Twice rained out earlier this year, the Hawkeye 50 was finally held on Monday night, July 25th at the Boone Speedway in Boone Iowa. In one of their rare appearances at the Modified stronghold, the Late Models sanctioned by the World of Outlaws would be racing for twenty thousand dollars to win on this rare, Monday night show.
The Monday night date for this show was picked in the hopes that it would help the car count as the national Late Model touring drivers would be moving from I-80 Speedway in Nebraska where they just wrapped up their big show on Sunday, over to Illinois and the Prairie Dirt Classic that will be racing this coming weekend. In the meantime, they also have a nice race planned for Davenport on Tuesday night so this seemed to be a perfect place to add this twice rained out event.
And World of Outlaws Late Model officials plans worked out well, as a very strong field of thirty three Late Models signed in to race on this night, representing much of the finest talent in the sport and certainly most of the hot drivers racing right now.
Insiders in the sport were hopeful that a full field of cars would be on hand here on Monday so with both the number and quality of the field, everyone was ecstatic at the turnout even though a couple of the most familiar names in Iowa Late Model open motor racing failed to attend. The Outlaws themselves continue to bring about ten of what could be called "their" own cars with their top eight in points on hand along with three more in the top fifteen. This was then supplemented with a number of national touring stars that dropped in on their way to Illinois from Nebraska to produce an excellent Monday night field of drivers.
Only one support class would be racing on Monday night and that was the IMCA Sport Mods where thirty four of them signed in to race with their top prize being upped to a grand to the winner.
There was a threat of rain all day with dark and ominous clouds overhead from time to time but nothing more than a few mid afternoon drops, not even enough to be called sprinkles, ever fell as the storms dissipated as they traveled East across the state. This however, might have held the crowd down some as while it was a good crowd, there was plenty of room to be had in the grandstands and of course, with live broadcast available, it's much too easy to just watch the race on tv, rather than run the risk of getting rained on in person.
Of course, you knew that with the resources and capability on hand that the track would be excellent for the racing program, although at its conclusion some of the drivers expressed their wish that there would have been one more track prep right before their feature as they claimed that would have made the racing a bit better for their fifty lapper. Myself, I thought drivers were racing all over the track but perhaps the high side could have used a little help as not as many drivers as I thought would did ever pound the cushion.
It was the usual Outlaw format, with time trials split into two groups and then four heats and a pair of B Features setting what would be a twenty three car starting field for the main here at the "King of the Catwalks", as Jerry Van Sickel referred to Boone as.
The feature itself was not the kind of cliffhanger one would hope for, but it was a solid race with several good battles going on through the pack. Tyler Bruening, who earlier was quick qualifier and would start on the pole, would lead the first three laps until he bobbled in turn one and nearly spun out. That would open the door to Jonathan Davenport who blew past into the lead and would hold sway for the last forty seven laps, basically unchallenged.
There was, however, an excellent battle for second with Bruening and Mike Marlar going at it for position. I think Marlar tried more different lines than any driver on the track as he experimented with the top, middle and inside lines and according to him, was never comfortable in any of them. With twenty seven straight green flag laps, some drivers farther back in the field began to work their way to the front. The most prominent was WoO point leader Dennis Erb as the perennial bottom feeder was slowly and then later more quickly, picking off driver after driver as he moved up after starting eighth.
He was able to drive up to second and was actually closing in on Davenport who was stuck behind three slower cars that were often racing three wide in their battle for position. Just when things started looking interesting, Boom Briggs decided to take an excursion trip off turn one, the yellow flew and that was that as back on green, Davenport would then pull away again over the last twenty laps as he was definitely the quickest car in open air.
Davenport would cruise over the last portion of the race to take the win easily over Erb with Marlar working like the devil and finding a line to hold off Bruening for another podium finish. Bobby Pierce really picked up the pace at the end and made the top five, after he disappointed by not pounding the cushion earlier as I expected as most drivers just couldn't make the top work. Only four drivers failed to go the fifty lap distance and not a single driver was lapped
The Sport Mods ran a program that mirrored the Late Models, minus the qualifying of course. Four heats and a B Feature would set their running order for their twenty lap main. After the usual amount of bumping and grinding in the qualifiers, the main event for the Sport Mods ran off smoothly, but the only yellows of the race, coming late in the event, made all the difference in the world to its outcome.
Logan Anderson would start on the pole and would eventually lead the first eighteen laps of the feature. He was under the gun though, primarily from Cory Pestotnik and Braden Richards as the top three raced in a close formation with Anderson using the low side to hold off the challenges. Meanwhile, track point leader Jake Sachau, who started tenth, was gradually working his way to the front but it was a tough process with so many even cars and lots of green flag racing.
When the first yellow finally waved with only three laps to go, Sachau had raced his way up to fifth. Only one lap was made before another spin slowed the action but Sachau got by both Cam Reimers and Richards to move up to third.
The last two laps saw a wild scramble as Sachau went to the cushion to pass Pestotnik, then moved up on Anderson. And there would be no stopping Jake as he continued to work the cushion and blew by Anderson who was hugging the tires in turn two. And once in front, Sachau took the white flag and the accelerated away from the field to take the win. Anderson, Richards, Reimers and Pestotnik would complete the top five in a race that saw only four drivers not go the distance. It was a smooth main event but for Anderson, unfortunately not quite smooth enough as the yellows made all the difference to Sachau.
My expectation going into this race was that it would be a smoothly run program and a quick one and I was not disappointed as the last checkered flew well before 10 pm. I think everyone was satisfied with the program and perhaps the Late Models gained a few fans that liked what they saw here in this Modified stronghold.
Thanks to everyone here at Boone for their help and also to the World Racing Group World of Outlaws folks for their continued help.
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