Docekal dominates IMCA Modifieds at Benton County Speedway

Joe Docekal put on a clinic in the IMCA Modifieds at Benton County Speedway on Sunday night. After the field was bottle-necked in turns one and two on the first lap, Docekal emerged in second place after starting in the fourth row. He chased down Patrick Flannagan one lap later, then swept past the race leader to assume command. Docekal started to pull away from the field until the race's only caution on lap six.

On the restart, Docekal picked up where he left off and ran away from the pack. As Docekal approached lapped traffic around the midway point of the 20-lapper, Shawn Ryan worked through the field and challenged Flannagan for second. Ryan, who started in the fifth row, slipped beneath Flannagan on the 10th circuit, but remained a straightaway behind Docekal.

Docekal pulled away from the field to score the win by nearly half of a track ahead of Ryan and Flannagan on the ultra-fast, smooth quarter-mile. In the tech area, Joe asked how the race looked. When I joked to him it was "boring" from an excitement standpoint, he laughed. Docekal said it "felt good" and then I informed him he was nearly half a track ahead of the second place car. His response was simply, "Really?" Docekal was truly the class of the field tonight.

1. 12D Joe Docekal
2. 91 Shawn Ryan
3. F7 Patrick Flannagan
4. 33D Scott Hogan
5. T23 Tony Olson
6. 22 Brandon Banks
7. 25T Duane Peterson
8. 01 Ed Thomas
9. 7 Todd Jensen
10. 111 Buster Pate

Curt Hilmer set the early pace in the 15-lap IMCA SportMod feature. Hilmer distanced himself from second-running Dave Schulze while Kyle Olson marched through the field from a fourth row starting spot. By the time the first caution waved on lap five, Olson was running fourth and quickly disposed of Brennen Chipp when racing resumed.

As Olson worked toward the front, Schulze made his to the inside of Hilmer for the lead just prior to the midway point. Two laps later, Olson snuck below Hilmer to take second and then set his sights on the leader. Olson inched ahead just before the caution flag waved again on lap nine. The caution flag waved again on lap 11 for debris on the speedway, which turned out to be Olson's left rear spring. Despite his newly altered low-rider, Olson held on to score the win ahead of Schulze. Danny Dvorak made a strong run through the field to come home third after starting 11th.

1. K3 Kyle Olson
2. J2 Dave Schulze
3. 3R Danny Dvorak
4. 22H Curt Hilmer
5. 3D Drew Fish
6. 3 Dave McCalla
7. 00 Jim Buhlman
8. 28P Rick Paulson
9. 505 Racer Hulin
10. 33 Ed O'Brien

Three features ran without a single stoppage tonight as the IMCA Hobby Stocks, IMCA Stock Cars and IMCA Sport Compacts ran flag-to-flag.

In the Hobby Stock 15-lapper, outside front row starter Justin Wacha took command at the drop of the green. He paced the field while Justin Stander and Matt Brown gave chase. As the leaders battled, Scott Pippert worked into the mix from a fifth row start as the foursome ran side-by-side, two rows deep at the front of the pack.

Stander made his way around the outside of Wacha on lap five while Pippert worked the low groove. Pippert quickly pulled even with Stander and took over on the following lap. He led the remainder of the event to score the win and extend his points lead. Brown worked past Stander midway through the event to drive to a second place finish.

1. 47 Scott Pippert
2. 78 Matt Brown
3. 67 Justin Stander
4. 25 Doug Laughridge
5. 45 Justin Wacha
6. 09 Brad Forbes
7. 2P Cale Peterson
8. 55 Vince Buchholz
9. 07 Jacob Keiser
10. 11 Brian Bries

In the Stock Car division, pole-sitter Andrew Burk took the lead at the start of that 15-lapper. Burk paced the field as Austin Evens pursued. Evens snuck beneath Burk to take charge for a couple of laps before Burk fought back to assume the top spot once more on the fourth circuit.

As Burk led, Curtis Roster made some noise as he slipped past Evens at the midway point of the event, then went to work on chasing down Burk. Although Roster closed the gap, Burk was too strong as he powered to his first win on the Vinton oval. In victory lane, track announcer Bucky Doren asked Burk why he started pulling from the Quad Cities to run on Sundays at Vinton. Without hesitation, Burk explained that he used to race at Quad City Speedway in East Moline, Ill., but was recently kicked out. Ahhh, gotta love victory lane interviews.

1. 20B Andrew Burk
2. 8 Curtis Roster
3. 9E Austin Evens
4. 3T Scooter Dulin
5. 56T Justin Temeyer
6. 6X Bob Ahrendsen
7. 15 Norman Chesmore
8. 76 Mike Galli
9. 10 John Schaefer
10. 17 Jason Niedert

Although he was one of the last cars at the track Sunday, Nathan Chandler proved to be the fastest Sport Compact in attendance. From his third row starting spot, Chandler ran the low groove past leader Tyler Whalen on just the second circuit to take command of the 12-lap feature. Chandler pulled away from the pack to continue his hot streak at the speedway by taking a convincing win ahead of Bill Whalen Jr.

1. 22 Nathan Chandler (drove his own car tonight and avoided the Chandler Sport Compact Carousel)
2. 00W Bill Whalen Jr.
3. 2 Merv Chandler (normally the #1)
4. 1 Tyler Whalen (normally the #07X)
5. 51 Bryce Bailey
6. 8M Jacob McVay
7. 35 Brett Vanous
8. 13X James Stevens
9. 07 Joe Goodenbauer
10. 2ND Brad Chandler (also avoided the Chandler Chinese fire drill at the start of Sport Compact qualifying)

After a whirlwind tour of six different tracks in the last eight days, my schedule will take a breather for the first half of the week. My next trip will be to Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., on Thursday night for the Corn Belt Clash Late Model Series.

Prior to the next CBC stop, I plan to post this month's installment of the Stats Blitz for Independence Motor Speedway. A lot of the numbers have already been crunched so I hope to have that online sometime tomorrow night or Tuesday night, depending how my return to my "real job" goes tomorrow after a week of vacation. Have a great week!