Brian Harris sails toward the season opening IMCA Deery Brothers Series win at Dubuque Speedway. (Mike Ruefer) Deery Brothers: Harris takes opening night honors in Dubuque
DUBUQUE, Iowa - April 2. The first checkered flag of the silver anniversary Deery Brothers Summer Series flew for Brian Harris. Harris led all 50 laps of Saturday’s opening night IMCA Late Model tour opener at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway, building up a big lead and then holding off Andy Eckrich after the sole caution of the contest came with nine circuits to go. The series victory was Harris’ career fourth and paid $2,000. Eckrich, Tom Darbyshire, Tyler Bruening and Terry Neal rounded out the top five. After drawing the outside row two start, Harris went immediately to the top groove. He caught up with the back of the field by lap 15 and led the second-running Darbyshire by a full straight at midway.
Eighth finishing Jason Perry races #15 Justin Kay at Dubuque. (Mike Ruefer)
Andy Eckrich with Dad Larry Eckrich before bringing in a second place finish at Dubuque in his sophomore year of full time racing with the tour. (Mike Ruefer) Harris had lapped 13 cars before the late caution came out. Eckrich, the 2010 tour rookie of the year, had started 15th, caught Darbyshire for the second spot and was making up ground while Harris looked for a way around three-wide backrunners. The yellow resulting from defending champion Ray Guss Jr.’s flat tire erased what was still a sizable lead for Harris, who stuck to the higher line following the restart and then outran Eckrich coming out of the turns and took the win by two car lengths. Darrel DeFrance was 13th in upping his perfect series attendance streak to 368 consecutive events. Guss raced his way back to 14th. All three of Harris’ previous Deery victories came in 2005. Todd Malmstrom won the $250 Sunoco Race Fuels feature qualifier drawing. Nineteen race dates comprise the 26th annual tour. Next up are the $3,000 to win Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway in West Burlington on Saturday, April 9 and the Sunday, April 10 show at Quincy, Ill., Raceway.
Tom Darbyshire splits #75 Todd Malmstrom and #44 Luke Goedert before taking a third place finish at Dubuque. (Mike Ruefer)
Defending series champ Ray Guss's new season got off to a rocky start as he put his car into an inside guardrail in his heat race.(Mike Ruefer)
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Big Gains for Hubbard, Pearson, Ogle - The A-Team Has Been Updated 05-15-12
Scott James battles #13 Barry Doss in heat race action at Florence (Ky.) Speedway, but in the $2,000-to-win feature, the only thing anyone saw was the tail end of James' #81 car. (Roy Walker)
After plenty of trash-talking via the electronic media between Jeff Matthews and Ivedent Lloyd last week, it was #21 Lloyd who got the final word as he reeled in #33 Matthews to win Friday's LM feature at Oclala, Fla.'s Bubba Raceway Park. (R.E. Wing)
Fans at Markleysburg, Pa.'s Roaring Knob Motorsports Comlex were treated to dual LM features Saturday - one a makeup from a May 5th rainout. (Above) Tim Senic challenges eventual regular feature winner Chuck Harper, while Jared Hawkins (below) claimed the makeup race. (Tommy Micheals)
Henley, Missouri's Jason Russell leads the way to Victory Lane in the ULMS Late Model feature at Lucas Oil Speedway Saturday. (Chris Bork)
Some fierce racing action at Lucas Oil speedway. (Chris Bork)
Dalton, Ga.'s Craig Reece returned to Dixie Speedway Saturday and led all the way to win the Crate LM victory. (Steve Hixson)
Ray Guss Jr. races last week's Quad City Speedway winner, Mike Murphy, Jr. This time, it was advantage Guss. (Chris Damitz)
With a strong motor back into his mount, Veteran Lamar Scoggins claimed last Friday's Crate LM victory at Boyd's Speedway. (Steve Hixson)
Veteran racer Lance Matthees navigates Spring Lake, Minnesota's Deer Creek Speedway before taking Saturday's WISSOTA Late Model checkers. (Jason Durst)
Racing hard at mid-pack, it's the dueling 55s of Cory Mahder (inside) and Greg Nippoldt at Deer Creek. (Jason Durst)
Ryan King (above and below) swept both the Ltd. Late Model and Crate Late Model features Saturday at 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tenn. (Chad Wells)
Still riding his wave in Iowa, Mike Murphy, Jr. in early action before taking the main event win at Davenport last Friday. (Chris Damitz)
Jason Jameson ran a gauntlet to finally capture another win Friday night at Moler
Raceway Park (see main page). (Roy
Walker)
After holding back a charge from Alex Ferree, Chub Frank drove home with a Friday night win at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. (John Stivason)
Bobby Pierce, Brett Sievert, and Mike Glynn race in a tight pack in Kankakee (Ill.) Speedway's "Crosstown Cup", but (below) it was ultimately Shawn Toczek (42) here racing the high side of Mike Provenzano, who sailed to the win. (Dan Simpson)
NALMS Suspends Remaining Season
In a statement released to the racing media Monday, Northern All All Stars Late Model Series (NALMS) owners Shawn Hall and Bob Mooney relased the following statement:
To all NALMS drivers and fans,
Northern Allstars Late Model Series regrets to inform all of our drivers and fans that as of today (May 14, 2012) we will suspend all series races for the remaining 2012 season. The primary reason for the decision to discontinue the series was mainly economics. Tracks, teams and fans are having a hard time these days with the cost of living in general. With the cost of fuel, parts, tires, tickets and lodging, many people just cannot afford to travel to our shows, so we feel it's best to stop for now and try to regroup for the 2013 season.
Our series needs to be able to have at least 18 to 20 shows to cover our cost of putting on these shows and our drivers point funds. With many tracks cutting back on their special events and other tracks just choosing not to have specials at all, it's has really cut our options for race tracks down to a very few unless you are willing to travel several hours away from the Central Illinois area, and that is not cost effective for the racing teams or fans.
In closing we would like to thank all of the drivers and fans whom have supported the series over the years and we hope to be able to come back with a bigger and better season for everyone in 2013.
A-Team Leaders from 1997-2011 (Click on link for complete rundown)
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