Burgtorf Lays Claim to Davenport Deery Show

Mark Burgtorf improved on his second place finish in last week's Deery Brothers late model series opener at Burlington by claiming top honors at the Davenport Speedway on Friday night, April 17. Burgtorf (Quincy, Illinois driver) started outside row four but quickly managed his way to the front and challenged Cedar Falls driver Jeff Aikey for second as they both tried to chase down pole-sitter Terry Neal. Neal quickly caught lapped traffic on lap fourteen, slowing his momentum down and allowing his competitors to make up ground.

Burgtorf used the lapped traffic to his advantage when Neal opted to use the outside to pass traffic coming out of turn four on lap twenty-four of the forty lap finale. Burgtorf utilized the inside groove to take the top spot away and pulled away for the big payday. Neal held on for second while Aikey finished third. Tom Darbyshire and opening night winner Jason Frankel rounded out the top five.

Sixty-one cars were on hand for the second race of the series. Kevin Yoder, IMCA official and series director, told me "it's nice to have an average car count of 63.5 after two events." It sounds like there is a lot of interest with the Deery Brothers late model series this year as several drivers have "dropped down" after running open motor programs in recent years. With the number of entries in the first two events I can only expect that the competition will be fierce each night.

Other classes in competition at Davenport included IMCA modifieds, street stocks, pro modifieds, and 4-stocks (hornets). Max Corporan took home the top prize in the IMCA modified feature. Bob Dominacki started on the pole of the pro modified feature and led every lap en route to the twenty lap win. A #77 car won the street stock feature.

OFFICIAL Late Model Results
1. 7B Mark Burgtorf
2. 28c Terry Neal
3. 77 Jeff Aikey
4. 42 Tom Darbyshire
5. 0F Jason Frankel
6. 16 Dan Shelliam
7. 12 Ray Guss Jr
8. 15 Tommy Elston
9. 14 Boone McLaughlin
10. 69 Terry Schipman
11. 07 Matt Ryan
12. 39 Rob Toland
13. 93 Jay Johnson
14. 33 Keith Pratt
15. 79 Robby Warner
16. 46 Nate Beuseling
17. 21M Luke Merfeld
18. 25 Bryan Klein
19. 38 Colby Springsteen
20. 15K Justin Kay
21. 12J TJ Criss
22. 1st Justin Reed
23. 29 Adam Oppendike
24. 7 Andy Nezworksi