Upper Iowa Speedway
Jay Johnson gets first Deery victory in 18 years
DECORAH, Iowa (July 15) — The first-ever winner of a Deery Brothers Summer Series event was the winner of the first-ever IMCA Late Model tour feature at Upper Iowa Speedway. Jay Johnson of West Burlington, Iowa, led all 40 laps Wednesday, taking the $2,000 top prize ahead of Terry Neal of Ely, Iowa, and Jason Frankel of Quincy, Ill. Reigning series champion Boone McLaughlin of Mediapolis, Iowa, repeated his fourth-place performance from the previous night at Fayette County Speedway and Matt Strassheim of Burlington was fifth.
Locked in the preferred lower line, Johnson ran in front of McLaughlin for a handful of laps before the fifth starting Neal took over the second spot. The race was slowed by just two cautions but the lead cars never caught up with the back of the field.
Stephan Kammerer was on the move and into fourth place when a shock broke and sent him into the wall, bringing out an early yellow. Mechanical problems soon after forced Ray Guss Jr., from the field, relegating him to 19th place on the night and dropping him from second to third in the series point standings. The other caution came on lap 18.
Frankel’s top-three finish put him back in second in the points race. Point leader Jeff Aikey was seventh.
Johnson, the 1989 series winner, won the inaugural series event at 34 Raceway, back on April 11, 1987. His 11th and most recent victory on the tour had been Sept. 14, 1991, also at West Burlington.
Upper Iowa Speedway became the 40th different track to host one of the 341 Deery events in 22-plus seasons.
Deery Brothers @ Upper Iowa: (1) Jay Johnson, (2) Terry Neal, (3) Jason Frankel, (4) Boone McLaughlin, (5) Matt Strassheim, (6) Rob Toland, (7) Jeff Aikey, (8) Ryan Giles, (9) T.J. Criss, (10) Darrel DeFrance, (11) Tom Darbyshire, (12) Charlie McKenna, (13) Matt Ryan, (14) Bryan Klein, (15) Justin Kay, (16) Tyler Bruening, (17) Bobby Hansen, (18) Joe Zrostlik, (19) Ray Guss Jr., (20) Stephan Kammerer, (21) Dale Hackwell Jr., (22) Luke Merfeld, (23) Greg Kastli. Heat race winners: Strassheim, Guss, Frankel.
