Neal steals incredible Indee Open Series late model win at Fayette County Raceway
By Ryan Clark

WEST UNION, IA (Aug. 16, 2006) – Although it was postponed over three weeks due to rain, the Indee Open Series event at Fayette County Raceway was definitely worth the wait. Around 80 cars signed in during the initially scheduled fair date of July 25 before rain put an early end to that show, but 113 made their way to the northeast Iowa facility for the August 16 make-up.

In what was one of the most memorable events in series history, Terry Neal used an impressive last-second surge to the front to take home the win in the 35-lap late model headliner.

At the start of the event, Ace Ihm held the top spot from his front row start. Ihm paced the field early with Rick Wendling, Kevin Kile, Curt Martin, Jeff Aikey and Neal challenging on the fast 3/8-mile oval.

Martin, using the berm on the high side of the speedway, worked his way around Ihm on the 11th lap with Kile, Aikey and Neal running third through fifth.

The caution flag waved on the 13th lap at which time Ihm was forced to the pits with mechanical problems. This left Aikey and Neal, who was now in third, on Martin’s rear bumper for the restart.

Aikey worked under Martin on the 19th circuit to take the slight advantage at the flag stand. Aikey continued to lead with Martin running the high side and Neal down low in a side-by-side battle for second behind him.

The lead trio continued their wheel-to-wheel, bumper-to-bumper battle at the front of the pack when the race’s final caution flag was displayed on lap 24. Following the caution, second running Martin took the option to restart on the high side where he continued to put heavy pressure on the race leader.

With laps winding down, Martin and Neal edged closer to the race leader and pulled into a three-wide battle at various times after the waving green was displayed. Martin took the advantage at the flag stand when the white flag waved as Neal continued to pressure Neal from the bottom groove.

Each driver held the lead over the course of the final lap alone and, when they exited turn four for the final time, Aikey chose a higher groove to lean on Martin for the win. His move allowed Neal to sneak under both drivers and inch ahead at the line to score the exciting victory. Martin edged Aikey at the line for second as the three crossed the finish line three-wide. Perhaps sitting in the best seat in the house, Kile crossed the line in fourth.

Keith Pittman held the early lead in the modified feature. Pittman quickly found himself in a battle with Dennis Dugan and Joey Schaefer for the top spot.

Dugan and Schaefer swapped the lead throughout the middle stages of the event until Schaefer was able to take charge for good 11 laps into the race. He led until the checkers flew to take the win ahead of Dugan and Mike Darnall.

Tom Schmitt took the lead on the fourth of 15 laps to score the victory in the stock car division. Schmitt assumed the lead after passing Jake Ludeking for the top spot en route to the victory.

In the battle for second, contact from the No. 27T of Tory Reicks, sent second-running Tony Trower into a spin as the field came around for the checkers. With Schmitt taking the win at the line, Reicks was penalized for the caution situation, reverting the rest of the field back to how they were running on the white flag lap. Trower was awarded the second position and Ludeking finished third.

Joe Docekal put on an exhibition in the 15-lap B modified main event. From his second row start, Docekal powered into the lead on the second lap and never looked back, topping the 26-car field in dominating fashion. Jeremy LaPlant and Brian Kunkle crossed the line in second and third, respectively.



RESULTS

LATE MODEL

First heat – 1. 11 Ace Ihm, Hazel Green, Wis.; 2. 99D Darrel DeFrance, Marshalltown; 3. 53 Darren Ackerman, Waterloo; 4. 8A Al Johnson, Story City; 5. 4 Leon Thomsen, Waverly; 6. 9 Bobby Hansen, Center Point; DNS 22 Jill George, Cedar Falls; DNS 33 Kevin Kirkpatrick, Waterloo.

Second heat – 1. 77X Kurt Kile, Nichols; 2. 2P Jon Passick, Waterloo; 3. 14B Levi Benn, Dyersville; 4. 73 Greg Kastli, Waterloo; 5. 8 Randy Wheeler, Cedar Falls; 6. H2O Paul Watters, Parkersburg; 7. 69B Joel Brasch, Dunkerton.

Third heat – 1. 28C Terry Neal, Ely; 2. 88 Kevin Kile, West Liberty; 3. 77 Jeff Aikey, Cedar Falls; 4. 0 Jeff Bair, Solon; 5. 21 Ed Sanger, Postville; 6. 85X LaVern Carey, Ionia; 7. 86 Rick Dralle, Waterloo; 8. 7 Greg Hunter, Independence.

Fourth heat – 1. 45 Curt Martin, Independence; 2. 56W Gary Webb, Blue Grass; 3. 78W Rick Wendling, Hazleton; 4. 145 Dale Hackwell Jr., Washburn; 5. 06 Dean Wagner, Evansdale; 6. 95X Bob Letts, Manchester; 7. 15G Cam Granger, West Union.

B feature – 1. Sanger; 2. Wagner; 3. Granger; 4. Kirkpatrick; 5. Wheeler; 6. Carey; 7. Dralle; 8. Brasch; 9. Watters; 10. Hunter; 11. Letts; 12. Thomsen; 13. George; DNS Hansen.

A Feature – 1. Neal; 2. Martin; 3. Aikey; 4. Kevin Kile; 5. Kurt Kile; 6. DeFrance; 7. Bair; 8. Hackwell; 9. Sanger; 10. Granger; 11. Ackerman; 12. Benn; 13. Brasch; 14. Dralle; 15. Carey; 16. Wheeler; 17. Johnson; 18. Webb; 19. Kirkpatrick; 20. Kastli; 21. Wendling; 22. Ihm; 23. Passick; 24. Wagner.



MODIFIED
First heat – 1. 21 Layne Meyer, West Union; 2. 41 Dennis Dugan, Colesburg; 3. 7M Mike Darnall, West Union; 4. 14B Shane Burbridge, Manchester; 5. 99L Luke Pestka, Robins; 6. 2R Rory Becker, Bernard; 7. 7A Mike Liddle, Plainfield; 8. 11H Kevin Hoehne, Sumner.

Second heat – 1. 5W Darrin Walch, Postville; 2. 41P Keith Pittman, Waterloo; 3. 37X Mike Weidemann, Dubuque; 4. 57B Dennis Betzer, Central City; 5. 35 Ron Konkel, Caledonia, Minn.; 6. 92 Shawn Ryan, Waterloo; 7. 24 Jamie Aikey, Waterloo; 8. 22P Dave Plum, Waterloo.

Third heat – 1. 26P Kevin Pittman, Waterloo; 2. 2 Joey Schaefer, Waterloo; 3. 9L Timmy Current, Dubuque; 4. 00 J.D. Auringer, Waterloo; 5. 11S Dion Speed, New Hartford; 6. 93 Craig Haupt, Sumner; 7. 33 Alex Eischeid; 8. 23 Matt Jones.

Feature – 1. Schaefer; 2. Dugan; 3. Darnall; 4. Meyer; 5. Weidemann; 6. Betzer; 7. Auringer; 8. Ryan; 9. Walch; 10. Speed; 11. Becker; 12. Kevin Pittman; 13. Aikey; 14. Burbridge; 15. Konkel; 16. Keith Pittman; 17. Pestka; 18. Haupt; 19. Current; 20. Liddle; 21. Eischeid; 22. Hoehne; 23. Plum; 24. Jones.



STOCK CAR

First heat – 1. 20X Gary Rotenberger; 2. 69 Jake Ludeking; 3. 25 Dan Jones; 4. 7G Jason Goedken; 5. 95 Mike Wiltse; 6. 61 Adam Barlow; 7. 17X Jason Niedert; 8. K38 Kenny Taylor; DNS 1 Jeff Krambeer.

Second heat – 1. 12J Justin O’Brien; 2. 98 Jeff Roete; 3. 22 Cory Bauer; 4. 38 Dain Sires; 5. 9 Rick Suckow; 6. 83Z Adam Gates; 7. 12F Travis Flack; 8. 60 Todd Halverson.

Third heat – 1. 62 Kevin Bidne; 2. 59 Ken Even; 3. 18 Tom Schmitt; 4. 99J Jay Graves; 5. 2 Matt Brainard; 6. 53 Mark Jencks; 7. 26 Brian Irvine; 8. 37 Loren Kuennen.

Fourth heat – 1. 10 Bryan Webb; 2. 08 Tony Trower; 3. 27T Tory Reicks; 4. 20 Dan Trimble; 5. 03 Jeremy Moellers; 6. 14 Mike Krambeer; 7. 21 Shane Manson; 8. 33 Kevin Donlan.

First B feature – 1. Wiltse; 2. Suckow; 3. Barlow; 4. Gates; 5. Flack; 6. Niedert; 7. Taylor; 8. Halverson; DNS J. Krambeer.

Second B feature – 1. Moellers; 2. Brainard; 3. Kuennen; 4. Irvine; 5. Jencks; 6. Donlan; 7. Manson; 8. M. Krambeer.

A feature – 1. Schmitt; 2. Trower; 3. Ludeking; 4. Jones; 5. O’Brien; 6. Rotenberger; 7. Irvine; 8. Even; 9. Trimble; 10. Goedken; 11. Moellers; 12. Bidne; 13. Kuennen; 14. Webb; 15. Bauer; 16. Suckow; 17. Reicks; 18. Graves; 19. Roete; 20. Wiltse; 21. Sires; 22. Barlow; 23. Even; DNS Brainard.



B MODIFIED
First heat – 1. 20 Brian Kunkle; 2. 44 Lorin Kurth; 3. 47J Jeremy LaPlant; 4. 58 Shane Panos; 5. 57S Mike Moore; 6. 91 Toby Hartman; 7. 99 John Bates; 8. 42 Jr. Boyer; 9. 96 Ray Lundry.

Second heat – 1. 0 Jason Rohde; 2. 82 Em Fretheim; 3. 19L Ron Liddiard; 4. 14X Chad Dugan; 5. 25 Alan Wessels; 6. Car No. 17; 7. 61 Lloyd Bacon; 8. 88 Jon Wilhelmi; 9. Jimmy Broszeit.

Third heat – 1. 12D Joe Docekal; 2. 32F Dan Feltus; 3. 16 Eric Verthein; 4. 69 Mike Krall; 5. 32 Jeremy Schaufenbuel; 6. 1D Koal Deering; 7. 14 Brian Schrage; 8. 38 Jeff Johnson.

Feature – 1. Docekal; 2. LaPlant; 3. Kunkle; 4. Rohde; 5. Feltus; 6. Deering; 7. Lundry; 8. Dugan; 9. Kurth; 10. Krall; 11. Johnson; 12. Liddiard; 13. Schrage; 14. Schaufenbuel; 15. Panos; 16. Car No. 17; 17. Hartman; 18. Verthein; 19. Bacon; 20. Fretheim; 21. Bates; 22. Boyer; DNS Moore; DNS Wessels; DNS Wilhelmi; DNS Broszeit.