one of the fourteen sport compacts lined up for fifteen laps of racing. Trent Orwig came from row four to lead David Prim as lap one was scored. Josh Barnes came from his sixth starting spot to second one lap later, racing door to door with Orwig before taking the top spot on lap four. The first caution came as Barry Taft appeared to make contact with the turn two guardrail two laps from the finish, his night ending behind the wrecker. Back to racing, Brandon Reu spun to the apron on the backstretch, when Jason Ash made contact. Track officials were preparing to send Ash to the back on the restart when Reu informed them that he had slowed with engines woes, giving Ash no where to go. Jason was then given his spot back, nice job, Brandon! The two lap shootout saw Barnes hold on, even as he mentioned in victory lane that he had lost an alternator belt at some point. Orwig took second in front of Kimberly Abbott, Ash, and Cody Bowman.
  The final race of the night found ten modifieds dueling for twenty laps. Teenage Kolin Hibdon from Pahrump, Nevada is spending his summer vacation in Iowa honing his skills. The redraw placed him on the pole position for the finale, and he quickly established himself as the car to beat. With the race firmly in hand, the only caution came with three laps to go. On the restart, Tyler Madigan began to put pressure on the youngster. As they came to the checkers, neither driver gave an inch, and Madigan sent sparks flying as he scraped the front stretch concrete. Hibdon took win, Madigan was second, followed by Dennis Laveine. Jeff Waterman emerged from a back and forth battle with John Oliver Jr. to grab fourth, with Oliver completing the top five.
  Although the total car count could have been better, it was great to see twenty eight late models doing battle on the legendary fairgrounds track.
  It was also good to hear Ryan Clark as guest announcer on the mic, irreverent as always and chock full of stats and information, even giving a shout out to Positively Racing and this blogger, thanks Ryan!
  Tonight for the open wheel fans,the Iowa Sprint League invades the Quincy Raceways along with sport mods and outlaw stock cars. However we are going to make a visit to 34 Raceway in West Burlington, where the IMCA late models will headline the show with a draw/redraw event paying a $1,000 to the feature winner. Then Sunday we will be back at Quincy Raceways for weekly racing. Hope to see you somewhere Racin' Down the Road!