A beautiful Saturday afternoon led one to believe it was going to be a great night for racing. After opening night the week before, I was excited to see if the same amount of cars would return to the "historic half-mile" in Webster City. The car count would look almost identical with 102 race teams checked in for action. The track would have more water on it, and it made for some good side by side action throughout the night.
First up would be the hornet feature, with seven cars ready to do battle. Jarid Kuchenreuther would snag the lead at the start, but he would push up and allow Lyle Oberhelman and Daniel Ayers to motor on by. Ayers would slow and exit the track, allowing Oberhelman to take the win. Kuchenreuther would finish second, Adam Strunk third, Mike McFarland fourth, and Dennis Graffunder completed the top five.
1. 07x Lyle Oberhelman
2. 83 Jarid Kuchenreuther
3. 85s Adam Strunk
4. 07 Mike McFarland
5. D0 Dennis Graffunder
6. 0K Keaton Graffunder
7. 4D Daniel Ayers
Next up would be the fifteen car field of IMCA hobby stocks. A couple of early yellow flags delayed the first lap from getting completed, including an incident involving Nate Bonine and Bobby Dilley. Bonine would be transferred to the hospital to be checked over as he was complaining of hip pain as well as limping on his left leg. When action finally got going it was Robert See out front showing the way, but Brad Ratcliff made the move on the inside to scoot past on lap three. At that point I noticed last week's feature winner Kevin Fee had already made his way up to fourth after starting ninth. Following another restart, Heath Tulp ducked to the inside of See to take over the second position and set his sights on the leader. Fee would also continue his strong run as he made passes on Cory Roe and Robert See to advance to the third spot. In the closing laps contact would be made between Tulp and Ratcliff that resulted in Ratcliff spinning in turn four. No caution was thrown, and Tulp went on to take the win. Kevin Fee finished second, Robert See third, Cory Roe fourth, and Brad Ratcliff rounded out the top five.
1. 50 Heath Tulp
2. 52 Kevin Fee
3. 91 Robert See
4. 8R Cory Roe
5. 1R Brad Ratcliff
6. 00 Adam Hagan
7. 24R Roger Haupt Jr
8. 96 Mark Hidlebaugh
9. 78 Rieks
10. 22 Jeremy Turner
DNF
56 Ty Griffith
38 Ryan Darling
1 Blake Miller
51 Nate Bonine
73D Bobby Dilley
DNS
3 Al Dixon
58 Matt Ring
Twenty-five IMCA sportmods took the green flag for their feature event, but the red flag quickly came out on the first lap when Mitch Frakes and Carl Albee tangled and Albee's car going for a wild ride. Both drivers would be ok. When that got cleaned up, the yellow quickly replaced the green again on the first lap when six cars collided in turn one. Finally the third attempt was the charm and Brandon Toftee took control at the point. Defending track champion Beau Kaplan ducked to the inside of Travis Woodbeck for the runner-up position while they were side by side for the next six spots behind him. At the halfway point Kaplan made his move and worked to the inside of Toftee to grab the lead away prior to a caution involving Woodbeck and Jim Lampe. Toftee's machine did not take off right away on the restart as he slid back to the fourth spot, allowing Dane Larson and Joel Rust to advance spots. Rust looked to the inside of Larson and seized the second spot before closing in on Kaplan. Kaplan's car would slow and he would exit the track, handing the reigns over to Rust. Joel Rust went on to pick up the win ahead of Dane Larson, Brandon Toftee, Kyle Brown, and Brandon Leeman. Brown was involved in the six-car incident on the first lap and had restarted 18th.
1. 26J Joel Rust
2. 83 Dane Larson
3. 85T Brandon Toftee
4. 21 David Brown
5. 64 Brandon Leeman
6. 99 Rocky Caudle
7. 49 Nate Whitehurst
8. 2c Levi Carlberg
9. 40 George Gilliland
10. 80 Duane VanDeest
11. 22 Jim Lampe
12. 48 ??
13. 53 Travis Woodbeck
14. 02A Cody Albers
15. 39 Larry Embrey
16. 22A Shawn Albers
Ten stock cars were up next, and a big fiasco occurred on the first lap in their feature as well. Six cars would be involved. When the green flag came out, it was no surprise seeing Mark Elliott at the front of the field. Elliott would dominate the race as he took the win by half a lap. Travis Prochaska three-wheeled his way to a second place finish ahead of Ryan Leeman, Jim Mitchell, and Dennis Plain.
1. 4 Mark Elliott
2. 21T Travis Prochaska
3. R31 Ryan Leeman
4. M5 Jim Mitchell
5. 57 Dennis Plain
6. 80 Scott Bloemke (in backup M5 car)
7. 19 Reid Keller
DNF
59L Vince Loewen
31M Mark Haglund
20 Jason Wagoner
Another stellar field of IMCA modifieds were on hand with twenty-four checked in. Jeremy Mills broke in hot laps and was unable to make repairs. Duane Peterson took control in the early part of the race while Mark Elliott and Adam Larson got by Ed Thomas in consecutive laps for second and third place, respectively. Following an early restart, Larson would sneak under Elliott for second while Richie Gustin got by Thomas for fourth. Lap five saw another caution flag, and Gustin took advantage by diving to the inside of Elliott and snagging the third position away. Gustin continued his march to the front by passing Peterson on the inside. Prior to another caution, Gustin got position on the inside of Larson and took control at the point. JD Auringer, last week's feature winner, made the pass on Peterson for third, but both of their good runs came to an end when Peterson made contact with Auringer's left rear entering turn one. During the caution Josh Foster, who was sitting in third after starting 14th, suffered a flat tire and went to work area. When racing resumed Gustin and Larson pulled away. In the closing laps Larson made a run, but was unable to find a line to make the pass as Richie Gustin pocketed the $1,000 payday. Larson settled for second, J.J. Wise finished third, Tyler Prochaska was fourth, and Scott Williams finished fifth.
1. 19G Richie Gustin
2. 2L Adam Larson
3. 68 J.J. Wise
4. 22T Tyler Prochaska
5. 64 Scott Williams
6. 5 Todd Shute
7. 69x Jon Snyder
8. 10K Ronn Lauritzen
9. 12 Mark Elliott
10. 8x Scott Olson
11. 48J Jacob Murray
12. 25T Duane Peterson
13. 77 Josh Foster
14. 3w Chris Webb
DNF
45 Levi Nielsen
75 Clint Wendel
00 JD Auringer
37 Mike Jergens
14J Jake Neal - Omaha, NE
21 David Brown
14 Derek Oberle
47 Greg Elliott
DNS
10M Jeremy Mills
The finale of the evening would be the seventeen-car field of IMCA late models. Once again the caution would fly before the completion of the first lap when Jason Hahne got sideways and collected Craig Jacobs and Todd Cooney. Charlie McKenna would rocket to the lead from his outside front row starting spot. McKenna built up a comfortable lead over the field before the caution waved again on lap five. Ryan Giles picked up the chase on McKenna and began to reel in the leader. A few laps later Giles made the pass on the inside to take the lead before putting some distance between he and McKenna. McKenna would lose another spot as Hahne also used the low line to get by. The yellow flag was displayed again with four laps remaining, during which McKenna went to the pits with mechanical issues. In the closing laps Kyle Wahlert passed Hahne on the outside on the restart, which started the snowball effect for Hahne as he would finish sixth. Ryan Giles would pick up his first career IMCA late model win (I believe) followed by Kyle Wahlert, Jeff Aikey, Todd Cooney rebounded for fourth, and Darrel DeFrance.
1. 9 Ryan Giles
2. 14 Kyle Wahlert
3. 77 Jeff Aikey
4. 30 Todd Cooney
5. 99D Darrel DeFrance
6. 76 Jason Hahne
7. 31 Chad Cooney
8. 8 Al Johnson
9. 29 Nick Pederson
10. 15c Curt Schroeder
All in all I thought the racing was pretty exciting. There were two distinct grooves in turns one and two. It appeared to me as though the banking flattened off in turn four as a few drivers tagged the wall on the exit. Hopefully something can be done to provide another line of racing so the action will be that much better later on. For a complete rundown of last night's results, go to the track website. Thanks to track announcer Ryan Bergeson for the several PositivelyRacing plugs throughout the night!
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!
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