Thornton, Murty, Paris, Reynolds, Ballard and Rick Tops at Benton County

    After inclement weather wiped out their early April edition of the Frostbuster series, Benton County Speedway "The Bullring" began preparations for the opening of their regular season Sunday, April 21. For this opening event, five regular IMCA classes, Modifieds, Sport Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks, and Sport Compacts would be joined by the Pro Late Models. The brainchild of Late Model driver Brandon Davis, this would be the first of several stops for the eastern Iowa based traveling series at the Vinton quarter mile. After heavy rains wiped out much of the racing in the state earlier in the weekend, we were greeted with sunshine and cool temps as we arrived at the fairgrounds, and the line of racers on pit road indicated that we were not the only ones hungry for racing! 

   When the final tally came in, one hundred and nine race teams filled both the regular as well as the overflow pit area! As a result of the line and the late comers, hot laps were pushed back by about fifteen minutes. But track personnel were more than up to the task, and with only one sessions of quick warmups for each class - yes, twenty two late models can all hot lap at once on a quarter mile, thank you very much! - we were racing by 5:15. Only those same late models had more than two qualifying heats, with anywhere from seven to ten cars in a heat making for very entertaining preliminaries including plenty of passing. And with the one spin rule in effect, the yellow flag would wave only four times and at exactly the one hour mark feature lineups were set. 

   The track crew then took about twenty minutes to manicure the facility ahead of the six feature races.

   Sport Compacts would be up first for a dozen laps. After some shuffling of cars and a first lap caution, seventeen would line up for the complete restart. Jake Anderson would have the pole and he would shoot to the lead taking along third starting Lukas Rick. That duo quickly pulled away from the pack with Rick finally nosing to the lead on lap five. For the most part the leaders lined up in the low groove, completing the event with no more cautions. Rick grabbed the first feature checkers of 2024 followed by Anderson and Cristian Grady. Close racing behind the podium finishers saw Spencer Roggentien come from row five to fourth and Stephan Randall finish where he started in fifth. 

   Sport Mods had the smallest turnout with fourteen cars and they all lined up for fifteen laps. Shane Paris would draw the pole position and he would not be seriously challenged throughout the event. Following a lap two caution, cousins Tony and Kyle Olson would race side by side for the runner up spot before a final yellow eleven laps in. Again Paris would drive away while Tony would finally claim the second spot ahead of Kyle. Brady Hilmer was steady in fourth and the aptly named Rayce Mullen would round out the top five. 

   The Late Model lineup would be missing just one car, that of driver/promoter/defending series champion Corey Dripps, who suddenly rolled to a stop coming to the white flag in his heat race while running in a redraw position. Twenty five laps would be the hard fought distance in this one. Veteran Hall of Famer Jeff Aikey and Nick Marolf would take the green flag from row one with Aikey leading third starting Dylan Thornton as lap one was scored. Things were getting interesting as the leaders approached slower traffic on lap eight before the yellow flew for T J Fortmann. Andy Eckrich had lined up eighth, but used the Delaware style restart to climb to fourth. Now Aikey, Thornton and J D Auringer, debuting his sharp looking #00J began to put distance on the field. For several circuits, Aikey and Thornton ran side by side for the lead. The caution came at lap sixteen when Bobby Hansen went up in smoke and again one lap later for a spinning car, then once more on the restart for debris from the #20 of Zach Less. Back under green, Thornton muscled his way to the lead in turns three and four on lap twenty one. This was followed by one more quick yellow, and on this final restart both Auringer and Eckrich cleared Aikey. As Thornton, a Modified and Stock Car ace who is new to the Late Model ranks, pulled away for his second win of the weekend, Auringer held second while Aikey recovered to finish in third. Eckrich and Marolf also scored top fives. Coming all the way from Denison in the western part of the state, Shane DeMay ran sixth ahead of twelfth starting Matt Ryan, Dalton Simonsen, and Logan Duffy. Chad Holladay recovered from an earlier excursion off the track to round out the top ten. 

   This edge of your seat barn burner was followed by another attention grabber as the Stock Cars came to the track, eighteen strong for twenty laps. Gage Neal and Dustin Griffiths paced lap one, with Rowdee Van Genderen moving to second one lap later, while Griffiths retook second on lap three. Now it was the front pair riding in the low line while advancing Kaden Reynolds and John Oliver Jr. worked the middle and high grooves looking for a way to the front. With the top four fighting hard, Griffiths slipped into the lead on lap twelve. Oliver Jr., Reynolds, and Neal were battling three wide for second when the only caution came just five laps from the finish. Back to racing it was Oliver Jr. using the high line to charge to second. Suddenly on lap seventeen Griffiths dove to the infield, his run over. With Oliver Jr. and Reynolds joined by Kyle Olson in a side by side tussle, Oliver took the white flag in first. But coming through the final set of turns, Reynolds found just enough speed to win the drag race to the checkers, picking up a thrilling win. Oliver Jr. and Olson filled out the podium, while Jay Schmidt and Neal also scored top fives.

   Sixteen Modifieds would go at it for twenty trips around. Troy Cordes led Mike Van Genderen through the opening circuit, with Dallon Murty quickly moving up to challenge Cordes. On lap five Murty drove around the leader on the high side, followed by a quick yellow. Tim Ward then moved to second on the Delaware restart before the next stoppage at the halfway mark. As Murty, Ward, and Cordes pulled well ahead, there was a gaggle of about six cars battling hard behind them. One more caution came with five to go, and in the closing laps Ward was all over the Modified rookie, Murty. But Dallon was up to the challenge, driving home for the win. Ward ran second, with Cordes in third. Another Mod rookie, Ben Chapman missed his heat race, started at the tail of the field and charged all the way back to fourth in front of Patrick Flannigan.  

   Hobby Stocks would offer up the fifteen lap finale. After Joren Fisher led lap one, sixth starting Bradly Graham would open a sizable lead ahead of a five car scramble for second. When the yellow flew with five in the books, the hottest driver in the state, Nathan Ballard, was up to fourth. Two more laps were scored before Ballard was locked in a side by side duel with for second with Justin Wacha.  Although Graham had again opened a nice lead, Ballard soon took over the runner up spot and began to quickly close on the leader. Coming to the white flag, Graham was running the middle line rolling into turn three when he was caught momentarily behind a slower car. That was all Ballard needed, as he powered to the front, then raced home for another checkered flag. Graham recovered for second, besting Wacha, Fisher, and Corey VanDerwilt.

   That would put the wraps on a great night of racing that concluded before 8:30, how cool is it to leave the track before dark! Thanks to Corey, Rick, and crew at "The Bullring" for their hospitality, and to Ryan Clark for the kind words towards PositivelyRacing. Hopefully we can make it back to Vinton soon. In the meantime, we will continue to watch the cranky spring weather as we make plans to go Racin' Down the Road!