Monday night, we traveled to the Benton County Speedway for some early week racing. It was the rescheduled Hawkeye Dirt Tour race that had been weathered out earlier in the season. They also had the IMCA Northern SportMods, IMCA Stock Cars and the IMCA Hobby Stocks on the program. All classes were running for National points, but not for track points.
The Northern SportMod 15-lap feature was first. Kip Siems was the recipient of the pole spot after Colby Heishman was a scratch. Siems took command when the green flew, with Tony Olson tucked into second. Olson was able to make the move into the lead at lap six, and from there on, pulled away for an easy victory---his second at the track in as many nights. Siems finished as the runner up, Sam Wieben was third, and a good distance behind was Kyle Olson in fourth and Troy Burkhart in fifth. The race went flag to flag.
Scott Pippert looked well on his way to nabbing a victory in the IMCA Stock Car class. Pippert led from the start with Damon Murty running in second the entire distance. That is until the final lap! That's when Pippert got loose in corner four, and that was all Murty needed. He flew around the outside of Pippert who was struggling to retain control, and scored the win....his 23rd of the year. Pippert held on to take second, and a good distance behind in third was Norm Chesmore, followed by Justin Stander and Mike Galli.
The Hobby Stocks saw Matt Pohlman lead the opening laps of the 12 lap event. By lap five, Justin Wacha had taken command. A lap later, Jacob Keiser passed Pohlman to take over the runner up spot and then started to reel in Wacha. Keiser got close enough to try a couple of peeks on the outside of the leader, but it was to no avail, as Wacha held the lead and scored the win. Keiser took second over Brian Happel in third and Matt Pohlman in fourth. Scott Siems was fifth but did not finish.
It was now time for the 30-lap Hawkeye Dirt Tour for the IMCA Modifieds. Tyler Droste and veteran Vern Jackson redrew the front row starting spots. Jackson jumped to the lead with Droste tucked in behind him. They would run in that order until a yellow flew at lap four when Glenwood, Iowa's Jesse Sobbing ended up off of the racing surface on corner three, bringing out a yellow. When things picked up again, running in third behind Jackson and Droste was seventh place starter Richie Gustin, and defending HDT series champion, Ronn Lauritzen was in fourth. Jackson and Droste were going at it hot and furiously, Droste briefly taking the lead, only to have Jackson snatch it back. Five cars broke away from the field, Jackson, Droste, Gustin, Lauritzen and Joe Docekal had joined them for the tussle. After many attempts, Droste finally made the pass around Jackson and took over the top spot at lap twenty. The race was halted at lap twenty-three when local favorite, "Iceman" Scott Hogan somehow ended up on a tire in turn two. The race was restarted and two more yellows would fly, one at lap twenty-four when Jacob Murray was off the track in turn four, and another at lap twenty-six for Troy Cordes who also took a trip off the track in turns three and four. The final run to the checkers when the race restarted at lap twenty-six went caution free but there was some shuffling for sure. Droste was holding down the point position, but now he had Richie Gustin to contend with in second place, and Ronn Lauritzen had taken advantage of the late race restarts, and gotten to third. Gustin, who is known as "G Money" as he has often won races for the big pay offs, was more than happy for those late race restarts---and once again, it worked for him. With two laps to go, Gustin had made the pass into the lead, and then drove home to the checkers and the $1,000 win. Droste held on to take second place, Ronn Lauritzen went third, fourth was Vern Jackson and Joe Docekal rounded out the top five.
The Hawkeye Dirt Tour travels to Tipton tonight, where they will join the IMCA Late Models for a Deery Brothers race. It's $3,000 to win for the "Boys of Summer" Late Models, and another $1,000 pay day for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modifieds. We plan to make the trip to watch another good night of week night racing. Hope to see you there!
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