It had been a number of years since we had made our way up to the fairground's track at West Union but we were anxious to see another of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour races so opted to make the trip. We also saw quite a few racing friends we see on a regular basis amongst the fans in the grandstand, as well as a good attendance by the Positively Racing crew. These fans alone brought a fan base from all across the state of Iowa.
Stock cars and hobby stocks ran as support classes with the HDT show and were running for track points. Seventeen stock cars ran the A main with Dan Trimble seeing the checkers fly first as he took the win over Mitch Hovden. Third went to Lynn Panos, fourth to Danny Cole and fifth was Kevin Donlan.
Chris Hovden won the hobby stock feature. He was chased across the line by Scott Spilde, Steve Holthaus, Dan Hovden and Troy Hovey. Those are names that it would be unusual NOT to see racing in that part of the state.
Twenty-seven HDT competitors checked into the Fayette County Speedway; a bit down from previous shows, but not short on talent. We always enjoy watching the cars arrive and I noted that one car I had not observed was the current point leader, Josh Foster. It was later announced that his absence was due to having a non-racing accident, resulting in a broken leg, thus putting him out of competition for some period of time. Foster has been fun to watch in all of the shows we have seen.
Heat race winners for the HDT were regular competitors at the track, Darin Duffy, and Josh O'Brien, and Long Grove, Iowa's Jeff Morris. The top four in the heats, redrew for their starting positions, putting HDT regulars Jeff Waterman from Quincy, Illinois on the pole position with young Nate Caruth from Ames, along side.
Caruth led the first few laps of the 30-lap event though it was plagued with yellow flags. I counted four yellows in the first six laps of the contest, which was no doubt frustrating to the drivers as well as the fans. One such incident halting the action involved several cars piled together in turn two. This lengthy caution then resulted in Ron Pope, Mark Elliott and Greg Cox eventually being towed from the track. At the same time, a car stalled in turn four had to be towed off as well.
With action getting back underway, Caruth saw his lead vanish when Darin Duffy made the pass under him to take over the lead. From there on, Duffy had little trouble in keeping the point spot, though cars were jockeying behind him for position. Mike Jergens, Plover, Iowa driver made the pass into the second spot when he got by Caruth before another yellow came out. This yellow did not fly until lap 25, which had allowed for good racing action as the drivers had gotten into their racing rhythm. At the end of the 30 laps, it was Darin Duffy taking his first HDT win, Mike Jergens was second, Jeff Waterman made the pass around Caruth as they took third and fourth respectively, and rounding out the top five was Waterloo's Vern Jackson. Unofficially, it now appears that Rich Smith, the Davenport, Iowa driver of the #8 machine, has taken over the point lead after having a sixth place finish on the night with Mike Jergens a few points behind in second place.
It was announced that two make-up features would be run at the conclusion of the regular scheduled show with the stock cars and hobby stocks again taking to the track. Since we had a long drive, we opted to head the vehicle toward home and did not see the final two features. We did hear that Dan Trimble doubled-up on the night in the stock cars, taking another win, and the hobby stock make-up feature went to Scott Spilde.
As a note, it has been a long time since we have seen the line-up board being shown to the drivers on the track for realignments. It appeared that many of the drivers were not familiar with that old-time routine either, as it took a bit of time to get them in their proper spots.
As mentioned earlier, the Positively Racing crew was represented well. Be sure and check out Ryan Clark's take of the evening as he watched from behind the mic duties at "In Staging". He did a fine job of subbing for regular HDT announcer, Blake Anderson. You will also find the thoughts of Jeff Broeg at "Back Stretch" and Kevin Trittien at "Tapfan's Tours", so check those out as well. For complete official results, go to http://www.dirttour.com/ as well as more information on the HDT tour racing. Happy racing!
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