Jeff Aikey celebrated twice in victory lane Sunday night at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. First it was as a mentor to fifteen-year-old Kollin Hibdon as the youngster from Pahrump, Nevada, scored the win in the IMCA Modified feature and soon after the veteran driver scored a victory of his own in the twenty-five lap IMCA Late Model main event.
It was another busy Sunday in Vinton with Quincy canceled due to wet grounds, and with Dubuque taking a scheduled night off, there were 129 cars packed into the pits across the seven divisions including a season high seventeen Late Models as drivers prepared for the Deery Brothers Summer Series event that will be held here during the Benton County Fair on Thursday June 27th.
The track was black, smooth, fast and ready for action when the Micro Mods lined up for the first of seven features on the night. Russ Olson would start from the outside of the front row and he would be gone from the drop of the green opening up his lead even further throughout the twelve lap distance to take the win. And when asked by announcer Jeff Kropf in victory lane who he would like to thank for getting him there Olson's answer was short and sweet. "My Dad!" Very fitting for this Father's Day.
Matt Post survived a smoking engine in the closing laps to finish second, Joren Fisher went the distance in third and Cole McNeal passed Reggie Rima in the closing laps to finish in fourth.
Twenty cars lined up for the twenty lap Stock Car feature and even though the twentieth car on the grid was Damon Murty you just knew that this was his kind of race track tonight and if the problems that had knocked him out of his heat race had been solved, he would be a contender at the end. Cory Brown would lead the first two laps after starting from the third position before pole-sitter Chris Luloff battled back to take the lead on lap three. Les Blakely who makes the long tow up from Fairfield on a semi-regular basis then tookover on lap five, but all eyes were on Murty as he steadily worked his way toward the front primarily using the high line around the speedway.
When the caution waved on lap eight Murty lined up sixth for the restart and the march was on from there. Five laps later Damon sailed around the outside of both Luloff and Neal Miller in turns one and two to take the second spot and it only took him one more trip around the quarter-mile to reel in and then pass Blakely for the lead.
Hannah Chesmore spun in turn two on lap fifteen and following the restart apparent contact from Kyle Merkes sent the fifth-place car of Russell Damme Jr. for a spin in turn two. On lap seventeen Blakely got sideways in front of the pack in turn two and the stack up left Dallon Murty with damage there while Blakely made it down to the other end of the speedway before he needed a wrecker after spinning in turn three.
Once back to racing Damon Murty closed out the final three laps to take the win and while the late cautions stole some of the glamour from his back to front charge, it was still an impressive way to win his 100th career feature here at the Benton County Speedway. Luloff would finish in second with Jay Schmidt taking third after starting from the sixth row. Scooter Dulin finished fourth and Miller held down fifth at the checkers.
Twenty-three IMCA Modifieds were up next for twenty laps and when pole-sitter Tony Snyder got a bit squirrley in turn two the field scrambled looking to avoid contact. Thankfully most were successful and the field was reset with Snyder now starting from the rear and moving Dennis Betzer to the pole. John Oliver Jr. also advanced from fifth to third and he would take the lead as lap number one was entered in the books.
A lap five caution for Todd Jensen and Jeff Sampson in turn two slowed the field, but once back to action Oliver again pulled away with Kollin Hibdon trying to keep pace in second. Meanwhile behind them the action was intense as both drivers who started from the sixth row on the second start, Jeff Aikey and Joel Rust were making their way through the field. With the laps ticking away Oliver appeared to have this one in hand looking to win here for the first time in a Modified after taking numerous wins in Vinton driving a Stock Car the past two years. However, after scoring lap seventeen Oliver slowed going down the back stretch and then drove straight off the top of turn three bringing out the caution. He then drove back up onto the track in turn four and headed to the pits with all four tires up, an apparent mechanical issue ending his evening.
This would now put Hibdon on the point for the restart with Rust and Aikey side by side behind him and while the young driver did make one slight stumble on the cushion in turn three during the final three laps, he recovered nicely to hold off the challengers and take his first win here in Iowa. It was reported a couple of week's ago by my Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert that Hibdon is staying with Jeff Aikey for the summer and in victory lane Kollin's clear joy made him a fan favorite as he told the crowd that Aikey was teaching him how to race. His mentor was edged out by a bumper by Rust for the second spot but since the top three drivers in each division tonight were given trophies by Fisher Towing, Aikey was right there to help celebrate with big high five. Mike Burbridge finished in the fourth spot and Justin Kay was fifth after rolling off thirteenth.
The Sport Mods were up next and another young driver would add his name to Ryan Clark's list of winners at Vinton. With Quincy's weather woes Keokuk's Daniel Fellows has almost become a "regular" here at Vinton in 2019 despite the near three hour pull and he would line up third in the IMCA average point invert for the sixteen lap main event. Fellows would dispose of front row starters Kyle Bentley and Christian Jordan on the opening lap and not even five cautions and the ensuing restarts could keep Fellows from taking the win, his second of the weekend after also winning in Memphis, Missouri, on Friday night. Ben Chapman would prevail in a race long duel with Danny Dvorak for the second position as Tony Olson was fourth and Joe Docekal behind the wheel of Curt Hilmer's car tonight finished in fifth.
Eighteen Sport Compacts would be up next and with the expanded field the lap count would be fourteen on this night. Andrew Steepleton would lead the first mile of the race before Adam Gates swept around him on the outside for the point on lap five. Gates brought Barry Taft and Korey Lana along with him and those three would break away from the rest of the field to decide this one amongst themselves. The high line was the place to be for all three and even with a bit contact there was no displacing Gates as he held off his challengers for the win. Taft, another wet Quincy refugee was second and Lana who won here for the first time a few weeks back was third. Travis Losenicky was fourth and my fellow Mount Pleasant resident Kody Bowman made the 101 mile trip worth while by finishing fifth.
The track was still wide and fast as the Late Models lined up for twenty-five laps with pole-sitter Jill George setting a quick early pace. With Ryan Dolan in need of shoulder surgery, car owner Rick Dralle had put Jeff Aikey in the #1D car a few weeks back with good success, but tonight the car had been wrapped with Aikey's familiar #77 and he quickly moved from eighth to second before driving under George for the lead on lap five. With Aikey checking out this one looked like it would be a race for second between Darren Ackerman and Nick Marolf who were duking it out in door-to-door fashion mid-race.
Finding the high line to his liking Marolf established himself in second and then began to close in on Aikey as the leader patiently worked traffic. Marolf was on the fly and had closed the gap to about five car lengths with five laps remaining, but when he jumped the cushion in turn two on lap twenty-one he spun to a stop in the grass for the first caution of the race. On the restart Todd Cooney made a big move to get to second only to have the caution wave again on lap twenty-three when Luke Pestka went off the top of turn three. A green-white-checkers restart now had Aikey on the point with Cooney and Justin Kay side-by-side behind him, but there would be no touching Aikey who said this in reference to his car owner Rick Dralle in victory lane. "I told him that it would go faster with some 7's on it!"
Kay, who started ninth, would edge out Cooney for second as Curtis Golver and the eleventh starting Ben Seeman completed the top five.
A full field of Hobby Stocks would close out the evening with fifteen laps of action that saw Stoney Leonard lead the first trip around the quarter-mile oval. Matt Brown would take the point for the second lap, but the man to beat tonight was Brett Vanous who came from the sixth starting position to take the lead on lap three. Even with three restarts along the way nobody could stay with the driver from Quasqueton as Vanous dominated in the victory. Brown was the runner-up, Mike Kimm took third, fourth went to Leah Wroten and veteran Bill Bonnett was fifth. It must have been a wet weekend up in the north land as Brainerd, Minnesota's Tim Gonska was a surprise entrant who started twelfth in the invert and finished eleventh.
In case you didn't know it this is Mick Trier's final season as the promoter at the Benton County Speedway and he along with the talented crew that he has assembled both in front and below the grandstands are putting on some of the best shows that you will find anywhere. I hope to return to Vinton on the 27th for the Deery show and I wish that I could be there for the 25th and final Hogan Memorial on July 3rd, but other non-racing plans will keep me away You had better get there early that night and claim my seat because you can bet that the place will be packed.
Vinton actually wrapped up five straight nights for me at a race track as you can see my reports from Osky on Wednesday and the Sprint Invaders in Eldon on Thursday here on the Back Stretch. On Friday night I enjoyed filling in for announcer Tony Paris joining Mike Van Genderen and his crew for an entertaining night of racing at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri. For the story and results from my colleague Brian Neal, click here.
On Saturday I watched the radar all afternoon and when it looked like it might make it through unscathed I made the trip up to the Knoxville Raceway for night number two of the Brownells Big Guns Bash featuring the Nos Energy Drink World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. As luck would have it though, one last tail of the storm that had passed to the north clipped the speedway around seven o'clock and in true Knoxville Raceway fashion they waited for the track to drain before going to work on it. With a projected start of hot laps at 9 p.m. and knowing that I had Father's Day activities starting at 7 a.m. the next morning I made the tough decision to head back home, but not before having one of the Raceway concessions "special of the night", a Shrimp BLT Po'Boy. Mmm, mmm, it was absolutely worth the drive!
Even with the rain that would have forced most other tracks to cancel, Knoxville was able to complete the full show with the final checkers waving just past 1 a.m. and for the story and full results from Bill Wright at Open Wheel 101 click here.
No racing for me this week as I have a very important event to attend, but here's hoping that you support the tracks of your choice!
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