The Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds ran at the famed Knoxville Raceway's half-mile last night. With the sweltering heat, the show was moved back, and hot laps started at 7:30 and racing followed at a tick before 8 p.m. There were thirty-seven of the HDT Modifieds as well as the IMCA Northern SportMod support class.
The SportMods ran their 20 lap A feature first, after completing four heat races, and two B-mains to fill out the 24 car starting feature. The top twelve from the heats, drew for starting position. The front row was Shawn Cooney and Brayton Carter. Sitting right behind them were Curtis VanDerWal and Randy Roberts. The initial start was called back when Cory VanZante went for a spin in corner one, right after the green flag flew. When things did get underway, Brayton Carter took the point spot, with VanDerWal close at hand. By lap two, VanDerWal had the lead. The race went clean the rest of the way to the checkers, with VanDerWal sweeping to the win. Tim Plummer took the distant runner up spot, Brayton Carter was third, Randy Roberts fourth, and Carter VanDenBerg was fifth. VanDerWal also won last year during the HDT race at Knoxville.
Things began to pick up pace as the program wore on, as Mother Nature was beginning to come into the picture, with things building to the west. Seems that is inevitable on our hot, muggy summer nights.
The Modifieds also ran four heat races, and two B mains...the top twelve from the heats drawing for starting position for their 25 lap A main. Two provisionals were tagged on the tail...Dan DeMay and Cory Sauerman. They were the two with the most points in the series, that had not qualified.
The starting line up had some heavy hitters starting upfront. Chris Abelson drew the pole, with Hunter Marriott sitting along side. Lurking in the second row was Ricky Thornton, Jr. (piloting Todd Cooney's ride) and Richie "G Money" Gustin. Abelson shot off to the lead as the green came out. He was motoring around the oval with no trouble, keeping Marriott at bay . It was looking as if the feature would go green to checkered, until Brandon Banks put it in the back wall at lap nineteen, halting the action. The race then went to red, in order to clear the track. Marriott was still sitting in second for the restart, Thornton was third, and Todd Shute, who had started eleventh, had shot through the field to run fourth. We were all thinking this might just be a game changer!
Abelson shot back to the lead as the action picked back up, but it was Thornton making the move around Marriott to take over second place. With five laps remaining, another yellow flew when Thornton went around in corner two.... Marriott deemed the villain, sending him to the tail on the restart. This now put Todd Shute in the runner up position for what would be the final restart, with Richie Gustin in third place. This could still be a dogfight to the finish! The efforts were futile however, as Abelson never wavered on his run to the checkers. Shute and Gustin remained second and third. Jeff Aikey started twelfth and finished fourth, and Justin Kay started fifteenth, and finished fifth.
It looks as if (from my calculations) that with an eighth place finish by Joel Rust, and Kelly Shryock finishing in ninth, that Rust now holds a one point lead in the series over Shryock.
The races were completed at 10:12 p.m. and a good thing. We had begun to notice lightning in the distance and a check of radar showed the rain fast approaching. Our drive home found us running into a deluge of rain and strong wind. We were more than grateful when we got home. We did enjoy our night with good racing friends, all of us thankful for the breeze that kept us sane...plus a frozen treat to cool us! Thanks Jeff!
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