Heskin Thwarts Brown's Sweep at Knoxville

The Knoxville Raceway used to have a rule that, except during the 360 Nationals, a driver could not compete in more than one division on a race night. Brian Brown is glad that rule is no longer enforced and on Saturday night he came up just short of sweeping the feature wins in both the 410's and the 360's at the famed oval.

The Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour had just run an event in Osborn, Missouri, on Friday night and with an open date on their schedule several of the drivers made the short trip north to make for a solid thirty-two car field in the 360 division. Jason Johnson, who was the ASCS National Tour point leader coming into the show at Osborn, started on the pole position of the 18-lap main event and when he immediately shot out to a big lead on the opening lap it looked as though this would be a race for second. However when Jamie Ball looped his car in turn two racing for second on the second lap the caution waved and brought the field back to the leader.

I had to wonder if Johnson was saying to himself "Nate Van Whooo....what?" as Nate Van Haaften blew by him on the inside of turns one and two on the restart. The young driver from the small town of Otley was a rocket as he drove away from Johnson and the race settled into some green flag action. Van Haaften maintained his advantage through lap ten before Johnson started to reel him back in and he was not the only one on the move. Brian Brown had started tenth and was working the low line of the multi-grooved surface to get up to third not far behind the lead duo. On lap fifteen Johnson powered back around Van Haaften for the lead and Brown pounced on the former leader as well to drop him back to third. There was no stopping Brown from there as he drove past Johnson in traffic a lap later and then executed the final two laps flawlessly to take the thrilling victory. Defending track champion Clint Garner was trying to keep pace with Brown and disposed of Johnson on the final lap to take second, Jeff Swindell came out of nowhere in those wild final laps to finish behind Johnson in fourth and Van Haaften would have to settle for the fifth position behind four very impressive drivers.

After some quick podium pictures in victory lane both Brown and Johnson climbed aboard their 410 rides and were ready for twenty more laps of action to wrap up the night. Two young drivers who are notoriously hard to catch if they start up front lined up in row one and it was Davey Heskin getting the jump on Bronson Maeschen to take the lead. Maeschen quickly dropped to fourth as the second row drivers Terry McCarl and Dusty Zomer entertained the crowd swapping the second position back and forth during the first six laps of the race. A hard crash involving Mike Moore in turn one put the race under red as the Safety Crew extinguished a fire under the hood and helped Moore scramble out of his used up race car uninjured.

On the restart Zomer locked down the second spot while Maeschen soon drove by McCarl for third and looked to return to the front of the field. As Heskin raced comfortably out front Maeschen challenged Zomer for second and much of the crowd was focused on the battle for fourth as Brian Brown went wheel-to-wheel with Terry McCarl. As Heskin charged under the white flag just a lap away from a dominating victory, Ryan Bunton slowed on the high side of turn two the victim of a flat right rear tire. The caution waved and the field was reset for a green-white-checkered finish with Heskin leading Masechen, Zomer, Brown and McCarl back to action.

It was evident who had the fastest car when the green flag waved as Brown drove by Zomer for third in turns one and two and then blew by Maeschen for second in turns three and four. Heskin was a sitting duck just waiting to be picked off on the final lap as Brown set him up in turns one and two and then had a big run on the leader heading down the back straightaway on the final lap. It was then that Heskin made the move of the night as he faked going low into turn three and then drove to the cushion where Brown had committed to make his move. It was either hit Heskin or hop the cushion and Brown chose the latter to preserve the runner-up position as Heskin earned his fourth career victory at Knoxville. Maeschen held down the third spot with Zomer and McCarl completing the top five.

Earlier in the night the 305 division started out the trio of main events with a 12-lap race that saw central Missouri driver J Kinder take the convincing win after taking the lead from Bob Hildreth on lap three. Omaha's Matthew Stelzer finished second, Larry Ball Jr. recovered from issues in his heat race to start ninth and finish third, the sprint car veteran Hildreth held on for fourth ahead of former IMCA Modified racer and now sprint car rookie Jake Strayer in fifth.

K-Ville Notes.......Other "visitors" in the 360 division besides Brown, Johnson and Swindell were Tony Bruce Jr. (7th), Logan Forler (13th), Zach Blurton (20th) and "Full Blown Chaos" Dustin Morgan (22nd). Brandon Hahn also made his Knoxville debut but did not qualify for the feature.....Jeff Mitrisin returned to sprint car racing tonight after a three-year absence that saw him racing an IMCA Late Model on the Deery Brothers Summer Series. Mitrisin drove the Wares Racing #10 to 18th tonight.....Young Tyler Groenendyk, another graduate of the IMCA Modified ranks, set quick time in the 360 division and then had to make a late pass of Russ Hall to get the final transfer spot out of the first heat. Groenendyk started eighth in the feature and finished ninth......Hall later won the B-Main, started 21st in the feature and raced his way up to tenth.....Last Saturday night's 360 feature winner Tony Shilling came up one position shy of transferring out of the B and was a spectator for tonight's feature.....California driver Cole Wood who appears to be a 360 regular at Knoxville this season suffered a flat tire and smacked the guardrail on a false start in the feature essentially ending his evening scored in 24th.....The 410 division had a couple of new faces as well with Pennsylvania native and current Lizton, Indiana, resident Jimmy Light as well as IRA competitor Brandon Thone of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Neither driver was able to take a qualifying lap though and both failed to transfer out of the B-Main......Mark Dobmeier qualified 23rd, but he and his crew then found some speed as he raced his way into the feature where he started 18th and finished in 8th......Attrition has a way of shrinking the 305 field and tonight was no different as sixteen of the twenty car field took the green flag for the feature. One of the division's top contenders Steve Breazeale struggled with mechanical woes all evening and Kevin Hetrick had the second heat race win in his grasp before his 305 motor scattered in turn one.....It was good to see Alan Zoutte in action now in a 305 that hopefully is a better fit for his racing budget. The second generation hometown driver finished seventh in the main event.

It was another spectacular night of racing at the Knoxville Raceway putting the cap on a long day as my father-in-law and I made our traditional trip to the Iowa High School Co-Ed State Track Meet in Des Moines during the day. Congratulations to the Mount Pleasant Panthers as for the second year in a row both the boys and the girls won the Class 3A Shuttle Hurdle Relay. Also a tip of the hat to the Knoxville Panthers as their boys team won the 4 x 400 Meter Relay in Class 3A.

A big week of racing lies ahead with special event action getting under way Tuesday night in Farley with the Deery Brothers Summer Series and short-track racing continues all the way through Memorial Day Monday. I am betting that defending Super Fan champion Kevin Babcock will take in seven straight nights of racing. How many will you attend? Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!

Modifieds and Sport Mods Serve Up Thrillers At Osky

Finally! It was an absolutely beautiful night for racing in Oskaloosa Wednesday night as the Southern Iowa Speedway hosted its fourth night of action in a season that has been plagued by cold and wet weather thus far. A large crowd was on hand with some wearing just shorts and t-shirts, a far cry from two weeks ago when you wanted to wear everything you could find and then huddle up in a sleeping bag if at all possible, and there were solid car counts in each the four primary racing divisions.

Eighteen IMCA Sport Mods would take to the track for their 15-lap main event with the veteran Bill Livezy Jr. lining up next to the youngster Ryan Fullenkamp on the front row and youth was served as Fullenkamp darted to the lead at the drop of the green. A caution for a two-car spin involving Tyler Heckart and Rob Wilsey on lap five brought the field back to Fullenkamp, but on the restart he again opened up a sizeable advantage. Carter VanDenBerg and Curtis VanDerWal soon broke away from the pack and began to reel in the leader and another driver on the move was Brett Lowry.

Lowry just plain looked slow in his heat race finishing outside of the top five and missing the invert, but he and his crew had obviously made some changes before feature time because he was quickly advancing toward the front after starting in the sixth row. With five laps to go Lowry slipped by VanDerWal for third and while VanDenBerg closed in on Fullenkamp, Lowry was gaining on both to set up a three car race for the lead over the final three laps. Lowry challenged low going into turn one only to have Fullenkamp close the door and with VanDenBerg working the higher groove he pulled nearly even with the leader exiting turn four racing to the white flag. Again Fullenkamp sensed where the challenge was coming from as he pinched off VanDenBerg’s chosen line and as the young man from Eldon completed the final lap to score his first win at Osky Lowry was able to drive under VanDenBerg to finish in second in this crowd-pleaser. VanDerWal was not far back in fourth, Jason McDaniel finished fifth and after seeing a win snatched from his grasp last Wednesday night Tyler Gross took sixth. Livezy who has returned to racing after taking a few years off seems to be finding his rhythm again taking seventh and Glenn Gladson Jr. was eighth in his first appearance of the season here.

The 15-lap Hobby Stock headliner got off to a wild start when outside front row starter Travis Bunnell got loose coming out of turn two on the opening lap and then spun within the field going down the back stretch. Somehow everybody missed him and Bunnell kept his car in motion so the race stayed green with rookie driver Jason See out front. An early restart saw Dale Porter drive past See for the lead on lap three and the race was slowed again following lap six when Bunnell’s engine went up in flames. Mike Hughes got one heck of a restart here as he would hold the lead as the field raced under Ryan Bergeson’s waving green flag and, while Porter was able to keep pace with Hughes over the remaining laps, he could not mount a serious challenge. It would be the third straight win in three appearances at Osky for Hughes who also won the Shootout at Knoxville in late April. Porter would edge out his teammate Dustin Griffiths for the runner-up dollars while Bill Bonnett and Jamie Songer would complete the top five.

It was just like old times at Osky during the Stock Car feature as Brad Pinkerton and Zack Vanderbeek pulled away from the rest of the field during the early laps. Jeff Joldersma was on the fly though moving up from eighth to third before clipping a track tire and going for a spin exiting turn four on lap five. On the restart Vanderbeek drove into the lead and Pinkerton’s race would come to an end when he slowed out of second on lap ten. Bob Lynch was looking good in his first Osky showing of the season and was running fifth when his car suddenly slowed with four laps remaining. With some of his top contenders now sidelined there was no stopping “The Z-Man” from cruising to his second win of the season here in three starts. Nathan Wood remained consistent here finishing in second although I am sure that he would like to get a feature win trophy soon. Jason Cook made a late charge to finish in third after starting thirteenth, local favorite Kris Walker would hold down fourth while Shane Richardson made the trip up from Morning Sun payoff with a fifth place finish.

The IMCA Modifieds had a solid field of sixteen cars in attendance although one of them, Richie Gustin was unable to compete as his crate motor sounded a bit rough during hot laps and he had to be pushed back to the pits from the staging area prior to his heat race. Oskaloosa was approximately the halfway point of Jeff Waterman’s road trip from Quincy, Illinois, to Spencer for Thursday’s Hawkeye Dirt Tour event so he decided to do some racing here as well leading the first ten laps of this 18-lap feature. Todd Shute and Jacob Murray were racing for second behind him and when Murray went too high in turn two and that allowed Shute to put his focus on catching Waterman. On lap eleven Waterman and Shute raced under the flagstand side-by-side too close to call and on the following lap Shute eased ahead of Waterman by a car-length. Murray was not about to give in though and after getting past Waterman for second with three laps remaining he went back up to the high side in an effort to chase down Shute. The strategy worked as Murray drove past Shute up top coming off of turn four to take the white flag and he was able to fight off the comeback attempt on the final lap to take the victory. Shute would have to settle for another bridesmaid role at Osky while Waterman has some spending money for Thursday after finishing third. Cayden Carter would take the fourth position, Adam Larson was fifth in his 2013 debut at Oskaloosa and Murray’s teammate Kyle Wahlert finished in sixth.

The Iowa Sportsman Series drew only five cars and while the Sport Compact count was up to eight, three of them were eliminated in a first lap crash during the heat race. It is truly the Chandler/Whalen division here with Merv Chandler taking the win again tonight followed by John Whalen and Bill Whalen Jr. Trent Orwig and Shawn Cooney were the other two cars in the main event.

Scott Watson auctioned off several items donated by the racers and the drivers went through the stands to collect money for injured Modified driver Mark Widmar with the total raised for the night being $2,497.65. That was good news, but the best news of the night was that Mark is expected to be released from the hospital this Friday! The fundraising will continue next Wednesday night when the IMCA Late Model division joins the program again at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Hope to see you there!

"Doctor Bob" Will Be Missed By Many

It may take the listeners of KILJ Radio in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a few days, but they will soon sense a void in their day. Actually for those who listen to the southeast Iowa stations on a regular basis, that sense of loss will begin tomorrow about the time that "Doctor Bob", Bobby Mattocks would sign on for his daily time slot. That beautifully perfect voice was silenced today in a fatal car accident and while the listeners of the radio station will miss his news reports, community announcements and his vast knowledge of music, those who were lucky enough to know the man will grieve his loss for a long time to come.

I first got to know Bob when he started at KILJ in the early 1990's as the voice on the other end of the telephone engineering the broadcasts as I did the play-by-play occasionally for high school basketball games. Then a year later I became friends with him as he helped Barry Johnson and I put together a weekly radio show called "The Midwest Motorsports Report". Bobby didn't know much about racing but he would learn something each week because he took great pride in producing a good show and he especially loved to pick out the bumper music since it gave him an opportunity to sneak in snippets of his beloved rock and roll on the station that at that time featured a country format.

My greatest memory of Bob though will be his work on "The Hot Spot Middle School News", a project that he and I worked together on for a few years in conjunction with Lori Mueller's sixth grade classes at the Mount Pleasant Middle School. I would go to the school for a few weeks working with the kids on how to put together scripts, "sell advertising" and then write commercials.  Then for four or five straight days we would bring a group of five or six students to the radio station to record their show, and that is when "Dr. Bob" would shine. First he would show the kids around the studio and tell them about his job and he would then work with the kids to put together their radio program. Keep in mind that he would be doing this in the middle of his own on-air time slot meaning that he would have to scramble to get a bunch of things pre-recorded before this kids arrived, and he would then have to play catch up after they left. But first he would take the time to apply his editing magic to what the students had just done to make sure that they sounded their absolute best and the show was always a big hit with the listeners. Bob loved his job and loved teaching these kids a little bit about what he did each day, and those kids loved every minute they spent with him.

Those kids are between the ages of 28 and 32 now and when they hear the news of Bob's untimely death I hope they think back to that special day of school when they had the chance to spend some time with, and learn from one the nicest guys that they will have ever had the chance to meet.

Rest In Peace Bob, you will be truly missed by many.....

 

Mike Hughes Wins As Hobby Stocks Are The Headliner At Oskaloosa

A few drops of rain about an hour before race time made the big half-mile Southern Iowa Speedway lightning fast Wednesday night as the track hosted its third straight weekly program of the season. On the marquee tonight was the Hobby Stock division as they would run a draw/re-draw show paying $400-to-win the 20-lap main event.

First up on the list of five features though were the Stock Cars and despite the threatening weather a solid field of twenty-one lined up to take the green for eighteen laps. Todd Reitzler would lead the first two trips around the speedway before giving way to Jason Minnehan who had pulled down from Churdan for the second time this season. While the leader pulled away the racing was intense for second with as many as six cars, lead by Randy Killen, running in a tight pack. The only caution of the race waved with three laps to go when local driver Donnie Pearson suffered mechanical issues and while under caution the hottest driver in the division this year, Damon Murty had to give up his fifth-place position and pull to the infield due to the excessive heat in his motor.

Once back to green Minnehan was again left alone while the battle for positions two through six continued and in victory lane Jason noted that this was only his second night out for the season due to the crazy weather in the northwest quarter of the state. Killen did a great job holding back his challengers to finish in the second spot, Nathan Wood advanced two more positions during those final three laps to take third, Jeff Joldersma made his first visit to Osky this year and came from twelfth to fourth while Reitzler completed the top five.

The IMCA Modified car count was down to twelve tonight and after Scott Dickey shucked a driveshaft while running away with the first heat race, the starting field for the 18-lap main event would be eleven. The track was smooth and fast, just the way that “Hollywood Style” Brandon Banks likes it and the second generation driver from Washington established a blistering pace. By lap eight the attrition began as the driver who had chased Banks in second for most of the distance Tyler Vandekamp slowed with a smoking motor in turn four. Three laps later it was Todd Shute who was running second before he too suffered mechanical issues and pulled off the race track and while under that caution Cayden Carter also pulled his Modified to the pits.

On the restart last week’s winner Jesse Sobbing was now in a position to challenge and he drove past Banks to take the lead on lap twelve. Jacob Murray also got by Banks to move to second and he appeared to be gaining just a bit on the leader before he spun in turn two with two laps remaining. Nobody could touch Sobbing on the green-white-checkers restart and the driver from Glenwood put his crate motor package in victory here for the second week in a row. During the interview announcer Tony Paris asked about how he got there and after noting that some pretty good cars had dropped out Sobbing quipped, “If that’s how truck motors run, I’ll keep on running my truck motor.” An obvious rebuttal to Richie Gustin’s rant on XSAN Tuesday night where he referred to the crates as “truck motors”. Brandon Banks would hold down the second spot followed by Bill Gibson, Jacob Murray and Tyler Groenendyk.

The Sport Mod count was up near twenty again tonight although only sixteen were on the track for the A-Main. Corey VanZandt showed tremendous improvement tonight winning his heat race and then pacing the feature field for the first two laps before Tyler Gross drove by for the lead. As Gross pulled away the man to watch was Curtis VanDerWal who was steadily picking his way toward the front after starting tenth, but by the time that he got to second Gross had a full straightaway advantage. VanDerWal did his best to cut into that lead and as the white flag waved he still had more than ten car-lengths to makeup. As Gross raced into turn three for one final time A.J. Johnson blew a motor at the flagstand and was coasting around the bottom of turns one and two as Gross exited turn four looking for the checkered flag. What he found instead was the yellow despite the fact that Johnson was now in turn two and coasting around the bottom.

Track rules dictate a green-white-checkered restart in this scenario so Gross now had to try to hold back VanDerWal and the others for two more laps. Curtis got a nice restart and drove around Gross on the high side entering turn one. Tyler stayed on the gas hard, but could not make it stick and VanDerWal would then drive away over the final lap and a half to take the win. The hometown driver was gracious in victory lane knowing that he was the second-place car on this night if not for the late caution. Gross would have to settle for being the runner-up, Tony Johnson came from deep in the field to finish third and Brett Lowry took fourth ahead of Ben Kates.

It was the Chandler and Whalen show in the Sport Compacts again as Merv Chandler won ahead of John Whalen and Bill Whalen Jr. in the six car field. Alex Sampson, Matt Moore and Shawn Cooney followed.

The Hobby Stocks closed out the night in fine fashion including a four-wide parade lap to salute the fans who had risked the rainy forecast and the ominous looking radar to come out and enjoy another fun night of mid-week racing here in Oskaloosa. Craig Brown would move to the lead from his front row start as the field primarily settled into single-file formation as the higher groove was fast on both ends of the speedway. One driver on the move though was Mike Hughes who had started on the inside of the fourth row. Cautions on lap six and lap fourteen with the ensuing double-wide restarts helped Hughes make his way to the front and he made the pass for the lead with five laps remaining. There was no catching him from there as Hughes put his “old car with a new body” into victory lane for the third time in three race nights for the #11 in 2013. Brown would fight off Kevin Fee to finish in second, Dustin Griffiths would race up to fourth from thirteenth and Jamie Songer nailed down the fifth position.

As always a tip of the hat to Mike VanGenderen and his entire staff for putting on an efficient and entertaining show that concluded at 10:15 and I hope to be back in the stands here again next Wednesday night.

No racing for me this weekend due to other commitments, but I do hope that you can get out and support the speedway of your choice. For several tracks this will be their long awaited season opener so get on out and enjoy!  

Cayden Carter Opens Hawkeye Dirt Tour With A Win At Vinton

It is fitting that the opening race for the IMCA Modified Hawkeye Dirt Tour is held at the birthplace of the division, the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. Not only does the track always draw a large and enthusiastic crowd, but the racy little quarter-mile also provides for plenty of action and, more often than not, a little bit of controversy as well. And that is why there is always a large and enthusiastic crowd and so on and so on.......Tuesday night was vintage Vinton.

Twenty-seven Modifieds were on hand, a few less than I expected for such a perfect weather night, however with the Tour's new policy of taking a driver's best ten finishes out of the scheduled thirteen events some drivers must have decided to skip this one. There were a few long distance travelers though including Matt Bonine from the southwest Iowa town of Onawa, Josh Rodotzke out of Sanborn, Minnesota, and defending race champion Jeff Waterman who made the tow up from Quincy, Illinois. With hometown driver Jerry Dedrick scratching early and after Vern Jackson popped a motor in his heat race it was decided that all remaining twenty-five cars would start the 30-lap main event.

Patrick Flannagan and Cayden Carter would draw the front row and on the first try at a start Ronn Lauritzen and Zach Less would spin in turn one while Waterman would drive off the top of turn three bringing his bid to repeat to an early ending. The field was turned loose again and it was Carter racing to the lead using the extreme top line around the speedway, especially in turn one where the slightest mis-calculation would have sent him off the track. Flannagan was racing hard in second trying to hold off the row two starters Scott Hogan and Richie Gustin until the caution waved on lap four when Bonine spun in turn two. That high speed chase involving the top four would continue following the restart until lap ten when Ed Thomas would coast to a halt exiting turn two.

The Delaware double-file restart would see Flannagan choose the outside position on the first double row with Richie Gustin to his inside. As they charged into turn one Gustin nosed ahead and then drove up the track in turn two to shut the door on Flannagan and take over the second spot with his sights now set on the leader Cayden Carter. As they raced through turns three and four on what would have been lap sixteen Gustin pulled alongside Carter only to see the caution wave before he could beat him to the stripe as Jake Bowman had gone off the top of turn three. The race went back to green, but for just two more laps before Kyle Krampe stopped in turn three and it was on the next restart that controversy prevailed.

Gustin now chose the preferred outside position of the first double row with Flannagan to his inside and when the green flag waved Flannagan drove hard into turn one and went up the racetrack in turn two forcing Gustin to back off and allowing J.D. Auringer to slip by them both into second. Ever the competitor, Gustin charged back and drove his car deep in to turn three where he either hooked a rut or turned to the right, only Richie will know, and made contact that sent Flannagan spinning sideways in front of the field while Gustin drove over the top of the banking. Several cars wadded up around Flannagan with the rides of Jimmy Gustin and Joel Bushore suffering substantial damage as Richie Gustin drove back up onto the race track and headed toward the front of the field for the restart.

The call came down from HDT officials though that Gustin would be sent to the rear for rough driving and he stopped on the front stretch to ask for clarification. Not satisfied with the explanation Richie then drove his car into victory lane, climbed out and waved to the crowd to a mixture of cheers and boos. This took me back several years to a time when scenarios like this seemed to play out quite often giving the fans something to talk about during the week while they anxiously waited for the upcoming race night to see what would happen next. After brief visits with IMCA President Brett Root and track promoter Mick Trier, Gustin then pulled around behind the judge’s stand as the field was set to go back to racing.

Auringer had started in the eighth row and had used to lower groove to work his way toward the front so it was no surprise when he was able to pull even with Carter and even poke his nose ahead at the stripe to officially lead lap nineteen. Cayden fought back to regain the advantage on the following lap and held it until lap twenty-three when Jacob Murray slowed going into turn one. This caution was well-timed for Racer Hulin and Colt Mather though as just after it waved they spun together in turn three while racing for fourth. On the restart Scott Hogan was able to slip past Auringer for second and while Carter flirted with disaster entering turn one at the very tip top of the track, he hit his mark perfectly those final seven laps to take the $1,000 win. Hogan and Auringer ran second and third, Mather established himself as a Tour title contender in fourth and Mark Schulte made steady progress from a ninth row starting spot to finish fifth. A rookie to the division in 2013 Racer Hulin finished sixth, Rodotzke was seventh, Mike VanGenderen started next to Schulte and finished eighth, Ronn Lauritzen came from row twelve to take ninth and Jake Bowman recovered from his caution to finish in tenth.

BCS HDT Notes…..This was the third Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener that I have attended where a non-local driver has won. A couple of years ago Josh Foster surprised everybody who isn’t from southeast Iowa when he won at Independence and last year most of the crowd at Vinton went home wondering “who won?” after seeing Jeff Waterman celebrate in victory lane…..Josh Rogotzke was impressive winning the first of three qualifying heats. In that one Richie Gustin looked like he would finish no better than sixth, but he took advantage of a restart to get by Jerry Luloff and then passed Joel Bushore late to take the fourth and final re-draw position…..Jimmy Gustin won heat two that saw Vern Jackson lose a motor while running third causing Matt Bonine and Tyler Droste to stack up behind him making it a long night for all three…..Kyle Krampe was running fourth in the third heat before blowing a tire and the final re-draw position was decided by inches at the line as Jeff Waterman held off a hard charging J.D. Auringer….It just goes to show you that a bit of luck, good or bad, and an inch or two here or there during the heat races helps build the story on the night’s main event making this a very interesting night of racing throughout.

The support class action was entertaining as well with three more divisions on hand. Tyler Whalen fought off Merv Chandler and his father Bill Whalen Jr. to take the win in the Sport Compacts. Brennen Chipp held the lead for the first twelve laps of the Sport Mod feature, but he had a hornets nest of top contenders racing behind him that he could not fight off over the final three circuits. Nick Roberts came from the fourth row to take the win ahead of two-time defending track champion Danny Dvorak who had Jenae Gustin challenging him to the checkers and Joel Rust got past Chipp on the final lap to take fourth. Roberts has had a solid start to the season and after a couple of wins at the I-35 Speedway in Winston, the Des Moines driver ironically is the early leader in the All Missouri Points B-Modified division.

The IMCA Hobby Stock feature closed out the evening with Kyle Parizek and Chris Luloff racing hard for the lead during the opening laps. On lap five Luloff went too hard into turn three and slipped off the top side of the track, then one lap later Parizek had his right rear tire go flat handing the lead over to Benji Irvine. Irvine would open up a large advantage as the green flag stayed out the entire distance and it was god thing that he had built up that cushion because with two laps to go the leader slipped off the top of turn four. Irvine was able to recover in time before Nathan Ballard could catch him though and he then put the final two laps in the book to take the win. Justin Wacha came home in third place, Sunday night’s winner here Andy Coffman came from twelfth to fourth and Vince Bucholz filled out the top five.

The final checkered flag waved at 9:49 and I was on my way home after another fun night of racing at the Benton County Speedway. Thanks to Mick Trier, Dana Benning and Ryan Clark’s lovely mother for the hospitality! For more coverage from my Positively Racing colleagues make sure to check in on the 4dFan Report and you will find the full results In Staging. And look for some great action photos soon from the night's racing from the Auto Racing Independent Kyle Ealy.

It is now noon on Wednesday and I have a close eye on the radar to see if I should go to Dubuque or Oskaloosa tonight. Looks like Mother Nature will make the call. Hope to see you at the track!