Boone Speedway
Springsteen's the boss in Deery victory at Boone
By Bill Martin
IMCA Late Models
Colby Springsteen heads for his first career Deery Brothers victory. (Barry Johnson)
BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 5) — A night with many firsts ended with Colby Springsteen in victory lane Monday at Boone Speedway. Springsteen led the last 10 laps in winning the Deery Brothers Summer Series feature, on opening night of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Cenex. | Slideshow
The $2,000 victory was Springsteen’s IMCA Late Model tour career first. He’d started third, dropped back as far as eighth, then took charge after race-long leader Justin Reed came up lame and second-running Terry Neal exited on a lap 41 caution.
“This is the first full year we’ve followed the series. I never thought we’d be able to come and win the first time in this event,” Springsteen admitted. “It’s awesome.”
Kevin Sather chased Springsteen to the checkers and pole starter Dale Hackwell Jr. was third. Darrell DeFrance scored hard charger honors in the 23rd Super Nationals appearance of his career, advancing a dozen spots to round out the top four.
Andy Eckrich was fifth and now trails Ray Guss Jr. by three points in the race for the silver anniversary series championship.
The two-time defending Super Nationals champion, Guss qualified for the main event by winning his consolation race and moved up nine places to eighth.
Reed started outside the front row and checked out on the field from the initial green, leading by a full straightaway just seven laps into the 50-lapper.
Hackwell, then Charlie McKenna gave chase but were hardly in the same time zone before the first caution, just before midway, erased Reed’s huge lead.
Reed continued to run in front while Sather and Neal worked their way to second and third, respectively. Springsteen was in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the restart that followed Reed’s mechanical misfortune and Neal’s exit.
“I was running fourth when I started thinking I’d try the bottom and then got passed by about five cars,” Springsteen said. “I thought the bottom was the way to go, like it was in the heat races, but it was a lot faster on top.”
Super Nationals: (1) Colby Springsteen, (2) Kevin Sather, (3) Dale Hackwell Jr., (4) Darrel DeFrance, (5) Andy Eckrich, (6) Charlie McKenna, (7) Ryan Griffith, (8) Ray Guss Jr., (9) Todd Cooney, (10) Ryan Giles, (11) Chad Cooney, (12) Luke Goedert, (13) Nate Bueseling, (14) Al Johnson, (15) Tyler Bruening, (16) Justin Reed, (17) Terry Neal, (18) Todd Malmstrom, (19) Mike Garland, (20) T.J. Criss, (21) Jason Hahne, (22) Jeff Aikey, (23) Tysus Pattee, (24) Richie Gustin. Heat race winners (among 38 cars): Beuseling, McKenna, Griffith, Sather, Goedert. Consolation winners: DeFrance, Guss. Provisional starters: Garland, Malmstrom, C. Cooney.
