Notebook: Flannagan bounces back from first-week troubles for IMCA Modified win

CEDAR RAPIDS — The IMCA Modified main event was the headliner on Saturday night at Independence Motor Speedway, wrapping up the night's racing program. So when Patrick Flannagan pulled into Victory Lane, they didn't have to rush through his interview or winner's photo.

So the Cedar Rapids driver celebrated in his typical boisterous style, and made the track photographer wait for his family to cross the track to be included.

He'd earned the win by holding off the likes of Zach Less, Ronn Lauritzen and Scott Hogan, but more than the work on the track, his win was the most satisfying because of the work he and his crew had to do off the track. After a wreck the week before in Farley, essentially the whole front end of his car had to be rebuilt — and it was in pieces days before his win.

'For a thrown-together car that was basically bent in half last week, yeah, it was a good weekend,' Flannagan said. 'It was really satisfying because we were up til midnight the night before, we got to Farley an hour late to try the car out and had problems. Then we got (to Independence) on Saturday and it just worked.'

Flannagan wanted to get that car — a Kazzbuilt Chassis — back on track so badly because he'd found a rhythm with it by the end of 2015. He has a new Shaw Chassis as well — which he ran and finished third with last week at Benton County Speedway — but wants more out of the Kazzbuilt.

Ultimately, though, he said it's more about what you do with the car than what kind it is.

'But I wanted to get this one back out because it was running really well before it got wrecked. I wanted to get this car working again and make that (Shaw) car my backup, with this one my primary,' Flannagan said. 'But Iron is iron. If you get it sprung right and percentaged out (on the scales) — you can make anything work as long as you make the right choices.'

Add to the win Saturday in Indee a fifth-place finish at Benton County Speedway on Sunday — and most importantly, being able to roll the car on the trailer undamaged — and the first weekend of points racing was a boon for Flannagan and Co.

He ran second in his heat race in Vinton, and was in the lead group battling for the win in the main event, but a guess the wrong way on an adjustment kept him from more seriously challenging eventual winner Tom Berry Jr. for the win. The fast lane in that main event was around the high side, and Flannagan was set up to run the bottom.

Flannagan gave a big grin after he chastised himself for the wrong adjustment, though, because even if that was a little frustrating, it's not like he had to fix anything because of it. And now he doesn't have to spend all week working on the car just to make it raceable.

'I chose adjustments on the car because I thought I was going to run on the bottom, but the top was faster and it made the car too violent on the high side, so the car was bouncing,' Flannagan said. 'But coming out of it and not having to do any work on the car is great.

'It's time to clean the shop, put everything away, then get this car ready and get ahead on some other stuff, and then spend some time with the family. We didn't get to do much of that last week.'

OREGON'S BERRY GETS FIRST WIN IN IOWA

It's a widely held belief that if a Modified racer wants to test him or herself against the best in IMCA, Iowa is the place to do it.

With a ton of places to race and highly accomplished drivers competing every week, several out-of-state drivers have taken to setting up camp in Iowa for the summer to race. Arizona drivers Ricky Thornton Jr. and Tim Ward are doing it, Brookfield Mo. driver Hunter Marriott has for several years. Mooresville, N.C. driver Kyle Strickler has in previous years.

The latest is Medford, Ore. driver Tom Berry Jr., who is staying with Marshalltown Speedway promoter Toby Kruse in Boone, and testing his mettle against the best in IMCA. He took a step toward proving it on Sunday, getting his first IMCA Modified win in Iowa at Benton County Speedway in Vinton.

'I just came out here, because, mainly, the tracks are 100 percent better. The tracks are smoother, there's better competition, so you run better at big shows. Honestly, it's better racing,' Berry said after his win Sunday. 'I've picked up 10, 15 sponsors since I've been here. It's just awesome. Everyone is super nice and we have a good time out here.

'At home, nobody drives aggressive because I think they're all kind of scared and they're not as good. Here, it's balls to the wall right out of the gate.'

Berry comes from a racing family. His grandfather was a world record holder in Blown Jet Boat drag racing in the late 1960s, and his dad Tom Berry Sr., was a national AMA Flattrack racer for 20 years. Now the family is invested in Tom Jr. and his Modified racing efforts, which include chassis-building in addition to being a driver.

Winning in Iowa was big enough, but doing so on his own Berry Racing Enterprises Chassis was the cherry on top.

'One thing that the win means to me is I built my own car from the ground up. Everything is custom-built, so that just means the world to me to win, especially in Iowa, with the competition that's here,' Berry said. 'I know I can run with the best because of the competition, and that's what we were worried about. Do we buy a chassis, do we keep building them? Now we're pretty happy.'

OLSON IN RARE COMPANY

Cedar Rapids racer Kyle Olson got wins in IMCA Sport Mod at Independence Motor Speedway and Benton County Speedway in Vinton, and joins just six other racers to win at both tracks on the same weekend in the division's history.

IMCA Executive Secretary Ryan Clark said Olson joined Jim Buhlman, Danny Dvorak (three times), Chris Luloff, Austin Kaplan (twice), Tyler Droste and Kyle's cousin Tony Olson (twice, both in 2015) as drivers to accomplish the feat. No other driver in history — in any division — had earned a weekend sweep of points races at Indee and Vinton as early in the season as Olson did this weekend.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com