Carter collects Hawkeye Dirt Tour win at Benton County Speedway

Although pressured late by J.D. Auringer, second-year IMCA Modified driver Cayden Carter held on to score the win in the season opener for the Karl Performance Hawkeye Dirt Tour at Benton County Speedway Tuesday night. (Complete results follow.)

Carter, who started outside of Patrick Flannagan on the front row of the 27-car field, took the lead at the drop of the green. He paced the field while Flannagan, Scott Hogan, Richie Gustin and Jimmy Gustin jockeyed for position behind him.

A couple of early cautions bunched the field and allowed Auringer, who started 15th, to stay within striking distance. Following a mid-race stoppage that involved Richie Gustin and Flannagan, among others, Auringer took the green flag in second place on a lap 17 restart.

While the leaders remained primarily dialed in on the top side of the fast quarter-mile, Auringer made his charge to the front sharing time on the bottom of the speedway. He continued those efforts in the waning laps in attempt to challenge Carter.

Auringer pulled even with the leader numerous times over the final laps, but was unable to gain enough ground on the bottom and settled in behind the leader. Carter raced to his first career HDT series win in the 30-lapper and Hogan made his way around Auringer late to steal second

In other action, IMCA sacntioned SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts were also on the schedule. All three of those divisions raced for state, regional and national points, however track points were not awarded.

Brennen Chipp led the 15-lap IMCA Northern SportMod feature to green. From his outside front row starting spot, Chipp assumed command with Damon Murty, driving the #CH19 of Colby Heishman, in tow.

Nick Roberts, Danny Dvorak and Joel Rust entered the mix for second while Chipp maintained a few car-lengths over the field. The trio following Murty advanced when Murty drifted high in turn four with five laps to go. The scatter for position allowed Roberts to take over second and then he quickly went to work on running down Chipp.

On the 12th circuit, Roberts powered past Chipp to take command, then led to the checkers to take the win, his third in Vinton this season. Dvorak ran second ahead of Jenae Gustin, who made an impressive run to third after starting in the sixth row.

Benji Irvine made his way around Kyle Parizek seven laps into the 15-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature when Parizek suffered a right rear flat on his #17K. Irvine then pulled away and appeared to be on his way to an easy victory when he slipped off the high side of turn four with only a couple of laps to go.

Irvine, who built a straightaway lead before that mishap, was able to pop back onto the speedway and hold the lead by a couple of car-lengths ahead of Nathan Ballard. Although Ballard pressured the leader in the final moments, Irvine drove to the win.

Tyler Whalen led all 10 laps to score his first win of the season in the IMCA Sport Compact division, his first-ever in Vinton. Whalen held off heavy pressure from his father, Bill Whalen Jr., and Merv Chandler to earn the victory. Chandler edged the elder Whalen at the line to take second.

It was a great night of racing in Vinton that ended just before 10 p.m. It was a pleasure to call the action with Jerry Vansickel. Since I was on the mic and unable to take notes, a more detailed recap of the event will likely be available in Jeff Broeg's Back Stretch column here at Positively Racing.

Have a great rest of the week!

RESULTS
HDT IMCA MODIFIED
Feature: 1. 10C Cayden Carter (Oskaloosa); 2. 33D Scott Hogan (Vinton); 3. 00J J.D. Auringer (Waterloo); 4. 8M Colt Mather (Webster); 5. 27M Mark Schulte (Delhi); 6. 505 Racer Hulin (Laurel); 7. X Josh Rogotzke (Sanborn, Minn.); 8. 57V Mike Van Genderen (Newton); 9. 10K Ronn Lauritzen (Jesup); 10. 25X Jake Bowman (Maquoketa); 11. 18 Jerry Luloff (Independence); 12. 20L Zack Less (Hopkinton); 13. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Cedar Rapids); 14. 48J Jacob Murray (Hartford); 15. 19G Richie Gustin (Gilman); 16. 87 Joel Bushore (Boone); 17. 19 Jimmy Gustin (Marshalltown); 18. K1 Kyle Krampe (Baxter); 19. 11B Mike Burbridge (Delhi); 20. 01 Ed Thomas (Waterloo); 21. 14 Matt Bonine (Onawa); 22. 12D Joe Docekal (Dysart); 23. 71W Jeff Waterman (Quincy, Ill.); 24. 21K Kyle Brown (Kellogg); 25. 64 Vern Jackson (Waterloo); 26. 92 Tyler Droste (Waterloo); 27. 80 Jerry Dedrick (Vinton).
Heat one (top 4 redraw): 1. Rogotzke; 2. Mather; 3. Hulin; 4. R. Gustin; 5. Bushore; 6. Luloff; 7. Van Genderen; 8. Less; 9. Docekal.
Heat two: 1. J. Gustin; 2. Thomas; 3. Hogan; 4. Bowman; 5. Murray; 6. Jackson; 7. Bonine; 8. Droste; 9. Dedrick.
Heat three: 1. Brown; 2. Carter; 3. Flannagan; 4. Waterman; 5. Auringer; 6. Schulte; 7. Burbridge; 8. Lauritzen; 9. Krampe.

IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMOD
Feature: 1. 23JR Nick Roberts (Des Moines); 2. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 3. 19J Jenae Gustin (Marshalltown); 4. 26J Joel Rust (Grundy Center); 5. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 6. 7M Kurt Moeding (Mason City); 7. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 8. 51X Matt Webb (Des Moines); 9. 57R Ryan King (Marshalltown); 10. 69JR Johnathon Logue (Boone); 11. 8B Brad Iverson (Grinnell); 12. J2 Dave Schulze (Keystone); 13. T17 Tom Rawlins (Kellogg); 14. 198 Sam Wieben (Dysart); 15. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 16. 339 Kevin Hurst (Janesville); 17. 7D Dakoda Sellers (Vinton); 18. CH19 Damon Murty (Chelsea); 19. 66 Levi Chipp (Latimer); 20. 57K Ross Kitner (Dysart); 21. 11 Bob Ebaugh (Raymond).
Heat one: 1. Buhlman; 2. Gustin; 3. Sellers; 4. Wieben; 5. Hilmer; 6. King; 7. Hurst.
Heat two: 1. Roberts; 2. Dvorak; 3. Webb; 4. B. Chipp; 5. Logue; 6. Rawlins; 7. Ebaugh.
Heat three: 1. Iverson; 2. Murty; 3. Rust; 4. Moeding; 5. Schulze; 6. Kitner; 7. L. Chipp.

IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature: 1. 79 Benji Irvine (Cedar Falls); 2. 29 Nathan Ballard (Marengo); 3. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 4. 77C Andy Coffman (Des Moines); 5. 55 Vince Buchholz (Waterloo); 6. 05 Paul Nagle (Nevada); 7. 67 Justin Stander (Shellsburg); 8. 96R Jamie Songer (Ankeny); 9. 23 Andrew Torkelson (Lisbon); 10. 23G Dustin Tapp (Nevada); 11. 14C Leah Wroten (Independence); 12. 46 Brian Happel (Vinton); 13. 18 Chris Luloff (Independence); 14. 2 Nick Welch (Cedar Falls); 15. 17K Kyle Parizek (Belle Plaine).
Heat one: 1. Luloff; 2. Ballard; 3. Irvine; 4. Songer; 5. Torkelson; 6. Welch; 7. Nagle; 8. Wroten.
Second heat: 1. Wacha; 2. Stander; 3. Happel; 4. Parizek; 5. Buchholz; 6. Coffman; 7. Tapp.

IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature: 1. 07 Tyler Whalen (Riverside); 2. 2 Merv Chandler (Urbana); 3. 00W Bill Whalen Jr. (Riverside); 4. 22T Travis Losenicky (Garrison); 5. 111 A.J. Witten (Cedar Rapids); 6. 7X Zach Marmann (Elkader).
Heat: 1. T. Whalen; 2. Chandler; 3. Marmann; 4. Witten; 5. B. Whalen; 6. Losenicky.