Flannagan tops IMCA Modified thriller at Benton County Speedway

Week in and week out there is great racing at Benton County Speedway in Vinton and Sunday night was no different. While there is generally one, perhaps two, features that stand out and lead the chatter at the gates following the final checkered flag, each of the five features in Vinton on Sunday night went down to the final corner. In the case of the IMCA Modifieds, it came down to the start/finish line as the checkers waved.

In the 20-lap Modified feature, it was Richie Gustin starting on the pole with Patrick Flannagan to his outside. Both drivers remained committed to the grooves provided by their starting spots as they ran door-to-door throughout much of the event. During the early and middle stages, Flannagan appeared to have the upper-hand on the top side, pulling ahead of Gustin each time off the corner on the fast, smooth, quarter-mile.

Midway through the event, Gustin had a good run on the low side and shot in front of Flannagan exiting turn two. Flannagan returned the favor by shooting down low and sliding to the top to regain control. The lead pair continued to swap the lead in exciting fashion before Joe Docekal made it a three-car fight just prior to a lap 13 caution.

On the restart, with Flannagan out front, Docekal started to work on the low side of Gustin for second. Those two battled side-by-side over the final few laps, all within a car-length of leader Flannagan. Docekal appeared to have the race won as the leaders exited turn two, when he shot ahead of Flannagan down the back stretch. Flannagan, however, quickly went to the high side and powered off turn four as the leaders made their way to the checkers.

In a photo finish at the line, Flannagan nosed Docekal by a bumper in one of the best races in recent memory at the speedway (and there have been a LOT of them). Gustin crossed the line in a close third.

Patrick Flannagan (F7) works the high side while Joe Docekal (12D) runs the bottom groove late in the IMCA Modified feature. Flannagan went on to edge Docekal by a nose at the checkers to score the thrilling win. (All photos courtesy of Scott Tjabring / Action Track Photography)

The IMCA Stock Cars provided an equally thrilling finish in that 15-lapper. Pole-sitter Paul Shepherd took the lead at the drop of the green with fellow front row starter Austin Evens in tow. Running the low groove of the speedway, Phil Holtz quickly challenged Evens from his second row starting spot. Holtz snuck past Evens after two laps, then went to work on Shepherd.

With both drivers committed to the low line, Holtz repeatedly attempted to sneak between Shepherd and the infield tires through each set of turns. Holtz was able to pull even numerous times, but was unable to make his bid for the lead stick until the final lap. As the leaders were exiting turn two, Shepherd ran a little higher than previous laps and Holtz stuck the nose of his #7H to the inside. He pulled down the back chute with the lead and held off Shepherd over the final half-lap to score the exciting win. With the win, Holtz posted back-to-back victories, which included his Saturday night win at Independence.

Phil Holtz (7H) during heat race action on Sunday night in Vinton. Holtz passed leader Paul Shepherd on the last lap to take the win in the IMCA Stock Car feature.

Nathan Ballard also enjoyed two trips to victory lane in as many days in the IMCA Hobby Stock division. Ballard, who won Saturday at Independence as well, took over the lead just prior to the midway point in the 15-lapper at Vinton to take the win.

In the early going, it was outside front row starter Justin Stander with the advantage. He put a few car-lengths on the field while Ballard, who started eighth, raced through the pack. After just one lap, Ballard found himself in third, then made his way past Jacob Keiser one lap later to settle into second.

Ballard proceeded to reel in Stander and pulled to his inside to take the lead on the seventh lap. He led the final eight circuits to take the win ahead of a hard-charging Eric Stanton.

Nathan Ballard took home top honors in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature, his second trip to victory lane over the weekend.

Nick Roberts took advantage of a late race caution to drive to the win in the 15-lap IMCA SportMod feature. Roberts, who makes the long haul from Des Moines on Sundays, passed Jim Buhlman with just three laps to go to secure the victory.

Nick Roberts (23JR) makes his way through traffic in the IMCA SportMod feature. Roberts made a late pass for the lead to take his first feature win of the season in Vinton.

Steve Miedke took command on the second lap of the 12-lap IMCA Sport Compact feature, then held off Merv Chandler in the late stages to take the win.

Steve Miedke (11) battles Bill Whalen Jr. early in the IMCA Sport Compact feature. Miedke held off Whalen early, then Merv Chandler late to take the victory.

(Complete results are listed following a few more notes on tonight's program.)

Don and Aaron Burkey provided yet another incredible racing surface on Sunday night. Despite a pesky rain shower in the morning and steady and somewhat strong winds throughout the afternoon, the guys rolled out another excellent track. If you weren't there and want to know, ask anyone in attendance tonight how great of a program they saw. Take first-hand accounts of those who were there rather than listening to the yahoos on the message boards who would rather comment about race tracks they don't attend than actually attend a great program. More on that later...

Unfortunately, the boo birds were also on-hand tonight when it was announced that Flannagan was declared the winner of the Modifed feature. Admittedly, it was a close call, however everyone in the tower agreed with scorer Kevin Kemp that Flannagan nosed out Docekal at the line. Much like Pippert a few weeks ago, Flannagan didn't deserve to have his great run minimized in victory lane by the uncalled jeers from the stands.

Making his first-ever visit to Benton County Speedway tonight was Algona Raceway and I-35 Speedway (Mason City) announcer Jerry Vansickle. A last minute decision after Mason City rained out tonight (and after a trip to the Iowa Cubs baseball game), Jerry showed up just in time for the heat races. I told Jerry he was in for a treat for his first visit and he was thrilled with the program. Glad you had fun, JVan! Hope to see you back in Vinton in the near future!

Tonight at the speedway there was also a special event for the Lil' Racer Car Club. In addition to the first candy dash of the season, Janice Smith, the director of the club in Vinton, organized gunny sack races for the kids (both big and small) during intermission. Somehow, prior to last week's rainout, I was "volunteered" to take part in the event and drivers were given the opportunity to challenge me in a race on the front stretch. IMCA Modified drivers Tony Olson and Ronn Lauritzen, along with IMCA SportMod driver Curt Hilmer were up to the challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't fare too well, but it was a lot of fun to "compete" against those guys. Coincidentally, Lauritzen fell in the middle of our race, which put me even farther behind Hilmer and Olson. I thought I did a pretty good job jumping out of the way so I wouldn't land on him while nearly falling myself. Of course, I was disappointed that we didn't see a caution for the spin out on the front stretch! I really think I could have had something for them on a restart! Yeah, we'll go with that...

Curt Hilmer (left), Ronn Lauritzen (second from right) and Tony Olson (right) in one of the gunny sack races during intermission on Sunday night. The clown in the orange, who shall remain nameless, finished last in the event.

Speaking of the Lil' Racer Car Club, Janice posted on the speedway facebook page that nearly 80 kids have already signed up for the club this season. Great job to Janice for getting the kids involved at the speedway this year!

Speaking of facebook, my blog (including a challenge to the readers), continues following the Vinton results, which are listed below...

IMCA MODIFIED
Feature - 1. F7 Patrick Flannagan; 2. 12D Joe Docekal; 3. 19G Richie Gustin; 4. 33D Scott Hogan; 5. 18 Jerry Luloff; 6. 10K Ronn Lauritzen; 7. 1J Jeff Streeter; 8. 8 Tony Snyder; 9. 6 Jason Schoenberger; 10. 171 Buck Swanson; 11. 17 Dawn Krall; 12. 7T Tim McBride; 13. 96 Eric Tuttle; 14. T23 Tony Olson; 15. 1X Stephen Streeter; 16. 14B Shane Burbridge; 17. 15D Dustin Johnson; 18. 22 Brandon Banks; 19. 1JR Ben Chapman; 20. 71 Troy Cordes; 21. 11B Mike Burbridge; 22. 80 Jerry Dedrick.
First heat - 1. Hogan; 2. Banks; 3. McBride; 4. Flannagan; 5. Schoenberger; 6. Tuttle; 7. S. Streeter.
Second heat - 1. Lauritzen; 2. Gustin; 3. Luloff; 4. Chapman; 5. Swanson; 6. Johnson; 7. Olson.
Third heat - 1. Krall; 2. Snyder; 3. J. Streeter; 4. Cordes; 5. S. Burbridge; 6. M. Burbridge; 7. Docekal.

IMCA STOCK CAR
Feature - 1. 7H Phil Holtz; 2. 31S Paul Shepherd; 3. 89B Dave Stricker; 4. 9E Austin Evens; 5. 19J Jay Schmidt; 6. 20B Andrew Burke; 7. 3T Scooter Dulin; 8. 83E Thomas Thompson; 9. 76 Mike Galli; 10. 15 Norman Chesmore; 11. 21DE Jason Deshaw; 12. 52 Nathan Wood; 13. 8 Curtis Roster; 14. 4JR Russell Damme Jr.
First heat - 1. Holtz; 2. Evens; 3. Wood; 4. Schmidt; 5. Thompson; 6. Chesmore; 7. Damme.
Second Heat - 1. Shepherd; 2. Deshaw; 3. Stricker; 4. Galli; 5. Roster; 6. Dulin; 7. Burke.

IMCA SPORTMOD
Feature - 1. 23JR Nick Roberts; 2. 00 Jim Buhlman; 3. 22H Curt Hilmer; 4. K3 Kyle Olson ;5. 3R Danny Dvorak; 6. J2 Dave Schulze; 7. 81 Jesse Belez; 8. 42L Lonnie Mercer; 9. 00C John Van Wechel; 10. 16K Brandon Morris; 11. 28P Rick Paulson; 12. 3B Brian Anderson; 13. 35C Casey Heil; 14. 93 Josh Burrell; 15. 95 Mike McDonald.
First heat - 1. Hilmer; 2. Schulze; 3. Roberts; 4. Belez; 5. 16K Morris; 6. Mercer; 7. Heil; 8. McDonald.
Second heat - 1. Buhlman; 2. Olson; 3. Dvorak; 4. Van Wechel; 5. Paulson; 6. Burrell; 7. Anderson.

IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature - 1. 29 Nathan Ballard; 2. 7B Eric Stanton; 3. 67 Justin Stander; 4. 77 Rod Grother; 5. 55 Vince Buchholz; 6. 47 Scott Pippert; 7. 45 Justin Wacha; 8. 2P Cale Petersen; 9. 07 Jacob Keiser; 10. 09 Brayden Forbes; 11. 6 Randy Vandevegte; 12. 25 Doug Laughridge; 13. 2 Nick Welch; 14. 78 Matt Brown.
First heat - 1. Grother; 2. Keiser; 3. Petersen; 4. Buchholz; 5. Ballard; 6. Forbes; 7. Vandevegte.
Second heat - 1. Laughridge; 2. Stanton; 3. Stander; 4. Pippert; 5. Brown; 6. Wacha; 7. Welch.

IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature - 1. 11 Steve Miedke; 2. 2 Merv Chandler; 3. 00W Bill Whalen Jr.; 4. 35 Brett Vanous; 5. 22T Travis Losenicky; 6. 36DD Gary Peiffer; 7. 8M Jacob McVay; 8. 83 Travis Ross; 9. 75S Dustin Sondag; 10. 111 A.J. Witten; 11. 007 Adam Gates; 12. 22 Nathan Chandler.
First heat - 1. Miedke; 2. Peiffer; 3. N. Chandler; 4. Gates; 5. Losenicky; 6. Ross.
Second heat - 1. M. Chandler; 2. Whalen Jr.; 3. Vanous; 4. Sondag; 5. Witten; 6. McVay.

... There has been a lot of feedback concerning the season opener at Independence last night. While most of what I've heard has been positive, there have been a few concerns expressed, as well. No night is going to be perfect, we all know that, but how you approach a concern will go a long way toward getting answers to your questions.

A couple years ago, I started a facebook page for Independence Motor Speedway with the intent to inform people of upcoming events, give recognition to our drivers and to offer a trip down memory lane with old photos and statistics from the past 45-plus years of racing at the speedway. While many fans have enjoyed being able to congratulate their favorite drivers or revisit memories from years gone by, there have been a few who felt it necessary to voice their displeasure with various things on our page. Needless to say, those comments have been deleted and, when there is a problem with continuous negativity, those individuals are deleted from the page.

The Indee facebook page is viewable to the public, but you are required to be a friend of the page in order to comment. We have reached our maximum number of 5,000 friends, with others requesting to be added. I check the page on a regular basis to see if anyone has removed us, then I add the next person on the list who sent a request. If you want to be able to share your thoughts about the track and racing in general, all I ask that you keep it positive.

It's amazing to me the lengths people go in order to get their negativity seen by others. While not a great number of people have posted negative comments on our page, some of them go so far as to post, repost and repost again after they realize their comments have been deleted. I've received private messages from a few of those posters over the last couple of years, many of whom have cried "freedom of speech" or "can't stand the truth" type comments.

I'll tell you here, I've told people on the facebook page and I've mentioned it to others at the track; we welcome your comments, whether good or bad. Everyone likes a pat on the back once in a while to know what they're doing is appreciated, but we all need to hear constructive criticism on occasion, too. Afterall, each and every one of us has areas in which we have room to improve. We feel the same way about the race track, however it appears that those who post snide, sarcastic comments on facebook, and racing message boards as well, don't do it as a means to get an answer. They do it to draw attention to themselves and to stir the pot. If you have a question or a comment, talk to us in person.

Nobody needs to be told again that racing has suffered in recent years. Yes, it's largely due to the economy, but I truly believe it's also in part due to those who use message boards as their way of making themselves the latest topic of conversation by posting negative, uninformed and totally unnecessary comments while simply looking for others to agree with them. We should be talking about the good things involved in the races we attend and try to get family and friends to go to the track with us. We shouldn't dwell on taking every negative aspect out of every show we see and plastering them all over the internet just to see if what we say can get 10 pages of replies. Those who do are too ignorant to realize that the things they post have a damning effect on our sport.

If you have a concern with something at your local track, respectfully approach the promoter and express it. More than likely, you'll get a response or clarification to your question or concern and, you never know, maybe even a solution to a problem both sides have noticed. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, many people are more interested in the chaos their opinions stir rather than any type of answer or resolution.

As for the "free speech" argument, it's an angle that lacks all merit. Nobody has the right to tell anyone else what can be posted on their facebook page or any other message board. Those web pages are the property of the people who own and/or run them. The only "right" is the right of that person to moderate their page as they see fit. If I don't like the color of your car and take it upon myself to spray paint graffiti on it, is that my right? Of course not. I'm sure you'd be the first person to tell me that, too.

Although I don't visit all of the message boards on a regular basis, I roll my eyes when I see someone who attended a race program post something negative about that program within minutes or hours after the final event. Nine times out of 10, that person was more concerned about getting home to air their opinion to a group of identity-hidden avatars rather than address it... with someone... in person... at the track... they just left.

The bottom line is, all of us are responsible for doing our part to keep racing strong and to welcome new fans. If you want to see more fans and more cars at your local track, then talk it up. If you feel you have no reason to talk it up, then why do you even go? Better yet, why do you even go and then go the extra mile to take the time to comment about it when you get home? Are you truly a race fan or are you a self fan? Racing isn't an individual sport. Anyone and everyone who eats, sleeps and breathes it all summer knows this. It takes all of us to help make our sport stronger, but only a few to make it less desirable.

Yes, the race fans and drivers are paying for a product. Yes, they want to spend their money on the best product available. At the same time, yes, race track promoters realize that the paying customer determines the success of their business. Yes, race track promoters want to offer the best product available. If Joe Racefan has a concern, though, what do you think would be the best way to express it? Here are two options that come to mind...

1) Race home to sign on to your favorite racing web site, go to the section that gets the most hits and type, "That was the worst #@%# program I've ever seen! I'll never go back there!"
2) Catch up with the promoter or track official after the races and say, "Hey, there were some good races tonight, but I was wondering about (insert concern here). Is it something you think can be improved or changed?"

If you think you have an idea that may help improve an area at your local track, it won't hurt to offer an opinion, however it won't help to gripe about it on a message board or a facebook page. If you truly want to make a difference for the good, then make your approach for the good, as well. If you're simply looking to criticize what you perceive as the imperfections of others, maybe it's time to take up a new hobby and leave the true race fans to enjoy and appreciate how they spend their summer weekends.

Finally, don't forget, this Tuesday night is the first event on the 2012 schedule for the JR Motorsports Hawkeye Dirt Tour. The event will be held at Benton County Speedway in Vinton. Gates open at 5 p.m., with hot laps slated for 6:45 and racing to follow. Grandstand admission is $15 for adults and $4 for kids ages 6-12. Kids five and under will be admitted free. Pit passes are $25 each. I'll be calling the night's action while HDT director Bucky Doren will be handling RACEceiver and series managerial duties. If Sunday night's program was any indication of what's to come Tuesday, you won't be disappointed!

With that in mind, just one more note. I want to challenge all readers who were at the races tonight to post a positive comment on this blog concerning Sunday night's show in Vinton. While it seems easy for people to hop on the bandwagon when someone posts negative thoughts, how many people are willing to post comments of appreciation to a crew that put on a tremendous show? Mick Trier, Dana Benning and their team did just that tonight and they should be given a pat on the back for their efforts. If you want to show support for your track without sifting through all of the negativity, do it right here, right now.

I've talked to people who don't want to take the few short steps to create an account to be able to post on the various blogs at Positively Racing, but are willing to sign into message boards to read all the gossip and drama from their local tracks and others in the region. Seems kind of upside-down, doesn't it? Support and promote what's good about racing. I'll admit, I'm skeptical that I'll have many takers, if any.

Prove me wrong, folks. That's an open invitation!

Even if it's just to congratulate your favorite driver, let them know how proud you are of their accomplishments... If your favorite driver didn't win or didn't finish, thank them for their efforts... If the food was good, tell people what you liked... If you won a prize from the lucky number point sheets, give a shout out to the person who provided the prize as a giveaway... If you signed your kid up for the Lil' Racer Car Club, thank Mitch Swinton and Janice Smith for their efforts to get the kids involved at the speedway... If you had a nice chat with a worker at the track, acknowledge them... There are plenty of good things to mention from tonight's show and every other show you attend. Why not spread the word and let others know how great it is to be a race fan? The challenge is yours!

As always, thanks for reading.