Echo Valley Speedway 2003
5/25
Echo Valley Speedway
West Union, IA
IRA
34 cars
Ricky Logan (11th car out to time) set quick time, setting the new track record at 14.976 seconds on the 4/10 mile banked oval. Brian Brown (4th to time) was second quick, followed by Travis Whitney (9th), Derek Beckman (1st), Kim Mock (20th), Kurt Davis (14th), Justin Henderson (23rd), Scotty Neitzel (2nd), Mike Reinke (32nd) and John Haeni (34th). Haeni was relegated to the last time slot after losing a motor in hot laps.
Heat one (started): 1. Colin Northway 60 (3) 2. Matt Wasmund 4w (2) 3. Logan 17G (6) 4. Reinke 02 (4) / 5. Neitzel 2w (5) 6. Billy Warren 95 (8) 7. Jim Melis 51m (1) 8. Todd King 97 (9) 9. Dave Enders 51E (7)
Northway moved up to the point in short order. Great three-wide action between Logan, Reinke and Neitzel for most of the eight laps. Logan missed second by less than a car length after getting by Reinke with two to go. The heats had an invert of six and took four to the feature. They were the most entertaining heats I've seen this year.
Heat two (started): 1. Dave Uttech 68 (2) 2. Henderson R19 (3) 3. Mike Kertscher 80K (5) 4. Brown 6 (6) / 5. John Sernett 91 (1) 6. Haeni 21J (4) 7. Mike Stefka 35s (8) 8. Brian Kristan 5 (7) DNS - Ty Bartz 75
Pole sitter, Bartz, couldn't get it fired, and the inside rows moved up. Kertscher, an IRA rookie, gained two spots on the initial green and held on to a transfer. Brown snatched the last transfer after a duel with Sernett. Henderson, Kertscher, Brown and Sernett provided great side by side action, while D. Uttech was impressive in leading the pack. Kristan went pitside on lap three.
Heat three (started): 1. Whitney 9 (4) 2. Joe Roe 61 (2) 3. Davis 6K (5) 4. Darrell Dodd 11 (1) / 5. Scott Uttech 7 (6) 6. Jason Johnson 44 (7) 7. Ryan Irwin 49 (3) DNS - Skip Jackson 21
Jackson, who was to start fourth, pulled in before the parade lap and loaded it in the trailer. S.Uttech suffered from a front wing problem from the beginning. He brought out a caution on lap three when he coasted to a stop. Irwin, who was running fifth, exited at this time. Johnson retired on the white flag lap. Whitney got under Davis and then Roe with two circuits remaining to take the checkers.
Heat four (started): 1. Steve Meyer 85m (1) 2. Mock 1m (5) 3. Todd Hepfner 28 (3) 4. Beckman 50D (6) / 5. Wayne Modjeski 77 (2) 6. Fred Ebler 64 (7) 7. Joe Symoens 96 (8) 8. Scott Biertzer 4B (4)
Beckman was passing on the high side in turn two, when Biertzer slid into him and flipped hard. He was uninjured, but done for the night. Meyer led the distance. Mock and Hepfner tangled for several laps for the runner up position.
B main (started): 1. Neitzel (1) 2. Melis (4) 3. Warren (9) 4. Enders (6) 5. Modjeski (3) 6. Bartz (5) / 7. Kristan (14) 8. Symoens (12) 9. Stefka (10) 10. Ebler (8) 11. S. Uttech (11) 12. Haeni (2) 13. Johnson (7) 14. King (13) DNS - Biertzer, Jackson, Sernett, Irwin
Neitzel led throughout. Haeni was running second on lap five, when he spun in turn four, bringing out a caution. King, who had charged from the back row to seventh also had problems and was done for the night. Johnson pulled in as well. Haeni became a victim of the two spin rule on lap eight. Warren made a nice charge, as did Kristan. Kristan was one spot short of a transfer, however, and he spun after taking the checkers.
A main (started): 1. Whitney (2) 2. Brown (3) 3. Mock (8) 4. Logan (4) 5. Meyer (5) 6. Reinke (12) 7. Neitzel (11) 8. Henderson (10) 9. Northway (7) 10. Melis (17) 11. Davis (9) 12. Hepfner (13) 13. Dodd (19) 14. Kertscher (21) 15. Wasmund (14) 16. D. Uttech (6) 17. Warren (22) 18. Enders (20) 19. Beckman (1) 20. Modjeski (16) 21. Roe (15) 22. Bartz (18)
As Whitney took the early lead, Beckman executed a 360, bringing out the caution and sending him to the tail. After the restart, contact between Kertscher, Enders, and Bartz sent the latter pitside. Roe exited on lap six. Lap eight saw a collision between Beckman and Modjeski. Modjeski was done for the night. The restart saw Whitney leading Brown, Logan, Mock, and Meyer. Reinke had the crowd going by riding the rim of the high banks to gain spots in the field. Lap 14 saw another stoppage, when Beckman broke his front end in a collision with Warren. Brown narrowly missed being taken out in the incident, but suffered top wing damage. Mock would get by Logan, but the order would otherwise stay the same for the remaining 11 laps. Melis and Kertscher shared hard-charger honors, as both finished seven spots ahead of where they started.