Big Changes Kick Off at Hamilton County Speedway

It's only inevitable: change. With change comes uncertainty and nervousness. Perhaps those are just a few of the words used to describe people's thoughts as the season opener approached at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City. With the departure of Al Urhammer, the fairboard stepped up and took the reigns of the historic race track for the 2011 season. Their goal was to attract more cars, and in the process bump the payouts in a few classes. The biggest eye-opener obviously was that they would pay out $1,000 to the IMCA modified winner every week if a certain amount of cars showed up. Many fans were excited about that announcement in hopes of attracting a larger car count.

The night started off a little behind schedule as cars were still making their way down the hill as the scheduled time for hot laps came and went. With the driver's meeting out of the way, the heat races were off and running around 7:20. The heats would be completed and the water truck applied water to the top half of the track to try to control the dust. Yes, I said dust.

The hornet feature was first up with eight of the ten cars making the call. Adam Strunk used the pole position to jump out front early with Lyle Oberhelman tucked in just behind. The field would spread out behind them as Oberhelman chased down Strunk with two laps to go before a caution flag waved. On the restart Oberhelman dove to the inside and took the lead away. Strunk returned the favor a lap later, but that was only the start of a wild finish. Mike McFarland, Friday night's feature winner in Fort Dodge, got a great run off turn two on the final lap and drove by both front runners to take the lead and the win. A #22 car (Collins was last name, didn't catch first name) would also sneak by to take second. Adam Strunk finished third, Daniel Ayers was fourth, and Lyle Oberhelman rounded out the top five.

Next up would be the 14-car field of IMCA hobby stocks. Pole-sitter Kevin Fee raced to the early lead. Heath Tulp was the only car trying to make something work on the cushion, but without help Tulp slowly went backwards until he dropped in line. The caution flag came out on lap five when Brad Ratcliff lost a wheel in turn four. Ratcliff had been running second at the time of the incident. Two more caution periods kept the pace slow, but on the ensuing restart Heath Tulp took advantage and passed Blake Miller and Cory Roe to advance to the second position. Two more cautions waved with the final one coming after the white flag, so the race ended under caution with Kevin Fee making the long trip from Knoxville worth it as he visited victory lane. Heath Tulp was second, Robert Dilley finished third, and Cory Roe was fourth. All of this is comlpetely unofficial as they revert back to the previously scored lap, in which I didn't have anything written down yet.

A full field of twenty-four IMCA sportmods took to the track next for their finale of the evening. Kyle Brown took command from the pole. Shortly after the restart Beau Kaplan had problems and slowed momentarily, dropping him back four spots to the eighth position. Meanwhile up front Jared Timmerman and Joel Rust maneuvered around Jeremy Embrey for second and third, respectively. Following another yellow flag, Embrey would lose the handle exiting turn two, resulting in a six-car pileup. Rust would sneak by Timmerman for second and chase down Brown for the lead, but he was unable to make the pass down the stretch as Kyle Brown took home the win. Rust settled for second after starting 11th, Timmerman was third, Rocky Caudle finished fourth, and Bryan Weyer completed the top five.

It was then time for the stock cars as fourteen of the fifteen competitors took the green flag. Two cautions were displayed before a lap was completed, including outside front row starter Reid Keller spinning and making contact with the outside wall entering turn one. When the green was displayed again, it would be Mark Elliott taking advantage of his new starting spot outside the front row and grabbing the lead. Tory Reicks would follow in Elliott's tire tracks while Jason Wagoner moved into the third position after getting by defending track champion Mark Haglund. Mitch Hovden would later make the pass on Haglund as well, advancing to the fourth spot. Reicks would close in on Elliott's rear bumper at the halfway point, but he was unable to find a groove to make any serious challenge. Mark Elliott would take the win ahead of Tory Reicks, Jason Wagoner, and Mark Haglund got back around Mitch Hovden for fourth and fifth, respectively.

1. 4 Mark Elliott
2. 27T Tory Reicks
3. 20 Jason Wagoner
4. 15 Mitch Hovden
5. 67 Kyle Falck
6. 21T Travis Prochaska
7. 57 Dennis Plain
8. 19 Reid Keller
9. R31 Ryan Leeman
10. M5 Jim Mitchell
DNF
80 Scott Bloemke
121G Arlen Hoy
59L Vince Loewen
DNS
97 Adam Silvey

It was now time for perhaps most people were anticipating the most. Twenty-five IMCA modifieds hit the track for their twenty lap feature event. Pole-sitter David Brown took the early lead with Adam Larson running second. JD Auringer, proudly supporting the Karsyn's Krusaders logo, would duck under Larson for the runner up position on lap two. Auringer didn't stay there long, as he used the same move to get by Brown to take over the race lead. Auringer immediately opened up a sizeable margin and would lead by half a lap before the caution waved on lap fifteen. The top four spots would remain the same the rest of the race as JD Auringer picked up the $1,100 payday. David Brown would finish second, Adam Larson was third, Jay Noteboom was fourth, and Justin Sackett rounded out the top five.

1. 00 JD Auringer
2. 21 David Brown
3. 2L Adam Larson
4. 7N Jay Noteboom
5. 17 Justin Sackett
6. 10K Ron Lauritzen
7. 64 Scott Williams
8. 19G Richie Gustin
9. 58 Curt Badker
10. 12 Mark Elliott
11. 45 Levi Nielsen
Other "notable" names included Todd Shute, Jacob Murray, Jon Snyder, Scott Olson, Kurt Krauskopf, Darin Duffy, Jerry King.

The finale of the evening would be the eighteen-car field of IMCA late models. Darrel DeFrance would take the lead at the start with Jeff Aikey getting around Kyle Wahlert for the runner up spot. Charlie McKenna made his way to fourth while DeFrance maintained a comfortable lead up front. A caution on lap five bunched the field up, setting up a double-file restart. DeFrance and Aikey separated themselves from the pack, and McKenna was able to get under Wahlert for the third position. Aikey would close the gap and get right up to DeFrance's back bumper in the closing laps, but came up a little short as Darrel DeFrance took home the opening night checkers. Jeff Aikey finished second, Charlie McKenna was third, Todd Cooney fourth, and Jason Hahne nipped Kyle Wahlert for fifth.

1. 99D Darrel DeFrance
2. 77 Jeff Aikey
3. 22 Charlie McKenna
4. 30 Todd Cooney
5. 76 Jason Hahne
6. 14 Kyle Wahlert
7. 66 Todd Johnson
8. X Ryan Griffith
9. 29 Nick Pederson
10. 98 Travis Smock
11. 4D Rick Dralle
12. 2 Carey Umbarger
DNF
8 Al Johnson
60 Dean Wagner II
5 Dave Hubbard
45 Mike Pederson
15c Schroeder
31 Chad Cooney

The final checkered flag waved at 11:43. The show ran a bit lengthy thanks in large part to the late start and the amount of yellow flags in a few races. The track stayed smooth from my perspective all night. Yes there was a lot of dust, especially in the exit of turn four. But considering every other track has had at least one night when it's been rough, I would rather be fighting a dust issue then trying to iron a track in.

Other then the late start and the dust, I would have to say it was a successful night. 106 total cars were in the field. The crowd was decent for a chilly night in late April. Hopefully the weather will be more favorable next week and the cars and fans will return to the "historic half-mile". For more complete results, check out the Hamilton County Speedway website.

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