Friday, July 31, 2009

Guss Jr Wins Jackson County Fair

Thursday, July 30th marked the third race in as many days for the Deery Brothers late model series as they visited the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa. The series was scheduled to make their annual appearance back in April, but the weather was unkind and forced officials to pull the plug. Also on the card Thursday night were all the weekly classes (pro modifieds, street stocks, IMCA modifieds, hobby stocks, and 4-stocks).

First on to the track would be the 4-stocks, otherwise known as hornets or 4-cylinders. Eighteen cars would take the green flag and Ricky Kay would repeat the previous night as he took over the race lead on lap two and went on to take the win.

Next up would be the hobby stocks. Only eight cars checked in as the support classes were not running for points. Sheldon Hunter raced out to the early lead from the front row, but several caution flags slowed the pace down in the early going. Most of the race saw the field race single file without much passing as Sheldon Hunter went on to take the win.

1. 28 Sheldon Hunter
2. 6 Emily Gade
3. 01 Kile Vohringer
4. 55 Cameron Sorgentrey
5. 44 Joe Grant
6. 2B Jeff Baker
7. 11H Willie Hansen
8. 42Y Justin Yarolem

Fifteen IMCA modifieds took to the track for their feature event. Track point leader Chris Stein bolted to the lead at the drop of the green flag. Behind him Terry Rentfro moved his way up to second by lap two while Dan Klatt advanced to third using the low groove by lap six. Five laps later Klatt would get by the #61 car normally driven by Matt Wilson, but I believe the announcer said it was Thad Wilson driving it on this night. A caution flag would put Wilson back ahead of Klatt, which would later set up a three-wide battle for the runner up spot that Rentfro would nail down. Another caution came out to set up a two lap shootout, and Klatt took advantage as he made his way to second. But nobody was going to catch Chris Stein as he took home another win at the Jackson County Speedway. Dan Klatt was second, Terry Rentfro third, Kelly Meyer fourth, and Steve Olson rounded out the top five.

1. 53 Chris Stein
2. 21K Dan Klatt
3. 18 Terry Rentfro
4. 28 Kelly Meyer
5. 63 Steve Olson
6. 22 Cory Bauer
(all I was able to get)

A field of twelve street stocks were next to try their luck on the track. The USA1 car took the lead from the pole, but I was unable to catch his name. After starting tenth, Andrew Burk quickly maneuvered his way to the third spot by lap five. Mitch Schmitz tried to go to the outside of the USA1 car, but spun his car around on the exit of turn two to bring out the caution when a couple other cars made contact. Point leader Dan Mohr grabbed the lead away using the cushion as the USA1 car faded back, losing three more spots. Burk looked to the inside of Mohr a few times while Jerry Merkes was on Burk's rear bumper, but neither was able to muster up enough strength to make the pass. Dan Mohr took home the win followed by Andrew Burk, Jerry Merkes, the USA1 car, and Kerry Dake.

1. 7D Dan Mohr
2. 18 Andrew Burk
3. 83c Jerry Merkes
4. USA1
5. 83 Kerry Dake
6. 23 Driscoll

Next on the track would be the pro modifieds as fourteen cars were ready to do battle. Tim Current used the outside front row to his advantage to get the jump on the field to hold down the top spot. After a couple of early cautions John Ahlers worked his way to third using the low groove by the time five laps had been completed. Ahlers then went to work on John Bull and made the pass on him on the next lap. The field got spaced out after the halfway point and no changes were made within the top five drivers, so it would be Tim Current taking home the win. John Ahlers was second, John Bull third, Brian Webb fourth, and Bart Miller rounded out the top five.

1. 12T Tim Current
2. 67 John Ahlers
3. 27 John Bull
4. 6 Brian Webb
5. 5 Bart Miller
6. 15B ??
7. 63 Scott Olson
8. 25 Jake Bowman
9. 11 Ray Cox Jr
10. 1D Mel Saffran
11. 5M Greg Mickelson
12. 99 Kyle Diercks
13. 33 Jarrett Franzen
14. 81 K.C. Ansel
15. 89 Tom Pestka

The final event of the night would be the fifty-lap IMCA Deery Brothers late model race. Joe Zrostlik and Wednesday winner Ray Guss Jr brought the field to the green flag, and it would be Guss Jr getting the advantage exiting turn two for the lead. Brett Diercks and Terry Neal quickly got by Zrostlik to move into second and third place, respectively. The first caution of the race came out on lap ten when Marty Diercks spun in turn four.

Neal used the restart to get under Diercks to move into the runner up spot on lap eleven. Guss would encounter lapped traffic on lap twenty, but a yellow came out two laps later to give him a clear path to work with on the restart. Diercks would lose the third spot to Matt Ryan a lap after the restart while Neal tried to chase down Guss as they again caught the tail of the field. Just when it looked like Neal was making his move, he slipped high exiting turn two and lost several car lengths on the track. It appeared as those Neal's right front tire was wet from that point on, so I'm not sure if perhaps he broke a radiator hose or what exactly happened. He was able to hang on for the runner up spot, but that allowed Ray Guss Jr to cruise to the win from that point. Terry Neal was second, Matt Ryan third, Brett Diercks fourth, and Joe Zrostlik rounded out the top five.

1. 58 Ray Guss Jr
2. 28c Terry Neal
3. 07 Matt Ryan
4. 29D Brett Diercks
5. 50 Joe Zrostlik
6. 21 Ryan Duhme
7. 29 Adam Oppendike
8. 77 Jeff Aikey
9. 0F Jason Frankel
10. 93 Jay Johnson
11. 73 Greg Kastli
12. 7 Stephan Kammerer
13. 9G Ryan Giles
14. 15 Kelly Meyer
15. 99D Darrel DeFrance
16. 39 Rob Toland
17. 44 Luke Goedert
18. 22 Charlie McKenna
19. 9 Bobby Hansen
20. 12 Don Pataska
21. 14 Michael Murphy
22. 1 Dustin Edwards
23. 4D Marty Diercks
24. Z2 Gary Webb

I got to the track early as the Jackson County Fair was going on at this time. I took advantage of the cheap price of admission also as it only cost $7 if you showed up by 5pm. With extra time on my hands, I walked through the fair for awhile and stopped at the bear show. They had four bears that were able to do tricks for the crowd. It was pretty cool to see them sitting down in chairs as they looked so much like a human.

The Deery Brothers series will make it's next stop at the Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids next Wednesday, August 5th. Dubbed the "Dirt at the Downs", the dirt late models will make changes to their cars to go run on the asphalt half-mile track.

The Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa will take this Saturday off due to the fair, but will be back in action next Saturday, August 8th with their weekly show.

- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!

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