Emerson, Bruening ride late rallies to victory at Independence Motor Speedway

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (June 15) – John Emerson and Tyler Bruening have each won in convincing fashion and in nail-biters already this season. They both opted for a flair of the dramatic on their way to victory lane Saturday night at Independence Motor Speedway.

Both Emerson in the IMCA Stock Cars and Bruening in the IMCA Late Models made late race passes to drive to their fourth victories in six nights of weekly points racing this season in Independence.

Jason Hocken showed the way early in the 18-lap Stock Car feature. Phil Holtz pursued until caution slowed action on lap eight. By that time, fourth row starters Emerson and Sean Johnson made their way into the top five.

One lap after racing resumed, Johnson worked past Hocken to steal the top spot while Emerson followed him into second on lap 13. The leaders ran in that formation until the final caution with two laps to go.

Emerson chased Johnson to the green flag as both drivers remained committed to the low groove over the final circuits. Emerson pressured the low side of Johnson into turn one on the final lap, slipping beneath the leader and exiting down the back stretch in a two-wide battle.

The front-runners ran in wheel-to-wheel formation through turns three and four before Emerson snuck ahead off the corner to drive to the thrilling win.

Kelly Pestka, Dain Sires and Greg Hunter wowed the crowd at the start of the 25-lap IMCA Late Model feature. That trio swapped the lead until Hunter spun following a lap seven restart, collecting a handful of others in the process.

When the dust settled, Sires led the field back to green with Curt Martin, Dean Wagner and Bruening in tow. Martin briefly challenged before Sires pulled away from the pack, leaving Martin to battle Wagner and Bruening for second.

The top four ran in the same formation until Wagner and Bruening worked past Martin with less than 10 laps to go. Bruening raced the low side past Wagner with five laps remaining while Sires, who maintained a comfortable lead, entered lapped traffic.

Bruening quickly closed the gap on the leader as they made their way through the backmarkers and was able to pull to the inside of Sires at the flag stand as the white flag waved. Bruening pulled away on the low side to drive to victory.

Shawn Ryan raced the high side to the lead in the 20-lap IMCA Modified headliner. Ryan paced the field while J.D. Auringer and Tyler Droste made their way through traffic from mid-pack starts.

Auringer worked beneath second-running Ed Thomas at the midway point, then raced past Ryan for the lead one lap later. Droste followed Auringer to the front on lap 12 and attempted to reel in the leader until caution slowed action on the 18th circuit.

Although the caution flag waved a couple more times in the final laps, Auringer fought off Droste to score the win, his second of the season.

Dave Schulze became the 20th different IMCA Northern SportMod winner in track history. From his outside front row starting spot, Schulze took charge at the drop of the green, then held off pressure from Curt Hilmer to earn the milestone win.

Chris Luloff motored to his third win of the season in the IMCA Hobby Stocks. Luloff took command from Justin Wacha following a mid-race caution to sail to his second straight victory.

Adam Gates led wire-to-wire to score his fifth win of the season in the IMCA Sport Compact division. He set sail at the drop of the green and won the event going away ahead of Merv Chandler.

Weekly points racing continues next Saturday, June 22. Increased prize money will be at stake in the SportMod, Hobby Stock and Sport Compact divisions. Gates open at 4 p.m., with hot laps at 6 and racing to follow.

RESULTS
IMCA LATE MODEL
Feature – 1. 16 Tyler Bruening (Decorah); 2. 38S Dain Sires (Cedar Falls); 3. 53 Darren Ackerman (Readlyn); 4. 60 Dean Wagner (Evansdale); 5. 77A Jeff Aikey (Cedar Falls); 6. 45 Curt Martin (Independence); 7. 4C Chad Lerch (Cedar Rapids); 8. 145 Dale Hackwell Jr. (Washburn); 9. 73 Greg Kastli (Waterloo); 10. 23 Keith Kiernan (Dubuque); 11. 9 Bobby Hansen (Center Point); 12. 35 Curran Beckler (Tiffin); 13. 77 Dirk Hamilton (Jesup); 14. 88 Drew Johnson (Belle Plaine); 15. 2P Jon Passick (Waterloo); 16. 99 Luke Pestka (Robins); 17. 83 Russell Hesse (Waterloo); 18. 21B Joel Brascfh (Dunkerton); 19. 7 Greg Hunter (Independence); 20. 4 Leon Thomsen (Waverly); 21. 2 Rory Metcalf (West Union); 22. 19 Kelly Pestka (Preston); DNS 25 Ken Pint (Independence).
First heat – 1. Martin; 2. Johnson; 3. Bruening; 4. K. Pestka; 5. L. Pestka; 6. Hackwell; 7. Thomsen; DNS Pint.
Second heat – 1. Aikey; 2. Brasch; 3. Hamilton; 4. Sires; 5. Beckler; 6. Wagner; 7. Lerch; 8. Hesse.
Third heat – 1. Ackerman; 2. Passick; 3. Hunter; 4. Metcalf; 5. Kastli; 6. Kiernan; 7. Hansen.

IMCA MODIFIED
Feature – 1. 00J J.D. Auringer (Waterloo); 2. 92 Tyler Droste (Waterloo); 3. 91 Shawn Ryan (Waterloo); 4. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Cedar Rapids); 5. 01 Ed Thomas (Waterloo); 6. 505 Racer Hulin (Laurel); 7. 27M Mark Schulte (Delhi); 8. 64 Vern Jackson (Waterloo); 9. 24R Adam Johnson (Independence); 10. 11B Mike Burbridge (Delhi); 11. 71 Troy Cordes (Dunkerton); 12. 10K Ronn Lauritzen (Jesup); 13. 93K Jeff Kriz (Waterloo); 14. 171 Buck Swanson (Waterloo); 15. 83C Todd Conrad (Central City); 16. 7 Todd Jensen (Waterloo); 17. 77 Tim McBride (Denver); 18. 11 Timm Jensen (Dunkerton); 19. 17 Jason Buehler (Oelwein); 20. 26P Kevin Pittman (Waterloo); 21. 49 Mike Manson (Manchester); 22. 27 Jamie Johnson (Waterloo); 23. 5 Jason Morehouse (Evansdale).
First heat – 1. Lauritzen; 2. Auringer; 3. Flannagan; 4. Manson; 5. Burbridge; 6. J. Johnson; 7. Swanson; 8. Morehouse.
Second heat – 1. Ryan; 2. Schulte; 3. Pittman; 4. Cordes; 5. Kriz; 6. Conrad; 7. McBride; 8. Buehler.
Third heat – 1. A. Johnson; 2. Droste; 3. Thomas; 4. Jackson; 5. Hulin; 6. Todd Jensen; 7. Timm Jensen.

IMCA STOCK CAR
Feature – 1. 87 John Emerson (Waterloo); 2. 8R Sean Johnson (Independence); 3. JR3 Jason Hocken (Independence); 4. 7H Phil Holtz (Manchester); 5. 3 Jarod Weepie (Dunkerton); 6. 15T Tim Helle (Garnavillo); 7. 00 Tony Schimmels (Readlyn); 8. 9 Austin Evens (Independence); 9. 96 Chris Wiltse (Charles City); 10. 15 Norman Chesmore (Rowley); 11. 11 Jesse Brown (Nashua); 12. 87X Travis Shipman (Mason City); 13. 85C Bryce Carey (Nashua); 14. 12 Cole Mather (Fairbank).
First heat – 1. Helle; 2. Weepie; 3. Shipman; 4. Johnson; 5. Evens; 6. Carey; 7. Brown.
Second heat – 1. Emerson; 2. Holtz; 3. Chesmore; 4. Schimmels; 5. Hocken; 6. Wiltse; 7. Mather.

IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMOD
Feature – 1. J2 Dave Schulze (Keystone); 2. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 3. 96 Lucas Lundry (Maynard); 4. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 5. 32Z Alex Zwanziger (Nashua); 6. 14 Shane Ebaugh (Evansdale); 7. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 8. 63 Matt McCahen (Waterloo); 9. 86U Rod McDonald (Manchester); 10. 72 Mike Hogencamp (Waterloo); 11. 339 Kevin Hurst (Janesville); 12. 20T Scott Thomas (Waterloo); 13. 49 Brandon Smith (Waterloo); 14. 57R Ryan King (Montour); 15. 39 Brian Hilbert (Independence); 16. 50H Steve Wimer (Toddville); 17. 4 Ryan Maitland (Waterloo); 18. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 19. 4X Cory Tharp (Waterloo); 20. 7D Dakoda Sellers (Vinton); 21. S16 Kip Siems (Cedar Falls); 22/DNS. 114 Mike Nielsen (Evansdale).
First heat – 1. Dvorak; 2. Buhlman; 3. Hogencamp; 4. Ebaugh; 5. Hurst; 6. Thomas; 7. King.
Second heat – 1. Siems; 2. Hilmer; 3. Lundry; 4. Maitland; 5. Nielsen; 6. Wimer; 7. McCahen; DNS Tharp.
Third heat – 1. Chipp; 2. Zwanziger; 3. Schulze; 4. McDonald; 5. Sellers; 6. Hilbert; 7. Smith.

IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature – 1. 18 Chris Luloff (Independence); 2. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 3. 79 Benji Irvine (Cedar Falls); 4. 67 Justin Stander (Vinton); 5. 09 Brad Forbes (Waterloo); 6. 25 Jamie Whitaker (Oelwein); 7. 35B Shawn Kuennen (Hazleton); 8. 95 Matt Lundry (Oelwein); 9. 7B Jim Ball (Independence); 10. 20B Matt Burmeister (Dunkerton); 11. 55 Vince Buchholz (Waterloo); 12. 14G Curt Graham (Tiffin); 13. 166 Justin Lichty (Waterloo); 14. 2 Nick Welch (Cedar Falls).
First heat – 1. Luloff; 2. Kuennen; 3. Irvine; 4. Lundry; 5. Wacha; 6. Burmeister; 7. Ball.
Second heat – 1. Whitaker; 2. Forbes; 3. Stander; 4. Lichty; 5. Buchholz; 6. Graham; 7. Welch.

IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature – 1. 007 Adam Gates (Marion); 2. 2 Merv Chandler (Urbana); 3. 7X Zach Marmann (Elkader); 4. 86 Mitchell Balik (Fort Atkinson); 5. 3 Bryan Klein (Marion); 6. 111 A.J. Witten (Cedar Rapids); 7. 2K Derek Ihde (Fayette).
Heat – 1. Gates; 2. Marmann; 3. Chandler; 4. Klein; 5. Balik; 6. Ihde; 7. Witten.

Category: Independence, Iowa