Despite threatening weather Jeff "Bone" Larson made the trip over from Freeport, Illinois, to Tipton, Iowa, on Wednesday night as the current National Points Leader in the IMCA Modified division. With $2,000 up for grabs for the winner of the Modified main event, thirty-two other Modified drivers also risked the weather as did a fine field of drivers in the other four divisions and an impressive crowd making me wonder just how much bigger the opening night of the Cedar County Fair would have been without a line of thunderstorms off to the north and west that spawned several tornadoes during the evening.
Larson is having a fantastic 2021 season thus far and he would have been one of the favorites for the night anyway, but when he drew the pole position for his heat race and then later the outside front row for the twenty-five lap feature, well let's just say that the story was told. Cayden Carter and Denny Eckrich did their best to keep up with Larson as the lead trio pulled away from the rest of the field, but even in traffic they could not draw close enough to challenge.
The restart following a lap nineteen caution would see Eckrich take the second spot from Carter and as they battled it out Larson again pulled away and just after Carter reclaimed second the caution waved again for Austin Blume's spin in turn three. Again Eckrich would take second from Carter on the restart and this time he would hold the position over the final two laps to be the runner-up to Larson's dominating performance. Carter would settle for third while Travis Denning edged out Ryan Duhme for fourth.
With lightning filling the sky to the north, the Modified feature was moved up to third in the running order following the Midwest Jalopies and the Sport Compacts who also drew a strong field of thirty-one cars looking for a nice $750 top prize.
Brad Forbes would pace the field for the opening lap before yielding to fellow front row starter Josh Riley, but after winning his heat race from deep in the pack Dustin Begyn was on the fly from third and he would take the lead on lap five. The red flag would fly when another heat race winner Zach Dahl rolled his car at the exit of turn four and once racing resumed Joe Zrostlik would apply the pressure on Begyn.
Luke Benischek was close behind in third as well and while it looked like Zrostlik might get a run on the leader by racing in the middle groove, the low riding Begyn was too strong and went on to victory. Zrostlik and Benischek were next in line with Josh Starr and Riley close behind to complete the top five.
While some of the crowd made their way to their cars or to the midway following the Modified feature, a quick check of the radar showed that there would be plenty of time to get the final two races in so I stuck around for the Mod Lites and the Street Stocks.
Dillon Raffurty and Michael Raffurty had swept the two Mod Lite heat races and I am sure that the duo from Kansas City were looking to go one-two in the twelve lap feature, but that plan fell to the wayside early when Michael coasted to the pits off the back stretch. Mike Zemo Jr. paced the first three laps, but even the former Late Model driver was no match for Dillon as he came from eighth to first in just four laps to secure the lead and then walk away for the win. Zemo finished second, R.J. Gonzalez and Blake Gonzalez went third and fourth while pole-sitter Ben George took fifth.
The Street Stocks would close out the quick evening with fifteen laps of feature racing that saw Greg Gill taking the early lead. Jesse Owen was there to challenge and was about to take the lead before Donnie Louck spun in turn three. On the restart Nick Hixson would power to the front and while Jeff Struck Jr. would take up the chase through the second half of the distance, he could not mount a challenge as Hixson scored the victory. Struck started eighth and finished second. Owen held down third, Joe Bonney was fourth and Tom Schmitt came from the sixth row to complete the top five.
And with that we were on our way home at 9:06 p.m. after watching a full program featuring 104 cars in five divisions. When I returned home I checked Facebook for a moment before heading to bed and I noticed that Dustin Jarrett had made a post about how fast the show was run and there were several comments. Several were in disbelief asking how in the world could a show be run off so quickly and from my standpoint here are some reasons why.
- The crew putting on the race were aware of the weather situation and decided early on that they needed to do everything possible to beat the rain. I cannot tell you how many times over the years that I have been at the races knowing that rain was on the way, but it seemed like nobody who was putting on the show was aware of that fact
- "The Dirt Doctor", Al Dlouhy, had the track well prepped and ready for hot laps right at the scheduled starting time of 6:30 which then allowed for the racing to start right on time at 7 p.m.
- Kathy Dlouhy had a headset and a radio. Those who have worked with Kathy knows that she takes charge and can be very "motivational", something that is needed on a night like this
- The division roster was the right one for a quick show. If that statement offends any of you then get together with the drivers in your class and figure out how to fix it.
- The drivers and crews were extremely cooperative, even when the call was made for the Modifieds to move their feature ahead in the program there was only a short pause before all twenty-four starters were in staging and ready to roll. This reminded me of the night when the UMP Summer Nationals completed a program at 34 Raceway before a storm rolled in at 8:24 p.m.. Couldn't have done it without the cooperation of the drivers and their crews.
- There were no victory lane interviews and there was no parade of people back and forth from the grandstands to take pictures. Yes, I know that this is an important part of racing, but not on a night like this and kudos to the track crew for realizing it.
So that is how you run off a program in just two hours and thirty six minutes from the start of hot laps to the final checkered flag. Yes, it took threatening weather to provide the motivation, but you have to wonder how many more fans would you have in the stands if they knew that even a three hour program was the norm? Hot laps at 7:00, finished by 10:00, sounds great to me but I was surprised to see that Dustin's post had a couple of people who said that they would have felt short changed by such a quick show.
One gentleman stated "I would feel ripped off. I have never enjoyed a show that went by that fast, if I'm going to the races I want to be there 5-6 hours". He lives in Kentucky and having been to a few races in Kentucky over the years, I am guessing that he is quite pleased with them. But then again they rarely, if ever race on a weeknight in Kentucky so maybe would make a difference. Either way it is just further proof of why I love living in the heart of Dirt Track racing, right here in Iowa.
Those storms though continued to push to the south and east overnight and into Thursday wiping out the Lucas Oil Late Models at 34 Raceway and the Scotland County Fair race for tonight. I was looking forward to one more chance to enjoy an evening of racing in Memphis with California visitor Paul Vetter, but that will have to now wait for Super Nationals or the summer of 2022. Plus the weekly shows at the Lee County Speedway and the CJ Speedway are already canceled for Friday night as well as the return to racing at the Davis County Fair in Bloomfield.
If Davenport is still a go I will likely return there on Friday after being washed out early last week and Saturday is up in the air at this point. Mid-week action next week will feature the Caleb Hammond Memorial at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Tuesday night and then on Wednesday July 21st I am excited to see the Sprint Invaders tackle the high banks at the East Moline Speedway.
Hope to see you soon here on the Back Stretch!
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