For me there is nothing better than going to a dirt track race during the annual County Fair. The sights, the smells, the bustle of activity from fair goers, both the race fans and those who have absolutely no interest in what is about to happen in front of the grandstands is the perfect setting for a night of stock car racing. There is a history to it like no other and to think that those of us here in the Midwest are the lucky ones that get to experience it! You just don't have this in other parts of the country.
The Benton County Fair in Vinton was the place to be on Thursday night as the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models along with five other divisions who were racing for track points would provide the grandstand entertainment on a night where the weather had everybody guessing. When we left Mount Pleasant it was 92 degrees and sunny, but ahead of us to the north the clouds were ominous and severe thunderstorm warnings were being issued every few minutes for counties to the north and east of Vinton. This was definitely a night where technology was a plus for racing as our own check of the radar (and one quick call to Ryan Clark) gave us hope that the show would go on. A couple of decades ago, I would have stayed home.
When we arrived at the fair it was cloudy, cool and windy, so much so that I went back to the car to dig out a sweatshirt that always resides in my trunk for just such an occasion, but not before I took advantage of getting some "fair food". The choices were many and all very good, but the Special of the Day at the Cattleman's, a roast beef sandwich might have been the best that I have ever had! I topped that off with a milk shake from the Dairy stand although if I had seen that they had macaroni and cheese on the menu as well I might have made a change in strategy. Is there any wonder why I can't lose any weight during racing season?
With the skies still threatening hot laps got underway ten minutes before schedule and the heat races for the six divisions started right after 7 p.m. Promoter Mick Trier had given Race Director Mike Van Genderen the direction to go into hyper speed mode and while Van Genderen has a reputation for running an efficient show anyway, tonight was amazing to watch. It was clear that the drivers were being directed on the Raceceivers to hustle off the track because as soon as one heat race took the checkers the next one was coming out of the pit area in turn two and were ready to take the green coming off of turn four. The qualifying events clicked off so fast that Mick texted me tongue in cheek "Can I run two heats at once lol" and in less than an hour, just before eight o'clock, all of the heat races had been completed with the Hobby Stocks even running through a bit of light rain.
A couple of scratches out of the 27 car field of Late Models made it where the two B-Mains were no longer necessary so we were now ready for the features and with the skies once again threatening, Trier wanted to move the Late Models to the top of the list but to give them enough time to prepare the Micro Mods would come out first.
Side note here.......IMCA, I love you guys, but you were going to run two B-Mains for a field of 27?? Twelve drivers advanced directly from the heats and you had ten more spots to fill in the feature, plus two provisionals. Do you not TRUST your drivers enough to put all fifteen of them out there at once to make sure that the best ten on this night advance? By running two B-Mains of eight and seven to advance five out of each you run the risk of having them unbalanced as far as quality is concerned, plus that seven car B might have had one or both of the drivers who scratched unable to go for more than a lap or two meaning that all five drivers who actually ran the full race would advance while the first B would have had three drivers who raced hard for the entire distance who do not advance. I have never been a fan of "two B-Mains". Qualify more cars out of the heats and run one B-Main or, if your car count exceeds 40, have a C-Main to then advance to the B-Main. Anyway.....
Just six Micro Mods were on hand tonight, but all six were fast and they used more of the race track tonight than they have in my previous visit to Vinton this season. Shawn Fisher would lead lap one only to have Cole McNeal sweep around the outside of him in turns three and four to take the lead on the second lap. As the race went on for second McNeal absolutely drove away from the pack to win by nearly half a lap leaving me thinking that the time has come for him to also graduate up to a full size division much like his former rivals Kaden Reynolds and Dallon Murty have. Fisher finished second ahead of Chad Dugan, Russ Olson and Joren Fisher.
The forty lap Late Model feature would come to the track next with several drivers still scrambling to get ready as the wind continued to blow and there were sprinkles in the air. Jeff Aikey has been on a roll as of late driving for Rick Dralle and with him drawing the pole position this one looked like it would be race for second. That was definitely the case early for as Aikey pulled away it was John Emerson and Brian Harris doing battle just behind. The first caution of the race waved on lap seven when Vinton native Charlie McKenna slowed with a flat tire and on the restart Harris and Emerson were right back at it.
On lap ten with Harris riding the high side in second, Emerson threw a big slider in turns three and four that this time did not leave Harris enough room and when his rear wheels slipped off the top of the banking he would fade back to seventh place after recovering. The caution would wave on lap twelve for Joe Zrostlik's spin and again on lap fourteen when Paul Nagle got sideways and collected Tyler Bruening with both drivers going to the rear. During this caution the rain would briefly fall again, but after a few laps of packing and some quick hot laps the longest "break" of the night would end and we were back to racing.
Just one lap into it Harris would again find himself headed over the banking when fellow Davenport driver Matt Ryan put the squeeze on and this time Harris decided to put the Lynn Richard owned #15 on the trailer for the night.
After starting ninth Joel Callahan was now on the first row behind the leader for the restart and he would not let Aikey get away this time. As the two approached the slower car of Stacy Griffis as lap twenty-four was scored, Callahan was able to get under Aikey on the front stretch and the two made contact as they set their cars into turn one. Callahan would have the advantage headed down the back stretch but when he went to the top in turn three, there was Griffis right in front of him as Aikey drove under them both headed to turn four. Callahan used the cushion just right though and pulled the crossover to perfection officially taking the lead from Aikey on lap twenty-five only to have the caution wave one last time a lap later when Paul Nagle spun on the cushion in turn four.
The crowd anticipated an effort from Aikey to regain the lead, but Callahan had none of that as he pulled away over the final laps to take his first win of 2019. Aikey would settle for second with Emerson in third. Eric Pollard was impressive all night posting what might be his best Summer Series finish ever in fourth as Jeremiah Hurst came from twelfth to fifth. Tyler Bruening battled back to finish sixth just inches behind Hurst at the checkers while Matt Ryan, Justin Kay, Todd Malmstrom and Andy Eckrich filled out the top ten.
The next event for the Deery Series will be on Wednesday July 17th at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction.
The Stock Cars were up next and when I was here a couple of weeks ago I saw Damon Murty come from twentieth to win for the 100th time here at Vinton. Tonight Damon would start fourth directly behind his young son Dallon who would set the early pace with Dad tucked in behind both running the cushion. Scott Rice was making up ground on the bottom though and was challenging the Murtys before Kenzie Ritter spun in turn three directly in front of the leaders on lap four.
On the restart when Rice again went to work on the bottom, Damon made the decision that he couldn't just follow Dallon any longer and he drove under his son in turns three and four to take the lead on lap five. While this was all going on up front, the man on the move was John Oliver Jr. who had started on the ninth and final row after suffering a flat tire during his heat race. The defending All Iowa Points champion was on the fly and had moved up to third behind Damon Murty and Jay Schmidt when on lap twelve Oliver slipped off the top of turn three and spun to a halt to bring out the caution.
A pair of cautions on laps thirteen and sixteen and their ensuing restarts allowed Oliver to get back into the top five and as Schmidt followed Murty around the top on the final lap, both Rice and Oliver went too hard into three with both of them going over the top of the race track. Murty would get win number 101 ahead of Schmidt as Dan Trimble took third while Norman Chesmore and Scooter Dulin wound up in the top five.
After several cautions in the Late Models and Stock Cars, the Hobby Stock field of seventeen settled in for fifteen laps of non-stop racing. Mike Kimm would lead the opening lap before yielding to Kaden Reynolds who had charged up from fifth. Brett Vanous was one of the cars that Reynolds had passed on his way to the front, but Vanous latched on to the leader and gave chase until there were three laps remaining to make the pass for the win. Reynolds was the runner-up, Justin Wacha started ninth and finished third, Matt Brown was fourth and Kimm finished in fifth.
A stout field of nineteen IMCA Northern Sport Mods were up next for eighteen laps with Tony Olson taking the point from the pole position. Olson was ahead of the pack as drivers like Danny Dvorak, Jerry Miles, Kyle Bentley, Ben Chapman and Joe Docekal slugged it out for position around three cautions periods, the final one coming with four laps remaining. On that restart it would be Chapman who would emerge from the pack and suddenly Olson had company with the leader running up high and the challenger digging around the low side.
Having seen Chapman making progress on the bottom, Olson changed his line into turn three on the final lap but when he left just enough room for Chapman to squeeze between the leader and the infield tire markers, Ben took it and was able to power off of turn four to beat Olson to the checkers by half a car length. Tyler Soppe passed Docekal on the final lap to complete a run up from twelfth to third as Bentley completed the top five.
The Four Cylinders would close out the evening with another clean, non-stop race that saw Cody Van Dusen take the lead from Adam Gates with four laps remaining to score his first win of the season. Van Dusen had started the race from the inside of row four. Gates would take second ahead of first lap leader Andrew Steepleton while former winners this season here Luke Benischek and Korey Lana were next in line.
The final checkered flag waved shortly after 9:30 meaning that this entire six division program with more than 100 cars was run off in just over two and a half hours, something that should be appreciated by all but especially long distance weeknight travelers like myself, Danny, Fred and Darrell.
Don't forget that one of the biggest and best events of the year in the Midwest is next up on the Benton County Speedway schedule as The Hogan Memorial will be held for the 25th and final time on Wednesday night July 3rd. I am unable to attend due to other commitments, but if you are going to make the trip take my advice and get there earlier, because this place will be packed!
Looking ahead I hope that I can get back to Vinton at least one more time before Mick Trier calls it a career as a race track promoter at the end of the regular season here. Although I must say that if this the last time that I get to see one of his events, this was a perfect one to go out on! Thanks Mick!
I am a couple of hours late in posting this today due to the severe storms that moved from north to south in eastern Iowa this morning with strong winds and heavy rain that took down some big tree limbs and knocked out our power. Hopefully 34 Raceway in Burlington escaped the heavy rain as I am looking forward to Saturday night's rescheduling of the Sprint Invaders there. With Knoxville having the night off we hope to see a solid field of 360 Winged Sprints to go along with an already impressive roster of IMCA Late Models, Modifieds and Sport Mods plus the local Mini Haulers.
Perhaps we'll see you there!
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