By Brian Neal
DONNELLSON, Iowa (Friday, August 4, 2023) – Lee County Speedway beat Mother Nature early, then had to try to beat her again once the program got started on Friday night during the final qualifying round for the Iowa Corn Growers Association IMCA Sunoco Late Model Drive For 5.
Before Mother Nature cut the program short, two and more than half of another feature were completed, with all three drivers familiar to victory lane.
First to take to the track was the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature, with Kevin Koontz and Peter Stodgel scheduled to be on the front row. But when Stodgel had to be pushed from staging, Chad Krogmeier moved to the outside of the front row for the start.
Krogmeier took advantage of this to jump out into the lead over Jeremy Pundt and John Oliver Jr., who started eighth. On lap five, Oliver got past Pundt for the runner-up spot and then went to work on the leader.
Krogmeier was able to hold off those challenges until lap 16, when Oliver got under him coming off turn four to grab the lead. Oliver then went on to score his fifth win of the season at the track. Krogmeier was second and Derrick Agee, Pundt and Jerry Jansen completed the top five.
Up next was the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature, with Jerad Fuller and Mitch Boles leading the field to green. Fuller edged out Boles at the line to garb the early lead and then was slowed on lap four when Matt Diaz spun to bring out the yellow.
On the restart, Fuller jumped back out front, with Boles and Dennis LaVeine giving chase. Disaster struck LaVeine on lap seven as he came to a stop to bring out the yellow. Fuller again grabbed the lead on the restart but had seventh place starter Mark Burgtorf and Bill Roberts Jr. challenging him.
Burgtorf took the top spot away from Fuller on lap 12, and just after the lap was scored complete another caution appeared. Another lap was completed before the final caution of the event flew.
On the final restart, Burgtorf jumped back out front, with 10th place starter Charlie Mohr and Fuller close behind. Burgtorf held off Mohr over the final laps to claim his second win of the season at Donnellson. Roberts, Austen Becerra and Fuller finished 3-4-5.
Jeff Guengerich and Jason Oenning drew the front row for the final Iowa Corn Growers Association Drive For 5 qualifying feature for the IMCA Late Models. Guengerich took advantage of his draw to jump out into the lead on lap one over Nick Marolf and Oenning.
On lap three, Marolf edged out Guengerich at the line to take over the top spot. The fast pace Marolf was setting would put him into lapped traffic on lap eight.
Despite heavy lapped traffic Marolf had to encounter on lap 11, it didn’t allow the rest of the field to close in on him. Coming to complete lap 15, Mother Nature decided to open up the skies and rain out the remainder of the night. Since the feature was past the halfway point it was considered complete.
Marolf scored his second win of the season at the track while Guengerich, C.J. Horn, Ray Raker and Chad Simpson rounded out the top five.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.