The "Frost Buster" moved on to night number two of its four night swing through Iowa with a visit to one of the Hawkeye State's real action tracks, the Benton County Speedway in Vinton.
Many of the same drivers that raced the previous night at Donnellson were on hand again with also a number of different cars including some travelers from as far away as North Dakota and Wisconsin who couldn't make it on Wednesday for whatever reason. Imagine what there disappointment must have been when they were shut out of their final two races when the weather really went sour for the rest of the weekend.
Fine fields of cars were on hand in all four classes with the Sport Mods tipping the scale with the largest count, and at nearly forty cars, they also required the only multi race B features to wean down their entrants into the main. The Modifieds also needed a B feature to cut down the entrants to the main.
Despite the fact that there was still some hard packed snow in the ditch lines noted on the way to the track, the racing surface was in super shape for the opening night event. Despite the fact that extra laps were put on the surface with the special, the track held up very well as it remained smooth, fast and the drivers were able to run multiple grooves. Sometimes Vinton can be a handful, especially early in the season, but it was in beautiful shape on this night.
Despite the presence of many new drivers and the pressure of the special event, the heat races just blew by. Fifteen preliminaries were completed and remarkably there was only one yellow flag flown during the course of all these heats. The combination of good driving and drivers realizing that if they stopped on the track, they were done, kept everyone moving with the only yellow being when Scooter Dulin dinged up his beautiful new Stock Car on one of the ute tires.
Before we knew it, it was feature time and the Stock Cars rolled out first. With Damon Murty on the pole, it didn't look good for the rest of the field and that's just the way it played out. Murty lead all the way for the win, despite some early pressure from Canadian Kody Scholpp. Scholpp, who returned from a flip on Wednesday night in Donnellson, was running very well and pressuring Murty when he suddenly shut down his car and dived into the infield, usually the sign of some serious issues. Scholpp, who built this Stock Car to sell it before he moves back into his Modified, showed some good speed both nights but had nothing but bad luck to go with that speed.
Todd Reitzler, off to a good start in 2018, gave a late race charge that netted him second at the finish. A carburetor issue cost Brian Mahlstedt third spot and elevated Steve Meyer, Jay Schmidt and John Oliver Jr into the top five.
The Sport Mods provided the only tedious race of the night, if you were only scoring yellow flag slowdowns. They had five slow downs, not that bad really but glaring on this night when the yellow hardly ever flew. A stunning finish was the result of this race after Johnathan Logue Jr battled in the early going with Arie Schouten until Schouten flew off the end of the track and he dropped many spots.
Logue seemed to be in control as the last seventeen laps ran nonstop with Joey Schaefer running fairly close. As the white flag flew, the leaders were nearing heavy traffic and when Logue suddenly lifted and pulled over, it gave all the appearance of him misreading the flags and thinking the race was over. However, that was not the case as the #69jr suffered a steering issue and he did a good job under the circumstances of not creating a big wreck. Schaefer took advantage of the situation to then go on for the win with Tyler Soppe, Sam Wieben, Joe Docekal and Ethan Braaksma next in line.
The Hobby Stock feature generated some "old time" racing with the leaders laying on each other as they battled for the top spot. It boiled down to Eric Stanton and David Rieks fighting it out for the win. Rieks used some "quarter panel" action to take the top spot and Stanton returned the favor as he shoe horned his way back into the top spot. The last couple of laps saw then battle hard, running dangerously close to each other and seemingly on the edge of taking each other out.
However, while they ran very hard the last couple of laps, neither pulled a "dirty" on the other and the finish saw Stanton edge Rieks for the win. Justin Wacha, Bradly Graham and Matt Pohlman trailed in what was a thrilling race.
Another surprise wrapped up the evening's action when the Modified feature had a stunning finish. Hunter Marriott had worked his way into the lead and when in front, he is seldom passed. However, in the waning laps, he adjusted his line and dropped to the bottom of the track, almost like he felt his cars' handling starting to slip away and he was trying to protect the lead. Cayden Carter, who had been running a strong race, moved in to seriously challenge as the white flag waved. Still, most thought that Marriott would just block the low line and Carter wouldn't be able to drive around him in a single lap. So, it was very surprising when Marriott simply couldn't hold his car on the bottom and Carter drove cleanly under him to take the lead as they raced down the back stretch and come home to a stunning win. It was a well deserved victory and proof once again that you just never know what might happen at the end of a race. The top five got further shuffled when third place finisher Richie Gustin got "tossed" for a chip violation, moving up Kyle Brown, Joel Rust and Ethan Dotson.
It was an excellent show and run off in a prompt manner on a week night in April. My apologies for the last report but travel issues and illness put me behind in completing this report.
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