Maquoketa, IA (Tuesday, June 9, 2015) - Since I didn't have to get up real early Wednesday morning to go to work, I decided to make the trip north to the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa, Iowa on Tuesday night to take in the nights racing events. On tap for the night was the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models, the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds, along with the IMCA SportMods.
The 29 field of IMCA Modifieds was divided into 4 heat races, in which the top 3 were locked into the 25 lap A Main. The remainder would move into the 2 B Mains, in which the top 5 out of those would move into the A Main. The final 2 spots of the 24 car field would be filled by 2 provisional starters, the 2 highest in HDT points that didn't qualify out of the 2 B Mains.
Ryan Maitland and Ben Chapman drew the front row of the 25 lap HDT IMCA Modified feature, with Maitland grabbing the lead on lap 1 over Chapman and Steve Johnson. Chapman would look under Maitland for the top spot over the next 8 laps. But Maitland was able to hold off all challenges from Chapman every lap. While the battle out front was happening, Jeremiah Hurst, who started 7th, was working his way to the front. On lap 13, Hurst would move into 3rd and then set his sights on the two car battle in front of him. Six laps later, lap 19, Hurst would slip under Chapman to grab the runner up spot and then went to work on Maitland for the lead. Maitland, who was glued to the bottom of the speedway, entered heavy lapped traffic on lap 20. With 2 laps to go Hurst decided he would have to use a different groove then the bottom to get around Maitland for the lead, so he decided to try the top of the track. The move would work coming off turn 2, as he edged out front. But Maitland was able to get the lead back coming off turn 4 to take the white flag. The two would race the final lap side-by-side, with Hurst using the momentum off turn 4 on the top side to edge out Maitland at the line by inches to claim his first career Hawkeye Dirt Tour win and the $1,000 top prize to go with it. Maitland settled for 2nd, Justin Kay started 16th and used the middle of the track to climb his way to 3rd, Chapman was 4th, with Mike Van Genderen coming from 8th to finish in 5th.
Thirty IMCA Late Models were divided into 4 heat races, in which the top 3 were locked into the 40 lap A Main. The remainder would move into the 2 B Mains, in which the top 4 out of those would move into the A Main. The final 4 spots of the 24 car field would be filled by 3 provisional starters, the 3 highest in Deery Brothers Summer Series points that didn't qualify out of the 2 B Mains and 1 hard charger.
Dan Shelliam and Justin Kay would lead the field to the green flag in the 40 lap IMCA Late Model feature, with Shelliam jumping out front to lead lap 1 over Jon Merfeld and Kay. The top three cars would stay glued to the bottom of the track, until they started to enter lapped traffic on lap 11. Kay was the first to try the middle of the track on laps 13 & 14 to get by Merfeld for 2nd. He would finally make the pass on lap 15, and then went to work on Shelliam for the top spot. Coming off turn 4 on lap 17, Kay would take over the lead from Shelliam. Just as Kay started to pull away from the field, the first caution of the race appeared on lap 21. Matt Ryan would spin in turn 2 to bring out the yellow. On the restart Kay moved back out front, with Shelliam working to hold off Tyler Droste, who started 5th, for the runner up spot. Kay once again started to pull away from the field, even as he entered lapped traffic on lap 30. But when Andy Eckrich dropped a drive shaft in turn 2 on lap 32, that would bring out a caution and brought the field back to Kay's back bumper. Once again Kay jumped out front on the restart, with Droste over taking Shelliam for second. It looked like Kay was going to pull away from the field over the final 8 laps to cruise to an easy win, that was until the final caution waved on lap 37 to set up a 3 lap dash to the finish. This time John Emerson and Stephan Kammerer collided in turn 3 to bring out the yellow. Kay grabbed the lead on the restart and then held on for the final 3 laps to claim his third Deery Brothers Summer Series win of the season and the $3,000 top prize to go with it. Shelliam over took Droste on the final restart to finish in 2nd, Droste was 3rd, Joe Zrostlik started 11th and finished 4th, with Jeff Aikey using the top of the track to climb from 8th in the final laps to round out the top 5.
Notes from JCS: Matt Irwin, George Spence III, Josh Star, Hunter Wilson, and Derek Thompson were the 5 IMCA Modifieds would didn't qualify for the A Main....The 25 lap A Main was ran off caution FREE!!!....Patrick Flannagan started 13th and finished 11th....Joel Rust finished 16th after starting in 21st....Dennis Betzer started 23rd and finished 19th....TJ Patz started 22nd and finished 20th......Jon Poll, Jeff Tharp, Brian Beaudry, Chuck Hanna, Darrel DeFrance, and Ryan Claeys were the 6 IMCA Late Models who didn't qualify for the A Main....Andy Nezworski passed 11 cars from his 17th place starting spot to come home in 6th....Jason Rauen started 9th and finished 7th....Don Pataska passed 10 cars from his 18th place starting spot to finished in 8th....Ryan Dolan started 24th and passed 15 cars to come home in 9th....Todd Malmstrom passed 10 cars from his 20th place starting spot to finish in 10th....Jeremy Grady started 23rd and passed 11 cars to finish in 12th....Scott Fitzpatrick, who started 19th and had worked his way to 8th, pitted on lap 37 caution with a right rear flat to end his run up front......The 19 car field in the IMCA SportMods will have to wait until Saturday, June 27th to run their feature, as the curfew time limit didn't allow then to get the feature race in.
I would like to thank Ryan Duhme and Tim Current for allowing me to come up to the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa, Iowa to cover the nights racing action. If you haven't made the trip to the track, I would encourage you to make the trip over there on a Saturday night to take in the action!
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