Becerra Triples Up, "Speedy Bray" and Oliver Jr. Hit Doubles at 34 Raceway

    Saturday night I found my way back to 34 Raceway near West Burlington, Iowa. On tap was the remaining features from last weeks' early rain out followed by a regular six division program. Only the 305 Sprint feature from the prior Saturday had been completed along with six laps of the IMCA Late Model main event. As there was extra money on the line for the rained out portion it was expected that most of the competitors would return for a crack at two paydays. Indeed, one hundred and sixteen cars filled the pit area, and even with a scheduled early start time, everyone settled in for a twenty seven race marathon! Around three inches of rain had fallen at the track on Friday night, so it was a minor miracle that track crews were even able to get the grounds in shape. In fact when I arrived at 4:30 tractors were working the pit area non stop to create parking spots. With a lot of hard work, the track stayed smooth and fast throughout the program. 

   Cars continued to roll through the pit gate right up until hot lap time, but things got going just a couple ticks after 6:00 under hot, sunny skies. 

  First up was the remaining nineteen laps of the rained out Late Model feature. Matt Ryan brought the returning eighteen cars to green. Three times the yellow flag would fly, but each time the "Worlds' Fastest Art Teacher" would drive off from his challengers. There was an interesting battle for second between Logan Veloz, Austen Becerra, and Jay Johnson, who crossed the stripe behind Ryan in that order while Evan Miller was close in fifth. Mark Burgtorf led the second five, topping Tommy Elston, Dustin Smith, Gary Webb and Sam Halstead. 

   Seventeen IMCA Sport Mods lined up for twenty laps.The caution flag waved numerous times even after a lap one pile up. Brayton Carter took command early, a good thing for him as this race actually hit the time limit around the mid point. Kevin Goben gained seven positions from his scheduled starting spot to take second ahead of twelfth starting Trey Rock, Ryan Reed and fifteenth starting A. J. Tournear.

   Next came IMCA Stock Cars, again seventeen starters for twenty laps. David Brandies and John Oliver Jr. battled at the front before Oliver took command on lap four. He slowly increased his advantage, cruising to the win. Brandies held on to second chased by double duty Brayton Carter in #7V, Corey Strothman and Jared Miller.  

   Nineteen IMCA Modifieds lined up for another twenty lapper. Charlie Mohr powered to the early lead with Andrew Hamburg close behind. Fourteenth on the original line up, another two division racer Becerra was on the move and with a bit of help from an early caution, he charged to the runner up spot on lap six. He then quickly ran down the leader, driving around Mohr on lap fourteen after a hard fought duel. Austen then pulled away for his first win of the night. Mohr came home second followed by Trevor Fitz and Denny Eckrich. Spencer Diercks used a last lap pass to advance from the tail of the field to round out the top five. 

   All fifteen IMCA Sport Compacts on hand started the make up twelve lap feature. Luke Fraise was the early leader before his #9 gave out, ending his run. A close back and forth battle then developed between Lukas Rick and Caleb Giese. Rick would prevail to pick up the win with Giese settling for second. Dyllan Bonk was strong in third, finishing ahead of Alex Hayes and Darin Smith. 

   Breaking up the feature action, the 305 Sprints had run their pair of heat races, and following the Compact make up track crews went to work tickling the racing surface while co promoter Jessi Mynatt entertained the sizable gathering with scavenger hunt games.  

   With the number of events on the docket, the plethora of caution flags and the track rework, I decided early to not be a clock watcher, but I know we were deep into the evening when the remainder of the regular race program began. Fourteen more heat races would be needed to set the feature lineups, and during that action the 305 Sprints came to the track for their fifteen lap feature. Only nine of the eleven cars on hand made the call. Following some first lap hanky panky, row two was moved up to take the green flag. McCain Richards grabbed the initial lead, battling hard with Riley Scott. Meanwhile John Barnard, Sherman, Il. lurked in third. Back to racing after a lap five caution Barnard shot to the lead after restarting in third, taking along Tanner Gebhardt in second. Although Tanner continued to apply pressure in a two car scrum, the race belonged to Barnart. Scott drove a steady race to grab third ahead of Richards and Lincoln Martin. Barnard had come from row three while Gebhardt lined up ninth. 

   Following completion of the heats it was back to feature action. Now twenty of the Sport Mods on hand would try again to run twenty laps. Sadly, the result was only marginally better than the first attempt. At least a half dozen yellow flags somewhat spoiled what was a great race up front. On the third try at a start, Levi Laymon grabbed the lead, battling with Jarrett VanDenBerg. Jarrett would move ahead on lap three only to have Levi take it back one lap later. On the fifth circuit seventh starting Sean Wyett cleared VanDenBerg for second. Another pair of caution periods followed, and now the field was lined up single file. Wyett powered to the lead, then tucked into the low groove along with his two pursuers. Brayton Carter had started in row five, was now up to fourth, and decided to try the high side. Bingo! He rocketed to third on lap seven, then dove low to move to the runner up spot on lap eight. Again the caution stopped the action one lap later, then back to racing Carter went downstairs to grab the lead on lap eleven. Wyett fought back with a successful slide job on lap twelve to regain the top spot, but Carter then muscled his way back to the front ahead of a final yellow flag period during which Wyett appeared to express some displeasure with the proceedings. With a final green flag, Carter drove off for win number two on the night. Wyett held second while Kevin Goben added a third place finish to his earlier runner up after starting in row six. Cole Stichter advanced six positions to fourth, and A.J. Tournear made it a pair of fifths for the #14AJ.

   I will now confess that I had been peeking at the time on my cell phone, and it was now not only past my loosely self imposed curfew of 11:30, but Saturday night had turned into Sunday morning. But all except Josh Schneiderman of the two dozen Late Models were lined up for twenty five laps, too good to resist! Seventy six year old National Dirt Hall of Famer Gary Webb and twenty five year old Evan Miller filled out row one, with Miller jumping out front of a very busy Austen Becerra, Webb and Jay Johnson. Miller opened a nice lead before a lap four caution for debris. Following the restart, the caution waved as Dustin Smith rolled to a stop in turn two in a cloud of smoke, and at the same time a multi car pileup occurred between turns three and four. It took a bit to detach the cars of Jeremy Pundt and Chris Zogg, then back to racing Miller and Becerra drove off in a two car battle while Logan Veloz and Matt Ryan moved to the next two spots. Things were about to get interesting as Miller caught the tail of the field, but the yellow waved for a final time on lap eleven. The lineup was set single file, and Veloz and Ryan both slipped around Becerra. Now it was Veloz pressuring the leader while Becerra and Ryan battled close behind. As Carter had done the race prior, Becerra now moved to the top, clearing Ryan for third. Slower traffic came into play on lap eighteen, and absolutely "ripping the lip," Austen drove around Veloz and closed quickly on Miller, finally making the winning pass in thrilling fashion three laps from the checkers. He continued to drive off into the night, scoring his second win in three tries. Miller came home second and I must have been really tired, because I apparently missed some closing lap action! Ray Raker was third at the line followed by Curtis Glover and Jay Johnson. Cruz Birkhofer struggled early in the night, but advanced fourteen positions to come home sixth in front of Webb, Tommy Elston, Sam Halstead and twenty first starting Brandon Hamburg. Veloz and Ryan fell to thirteenth and fourteenth in the running order. 

   There were three features still to run, but it was a couple minutes ahead of 12:30, and this old timer was gassed with a seventy five minute solo drive ahead! With a hat tip to My Race Pass, congratulations to John Oliver Jr., yet another double duty driver, on his Stock Car win, and to Becerra, who collected three firsts by sweeping the Modified main events to go with his Late Model checkers! And also to Luke Fraise, who rebounded from a DNF to grab the regular Compact main. 

   A special thanks to Brad, Jessi and their crew, who not only had a quick turnaround from a great Thursday show, but for putting in the extra work thumbing their nose at the weather and delivering another excellent racing surface with lots of action. 

   After a very short night and early church, it feels like nap time, then hopefully the skies clear so I can land in my regular perch tonight at Quincy Raceways. Hope to see you there! 

   Update: Quincy Raceways rained out Sunday, July 13. Next up is a visit by the MARS series on Sunday, July20.