Saturday night we made our first trip of the season to the Kile Motorsports promoted West Liberty Raceway on the Muscatine County Fairgrounds. Topping the card it was the Hoker Trucking SLMR (Super Late model Racing) series. Filling out the card it was non sanctioned Modifieds, Sport Mods, and Compacts competing on the wide, fast half mile oval. The Late Model headliner came with a $3,000 first place payday.
Before I tell you that "Chargin'" Charlie McKenna led the main event flag to flag, you need to know that hardly describes what we saw! The racer from Ames, Iowa earned enough points to start on the pole position alongside Matt Ryan. Those two veteran drivers raced at the front before fourth starting National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Jeff Aikey moved to second on lap three. Soon McKenna and Aikey had put considerable distance on the remainder of the twenty two car starting field. Ten laps in slower traffic came into play, and as the duo negotiated lapped traffic, Chad Holladay had recovered from a poor start to join the party up front. Holladay cleared Aikey on lap fourteen, then set his sights on the leader as Aikey fell a bit off the pace. While McKenna ran mostly in the middle of the track, Holladay constantly moved around, searching for a way to the front. With just a couple circuits left in the twenty five lap race, Chad appeared to have a run on the inside of turns three and four, but Charlie held his line and kept his momentum down the front chute to maintain the lead. While a rejuvenated Aikey closed in on the top two, Holladay made one last charge coming to the checkers, but with the considerable crowd on their feet, he came up about one car length short. Trailing the three leaders it was tenth starting Derrick Stewart and Jason Hahne. Brian Harris again climbed in the #25B and advanced three positions to sixth, followed by Ryan, Andy Eckrich, Luke Goedert, and Dave Eckrich.
Earlier in the evening, Holladay set quick time with a lap of 18.677 seconds, and with the six car invert, it was Luke Pestka, Justin Kay, and Ryan with heat race wins. Only local racer Scott Strauss failed to answer the feature call.
Support class car counts were a bit light, but Mods and Sport Mods had enough for a pair of heats each, while all nine Compacts lined up for one five lap qualifier.
Ten cars made the call for the fifteen lap Sport Mod main, with Curtis VanDerWal jumping out to a huge early lead. Top contender Maguire DeJong exited the track ahead of a lap three caution flag. Tim Plummer had lined up in eighth, but now used the Delaware style restart to move to second. Following a second and final caution five laps in, VanDerWal and Plummer drove off from the field. On lap eleven Plummer was able to use his momentum off turn two to take the lead, and then stretch it by several car lengths to pick up the win. VanDerWal ran second while Ryan Walker nosed out Shaun Slaughter by a length to claim third. Justin Schroeder and Nick Aupperle waged an entertaining back and forth battle for fifth, with Schroeder ahead at the checkers.
Heavy attrition in the Compact heat left us with only five cars for the twelve lap feature. Trent Labarge paced the opening circuit before Darin Smith moved to the front. Meanwhile Cyle Hawkins was caught behind a couple of cars early, but by lap seven he had pulled alongside Smith, then taking the lead. Gradually Hawkins pulled away to pick up his fifty second all time 4 cylinder victory. Smith took the runner up spot with Cristian Grady in third.
Twenty laps was the Modified finale with ten cars taking the green. Chris Zogg jumped out to a big lead, with Kurt Kile charging to second one lap later. Zogg maintained his lead, while Kile worked ahead of DeJong in third with a tight battle for fourth between Denny Eckrich and Mitch Way. Eckrich was the man on the move, and while Zogg opened a straightaway lead, Eckrich was soon in a fight with with DeJong, then with about three to go, he had closed the gap on Kile for second. With no yellow flags to slow the action, Zogg cruised to the win. Eckrich took runner up honors trailed by Kile, DeJong, Way, and Minot North Dakota visitor Spencer Wilson.
With a short intermission, a well prepared track, and an early start, the final checkers waved at 8:40!
With cloudy, rainy conditions this morning here in northeast Missouri, we have made the decision to head north tonight to Benton County Speedway in Vinton for the inaugural Pro Late Model Tour event along with their regular classes. Perhaps we will see you there!
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