We took the trip east to the Benton County Speedway this past Sunday night, for the annual Hogan Memorial event which honors Dick and Janet Hogan. Thirty-three modifieds were on hand, all wanting to take home the honor of winning this special memorial race. It was a hot and sticky humid night for fans, but the drivers were no doubt more miserable than us fans who could at least catch a bit of a breeze now and then.
The hobby stock class was scheduled to be the first feature run after the intermission. However, things got changed up a bit after the cars were unable to race the just watered track---slipping and sliding and going nowhere. They were sent off the track and the IMCA Sport Compacts were sent out.
The Sport Compact feature was won by Brett Vanous who snatched the win away from Brad Chandler at the finish line. Third was Merv Chandler, fourth Jacob McVay and fifth went to Gary Peiffer.
The hobby stocks returned to the track next for their 15-lap A main. Scott Pippert won, pulling away from second place finisher, Justin Stander. Trailing a ways behind Stander to take third, was Brad Forbes, fourth went to Doug Laughridge, and Matt Brown crossed in fifth.
The 15-lap IMCA SportMod feature saw an abundance of yellow flags flying. So many so, that the feature would be put under a time limit---the race would end with the next yellow, or when all laps were completed. As often happens, the race then did get completed without another yellow. Racer Hulin, from Laurel, Iowa put his ride to the topside and took the win going away from second place finisher Danny Dvorak.
Aric Becker, Ken Kositzky and Doug Hilmer finished third through fifth in that order.
The 15-lap stock cars ran next. Justin Temeyer out distanced Damon Murty to take the win. Scooter Dulin barely finished ahead of Bob Ahrendsen as they were third and fourth and Andy Bryant rounded out the top five.
The 40-lap modified race honoring the Hogans had a twist thrown in--a halt at 20 laps down. The cars stopped on the track and were allowed five minutes for any changes. Scott Hogan seemed determined to take the race honoring his parents, as he led the first 20 laps and then charged off to retain it when the race resumed. Jerry Luloff, however, saw a chance to sneak under Hogan in the waning laps, took the lead and held off Hogan the rest of the way. Luloff took the win, Scott Hogan was runner up, third went to Brandon Banks with a fine run, and fourth was Jeff Waterman. Fifth went to Mike Burbridge and sixth was Wisconsin driver, Dan Ratajczak, two drivers who chose to run the bottom and make it work.
The heat and humidity were sweltering but we still enjoyed our night at the races. That uncomfortable weather, came before the storms that kicked up in the wee hours this morning. The news reports that Vinton was hit hard and we hope that the Benton County Speedway survived without damage. They are scheduled for racing this Thursday, July 14 for a fair race.
It's was good to enjoy the racing action amongst other racing friends and fanatics. Be sure and check out fellow Positively Racing crony's take of the races last night for more details under "Tapfan's Tours" and "In Staging". There are many special racing events going on in our area now, so seek one out and support our great sport of dirt track racing. Happy racing!
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