Sometimes the appetizers are better than the main course and that was definitely the case on Tuesday night as the Arnold Motor Supply Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds headlined the annual Salute To Veterans event at the Hancock County Speedway in Britt. With big money on the line for all five feature winners more than 140 cars filled the pit area and a large crowd was on hand on a cool and breezy summer night in north central Iowa.
Feature races for the IMCA Stock Cars and the IMCA Northern Sport Mods would precede the 30-lap main event for the Modifieds and frankly those first two features set the bar so high that it would have been hard to clear no matter what happened.
Hometown favorite Kellie Schmidt would pace the Stock Car field to green, but it would be her fellow front row starter Calvin Lange that would race out to the early lead in the twenty lap affair. With Lange steadily building a healthy advantage there was plenty of action to watch behind him as several drivers were making big charges from deep in the field. One of those was Derek Green who had pulled the twelve in the redraw and by the time he moved to second on lap eight Lange had nearly a full straightaway on him. Everything changed though on lap twelve when David Moriarty spun in turn four and the field was pulled back together for a restart.
Green would take up the challenge on Lange and would pull ahead on lap fourteen as six drivers raced in a tight formation for the lead. As Dustin Larson tried to get under Green a lap later, Lange came charging back off the top side of turn four to lead lap sixteen, but once Larson cleared Green he also passed Lange to become the new leader with just three laps remaining. Cayden Carter who had started in the tenth row was making noise on the outside as Green continued to work the low line and with Lange, Randy Brands, Jeff Mueller and Elijah Zevenbergen also in the mix the fans were on the edge of their seats as those seven cars were all within less than seven car lengths of each other in the closing laps.
Larson who had started from the fifth row himself was not to be denied though as he held off Green to take the $2,500 win with Carter right there in third. Brands came from thirteenth to finish fourth, Lange was fifth, Mueller sixth and Zevenbergen was seventh. As Larson pulled into victory lane Sport Compact driver Bubba Brown came sprinting down the front stretch doing a cartwheel in front of the car before being the first to congratulate Dustin on the win. Not something that you see everyday unless of course you are at a track where the colorful Brown competes on a regular basis.
The Sport Mods were up next and despite the fact that they had two B-Mains scheduled for eight cars at twelve laps each, the 24-car feature field would only race fifteen laps for the $2,000 winner's check. By the way, only four cars came to the track in the second B proving once again why you should only have ONE B-Main no matter how many cars that you have. But I digress.....
Ben Schulze would lead the opening lap before Jonathan Logue squeezed under him at the exit of turn four to lead lap two. Logue looked like he had this one in the bag as Jared Van Deest and Jared Boumeester battled it out for second well behind the leader, but another lap twelve caution, this one for an Austin Schrage spin in turn four, would set us up for a thrilling finish. On the restart Boumeester would get a run on the high side into turn one and he would take the lead going down the back stretch. Logue recovered quickly though and came charging back on the inside to get back out front on the back stretch only to have Boumeester try to squeeze back under him off turn four coming to the white flag.
There was plenty of rubbin' and racin' going on as the white flag flew and that allowed Austin Luellen to stomp the throttle and go to the high side in turn one to not only avoid the potential wreck, but to also take the lead. Luellen literally came out of nowhere on that closing lap to steal the win after starting from the twelfth position. Boumeester was able to secure the runner-up position ahead of Van Deest, Wisconsin driver Todd Wiese was fourth, Colby Fett was fifth and Logue was shuffled back to sixth at the checkers.
A stout field of twenty-four IMCA Modifieds would line up next for thirty laps with a healthy $3,500 going to the winner and from the drop of the green you could almost tell that it would be Tyler Droste collecting the big check. Droste started from the pole and out dragged California driver Lance Mari to turn one before steadily increasing his lead. Joel Rust moved to second early and when Droste started working traffic mid-race Rust was able to close the gap, but he was never able to mount a challenge in the non-stop event. Dirt Tour point leader Kelly Shryock finished third only allowing Rust to gain one point on him, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Hunter Marriott who both won B-Mains rounded out the top five. Kyle Strickler was the other winner of the three B-Mains as only two cars transferred from the five heat races that started either eight or nine cars each.
The next Arnold Motor Supply Hawkeye Dirt Tour event will be during the fair at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday July 19th.
With midnight quickly approaching much of the crowd headed for the gates as the Sport Compacts rolled out for their ten lap $400-to-win main event. Three cautions would wave before the second lap could get scored and with Nate Coopman taking the lead at the drop of the green from his third starting spot this one was pretty much a race for second. Coopman would cruise to yet another win in this division as Lucas Parsons and Oliver Monson chased him in second and third. Some beating and banging dropped Jay DeVries, Ryan Bryant and A.J. Myott out of the top five during the final laps allowing Tim Jergenson and Bubba Brown to finished fourth and fifth. And, once again, Brown enthusiastically jumped out of his car to be the first to congratulate Coopman on the win before doing another cartwheel as the victory lane photos were being taken.
I like this Bubba guy!
The Hobby Stocks would close out the night with another stout field as the driver who currently ranks second in the All Iowa Points, Chanse Hollatz would lead lap one only to have the defending AIP Hobby Stock Champ Cody Nielsen get by him on lap two. Eric Cross who pulled all the way in from Kansas was the cause of one of the three cautions that waved during the twelve lap event that saw Nielsen score the $1,800 win in convincing fashion. Andrew Borchardt slipped past Hollatz late to finish second while Brandon Nielsen and Jamie Songer filled out the top five.
I made the four trip because I knew that I would get to see a lot of top name drivers that I don't get the chance to see down in my neck of the woods and I was not disappointed. There were no evident delays and with the big car counts this show wrapped up at about ten minutes after midnight, but I can't help to think that we would have been out of here at least a half hour earlier if they would have transferred one more car out of each of the heats and then had one less B-Main in each of the top three divisions. Another time saver would have been to simply turn off the caution light when the field was lined up and going down the back stretch instead of having "to show" them each time for a restart, something that becomes real noticeable when it is cool, windy and already past midnight on a Tuesday.
All in all though it was a great race night and one that I will definitely circle on my calendar again in 2018. Keep an eye out on Ed Reichert's One Fan's Travels as he will file his report soon as well.
Next up for me will be the 23rd Annual Hogan Memorial at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton this Sunday night. Hope to see you there!
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