While the twenty lap Modified feature was the final event of the night, we will start here due to the impact that it has on our 2024 All Iowa Points for the division. With his finishes in Maquoketa last weekend, Ethan Braaksma had pulled even with Austen Becerra in the standings and with social media indicating that Becerra would not be racing at Shiverfest it looked as though Braaksma would have the chance to break the tie with a top five finish at the Harvest Hustle in Marshalltown. Well whatta ya know? Becerra does show up with both his Late Model and his Modified in Donnellson while Braaksma is not on the roster at Marshalltown so now it would be Austen who would have the chance to lock in his second All Iowa Points title in this division.
After winning his heat race in dominating fashion, Becerra would draw the seven pill for the finale needing to crack the top five in order to earn points. He did that quickly moving to fifth on the opening lap before the caution waved for Kurt Kile's spin in turn two. One more lap would be scored before Chris Spalding's spin, also in turn two, and when leader Denny Eckrich would bring the field back to green we would finally get some laps on the board.
Becerra continued his march to the front and after first showing his nose to Eckrich on the inside on lap eight into turns three and four, on the next trip around the 3/8ths-mile D-shaped circuit he would drive to the outside of Eckrich to take the lead. As Austen started to put some distance on the rest of the field he started to search around for the best line, even though you will most often find him on the cushion, and on around lap twelve as he was running the bottom he clipped one of the infield tires breaking the tie rod on his left front. That didn't seem to slow him down at all though as Eckrich and Mark Schulte were not cutting into the lead until the caution waved with three laps remaining as John Oliver Jr., who was subbing for Dennis LaVeine, had spun in turn two.
Bringing the field back to green with the left front wheel flopping around with no cause was not an easy task, but Austen was able to maintain the lead until he jumped the cushion in turn four coming to the white flag. Both Eckrich and Schulte were able to get underneath him and the trio would begin the final lap three-wide only to have Becerra regain the lead in turns one and two. And, when he was able to nurse his broken ride through three and four one final time the win was his along with the five points that goes with it. Eckrich and Schulte, both former All Iowa Points champions themselves, finished second third respectively. Denny won he Late Model title in both 2001 and 2002 while Mark went two straight in the Modifieds in 2006 and 2007.
Kile would rally from the rear of the field to finish fourth while Garret Wilson had a nice run in fifth. Now, with Park Jefferson Speedway adding the Turkey Chase to the schedule for this coming Saturday, Braaksma could still share the All Iowa Points Modified title with a win, but with no tie-breaker Austen is guaranteed his second Modified state championship after winning in 2022, and his third AIP title overall as he won the Four Cylinder championship in 2014.
It looked like Becerra might have a say in deciding the All Iowa Points championship in the Late Models as well on this night as Tommy Elson needed a feature win here at Shiverfest to finish in a tie with an idle Travis Denning to repeat his AIP title from 2023. But it would be Becerra that would race out the the early lead in the twenty-five lap feature with Elston in hot pursuit. Tommy was putting the pressure on though and when Becerra swung too wide off turn four on lap seven, he would smack the outside wall knocking the right rear quarter panel and spoiler loose.
This was the opening that Elston was looking for and he would take the lead a lap later as Becerra struggled to stay in the top five. A caution for debris on lap twelve would bunch the field up once again and Jeremiah Hurst (the 2018 All Iowa Points Late Model champion) would now put the heat on the leader before passing Elston on lap fourteen. The final caution would fly one lap later for Dustin Smith's spin and once back to green Jeremiah was gone driving Joel Callahan's #40 to victory lane. C.J. Horn would take second with three laps remaining as Elston's third place finish would leave him two points shy of Travis Denning who becomes the twenty-fifth different Late Model driver to become an All Iowa Points champion since the point system started in 1967.
Hometown driver Jeremy Pundt finished fourth while Jackson Frankel recovered from a lap two spin to finish fifth.
It was a special scene in victory lane following the Sport Compact feature as Cyle Hawkins went flag-to-flag to record his one hundredth career feature win in the division. It also capped off Cyle's third All Iowa Points title over the past four years in the Four Cylinders and "The Hawk" has indicated that his racing schedule in 2025 will be scaled back due to kids' activities and that when he does race, it will be in a Stock Car. That is good news to the many drivers who have had to chase him to the checkers one hundred times and on this night it was former IMCA Super Nationals champion Josh Barnes who finished second. Spencer Coats was third, Chuck Fullenkamp took fourth and Tim Schnathorst filled out the top five.
The fifteen lap Sport Mod headliner struggled through four caution periods, but while under green the racing was very good with six top notch drivers lined up in the first three rows. They would stay in a tight pack with Jason Roth fighting off the challenges of Jarrett Franzen early on, but after a lap nine restart Dylan VanWyk found a fast line off the cushion entering turn one and he would sail around Roth with four laps remaining. Brandon Lennox would get to second and on a green-white-checkers restart he would take a look under the leader, but there would be no stopping Van Wyk from taking the win over Lennox. Tony Olson would finish in the third spot, Tanner Klingele charged from ninth to fourth as Franzen slipped to fifth.
Olson was doing double duty tonight also driving the #1 Stock Car wheeled throughout the season by Kaden Reynolds and while he was able to win his heat race, Tony would have to chase John Oliver Jr. the entire twenty lap distance in the feature. Oliver who had sold his car a few weeks back shutting down his efforts to overtake Mike Nichols for the 2024 Stock Car All Iowa Points title, would drive Chad Krogmier's #12 to victory lane here over Olson, Keagan Wells, Dustin Griffiths and Andrew Burk.
The American Iron Racing Series was the first of seven features on the night with Robin Atkins going the distance at the front of the field to take the win. Bart Miller finished second, Doug Yates and Tracey Quigley each came from deep in the field to finish third and fourth while Brian Gade was fifth.
A big thank you goes out to promoters Neal Kohlmorgan and Patrick Profeta for continuing the tradition of Shiverfest, an event that will always be close to my heart having been there from the start with then LCS promoters Terry and Jenni Hoenig. It was also nice to talk with both Lynn Richard and Doug Haack on this night, both of whom I look forward to seeing next week in Webster City!
Just one more event for me on the 2024 calendar as we now look forward to our annual trip to the Turkey Bowl in Springfield, Missouri, on Saturday November 16th. In the meantime the Back Stretch will be very busy with our state point standings stories, plus recaps of six more divisions of the All Iowa Points, so bookmark mark us now and we will see you here again soon!
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