The kick off for the JR Motorsports IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour for 2012 got off to a great start on Tuesday night at the Benton County Speedway. There were 38 IMCA modifieds on hand with the IMCA Northern SportMods, IMCA Hobby Stocks and IMCA Sport Compacts supporting them.
Merv Chandler continued his winning way, as he took another feature win in the IMCA Sport Compact class. Son Nathan Chandler was a distant runner up, Andy Wagener was third, followed by Tyler Whalen in fourth and the 007 car of Adam Gates in fifth.
The IMCA Hobby Stocks ran a 15-lap A main. After a couple of "no-start" situations caused by spinning cars, and another couple of early yellow flags and resulting restarts, things went more smoothly. Scott Pippert led from lap one and sailed home to the win. Des Moines driver, John Watson got to second place early but was never able to reel in the leader, finishing in second. Third went to Doug Laughridge, fourth was Matt Brown and Brad Forbes rounded out the top five.
Jim Gillenwater made the haul up from Keokuk, Iowa to try his hand at the Benton County Speedway in the IMCA SportMod class. In just his first ever time at the track, Gillenwater made it a successful night as he scored the win ahead of Laurel, Iowa's Racer Hulin. Hulin chased Gillenwater most of the race in a futile attempt to run him down. It was appearing that Austin Kaplan was going to take the third place position, but coming out of turn four, he was suddenly off power and coasted across the finish line to hold on for fifth.
Scott Davis and Carter VanDenBerg passed Kaplan at the finish--placing third and fourth in that order.
Thirty laps lay ahead for the IMCA Modifieds for the HDT main event. The top ten qualifiers through the five heat races, drew for their starting positions. The lucky drivers winning the front row were Jeff Waterman and Ryan Dolan. Waterman, from Quincy, Illinois, would never relinquish the top spot, despite several caution flags waving during the race. Richie Gustin and JD Auringer ran second and third the last half of the race, Auringer making the pass on Gustin in the waning laps. Auringer took second over Gustin in third and Mitch Morris, Long Grove, Iowa, was fourth and Mark Schulte was fifth.
The show moved right along last night, always appreciated by the fans, and ended at 9:43 p.m. Bucky Doren, tour director, is off to a great start once again. It was back to chilly, breezy weather and fans were breaking out the winter wear, and glad to have it. We've learned to just keep the coats and blankets in the vehicle as we've had to use them even in July in Iowa. It was an enjoyable racing program last night, shared with racing friends and fellow PR bloggers. Speaking of fellow PR bloggers, we certainly enjoyed the great mic work of Ryan Clark, giving a great call of the races and getting the line ups out to us fanatics! Be sure and take a look at "In Staging" and "Back Stretch" for their take of the night's action. "Tapfan's Tours" was also on hand, but still has a down and out computer awaiting a fix. You can find the official results at www.dirttour.com as well as the schedule and other information concerning this great series. Happy racing!
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