Saturday night we made a quick trip to the Independence Motor Speedway in Independence, Iowa for the Denny Osborn Memorial race. Featuring the Hoker Trucking east series SLMR late models this year, the feature race ran 36 laps and paid $7,200 to win - 72 being the number on the familiar orange car that Denny successfully competed in for many years. Thirty two of the high powered late models showed up to try their luck, and another seventy cars across six divisions helped to fill the pit area.
Although it was another warm day across the mid west, there was both a cloud cover and a nice breeze which helped to mitigate the high humidity, and the fact that the bleachers face east at Indee helps as well. Still the crowd, while a nice size, was not as large as we saw last year for this event, and I am sure the weather was a contributing factor. In fact weather played an important role in the proceedings in more ways than one.
After a quick run through of hot laps where a scant few of the "local" cars even bothered to come to the track, the late model time trials were up. Timing four cars at a time, it took only a scant few minutes. Fastest in group A was Jason Hahme with a lap of 15.064 seconds, but overall quick time came in group B, as Chargin' Charlie McKenna tripped the clock at 14.751 ticks around the three eighths mile fairgrounds oval.
A truly amazing thing happened in the first sport mod heat race. Six cars lined up, and in typical sport mod fashion, as the green flag waved, two went for the same piece of real estate entering turn one, resulting in a caution. When racing resumed, there were only three cars left, so track officials cut the race to a green, white checkers two lap dash. With all cars moving to the feature, why not? Then as the white flag flew, there was another spin in turn one, and the yellow and checkers came out together. In effect, it was a one lap heat race!
Late models would be third in the heat race order. The top six in time were inverted in the first three rows of each eight lap heat. A combination of points from qualifying times plus passing and finishing points from those four heats would advance the top sixteen earners to the feature lineup. One odd result from this process would see Jeff Tharp start on the pole of heat one, finish in second, but be relegated to a B main. That would be the only heat race not won from row one, as Tad Pospisil came from position five to get the win. Other heat winners were Darrel Defrance, Ben Schaller, and Curt Schroeder, with all four moving straight to the main event.
With IMCA modifieds set to run the final qualifying heats, the late models instead came to the track four a pair of B mains. Only the top two would move on. Dave Eckrich topped Logan Duffy in the first B, with only six cars taking the green. Two top contenders failed to make the call. Bill Leighton Jr. was a no show in his heat, while J.C. Wyman left his heat behind the wrecker, ruining his pole position start. Track weekly points leader Sean Johnson captured the second six lap consy in front of Tharp.
Interestingly, the top two in SLMR east series points were forced to take provisionals. Points leader Justin Kay turned only one qualifying lap before ducking to the pits with obvious issues, while Luke Goedert failed to transfer from his heat or his B main. The twenty two car starting grid saw Jared Ballhagen in the #72 car added as a track provisional twenty third starter.
The late models were scheduled third in the feature running order, but as the modified heats were completed it was announced that there were rain showers lurking and though a look at the radar showed them still a ways away, the decision was made to move the headline race up. So as soon as crews could get the starters to the grid and bring their equipment to the make shift infield hot pit, we were late model racing!
Schaller and Jake Neal, who captured the series win the night before at the Dale Defrance Memorial at Marshalltown, were the top point men and sat on row one. Neal led the pack as lap one was scored, with the caution waving at lap two when Joel Callahan drifted off the top of the track. Two more laps went in the books before the yellow waved as Schroeder and Callahan got together in turn four. As racing resumed, Neal and third starting Pospisil pulled away from the pack. With a dozen laps scored, McKenna found his way to third, and began to run down the front duo who found themselves in slower traffic at the halfway mark. Neal was smooth in traffic and was able to actually stretch his lead, while Pospisil also put some distance on McKenna. The caution flag came a final time at lap twenty five as Luke Pestka slipped off turn two. McKenna moved to second with nine laps remaining, but by then Neal had again built a lead, and was flying with a clear track ahead. In the final couple of laps, Neal again caught the back of the pack allowing his challengers to close in a bit, but he had no issues collecting his second win in two nights, boosting his weekend take past the $11,000 mark. McKenna aided his top five points position with the runner up finish, while Pospisil took third. Local favorite and National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Jeff Aikey came from row seven to fourth, while Todd Cooney slipped around Andy Eckrich late to complete the first five. Following Eckrich it was Schaller, Matt Ryan, Curt Martin, and Corey Zeitner collecting top tens. Kay finished just outside the top ten in eleventh, while Goedert checked in two spots further back.
The clock had not yet hit 9:00 P.M., but we then decided to begin the three hour trip home, satisfied with what we had witnessed. Kudos to the staff at Indee for an extremely efficient program - as one race exits on the backstretch, the next is entering the track off turn four. Downtime is nearly non existent with at least two races in staging at all times.
Tonight we hope to complete our three night racing weekend close to home with a visit to Adams County Illinois Speedway in Quincy for weekly racing in five divisions. Maybe we will see you there!
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