Droste in a dandy, tops IMCA Modifieds at Independence Motor Speedway

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (June 8) – For the second straight week, the IMCA Modifieds stole the show at Independence Motor Speedway. One week after Troy Cordes won in a photo finish, Tyler Droste earned a hard-fought victory for his first win in the division on the Independence oval.

Scott Hogan took the early lead from his outside front row starting spot with Darin Duffy in pursuit. The leaders pulled away from the pack and ran bumper-to-bumper while Droste worked through traffic from a sixth row starting spot. Droste settled into sixth by the time the caution flag slowed action on lap four.

Hogan and Duffy again separated themselves from the field when racing resumed while Droste made his way to third on lap seven. Following a lap 11 restart, Droste worked past Duffy for second until the caution flag waved a final time with five laps to go.

On the restart, Hogan ran the top side with Droste down low and Duffy close behind. Droste shot to the inside of Hogan to steal the lead on lap 17, with Hogan returning the favor a short time later. That pair swapped the lead numerous times in the waning laps before Duffy closed to the outside of the leaders exiting turn two on the final lap.

Duffy made it a three-wide battle as the leaders raced down the back stretch. Droste, running the low groove, was able to hold off both of his pursuers through the final set of turns to take the thrilling win in the 20-lapper. Hogan ran second ahead of Duffy.

Chris Luloff earned his second win of the season in the IMCA Hobby Stock division. Luloff, who started in the fifth row, worked into the runner-up spot on lap six, then settled in behind Nathan Ballard until the race’s only caution one lap later.

When racing resumed, Luloff remained committed to the low line as he kept pace with the leader before Ballard pushed exiting turn two on the 13th circuit. Luloff shot to the inside of the leader and took command, leading the final two laps on his way to the win.

Luke Merfeld rocketed into the lead from his pole position start in the 25-lap IMCA Late Model feature. He quickly pulled away from the pack while Tyler Bruening made his way through traffic from a sixth row starting spot.

Merfeld was enjoying a straightaway lead by the time Bruening settled into second on lap 18. He was able to cut into the huge deficit when Merfeld encountered heavy lapped traffic in the waning laps. Although Bruening closed to within half of a straightaway, Merfeld led the event in its entirety to score his first win of the season in the caution-free event.

Norman Chesmore held off the furious challenges of John Emerson and Sean Johnson to take his first win in five years in the IMCA Stock Car division. Chesmore assumed command on the fourth lap, then protected the low groove over the final 14 laps to score the victory.

From his second row starting spot, Kip Siems took the lead on the first of 15 laps in the IMCA Northern SportMod feature. Siems survived a trio of cautions to win the event going away ahead of Kevin Hurst and Shane Ebaugh.

In his fourth appearance of the season, Adam Gates earned his fourth win in the IMCA Sport Compact division. Gates raced the low line to the front from his second row starting spot to drive to victory lane ahead of Merv Chandler.

Next Saturday night, June 15, will be sponsored by Tournier Recycling. In addition to T-shirt and hat giveaways during the program, Tournier will be giving away can koozies to the first 500 people through the gate. Gates open at 4 p.m., with hot laps at 6 and racing to follow.

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

IMCA MODIFIED
Feature – 1. 92 Tyler Droste (Waterloo); 2. 33D Scott Hogan (Vinton); 3. 19D Darin Duffy (Hazleton); 4. 00J J.D. Auringer (Waterloo); 5. 98 Jason Snyder (Dunkerton); 6. 10K Ronn Lauritzen (Jesup); 7. 27M Mark Schulte (Delhi); 8. 71 Troy Cordes (Dunkerton); 9. 26P Kevin Pittman (Waterloo); 10. 64 Vern Jackson (Waterloo); 11. 24R Adam Johnson (Independence); 12. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Cedar Rapids); 13. 93K Jeff Kriz (Waterloo); 14. 01 Ed Thomas (Waterloo); 15. 5 Jason Morehouse (Evansdale); 16. 11 Timm Jensen (Dunkerton); 17. 57B Dennis Betzer (Central City); 18. 27 Jamie Johnson (Waterloo); 19. 17 Justin Buehler (Oelwein); 20. 91 Shawn Ryan (Waterloo); 21. 66 Terry Johnson (Waterloo); DNS 11B Mike Burbridge (Delhi).
First heat – 1. Thomas; 2. Auringer; 3. Hogan; 4. Snyder; 5. Cordes; 6. T. Johnson; 7. Buehler; DNS Flannagan.
Second heat – 1. Droste; 2. Schulte; 3. Lauritzen; 4. J. Johnson; 5. Ryan; 6. Morehouse; DNS Burbridge.
Third heat – 1. Duffy; 2. Jackson; 3. A. Johnson; 4. Pittman; 5. Betzer; 6. Kriz; 7. Jensen.

IMCA STOCK CAR
Feature – 1. 15 Norman Chesmore (Rowley); 2. 87 John Emerson (Waterloo); 3. 8R Sean Johnson (Independence); 4. 3 Jarod Weepie (Dunkerton); 5. JR3 Jason Hocken (Independence); 6. K38 Ken Taylor (Strawberry Point); 7. 17 Jason Niedert (Winthrop); 8. 87A Aaron Matthias (Fairbank); 9. 9E Mitchell Evens (Independence); 10. 11 Jesse Brown (Nashua); 11. 15T Tim Helle (Garnavillo); 12. 11J Jerome Jacoby (Waterloo).
First heat – 1. Chesmore; 2. Hocken; 3. Emerson; 4. Matthias; 5. Niedert; 6. Jacoby.
Second heat – 1. Helle; 2. Weepie; 3. Brown; 4. Taylor; 5. Johnson; 6. Evens.

IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMOD
Feature – 1. S16 Kip Siems (Cedar Falls); 2. 339 Kevin Hurst (Janesville); 3. 14 Shane Ebaugh (Raymond); 4. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 5. J2 Dave Schulze (Keystone); 6. 32Z Alex Zwanziger (Nashua); 7. 12S Sean Wyett (Danville); 8. 23 Synjun Bauer (Prairie du Chien, Wis.); 9. 7D Dakoda Sellers (Vinton); 10. 63 Matt McCahen (Waterloo); 11. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 12. 9 Scott Williams (Atkins); 13. 39 Brian Hilbert (Independence); 14. 114 Mike Nielsen (Evansdale); 15. 26J Joel Rust (Grundy Center); 16. 21J Joe Harken (Waterloo); 17. 96 Lucas Lundry (Maynard); 18. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 19. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 20. 29 Sean Vogt (Watkins); 21. 4 Ryan Maitland (Waterloo); 22. 71 Mike Hogencamp (Waterloo); 23/DNS. 42L Lon Mercer (Urbana); 24/DNS. 115 Bob Ebaugh (Raymond); 25/DNS. 20T Scott Thomas (Waterloo); DQ 15B Troy Burkhart (Urbana); DNS 49 Brandon Smith (Waterloo).
First heat – 1. Dvorak; 2. Chipp; 3. Rust; 4. Schulze; 5. Maitland; 6. Hilbert; 7. McCahen; 8. Thomas; DNS Smith.
Second heat – 1. Zwanziger; 2. Wyett; 3. Burkhart; 4. S. Ebaugh; 5. Sellers; 6. Mercer; 7. B. Ebaugh; 8. Bauer; 9. Hilmer.
Third heat – 1. Siems; 2. Lundry; 3. Hurst; 4. Vogt; 5. Hogencamp; 6. Nielsen; 7. Harken; 8. Williams; 9. Buhlman.

IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature – 1. 18 Chris Luloff (Independence); 2. 29 Nathan Ballard (Marengo); 3. 79 Benji Irvine (Cedar Falls); 4. 55 Vince Buchholz (Waterloo); 5. 25 Jamie Whitaker (Oelwein); 6. 35B Shawn Kuennen (Hazleton); 7. 166 Justin Lichty (Waterloo); 8. 7B Jim Ball (Independence); 9. 67 Justin Stander (Vinton); 10. 73 Quinton Miller (Independence); 11. 09 Brad Forbes (Waterloo); 12. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 13. 35 Brett Vanous (Quasqueton); 14. 95 Matt Lundry (Oelwein); 15. 14C Leah Wroten (Independence); 16. 47 Brayton Boyer (St. Lucas); 17. 57X Jonny Williams (Atkins); 18. 20B Matt Burmeister (Dunkerton); 19. 58B Randy Byerly (Tipton); DNS 23 Nick Welch (Cedar Falls).
First heat – 1. Forbes; 2. Miller; 3. Lichty; 4. Stander; 5. Boyer; 6. Lundry; 7. Burmeister.
Second heat – 1. Wacha; 2. Ball; 3. Irvine; 4. Buchholz; 5. Vanous; 6. Williams; DNS Welch.
Third heat – 1. Ballard; 2. Whitaker; 3. Luloff; 4. Kuennen; 5. Byerly; 6. Wroten.

IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature – 1. 007 Adam Gates (Marion); 2. 2 Merv Chandler (Urbana); 3. 4 Mike Tedesco (Jesup); 4. 111 A.J. Witten (Cedar Rapids); DQ 18 Dylan Clinton (Elkader); DQ 7X Zach Marmann (Elkader); DNS 2K Derek Ihde (Fayette).
Heat – 1. Gates; 2. Clinton; 3. Chandler; 4. Tedesco; 5. Marmann; 6. Witten; DNS Ihde.

Category: Independence, Iowa