Chad Simpson's bid for a sixth straight Corn Belt Clash Late Model Series win came up two spots short at Fayette County Speedway. Instead, it was Winona, Minn., veteran Lance Matthees making his way to the winner's circle after a hard fought duel with Adam Hensel in the 35-lapper.
Early on, Matthees established himself as the man to beat as he shot into the lead from his outside front row start. He put a few car-lengths on the field while Hensel settled into third place behind pole-sitter Jake Meier.
Running the high groove, Hensel made his way around Meier following the race's only yellow flag on lap nine. Also taking to the high groove was Simpson. After starting 11th, he worked his way around traffic and into the top five by the time the yellow flag waved.
When racing resumed, Hensel worked both high and low to run down the race leader while Simpson went back up top to battle Jeff Aikey and Scott Riechers for position. Hensel pulled onto the rear bumper of the #90 of Matthees a couple of laps after he got by Meier, then worked the low groove in turns one and two and the high side of turns three and four to gain the advantage.
Following the completion of the 16th circuit, Hensel shot to the inside of Matthees in turn one and emerged from the corner with the lead. He continued to hold the edge as the top two drivers started to drive away from the field.
As the top pair pulled away in lapped traffic, Hensel continued to run a groove higher than Matthees, who worked the low side and returned to battle for the top spot. Matthees dropped to the low side of Hensel exiting turn four on lap 24 and held the advantage at the stripe.
The leaders ran nose-to-tail until Matthees swept beneath a pair of backmarkers with only six laps to go. At that time, Matthees appeared to be well on his way to victory, however Hensel closed the gap two laps later as the leaders navigated heavy lapped traffic.
Matthees snuck past another slower car and drove to the victory just a couple of car-lengths ahead of Hensel in a thrilling finish. Simpson worked past Reichers and Aikey to take third.
Corn Belt Clash Results
1. 90 Lance Matthees
2. 44 Adam Hensel
3. 25 Chad Simpson
4. 61R Scott Riechers
5. 77 Jeff Aikey
6. 98 Jason Rauen
7. 45 Curt Martin
8. 3 Kevin Sather
9. 32 Chris Simpson
10. 28C Terry Neal
11. 50 Denny Eckrich
12. 20 Jake Meier
13. 40 Joel Callahan
14. 22 Jill George
15. 16 Tyler Bruening
16. 85 John Kaanta
17. 21A Kelly Meyer
18. 15K Justin Kay
19. 27 Darin Burco
20. 7 Dennis Hillson
21. 88 Kevin Kile
22. 58 Dave Eckrich
23. 28X Justin Mitchell
24. 45K Kurt Kile
DNS 25S Chris Smyser
Corn Belt Clash Points (includes best 4 of 6 finishes)
1. 25 Chad Simpson, 240 points
2. 32 Chris Simpson, 214
3. 58 Dave Eckrich, 208
4. 20 Jake Meier, 198
5. 50 Denny Eckrich, 194
6. 98 Jason Rauen, 192
7. 77 Jeff Aikey, 154
8. 45K Kurt Kile, 152
9. 3 Kevin Sather, 148
10. 90- Lance Matthees, 144
11. 44 Adam Hensel, 138
12. 15K Justin Kay, 138
13. 31 Jason Utter, 136
14. 95 Keith Foss, 130
15. 27 Jake Redetzke, 130
16. 45 Curt Martin, 128
17. 88 Kevin Kile, 110
18. 90X Eric Pember, 106
19. 21A Kelly Meyer, 102
20. 28C Terry Neal, 98
In other action, the Stock Cars and B Mods filled out the racing card. While a draw/redraw format was used, competitors were competing for track points in both divisions.
A multi-car battle at the front of the Stock Car feature kept fans on the edges of their seats throughout the first half of that 20-lap event. Kirk Fauser held the top spot after sneaking into the early lead from his second row start. While Fauser led, Mitch Hovden remained glued to his rear bumper as Lynn Panos worked low and Dan Trimble worked high to get in on the action out front. Bryan Webb joined the battle out front as the top five cars were wheel-to-wheel throughout much of the event.
Midway through the race, Fauser got sideways in turn two, collecting the field behind him and ending his run at the front. On the restart, Trimble inherited the point and continued to work the high side of the speedway with Hovden and Panos in tow. Committed to the low groove, Panos worked past Hovden shortly after the restart and set his sights on Trimble.
Trimble, who was running the extreme high groove of the speedway, dropped one groove lower when Panos started challenging on the low side. The leaders engaged in a thrilling two-car battle for the lead before Panos inched ahead in the waning laps to drive to the victory.
Stock Car
1. 97 Lynn Panos
2. 20 Dan Trimble
3. 15 Mitch Hovden
4. 33 Kevin Donlan
5. 10 Bryan Webb
6. 42 Dan Christopher
7. 62 Kevin Bidne
8. 37 Loren Kuennen
9. 40 Austin Curtin
10. 47 Mike Mauer
11. 44 Dave Gerner
12. 29 Cody Cook
13. 37C Casey Colsch
14. 29X Paul Fauser
15. 00 Jeffory Fels
16. 98 Jeff Roete
17. G1 Mike Padden
18. 00C Danny Cole Jr.
19. 77D Kirk Fauser
20. 12I Ken Irvine
A number of restarts slowed the scheduled 20-lap B Mod feature. Pole-sitter Brandon Hare survived the numerous cautions to take the victory in an event that was cut to 14 laps. Hare led the event in its entirety to score the win ahead of Matt Jones, who started outside of row five, and Jeff Johnson. Joshua Wedo made an impressive run through the field to cross the line in fourth after starting 20th.
B Mod
1. 56H Brandon Hare
2. 23 Matt Jones
3. 38 Jeff Johnson
4. 76J Joshua Wedo
5. 88X Jimmy Broszeit
6. 86 Rod McDonald
7. 14M Brian Mahlstedt
8. 12B Paul Brandenburg
9. 196 Ray Lundry
10. 10T Trevor Fecht
11. 25 Alan Wessels
12. 22B Taylor Bass
13. 4J Jeremy Geisler
14. 12A Curt Teeter
15. 96 LUcas Lundry
16. 16 Eric Verthein
17. 11 Shay Curtin
18. 20 Greg Mitchell
19. 23B Brett Bumgardner
20. 42 Junior Boyer
21. 85 Ben Moudry
22. 44 Brian Lund
If there's one thing that's a certainty in racing, it's that you'll always get your money's worth at Fayette County Speedway. The tidy program offered 67 cars in the three divisions, which resulted in three heats and a feature in each class. The show was completed right at the 10 o'clock hour.
The speedway, which runs weekly on Fridays, will not be in action this weekend. Along with tonight's Corn Belt special, the Hawkeye Dirt Tour makes a stop at the speedway on Tuesday so weekly racing was not scheduled for this Friday.
The Corn Belt Clash returns to action tomorrow (Thursday) night at Highway 3 Raceway in Allison. Hope to see you there!
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