The Stock Cars were up first and when pole-sitter Paul Shepherd drifted up the track a bit in turn one it was row two starter Damon Murty who snared the lead on lap one. While Murty paced the field I was thoroughly entertained watching Jeff Mueller and Brian Irvine picked their way through the field after starting ninth and eleventh respectively. They swapped their own running order three times as they came toward the front and on the white flag lap it was Murty, Mueller and Irvine nose to tail going into turn one. Through the apex of the corner Mueller was able to get his nose under Murty, but with the big implement tire marking the inside of the second corner straight ahead they ran out of room and the right side of Mueller's car rose up in the air as they made contact. Everybody stacked up behind them and it was Irvine who ended up sitting sideways while the rest of the field raced on. The caution waved and officials ruled that all three drivers were involved, so all three would be going to the rear. Murty pulled to the infield to protest while Irvine and Mueller headed to the pits. Scooter Dulin inherited the lead for the restart and then held off a challenge from Justin Temeyer over the final two laps to pick up the win. Bob Ahrendsen held down the third spot, Jason DeShaw picked up fourth and Shepherd rounded out the top five.
Jeff Mueller (77M) and Brian Irvine raced their way into contention for a victory on the final lap only to wind up in the pits before the checkers fell - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography
The IMCA Modifieds were up next and with a $1,000 top prize on the line and a slick racetrack it was no surprise that the first three attempts at a start failed to produce a completed lap. The field was then put in a single file order with Adam Johnson holding the lead for lap one. Richie Gustin drove by Johnson on lap two and proceeded to pull away establishing a comfortable lead even after each restart. It was Gustin's race all the way as he picked up the big money, Mark Elliott ran a distant second with Troy Cordes taking the third spot. Scott Hogan had some problems during hot laps and did not make it to his heat race, so he started last in the eighteen car field, but picked his way through to fourth while Quincy, Illinois, driver Jeff Waterman took fifth.
Richie Gustin had it on cruise control during the 20-lap IMCA Modified main event - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography
During his heat race defending Hobby Stock track champion Scott Pippert spun his car to the infield and was over a half lap behind the rest of the field when he gathered it up and got back on to the racing surface. In just four laps Pippert was able to make up that ground and with just a lap to go he was able to race his way back into the top four and the opportunity to redraw for the feature lineup. It was only fitting that this effort was rewarded as Pippert drew the pole for the feature and was never seriously challenged over the fifteen-lap distance for the victory. Nick Murty started eighth and used the high groove to race his way to the runner-up finish with Wes Stanek coming on late to finish in third. Jerome Wilson would wind up fourth and I believe that it was Matt Brown by inches in fifth.
Scott Pippert in victory lane following his win in the Hobby Stock feature - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track PhotographyNearly thirty Sport Mods were on hand requiring four heats and two B-Mains to set the twenty-four-car feature field with local favorite Danny Dvorak drawing the pole position. The first lap was quite a scramble as drivers waged war trying to get to that bottom-line, but it was fourth-starting Chris Luloff who came off the top side of turn four to lead lap one. Dvorak went to work on the leader and actually made the pass on lap six only to have it negated by a caution before the full field could be scored. Three laps after the restart though, Luloff slipped high in turn one and fell back to fourth as Dvorak picked up the lead. Now it was Dvorak who was guarding the bottom with all that he had as DePere, Wisconsin, driver Johnny Whitman applied the pressure in second and Joel Rust, who had started twelfth, waited for a mistake in third. A few more caution periods brought the race to its time limit and on the final restart they would either race for four laps, or to the next caution, whichever came first. They didn't even make it through that first lap as the battle for fifth between Troy Jerovetz and Austin Kaplan saw contact between the two with Jerovetz going for a spin, so the checkers waved and Dvorak made his way to victory lane. Whitman, Rust and Luloff were next in line and I'm not sure if Kaplan was credited with fifth or not. Austin was caught up in a lap two caution and had restarted from the rear before racing his way back into contention for a top-five finish at the end.
Danny Dvorak (3R) and Johnny Whitman (08) also battled it out during this heat race for the IMCA Sport Mods - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track PhotographyThe Sport Compacts closed out the evening and it was great to see a solid field of eighteen cars on hand. Lap one was a wild one as sixth-starting William Michel emerged as the leader for lap number one only to give it up to Nathan Chandler on the next circuit. Nathan appeared to have the race in hand until mechanical problems slowed him down and Bret Vanous took over on lap six of the twelve-lap affair. Justin Wacha started tenth and had followed Vanous through the field, but he was not content to follow him the rest of the way. With two laps to go Wacha eased past Vanous in turn two and then held off a last second charge from Brad Chandler to take the victory. Vanous, Steve Miedke and Jerry Ostby would round out the top five as the final checkered flag of the night waved at 7:40 p.m.
Justin Wacha (45) races with Neil Nabholz during heat race action - Photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography
BCS Frostbuster Notes.....I was a bit surprised that the Modified field did not top the twenty mark with a thousand dollars on the line, but perhaps the threatening weather and this being Easter Sunday had something to do with that......The Gustin's had a pretty good Frostbuster weekend with Richie winning tonight and Jimmy taking the win at Boone on Saturday. Jimmy pulled out mid-race tonight while running mid-pack.....The opener of the scheduled tripleheader was rained out at Marshalltown on Friday......Jerry Wilinski and Sean Jerovetz were two Wisconsin competitors on hand in the Modifieds while Jeremy Christians, Mike Gilson and John Heinz represented the Badger state in the Stock Car ranks. Whitman had the best showing of the northern visitors while Troy Jerovetz, Rob Charapata and Scott Boulanger also competed in the Sport Mods.....August Bach and Eric Stanton were racing for second on the final lap of the Hobby Stock main until contact between the two flattened Bach's left rear and Stanton's right front tire......Joe Goodenbauer rolled onto his top in the Sport Compact main after contact with the implement tire in turn four......Three drivers who are regulars at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Jerry Ostby, William Michel and Seth Woodruff, pulled their four cylinder cars over one hundred miles up to compete in Vinton on this night.
I enjoyed sitting in the stands and sharing thoughts with Kyle Ealy. While I'll hold back a bit once in awhile in what I write, Kyle will pull no punches and that is why he is always an interesting read that you can find on the SpeedBlitz. You will also find Kyle's Midwest Racing Archives there, the thoughts of Jake Croxton and plenty of great photos from a collection of shooters headed up by "The Photo Daddy" Dennis Krieger. Check 'em out somtime.
I want to thank Dave Swale for stopping by and letting me know that he is a regular follower of Positively Racing. You may remember Dave as the man to beat in Sportsman ranks up around the West Union area not that long ago and it is nice to know that he reads these writings. We challenged Kyle to find a picture of Dave's #56 in his archives, so we'll see what he comes up with.
I also had a nice visit with track announcer Bucky Doren who is very excited about the new Hawkeye Dirt Tour for the IMCA Modifieds. The May 11th opener at Independence cannot get here soon enough for the Tour director. For details visit http://www.dirttour.com/hawkeye/index.html
Thanks to Dana Benning and Mick Trier for their hospitality, I know that I will be back to Vinton again soon, and for more thoughts on tonight's event check out Ryan Clark's "In Staging" at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ as I am sure that he will be posting his thoughts soon.
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