Three hours and ten minutes for the drive up. Two hours and fifty minutes of racing from the start of hot laps at 6:30 to the final checkered flag at 9:20. Three hours and twenty-five minutes for the drive home with the delay due to torrential rains over the final twenty-five miles. All on a Thursday night where I would still get up for my morning workout and be ready for a conference call at work at 8 a.m. Most people, including my racing friends would consider that to be "crazy", but this was a special whirlwind road trip for me. It was my first return to an event that was so special to me over a four year run from 1998 through 2001 and if the 17-part series on the National Kidney Foundation Heartland Tour for a Cure didn't catch your attention over the winter, I do hope that you will take some time to check it out now beginning with this first "chapter"
In it you will see that the first person to ever book one of our events was Tom Barnes and The Mighty Howard County Fair and in each of the three following seasons Tom would be the first to book the Fair's date into the schedule. We had so much fun coming to Cresco each year for one of the best county fairs that you will find anywhere and amidst all of the people we made some great friends on the Tour who called Cresco their hometown and, or their home track. Two of them, Steve Holthaus and Jeff Larson, were there last night and if not for the 8 a.m. conference call the next morning I would have went to the pits afterwards to track them down. Believe me, I knew that one Hamms would lead to another and that it would be impossible for me to break away in a reasonable amount of time, so instead we will need to have that reunion some other time in the near future!
My original plan for the night was to head for the Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Illinois, for a UMP Summer Nationals show, but when rain pushed that back to Wednesday July 7th I decided to check the weather for a potential trip to Cresco. At three o'clock future radar showed storms developing right over Cresco around race time and then pushing south, but I wasn't about to let "future radar" keep me home and when I arrived at the fairgrounds just prior to 6:30 The Mighty Howard County Fair was bustling with activity. There were lines at every food vendor, the carnival was hopping and there were lines at both the ticket window and the entrance to the grandstands for the night's featured attraction, the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series Late Models proudly supported by USRA sanctioned Stock Cars, B-Mods and Hobby Stocks.
I bought my ticket and set a blanket down to claim a seat before heading out to find something good to eat and by the time I returned midway through hot laps the crowd had pretty much filled the grandstands. Hearing Les Askelson again on the P.A. made it official, it was great to be back at The Mighty Howard County Fair!
The track was nice and racy during heat race action and with some extra moisture added and packed in on the high side during intermission we were ready for four feature races with the B-Mods up first for twenty laps. Dayton Swatek and Dom Mueller would bring the field to green but it would be third starting Jason Schlangen who would take the lead on the opening lap. The hometown favorite, Schlangen was dominant in his heat race and tried to open up another big early lead before the caution waved on lap three for an Adam Mietzner spin.
On the restart Brandon Hare found the cushion to his liking and passed at least four cars in turns one and two as he continued his march to the front after starting eighth. Sixth starting Dan Hovden would follow and we soon had a great three car battle for the lead with Schlangen trying to ward off challenges from both high and low. Hare would sail around the outside of Schlangen in turn two to take the lead on lap twelve while Hovden would use the low side to drop the former leader to third.
That low line would prove to be the better one two laps later as Hovden took the point on lap fourteen and three laps later the caution would wave when Jett Sorenson stopped on the front stretch with a broken left tie rod. On the restart Hare would again try to the top for some momentum, but when he slipped a little too wide he gave up several spots so at the checkers it would be Hovden taking the win over Troy Hovey, Schlangen, Ben Moudry and Hare. While Hovden had started the race from sixth, he actually went too high in turn one on the opening lap and had dropped to fourteenth going down the back stretch so his drive to the win was even more impressive than the stats would show.
The SLMR Late Models would go green next for thirty laps with Darrel DeFrance and Jeff Tharp earning the front row after each were impressive moving toward the front in their heat races and earning those passing points. Tharp would lead the first two circuits, but Todd Cooney was on a mission tonight and flew around him on the outside of turn four to take the lead. After sitting out most of 2020 with health issues that he had experienced prior to the pandemic, Cooney is back and getting faster each night it seems as he tried to pull away from the field. Another veteran driver, Dave Eckrich would not let him out of his sights though and as the duo worked traffic mid-race Eckrich was within five car lengths of the lead before the chaser drifted high in turn four and lost a lot of ground.
That miscue would be the difference on this night as after recovering Eckrich gradually closed the gap once again and as the green flag waved signifying two laps to go he took a look under the leader entering turn one. Cooney would fight off that challenge and after taking the white flag Eckrich would again make a run on the bottom in turns one and two. There would be no mistake from Cooney though as he would hold his line and take the $3,000 victory. Dave's brother Andy Eckrich would be a distant third, Tharp would hold on for fourth while series point leader Justin Kay finished fifth after starting seventh. Last week's winner at Eldon, Chad Holladay was sixth, Jason Rauen finished seventh, Jason Hahne moved from thirteenth to eighth, DeFrance fell to ninth and Jeff Aikey rounded out the top ten.
Fifteen laps of Hobby Stock action was up next with B.J. Dahl leading the way early before Steve Larson powered by on the bottom of turns one and two on lap four. Josh Ludeking would be the man on the move coming from eighth and he be Larson's primary challenger late in the race, but Larson would hold him off on a green, white, checkers restart to take the win. After winning his heat race in fine fashion earlier in the night, former NKF Tour champion Steve Holthaus would finish in third with Paul Seabrooke and Austin Hoeft taking fourth and fifth.
Stock Cars would close out the evening for eighteen laps of non-stop action with pole-sitter Lynn Panos opening up a big lead while Kevin Donlan and Dillon Anderson raced side-by-side for several laps battling for second. This left both Brady Link and Mitch Hovden looking for racing room behind them and by the time Hovden cleared Donlan and Anderson for second on lap ten, Panos had nearly a full straightaway advantage.
I though that we would see Hovden cut into that lead, but instead he had to deal with a renewed challenge from Donlan for second and that would allow Panos to walk away with a convincing and popular victory with the large crowd. Hovden would prevail in the battle for second over Donlan while Link would finish fourth ahead of Tom Schmitt.
Next time my friends!
Tonight's Sprint Invader show at the Davenport Speedway has been washed out for the second year in a row and hopefully southeast Iowa can avoid another drencher today, tonight and tomorrow so that the Invaders can run at 34 Raceway Saturday night. If they race, I hope to see you there.
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