Werner and Anderson Are The Headliners At Cedar County Fair

With my Wednesday work day wrapping up earlier than expected I made the late decision to make the 75 mile trip up to Tipton for the annual Cedar County Fair race. Turned out to be a very good decision as "Doctor Dirt", Al Dlouhy, had the quarter-mile in prime condition and with no mid-event farming needed the efficient five division program would start just past seven o'clock and would have the final checkers fall at 9:11.

The IMCA Modifieds paying $1,500 to win and the IMCA Northern Sport Mods paying $1,000 to win were the headliners drawing in twenty-four and twenty-two cars respectively while the Midwest Jalopies, Mod Lites and Four Cylinder Sport Compacts filled out the card in front of a nearly full grandstand at the well run county fair.

The Jalopies would be up first for twelve laps with Tim Bader leading the opening circuit before a caution waved for debris. On the restart Late Model ace Justin Kay, who had jumped at the opportunity to drive this 1947 Ford for the evening, would move to the lead after starting eighth in the nine car field. It would now be a race for second as Kay drove away to the victory and Bader would fight off the challenges from Mark Merfeld to claim the runner-up spot. Austin Honts and Jeff Blunt would complete the top five.

A nice mixture of drivers ranging from north central Illinois to central Iowa made up the fourteen entries in the Mod Lite division and it would be the driver from the furthest east Brandon Freeburg from Metamora, Illinois, that would bolt to the lead from the pole position. Perhaps the pre-race favorite, R.J. Gonzalez quickly moved from fourth to second working the top rim of the track, but when he slipped over the top of turn four on the second lap Gonzalez would drop to ninth in the running order. With Cory Sonner, Mike Zemo Jr. and Jon Padilla battling for second, Freeburg would drive away for the convincing victory. Zemo would prevail for the runner-up position while Gonzalez raced his way back up to third at the checkers. Padilla would finish in the fourth spot while Sonner closed out the top five.

The twenty-two car Sport Mod field boasted six of the top nine in the current All Iowa Points standings, so you knew that this would be a good one and two of those top ranked drivers, Shane Paris and Brayton Carter, would bring the field to green as the front row. Carter would use the top line to take the lead and he would pace the field until the caution waved on lap six when Kevin Rasdon was turned around as he exited turn four.

On the restart Paris would find the bite that he was looking for down low and he would take the point from Carter who would then drop out of the race a few laps later. Current AIP leader, and the defending Limited Modified champion Logan Anderson had now moved to second after starting sixth and when Paris left the bottom open, Anderson took the invitation to move to the lead on lap ten. After fading early from the third starting spot, Jarrett Franzen found some speed in the second half of the race and he would steadily close the gap on the leader, but with Anderson staying patient on the bottom while working traffic that would allow him to hold off Franzen to take the win.

This would be the second race for Anderson in a car that he had to put back into action after rolling his primary car back on July 3rd in Quincy. Franzen was a close second, Ben Chapman thrilled his local crowd base with a third place run, Paris held on to fourth while Justin Becker came from twelfth to fifth.

Only nine Four Cylinders signed in for the night, but they were all good ones and this would quickly become a battle of the two second row starters, Jake Benischek and Cyle Hawkins. With Benischek riding the top and Hawkins digging around the bottom while lifting his left rear wheel high in the air, it would be Benischek by inches to lead lap one. Hawkins would stay within striking distance throughout the twelve lap distance although he could never mount a challenge as Jake would take the win over Cyle. Shawn McDermott, Mitch Bielenberg and Drew Wise would wind up the top five.

Twenty-five laps of Modified action would wrap up the evening as the sunset provided a beautiful back drop with Matt Werner taking the lead from the pole position. Drew Janssen took up the chase in second, but the race to watch was for third as Brad Dierks, Justin Kay and Jeff Larson would go at it for several laps before disaster struck for the defending IMCA Modified National Champion. Announcer Jason "Big Boy" Frommelt described it best as when Dierks and Kay went by the lapped car of Nick Hillyer, it perhaps "spooked" Hillyer who suddenly changed lanes going down the back stretch on lap ten and right into the path of Larson. The contact sent Larson spinning off the top of the race track and the resulting front end damage would end his evening.

The restart would erase the big lead that Werner had built and many in the large crowd anticipated a challenge from one of their local favorites in Dierks or Kay. Werner had other ideas though as he again drove away from the field and would click off the final fifteen laps to win in impressive fashion. Dierks would slip past Janssen temporarily for second before the young driver from Pella rallied back to be the runner-up. Dierks and Kay would go third and fourth while Spencer Diercks would come from ninth to finish in fifth.

Since I didn't go to the pits I did not get my annual Kathy Dlouhy fix, but you can bet that she was a big reason why this show ran off in such fine fashion. Don't forget that Tipton will host the Gary Reinhart Memorial on Friday July 29th and will then close out the 2022 season with the Darkside's Annual Fall Bash Thursday through Saturday September 29th, 30th and October 1st.

More county fair action is on tap for me tonight as the Sprint Invaders return to the Davis County Fair in Bloomfield, then on Friday night I look forward to the SLMR visit to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. Keep an eye out for us on the Back Stretch!