By Jerry Mackey
MAQUOKETA, Iowa (June 17, 2023) – Maquoketa Speedway hosted Oly’s Garage Night at the races on Saturday night. Beautiful weather and a very fast tacky track provided for an action-packed night of stock car racing.
The headliner of the night featured the return of the IMCA Sunoco Late Models and a field of 16 cars took the green flag for a 25-lap feature that went flag to flag.
Logan Duffy took the lead from pole sitter Brandon Loos and went on to build a comfortable advantage. As the laps wound down, the lead pack swelled to three as Bryce Garnhart and Dalton Simonsen joined Duffy.
Both Simonsen and Garnhart were scored as leaders late in the race. The front trio came on lapped traffic as the white flag waved. Coming to the checkers the three all took evasive action to try and clear the lapped cars.
The checkers waved with a pack of five cars crossing the finish line, Duffy took the win by a one foot margin ahead of Garnhart with Simonsen in third by another one foot differential. That feature event will go down as a Maquoketa Speedway classic.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Modified main event saw 18-year-old Charlie Mohr score his first-ever feature win.
Mohr started in the second row and battled with Mitch Morris for several laps before securing the lead. Mohr took the lead near the midway point and went on to score the win after holding off a hard-charging Jeff Larson. Tenth starting Mark Schulte had a great run in taking third at the checkers.
An outstanding field of 22 drivers took the green for the feature in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod feature.
The 15-lap main event was packed with exciting three- and four-wide racing on the fast and wide racing surface. Tyler Soppe made a charge to the front early from his eighth position start. Soppe went on to score the win ahead of Corey Kuntzelman and Josh Kloepping.
The IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars provided another outstanding race.
Jeff Larson dominated before exiting the track with mechanical issues with three laps to go. Jacob Ellithorpe took over the top spot and went on to score the win ahead of Gage Neal, who raced Ellithorpe very hard for several laps before settling for second ahead of Richard Nelson.
And the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks took the green with Sheldon Hunter leading in the early going. The lead pack swelled to four as the 28’s of Hunter and Tucker Richardson battled the 4’s of Daniel Wauters, Jared Miles and Jordan Miles.
The white flag lap saw three drivers having a legitimate shot at the win. Wauters edged Jared Miles for the win with Sheldon Hunter taking third ahead of Tucker Richardson.
Saturday, June 24 will be Amhof Trucking night at the races at Maquoketa. All classes, including Late Models, will be action with hot laps slated to get underway at 6 p.m.
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