It was a near perfect night for racing and the pit area at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton was overflowing with cars as first year promoters Rodney and Debbie Ohrt welcomed in the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models, the XSAN Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds and the Sunoco IMCA Stock Cars for a Tuesday night show on the quick quarter-mile oval. And not only were the pits crowded with 91 cars, the stands were pretty close to being full of race fans as well looking to catch one of the last mid-week single night specials of the 2014 season.
Thirty-four Late Models signed in and following four heats and two B-Mains there were ten pretty darn good drivers watching from atop their trailers as the feature went green for forty laps. This one was pretty much decided during the twenty-five minute long shuffle of Casey's General Stores pizza boxes as Mr. Dominant in the IMCA Late Model division in eastern Iowa, Justin Kay drew the pole position alongside Kyle Hinrichs. Kay shot to the lead at the drop of the green and quickly opened up about a six to ten car-length advantage before Hinrichs found a line around the wide and smooth surface where he could maintain the leader's pace.
As Kay was working traffic mid-race he found himself having a tough time putting a lap on Jason Rauen, but even with that obstacle Hinrichs was only able to close the gap just a bit before Kay found his way past Rauen and again pulled away. With the race going green to checkers with no cautions, there was no catching Kay and there was not much movement in the top six positions. Kay collected $3,000 for the win, Hinrichs went the distance in second, Tyler Bruening started fourth and finished third, while third row starters Brian Harris and Brian Beaudry completed the top five. Young Brunson Behning was sixth, the winner of the most recent event in Des Moines Ryan Dolan was seventh, Andy Eckrich held off older brother Denny for eighth and Matt Ryan completed the top ten.
After having twenty-two cars at Monday night's show in Vinton, the Hawkeye Dirt Tour car count more than doubled to forty-five Modifieds in attendance and once again there were a lot top quality cars and drivers left in the pits when feature time rolled around. Steve Stewart would pace the field early in the 30-lap affair working the very bottom line around the speedway and, after sizing him up for a few laps, Jesse Sobbing decided that the high line was the way to go and he completed the pass for the lead on lap ten. Sobbing started to stretch it out a bit as Brad Dierks and Darin Duffy jousted for second and when the caution waved on lap twenty-two the field regrouped for a restart. It was at that time that I noticed that Brian Webb was sitting seventh on the grid and a check of the notebook showed that he had started back in eighteenth. The race went back to green but only for one lap before a caution for Dusty Kraklio in turn three and now Webb was up to sixth with seven laps remaining. On the restart Dierks established himself in second and tried to keep up with Sobbing, while Webb continued his march to the front using a middle line that nobody else was in, but the checkers waved too soon for him as Sobbing scored the win ahead of Dierks and Webb. Duffy finished in the fourth spot while Kyle Brown came from tenth to fifth.
In typical Stock Car fashion the early laps of the 15-lap main event saw the twelve car field bundled up into one tight group until Timmy Current and David Brandies broke from the pack. Current took the lead from Shane Paris on lap three before Brandies snuck underneath him on lap five. With both drivers trying to run the extreme bottom line, there was plenty of bumping and grinding as Current regained the lead on lap nine only to have Brandies muscle by again a lap later. With the laps ticking away Current gave the cushion a try, but could not mount a serious challenge as Brandies tallied yet another win in a successful 2014 campaign. Scott Pippert, Damon Murty and Jerry Miles completed the top five.
A big thanks to the Ohrt's for their hospitality and while I didn't get a chance to meet Rodney and Debbie on this night, it was nice to say "hi" to announcer Mike Sunken and to chat with with two beautiful young ladies in the pit shack. It's just a number Deb.... :)
Season Championship night at the Cedar County Raceway will be this Friday night August 22nd.
Looking at my schedule, both personal and racing, it might be hard for me to make it out to the track again for a couple of weeks with the Yankee Dirt Classic being my next "sure thing". Don't forget about me though as I will try to stay up on what is going on and share some interesting notes with you from time to time here on the Back Stretch.
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