And it shall be written.....
He who throws the first slidejob shalt not be angry whenst thy recipient of said slidejob returns the favor
I wanted to use some fancy font for that, but Blogger doesn't offer up much of a choice for pseudo commandments.
Once again the racing at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson was top notch as the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds closed out a special Monday night of action on the 3/8th-mile oval. Hunter Marriott who just the night before had run second at the Hogan Memorial in Vinton drew the pole position for the thirty lap main event and right next to him would be the driver who has won the last four Modified features here, Bill Roberts Jr.
Marriott would take the lead as Roberts slid back to fourth in the early laps and it was fourth-starting Jesse Sobbing who would take up the chase and soon challenge for the lead. Sobbing would use the low line to take the lead away from Marriott on lap eight and as Sobbing started to build an advantage Marriott now had to fight off the challenges of Mike VanGenderen for second. The caution waved on lap seventeen when Jeff Mueller slowed in turn two and on the restart VanGenderen used the cushion to take over the second spot and then set out to run down Sobbing.
The high side magic was working as VanGenderen drove around Sobbing to become the leader on lap twenty-two, but Sobbing was not about to give in and he worked that low line even harder to regain the advantage by a nose with just five laps remaining. VanGenderen came right back though to nose ahead on the following lap and while Sobbing was able to lead briefly while entering each set of turns, the momentum off of the top side allowed VanGenderen to come back to the front down each straightaway.
As starter Kevin Eggleston waved the green flag to signify just two laps remained Sobbing again dove into turn one hard on the bottom, but this time he allowed his car to drift up to the top in turn two shutting off VanGenderen's line and Sobbing would hold the lead going down the back stretch. After running the past six laps virtually side-by-side each in their own groove, it was on now and VanGenderen returned the favor in turn three but then used his brakes to keep from slipping too high and allowing Sobbing to cross him over out of turn four as the white flag waved. Again going into turn one Sobbing executed a clean slidejob to take the lead off of two and VanGenderen crossed under him and went to the bottom as they entered turn three for the final time side-by-side. The bottom groove stuck for VanGenderen and while Sobbing was looking for an opening exiting turn four it was too late as the checkered flag waved over Mike VanGenderen in a thriller here at Lee County. Richie Gustin who had emerged from a tight two-car battle with Marriott was within striking distance if the two top contenders had decided to get more physical, but he would have to settle for third while Marriott and Jeff Waterman filled out the top five.
After the race, as VanGenderen climbed out of his car in victory lane, Sobbing approached him and instead of a handshake like I expected the two instead went into a series of hand gestures as they discussed the final two laps of racing. I understand that later, once the adrenaline of such an exciting battle for the win had subsided, all was well between these two top competitors who will likely both be back at it tonight, racing for the win as the Hawkeye Dirt Tour moves up the road to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
LCS HDT Notes.......Twenty-nine IMCA Modifieds were in attendance including the Elvis impersonator from Vegas Joey Franklin......Kurt Kile spun on the opening lap of the first heat race collecting both Jeff Joldersma and Jim Lynch. The whole right side of Joldersma's ride was caved in, but he was still able to pass Scott Drake with three laps remaining to secure the third and final transfer position......Bill Roberts Jr. came from seventh to finish third behind VanGenderen and Gustin in the second heat......Drivers from Washington, Iowa, went one-two in the third heat with Brandon Banks taking the win and, even though he now calls Burlington home, Washington native Steve Stewart was second......Three drivers who made long pulls to Lee County transferred out of the fourth heat; Hunter Marriott (Brookfield, Missouri), Mark Elliott (Webster City) and Dustin Brown (Thornton)......Lynch came back to make a late pass of Scott Dickey to take the fifth and final transfer spot out of the first B-Main and I should probably clarify something for those of you who may be looking at full results elsewhere. We had two different drivers named Jim Lynch in attendance tonight with Jim Lynch of Bloomfield running a Modified and Jim Lynch of Donnellson racing a Stock Car. We also had Louis Lynch from Glenwood, Missouri, in action tonight and he was doing double duty driving both a Stock Car and a Sport Mod. Dare I say that we had a.......no I'm not sure that would be P.C.........Local driver Levi Smith drove his butt off just missing qualifying out of his heat and in the second B-Main he had to ride the cushion hard off of turn four coming to the checkers to hold off Nick Roberts for the final transfer spot. Smith even slapped the wall coming off the corner, but kept his foot to the floor......Roberts would secure the HDT Tour provisional for the feature while veteran driver Dennis LaVeine was the track provisional......As mentioned above the XSAN Hawkeye Dirt Tour continues tonight (Tuesday) at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
Support class action was solid as well tonight with good car counts in all but the Hobby Stock division that continues to struggle here at Lee County since false starting on the change from the "outlaw" rules to IMCA rules two years ago. Dustin Griffiths would take the win tonight ahead of Dane Blozovich and Brandon Symmonds.
Dakota Simmons improves each time I see him and tonight he would lead the opening lap of the IMCA Sport Mod 18-lap feature. Ben Kates and Bobby Anders were right there though and on lap two Anders made a nifty third to first move in turns one and two to take the lead. Tony Dunker followed Anders into second and it now looked like this one would be decided between the two talented Quincy drivers. After a pair of cautions on lap eight Dunker was able to drive under Anders in turn three to take the lead and it was soon a three-car battle as Jim Gillenwater had made his way to the front after starting twelfth. Gillenwater had used the low line around the speedway to get there, but with Dunker also working that groove the veteran driver who is donating all of his winnings to charity in this his final season of racing stepped up to the cushion to try his luck. And, with just two laps to go, Gillenwater would drive around Dunker on the outside of turn four to go on and take the victory. Dunker and Anders went second and third, Sean Wyett pressured Anders late but came up a car-length short in fourth followed by another talented Quincy Sport Mod driver Joey Gower who finished fifth.
Austen Becerra has dominated the Sport Compact division almost anywhere he competes this season and definitely here at Lee County where he has essentially been unbeatable. So much so that the track dangled an extra $100 to any driver that could defeat the young driver from Carthage, Illinois, but as announcer Dan Workman said "that hundred dollars can go back in the vault" as Becerra took the lead from Skipp Dunker on lap two and then cruised to another victory. Dunker was well ahead of the rest of the field in second while the race to watch was the three-car battle for third that saw John Whalen prevail over Michael Grossman and Brandon Reu.
The Stock Car feature was another battle between two of the top drivers in the area and who both hail from the small town of Danville. Both are hard chargers and, from watching them race each other previously, I know that they are not against leaning on each other a bit to gain an advantage. There was no leaning tonight though as they raced each other hard and clean as Tom Bowling Jr. would pace the first five laps before John Oliver Jr. got under him in turn four on lap six. Bowling would then lose some ground on Oliver as he had to contend with a challenge for position from Justin Temeyer, but once he was able to shake that off Bowling quickly closed the gap on the leader as the laps ticked away. As the white flag waved the lead was only a couple of car-lengths, but Oliver was steady as always on that final lap and he would prevail in tonight's battle over Bowling, Temeyer was strong in third, Louis Lynch finished fourth and pole-sitter Jeremy Pundt rounded out the top five.
Hawkeye Modified Speedweek rolls on with two shows at Oskaloosa on Tuesday and Wednesday followed by the annual Harris Clash at the Knoxville Raceway on Thursday night. If I continue on as planned the Clash will make it seven straight nights of racing for me that will include around 1,500 miles of highway driving to get there and back. The Kia is in getting its oil changed now, will I see you on the Back Stretch this week?
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