Family, friends and the racing community here in the Midwest were stunned by the sudden passing of long time competitor Greg Kastli just a few weeks ago and, on Saturday night in front of another packed grandstand at Hawkeye Downs, Late Model feature winner Nick Marolf drew another big round of applause as he grabbed the flag that had the #73 and Kastli's name on it, and then did a victory lap around the dirt covered pavement at the Cedar Rapids facility.
The Downs has been celebrating its 100th year of racing throughout the 2025 season and Kastli, who raced all the way to the end of his 72 years, had great success here. Especially in a Modified where it was one of the tracks that propelled him to the All Iowa Points championship in both 1986 and 1987 and, as a competitor from the start of the PRO Late Model series, "Kazz" was on the mind of all forty competitors that signed in for Saturday's event.
Five qualifying heats and two B-Mains would set the twenty-four car field for twenty-five laps as the finale of the evening. A thrilling finish to the Stock Car main event that saw Dallon Murty execute a perfect slider to take the win, more on that later, gave hope that we would see two and three-wide action throughout the Late Model headliner as well. And in fact the start of this one would be delayed for Dallon's victory lane interview as his Late Model waited in staging on the pole position, so it would be no surprise as Murty raced out to the early lead with fellow inside row starters C.J. Horn and Nick Marolf in hot pursuit.
While the front half of the field settled into the bottom groove, they were still racing two-wide in the back so when the lead trio came upon traffic after scoring lap eight, Murty left the bottom and went to the cushion in turns one and two. That was a mistake for the talented young driver that has had an impressive first season behind the wheel of a Late Model as both Horn and Marolf would go storming by while still trailing the traffic heading down the back stretch. Horn would then lead the field for laps nine and ten before he got loose in turn two causing him to make a run through the infield and as they scattered behind him Marolf would go to the lead with Travis Smock now making his way into second.
On lap twelve, Marolf left the door open just enough entering turn three for Smock to poke his nose under him, but after contact Travis wisely stabbed the brakes and allowed Nick to make the correction so that both of them could continue on at the front of the field. A caution for debris with six laps remaining would take the intrigue of the traffic out of the picture and the Delaware double file restart caused a couple of positions to shuffle as those who were unlucky enough to have to be on the outside row scrambled to get back to the bottom. At the checkers it would be Marolf scoring the win ahead of Smock, Murty, Horn and front row starter Luke Goedert.
Recall that I said that they were still racing two wide in the back half of the field, at least through lap fifteen? That would prove out from the starting positions for the drivers who finished sixth through tenth as Bobby Hansen started eleventh, Jerry King came from fifteenth, Sean Johnson started nineteenth, Eric Pollard lined up thirteenth and Matt Ryan came from eighteenth.
The twenty lap Stock Car feature was the race of the night as Tony Olson came from the inside of row two to take the early advantage before a multi-car tangle scrambled the field in turn three after just three laps had been scored. Pole-sitter Dave McCalla got sideways off the cushion in turn three collecting four or five other cars and once the track was cleared we were back to action. One lap after the restart Bronson Spaw spun at the exit of turn four, but when he was able to get the car headed in the right direction once again the race stayed green and he would now have the leaders closing in on him fast.
With the single soon-to-be-lapped car in his preferred high line, Olson would have to hesitate briefly in turn two allowing both Gage Neal and Dallon Murty to slip by on lap seven and two laps later the red flag waved after Bob Ahrendsen went up and over the universal barriers on the outside of the front stretch. Thankfully the #6 car stayed upright as it came off the dirt surface and down to the entrance of turn one for the paved half-mile, but still it put quite a buzz into the near capacity crowd.
When back to green the chase was back on with Neal, Murty and Olson riding the top line while Kaden Reynolds and Kyle Olson were not far behind. Murty made a couple of attempts on the low line over the next few laps with no success and with just three laps remaining he went diving to the bottom of turn three looking to throw a slider at the leader. However, just ahead in turn four Cody Frerichs had spun sideways and the caution waved before we could see what kind of success Dallon might have had with this move.
No worries though as we would get to see it again coming to lap eighteen and as Murty caught the cushion at the exit of turn four, Neal turned under him and they were wheel-to-wheel at the stripe with Olson digging on the bottom only a half car-length back. Dallon would now have the preferred line in turns one and two though and when Gage was not able to slide up in front of him, Murty would take the point and ride to the thrilling victory ahead of Neal and Olson. Reynolds and Kyle Olson would fill out the top five.
The Mod Lite feature was a good one that saw two drivers breakaway from the eighteen car field and battle it out for the fifteen lap distance. Dan Keltner would set the pace after starting from the pole with the fifth starting R.J. Gonzales in hot pursuit. A pair of cautions with five laps remaining bunched the field back together, but once again that lead duo broke away and they would settle it in the final two laps. Gonzales would pull even with the leader as the white flag waved, but Keltner would drive hard into turn one and stick it on the bottom to shut the door on his challenger.
Not giving in, Gonzales then went to the outside down the back stretch and into turns three and four and as the checkered flag waved Keltner, who is also the race promoter at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction, would take the win by half a car length over Gonzales. Ben George, who had started from sixteenth, would make a final lap pass to finish third ahead of Brandon Cox and Garrett Barber.
The Sport Mods had one of those races where drivers spinning at the back of the field kept breaking up some good racing in the front as four cautions by three different drivers waved over the first eleven laps. Then, with just three laps remaining and as Jason Roth was closing in on race-long leader Tony Olson in traffic, the fifth and final caution waved and on the restart Olson went unchallenged to take the hometown victory from a pole position start. Roth came from sixth to second, Brady Hilmer finished where he had started in third, Brett Thomas worked his way up from fifteenth to fourth and Austin Kemp filled out the top five.
A big field of twenty-seven AIRS competitors signed in and they would be the first feature on the card with Domanic McNabb going flag-to-flag to score the win. Robin Atkins was right behind him the entire distance to finish second, Leighton Potter was third, Bart Miller moved from tenth to fourth and Tracy Quigley finished fifth.
This was my third Dirt at the Downs event over the past eight days and it is hard to describe just how exhilarating each night has been for me both as an announcer with the Sprint Invaders last Saturday night, and as a fan these past two evenings. Being a part of such large, enthusiastic crowds has been fantastic and I have to admit that when Rick Dripps called me in early January to tell me about the plans, I was a bit skeptical. I should have known that both he and Corey, along with Brian Gibson and everybody at Hawkeye Downs would properly plan and then make constant adjustments starting with that first practice night to continually improve the product. The decision to make this a spectacle that would roll out over four straight weekends was fantastic even knowing how much work would have to be done as this never once looked like a "temporary" race track in the three nights that I was here and that is due to the lessons that they took away from each night that race cars made laps around it.
If you have not yet been here to see it, you have one more chance this coming Saturday night October 18th as the IMCA Modifieds will headline featuring an appearance by former NASCAR star Ken Schrader. Sport Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts will also be on the card.
While I have thoroughly enjoyed these three nights, it also saddens me a bit that it takes an out of the ordinary promotion like this to get fans back to the race track. Crowds like this were common place for the tracks that I attended in the 1970's and 80's with the grandstands sometimes overflowing even for weekly shows at West Liberty, Eldon, 34 Raceway and yes here at Hawkeye Downs. I know, I know, so much has changed over the years with the economy, other things to do, blah, blah, blah, but what we have seen here in Cedar Rapids over the past three weeks is that you can still draw a one or two thousand people to come and watch our LOCAL drivers racing from budget classes all the way up to the Late Model division that showed out forty strong on Saturday night.
What can we do to try and make that happen more often at any or all of the tracks in our area? As his final message during the Drivers Meeting on both Friday and Saturday, Corey Dripps said the following, and while I wish I would have recorded it so that I could give it back to you in every perfect word, I will have to paraphrase it instead.
If you don't like something that happens here tonight, you come and see me and we will talk it out and I will either explain our way of thinking, make an appropriate change, or apologize to you. But if you don't talk to me and I see you, or anybody associated with you, posting negative stuff on social media I will absolutely black ball you from this, or any other race track that I am associated with forever. Take a look at those grandstands up there, there has been nothing but positive comments on this effort so far and that is the result and this is what this sport needs right now. Your positive attitude and promotion of this sport is what will bring it back to life.
My good friend Charlie McKenna who was standing right in front of me immediately started to applaud and he was quickly joined by everybody in attendance and rightfully so. And for those of you who might want to argue "what about someone's right to free speech, how could he black ball someone for just saying something online?" You can say pretty much whatever you want in this country, nobody is stopping you, but that Freedom of Speech affords no protections for the repercussions that come from what you say from anybody else besides the government.
Be Positive, support the sport of racing, something that our website appropriately named Positively Racing has been doing sine 2009!
Danny and I would like to thank Rick and Kim Dripps for their hospitality and to Corey, Brian Gibson and everybody who has poured their hearts into Dirt at the Downs we say "Well Done!"
I will be keeping an eye on the weather for next weekend to see where I might be able to catch one more race in October and you can check your options as well on the Special Events calendar at Positively Racing. Don't forget about Shiverfest at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Saturday, October 25th, one of my favorite events that I will have to miss due to another commitment this year so I hope that you might go in my place! The Davenport Speedway has added an event on Saturday November 1st, but I will be in Webster City that night for the Iowa Racing Museum and Hall of Fame banquet instead. Beyond that we will have to wait and see about potential November trips to Pevely and Springfield in Missouri.
Yes, the season is drawing to a close and we appreciate, as always, your visit to the Back Stretch!
