West Liberty Raceway
Harris nips Eckrich for West Liberty victory
Brian Harris earned $2,000 for Thursday's victory at West Liberty. (Barry Johnson)
WEST LIBERTY, Iowa (July 7) — Brian Harris proved fastest coming out of the final turn, passing race-long leader Andy Eckrich to win Thursday’s Deery Brothers Summer Series feature at West Liberty Raceway.
Eckrich had drawn the outside front row start and checked out early in the IMCA Late Model tour 35-lapper. Ray Guss Jr. gave chase before giving way to Harris, who slowly reeled in the home track favorite following a caution with 12 laps to go.
The white flag was out when Harris finally drew even. The frontrunners traded some paint before Harris made his turn four pass on the high line. Eckrich finished a very close second in the sprint to the stripe.
The victory paid $2,000 and was the career fifth for Harris. Guss, Tyler Bruening and Kevin Kile completed the top five.
Kile’s run came in his first Deery Series main event appearance. He and sixth place finisher Terry Neal both came out of consolation races, advancing 12 and 10 positions, respectively.
Eckrich, the top driver in series point standings, was catching up with the back of the field just 10 laps into the contest when the first caution came out. Defending Deery champion Guss did his best to keep the pressure on, then saw Harris speed by to contend.
Harris’ second tour win of the season couldn’t have been much more different than his first: He’d led 47 of 50 circuits in topping the silver anniversary series opener at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway on April 2.
The 10th of 18 dates on the 2011 series schedule is July 20 at Quad City Speedway in East Moline, Ill. That race had been rained out and rescheduled from April 17.
Deery Brothers @ West Liberty: (1) Brian Harris, (2) Andy Eckrich, (3) Ray Guss Jr., (4) Tyler Bruening, (5) Kevin Kile, (6) Terry Neal, (7) Tom Darbyshire, (8) Tom Goble, (9) Joel Callahan, (10) Mike Klinkhammer, (11) Tommy Elston, (12) Stephan Kammerer, (13) Colby Springsteen, (14) Matt Ryan, (15) Nate Beuseling, (16) Mike Murphy Jr., (17) Dale Stolte, (18) Nick Marolf, (19) Darrel DeFrance, (20) Charlie McKenna, (21) Jay Johnson, (22) Mike Garland, (23) Jeff Guengerich. (24) Justin Reed. Heat race winners (among 38 cars): Callahan, Bruening, Goble, Johnson. Consolation winners: Kammerer, Bueseling. Provisional starters: Marolf, Murphy, DeFrance, McKenna.
