Cedar County Fair Medals To Diercks, Olson, Benischek, Miller and Honts

A strong, but thankfully fast moving complex of storms swept across the state of Iowa on Wednesday morning putting the annual Cedar County Fair Race in Tipton in doubt. But when the sun returned shortly after noon, and knowing that a special someone from up above was not going to let him throw in the towel, the "Dirt Doctor" Al Dlouhy and his crew went to work. Not only did they have to get the racing surface in shape, but the vast pit area needed work as well and when the time had come to open the pit gates, the haulers for eighty racecars were able to find enough suitable space to prepare for the evening.

This would be the first Cedar County Fair Race after the passing of Kathy Dlouhy and her daughter Alysha spoke to the large crowd prior to a moment of silence and the National Anthem. Her words, while broken at times due to emotion, were spot on about someone who gave her all when it came to life and especially with the Fair and the Cedar County Raceway. And they definitely brought back fond memories to me having had the honor to work with her, and for her on a couple of occasions. She was a true spitfire who took full control and made everyone around her better. She will be remembered and missed for many, many years to come.

Despite the strong purse, the car counts were down in both the Modifieds and the Sport Mods and that might be attributed to the fact that this event did not have Kathy out there pushing it on social media like she had done so well in the past. Still it was a solid group of racers and with a near perfect race track we were all treated to an entertaining night at the fair. 

Yes, you have to shade your eyes for much of the night at Tipton, but the sunsets are worth it

One class that came out strong tonight was the American Iron Racing Series, or AIRS as twenty-five drivers had their classic racecars on hand. The brainchild of Brian Gade, this series has had a steady growth over the years and this is no "exhibition" class, these guys are racing hard as evidenced by a couple of door slams that I spotted during the main event. A former feature winning Modified driver here, Bart Miller would put the Gade Racing #501 out front at the drop of the green and he would hold off a hard charging Robin Atkins late to take the win. Atkins' runner-up effort had started from the inside of row six. Scott Fridley, another former Modified competitor here at Tipton, finished third ahead of Owen Hayes and R.J. Lank. Lank, who now lists Lafayette, Indiana, as his home had started next to Atkins in row six. There was only one caution in the fifteen-lap event and that was on lap two when heat race winner Cody Montgomery spun in turn two.

Tom Honts would lead the opening laps of the twelve lap headliner for the Midwest Jalopies and would soon be joined by Matt Fulton and Austin Honts. The trio would go three wide down the backstretch with Austin Honts taking the lead and with just two laps remaining Fulton would spin in turn two while running second. The two laps following the restart would see Tanner Gerard pull even with the leader, but Austin Honts would hold him off to take the win. Jeff Blunt would take third with Tom Honts fourth and Mark Merfeld would complete the top five.

With two-time defending All Iowa Points champion Cyle Hawkins starting from the front row for the fifteen lap Sport Compact feature, one would have thought that this would be a race for second. Jake Benischek had other plans though as he sprinted to the front from his fourth starting spot to lead lap number one as Hawkins maintained his quick pace. With five laps remaining Cyle was able to pull even with the leader in turns one and two, but Jake was not rattled and fought off the challenge to take the win. Josh Starr was the big mover of the race as he followed Hawkins in for third after starting tenth. Trent Lebarge would finish fourth while Vinton's Colton Stewart took fifth.

The Sport Mod field was stout with three drivers representing five All Iowa Points titles starting in the first three rows. A multi-car tangle back in the pack would send T.J. Patz up and over in turn four on the first attempt at a start and, on the second try, two-time champion Tony Olson (2015-16) would take the lead from the outside of row one. Brayton Carter who won his AIP title in 2020 and who currently holds a big lead in the 2023 standings would challenge Olson through the first ten laps, often pulling even in the corners only to have Tony regain the advantage racing off the cushion and down the straightaways.

A nifty move in traffic by the leader would finally put some separation between the two and Olson would then drive away for the big money victory over Carter. Pole-sitter Jacob Arp was able to hold off the two-time defending AIP champ Logan Anderson to finish third while Justin Becker filled out the top five.

The Modified field would grow to thirteen with the late arrival of two drivers who missed the heat races. Ray Cox Jr. may have actually just been fighting some mechanical gremlins while Farmington, New Mexico's Zane DeVilbiss added some intrigue when his big white hauler slowly drove past the fairgrounds on the county road outside of turn one after missing the entrance. Earlier in the day DeVilbiss had posted on Facebook "What all is Racing today in Iowa", and the comments pointed him toward Tipton. He must have called ahead as I had seen his name listed on the Modified roster in MyRacePass even before hot laps, but for those who were not aware of his pending arrival it was definitely cool to see a long distance traveler arrive late.

The twenty-five lap finale got off to a rough start when the third place car of Joel Rust uncharacteristically got sideways in front of the field in turn three on the opening lap collecting several drivers with the resulting damage sidelining Brad Dierks and Austin Blume. Rust would be able to continue, but would join DeVilbiss at the back of the lineup.

Mark Schulte, a two-time All Iowa Points Champion in his own right (2006-07) would take the point only to have the caution wave on lap three for a Josh Starr spin in turn four. On the restart Spencer Diercks was on the move after starting ninth and he would soon have the #21 usually driven by Ryan Duhme in contention. After a fierce battle with Schulte for several laps, Diercks would take the lead only to have it wiped out when Dustin Kroening spun in turn two before the tenth lap was scored.

Restarting behind Schulte, Diercks would get a big run into turn one and he would slide up in front of Mark to take the point. One more caution would wave on lap fifteen for Starr's second spin and on the restart Rust, who had rallied back to second, would make one run at the leader only to have Spencer hold him off and then drive away for the convincing victory. Rust and Schulte would make the podium with Patrick Flannagan and Kyle Montgomery filling out the top five. DeVilbiss had made his way up to fifth mid-race, but would drop back to seventh at the checkers.

It was a fun night for me as I sat with FloRacing's Dustin Jarrett who was taking a night off to enjoy the view from the stands between his Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series announcing assignments this week and we filled in what little down time there was by talking about a wide range of topics around the sport of racing. This made the night fly by quickly and I was surprised to check my watch and see that it was already 9:50 p.m. when the final checkers waved. 

It is back to another fair race for me tonight as I make the trip over to Bloomfield for the Davis County Fair featuring Sport Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. Get there early to enjoy some of the great food and be ready for another fun filled night at the county fair that is, for the most part, unique to us race fans in Iowa!