This indeed was an Easter Sunday when I missed out on activities at home. On a three day pass when bad weather in the Upper Midwest saw me migrate down to the Hawkeye State for three nights of excellent racing and great weather, I wrapped up the weekend on Sunday night at Mick Trier's Benton County Speedway in Vinton.
And as great as the first part of the weekend was, Sunday was even more spectacular and certainly one of the nicest Easter Sundays that I can recall for many years. Topping off at over eighty degrees with bright sunshine, the only problem was the strong wind blowing from the South that made track preparation certainly a challenge. However, the folks in charge of that came through with flying colors, as we will discuss shortly.
This would be the opening night of racing for the 2019 season at Benton County as they lost their Frostbuster to the weather much earlier this month. And to open up the racing season on an Easter Sunday must be a challenge on many fronts, but everything seemed to be in mid season working order and I saw nary a "hiccup" by anyone all night.
The five regular classes that race at Vinton would be on hand for the opener along with the Bat Wings which also race their every week and the Legend Cars would join the show on this night also, with many of them coming all the way from North Dakota and Wisconsin to race. Late Models join the weekly fun starting in May.
It was looking quite grim in the pits for the longest time as it just seemed like no race cars were arriving. However, probably due to it being a holiday, many were running a little bit late with family activities to take care of first because when the cars started to arrive, they came rolling in all at once in droves. They ended up with eighty three cars in the five classes I count which was just a perfect number. That allowed full heats and no B Features, excellent for clock watchers like myself on Sunday nights facing a five and a half hour tote home.
Things started out on a rocky note when the first green flag for hot laps was still being waved in the starter's hand when Sport Mod driver Kyle Roose went cart wheeling off the third turn, ending up with a thud in the field. He was OK but the car was not. After that things settled down
The heat races were completed in very quick fashion and before you knew it, it was time for the first feature race to roll off. Since it was opening night, the draw/redraw format was in play and sometimes that helps the racing and sometimes not. I see the same thing in the tracks I frequent here in "Cheeseland" and in the "Gopher" state on opening night when they use the same qualifying procedure. Sometimes a fast car draws the pole with some blockers behind them and the racing is always the most exciting.
That seemed to prevail on Sunday in some of the early main events. In the Hobby Stock feature, Brett Vanous ran away for a dominating win. However, he didn't start right in front but actually in the fourth row but he was so much faster than the rest of the field that he just blew past everyone and ran away. Jacob Floyd finished a distant second with Bill Bonnett next in line.
The Sport Compact feature was much the same way. Luke Benischek started in the second row, found his way into the lead quickly and then drove away from the field, leading by almost half a lap in a race that was stopped just once by the yellow flag. Adam Gates would settle for second with Mitchell Bunch third.
Attrition in the heats would cut the Sport Mod field to a dozen cars for the main event and with Tony Olson elevated to the pole when Brady Hilmer failed to show, the drama in this race was little. Olson led from start to finish and only a late yellow flag that allowed Kyle Olson to move in behind him kept things close. Ben Chapman finished third.
By this time the wind was drying out the track and with the small tired, low horsepower cars on the track, everyone had migrated to the bottom groove and not a lot of racing was taking place. Fortunately, it was then time for the Stock Cars and Modifieds to take to the track. They quickly blew the "crumbs" off the track, widened the groove and we were then in for two excellent feature races to wrap up the night. The timing was perfect as everyone in the stands went home remarking about the great final two feature races and likely completely forgetting that the ones before that were a bit of "snoozers."
The Stock Car feature was a classic and was stopped only once by yellow flags. Jay Schmidt sat on the pole and while he may have been officially scored the leader of all eighteen laps, that statistic doesn't begin to tell the story of the race.
Schmidt was guarding the low groove and he was constantly being challenged by several different drivers at various points of the race. John Oliver Jr moved up from the third row to become his primary challenger when Damon Murty caught fire and after moving up from the fifth row, made it a three car battle for the lead.
The lone yellow set up a five lap sprint to the finish and it turned out to be a dandy. Murty was able to get past Oliver Jr for second and he began to put heavy pressure on Schmidt. After the yellow, Schmidt's car seemed to tighten up and he was really struggling to get it to turn in the corners as it was hiking up on him and he was opening the door for challenges. Murty stuck his nose under Schmidt as they took the white flag with Schmidt slamming the door shut in turn one.
However, Schmidt again struggled to get through that turn and Murty shot to the high side to try and pass. He got beside Schmidt when out of no where Oliver Jr. materialized and he shot to the middle between the two challengers. They went barreling into turn three side by side by side and no one giving an inch. Oliver Jr's momentum saw him slide up the track and with no where to go, he pretty much forced Murty over the top of the corner. Meanwhile, Schmidt stayed low and with the other two fully engaged, he snuck past both and drove home for the win. Oliver Jr did manage second ahead of Scooter Dulin with Murty unofficially nipping Brian Mahlstedt. It was a really exciting race and had the crowd in a state of ecstasy afterward as they were fully engaged, if you know what I mean.
The Modified feature was nearly as good with Kyle Brown and Troy Cordes battling for the lead along with Cory Dripps and Joel Rust. Jeff Aikey started way back in row five after he mistook the white flag for the checkered flag in his heat and dropped way back on the final tour.
He was making up for his mistake though, as he came charging up to challenge for the lead within a few laps. He moved in on Dripps, who was leading, and they began throwing slide jobs at each other and it was highly entertaining. They exchanged the lead several times while other drivers lurked close behind as the top five was in a big heap.
A yellow with five to go saw Aikey on Dripps' tail and it seemed that the leader was at a disadvantage as Aikey built up a head of steam down the back chute and blew past Dripps on the high side after Cory had opted to run the low line. Brown then made a charge , getting by Dripps for second and finishing a close second in what was another very entertaining main event and a great way to wrap up the evening.
A couple comments: Despite the challenging weather conditions with the sun and wind on a race track that had not seen any action to that point, I thought the track prep crew did a great job of offering up a nice, racy track for the drivers. Two water trucks were working constantly before the show, wetting down both the track and pits constantly and it paid dividends. Except for that short time when the narrow tire cars allowed the "crumbs" to build up and narrow up the groove, the racing was good all night and there were a variety of different lines to race on. Congrats to them for a job well done.
Sunday night race tracks in my area all need to pack up their bags, join me for an evening at Vinton and see how it is done to complete a seven class program at an early hour. Vinton had got it down to a science, making sure they start on time, use a one spin rule to keep the heats moving, take no breaks and shoot one race out on to the track just as the last one ends. It was beautiful to watch and a must if you want to keep fans coming on a Sunday night. In my area, things often drone on until almost 10 pm on a Sunday and then they wonder why the stands are so empty. It's not rocket science but it is just smart business sense. Congrats again to Mick, Race Director MVG and the rest of the staff on a job well done. I was on the road home before 8 pm and in my own personal "Happy Place."
It was good to see my old editor at Hawkeye, Jim Morrison, in the infield taking pictures. Somehow I missed him in the pits before the race and am sorry I did but it was good to see him still active and at the races. Sunday nights at Vinton. It's a good place to be if you're a race fan that likes action.
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