For the second Sunday in a row I made my way north to the Benton County Speedway in Vinton, this time for a special night of racing honoring the "Urbana 5", five young race fans who tragically lost their lives in a traffic accident in 2014. Through organ and tissue donation though, their spirit lives on with over one hundred individuals who were helped and that is why this is an important night for the Iowa Donor Network as well, to encourage everybody to make sure that they are signed up to be an organ and tissue donor. Of course this means a lot to me as organ donation was a key element of the message that we wanted to get out during the four years of the National Kidney Foundation Heartland Tour for a Cure that started in 1998, so if you have not yet indicated your willingness to be a donor, please click on that link and do so.
With $1,000-to-win posted by the track for the Modifieds and Sports Mods, the Urbana 5 group added to that as well making it $1,600-to-win for the Sport Mods and $1,400 for the Mods and for the second week in a row the pit area was overflowing with just shy of 140 race cars in seven divisions.
The Micro Mods were up first come feature time and for the first ten laps I thought that I was re-living last week with Matt Post leading the way and Cole McNeal trying to find an opening under Shawn Fisher for second. On this night though Fisher did leave an opening with two laps to go allowing McNeal to move to second where he then quickly erased the five car length advantage held by Post. Going into turn three for the final time McNeal gave Post a friendly nudge and when Post pushed up the track in four, McNeal zipped under him to take the win at the checkers. Post and Fisher would go second and third, Chad Dugan made the trip down to Waukon to finish fourth and Russ Olson completed the top five.
The Sport Mods were up next for twenty laps and this one would belong to the defending All Iowa Points Champion Cody Thompson. Making the long tow over from Sioux City, Thompson had started last in his heat race, but was able to make his way up to the third and final redraw spot where he pulled the "3". Ryan King and Kevin Goben would make up the front row, but they could not hold back Thompson who would lead the field back to the stripe on lap one.
Just after the second lap was completed fourth starting Kyle Olson spun in turn two collecting Brayton Carter and Tony Olson. The hard contact required Carter's car to be towed to the pits and while Kyle was sent to the back for the restart, Tony was given his spot back since he had spun to avoid.
The caution waved again on lap seven when Ben Chapman spun to the infield on the front stretch and before heading to the pits with his own flat tire, Chapman made sure that Austin Kaplan would join him as he drove up and over Kaplan's left rear during the caution.
Once back to racing Thompson continued to pace the field with Osky regulars Logan Anderson and Dylan VanWyk as well as Super Nationals champ Jake McBirnie trying to keep pace while waging their own battle for position. With just two laps to go Anderson would have his second-place run come to an end with a flat right rear tire and the field was reset for a green-white-checkers restart. That would not effect Thompson though as he again pulled away to win in his first ever appearance at Vinton. VanWyk who is a rookie in the division after racing go karts edged out Tony Olson for the second spot with McBirnie fourth and Austen Becerra coming from twenty-first to fifth.
Later it was announced that Olson had been disqualified in the tech area due to an issue with his carb spacer so that would move McBirnie to third, Becerra to fourth and Kyle Olson, who charged back through the full field after his spin, would now be credited with a fifth-place finish.
The IMCA Stock Cars were up next for twenty laps with front row starters Kevin Rose and Chad Krogmeier completing the first lap side-by-side. Rose would have the advantage on lap two with most of the front runners choosing the low line around the quarter-mile oval. Shawn Ritter chose the top though and he would sail around Rose to take the point on lap three. A pair of cautions on lap nine and lap fourteen kept the field bunched together and Norman Chesmore found that low line to be more productive taking the lead from the high riding Ritter with three laps remaining. Ritter tried to battle back, but could not get it done as Chesmore took the win.
Young Dallon Murty had put his car up and over on its roof during his heat race, but showed no ill effects come feature time as he charged from the back of the twenty car field to finish third ahead of Scooter Dulin and Dusty Vis who had started thirteenth and eleventh respectively.
With Jeff Aikey drawing the pole for the twenty-five lap IMCA Modified headliner I have to believe that many in the large crowd felt that this would be a race for second. Joel Rust had other ideas though as he came from the third spot on the grid to steal the lead from Aikey on the opening lap. With Rust pulling away the action was behind him as Aikey tried to ward off the challenges of Troy Cordes and Richie Gustin and following a lap fourteen caution for Brock Bauman who had driven over the top of turn three you could add the ninth starting Cayden Carter to that mix.
Carter would make his way up to second as the laps clicked off and with four laps to go he had squeezed under Rust entering turn one apparently ready to make a pass for the lead. That effort would be wiped out though as the caution waved one last time when John Oliver Jr. slipped over the top of turns three and four.
Surprisingly Carter would choose the outside of the first double row behind the leader for the restart and he would show just why he made that choice as soon as the green flag waved. With Rust doing his best to guard the bottom, Carter charged into the first corner one line higher and then pitched his car sideways effectively shutting the door on Rust as they made their way into turn two. The plan worked to perfection and as the new leader Cayden Carter would ease way over the final four laps to take the win ahead of Rust and Gustin. J.D. Auringer would finish in the fourth position with Todd Shute coming from fourteenth to finish in fifth.
The Four Cylinders would be up next for twelve laps that would be quite entertaining. Adam Gates and last week's winner Korey Lana would break away from the field with Lana taking the lead away from Gates on lap three with a little contact. Gates was not about to let that slide by so he came battling back and delivered a blow to Lana as well to get back out front on lap five only to have Lana return the favor a lap later.
With the lead duo beatin' and bangin' on each other that allowed the ninth starter Luke Benischek to close in quickly and it would be Benischek who would cleanly take the lead on lap seven. As that battle for second continued behind him, Benischek would drive away to take the checkers with Gates prevailing for second ahead of Lana as the two continued to trade pleasantries on the cool down lap. Ashley Reumann would take the fourth position ahead of Travis Losenicky.
Driving a loaner from Leah Wroten, young Kaden Reynolds raced from third to first on the opening lap of the fifteen lap Hobby Stock feature and appeared to be headed for a convincing win until his right rear tire went flat with five laps remaining. Justin Wacha would assume the lead on the restart with Wroten literally knocking on his back door in the closing laps. Wacha held his line despite the pressure and would go on to take the win ahead of Wroten, Matt Brown, Jake Benischek and Brett Vanous.
An eleven car field of IMCA Late Models would complete the full night of action with John Emerson taking the lead from the pole position and then cruising to a flag-to-flag victory. Nick Marolf started sixth and finished second, Jeff Aikey moved from tenth to third in the Rick Dralle owned car, Dalton Simonson who moved up from the Sport Mods for 2019 finished in the fourth spot and Todd Cooney filled out the top five.
Weekly racing action continues on Sunday nights in Vinton with the next big special event here being on Wednesday July 3rd for the 25th and final running of the Hogan Memorial.
My racing for the week ahead will be limited to mid-week action with plans to be in Marshalltown on Tuesday night for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour event followed up by a trip to Stuart on Wednesday where the Malvern Bank Super Late Model Series will hit the quarter-mile high banks. If Mother Nature allows, we hope to see you there!
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