A trio of drivers made their first visits to victory lane this season, while another pair made return trips to center stage Sunday night at Benton County Speedway. (complete results listed below)
At the start of the 15-lap IMCA Northern SportMod feature, it was front row starter Colby Heishman in control. In search of his first win in Vinton, Heishman led the field while points leaders Danny Dvorak and Nick Roberts were making their way through traffic from mid-pack starts.
Dvorak drove into second on the third lap, then Roberts followed him into third one lap later. Just as the leaders were making their way through the first set of turns on the following lap, Heishman was collected with a lapped car which resulted in a caution. Since Heishman was stopped on the track, he was sent to the tail of the pack for the ensuing restart with the points leaders left to battle for the lead.
Dvorak brought the field back to green running the low side with Roberts up top. The front-runners remained in that order until the final restart on lap 12. When racing resumed, Roberts worked the low side to keep pace with Dvorak. He shot to the inside of the leader in turns one and two where they made contact fighting for the same groove, resulting in a flat left rear on Dvorak's ride.
Dvorak attempted to keep pace with Roberts, however Roberts pulled away to take the win, his third of the season. Joel Rust made another impressive run from a fifth row start to finish second and remain the only driver in the division with top-five finishes in all five points races in Vinton this season. Dvorak limped across the line in eighth.
Roberts seems to like the odd numbered race nights as he has now won on the first, third and fifth nights of the season. His fourth Northern SportMod win all-time in weekly racing in Vinton, Roberts is now tied for 10th on that list with Frankie Dulin, Jim Buhlman and Troy Burkhart.
Nathan Chandler picked up his first win since opening night in the IMCA Sport Compact division. Chandler chased points leader Bill Whalen Jr. for a pair of laps before ducking beneath the race leader on the third circuit. He pulled away to take the win half of a straightaway ahead of Whalen.
It was the 37th victory in Vinton for the track's all-time wins leader in the division. His nine wins in the month of May are more than any other calendar month for Chandler. He has now won multiple Sport Compact features in a season for the sixth straight year. The fewest number of features Chandler has won in a single season in Vinton is four, which came in 2008, the year of his first win.
John Emerson put his #87 to the front early in the 15-lap IMCA Stock Car feature. From his second row start, Emerson worked the low side past front row starters Curtis Roster and Bob Ahrendsen by the time the field reached the flag stand to complete the first lap. Emerson drove away from the field to take his first win of the season by a straightaway ahead of Norman Chesmore.
His first win this season, Emerson now has two in his career in Vinton, making him the 21st Stock Car driver in track history with multiple wins. He ranks tied for 17th with Frankie Dulin (the same Frankie Dulin who Roberts tied on the SportMod list Sunday), Jeremy Miller (of Batavia, Iowa, and not Ben Seaver from Growing Pains), Kevin Rose (not the Internet entrepreneur) and Jason Deshaw (not the country singer). Whew.
Emerson also won the IMCA Stock Car feature Saturday night at Independence Motor Speedway. He, Dan Trimble, Justin Temeyer, Tom Schmitt, Damon Murty and Phil Holtz are the only drivers in history to sweep weekend features at the two tracks and they have done it a combined 17 times. Emerson was also the last to do it (July 7-8, 2012) and joined Trimble, Temeyer and Murty as the only four drivers to sweep the weekend multiple times. Temeyer holds the record with six weekend Stock Car sweeps at the two tracks.
Brandon Banks led at the on-set of the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature. Running the low groove on the fast, slick quarter-mile, Banks paced the field while Jerry Luloff ran a groove higher in his #18. From his third row start, Luloff quickly raced into the top three, then worked around the outside of Patrick Flannagan for second on lap three. One lap later, Luloff used the same line to sneak by Banks before pulling away to the convincing win.
His first win of the season, Luloff has now won at least one Modified feature in six of the last seven years in Vinton. It was his third during the month of May. All-time, Luloff has earned 15 Modified wins in weekly racing history in Vinton, placing him seventh on that list. He currently sits one shy of Vern Jackson for sixth.
Luloff also became the fifth different Modified winner in the first five points races of the season. That mark ties 1980, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 as the second-most consecutive winners to start a season. The all-time record for the Modifieds in Vinton is seven straight different winners to start a season, which occurred in 2003. J.D. Auringer, Joe Docekal, Troy Cordes, Patrick Flannagan, Brandon Banks, Tony Olson and Jerry Dedrick are all weekly competitors in Vinton who have all won in Vinton during their careers and hope to keep that string alive next week. Vern Jackson and Scott Hogan are among the list of others who have made multiple trips to Vinton this season, but have yet to break through to victory lane in 2013. We'll see next week if the trend of different winners continues.
Another division that has produced a variety of winners is the IMCA Hobby Stocks. That trend continued Sunday night, as well, as Kyle Parizek became the fifth different Hobby Stock winner in as many weeks.
Parizek ran second to Brian Happel for the first four laps of that 15-lapper before he challenged the low side of the leader in turn two on lap five. After making his way to the front, Parizek drove the high side to victory while holding off the furious challenges of Chris Luloff, Happel and Justin Wacha.
After taking off the 2012 season, the win was Parizek's first since August 28, 2011 and the sixth of his career. He is now tied for 18th on the division's all-time weekly Hobby Stock wins list with Bill Bonnett, Curt Hilmer, Curtis Roster and Rick Johnson.
Parizek's win nearly fell on the anniversary of his first win three years ago, which he earned May 16, 2010. With Sunday's victory, Parizek joined Scott Pippert and Jacob Keiser as the only Hobby Stock drivers in Vinton to earn at least one Hobby Stock win in three of the last four seasons.
Five different Hobby Stock winners to start a season has happened before - twice, in fact - but no season in Vinton has ever started with six straight different winners in the division. This year joins 2004 and 2006 as those with five different Hobby Stock winners to start a season.
Notable Hobby Stock weeklies who have yet to win a feature include Justin Stander, Matt Brown, Jacob Keiser and Justin Wacha. Like the Modifieds, we'll see next week if the trend continues in the Hobby Stocks.
Have a great week!
RESULTS
IMCA MODIFIED
Feature: 1. 18 Jerry Luloff (Independence); 2. 22 Brandon Banks (Washington); 3. 10K Ronn Lauritzen (Jesup); 4. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Cedar Rapids); 5. 00J J.D. Auringer (Waterloo); 6. 11B Mike Burbridge (Delhi); 7. T23 Tony Olson (Cedar Rapids); 8. 71 Troy Cordes (Dunkerton); 9. 80 Jerry Dedrick (Vinton); 10. 21K Kyle Brown (Kellogg); 11. 20L Zach Less (Hopkinton); 12/DNS 12D Joe Docekal (Dysart).
Heat one: 1. Brown; 2. Auringer; 3. Lauritzen; 4. Olson; 5. Docekal; 6. Dedrick.
Heat two: 1. Cordes; 2. Flannagan; 3. Banks; 4. Burbridge; 5. Luloff; 6. Less.
IMCA STOCK CAR
Feature: 1. 87 John Emerson (Waterloo); 2. 15 Norman Chesmore (Rowley); 3. 99D Damon Murty (Chelsea); 4. 19J Jay Schmidt (Tama); 5. 6X Bob Ahrendsen (Cedar Rapids); 6. 8 Curtis Roster (Vinton); 7. 47 Scott Pippert (Elberon); 8. 76 Mike Galli (Urbana); 9. 8B Scott Beauregard (Center Point).
Heat: 1. Roster; 2. Emerson; 3. Chesmore; 4. Murty; 5. Ahrendsen; 6. Schmidt; 7. Galli; 8. Pippert; 9. Beauregard.
IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMOD
Feature: 1. 23JR Nick Roberts (Des Moines); 2. 26J Joel Rust (Grundy Center); 3. K3 Kyle Olson (Cedar Rapids); 4. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 5. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 6. J2 Dave Schulze (Keystone); 7. 4 Ryan Maitland (Waterloo); 8. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 9. 57R Ryan King (Marshalltown); 10. CH19 Colby Heishman (Brooklyn); 11. 3B Brian Anderson (Garrison); 12. 35C Casey Heil (Cedar Rapids); 13. 115 Bob Ebaugh (Raymond); 14. 72 Mike Hogencamp (Waterloo); 15. 57K Ross Kitner (Dysart); 16. 7D Dakoda Sellers (Vinton); 17/DNS. 10S John Schaefer (La Porte City).
Heat one: 1. Roberts; 2. Olson; 3. Anderson; 4. Hilmer; 5. Schulze; 6. Ebaugh; 7. Schaefer; DNS Kitner.
Heat two: 1. Dvorak; 2. Rust; 3. Hogencamp; 4. Heishman; 5. Sellers; 6. Maitland; 7. King; 8. Heil; 9. Buhlman.
IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature: 1. 17K Kyle Parizek (Belle Plaine); 2. 18 Chris Luloff (Independence); 3. 46 Brian Happel (Vinton); 4. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 5. 67 Justin Stander (Vinton); 6. 78 Matt Brown (Dysart); 7. 07 Jacob Keiser (Marengo); 8. 14C Leah Wroten (Independence); 9/DNS. 23 Andrew Torkelson (Lisbon).
Heat: 1. Happel; 2. Parizek; 3. Wacha; 4. Stander; 5. Luloff; 6. Brown; 7. Torkelson; 8. Keiser; 9. Wroten.
IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature: 1. 22 Nathan Chandler (Norway); 2. 00W Bill Whalen Jr. (Riverside); 3. 2 Merv Chandler (Urbana); 4. 22T Travis Losenicky (Garrison); 5. 99J Jeremy Lerch (Vinton); 6. 9 Toby Denning (Mt. Auburn); 7. 111 A.J. Witten (Cedar Rapids).
Heat: 1. M. Chandler; 2. Whalen; 3. Witten; 4. Losenicky; 5. Lerch; 6. Denning; 7. N. Chandler.
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