It was an absolute perfect night for some autumn racing at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton Thursday night, the first of three nights of action for the Darkside Promotions annual Fall Bash, and when the Late Model feature rolled onto the speedway it took us old guys like announcer Jerry Mackey, myself and many of the fans in the stands back to our younger years. For there, sitting on the front row for the 28-lap A-Main, a distance to honor the late Brad Coin, you had two members of the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame.
On the pole you had seventy-four-year-old Gary Webb who continues to race in the Late Model division on a regular basis coming into the night with nine top five finishes including two runner-up showings on the season. And, to his outside, behind the wheel of Joe Beal's #77 for the night you had Ray Guss Jr. who has been keeping his skills sharp by winning a lot of races in the Nostalgia Late Model #38 owned by Keith Simmons. Also in the field for those of us with a touch of grey were Bobby Hansen, the son of another NDLHoF member Curt Hansen as well as Cruz Birkhofer who is the grandson of Dave and the son of Brian Birkhofer.
Okay, so enough of the nostalgia, let's get to the race.......
And after the drop of the initial green that became, okay so enough with the cautions, let's get to the race.....
Guss would lead the way on lap one before the first caution flew, then another caution was needed when a driver spun in turn two on the restart. That same driver would then be involved again with another driver in turn four just after lap three went into the books with Jeremiah Hurst now claiming the lead and that other driver would then spin in turn three after just one more lap was scored.
Finally, the race would stay green for more than a lap or two and Hurst, driving Joel Callahan's #40 would stretch it out as Guss did his best to ward off the younger drivers. By mid-race Matt Ryan had moved to the second spot, but he would be a full lap behind the leader until one final caution waved on lap twenty for a spin by a different driver. Yes, I have chosen to protect the identities of the guilty parties for this particular story.
Once back to green, Ryan was able to maintain the pace being set by Hurst and the challenger then started to search out a different line that would allow him to make a bid for the lead over the final laps. Matt was able to pull even with Hurst using the inside line of turns one and two only to have Jeremiah then regain the advantage in turns three and four, so now Ryan would check out the high line on that end of the track.
As the white flag waved Matt had a big run off the top of turn four so he drove to the inside of the leader in turns one and two with the duo then heading down the back stretch side-by-side. There was a lapped car just ahead working the middle line so when they both aimed for the low line into the final set of turns, there was definitely some "right side love" that sent Hurst up the track and allowing Ryan to take the win at the checkers.
As Matt turned around to park his car in victory lane, Jeremiah nursed his car into the tech area and then climbed out to offer his opinion of the events during Jerry Mackey's victory lane interview. Thankfully the veteran announcer knew when to hit the off switch and, after speaking his mind, Hurst went back to his car in the infield not happy with being tonight's runner-up.
Guss did a great job holding on for third with Nick Marolf coming from twelfth to fourth. Mitch Morris who is closing out an impressive rookie season in a Late Model filled out the top five. A couple of other veterans Steve Johnson and Fred Remley were next in line with Gary Webb holding down the eighth spot in the twenty car field.
The 4 Stocks would be up next and, as they so often do, they ran off their twelve lap feature with just one caution when Saint Charles, Illinois, visitor Paul Lullo spun on lap eight. Alex Hayes would lead early before swapping the lead back and forth with Cyle Hawkins and once Cyle took control at the mid-race mark, Hayes would have his night come to an early end when his right front tire blew while running third.
After the lap eight restart Dustin Forbes would stay glued to the back bumper of the leader, but there would be no getting around Hawkins who will soon be the first driver ever to capture three All Iowa Points championships in the Four Cylinder division. Shawn McDermott would take third, Mitch Bielenberg was fourth and Josh Starr wrapped up the top five.
The twenty lap Stock Car feature had a bit of yellow fever as well, but it was during the final four laps of the race when the caution waved on lap sixteen, lap seventeen and lap eighteen. Too bad as it looked like we were setting up for a good one where Jeff Larson was hugging the bottom trying to hold off the ultimate catfisher Jeff Mueller while Dallon Murty was just about to give a higher line a try to see if he could slip around both of them. With the stops and starts at the end though, that never happened and it would be the Modified ace Larson putting Lee Kinsella's #21 in victory lane ahead of Mueller and the eleventh starting Murty.
Gage Neal who was in contention early finished fourth while California's Paul Stone was impressive coming from the ninth row after winning one of the two B-Mains to finish fifth.
Jordan Miles has had a spectacular 2024 season currently ranked second in the All Iowa Points and he would dominate off the front row to win tonight's fifteen lap headliner for his eighteenth Hobby Stock win of the season. Bradly Graham would take the second spot, Corey Vanderwilt was third, Daniel Wauters finished fourth and Randy Lamar filled out the top five.
As usual this was a well run show, but with nearly 180 cars in the pits that makes for a long show and with work in the morning we would hit the road at 10:30 prior to Tony Olson's win in the Sport Mods and Cody Laney's victory over a stout field of fifty Modifieds.
The action continues tonight and Saturday in Tipton.
My plan was to go to night one of the Harvest Hustle, but an intense early morning line of thunderstorms left the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson too wet for Friday, so this will be a one day show on Saturday. Perhaps we'll see you there!
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