Running the High Side: Springsteen powers to Deery win Saturday night at West Liberty

The weather of the past week reminded us what racing in Iowa is supposed to feel like. It was great getting out in temps over 70 degrees and seeing some on-track action. A lot of you were able to do that, some with greater levels of success than others depending on what direction you ventured, especially on Saturday. Now that it is Sunday and reality has returned in a rude fashion (80s one day, snow the next) I am glad I hit the road to West Liberty on Saturday night.
If I learned anything on Saturday, it is the fact that I would not want to pick a winner for the 2014 Deery title. Putting the results from the main event up against those from Davenport on the previous night, you will find a long list of names for title candidates. Thankfully, with only two races in the books, we will have a lot of opportunities to see how it all plays out this summer.
The power seemed to start up front Saturday with Colby Springsteen on the pole and Nick Marolf to his outside. with the throwing of the green, it was Marolf heading off into the lead and Springsteen hanging on for second. Marolf took off to build a successful cushion, but Springsteen gradually reeled him in, and after ten laps, the number 38 was out in front.
Other battles were also of note, including Jeff Aikey racing Marolf for second and eventually grabbing the spot. Denny Eckrich and Ryan Dolan also spent several laps racing for position before Eckrich would get by to end up finishing sixth. Dolan held on for seventh. Following the third-place Marolf in the top five were Justin Kay in fourth and Jason Rauen in fifth.
All of those drivers I just mentioned can certainly be put on the 2014 contenders list; a list which also includes Friday night's winner Andy Eckrich, who had an off night, coming in 11th. Add in names like Guss, Bruening, Elston, Bueseling among others, and you can see a ticket to a Deery race will give you a show this season.
Also on the card Saturday night were IMCA sportmods and IMCA stock cars. Both fields were on the small side, but both did their part in keeping the show entertaining, and moving. The sportmods are new to the track this season, and the nine on hand Saturday were a solid core to build off of. I think with time and patience, the class will grow at Liberty. The cars looked good on the big half mile, with Austin Moyer taking the top spot. I hope other sportmod drivers who frequent the half mile tracks will give West Liberty a try, especially if they have never raced the place. The track is fast, smooth and usually quite racy. I think newbies would enjoy the visit. I also hope the Liberty sportmods show up at other places on the road. Mind you, I'm not trying to take cars away from another Saturday night show, I just hope when it comes to racing or staying home on a given Saturday, some fresh sportmod faces head to West Liberty. It would be a safe bet that they would go back in the future.
The stock cars had some entertaining heat races, going four-wide at times. By feature time, mechanical issues thinned out the field a bit, but Dave Brandies showed his mettle and kept the everyone behind him in the 20-lap main event. My piece on the sport-mods also applies to the stock cars. Half-mile drivers should try West Liberty if they never have, and I would like to see some of the West Liberty racers show up regularly at Oskaloosa on Wednesday's or maybe even make the big pull to Des Moines once or twice. One reason is that those tracks are close to me - selfish I know. Another reason is that in recent history, the number of "half-mile specialists" seems to be shrinking in comparison to drivers hitting the quarter miles.
I grew up going to half-mile tracks more than I did quarter miles. Over time, I now see a decent mix of both sizes, with the big tracks being closer to my home in Pella. It seems like the smaller tracks get more of a mix of drivers than the bigger tracks do. Nothing wrong with that, it just seems that way to me. I think schedules play into it, and I think the idea that big tracks are harder on engines does too. I have no theory on the engine thing, but it something I hear now and then. I think you can also use as evidence the drivers who raced at Des Moines in 2013 and Osky in 2014 for the Frostbusters. A lot of faces were missing from those tracks when compared to the quarter-miles on the rest of the schedule. The were several drivers that did do both track sizes, but a lot more signed in for the quarters when you make the comparison.
If I had deep pockets (I don't) I'd like to have a place and host the IMCA Half-Mile Super Nationals. I think would see quite of mix of top performers from Boone in September, mixed in with the big track drivers who don't usually take the "Racin' Vacation." It would be a whole different animal for sure, and I'd like to see the big track drivers showcased.
Some of the best stock car racing I have ever seen in my life goes back to the early days of the Stock Car Shootouts at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Those races were insane, looking like Daytona or Talladega on dirt. The cars ran in big packs and shifted positions lap after lap. Stock cars features to this day have a lot of that pack action, and a Super Nationals-type event could bring that to the table too. No, you will never match what happens at Boone, but I'd like to see a good try at making it happen on a half-mile.
There are a lot of other things I'd like to see as well, and they probably have just as good of chance of happening as my stock car event. I know we have the Shootouts and those are great, but I want to see it go a step further and become a gathering of tribes when it comes to the big tracks. Hey, we all have our bucket lists.
My thanks to the crew at West Liberty for putting a good show out there on a summer night in April. Don't forget, West Liberty also has a great kids' program, as they put great effort into getting young faces to the track and making returning customers out of them. Racing is always going to need to grow its younger audience. Get there early and your little ones can land a bus ride around the track! Also, a shout out to announcer Jerry Mackey and his kind words for positivelyracing.com. Jerry has always, without fail, given our little blog sight plenty of pop and mic time anytime one of our bloggers show up at West Liberty; for that we say thank you - word of mouth is what makes all of this work!