We headed east to the Independence Motor Speedway for the inaugural Hawkeye Dirt Tour for the IMCA modifieds on Wednesday evening. It was a fun night of watching drivers from all areas of the state and beyond. Though 59 cars were announced to be on hand, we observed only 58, but whichever, it was a great turnout. Two other classes, the SportMods and hobby stocks, were also in competition.
The SportMod feature was won by Vinton's Kurt Hogan in his MR09 ride followed by Kaleb Bentley, Austin Kaplan, Tyler Droste and Danny Dvorak. I believe all of those drivers have raced at the track this year and also run at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton.
Six heat races, three B mains and one track provisional, Jerry Luloff, set the starting field of 25 for the first ever running of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour. Drawing the lucky pill for the number one starting spot was Ed Thomas and talented Ryan Gustin, youngest of the Gustin clan racing in the modified class, sat along side. It was rough going in the beginning of the race with restart after restart as the yellow flag flew. Gustin had little trouble in putting his 19GX ride for the night (instead of his usual 19R number) out front and Jay Noteboom, piloting the 87 car usually raced by Joel Bushore, settled into second. Around lap 10, Montrose, Iowa driver Josh Foster, who had started in 10th place, had been steadily making his way to the front and managed to pass Noteboom, and later Gustin, to take over the point position. Richie Gustin was riding in fourth as the white flag flew with Michael Long in fifth. Josh Foster made it back to the checkers first to put his name in the books as the first ever Hawkeye Dirt Tour winner. Ryan Gustin took second but third place runner, Jay Noteboom developed mechanical problems as he entered turn four, giving over third place to Richie Gustin, fourth to Michael Long and fifth to Nate Caruth who had started well back in the starting field. Mark Schulte spurted by a coasting Noteboom, to take sixth as did the 37 of Mike Jergens who was scored in seventh. Noteboom slowly crossed the finish line in eighth.
The hobby stocks capped the night's events with their feature race. We were not familiar with many of these drivers but the #19 of August Bach was the winner, followed by the #98 of Kyle Anderson, the #77 of Rod Grother, the #09 of Brad Forbes, and fifth went to Quinton Miller in #73.
We enjoyed a great night of watching a diversified field of modifieds, many we don't often get the chance to see run regularly. We noticed that drivers from the southeast part of the state and race at the Lee County Speedway had a great contingency of drivers on hand. We believe both Foster and Long are regulars there as well as Bill Roberts (5R), Rich Smith (8), Andy Krieger (58), Jeff Waterman (71W) and Brandon Savage (47S). It was especially enjoyable to share the event in the stands with good friends and some fellow PR bloggers. We also saw other familiar faces in the stands from across the state. Be sure and check out "Back Stretch" and "Tapfan's Tours" at http://www.positivelyracing/ and as Ryan Clark shared the mic duties, he will no doubt have his views up at "In Staging". Thanks to tour director Bucky Doren for getting this series up and running. It was a great success! We look forward to future shows. Check http://www.dirttour.com/ for information and the schedule. Happy racing!
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