Anthony Ainslie (Columbus Junction, IA) -- A new face made it to victory lane Friday night as the Haulin’ with Hoker Trucking Super Late Models East Series made their return to C J Speedway.
The high-banked, 4/10 mile oval in Columbus Junction, Iowa played host to round 8 of the season for the Haulin’ with Hoker Trucking East Series and was the sight of the 2nd annual Tony Stewart Tribute. A field of 24 cars filled the pits at the Louisa County Fairgrounds for a Friday night under the lights.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Ruefer
Hometown Favorite Derrick Stewart started his night taking the top qualifier spot after turning in a lap of 18.923 seconds. The night’s three heat races were won by Iowans Luke Petska, Bryan Harris and Jonathan Brauns.
When the field returned to the speedway for the 30-lap main event, Derrick Stewart continued his dominance as he jumped to the lead on the opening lap and proceeded to run away with the show.
An intense battle for second, third and fourth went on behind Stewart as Luke Goedert, Chad Holladay and Jeff Aikey battled for position and valuable points in the championship standings.
Bad luck would strike Goedert as he got into the outside wall on the front stretch while he ran second with only 11 laps remaining. This would be the race’s only caution of the event. The Guttenberg, Iowa driver would end up finishing 19th.
In the closing laps, Stewart continued to pull away from the field. Chad Holladay did all he could to run him down, but no one was denying Stewart. The Ainsworth, Iowa driver led all 30 laps to capture his first ever Haulin’ with Hoker Trucking East Series. The win made Stewart the 45th different winner all-time with the series.
Chad Holladay put on a strong second-place finish while Jeff Aikey took third. Point Leader Andy Eckrich came in fourth, and Jason Hahne rounded out the top five.
The Haulin’ with Hoker Trucking East Series will return to action on Saturday, June 10th when the tour makes its first of 2 visits to the big half-mile West Liberty Raceway in West Liberty, Iowa.
As for the Malvern Bank West Series, they are back in action on June 3rd for the Ray Houck Memorial at the Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa.
RESULTS
Hoker Trucking A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 43-Derrick Stewart[1]; 2. 32C-Chad Holladay[4]; 3. 77-Jeff Aikey[2]; 4. 56-Andy Eckrich[5]; 5. 76H-Jason Hahne[6]; 6. 07-Matt Ryan[8]; 7. 99L-Jeff Larson[17]; 8. 22-Charlie McKenna[13]; 9. 98-Jason Rauen[14]; 10. 99-Luke Pestka[11]; 11. 42-Fred Remley[19]; 12. 58-Dave Eckrich[20]; 13. 91U-Gabe Umbarger[18]; 14. 15C-Curt Schroeder[10]; 15. 74-Ron Boyse[16]; 16. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[21]; 17. 93-Jay Johnson[15]; 18. 32-Curtis Glover[22]; 19. 44-Luke Goedert[3]; 20. 25B-Brian Harris[12]; 21. 45-Curt Martin[9]; 22. 91-Michael Guldenpfenning[23]; 23. 22B-Jonathan Brauns[7]; 24. K1-Kyle Krampe[24]
Ideal Ready Mix Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Luke Pestka[1]; 2. 45-Curt Martin[2]; 3. 43-Derrick Stewart[6]; 4. 93-Jay Johnson[3]; 5. 98-Jason Rauen[4]; 6. 42-Fred Remley[7]; 7. 74-Ron Boyse[5]; 8. K1-Kyle Krampe[8]
Ideal Ready Mix Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 25B-Brian Harris[1]; 2. 15C-Curt Schroeder[2]; 3. 56-Andy Eckrich[4]; 4. 32C-Chad Holladay[5]; 5. 77-Jeff Aikey[6]; 6. 99L-Jeff Larson[3]; 7. 99D-Darrel DeFrance[7]; 8. 32-Curtis Glover[8]
Ideal Ready Mix Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 22B-Jonathan Brauns[2]; 2. 44-Luke Goedert[4]; 3. 07-Matt Ryan[3]; 4. 76H-Jason Hahne[5]; 5. 91U-Gabe Umbarger[1]; 6. 58-Dave Eckrich[7]; 7. 22-Charlie McKenna[6]; 8. 91-Michael Guldenpfenning[8]
Qualifying 1: 1. 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:18.923[5]; 2. 77-Jeff Aikey, 00:18.938[17]; 3. 22-Charlie McKenna, 00:19.075[19]; 4. 74-Ron Boyse, 00:19.106[10]; 5. 32C-Chad Holladay, 00:19.163[1]; 6. 76H-Jason Hahne, 00:19.167[7]; 7. 98-Jason Rauen, 00:19.206[23]; 8. 56-Andy Eckrich, 00:19.245[18]; 9. 44-Luke Goedert, 00:19.296[22]; 10. 93-Jay Johnson, 00:19.302[15]; 11. 99L-Jeff Larson, 00:19.336[11]; 12. 07-Matt Ryan, 00:19.364[24]; 13. 45-Curt Martin, 00:19.371[16]; 14. 15C-Curt Schroeder, 00:19.444[12]; 15. 22B-Jonathan Brauns, 00:19.464[2]; 16. 99-Luke Pestka, 00:19.486[13]; 17. 25B-Brian Harris, 00:19.627[9]; 18. 91U-Gabe Umbarger, 00:19.652[6]; 19. 42-Fred Remley, 00:19.709[4]; 20. 99D-Darrel DeFrance, 00:19.806[20]; 21. 58-Dave Eckrich, 00:19.965[8]; 22. 32-Curtis Glover, 00:20.456[21]; 23. 91-Michael Guldenpfenning, 00:20.890[14]; 24. K1-Kyle Krampe, 00:20.900[3]