Leighton Wins Tony Stewart Tribute in First Visit to C J Speedway
By Anthony Ainslie
COLUMBUS JUNCTION, IA (June 14, 2024) – Bill Leighton Jr. ventured out east with the Malvern Bank Super Late Models East Series and scored big in Friday’s Tony Stewart Tribute race at C J Speedway.
The fifth race of the 2024 season saw the East Series make their annual stop to the Louisa County Fairgrounds in Columbus Junction, Iowa for the third running of the Tony Stwart Tribute. Drivers from all over Iowa as well as Nebraska, Illinois and California made the trip to take on the high-banked 4/10 mile oval.
Defending Series Champion and Point Leader Chad Holladay kicked off the night being the fastest driver in time trials when he clocked in at 19.224 seconds in group A. Andrew Kosiski came out last in group B and was on top in the group with a 19.519 lap time.
Four Iowans took victory in the heat races as Chad Simpson, Justin Kay, Darrel DeFrance, and Curt Schroeder all punched their tickets to the main event. After the B feature on the night was dominated and won by Jason Hahne, 23 cars took to the speedway for the 25-lap Tony Stewart Tribute finale.
Dave Eckrich jumped the early lead from the outside of the front row, as the top shelf proved to be a dominant line for the first half of the race. The Oxford, Iowa driver was trying to get only in second career series win. He had not won since the series first went to C J Speedway back in 2021.
Eckrich was strong, but a couple of cautions kept the field close to him. A few heavy hitters were plagued with mechanical issues. Two-Time Serie Champion Justin Kay went down with a mechanical failure, and not long after, Derrick Stewart, who had won the last two East Series races at the speedway, went down with a flat tire.
As racing resumed, Bill Leighton Jr. caught up to Dave Eckrich, and with 14 laps remaining, he made the go-ahead slide job on Eckrich for the lead and proceeded to run away with the show.
While this went on, Point Leader Holladay stayed competitive on the low side of the speedway. However, as the race progressed, he faded out of the top ten ultimately finishing 11th in the final order.
The caution came out for the final time with four laps to go setting up a dash to the finish. As the field came back up to speed, Andy Eckrich made the charge past Dave to take second, but he could not catch Leighton.
Leighton, in his first-ever visit to the C J Speedway, took home the win in the Tony Stewart Tribute. His victory was worth $3,000, plus he gained an extra $300 from Skyline Materials after he won from the sixth starting position. The win marked Leighton’s second consecutive win of the year after he won with the West Series in Nebraska a couple of weeks prior, and it was Leighton’s 25th series win of his career keeping him in third on the all-time list.
Andy and Dave Eckrich would take second and third while Dylan Thornton charged from 13th to finish fourth, and Jeff Tharp rounded out the top five.
27 entries
DIRT SUPER LATE MODELS
MalvernBank A Feature: 1. 24-Bill Leighton[6]; 2. 56-Andy Eckrich[10]; 3. 58-Dave Eckrich[2]; 4. 38T-Dylan Thornton[13]; 5. 10T-Jeff Tharp[7]; 6. 93-Chad Simpson[14]; 7. 33-Nick Marolf[1]; 8. 4-JC Wyman[15]; 9. 76H-Jason Hahne[17]; 10. 17-Tim Simpson[9]; 11. 32C-Chad Holladay[3]; 12. 44-Luke Goedert[19]; 13. 56S-Chris Spieker[21]; 14. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[11]; 15. 32G-Curtis Glover[23]; 16. 99-Luke Pestka[18]; 17. 98-Jason Rauen[5]; 18. 53-Andrew Kosiski[12]; 19. 43-Derrick Stewart[4]; 20. 15K-Justin Kay[8]; 21. 42-Fred Remley[20]; 22. 22-Charlie McKenna[22]; 23. 15C-Curt Schroeder[16]
Predator Custom Trailers B Feature 1 (11 Laps): 1. 76H-Jason Hahne[2]; 2. 99-Luke Pestka[1]; 3. 44-Luke Goedert[3]; 4. 42-Fred Remley[9]; 5. 56S-Chris Spieker[8]; 6. 20-Zach Less[7]; 7. 74-Ron Boyse[11]; 8. 32G-Curtis Glover[6]; 9. 42H-Johnathan Huston[4]; 10. 22-Charlie McKenna[5]; 11. 70-Shawn Mulvany[10]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 93-Chad Simpson[1]; 2. 38T-Dylan Thornton[2]; 3. 43-Derrick Stewart[4]; 4. 76H-Jason Hahne[3]; 5. 32C-Chad Holladay[6]; 6. 99-Luke Pestka[5]; 7. 74-Ron Boyse[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 15K-Justin Kay[2]; 2. 24-Bill Leighton[3]; 3. 98-Jason Rauen[4]; 4. 33-Nick Marolf[6]; 5. 56S-Chris Spieker[1]; 6. 70-Shawn Mulvany[7]; 7. 22-Charlie McKenna[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[2]; 2. 42H-Johnathan Huston[1]; 3. 4-JC Wyman[3]; 4. 10T-Jeff Tharp[5]; 5. 42-Fred Remley[7]; 6. 53-Andrew Kosiski[6]; 7. 20-Zach Less[4]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 15C-Curt Schroeder[1]; 2. 56-Andy Eckrich[3]; 3. 17-Tim Simpson[4]; 4. 32G-Curtis Glover[2]; 5. 58-Dave Eckrich[6]; 6. 44-Luke Goedert[5]
Qualifying A: 1. 32C-Chad Holladay, 00:19.224[14]; 2. 33-Nick Marolf, 00:19.256[2]; 3. 99-Luke Pestka, 00:19.268[1]; 4. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:19.291[5]; 5. 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:19.366[13]; 6. 98-Jason Rauen, 00:19.393[3]; 7. 76H-Jason Hahne, 00:19.476[11]; 8. 24-Bill Leighton, 00:19.486[7]; 9. 38T-Dylan Thornton, 00:19.556[6]; 10. 15K-Justin Kay, 00:19.643[4]; 11. 93-Chad Simpson, 00:19.750[12]; 12. 56S-Chris Spieker, 00:19.898[8]; 13. 74-Ron Boyse, 00:20.870[9]; 14. 70-Shawn Mulvany, 00:21.179[10]
Qualifying B: 1. 53-Andrew Kosiski, 00:19.512[13]; 2. 58-Dave Eckrich, 00:19.545[1]; 3. 10T-Jeff Tharp, 00:19.566[4]; 4. 44-Luke Goedert, 00:19.737[3]; 5. 20-Zach Less, 00:19.827[5]; 6. 17-Tim Simpson, 00:20.006[2]; 7. 4-JC Wyman, 00:20.029[9]; 8. 56-Andy Eckrich, 00:20.138[11]; 9. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:20.252[6]; 10. 32G-Curtis Glover, 00:20.273[10]; 11. 42H-Johnathan Huston, 00:20.506[8]; 12. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:20.530[12]; 13. 42-Fred Remley, 00:20.958[7]
Category: CJ Raceway, Iowa
