East Moline Speedway
With rainout, Guss retains Deery Brothers crown
It was more wet than dramatic, but Ray Guss Jr. of Milan, Ill., repeated his championship on IMCA's Deery Brothers Summer Series over the weekend.
Sunday’s series finale at Quad City Speedway was rained out and won't be rescheduled, meaning Guss edged Andy Eckrich of Iowa City, Iowa, by six points. Top prize for the silver anniversary series title is $5,000. Eric Sanders of Moline, Ill., secured Rookie of the Year honors.
A dozen drivers won features over the course of the 2011 series, the fourth time in its history the tour has seen that many different winners. Jeff Aikey, Matt Bailey, Nate Beuseling, Tyler Bruening, Tom Darbyshire, Eckrich, Guss, Brian Harris, Mike Murphy Jr., Terry Neal, Matt Ryan and Colby Spring�steen all visited victory lane. In all, 130 drivers competed at one or more of the 17 Deery events held this season.
Saturday's preliminaries at Quad City came off without a hitch as Eckrich captured the Race of Champions. Eckrich started on the pole and led all 20 laps for the $800 IMCA Late Model victory, while Terry Neal held off Justin Reed for second.
Reed had started ninth. Ray Guss Jr. passed eight cars to end in fourth and Tyler Bruening rounded out the top five.
The Race of Champions field was comprised of 11 drivers who won Deery features or IMCA track titles this season, plus top rookies and a pair of promoter’s provisional starters.
The night's heat race winners were Gary Webb, Neal, Reed and Jay Johnson.
Race of Champions: (1) Andy Eckrich, (2) Terry Neal, (3) Justin Reed, (4) Ray Guss Jr., (5) Tyler Bruening, (6) Gary Webb, (7) Colby Springsteen, (8) Darrel DeFrance, (9) Nate Beuseling, (10) Travis Denning, (11) Matt Ryan, (12) Jeff Aikey, (13) Eric Sanders.
