I have been going to dirt track races for many, many years and only on a few occasions have I ever seen a track retain its moisture from bottom to top as it did on Sunday night at the Benton County Speedway. This allowed the large field of cars and drivers to use the entire race track all night long resulting in as much side-by-side and even three-wide action as a fan will ever see in one night. And, with all of the extra money on line from all of the terrific sponsors that supported the 21st running of the Hogan Memorial honoring not only the late Dick and Janet Hogan, but how the racing community comes together as a "family", this "just about as perfect as you can get" race track also produced more cautions than one would expect with these conditions. So it was a late hour when the final checkered flag waved over J.D. Auringer, but almost everybody in the near capacity crowd made sure that they were still there to see it!
A very stout field of 45 IMCA Modifieds signed in for the opportunity to win more than $4,000 from an amazing total purse of $25,000 to be paid out across all five divisions. Did I mention that the Hogan Memorial has a great group of sponsors?!?! With parity of competition each of the five heat races and the three B-Mains were all out wars as drivers tried to make the top two in the heats, and top four in the B's so that they could be locked in to the night's 50-lap headliner. By the time the Mod heats hit the track the cushion in turn three had been pushed all the way over the ridge and in fact turn three became "calamity corner" for all divisions as the night wore on. Several drivers dropped their right rear over the top of turn three and would then be sucked over the top of the race track, but none more dramatic than Brian Irvine. In an attempt to save his Modified from exiting the track, he turned sideways at full speed and when the right rear wheel dug in Irvine was on his way to a wild ride with the car rolling over at least four times from side-to-side. He was uninjured and even tried to make repairs to return for a B-Main, but was not able to make the start.
It was just past 10:30 when the Modified feature field was brought to the front stretch for the re-draw and introductions (more on how we got to that time of the night in a moment) and it was former Hogan Memorial winner Vern Jackson drawing the pole alongside Joe Docekal. The first attempt at a start was waved off when Patrick Flannagan spun in turn one and on the second try it was Docekal who would race out to the lead. As Docekal stretched his advantage out to a straightaway it was hard to pick out a driver to watch make a run through the pack as so many of them were on the move. Zach Less who had started sixth, , Hunter Marriott who started seventh, J.D. Auringer who had started ninth, Kyle Strickler and Richie Gustin who had lined up together in row seven, Kyle Brown who had started seventeenth. They were all coming to the front and looking for the opportunity to be able to chase down the leader and when Jeff Waterman spun in turn three on lap fourteen, that leader was brought back to them.
Things heated up quickly on the restart as both Marriott and Strickler would mount a challenge for the lead. With Docekal and Marriott side-by-side in turn four, Strickler made an amazing high to low move and even though it was Marriott scored as the leader on lap fifteen, Strickler had the momentum to get to turn one first. Contact from Docekal though would spin the driver from North Carolina around in turn two and during the caution both drivers would be told to restart at the rear of the field. Marriott was by no means in the clear on the restart though as now Richie Gustin, Kyle Brown and J.D. Auringer were in hot pursuit not only battling for position amongst themselves, but also keeping the heat on the Missouri driver leading the event.
Three more cautions would interrupt the action over the next nine laps with the third one being a spin by Strickler in turn two on lap twenty-four that would put his night to an early end and, after restarting for one more lap, the field was put under the red flag for the mandatory five minute pit stop on lap twenty-five. At the break it was Marriott, Auringer, Brown, Gustin and Less in the top five and while other drivers and crews thrashed on their cars to try to find some extra speed, Marriott and Auringer had a casual conversation about gear selection. In fact J.D. told co-announcer Bucky Doren that he felt that Hunter had probably made the better choice, however that might of just been a bit of a mind game from the defending event champion as just four laps after the restart he would power past Marriott to take the lead.
Gustin and Brown would shuffle Marriott back to fourth on the following lap and once Gustin was able to shake Brown for second he would set his sights on tracking down Auringer. The caution would wave one last time (eight for this race) on lap 36 when Docekal spun in turn one and on the restart it was Cayden Carter who made a big move jumping to the high line coming quickly from seventh to fourth. With the top three all now working the bottom it looked as though Carter might be able to surprise them for his second Hogan Memorial win, but after pulling even with Brown for third the high side magic faded and he too settled into the bottom line for the final six laps.
Gustin stayed glued to the leader's back bumper just waiting for a mistake, but none would come as J.D. Auringer earned his second straight and third overall victory in the Hogan Memorial. Gustin would run second, Brown made the big charge to third, Carter who had started eleventh would finish fourth and Vern Jackson would complete the top five. It was now 11:30 and I was scrambling for the car to beat the heavy traffic out of the parking lot and make the drive home fully satisfied with another spectacular Hogan Memorial at the Benton County Speedway. So how did we get so late?
Can't put any of the blame on the BCS Micro Mods. They ran a feature only on the night with only a couple of cautions slowing the pace. It looked as though A.J. Witten might take his first-ever win, but a late caution gave point leader Don Erger the opportunity that he needed to make the pass and score the win just two days after getting married.
The Hobby Stocks played nice with each other and even delivered a photo finish to their 16-lap main event. When the first two rows left the door open for him, fifth starting Adam Petrzelka made his way to the lead on the opening lap and held it until lap three when Brayton Boyer spun in turn three and collected a couple of competitors. Petrzelka then held off Nathan Ballard's challenges for four more laps before Boyer's bumper fell off in turn one necessitating another caution. On the restart Petrzelka now had both Ballard and Brett Vanous to contend with and on lap nine both drivers completed the pass with Ballard now holding the lead. Vanous soon pulled even with the new leader though and the two ran door-to-door over the final five laps with Vanous nosing ahead on laps thirteen and fourteen only to have Ballard regain the advantage for the waving green and the white flag. Still side-by-side entering the final turns Vanous hit his marks perfectly and was able to nip Ballard at the line by less than a foot as the huge crowd roared its approval. Brian Happel was racing just behind those two waiting for a mistake that never came and he finished third while Petrzelka took fourth just ahead of Bill Bonnett. Note: In today's official results from IMCA it was noted that Happel was disqualified so move Petrzelka and Bonnett up to third and fourth while Zach Swanson will now finish in fifth
The 20-lap Stock Car feature was primarily a case of drivers in the back spinning out to ruin a pretty darn good race up front as in two instances late in the race the leaders were racing three-wide only to have the caution wave. Two of the nine cautions did play a major role in the outcome of this one though, so rather than giving you the brutal details of the other seven......
On the opening lap the seventh starting car of Darin Duffy slowed in turns three and four causing the remainder of the 22-car field to stack up behind him. The one car sustaining the most damage was Vinton's all-time winningest driver, Damon Murty who then retired to the pits with front end damage raising his hood so much that he could no longer see ahead of himself. Duffy would be able to get the car to re-fire, but would now have to start the race from the rear. John Oliver Jr. who had made the 130 mile trip up from Danville passed early leader Nathan Wood on lap three and then sustained it through four of the cautions. By lap nine the restarts were now single file and on this one the second running Wood got sideways in turn one and, even though he was able to gather it up and continue on, the drivers running third through fifth were not so fortunate. Scooter Dulin was able to restart from the rear after the pile-up while both Thomas Thompson and Todd Inman were eliminated. On the restart the race for the lead went three-wide with Phil Holtz and Scott Pippert battling alongside Oliver. Earlier in the evening Pippert had taken a wild ride off of the top of turn two in his heat race disappearing into the corn field off the back stretch and the crowd was amused when he was pushed back to the pits with corn stalks wedged into the body work on the hood and the right side of his car.And now, after starting 20th, here he was racing for the lead only to have the action halted again by a caution for a solo spin in turn one. On this restart the leaders again went three-wide with Holtz taking the lead and Pippert grabbing second before another driver spun and sat too long in turn one to halt the action.
After a jumble up at the back on the next restart, we were finally able to run the final six laps under green flag conditions with Oliver clawing his way back to the front on lap sixteen using the low line. Kevin Rose made a late run up to second and tried to relieve Oliver of the lead once again, but couldn't make the pass and the $1,000 top prize went to the visitor from southeast Iowa. Rose would finish second with Holtz in third, Duffy made his way all the way back up to fourth while Pippert was still the Hard Charger for the event even fading back to fifth at the checkers.
Tony Olson was trying to become the first driver ever to win six straight features in any division at the Benton County Speedway (gotta love the statistics from track announcer Ryan Clark!!) and when he drew the inside of row three for the 18-lap Sport Mod feature that looked like a distinct possibility. Tony's cousin, Kyle Olson, started directly in front of him and it was he who found his way to the front on the opening lap while Tony quickly moved to second before lap four when the first of seven caution flags would wave over the event. With each restart Kyle Olson would maintain the lead and would not even allow Tony Olson the opportunity to mount a serious challenge, and then late in the race it was Danny Dvorak who made his way into second and he too could not pull even with leader.
Kyle Olson would go on to score the oft interrupted flag-to-flag win over Dvorak, Tony Olson, Sam Wieben and Ryan King while another southeast Iowa visitor Brett Timmerman finished in sixth.
A huge thanks to promoter Mick Trier and his entire staff as well to Scott Hogan and the entire Hogan Racing family, a family that on this night we all feel to be a part of, for their hospitality. I have said it numerous times before, but I will say it again. Mark this one on your schedule when the date is announced for 2016!
I had a chance to visit with 34 Raceway promoters Jeff and Amy Laue Sunday evening and they reminded me that coming up this Saturday night, July 18th, will be the night that the track just outside of Burlington celebrates its 50th Anniversary with rollback admission prices. Grandstand admission will be just $1.50 while pit passes are just $15, so look for a big night of action at 34 Raceway this coming Saturday night.
I will have a busy week leading up to that though as on Wednesday night the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds will headline the racing action during the Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa. Then on Thursday night I will try to lend a hand to my Positively Racing colleague Eric Arnold as he will be handling the "live results" from the annual Harris Clash at the Knoxville Raceway. And then on Friday night it is on to the Bloomfield Speedway where the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders will headline the grandstand entertainment at the annual Davis County Fair.
Plenty of racing going on for the remainder of the summer so get on out and support your favorite tracks as much as possible. And bring a friend!
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