FARLEY, Iowa — Frequently an also-ran in big-time Super Late Model events, Spencer Diercks had been waiting for a night like Monday at Farley Speedway when he’d be battling up front with the sport’s best drivers.
And while it took misfortune for Tennessee drivers Mike Marlar and Scott Bloomquist to help Diercks reach victory lane, the 21-year-old Davenport, Iowa, driver grabbed a career-richest $10,000 on a memorable night at the 3/8-mile oval.
Marlar crossed the finish line ahead of Diercks but was disqualified for being 30 pounds light at the scales, elevating Diercks to the top of the podium while Bloomquist fell by the wayside with a late-race flat tire.
“I hate it for Mike, honestly. He had the better hand and he was light over the scales, but you gotta be there at the end to take advantage, and we were,” Diercks said. “We’re standing here and it feels good.”
Marlar, who hadn’t added enough weight to meet the 2,350-pound requirement because he didn’t realize there wasn’t a fuel burnoff allowance, was dropped to the bottom of the 19-car rundown after leading laps 28-50 while Bloomquist, after leading the first 27 laps, ended up ninth.
Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., was moved up to second in the final rundown followed by Rodney Sanders of Happy, Texas, and home-state drivers Chad Simpson of Mount Vernon and Justin Kay of Wheatland.
Last year’s race winner Chris Simpson of Oxford, Iowa, started fourth but slapped the wall on the first lap to quickly fall from contention and pitted for fresh rubber before retiring on lap 19.
For Diercks, his first big victory was memorable in getting the chance to finish atop a field of cars that included several national touring drivers.
“The number (of cars) doesn’t show the caliber of cars that’s here, honestly,” Diercks said. “I mean, Scott’s won every race there is, and Marlar, he’s about the same, he’s probably one of the hottest drivers right now. He always up front. That car is just phenomenal and he’s just a phenomenal driver. I’ll never ever say anything bad about him.
“They raced me clean and I appreciate that. It was awesome. I got to race up there with ‘em, and we’ve been looking forward to that for a long time, let alone win. We were just trying to get out of here and get a good finish and go on to tomorrow (at West Liberty Raceway). But it was awesome. I can’t thank everybody enough that helps me.”
While Diercks inherited the victory, the outside front-row starter was right in the mix most of the race, dropping Bloomquist to second after Marlar took the lead mid-race, challenging Marlar up front and never running worse than third.
While tracking Bloomquist, “I was just trying to watch him and learn off of him, and whatever kind of line he was doing,” Diercks said. “I was trying to mimic and see what he was doing. To watch him and see where I was catching him and see where I was kind of fading, and trying to move around a little bit and see what I was doing.
“It started going towards the bottom and started getting rubbered up or whatever, and I was just trying to be smooth and be calm and relax and keep the tires under me and keep it straight. It paid off. I mean, Scott had a tire go down, and Marlar, he was light at the scales. We’ll take it.”
Marlar’s team was late arriving to the track while preparing a new XR1 Rocket Chassis and being caught in traffic, the Winfield, Tenn., driver said. He missed the drivers’ meeting where drivers were warned that the Corn Belt Clash tour doesn’t allow a pound-per-lap burnoff most tours do.
“Just one of them days,” Marlar said. He credited series director Cam Granger for his integrity in sticking to his guns, but disagrees with a rule that requires teams to quickly bolt lead weight on cars that might “fall off and hurt somebody.”
The loss sends Marlar back toward his next race — the North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. — and home with a bitter taste after a lengthy summer stretch of action that included a $20,000 runner-up finish Saturday at Cedar Lake Speedway’s USA Nationals in New Richmond, Wis.
“I was going to go to (Tuesday’s Corn Belt Clash event at) West Liberty, but this has got the wind out of my sails. I think I’ll just go on to Florence and give my guys a break.
“They’ve been working really hard and we’ve been gone now, it’ll be right at seven weeks when we get home, so we’ve really been racing hard. I’ve been beating on these guys pretty hard, and I’m going to give them a break after this. We’re all pretty bummed out.
“We’re tougher than this. It’s all good. We’ll be fine. I hate to lose on that way, but it just makes us stronger.”
The 50-lap feature was slowed by four cautions, the first for a slowing Chris Simpson on the third lap and again on lap 15 for a flat tire for Denny Eckrich. Brent Larson slowed for a lap-40 yellow and the final caution appeared when Bloomquist slowed on the backstretch with a blowout.
Notes: Most of the previous success for Spencer Diercks came in IMCA Late Model competition earlier in his career with victories at West Liberty, Southern Iowa and Davenport. … He credited Vinny Guliani and others at Outlaw Racing Southeast in Crossville, Tenn., for supplying his winning Longhorn Chassis, along with his crew for their hard work. “Man, we all go to work tomorrow morning … we don’t race for a living or whatever, so it’s hard to get in there and make sure everything’s done. We’re there until the wee hours of the morning, so it feels great.” … After his disqualification, Mike Marlar advocated for sport-wide consistency regarding fuel burnoff. “I thought this Dirt Late Model racing was pretty much universal on the rules,” he said, “but it ain’t universal enough.” … Sixth-place finisher Justin Kay drove a car carrying the No. 24 of Scott Fitzpatrick. … Fast qualifier Brian Birkhofer, who came out of retirement to compete, retired after six laps with body damage.
