Luloff, Chandler, Moeding open Benton County Fair in victory lane

The 2013 Benton County Fair opened with Stock Car racing and a spectacular lightning show which cut the evening seven laps short. Prior to the rain, three feature winners were crowned in the mid-week draw/redraw, track points event. (complete results follow)

Just like this past Sunday, Jacob Keiser and Chris Luloff showed the way in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature, but when the checkers waved Thursday night the roles were reversed as Luloff drove to the thrilling win in the 15-lapper.

After redrawing the outside front row starting spot, Keiser raced into the lead at the drop of the green. He ran the middle and top side while Luloff pursued. From a third row start, Luloff raced the low side into contention, placing his #18 in second after just two laps.

Luloff reeled in Keiser as the leaders waged a terrific battle for the top spot throughout much of the event. Luloff chased Kesier for a handful of laps before pulling even with the front-runner at the midway point. The two ran wheel-to-wheel until Luloff pulled ahead on the low side with four laps to go. He held off Keiser to take the win, his fourth of the year.

All-time, Luloff remains third on the Hobby Stock wins list in Vinton with 21 trips to the winner's circle in weekly points racing. Luloff is a model of consistency as he now owns four wins each during the months of May, June, July and August at the speedway. His five other wins have come during the month of April.

Nathan Chandler earned his second straight win and his seventh of the season in the IMCA Sport Compact division. After redrawing the second starting spot, Chandler pulled away at the drop of the green to win the event in dominant fashion.

The all-time IMCA Sport Compact wins leader in Vinton, Chandler now has 42 wins in weekly points racing. In addition, Chandler has nine separate streaks of at least two consecutive wins in his career at the speedway. Much like Luloff, Chandler has evenly spread out his victories. He has 10 wins each during the months of May, June and July. He also has seven in August, three in April and two in September.

Following the dramatic lightning show, the rain came just after the IMCA Northern SportMods had run eight laps of their scheduled 15-lap feature. The race was declared official since over half of the event was scored complete.

Tom Rawlins led the early stages of that event while Kyle Olson and Kurt Moeding gave chase. Moeding worked past his competitors to take command following a lap seven caution. One more lap was completed before the next caution, during which time rain brought a halt to the event.

Moeding's second career SportMod win in Vinton came two days after the four year anniversary of his first (July 23, 2009). That span of 1,463 calendar days between wins is the longest span between SportMod wins in track history.

With his second weekly points victory, Moeding is now tied for 17th on the speedway's SportMod wins list with Bob Ebaugh, Brett Root, Joe Docekal, Joel Rust, Kyle Wahlert, Mike Krall, Rod McDonald and Shane Ebaugh. 

The points leader entering Thursday night, Joel Rust opted to race at the Hamilton County Fair special in Webster City rather than make the tow to Vinton. Although he is one night short of the rest of the points leaders in the standings, Rust unofficially finished the night trailing Danny Dvorak atop the standings by three points.

RESULTS
IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMOD
Feature: 1. 7M Kurt Moeding (Mason City); 2. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 3. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 4. T17 Tom Rawlins (Kellogg); 5. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 6. J2 Dave Schulze (Keystone); 7. 7D Dakoda Sellers (Vinton); 8. 72 Mike Hogencamp (Waterloo); 9. 3B Brian Anderson (Garrison); 10. 15B Troy Burkhart (Urbana); 11. 4 Ryan Maitland (Waterloo); 12. 57R Ryan King (Montour); 13. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 14. 10S John Schaefer (La Porte City); 15. 626 Shad May (Trenton, N.D.); 16. CH19 Colby Heishman (Brooklyn); 17. 44X John Sieg (Williston, N.D.); 18. 11M Mike Mitchell (Cedar Rapids); 19. 57K Ross Kitner (Dysart); 20. K3 Kyle Olson (Cedar Rapids); 21. 57G Rich Gerhold (Central City); 22/DNS. 11 Al Sweerin (Waterloo); 23/DNS. 115 Bob Ebaugh (Raymond).
First heat (4 redraw): 1. May; 2. Kitner; 3. Dvorak; 4. Hogencamp; 5. Burkhart; 6. Mitchell; 7. Sieg; DNS Sweerin.
Second heat: 1. Moeding; 2. Olson; 3. Anderson; 4. Rawlins; 5. Hilmer; 6. Schaefer; 7. Heishman; 8. King.
Third heat: 1. Chipp; 2. Buhlman; 3. Maitland; 4. Schulze; 5. Gerhold; 6. Sellers; DNS Ebaugh. 

IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature: 1. 18 Chris Luloff (Independence); 2. 07 Jacob Keiser (Marengo); 3. 78 Matt Brown (Dysart); 4. 46 Brian Happel (Vinton); 5. 17K Kyle Parizek (Belle Plaine); 6. 67 Justin Stander (Shellsburg); 7. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 8. 79 Benji Irvine (Cedar Falls); 9. 23 Andrew Torkelson (Lisbon); 10. 1S Greg Sweerin (Evansdale); 11. 21J Jason Williams (Belle Plaine); 12. 6 Randy Vandevegte (Manchester); 13. 14C Leah Wroten (Independence).
First heat (5 redraw): 1. Luloff; 2. Irvine; 3. Happel; 4. Stander; 5. Williams; 6. Wacha; 7. Wroten.
Second heat: 1. Brown; 2. Keiser; 3. Parizek; 4. Sweerin; 5. Vandevegte; 6. Torkelson. 

IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature: 1. 22 Nathan Chandler (Norway); 2. 111 A.J. Witten (Cedar Rapids); 3. 9 Toby Denning (Mt. Auburn); 4. 99 Nathan Lerch (Vinton); 5/DNS. 22T Travis Losenicky (Garrison).
Heat (5 redraw): 1. Chandler; 2. Witten; 3. Losenicky; 4. Denning; 5. Lerch.