Aikey rock solid in Indee Open Series win at Mineral City Speedway
By Ryan Clark

FORT DODGE, Iowa (June 13) – Jeff Aikey continued his strong run in the Indee Open Series as he notched his third series win of the season with an impressive victory at Mineral City Speedway.

At the start of the 30-lap event, Mike Smith rocketed into the lead from his second row start. Smith dove to the bottom of front row starters Rick Wendling and Curt Martin at the drop of the green flag and powered into the lead on the half-mile oval. He immediately pulled away from the pack until a pair of cautions for debris on lap four bunched the field.

On the final restart, Smith continued his stay out front as Martin, Wendling and Aikey waged a three-wide battle behind him for second. As those three cars battled, Smith put a straightaway margin between himself and his nearest competitors.

Aikey settled into second place on the ninth lap and went to work chasing down the leader. Smith maintained his sizeable lead until he encountered lapped traffic just past the midway point of the event. As Smith worked his way through the backmarkers, Aikey cut into his advantage and pulled even on the lap 23.

Aikey made the winning move with only five laps to go as he drove to his second straight series victory. Smith scored runner-up honors while Martin crossed the line third.

In other action, Jason Wagoner set the early pace in the 20-lap stock car feature. From his front row start, Wagoner charged into the lead while Mitchell Griffith worked his way through traffic from a third row start.

Griffith pulled into second after just three laps and then made a pass for the lead just two laps later. As Griffith led, Jeff Nielsen was making his way through the pack after starting in the fourth row.

Nielsen settled into second on lap eight and chased down Griffith as laps wound down. Nielsen made numerous attempts to work under the leader, but was unable to make a charge as Griffith held on for the victory.

Ryan Gustin scored a wire-to-wire victory in the 360 modified division. He was chased all 15 laps by Tad Reutzel who finished second.

David Calmer took command at the midway point of the econo stock feature to take the win ahead of Adam Hicks.

RESULTS

LATE MODEL

First heat – 1. 11 Ace Ihm, Hazel Green, Wis.; 2. 78 Dale Stolte, Springville; 3. 41J Jeremiah Hurst, Dubuque; 4. 73 Greg Kastli, Waterloo; 5. 10X Ryan Griffith, Webster City; 6. 85 Kelly Tapper, Boone; 7. 2M Matt Mickelson, Fort Dodge; 8. 79 Josh Omans, Garner.

Second heat – 1. 28C Terry Neal, Ely; 2. 9 Bobby Hansen, Center Point; 3. 45 Curt Martin, Independence; 4. 76 Jason Hahne, Webster City; 5. 15G Cam Granger, West Union; 6. 5R Riley Larson, Roland; 7. 22 Jill George, Cedar Falls.

Third heat – 1. 99D Darrel DeFrance, Marshalltown; 2. 37 Mike Smith, Jewell; 3. 145 Dale Hackwell Jr., Washburn; 4. 43 Jeremy Grady, Story City; 5. 8A Al Johnson, Story City; 6. 8 Randy Wheeler, Cedar Falls; 7. 4 Leon Thomsen, Waverly.

Fourth heat – 1. Z2 Gary Webb, Blue Grass; 2. 77 Jeff Aikey, Waterloo; 3. 78W Rick Wendling, Hazleton; 4. 06 Dean Wagner, Evansdale; 5. 1 Greg Elliott, Webster City; 6. 28D Allen Diercks, Marion; 7. 69B Joel Brasch, Dunkerton.

B feature – 1. Griffith; 2. Johnson; 3. Tapper; 4. Elliott; 5. Granger; 6. Larson; 7. Wheeler; 8. George; 9. Mickelson; 10. Brasch; 11. Omans; 12. Diercks; DNS Thomsen.

A feature – 1. Aikey; 2. Smith; 3. Martin; 4. Webb; 5. Ihm; 6. Neal; 7. Wendling; 8. Wagner; 9. Kastli; 10. Grady; 11. Hackwell; 12. Johnson; 13. Tapper; 14. Hurst; 15. Elliott; 16. Granger; 17. Hahne; 18. Larson; 19. George; 20. Griffith; 21. DeFrance; 22. Wheeler; 23. Stolte; 24. Hansen (DNS).



STOCK CAR

Feature – 1. 82 Mitchell Griffith, Webster City; 2. 42 Jeff Nielsen, Pocahontas; 3. T53 Todd Foster, Webster City; 4. 7 Jason Minnehan, Churdan; 5. 57 Dennis Plain, Sac City; 6. 97 Adam Silvey, Iowa Falls; 7. 25 David Crimmins, Fort Dodge; 8. 15 Rusty Fister, Webster City; 9. 47 James Osterson, Monroe; 10. K77 Randy Smith, Duncombe; 11. 24B Randy Biederman, Dallas Center; 12. 20 Jason Wagoner, Iowa Falls; 13. 83 Scott Jondle, Callender; 14. 41 Rob Hughes, Humboldt; 15. 22X Lance Deal, Fort Dodge (DNS); 16. 22 Joe Paullin, Dayton (DNS); 17. M5 Jim Mitchell, Webster City (DNS).



360 MODIFIED

Feature – 1. 19 Ryan Gustin, Marshalltown; 2. 5R Tad Reutzel, Burt; 3. 9 Ryan Giles, West Des Moines; 4. 8 Bill Hoover, Duncombe; 5. 7 Nate Caruth, Ames; 6. 24 Kevin Sturm, Gowrie; 7. 69 Joel Cox, Evansdale; 8. 40 George Gilliland, Lehigh; 9. 3 Andy Tiernan, Woodward; 10. 17 Dana Benning, Waverly; 11. 1 Brett Meyer, Ames; 12. 6 Mike Giles, West Des Moines; 13. 46 Matt Worthrop, Stanhope; 14. 38 Paul Atchison, Duncombe (DNS).



ECONO STOCK

Feature – 1. 21D David Calmer, Manson; 2. 19 Adam Hicks, Lake City; 3. 20 Justin Nehring, Storm Lake; 4. 11C Will Condon, Barnum; 5. 17 Matt Ring, Clarion; 6. 01 Pern Strucken, Webster City; 7. 40H Billy Heun, Fort Dodge; 8. 8 Virgil Stewart, Fort Dodge; 9. 5A Tyler Pickett, Boxholm; 10. 88 Brian Egemo, Badger.