By Jerry Mackey
MAQUOKETA, Iowa (May 14, 2022) – Mother Nature provided near perfect weather conditions for night number two of the 2022 IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing season at Maquoketa Speedway. A great crowd was in attendance to watch an action packed night of racing that saw the final checkered flag of the evening wave at 9 p.m.
The headliner of the night was the 20-lap Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature. The green flag waved with veteran racers Mike Garland and Steve Johnson sitting on the front row. The lead pack swelled to five cars before Ryan Duhme, starting fifth, was able to break out of the pack to take control.
Another veteran Maquoketa driver, Ray Cox, provided pressure but Duhme was able to race to the checkers less than a car length ahead of Cox with last week’s feature winner Travis Denning taking third.
The closest finish of the night was in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods. Dan Carpenter led early before third-starting Jake Morris took over the point. The lead pack saw four drivers in a bunch take the white flag. Shane Paris found a fast line at the very top of the track and took the checkers with a three-wide photo finish. Paris nipped Morris, Jarrett Franzen and Aaron Mitt for the thrilling victory.
The IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars saw Jacob Ellithorpe go 2-for-2 in ‘22 on Saturday night. Ellithorpe advanced from the fourth row and secured the race lead five laps into the main event. Ellithorpe raced to the checkers ahead of Scooter Dulin, who ran among the leaders the entire feature. David Brandies recovered from an early skirmish and raced from the tail to a third-place finish.
The “Buffalo Bandit,” Randy Lamar, scored his second win in a row at Maquoketa topping the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock feature. Lamar outdueled Andrew Burke in scoring the 12-lap feature win. Burke took second ahead of Lukas Short.