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!