What a difference four days can make when it comes to the weather here in eastern Iowa! Faced with high temperatures in the 40's and overcast skies for their second stop of the annual IMCA Frostbuster swing through Iowa on Wednesday April 1st, promoters Rick and Corey Dripps made the early call to postpone the event to Sunday April 4th. Yes, that would be Easter Sunday, and for most tracks that would have never worked, but as announcer Ryan Clark pointed out, Sunday night racing even on Easter has long been a tradition at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton and with temperatures pushing 80 degrees under sunny skies a large crowd gathered to watch what would now be the fourth and final Frostbuster race for 2021.
Even with the dramatically better weather, the car count was probably down from what it would have been on Wednesday, but that didn't matter to these race fans as there was a nice mix of local favorites with a few visitors mixed in for flavor. Even the Sport Compacts that were not officially one of the Frostbuster classes had a new name for many when Fairmont, Minnesota, driver R.J. Esqueda was the last driver to check in.
As is often the case this time of year, a forty degree warmup in four days was ushered in by a strong south wind that quickly dried out the track surface and sent the dust flying. I'm sure that it was not fun to be in the infield tower tonight, but those of us in the grandstands were kept clean as that wind whistled across from turns one and two to turns three and four. What was amazing though was how the track stayed multi-grooved and did not rubber up making for great racing throughout the evening. Corey and his crew paid extra attention to an area of new dirt that had been added during the offseason in turn one, but other than a couple of sprinkles around the top side during the evening, that was all of the "extra" work that was needed to give the drivers a track that they could get out and race on.
The IMCA Northern Sport Mod feature would be the first of five on the schedule with third starting Tony Olson leading the way on lap one. Pole-sitter Brandon Tharp would take the lead back on lap two and he would hug the bottom as he paced the field looking for what I believe would be his first Sport Mod feature win. Defending All Iowa Points champion Brayton Carter worked his way up from fifth to second, but at this point it looked like the dried out surface would give us a "Huggy Pole" parade as Carter and nearly everybody else settled in to running the bottom.
With no cautions the laps clicked away quickly and as the leaders closed in on lapped traffic with three laps remaining, Carter moved up the track to give the higher line a try. There was not enough there to get by Tharp without some help, so Brayton tucked backed in line and waited until the lapped traffic came into play. The white flag waved and Tharp was now right on the back bumper of James Roose entering turn one. Carter would again go to the outside and with the lapped car causing Tharp to pause that was the break that Carter was looking for as he drove around both Tharp and Roose to take the lead and steal the win as he later told Clark win victory lane. "Without lapped traffic I was a second place car tonight."
Tharp will get another shot at that first win when the regular season begins here on Sunday April 18th, but on this night he had to settle for second ahead of Tony Olson and Ben Chapman. Our 2020 Wisconsin state Limited Modified champion Jayden Schmidt would fill out the top five.
The Stock Cars were up next for fifteen laps and if anybody could prove that the top would still work it would be the father son duo of Damon and Dallon Murty, Dad is a three time All Iowa Points Stock Car champion and the winningest driver in Benton County Speedway history while young Dallon is the defending All Iowa Points champ after edging out his father in 2020 and they recently dominated the division at the Bristol Dirt Nationals.
For this fifteen lap event Damon would start fourth with Dallon lined up eighth and it would be pole-sitter Kevin Rose leading the way for the first five circuits. As Jay Schmidt applied the pressure to Rose, Dallon Murty was now finding a line around the top and was steadily picking off positions entering the top five as Schmidt was able to get under Rose for the lead on lap six. This one went green to checkers as well and that was a good thing for Schmidt as Murty was closing fast moving to second with just a couple of laps remaining.
Damon would slip off the top side of turn three with just two laps to go and it would have been real easy for him to stop and draw a caution, but instead he kept it moving and rejoined the field just ahead of the white flag for Schmidt. A few more laps and this would have been a barn burner, but Schmidt would get to the checkers first to score the win over Dallon Murty and Rose. Fifth row starters Shawn Ritter and Jason Doyle would complete the top five and it was an impressive showing for Doyle who has raced in the Sport Mod class the past several seasons.
With a top prize of $2,000 on the line for the IMCA Modifieds the field was stout with Wisconsin's Lucas Lamberies and Illinois veteran Jeff Larson drawing the front row. Lamberies who I believe won a Sport Mod Frostbuster here a few years back would pace the opening lap only to have Larson glide by on the outside to lead lap two. The first feature caution of the night would wave on lap six when Jed Freiburger tangled with another car and spun in turn three and on the restart Cayden Cater would take up the chase of Larson from second.
It was truly a chase though as Larson gradually pulled away only to have his lead erased with eight laps remaining when Dylan Thornton slipped off the top of turn three. The young California driver who spent most of 2020 racing here in Iowa due to Covid restrictions out west is reportedly relocating to Iowa soon and on this night he was driving the #19 normally wheeled by Jimmy Gustin.
On the restart Carter threw a slider at the leader entering turn one, but Larson calmly crossed him over to retain the lead down the back stretch as Richie Gustin pulled even with Carter racing for second. With those two now engaged in battle Larson would again pull away to score a convincing win here at "the Bullring". Carter would ward off Gustin to take the second spot, Saturday night's winner at Boone Ethan Braaksma would charge from eleventh to fourth while Joel Rust finished where he started in fifth.
After just two cautions in 55 laps of feature racing the twenty-one car field of Sport Compacts could only complete one lap at a time through the first five laps and on lap ten the red flag was needed when Tyler Haring went for a tumble in turn two. Instead of running the remaining five laps as scheduled, this one would now be a green, white, checkers restart with race long leader Logan Clausson scoring the win in his sharp looking red #10. Normally a threat to win on Friday nights at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Clausson used his pavement experience to perfection on the wind dried surface to take the win in only his second time on dirt. Ashley Reuman steadily worked her way up from tenth to second and I am sure that she would have liked to test that higher line for five more laps instead of two. James Haring would finish in the third spot, fourth went to Chris Claypoole and defending track champion William Michel battled his way back to fifth after causing the second caution of the event.
The IMCA Hobby Stocks would close out the evening for fifteen laps and when the front row of Russ Olson and Jackson Vsetecka left the bottom open for Kaden Reynolds it was pretty much all over except for the shouting. Luke Ramsey had made the long trip up from Bedford and he would get to the back bumper of the leader mid-race, but with Reynolds glued to the bottom he would have to try something as the white flag waved. Rather than jumping to the top Ramsey tried to enter just one car width higher than the leader and when that didn't work the win was Reynold's, his second of the weekend after also tasting victory at Marshalltown on Friday night. I would think that Ramsey's runner-up finish would secure him the Frostbuster title as Aaron Martin, Nathan Ballard and Brett Vanous filled out the top five.
The sun was just starting to set and at 7:35 p.m. the show was complete allowing all of us to get an early start on the drive home. A big thank you to Rick and Corey Dripps and their entire staff for the hospitality and for all the work that they have put in over the past week just to put this show on. You can bet that it will draw many fans, including me, back to the Benton County Bullring often on Sunday nights in 2021.
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Our trip to Vinton made it two nights of racing in a row after our Saturday at the Omaha zoo followed by racing at the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska. My Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert has a full rundown of the action here in One Fan's Travels so I will just touch on a couple of items. As expected this was a well run show starting right on time at 6 p.m. and we were on our way back to the hotel just past nine o'clock allowing me to catch the spectacular finish of the Final Four matchup between Gonzaga and UCLA.
I had expected The Zags to deliver a beat down on the Bruins, but the only blowouts I saw on this night came in the Modified and Late Model features at I-80. Jordan Grabouski was in a class all his own winning the Modified main event by nearly a half lap over Mike Densberger and that was after a caution had bunched the field with sixteen laps remaining.
Andrew Kosiski would give the family #53 a ride to remember in the SLMR West series feature that closed out the evening as he started from the pole and was never even threatened in a non-stop thirty-five lapper.
In between those two, the Malvern Bank 360 Sprint Car feature had an interesting ending as Terry McCarl held a big lead on a track that had taken rubber in the middle groove. However, with six laps to go McCarl closed in on the slower cars of Monte Ferriera and Brendan Mullen and that allowed both Chris Martin and Jason Martin to close in quickly. With two laps to go as McCarl took a look to the inside entering turn three Ferriera pinched him down and that was all that both of the Martin's needed get past the leader. Chris Martin who was the leader for the first eight circuits before McCarl had put the slider on him would go on to take the win with Jason Martin close behind.
Promoter Joe Kosiski has put together one of the most aggressive schedules in dirt track racing for 2021, including the Silver Dollar Nationals week that now features five nights of action. Don't be surprised to see me out west again later this season.
Looking to the week ahead, the wait for some suspension parts for my car will keep me relatively close to home with the hopes of being at the Davenport Speedway on Thursday night as the Drt Trk Promotions crew welcomes in the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series. On Friday night promoters Brian and Marcie Gaylord have an interesting menu for race fans as the SLMR Late Models will make their debut at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson with both the 410 Winged Sprint Cars and the D-2 Midgets also on the card. Then on Saturday night the 410's will be sanctioned by both the IRA and the MOWA series at 34 Raceway west of Burlington while the Sport Mods and Stock Cars will run in support.
Racing season is here! Get out and support the track of your choice and we will see you back here again soon on the Back Stretch.
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