After sitting out Friday and Saturday night while spending some time with my lovely bride in St. Louis, I was able to catch the final night of the IMCA Frostbuster weekend at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. Given the weather forecast going into the weekend I did not even think that there would be a shot of racing Sunday night, but the storms developed just to the south and east of Vinton and the first Sunday of April felt more like mid-June with temperatures in the high seventies throughout the evening.
The Modifieds were the headliner tonight with a solid field of thirty-six on hand from Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Canada. Originally scheduled to run last on the program, officials moved the Mod feature to fourth on the list as the radar started to light up around 6:30 and by then the low groove of the quarter-mile had chopped out quite a bit. Pole-sitter Ryan Dolan shucked a driveshaft coming off turn two on the first lap and pulled to the infield with fourth-starting Dan Ratajczak jumping to the lead on lap one of twenty. Scott Hogan, who started behind Ratajczak in sixth, settled in behind him and went to work on the driver from Frog Station, Wisconsin. Troy Cordes found the middle groove smoother and more to his liking as he moved toward the front after starting from row five and when he caught the lead duo, the battle was on. Cordes slipped into second with just a handful of laps remaining and with two to go he made his move to the outside of turns one and two. Cordes cleared Ratajczak by a car-length down the back straightaway, but the Wisconsin driver hit his marks perfectly in three and four to regain the lead at the white flag. Once again Cordes was able to pull even with the leader off of turn two and the two ran wheel-to-wheel down the backstretch. When Ratajczak pushed his challenger up the track entering turn three, Cordes kicked it off the cushion and tried a high-to-low move off of four that came up a half a car length short as Ratajczak took the $1,000 victory. Hogan settled for the third spot, J.D. Auringer started fifteenth and finished fourth while Shawn Fisher completed the top five.
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| Dan Ratajczak (73) and Troy Cordes battle it out over the final laps - Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography |
The Stock Car division was the first feature on the card tonight with only ten cars taking the green. Damon Murty outran fellow front row starter Paul Shepard at the drop of the green for the race lead while Jeff Mueller was the man on the move after starting sixth. Mueller slipped by Shepard into second with four laps to go, but he could never reel in Murty who went flag-to-flag for the win in the non-stop event. Behind Murty, Mueller and Shepard it was Scooter Dulin and Bob Ahrendson in fourth and fifth.
The Sport Compacts also went flag-to-flag in their twelve lap finale with Brad Chandler moving past Brett Vanous on lap eight for the lead. Chandler’s brother Nathan was behind the wheel of Bill Whalen Jr.s #00W tonight and he moved into second over the final laps to make it a one-two finish for the drivers from Cedar Rapids. Vanous collected third-place money followed by Duayne Herb in fourth with the head of the Chandler family, Merv completing the top five.
I’m not sure if it was the track that tore up the Sport Mod feature, or if it was the Sport Mod feature that tore up the track as after eight caution periods they were finally able to complete fifteen green flag laps. As usual in events like this, the racing up front was pretty good when the light was green while the guys in the back were…….well you know. Andy Tiernan started third and jetted to the lead on lap one only to lose it a lap later to sixth starting Austin Kaplan. His tenure at the front was just as short though with Danny Dvorak coming from the inside of row five to take the lead on lap three, a lead that he would not give up the rest of the way to victory. Kaplan was the runner-up, Kurt Hogan finished third with Tiernan and Jim Buhlman next in line.
The Hobby Stocks closed out the night and it looked like they had all learned their lesson after watching the two Modified classes when they all ran the first couple of laps on the smoother upper two grooves of the speedway. Brad Forbes was leading with Nathan Ballard giving chase when a third-running Justin Stander decided to give the low groove a try. It worked for a moment as he quickly pulled even with the leader on lap four, but when he bounced through turn two the next lap Stander could not maintain control and spun on the back stretch. Scott Pippert made the move of the night avoiding the spinning Stander, and then on the restart it was Pippert who took over the lead from Forbes on lap eight and moved to a big advantage over the final seven circuits. It was a good thing that Pippert enjoyed that lead though as he needed all of it when his right rear tire blew entering turn three on the final lap and he nursed his #47 in for the victory ahead of Forbes and Ballard. Justin Lichty took the fourth spot while Kyle Perizek was fifth.
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| Scott Pippert (47) slips by Brad Forbes for the lead in the Hobby Stock feature - Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography |
BCS Frostbuster Notes…..Richie Gustin was running fifth in the Modified main when he dropped out on lap four…...Quincy, Illinois, driver Jeff Waterman was in fourth when his rear end let go with five laps remaining…..Canada was well represented by the Turnbull family tonight as Ed, Ty and Adam all made the feature event. The other visitors from the Great White North did not fare so well as Derrick and Mason Big Eagle collided with each other in the first heat and Joey Galloway left the track on a hook during his heat…..J.D. Auringer had to come from ninth to fourth in the third heat just to transfer to the A where he then passed eleven cars to run fourth definitely making him the night’s hard charger…..Joe Docekal and Josh Most were notable non-qualifiers in the Modifieds…..Justin Temeyer failed to make the call for the Stock Car heat and then started the feature from the fifth row. He moved quickly up to fourth before retiring in a cloud of smoke with three laps to go…..Jeremy Schaufenbuhl appeared to be a contender in the Sport Mods as he was leading the second heat before contact with Andy Tiernan sent him out into the bean field off the back stretch. Then in the feature he was caught up in the two early multi-car melees puncturing a hole in his radiator that he was unaware of until his motor got hot a few laps later and he coasted to a halt…..It was reported that Bill Whalen Jr., who you will find at just about any track running the four cylinders in the Midwest, was not feeling well and that is why Nathan Chandler was on board the 00W tonight. Hopefully Bill felt better when he picked up that second-place purse check…..Justin Wacha has moved from the Sport Compacts to the Hobby Stocks this year…..Nathan Ballard can usually be found winning features on the pavement at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids. Tonight he proved he could sling the dirt with the best of them as well…..A big thanks to Mick Trier, Dana Benning and the entire Benton County Speedway crew for putting on an entertaining and efficient program that saw the final checkers wave at ten minutes past seven. The regular season kicks off this coming Sunday night, April 10th in Vinton.
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