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Bill Martin
WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa (April 11) - On a night when fans and fellow competitors remembered a favorite driver, Jason Frankel raced to a victory that will long be remembered as a highlight of his IMCA Late Model career.
Frankel was dominant in winning Saturday's opening night event in the Deery Brothers Summer Series, topping the Slocum 50 Memorial at 34 Raceway.
The win paid $2,500. That's almost as much as the amount generated by a portion of the grandstand ticket sales and the evening's 50/50 raffle that went to the Slocum 50 Scholarship Fund benefitting area high school students.
The fund was established in memory of Brent Slocum, the popular IMCA Late Model driver who died as a result of an accident in the pits at West Burlington in 2005.
Sixty-six Late Models were entered in the lidlifter, matching the second highest car count number in the series' 333-race history.
"Brent's family, his crew, everybody was just overwhelmed by the car count and the number of people in the stands," promoter Amy Laue said. "We were all just thrilled to be able to do something like this in his memory and it was a great night of racing."
Frankel started outside row one, got the jump on the rest of the 24-car field at the drop of the green and led all 50 circuits.
Ray Guss Jr. closed the gap when Frankel began encountering backrunners on lap 10 but could not mount a serious challenge for the front spot. The only caution of the contest came on lap 33 and Frankel was quick to pull away on the re-start.
Mark Burgtorf caught Guss for second with seven laps to go and chased Frankel to the checkers.
Guss, Jeff Aikey and Robby Warner rounded out the top five. Defending series champion Boone McLaughlin was sixth.
The tour single event car count record of 71 was established at 34's Pepsi USA Nationals in 2006. Pepsi races in 1999 and 2002 also boasted 66 entries each.
Frankel, IMCA's defending Late Model national champion, won for the first time in his short Deery career when the tour visited his hometown Quincy, Ill., Raceway last Aug. 31.
Opening night for the 2009 series was held 22 years to the day the first-ever series event was held, also at West Burlington.
Jay Johnson, the winner of that race, was 13th on Saturday.
Three series races are on tap next weekend, at Davenport Speedway
April 17, at Jack son County Speedway in Maquoketa on April 18 and at Quincy Race way on April 19.
Feature Results -
1. Jason Frankel, Quincy, Ill.;
2. Mark Burgtorf, Quincy, Ill.;
3. Ray Guss Jr., Milan, Ill.;
4. Jeff Aikey, Waterloo;
5. Robby Warner, Quincy, Ill.;
6. Boone McLaughlin, Mediapolis;
7. Tom Darbyshire, Morning Sun;
8. Luke Merfeld, Peosta;
9. Matt Strassheim, West Burlington;
10. Rob Toland, Davenport;
11. Stephan Kammerer, Blue Grass;
12. Tommy Elston, Keokuk;
13. Jay Johnson, West Burlington;
14. Matt Ryan, Davenport;
15. Curt Martin, Independence;
16. Terry Schlipman, Mendon, Ill.;
17. Terry Neal, Ely;
18. Todd Cooney, Des Moines;
19. Bryan Klein, Cedar Rapids;
20. Gary Russell, Blue Grass;
21. Herschel Roberts, East Moline, Ill.;
22. Keith Pratt, Mendon, Ill.;
23. Andy Nezworski, Buffalo;
24. Mike Murphy Jr., Colona, Ill.
1st heat (top two) - 1. Burgtorf; 2. Darbyshire.
2nd heat - 1. Nezworski; 2. Roberts.
3rd heat - 1. Merfeld; 2. Kammerer.
4th heat - 1. Murphy; 2. Frankel.
5th heat - 1. McLaughlin; 2. Aikey.
6th heat - 1. Warner; 2. Guss.
1st "B" feature (top three) - 1. Martin; 2. Toland; 3. Johnson.
2nd "B" feature - 1. Strassheim; 2. Schlipman; 3. Elston.
3rd "B" feature - 1. Pratt; 2. Ryan; 3. Russell.
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