The Hawkeye Dirt Tour came to the Hancock County Speedway in Britt as a part of the pre holiday Salute to the Veterans night on Tuesday, June 28th. All five of the regular divisions that race at Hancock County were on hand to race with all five racing for significantly increased purses. I attended this night of racing last year and it was a big show and the anticipation was that it would be so again in 2016.
It was nearly a perfect night for auto racing in northern Iowa from both a temperature and wind standpoint. It was a big night for promoter Joe Ringsdorf with a full grandstand and a pit area jammed with one hundred and thirty nine race cars. The Modifieds topped the list with forty four entrants on hand but the other IMCA classes also had very good fields with the exception of the Sport Compacts who failed to field enough entrants for more than one heat.
The Modified field was strong indeed with the best from the local area, plus many travelers from the state and beyond. With drivers like Ricky Thornton Jr and Kyle Strickler on hand to duel with the area's best, everyone had their game face on and the heat races were spectacular in all divisions with several last lap passes and plenty of tin swapping. At least three drivers were "set down" for overly aggressive driving and it was not a night for the weak of heart.
B features were necessary for the Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Modifieds before the feature fields could be finalized. One of the drivers fighting to make the main in the Sport Mods was the #7G car. When I walked into the pits, I thought immediately that I recognized the car but felt I must be mistaken because I thought the car was one I saw in Arizona in January.
Turns out for once I was correct. The driver was Dennis Gates from the Tucson area of Arizona. When I first went out to the January race in Tucson, Dennis was racing a Modified but in the last couple years he has switched over to running a Sport Mod. He told me he is running in the top twenty in IMCA national points right now and would like to stay there if possible.
Dennis said that he came East to watch Ricky Thornton Jr in action and brought his race car along to have some fun. It has always been on his "bucket list" to come back and race in the Midwest and Boone for Super Nationals and since he is now retired, this was the year to do it. He plans to hang around Iowa through the middle of September when he will return to Arizona as their season restarts after taking off for the hot summer months. He said that he was racing at Central Arizona Speedway recently and when the races were completed, the temperature was still 111 degrees! Dennis will be starting his fortieth year of racing in 2017. Tuesday he suffered heartbreak as he missed qualifying for the main event by a single position in the B feature!
Thornton Jr drew the pole for the thirty lap modified feature and that seemed to have settled the issue before the race even started as Ricky looked very strong in his heat race. Sure enough, they dropped the green and after a brief battle with Jeremy Mills, Ricky started to check out on the field.
However, auto races are tough to predict, and just when it looked like the race was over, Thornton Jr suddenly slowed and dropped into the infield, his race done. Corey Dripps, who started eighth, inherited the lead and he proceeded to motor away from the field. There were plenty of laps remaining when he got the lead but no one was able to cut into his advantage, including drivers like Mills, Shryock Ruter and Noteboom. Corey was on a rail and no one would come close to him the rest of the way. The Modifieds put on a race as it should be run, with the main event going thirty laps nonstop and only five drivers not finishing the event. There also was only one lapped car in thirty laps, proof that everyone on the track was running pretty darn competitively.
While the Modified feature was interesting, the Stock Car and Sport Mod features were clearly the best races of the night with both of these main events being real dandies.
The Sport Mod feature saw Johnathan Logue, Colby Fett and Jared Boumeester race three wide for most of the race. It was a fantastic job by all three as Fett ran the high side, Logue hugged the tires like he did last week when he won the big money in the Sport Mod special and Boumeester refused to be left behind as lap after lap he would slide between the two front runners each time they braked for the corners.
The three went back and forth with Logue and Fett trading the lead and Boumeester refusing to back down. Near the end of the race, a third and final yellow flew and on the green Logue bobbled slightly. This allowed Boumeester to finally get in front of him and then he quickly drove past Fett to take over the lead. That was the finishing order. Let's not forget George Nordman who missed his heat after hot lap troubles, started twelfth in the B and qualified for the main and then came from twentieth to fifth at the finish. That's a lot of cars to pass in one night. It was an excellent race.
The Stock Car field was both big and talented and their feature race was especially good also. Damon Murty got to the front quickly from his second row starting spot and he did build up a decent sized lead.
However, a couple of yellows bunched the field and then suddenly it was Cayden Carter who was the man on the move. Carter, who has eight in a row and counting at Osky and someone I have seen dominate there, picked up the pace and started driving under car after car as he moved to the front. Carter is one very smooth driver, and his charge was so non flashy until suddenly, there he was knocking of Murty's rear bumper.
Carter made his winning pass as he made them all night, driving deep into the corners and racing up under drivers to take spots. Murty tried to stay with him after being passed but Carter gradually pulled away in the last few laps.
The track looked at busy during the Hobby Stock feature as the county road leaving the track did a little while later. Thirteen rows of cars took the green flag for only twelve laps and I expected the worst. However, the drivers surprised me as while there were four yellow flags for minor spins, there was not even a single grinding crash which is what I anticipated.
Cody Nielsen won the feature with a scenario that very much matched last Tuesday's race. He took the lead and appeared ready to pull away after dominated the preliminary action once again. However, just as last Tuesday, he would slip out of the groove and be passed, this time by Des Moines' John Watson. And again, just like last Tuesday, he would again pick up the pace and make a late race pass to reassert himself as the leader. Cory Probst also got by Watson at the end to finish second.
I saw Devin Jones lead from start to finish in the Sport Compact main event. However, the official press release from IMCA lists Jay DeVries, who crossed the line second, as the winner. Perhaps there was a disqualification that I am not aware of so I would advise that Sport Compact fans to further research on this question.
The race track was much improved from last Tuesday's show and allowed the cars to move much more around the track and use different grooves which in turn made the program so much the better. The program did get a bit long with the final checkered not waving until around 11:30 pm. The only complaint would be that we got started rather late as the hot laps for all those cars plus a long driver's meeting moved the first green flag back to 7:45 pm. After that though, it was nonstop racing with one race hardly receiving the checkered before the next race hit the track. Even the victory lane ceremonies were held until after all the races were completed to save time. Overall, it was an excellent night of racing.
No comments:
Post a Comment