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!
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