The inaugural Tim Gebel Memorial did not draw in a bunch of outsiders looking for the big money on Saturday night so it was distributed nicely throughout the field of 74 drivers, for the most part track regulars at the Fayette County Speedway in West Union. And frankly Gebel, the former Hobby Stock racer here who passed away from a massive heart attack this past year would have probably preferred to have it that way. And, even if the outsiders had come they would have a had a hard time beating the talented field that races here weekly anyway!
The Hobby Stock division was the headliner on the night with $2,222 going to the winner (Gebel's car number was 2) and the twenty-one car field would have to go forty-four laps, two segments of twenty-two with a fifteen minute break in between to earn it. Just as impressive as the winner's amount, the runner-up would take home $1,500 so this would not be one of those big money support class events where drivers up front make "all or nothing" moves in the closing laps, but as this one turned out that would not have mattered anyway.
Mike Darnall would go to the lead at the drop of the green with most of the field using the bottom line and on lap five, when Darnall left the bottom open, third starting Tim Helle would slip by to become the new pace setter. It was a large and tight lead pack through the early laps with the first caution coming on lap ten when a lapped car that was in the mix and one of the heat race winners Adam Speicher tangled off of turn four turning Speicher nose first into the front stretch wall and ending his evening.
On the restart Helle would again lead the pack as Benji Irvine went up to the top side and found some speed. Irvine had worked his way up to second and had a run on Helle when the caution waved again on lap eighteen for a B.J. Dahl spin in turn four. When green flag racing resumed Irvine went right back to the top and he would take the lead coming back to the line for the nineteenth time and would even pull away a bit before the mid-race caution.
During the break drivers could "move their tires around", but if they put a new one on they would have to go to the rear and the only tire change that I saw was by Jamie Songer who suffered a right front flat on the final lap before the caution. In fact after the first couple of minutes nobody was really doing anything and there was still enough time perhaps to grill a couple of hot dogs and have a picnic in the infield before the fifteen minutes expired.
What the crews should have done was distract Irvine and his crew while others let the air out of his tires as once racing resumed the driver from just down the road in Oelwein was in a class of his own riding the rim and driving away from the rest of the field. One more caution waved on lap thirty-five when Brady Link and Scott Dobel went off the back stretch and while Irvine did not again pull away over the final seven laps he was never seriously challenged as he captured the big money win. Neil Franzen started seventh just behind Irvine and he would be the happy well paid runner-up with Joshua Ludeking coming from twelfth to finish third. Justin Lichty started tenth and finished fourth and unofficially I had Weston Koop by a bumper at the line for fifth.
With $1,000 going to each of the winners of the B-Modifieds and Stock Cars both divisions had more cars than the headliners and both put on some good racing throughout the evening.
All twenty-eight B-Mods would start the thirty lap feature with front row starter Kyle Anderson leading lap one. The caution would wave before the second lap could be scored when fifth starting Junior Boyer spun in turn three and collected Jeremy Schaufenbuhl. The damage would essentially end the night for Boyer who had won his heat and for Schaufenbuhl who had started last and finished second in his. On the restart Troy Hovey would drive under Anderson to take the lead and a pair of cautions on lap eight and lap twelve kept the field tightly bunched.
Justin O'Brien who had won the Season Championship feature here the night before moved to second and he would keep the heat on Hovey. And after two more cautions in the final five laps Ryan Maitland was there to make it a three car race to the checkers. There would be no getting around Hovey though as the veteran driver from Decorah scored the win ahead of O'Brien and Maitland. Alex Zwanziger had the drive of the night using the top shelf to charge all the way up to fourth after starting on the outside of row ten and Jason Schlangen passed Shawn Walski on the final lap to complete the top five after he started fourteenth.
The Stock Cars here at West Union may be as talented from top to bottom as you will find anywhere in a field of twenty-three and they too would work for thirty laps to try to win a grand on this unusually warm September evening. After winning his heat race from the back of the pack, Kyle Falck earned a front row start in the feature and he wasted no time building up a straightaway lead while the rest of the pack jostled for position. Fifth starting Mitch Hovden broke from that bunch on lap four and he would begin his quest of tracking down the leader. The process was was slow until lap fifteen when Flack had to deal with lapped traffic and soon Hovden was within striking distance as the lead duo now had a half a lap advantage over the third running Josh Zieman.
When Falck had to leave his favored top line to get around a lapped car in turn one on lap eighteen, Hovden used the top in turns one and two to get a run and he then went to the bottom in three and four to complete the pass and take the lead. Falck tried to use the bottom a lap later to regain the lead, but he could not clear Hovden so he settled in waiting for traffic to give him one more opportunity. That nearly happened four laps later when Jesse Brown spun in turn two just ahead of the leader, but Hovden was able to avoid contact and he would lead the field back to green.
Both Falck and Zieman would be able to keep pace over the final eight laps, but neither could mount a challenge on Hovden who captured his fifteenth feature win at an All Iowa Points paying track in 2018. Falck and Zieman would join him on the podium with Brian Mahlstedt and Dan Jones completing the top five.
I was told that the track conditions were much drier and slicker than usual, perhaps because of the hot, dry weather and it being the second night of racing here for the weekend, but there were no complaints from this reporter as I saw four-wide racing in the first Stock Car heat and five, yes count 'em, five-wide racing off turn two during the final Hobby Stock heat race. It was a fun return to a track that I have always enjoyed in the past and it had been way too long since I was here, perhaps going all the way back to 2001 with an appearance by the NKF Tour. Racing started right on time at 6:30 and while I was still on my way home by 10:30 that could have easily been a half hour earlier if not for a forty minute intermission after the heats and the extra ten minutes during halftime of the Hobby Stock feature.
I will wrap up a rare September four race weekend tonight as the Sprint Invaders return to the Quincy Raceways. Our last two shows down at the quick quarter mile have been good ones so hopefully I will see you there!
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