Boone Speedway
Eckrich's Boone victory makes two in a row on tour
Andy Eckrich heads for his second straight Deery Brothers victory. (Barry Johnson)
BOONE, Iowa (May 30) — Andy Eckrich has started to make a hobby of dominating Deery Brothers Summer Series features. The Iowa City, Iowa, driver led all 40 laps in winning the Memorial Day event at Boone Speedway, a race that ended before 8:30 p.m. as the track rushed to beat threatening weather. | Slideshow
The $2,000 victory was Eckrich's second straight in the silver anniversary season of the IMCA-sanctioned tour and came on the heels of an equally impressive 50-lap, flag-to-flag run on May 17 at Marshalltown Speedway.
Defending champion Ray Guss Jr. of Milan, Ill., winner of the three previous Deery events at Boone, was second in his best outing of 2011. Tom Darbyshire of Morning Sun, Iowa, took over sole possession of the tour point lead with his third-place finish. Jeff Aikey of Waterloo, Iowa, and consolation race winner Terry Neal of Ely, Iowa, rounded out Monday evening’s top five.
Eckrich went to the top groove, held onto the front spot following a series of early restarts and caught up with the back of the pack on lap 26. Darbyshire ran second most of the way before giving way to Guss with five laps to go. Guss used lapped traffic to catch up but couldn’t get any closer than Eckrich’s back bumper.
Notes: Eckrich's Barry Wright Race Car is sponsored by Precision Performance and Midwest Frame & Axle ... The win was the career third for Eckrich, the 2010 Deery rookie of the year. ... He's the first repeat winner in 2011. ... Mike Garland won the $250 Sunoco Race Fuels feature qualifier drawing. ... Among drivers failing to make the feature lineup: Matt Ryan, Chad Simpson, Justin Kay, Joe Zrostlik, Dale Hackwell Jr., Jason Hahne, Jay Johnson and Bryan Klein. ... The series resumes June 7 at Farley (Iowa) Speedway, where Eckrich won his first series event last August.
Deery Brothers @ Boone: (1) Andy Eckrich, (2) Ray Guss Jr., (3) Tom Darbyshire, (4) Jeff Aikey, (5) Terry Neal, (6) Mike Murphy Jr., (7) Darrel DeFrance, (8) Todd Cooney, (9) Tyler Bruening, (10) Justin Reed, (11) T.J. Criss, (12) Colby Springsteen, (13) Ryan Giles, (14) Matt Strassheim, (15) Kevin Sather, (16) Sam Halstead, (17) Charlie McKenna, (18) Nate Beuseling, (19) Luke Goedert, (20) Josh Most, (21) Kyle Wahlert, (22) Brian Harris, (23) Boone McLaughlin, (24) Mike Garland. Heat race winners (among 40 cars): Darbyshire, DeFrancs, Reed, Cooney. Consolation winners: Criss, Neal. Provisional starters: Beuseling, Halstead, Strassheim.
