Veteran local driver Ed Thomas drew the pole position with young Ryan Gustin next to him and it was Gustin who vaulted to the lead at the drop of the green. A caution slowed the field on lap two and the field was put into a double-file restart alignment. The green waved again and as the twenty-five cars thundered into turns one and two one of the front runners, Jeff Feaster, had a problem as his car slowed suddenly and nearly everybody stacked up behind him. When the dust cleared there were six cars sitting tangled up in turn two and onto the back straightaway. Once the track was cleared, the green flag returned and the race started to get a rhythm.
Josh Foster (77) races around the outside of Rich Smith (8) during heat race action - photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography http://www.actiontrackphotos.com/
Ryan Gustin was setting the pace with Jay Noteboom and Michael Long giving chase, but it was the tenth-starting Josh Foster who was making some noise in his orange #77. Foster was dealing with a familiar foe when he went to work on Long for third as the two had raced side-by-side during the closing laps at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson last Friday night with Foster prevailing. He did so again in this battle with Long tonight and next on the menu was Noteboom who was behind the wheel of Joel Bushore’s #87 tonight after destroying his car in a crash at Eagle Raceway recently. Foster made quick work of Noteboom as well and he now had his sights set on the leader Gustin. On lap ten Josh planted his car firmly on the inside groove and pulled even with Ryan who was running more of a middle line and, just like that, the change was made at the front as Foster began to pull away from the field.
The Gustin brothers in action at Independence. Ryan up high and Richie down low - photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography http://www.actiontrackphotos.com/
The fourth and final caution of the event appeared on lap nineteen when Toby Hartman spun on the front stretch and on the restart Gustin had new life. He was able to stick a nose under Foster on two occasions, but the Montrose, Iowa, driver who might not yet be real well known to the followers of IMCA Modified racing fought off the challenge and cruised through the final laps for the $1,000 victory. Ryan Gustin racked up the runner-up position while Noteboom appeared to have third in the bag before he slowed going into turn three on the final lap. This allowed Richie Gustin to follow his younger brother in for third, Long finished fourth and Nate Caruth rounded out the top five after starting fourteenth. Unofficially I had Mark Schulte in sixth just ahead of a coasting Noteboom, Mike Jergens came from the tenth row to finish eighth, Rich Smith was ninth and Darin Duffy was completed the top ten.
Tour Director Bucky Doren presents Josh Foster with "the big check" following his historic victory in the first-ever Hawkeye Dirt Tour event for IMCA Modifieds - photo by Scott Tjabring, Action Track Photography http://www.actiontrackphotos.com/
HDT Notes…..With a field of fifty-nine cars you know that there are going to be some solid competitors watching from the trailer and that was definitely the case tonight…..Jeff Waterman, Chris Abelson and Andy Krieger were the drivers who came up one spot short of transferring out of the three B-Main events. Waterman did have better luck earlier in the night as he was one of the “door prize” winners of merchandise that was given away during the drivers’ meeting from title sponsor JR Motorsports…..Defending All Iowa Points champion and 2009 IMCA Modified National points runner-up Jeremy Mills had a night to forget as he ran only a couple of laps under green before being caught up in accidents in both his heat and his B-Main…..Cale Sponsler made the trip over from Grimes only to start his return home early after mechanical issues in hot laps…..Mark Elliott popped a motor while leading the sixth heat race and could not make a change soon enough to run his B-Main…..Kent Croskey appeared to have the third and final transfer out of the first heat race, but when he was disqualified for not having the proper IMCA stickers it moved Dennis Betzer up to a qualifying spot…..Ronn Lauritzen crossed the finish line first in the third heat, but he was penalized two positions for a “jackrabbit start” on one of the heat’s restarts thus giving the win to Toby Hartman…..All three drivers who are currently tied at the top of the All Iowa Points Modified list were in attendance tonight. Richie Gustin and Jimmy Gustin were both in the feature race that Scott Hogan was watching from the grandstands. Work commitments did not allow Hogan to have his car here to race, but he did enjoy the event as a spectator. The updated All Iowa Points can be found on the “Points” tab at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ ….Nate Caruth likely passed more cars than anybody else on the night as he came from tenth to third in his heat race before making his nine car advancement in the feature race…..Darin Duffy started shotgun on the twenty-five-car lineup as he switched cars after discovering mechanical issues on his #19D after running third in his heat race. Darin drove Chris Snyder’s #32 in the main event…..Jerry Luloff was added to the lineup as a track provisional…..Have I mentioned lately that I am not a big fan of double file restarts? I’m sure that I had at least six drivers who agreed with me for a least a few minutes after the lap two pileup. The Dirt Tour has a rule that after three cautions they will then go with a single-file realignment……The next event for the Tour will be on Memorial Day May 31st at the I-35 Speedway in Mason City and for more information on the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds visit http://www.dirttour.com/hawkeye/index.html
A solid field of twenty IMCA SportMods were in attendance as well and an incident near the front of the field in turn one on the start of lap two would play a big part in the outcome. Unfortunately I was looking elsewhere when the scramble began so I don’t know what initiated it, but when I did look over there I saw Jeremy Embrey do a 360-degree spin and continue on while Kurt Hogan coasted down the track and into the infield as the caution waved. Track officials charged Embrey with the caution and sent him to the rear of the field while Hogan was placed just behind the leader Kaleb Bentley for the restart. It didn’t take Hogan long to go by Bentley as he had the lead when lap two was scored and he then dominated throughout for the win in the fifteen-lap main event. Bentley would hold off a hard charging Austin Kaplan to finish in the second spot as Kaplan would settle for third after starting twelfth. Young Tyler Droste would pick up the fourth position at the finish while Danny Dvorak, who started next to Kaplan in row six, would round out the top five.
It was no wonder that I did not see what started the incident in turn one as we had a couple of pleasant distractions that my colleague Kevin Trittien pointed out in front of us early in the evening. I think that he might have been paying better attention than I was at this point so make sure that you check out “TapFan’s Tours” at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ for another point of view on the night’s events. While at the homepage be sure to see what Dick and Joyce Eisele thought of the show in “The 4dFan Report” and for the view from the announcers tower take a peek at Ryan Clark’s “In Staging”. Did we have the Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener covered from top to bottom? Positively!!!
A solid field of twenty IMCA SportMods were in attendance as well and an incident near the front of the field in turn one on the start of lap two would play a big part in the outcome. Unfortunately I was looking elsewhere when the scramble began so I don’t know what initiated it, but when I did look over there I saw Jeremy Embrey do a 360-degree spin and continue on while Kurt Hogan coasted down the track and into the infield as the caution waved. Track officials charged Embrey with the caution and sent him to the rear of the field while Hogan was placed just behind the leader Kaleb Bentley for the restart. It didn’t take Hogan long to go by Bentley as he had the lead when lap two was scored and he then dominated throughout for the win in the fifteen-lap main event. Bentley would hold off a hard charging Austin Kaplan to finish in the second spot as Kaplan would settle for third after starting twelfth. Young Tyler Droste would pick up the fourth position at the finish while Danny Dvorak, who started next to Kaplan in row six, would round out the top five.
It was no wonder that I did not see what started the incident in turn one as we had a couple of pleasant distractions that my colleague Kevin Trittien pointed out in front of us early in the evening. I think that he might have been paying better attention than I was at this point so make sure that you check out “TapFan’s Tours” at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ for another point of view on the night’s events. While at the homepage be sure to see what Dick and Joyce Eisele thought of the show in “The 4dFan Report” and for the view from the announcers tower take a peek at Ryan Clark’s “In Staging”. Did we have the Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener covered from top to bottom? Positively!!!
Here’s hoping that the forecasted rain for today and Friday is light and scattered and that it gets out of the way in time for the Lucas Oil Late Model Series event at 34 Raceway near Burlington Friday night. For details go to http://www.34raceway.com/ and we hope to see you there!
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