Hot temperatures and a full moon are easy targets to attribute as general reasons for a longer than usual night of racing at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton on Sunday night. The pits were nowhere near as full as the last event here, the 25th and final Hogan Memorial that was held on July 3rd, but even with mid-90's heat and the "July lull" that often comes with it, there was still a solid car count as the speedway now enters its stretch run for 2019.
This was definitely another night to remember for Jeff Aikey as with two more victories tonight, the veteran driver tallied five feature wins and three runner-up finishes over the past six days!
The Micro Mods were first up as usual come feature time with only five of the six cars signed in able to take the green. And that count was reduced by one more when heat race winner Matt Post spun in turn three on the opening lap and as Skyler Dugan tried to avoid him, contact sent Dugan's car up and over in turn four. Once it was confirmed that Sklyer was okay, his damaged car was towed away and we were back to action with Russ Olson leading the way. Cole McNeal provided the pressure though and with five laps remaining the young driver was able to make his move and score yet another win here in Vinton. In victory lane McNeal noted that this was his twelfth win in twenty-two nights out this year and it will be interesting to see if he will "graduate" to another division in 2020 as I would guess that he too would have success in a full size car much like two of his former Micro Mod competitors did here on this night. Olson finished second with Post in third.
Zeke Wheeler would lead the Compact field for the first five laps until Ashley Reumann made her way to the front. Ashley was looking good and putting some distance on the field as Wheeler did his best to fight off previous winners here Korey Lana and Adam Gates. With six laps to go Lana was able to get under Wheeler exiting turn four and when Zeke's left front made contact with Korey's right rear it turned Lana's car to the right at the end of the front stretch. The wall ends before it gets to turn one, so instead Lana's car hit the berm at the top putting it up on its side briefly before it bounced back down onto all fours.
Wheeler was sent to the pits for his involvement as Lana's car was towed to his trailer and this would put Gates right on the rear bumper of Reumann for the restart. Ashley would do her best to fight off the challenge forcing Gates to use the high side to finally get around her with three laps remaining. From there it was all Gates as he pulled away to take the win. Travis Losenicky took second away from Reumann on the final lap as the Steepeltons, Andrew, Brandon and Alicia finished fourth, fifth and sixth.
As the Hobby Stock feature rolled onto the speedway the call came out for the ambulance to respond to another call in Vinton since the other ambulance in town was already out on a transport, so it would be forty minutes before the 15-lap feature would finally take the green and it definitely looked like the wait had some negative effect on the drivers. After a couple of drivers spun but kept moving, the caution did wave on lap two for Ed O'Brien who had looped his ride over in turn number three. On the restart Matt Brown and Amy Thomas got together sending Brown to the pits for the rest of the night and on the next restart Stoney Leonard had the throttle stick sending him sailing off the top of turn one before crashing head on into the guardrail that protects the pit entrance.
Thankfully everybody was okay and there was a delay as the guardrail was pieced back together so that it could continue to provide protection.
Once back to racing this one would go green the rest of the way with Micro Mod graduate Kaden Reynolds leading the entire distance to take the win. Brett Vanous did show him a nose a couple of times, but with Reynolds hitting his marks around the top, Vanous would have to settle for the runner-position on this night. Leah Wroten finished third, Mike Kimm was one of those early lap spinners, but came back strong to take fourth as Justin Wacha filled out the top five.
Twenty laps of IMCA Modified action would be up next, but the initial start would be waved off when it was decided that pole-sitter Dennis Betzer had not kept a steady pace coming to green. Once the race did start, Betzer's night got even worse when he was tagged by Corey Dripps exiting turn four as the opening lap was scored sending both drivers to the back of the pack. John Oliver Jr. was your leader, riding around the top side that had now become quite precarious with the cushion being pushed all the way to the top of the banking.
A pair of cautions for Jeff Sampson on laps four and seven slowed the field and on the second restart a scramble on the backstretch sent several cars spinning after contact between hometown drivers Jerry Dedrick and Scott Hogan. More cars needed a tow than there were tow trucks on hand, so that added time to the evening and once back to racing Oliver now had the eighth starter Jeff Aikey stalking him around the top. Aikey attempted a slide job in turns one and two on lap nine only to have Oliver execute the crossover to perfection and it looked like the defending All Iowa Points Stock Car Champion would take his first Modified win here at Vinton.
With five laps remaining though the leaders closed quickly on the slower car of Todd Summers who was also riding around the top. With Aikey anticipating to perfection, he went to the low groove to pull even with Oliver as they exited turn two and when Oliver had to enter turn three in the middle to clear the slower car, Aikey found the bite that he needed down low to snare the lead as Oliver drifted back up to the cushion in turn four. It was all but over at that point as the defending IMCA Super Nationals Champion eased away to take the win over Oliver. Aikey's apprentice, young Kolin Hibdon from Nevada finished in third spot while Patrick Flannagan and J.D. Auringer were fourth and fifth.
Russell Damme Jr. would lead the opening two laps of the Stock Car headliner before Tyler Titus spun at the exit of turn four. On the restart Dallon Murty, another Micro Mod graduate, sailed around the outside of Damme to lead lap three as the caution waved again, this time for Scooter Dulin and Shane Ebaugh in turn three. Once back to racing Jay Schmidt would separate the leader from his father Damon and as the lead trio circled the top of the quarter-mile Schmidt waited for a mistake from the young driver. Instead it would be his own mistake that would bring out the next caution as Schmidt missed the entrance to turn three on lap seven and drove off the top of the race track.
On this restart Damon would make sure that he would be behind his son around the top and when Shawn Ritter's bid to work the bottom came up short the son and father duo gradually pulled away. Could Damon have made a move to in the closing laps to take the win? Perhaps, but I am sure that it was a much prouder moment for him to follow his son in for his first career Stock Car feature win at Vinton that now leaves Dallon just 100 wins behind his Dad here.
Ritter was a solid third while Bob Ahrendson was the best of an entertaining battle for fourth finishing just ahead of Norman Chesmore. It should be noted that Ritter's daughter Kenzi and Chesmore's daughter Hannah were also in the sixteen car field making the Stock Cars quite a family affair here at Vinton.
Speaking of family, the sixteen lap Sport Mod feature would come down to a battle of the Olson cousins as race long leader Kyle was being tracked down by the seventh starter Tony. Kyle was riding that fast, but treacherous high line with Tony working down lower and with just two laps remaining Tony nosed ahead at the stripe. Kyle would run a near perfect lap around the rim though and as the white flag waved he would be back out in front by a full car length. Through turns one and two the leader looked like a soon to be winner, but when he had to check up for a split second on the cushion in turn three that allowed Tony to win the drag race to the checkers and score the win. Ben Chapman would finish in the third spot with Danny Dvorak fourth and Aaron Mitchell was impressive in his first visit to Vinton in 2019 taking fifth after starting ninth.
The IMCA Late Models would close out the night for twenty laps and when pole-sitter Scotty Welsh failed to come up to speed as the field entered turn four he was sent to the back of the nine car field for the retry. This would put heat race winner Dalton Simonson on the pole and while the Late Model rookie, a graduate from the Sport Mod ranks, is getting faster each week he would have nothing for Jeff Aikey on this night. Aikey started fourth and would sail to the lead on the opening circuit eventually opening up nearly a half lap advantage in taking his second checkered flag of the night. Simonson would finish second ahead of Matt Ryan who was the only driver who made the pull to Vinton after a late day rainout at Dubuque. Curtis Glover and Logan Duffy completed the top five.
Even with the ambulance delay and the multiple incidents the final checkers waved just past ten o'clock and as I drove home I was trying to figure out if I will get one last chance to see a Mick Trier promoted race night at Vinton. Thanks to Mick, Mike and the entire BCS crew for the hospitality and to announcer Jeff Kropf for the Positively Racing mention.
If you are making your way to Oskaloosa on Tuesday for the Caleb Hammond Memorial make sure that you tune in Kropf for the Southern Iowa Speedway Pre-Race Show on 104.9 FM KBOE starting at, or around 6 p.m.
Hope to see you there!
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