There's an old saying that goes something along the line, "If you didn't like the races tonight, you aren't a real race fan." That definitely applies to this past Sunday night at Benton County Speedway. Not only did an impressive 93 drivers sign in to compete in the six divisions, but every feature was competitive and entertaining.
Sunday's program brought down the curtain on the 2013 Benton County Fair and those in attendance were provided a perfect surface on a beautiful night for stock car racing. The track was smooth, slick and provided multiple grooves all night long which, by the way, was no small task for track prep man Don Burkey. He was forced to rework the surface after the carnage from Friday's trailer races and Saturday's demolition derby. I think it's safe to say he did a spectacular job.
In the third appearance of the IMCA Late Models this season, Jeff Aikey looked to be dialed in on his second straight win in Vinton as he worked the top side around Bobby Hansen in turn two on the second lap to assume command. While Aikey pulled away from the pack, first time visitor Justin Kay raced the low side past Hansen just prior to a lap three caution.
Kay pursued Aikey for a handful of laps and through another stoppage on lap eight before he challenged for the lead. Running the low side of turns one and two, Kay slipped beneath Aikey to assume command down the back stretch on the 11th circuit. He then ran the top side to victory in the 20-lapper. Kay joined Aikey and Luke Pestka as Late Model winners so far this season on the quarter-mile.
Jerry Luloff topped a thriller in the IMCA Modifieds. He started in the sixth row and worked his way into the top four on the first lap while pole-sitter Tony Olson paced the field.
Olson held a few car-lengths over the field while Luloff challenged Jerry Dedrick and Patrick Flannagan for second. Luloff raced past Flannagan just prior to the midway point, then worked the outside lane past Olson down the back stretch on lap 12 just before the caution flag waved.
On the restart, Luloff held the point while Kyle Brown and Troy Cordes made their way into second and third. Another caution on lap 18 set up a two-lap dash to the finish.
When racing resumed a final time, Cordes went to work on the top groove and made his way around Brown. Luloff, however, was able to withstand the challenge from Cordes to post the win by a few feet.
With his second win of the year, Luloff has now earned multiple victories in four of the last seven seasons in Vinton. His career total is 16 wins in weekly racing history in Vinton, placing him in a tie with Vern Jackson for sixth on the all-time list. His five career wins during the month of July matches his August total - the most of any month for Luloff.
Scott Pippert raced the low groove past Mike Galli on a lap two restart to drive to his third win of the season in the IMCA Stock Car division. Pippert survived the battle of ping pong balls behind him to take the checkers ahead of an extremely hard-charging Norman Chesmore. In his first appearance in Vinton this season, Nathan Wood made a smooth run from the fifth row to an impressive third place finish.
Pippert's three wins in his rookie campaign tie him for 13th on the track's Stock Car wins list with Doug Otto, Richard Quail, Sean Johnson, Steve Meyer and Tom Schmitt. Pippert now owns one win each during the months of May, June and July.
A handful of cautions slowed action over the first two laps of the 15-lap IMCA Northern SportMod feature. Joel Rust's patience allowed him to advance from 10th to fourth when the first multi-lap green flag run came on the final lap two restart.
Kyle Olson held the point until Jenae Gustin raced the top side into the lead at the flagstand on the following circuit. Meanwhile, Rust worked his way into second and was challenging for the lead in turns one and two just after the completion of lap six when Gustin got sideways to bring out the caution.
Rust pulled away from the field when the green flag waved to score the win, his second of the season, ahead of Danny Dvorak. The win was Rust's 11th top-three finish in 15 appearances... seven of those have been top-twos... and Vinton averages 21.8 SportMods weekly this season.
I'm gonna say it again and then I'm gonna keep sayin' it - Rust can flat out drive and he is on his toes every moment he's on the track. If you saw him change lanes Sunday night entering turn three to avoid what turned out to be a multi-car spin in his heat race, you know what I mean. Not only that, but he takes care of his equipment. For a teenager who pays his own way in racing, Rust is fully aware of what it takes to have a successful racing program and he knows the cost if something goes wrong. If you don't know him, stop down and say hello to Joel in the pits some night. He's soft-spoken, humble and has the focus to carry him far in this sport. Oh, and I'm going to keep writing about him, so take notice when you see the 26J on the track.
His third career SportMod win in weekly racing history in Vinton, Rust
is now tied with Chris Luloff, Damon Murty and Ken Kositzky for 14th on
the all-time list. It was his first career win in Vinton past the
month of May.
Pole-sitter Jacob Floyd held the lead in the early stages of the 15-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature. A pair of cautions on lap two allowed Justin Stander to work the low side into the lead when racing resumed.
Stander held the top spot while Brian Happel worked the top groove into a challenge for the lead after starting in the fourth row. Happel slowly reeled in Stander as the leaders ran in tight formation before Happel took charge just past the midway point. Stander remained close, however Happel drove to victory, his fourth (count 'em, four, Wes White) win of the season.
Luloff is also a four-time Hobby Stock winner this season. In 23 previous years of weekly Hobby Stock racing in Vinton, only five times have there been multiple winners of four or more features in the division - 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2009. The 2009 season is the only one in history to produce three four-time Hobby Stock winners - Scott Pippert (9 wins in 2009), Brad Forbes (5) and Bill Bonnett (4). If you're wondering, Kyle Parizek and Matt Brown are next on the list with two wins each this season. With six weeks to go, it's possible they could match history, or maybe even exceed it with four four-time winners in a season.
With seven career Hobby Stock wins in Vinton, Happel is now tied with Brad Anders, Kyle Parizek and Steve Kesl for 16th on the all-time list.
A.J. Witten held the early lead in the 12-lap IMCA Sport Compact main event. He showed the way while Steve Miedke and Nathan Chandler pursued from second row starting spots.
Miedke took the lead on lap four when Witten slipped off the top of turn two and Chandler followed into second. With Miedke running the top side and Chandler down low, Chandler slowly cut into Miedke's advantage before taking the lead as the white flag waved. Chandler went on to win by a slim margin.
The win was Chandler's third straight in Vinton. He now possesses five separate winning streaks of at least three races and two of those stretches have come this season. In his career, Chandler has 43 Sport Compact wins in weekly racing on the Vinton oval. His eight wins this season are second only to last year's 11-win season.
There were a couple of rollovers in Hobby Stock action Sunday night. Jacob Keiser was leading his heat when he got too high in turn three. He got sideways at the top of the track and rolled a couple of times, however he walked away uninjured. In fact, Keiser looked over the car, started 16th in the feature and raced to an impressive seventh place finish.
First-time visitor C.J. Dall also got upside down. Dall went over and came to a stop on his side off of turns three and four in the feature. Although he was not hurt, his night ended with a 16th place finish.
My travels will probably be limited this week, however I plan to work on Stats Blitzes for both Independence Motor Speedway and Benton County Speedway. Only four nights of weekly racing await in Independence and six nights in Vinton. It's hard to believe, but we are entering the final month of weekly racing for the season so be sure to get out and support a track in your area.
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
RESULTS
IMCA LATE MODEL
Feature: 1. 15K Justin Kay (Wheatland); 2. 77A Jeff Aikey (Cedar Falls); 3. 53 Darren Ackerman (Readlyn); 4. 19G Richie Gustin (Gilman); 5. 60 Dean Wagner (Evansdale); 6. 9 Bobby Hansen (Center Point); 7. 24 Scott Fitzpatrcik (Urbandale); 8. 1 Rick Dralle (Waterloo); 9. 45 Curt Martin (Independence); 10. 68 Tysus Pattee (Vinton); 11. C41 Jim Aschenbrenner (Aplington); 12. 2 Rory Metcalf (West Union); 13. 77 Dirk Hamilton (Jesup).
Heat one: 1. Kay; 2. Ackerman; 3. Fitzpatrick; 4. Martin; 5. Dralle; 6. Pattee; 7. Aschenbrenner.
Heat two: 1. Gustin; 2. Aikey; 3. Hansen; 4. Wagner; 5. Metcalf; 6. Hamilton.
IMCA MODIFIED
Feature: 1. 18 Jerry Luloff (Independence); 2. 71 Troy Cordes (Dunkerton); 3. 21K Kyle Brown (Kellogg); 4. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Cedar Rapids); 5. 10K Ronn Lauritzen (Jesup); 6. 00 J.D. Auringer (Waterloo); 7. 12D Joe Docekal (Dysart); 8. T23 Tony Olson (Cedar Rapids); 9. 33D Scott Hogan (Vinton); 10. 11B Mike Burbridge (Delhi); 11. 80 Jerry Dedrick (Vinton); 12. 57B Dennis Betzer (Central City); 13. 7 Todd Jensen (Waterloo); 14. 77 Tim McBride (Denver); 15. 14B Shane Burbridge (Manchester); 16. 7S Robbie Schmuecker (Vinton); 17. 98 Jason Snyder (Dunkerton); 18. D27 Dave Pries (Medaryville, Ind.); 19. 81 Jesse Belez (Marengo).
Heat one: 1. Docekal;2. Lauritzen; 3. Dedrick; 4. Schmuecker; 5. Betzer; 6. S. Burbridge; 7. Belez.
Heat two: 1. Flannagan; 2. Auringer; 3. Cordes; 4. Brown; 5. Jensen; 6. McBride.
Heat three: 1. Olson; 2. Luloff; 3. M. Burbridge; 4. Hogan; 5. Snyder; 6. Pries.
IMCA STOCK CAR
Feature: 1. 47 Scott Pippert (Elberon); 2. 15 Norman Chesmore (Rowley); 3. 52 Nathan Wood (Sigourney); 4. 8 Curtis Roster (Vinton); 5. 4X Cory Tharp (Waterloo); 6. 87 John Emerson (Waterloo); 7. 8B Scott Beauregard (Center Point); 8. 76X Chad Siems (Cedar Rapids); 9. 4JR Russell Damme (Waterloo); 10. 76 Mike Galli (Urbana); 11. 22K Kevin Rose (Waterloo).
Heat one: 1. Pippert; 2. Tharp; 3. Damme; 4. Beauregard; 5. Siems.
Heat two: 1. Chesmore; 2. Roster; 3. Emerson; 4. Galli; 5. Wood; 6. Rose.
IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMOD
Feature: 1. 26J Joel Rust (Grundy Center); 2. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 3. 14 Shane Ebaugh (Evansdale); 4. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 5. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 6. 72 Mike Hogencamp (Waterloo); 7. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 8. 19J Jenae Gustin (Marshalltown); 9. T17 Tom Rawlins (Kellogg); 10. 3 Dave McCalla (Cedar Rapids); 11. J2 Dave Schulze (Keystone); 12. K3 Kyle Olson (Cedar Rapids); 13. 15B Troy Burkhart (Urbana); 14. CH19 Colby Heishman (Brooklyn); 15. 28P Rick Paulson (Tripoli); 16. 3B Brian Anderson (Garrison); 17. 7D Dakoda Sellers (Vinton); 18. 114 Mike Nielsen (Evansdale); 19. 57G Rich Gerhold (Central City); 20. 11M Mike Mitchell (Cedar Rapids); 21. 10S John Schaefer (La Porte City); 22. 57K Ross Kitner (Dysart); 23. 95 Mike McDonald (Cedar Rapids); 24. 57R Ryan King (Montour).
Heat one: 1. Rust; 2. Olson; 3. Gustin; 4. Paulson; 5. Schulze; 6. Mitchell; 7. Gerhold; 8. Sellers.
Heat two: 1. Hogencamp; 2. Ebaugh; 3. McCalla; 4. Hilmer; 5. Burkhart; 6. Nielsen; 7. Kitner; 8. Rawlins.
Heat three: 1. Anderson; 2. Dvorak; 3. Chipp; 4. Schaefer; 5. Buhlman; 6. McDonald; 7. Heishman; 8. King.
IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature: 1. 46 Brian Happel (Vinton); 2. 67 Justin Stander (Shellsburg); 3. 79 Benji Irvine (Cedar Falls); 4. 18 Chris Luloff (Independence); 5. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 6. 17K Kyle Parizek (Belle Plaine); 7. 07 Jacob Keiser (Marengo); 8. 23 Andrew Torkelson (Lisbon); 9. 14J Jacob Floyd (Cedar Rapids); 10. 12J Jeremy Floyd (Cedar Rapids); 11. 09X Brad Forbes (Waterloo); 12. 51D Dustin Filloon (Toledo); 13. 90 Chris Moore (Fairfax); 14. 75D Dale Kite (Keystone); 15. 19B Jim Sheldon (Marion); 16. 88 C.J. Dall (Marshalltown); 17. 78 Matt Brown (Dysart); 18. 21J Jason Williams (Belle Plaine).
Heat one: 1. Luloff; 2. Filloon; 3. Brown; 4. Sheldon; 5. Williams; 6. Keiser.
Heat two: 1. Irvine; 2. Wacha; 3. Jacob Floyd; 4. Parizek; 5. Torkelson; 6. Jeremy Floyd.
Heat three: 1. Stander; 2. Happel; 3. Moore; 4. Forbes; 5. Kite; 6. Dall.
IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature: 1. 22 Nathan Chandler (Norway); 2. 11 Steve Miedke (Shellsburg); 3. 00W Bill Whalen Jr. (Riverside); 4. 111 A.J. Witten (Cedar Rapids); 5. 3S Craig Streeter (Vinton); 6. 22T Travis Losenicky (Garrison); 7. 99J Jeremy Lerch (Vinton); 8. 9 Toby Denning (Mt. Auburn); 9. 2 Merv Chandler (Urbana).
Heat: 1. Witten; 2. Miedke; 3. N. Chandler; 4. Losenicky; 5. Lerch; 6. Whalen; 7. Streeter; 8. M. Chandler; DNS Denning.
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