It was a late decision for us to head to Benton County Speedway on Sunday. We are very glad we checked the forecast and wind speed before we went too! It was more than chilly and to say the wind from the east was brisk, is an understatement! But, we certainly had a nice night with friends in the stands, as we enjoyed the racing action.
The track had some ruts in the corners, especially entering turn two. This wasn't a real surprise since it's only the second time the track has run this year, plus with all the rain that fell last week and little sunshine. Once the drivers figured out where to run to avoid the worst of the ruts, the features produced some winners that came from a ways back in the field.
The Chelsea Charger, Damon Murty pulled off a repeat win in the IMCA Stock Car feature, after starting in row four. Murty, Scott Pippert and Curtis Roster went at it for the lead in the early going---three-wide! Murty swung to the outside of the track and took the lead for good at lap four, Scott Pippert still challenging lap after lap after Roster put himself out of contention by slipping off of turn four. Murty held the lead the remainder of the distance to the checkers for the win, Pippert taking the runner up spot. Third went to Phil Holtz, who had started alongside Murty back in row four, fourth was Justin Stander and Norm Chesmore was credited with fifth after Mike Galli was penalized for jumping.
The Northern SportMod feature was exciting as Sam Wieben came from deep in the field to take the checkers. Mike McDonald held the early lead with Danny Dvorak pressuring him and Montezuma's Brett Lowry throwing his hat into the ring as well. Lowry, who had started ninth, had quickly made his way up to challenge the two front runners, and Colby Heishman was sniffing at Lowry's heels. Meanwhile, Wieben had opted to try the high road around the track, avoiding the bumps for the most part, and was flying! Wieben swung around McDonald, Dvorak and Lowry and into the lead with just a couple of laps to go. Wieben, who started fourteenth, took the victory, Dvorak held second. Third went to McDonald, Brett Lowry finished fourth and Colby Heishman, who is having a much improved season from what we've observed this year, completed the top five.
It was a no contest in the Sport Compact division. The five cars competing all finished the entire race in the same order after lap one was scored. Nathan Chandler was the winner, Bill Whalen took second, third was Jeremy Lerch, and Craig Streeter and Troy Scott went fourth and fifth.
The IMCA Modifieds ran their 20-lap event next. The early laps had rookie Nick Roberts leading the field of 20 cars (21 cars with one not starting) and Kyle Brown in pursuit. Just a lap or two later, Mike VanGenderen, who had started sixth, had worked his way around Brown and taken over the runner up spot. Scott Hogan surprisingly, ended up facing the field on the frontstretch a few laps later, bringing out a caution flag. When racing resumed, Roberts was still in command, The Flying Dutchman, VanGenderen, still trying for a way around the leader. VanGenderen was able to make that move and into the lead shortly thereafter. Nearly immediately, Roberts came to a halt on the backstretch, gathering Troy Cordes in the process, with a hub going bad. Smoke had been coming from Roberts car for a few laps, and this was the apparent issue. On the restart, it was J. D. Auringer running second to leader VanGenderen, Ronn Lauritzen in his Minion ride was third. In the final circuits, VanGenderen pulled away to take a comfortable victory, Auringer taking the runner up spot. Joe Docekal got around Ronn Lauritzen as they finished third and fourth, and Joel Rust came from starting twelfth, to capture a fifth place finish. This was VanGenderen first ever win at the Benton County Speedway.
The final feature race was the IMCA Hobby Stocks. There was an immediate halt to the action when pole starter Nathan Ballard came to a stop coming out of turn two, his night over. First week's winner Benji Irvine quickly took over the point position after getting around early leader Kyle Parizek, and set sail the rest of the way to the checkers and the win. Bill Bonnett, piloting the #224 car of Lacona, Iowa's Gina Greubel, challenged Irvine in the late race, squeaking to the lead briefly, only to have Irvine grab it back. Irvine, who started eighth, also took a back-to-back win at Vinton in the early 2014 season, Bonnett having to settle for second. Jacob Keiser was scored in third and Kyle Parizek was fourth and Matt Brown finished fifth.
We look forward to some warmer weather for racing coming up this week....as well as drier! We plan for the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday night where they will be running the Late Models for the first time this year, along with the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Northern SportMods, IMCA Hobby Stocks and IMCA Sport Compacts. Osky is a great place to catch some mid-week racing. Check it out.
Take a moment to check out fellow Positively Racing blogger, Ryan Clark's latest thoughts at In Staging, concerning track conditions and fans in the stands. It's a great write! Yes, the track was rough last night, but all racers were racing on the same track with the same conditions.
Thanks for reading...and to the folks sitting behinds us, the kind words. Happy racing!
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