The Dirt Duel Continued on Tuesday night, June 2nd at the Stuart International Speedway in Stuart Iowa as the IMCA Sport Mods and Stock Cars took to the track for round two of this three night extravaganza with drivers qualifying for the outside row on Tuesday for Wednesday night's fifty lap main events. When all racing was completed shortly after 10 pm, it was Todd VanEaton and Brayton Carter respectively that won the Stock Car and Sport Mod mains and assured themselves outside front row starting spots for the four thousand dollar to win mains.
The IMCA Sport Compacts also competed in a full show on Tuesday and their slam bang main saw Chris Vannausdle make a last corner pass for the win in a race that had as much drama after the checkered flew as during the race itself.
It was another blast furnace day in central Iowa with the temps in the nineties and another powerful wind blowing out of the South all day and into the evening. For the second straight night the track prep crew was challenged as much as they will be perhaps all season with all hands on deck watering the track and pits and driveways constantly to try and get moisture into the racing surface and keep the dust from flying on other parts of the facility. And despite all the challenges, for the most part the track held up well and the dust in the stands during the racing program was negligible.
Car counts were thirty five in the Stock Cars and thirty four in the Sport Mods with four cars in each class not racing on this night since they have already qualified for the show. There were two new cars that showed up on Tuesday in an all or nothing attempt as if they don't make it on Tuesday, they will be very low in points for the Last Chance races on Wednesday and will not have much chance in making the show. The Sport Compacts signed in with sixteen cars, perfect for two nice sized heats and a main.
Before the races started tonight, Sport Mod driver Kyle Bentley sang the National Anthem adorned in his fire suit for as soon as he belted out the last note, he had to hustle to the pits and get strapped in so as not to miss his heat race. He did an admirable job of signing the anthem it should be noted.
The Sport Mod and Stock Car portion of the program was identical to Monday night with four heats and two B Features setting the twenty four car fields for the twenty five lap mains. As mentioned above, the Sport Compacts ran two heats and a feature. The 600 Modifieds were also on hand but you will have to rely on some of the other ace bloggers from Positively Racing to get the news on that class. Sorry. It must be pointed out though that they had the biggest wreck of the evening by far with a double flip during their main event and a very close finish following a late race pass.
The defending Sport Mod winner of this race, Brayton Carter, had a sub par night last night but fortunately, with the format of this show, that is all in the past and a good night on Tuesday could start him right up front and on the outside and based on how the track has been racing this week, the perfect spot.
And that is exactly what happened for Carter tonight. He drew the pole for the first heat, won that and then redrew the pole for the Sport Mod feature. He led all twenty five laps to record the win although it wasn't a totally easy win as Brian Osantowski moved up from the third row to challenge him and Carter was never able to comfortably pull away from him. Carter was running the high side while Osantowski was one of the few making the low groove work and he drove up into second using that line. Several times he showed a nose under Carter but Brayton stayed true to the cushion and made it work for the win.
Perhaps the best race was for the final qualifying position and for lap after lap, it was Johnathon Logue and Colby Langenberg that battled for that spot running in tight formation down the front chute on each go round. Eventually near the end of the race Langenberg would clobber the wall and lose some ground and Logue would claim the last qualifying spot. In between him and Osantowski, Colby Fett would also make the inside work as he drove up from the fifth row to finish third.
After the race, promoter MVG would admit that he made a mistake in not doing a little bit more to the race track before the Stock Car feature race. In this event, the outside groove just gave up and most of the cars were fighting each other to get to the bottom and hugging the tires on the inside groove. Jesse Sobbing was one of the few to try the outside and he made it work for about half the race, battling for the last qualifying spot until that groove gave up, he sank like a leaky ship and eventually pulled off the track.
However, despite the fact that the track narrowed up during the Stock Car main, there was still a good six car battle up front with only four making the show on Wednesday. VanEaton started on the pole and he led all twenty five laps of the nonstop race but there was plenty of action behind him.
One of the highlights was the three wide battle of the #99 cars with the Murty family battling with Sobbing before Dallon claimed the spot and Sobbing called it a night.
Things still were tight at the finish as Murty was banging on the rear bumper of Troy Jerovetz for the second spot and Dad Murty(Damon), was beating on the rear bumper of Derek Green, trying to unsuccessfully steal the last qualifying spot.
The Sport Compact feature started out pretty tame until all heck broke loose late in the race. The Vannausdles were right in the middle of it with both Bryan and Chris involved at the end. Bryan quickly moved up from the second row to take the lead with Chris eventually moving into second. They had a comfortable lead on the field when suddenly Chris made his move and was able to drive into the lead.
They continued to hold the top two spots with Mitchell Bunch in third and trying to catch them. Also becoming part of the lead pack was Kolby Sabin and suddenly the top four were pretty much nose to tail. The leaders caught the back of the pack and with everyone hugging the low groove, there wasn't much room to maneuver. With the slower cars not yielding, it was time to go so the leaders put the bumper to the slower cars and moved a couple of them out of the way and one got hung up in turn one, triggering the only yellow flag of the event.
The slower car took umbrage to the driving style of the Vannausdle's and gave them a "little loving" as the cars circled under the yellow. This resulted in a black flag disqualification as that car was tossed from the track.
On the green, Sabin shocked the leading Vannausdle and dove under him to take over the lead. Chris V. moved back into second and then closed on Sabin, setting up a last lap, last corner maneuver where he dove under Sabin with both cars going up the track and Vannausdle recovering first to motor home the winner. Sabin and Bryan V. completed the top five.
However, the action wasn't over yet by a long shot as the angered DQ driver stormed across the track after the race was over, apparently looking for some redress of the situation. He used some inflamed gestures and had back up from his female crew chief and looked to make some trouble until MVG caught word of the issue and appeared and one look at the size and strength of MVG sent that group back into the pits, yapping all the way though. There still seemed to be something going on later in the pits and I'm guessing they weren't making appointments for a canasta party. The wise choice for management would probably be to tell that crew to load up and try it again in 2021!
Again, it was a smooth running program with very few yellow flags and the one spin rule used through the heats and B Features certainly does get the attention of the drivers. Wednesday night the two big features will wrap up this three night show with the Modifieds also on hand to run the Bill Davis Memorial and the Hobby Stocks will also get their crack at the track for the first time this week.
A word of caution, the June bugs are out so don't wear white on Wednesday and wear something that you can hike the collar up to keep those disgusting things from going down your back. UGH.
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