Four New Faces In Victory Lane At Tipton's Hawkeyeland 40

Okay, so I can't guarantee one hundred percent that the title to this entry of the Back Stretch is correct because Modified winner Drew Janssen may have won here before, but it was definitely the first time that Tyler Erb, Tyler Bannister and Braden Richards stood in victory lane at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton. It was a beautiful Thursday night for racing in eastern Iowa as K Promotions and the Darkside crew paired up to present the Hawkeye Land 40 featuring the debut of the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models at the quick quarter-mile with a nice field of twenty-nine competitors on hand. 

Two of those entries were national tour drivers Tyler Erb and Garret Alberson and with the series' format of qualifying, then starting the heats straight up by times with the feature then lined up as you finished the heats, they would dominate the evening. Erb was the quick qualifier in Group A so with his win in heat one he would start the feature from the pole while Alberson was the quickest of Group B and, with his victory in the third heat, he would line up next to Erb on the front row for the forty lap headliner.

With the yellow light turned off and the field ready to go green though, for some reason the front row never got on the throttle in the start zone and that caused a big scramble at the back of the field that left Curt Schroeder's car sitting on top of Jimmy VanZandt's ride. Only Erb and Alberson can tell you what happened here, but it was an unfortunate situation especially for the Rookie-of-the-Year hopeful VanZandt who missed both qualifying and his heat race after showing smoke in hot laps before making an impressive run from twelfth in the B-Main to take the sixth and final transfer position on the final lap.

After the long delay to untangle the cars the field would take the green with Erb getting the advantage on Alberson, but just one lap would be scored before Matt Ryan coasted to a halt in front of the bleachers. Once back to racing we would get to lap five before provisional starter Tim Simpson would spin in turn two and following the restart one more lap would go in the books before Simpson again spun in turn two, this time taking evasive action as several cars had gotten crossed up in front of him.

Thankfully that would be the final caution in this one as Erb and Alberson again left the field in their wake, but there was plenty of action behind them as drivers made their way through the field. Chris Simpson, who earlier in the night had to switch rides from his original entry to the back of up car that Jason Rauen had hot lapped and qualified, was lightning quick coming from the outside of row seven to cracking the top five before the race was to its halfway point. His brother Chad was also battling back from adversity as a rear end issue during qualifying had put him behind the eight ball all night to where he had to win the B-Main to lineup in seventeenth. He too was passing cars at a quick count early on while the slow and steady climber was championship contender Tony Jackson Jr. who had started fifteenth.

Back to our leaders, Alberson would take a couple of looks to the inside of Erb as they navigated traffic only to see Tyler drive away over the second half of the race to score the convincing win. Alberson would finish well ahead of Frank Heckenast Jr. who came from sixth to finish third with Jackson getting to fourth passing Chris Simpson late in the race. Dillon McCowan who had challenged Alberson for second early in the race slipped to sixth, Dylan Thornton who had moved from eighth into the top five early faded back to seventh at the checkers ahead of MLRA point leader Chad Simpson as Daniel Hilsabeck and Aaron Marrant completed the top ten.

It was a challenging night for the MLRA officials as the scoring loop malfunctioned meaning that only one car could qualify at a time and then, after the Sport Mod heat races had been completed, the Simpson/Rauen driver change required a reshuffle of the heat race lineups creating another delay in the program. Then, with the expected victory lane process where the top three finishers are interviewed and group photos are taken ahead of the final two features, that pushed the final checkers to the eleven o'clock hour in what was otherwise a smooth and quick show. 

The MLRA Late Models now move to Davenport for a weekend doubleheader where they will be joined tonight by Sport Mods, Street Stocks and the weekly IMCA Late Model division. Then, on Saturday night, IMCA Modifieds will join the fold racing for a healthy $5,000-to-win with the Sport Mods and Street Stocks in for a second night as well.

The first feature of the night for the Sport Mods was a good one with front row starters Ryan Reed and Tyler Bannister trading the advantage over the first two laps before Bannister took over. Following a pair of cautions on laps three and four, Justin Becker was able to slip by Bannister to lead the way for a pair of laps until Tyler took a liking to the lower line. The young driver who had made the trip in from Bakersfield, California, to compete in the Super Nationals and then hung around to race with the Darkside this weekend, then held off Jarret Franzen the rest of the way to take the win. Franzen's runner-up finish started from the ninth position while Becker finished third. Tony Olson was fourth and Reed completed the top five.

Impressive rookie Casey Shelliam would lead the first four laps of the twenty lap Stock Car main event only to have central Iowa's Braden Richards go charging past on the fifth circuit. Richards was on a mission after starting ninth and once out front he was gone in taking the win here at Tipton. Dustin Vis started seventh and finished second followed by Joe Zrostlik, Gage Neal and Matt Picray.

A crash on the opening lap of the Modified feature as cars scrambled on the back stretch saw hard contact for both Chris Zogg and Bruce Hanford bringing out the red flag. Hanford, who is one of my all-time favorites, came out of retirement tonight to drive Matt Stein's #53 and once I heard that both drivers were okay, we headed for the car knowing that we could watch the remainder of the race on Flo. Well at least Danny and Fred could, I was "ten and two" while watching for deer!

After coming from eighth to win his heat race, it was a pretty good bet that Drew Janssen would be the man to beat in the Rage house car starting from the pole and sure enough he would lead the entire distance to take the win. Another Bakersfield, California, native Jerry Flippo, who has raced here in Iowa for the full 2024 season, would finish second, Matt Werner took third, Jeff Larson charged from twelfth to fourth and Jeremiah Hurst wheeled Ryan Duhme's #21 to fifth after starting from twenty-fifth!

Our evening was spiced by some great stories from legendary driver Bob Helm who was sitting behind us along with his son Mike. Bob's grandson Dalon Helm had made the trip in from Oklahoma to race with the MLRA this weekend they had a full section there to support him.

A big thank you to the promotional team of Ricky and Brenda Kay along with Timmy Current and Ryan Duhme (the Darkside) for their hospitality tonight and a word of thanks as well to announcer Jerry Mackey for his mention of Positively Racing. That publicity is always appreciated!

Jerry will be with the Darkside team tonight in Maquoketa for the Kelley Meyer Challenge and again on Saturday night for the All Star Classic. Yes, there are two great events just an hour or so apart from each other this weekend and you can argue about things all you want. The way that I look at it is just like I always do. I live in the best place in the country to be a race fan because I have so many choices throughout the season. Imagine being some place where your closest track is two hours away and it has no competition? No thanks!

Go to the event of your choice this weekend whether it is one of these mentioned, or somewhere near you. Get off your keyboard and go racing.

See you on the Back Stretch!

A Pair Of Road Trips On A September Weekend

A pair of road trips in the opposite direction bookended this first full weekend of September as on Friday night I made the journey to the Jacksonville Speedway, then on Sunday Barry and I headed west to the Eagle Raceway in southeast Nebraska for the Inaugural Stewart Alley Memorial.

While driving to Jacksonville on a cool, crisp evening that was well suited for week two of high school football I realized that just about every time that I visit the high banked quarter-mile is during the Fall. Promoter Kenny Dobson does not shy away from football Friday nights and there was a good crowd on hand for a seven division show that would feature twenty-two 410 Winged Sprints and and shorter field of Midgets than I had expected at nine.

The mighty Midgets would be the first feature to the track shortly before 9 p.m. and the first seventeen laps were pretty pedestrian with Karter Sarff leading the way without challenge. However, when Zach Daum spun in turn four that would bring the field back together for a restart with the final three laps making my long trip worth every minute.

Jake Neuman would go from third to first sailing around the outside of Sarff and Will Armitage in turns three and four to lead lap eighteen and when Neuman stumbled on the cushion in turn three the next time around, Sarff would drive under him to be the first to take the white flag. Armitage was right there as well and it would be a three car race for the win over the final lap with Neuman again passing Sarff in the final turn to win by just a half a car length. The crowd was buzzing as Jake climbed from the car in victory lane and they gave the local favorite a big round of applause. Armitage would take third followed by Wisconsin driver Parker Jones and heat race winner Daniel Adler.

The Midwest Throw Back Sprint Cars would be up next and much like the AIRS series that we have here in Iowa, these guys are out there to race, not just putt around in these older non-wing cars. Tres Mehler who still races in today's Sprint Car shows in Indiana was the class of the field and was proud to earn his first ever win here at Jacksonville.

Twenty of the twenty-two winged 410's would start the twenty-lap feature with pole-sitter Brayton Lynch taking the early lead. A caution would wave on lap three as Cory Bruns spun in turn four and following the restart Luke Verardi would get to second after starting from fifth. Verardi's challenge would soon end though as he slowed and pulled to the infield just shy of the mid-race point and as Lynch started to work slower traffic Tyler Duff closed in quickly.

Duff would drive under a hesitant Lynch in turn three to take the lead on lap thirteen with both Corbin Gurley and Joe B. Miller in hot pursuit and as the lead trio diced their way through traffic it would be Gurley going to the point with five laps to go. The caution would wave again one lap later when Trevin Littleton and New Zealand driver Zackary Sokol tangled in turn two while racing for fifth and it would be Gurley that would bring the field back to green with four laps remaining.

Duff and Miller would stay tight with the leader on that first circuit , but when they made contact exiting turn four while battling for second that would allow Gurley to get away and race on to the feature win. Miller, who had started sixth, would get the runner-up position ahead of Duff, Lynch would settle for fourth while Joey Moughan who had tagged the wall on the opening lap of his heat race made repairs and battled all the way from twentieth to fifth.

410's to the green at Jacksonville

It was now 9:40 and while the Street Stocks had put on some good heat races and I would have liked to have stayed and watched both the 305 Sprints and a good field of Modifieds, I decided to head for home very satisfied with what I had witnessed. A check of the results after getting home around 12:30 showed that Ryan Taylor, Jake Powers and Nick Justice had finished where they had started, first, second and third in the Street Stock A-Main. The top five in the 305's finished where they had started as well with Jaxton Wiggs taking the win. He had impressed me during the heat race with a high side run that brought him from sixth to second so it was no surprise to see Jaxton at the top of the list for the feature. Burlington's Tanner Gebhardt finished second. And in the Modifieds, front row starters Brian Dively and Tim Luttrell went one-two in their main event. 

Four nights of racing remain on the 2024 schedule for Jacksonville starting with this Friday's appearance of the MOWA Sprint Cars along with the Badger/MARA Midgets. Another fine weekly show will go on September 20th and then on October 4th and 5th it will be the Ron Milton Race of Champions featuring the MOWA Sprints and the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets. Don't be surprised if you find me back in the stands at Jacksonville one more time before the season ends.

On Sunday I left home half past noon, picked up Barry in Pella and arrived at Eagle Raceway just as qualifying was about to start at 6 p.m. for the Inaugural Stewart Alley Memorial. It was a beautiful evening for racing in southeast Nebraska and it was a festive atmosphere with a full pit area and a big crowd rolling in for the two division show. As we made the long trip I told Barry of my memories of going to Eagle on a semi-regular basis when my Dad was transferred for his job to Lincoln from 1973 to 1975 as I also recalled the old Midwest Speedway that was in the middle of town with a tall brown fence trying to funnel the noise of race cars toward the sky rather than out to the neighbors. Let's just say that the facility at Eagle was much more "rustic" than it is today, but the track is still very fun to watch, especially for a ten-year-old who had grown up watching nothing but half-miles in southeast Iowa.

The Malvern Bank SLMR Late Models had just shy of thirty cars on hand with a $4,000 top prize up for grabs while the 360 Sprints Cars were racing for both the Malvern Bank and the Midwest Sprint Touring Series (MSTS) points, but more importantly for a $10,222 winner's check! Plus, as the evening went on, the talented and informative announcing team rattled off an incredible amount of additional bonuses and contingency prizes that just added to the draw.

With the late arrival of many time track champion Mike Boston, that brought the diverse and talent laden field to an impressive count of 53, including several drivers who either race regularly or often with the Sprint Invaders series based here in southeast Iowa. In fact two of them, Colton Fisher and Tyler Lee were impressive in winning two of the six heat races, along with three B-Mains, that were needed to set the 40-lap feature field.

But first let's review the thirty-lap main event for the Late Models where Tad Pospisil and Bill Leighton Jr. would start from the front row. This one would go green to checkers with Pospisil setting the pace until he caught the back of the field on lap ten. The fast way around was the bottom and as the leader looked for an opening under Jake Bridge, Leighton used a higher line and he would be scored as the leader on laps thirteen and fourteen as they still raced behind the soon to be lapped car.

Bridge would slip off the bottom exiting turn two the next lap allowing Pospisil to squeeze under him while Leighton went around him on the outside and with Billy forced to an even higher line, Pospisil was able to get back to the front exiting turn four.

The next challenge for the leaders would come a few laps later as they closed in on both Jason O'Brien and Chris Spieker who were in a battle for position of their own and again Tad showed his patience as he stayed glued to the bottom. In fact, in the closing laps, O'Brien and Spieker actually pulled away from the lead duo by several car lengths and Leighton would not be able to find the traction that he needed to get around the low-riding leader as Pospisil took the win by just a bit more than a car length at the checkers. Chad Holladay was impressive in his Eagle Raceway debut coming from fifth to finish third, Andrew Kosiski advanced from seventh to fourth while Ben Sukup posted his best ever SLMR finish in fifth.

With a five hour drive home ahead of me I was watching the clock and it was now 9:23 with some track prep equipment rolling to the speedway before the Sprint Cars were pushed to the track. The track work was completed quickly though and if the Sprint Cars could race as clean as the Late Models just did, then I would be able to make it home before three in the morning.

Not so fast my friend!

Quick qualifier on the night, Tony Rost had spun in turn two on the opening lap of his heat race, but was allowed to restart in his original sixth position and he would finish fourth giving him enough points to be in the six driver redraw where he pulled the three for the feature. And again, on the opening lap Rost would spin in turn four to bring out the caution. This time, he would restart the race from the rear.

On the second try Cam Martin would get out of shape in turn two nearly going over as he tangled with Riley Goodno and again the race would have to look for a third try to get a start and this one would stick with pole-sitter Kaleb Johnson setting a quick pace. The racing was fantastic as drivers used all of the wide racing surface and there were some nasty slide jobs being thrown, in particular by Aaron Reutzel as he was coming from his fifth starting spot. The talented Texan would drive all the way across the bottom of turn three and into turn four before sliding to the top at the exit of turn four and after getting to third he tried the same move again , but this time he spin out on the front stretch.

Following the restart one more lap was scored before Don Droud Jr. got upside down in turn three and during the red flag the crews were allowed to put more fuel in the cars with just thirteen of the forty laps completed. In that break Jack Dover, who knows this speedway well from his success here over the years, said that he was concerned that the track would soon take rubber and that they would all be ripping around the top with passing then being a premium.

As the race went back to green Brant O'Banion who had come from twentieth to ninth threw a slider at Colton Fisher, but hit him squared up right rear to left rear exiting turn two. The contact sent Fisher for a couple of flips down the back stretch and he quickly emerged from his car and made his way to O'Banion's #20 to express his chagrin.

Yes, it was now past ten o'clock and I was hoping that this race could just stay green and I found it interesting that when we were back to racing, Dover was one of the few drivers who were trying to work the bottom. After scrambling in the work area, O'Banion made it back out for the restart, but he would shred a right rear and smack the guardrail in turn two on lap twenty-one to end his night.

It would then only take a few laps of green flag racing for Dover's prediction to come true and with ten laps remaining Barry and I tried to get a head start to exit the crowded parking lot. The checkers were waving over Kerry Madsen who had moved to the front on lap eight and we could read the scoring pylon in the infield as we drove out of the facility showing that Chase Randall in the Beaver Tool & Drill #12x had finished second with Sam Hefertepe Jr. third, Kaleb Johnson fourth and that Hank Davis had completed the top five.

It was now 10:24 and after a coffee stop and some loud music during the drive, I climbed into bed at 3:30 giving me less than four hours of sleep before a Monday workday. Believe me when I tell you that this is something more suited for a younger man, but we enjoyed the trip and will have it marked on our calendar again for 2025! Who knows, I must just be retired by then?

With another great week of weather in the forecast I currently have three nights of MLRA Late Model racing in the plans at Tipton on Thursday and at Davenport on Friday and Saturday. Then, on Sunday night, I look forward to making the trip down to what is back to being called the Quincy Raceways to see what new owner Jeff DeLonjay has going on at the quarter-mile bullring.

Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!