Saturday, May 22, 2010

Tapper Grabs Checkers at Webster City

A hot, windy day was in store for many tracks throughout Iowa on Saturday night. It would be no different at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City as the crowd was a bit larger on this night. Hopefully with the weather warming up the crowds will return to watch the exciting action at the historic half-mile.

Adam Strunk kicked things off by winning the hornet feature. If memory serves me correctly, I believe announcer Ryan Bergeson mentioned it was Strunk's third consecutive win at the speedway.

Eleven IMCA hobby stocks then took the track. Roger Haupt Jr would take command from the start and not look back as he took home the win. He was followed by Curt Graham, Nate Bonin, Gary Pfantz, and Brad Ratcliff.

1. 24R Roger Haupt Jr
2. 14G Curt Graham
3. 51 Nate Bonin
4. 4x Gary Pfantz
5. 1R Brad Ratcliff
6. 58 Matt Ring
7. 38 Ryan Darling
8. 5 Joe Riekes (sp?)
9. 4 Ryan Caquelin
10. 503 Rick Osterman
11. 53 Andy Spellmeyer
12. 13G Craig Graham - DNS


George Gilliland grabbed the top spot early on in the IMCA sportmod feature that saw fifteen cars take the green flag. Several yellow flags slowed the action early on, but Matt Northrop made a great move to the inside to pass Shawn Hunter and Gilliland to take over the top spot on lap four. Points leader Chad Louk was involved in an incident that also retired Dustin West from action soon after. Matt Lettow was on the charge once racing resumed as he climbed to the runner up spot on lap eight before snaring the lead away from Northrop on lap nine. Lettow went on to take the win with Northrop in second, Shawn Hunter third, George Gilliland fourth, and Rocky Caudle fifth.

1. 21 Matt Lettow
2. 46 Matt Northrop
3. 91 Shawn Hunter
4. 40 George Gilliland
5. 99 Rocky Caudle
6. 21K Kyle Brown
7. 11 Paul Price
8. 53 Travis Woodbeck
9. 5 Mitch Frakes
10. 2c Levi Carlberg
11. 11E Beau Kaplan
12. 5E Justin Efkamp
13. 85 Dustin West
14. 20 Chad Louk
15. T69 Dan Trusty
16. 22 Rick Fasse

Only six 305 sprint cars took the green flag that saw Casey Fredrickson completely dominate the field. He built up a half-lap lead by the completion of lap four and erased all doubt who would wind up in victory lane.

1. 20 Casey Fredrickson
2. 55KC Bob Hildreth
3. 2T Matt Stephenson (Earl Tice car)
4. 11s Chadrack Sporaa
5. 93A Alan Amber ??
6. 21 Keith Carlberg

Ten stock cars would then grace the speedway with pole sitter Dennis Plain jumping to the early lead. Jason Wagoner, who started last on the grid, quickly disposed of several cars as he climbed his way to third in the first three laps. Two laps later he found a way around Ryan Leeman and closed in on Plain's rear bumper. Wagoner tried everything in his book of tricks, but could not find a way past as Dennis Plain picked up the win. Wagoner was second, Mark Haglund third, Dave Hubbard fourth, and Adam Silvey rounded out the top five.

1. 57 Dennis Plain
2. 20 Jason Wagoner
3. 31M Mark Haglund
4. 5 Dave Hubbard
5. 97 Adam Silvey
6. 80 Scott Bloemke
7. 77 Andy Bryant
8. R31 Ryan Leeman
9. 26 Tony Wagoner
10. 14 Todd Staley

Pole sitter Scott Williams took control of the IMCA modified feature that saw only seven cars in attendance. Dave Kuykendall and Scott Olson battled it out for the runner up spot before Kuykendall slid his car sideways exiting turn four. That handed the position to Olson while Kuykendall regrouped and settled back in line. Olson would close the gap to Williams, but again was unable to make the pass as Scott Williams took the win.

1. 64 Scott Williams
2. 8x Scott Olson
3. 82K Dave Kuykendall
4. 123 Rob Rose
5. 41P Keith Pittman
6. 8G Greg Dinsmore (Texas)
7. 14 Derek Oberle

The final event of the night belonged to the twelve-car field of IMCA late models. Curtis Glover would lead lap one before relinquishing it over to Kelly Tapper on lap three. Darrel DeFrance moved to the inside and passed Jason Vansickel on lap six to take over the fourth spot while Tapper was beginning to extend his lead. A caution with eight laps remaining bunched the field up with a double file restart. Ben Nading, after falling back on the restart, began to make up ground on the inside groove. He ducked low of Glover to reclaim the third spot before briefly getting by DeFrance for second. DeFrance would get the final say in that battle as he would finish second, but they were all chasing Kelly Tapper to the checkered flag.

1. 85 Kelly Tapper
2. 99D Darrel DeFrance
3. 21 Ben Nading
4. 76 Jason Hahne
5. 30 Todd Cooney
6. 32 Curtis Glover
7. 8 Al Johnson
8. 3 Kevin Sather
9. 37E Jason Vansickel
10. X Ryan Griffith
11. 29 Nick Pedersen
12. 45 Mike Pedersen

I thought the track was smooth once again tonight, but the moisture from the humid air kept the primary racing groove on the cushion. That limited the amount of passing for the most part, but several drivers were able to slice their way through the fields. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, it was good to see the grandstand with a few more people on this night.

- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!

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