One Hundred and Seventy Nine Race Teams Highlight Fall Bash Night One

    Thursday we traveled north for night number one of the Darkside Promotions annual Fall Bash at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton, Iowa. Five divisions would be in action for the opening night, including four IMCA classes,  Late Models, Stock Cars, Modifieds and Sport Mods as well as open 4 Stocks, with both Late Models and Modifieds racing for a $1,000 top prize. Additionally the Late Models would compete for twenty eight laps in their feature in memory of long time car owner and driver Brad Coin. This would be the only night for Late Models, while the other divisions would race two more times, accumulating points towards the awarding of a championship belt. Additionally a Modified points fund upwards of $12,000 would be awarded. 

   There would be no hot laps on this night, with heat race action kicking off moments after the 6:30 advertised start time. It would take twenty three heat races and seven B Mains to set feature fields for the huge one hundred and seventy nine cars checked in. An outstanding group of fifty Modifieds needed six heats and three B mains to trim their field to twenty four!

   Following the qualifying events, the first feature hit the track with no sign of an intermission, likely to the delight of the large crowd, as the eighty plus degree daytime temps had descended quickly into fall sweatshirt conditions.

   With no B Main required, Late Models would be up first as all twenty cars lined up to decide who would claim the championship belt. The luck of the redraw left long time fans with a bit of deja vu, as the front row found a pair of Iowa legends, National Dirt Late Model Hall Of Famers, on the front row. Gary Webb would pull the number one pill, while semi retired Ray Guss Jr. would line up to his outside. Ray was behind the wheel of the Joe Beal #77 for the night. Guss would jump to the early lead but the pack would have a hard time stringing laps together in the opening laps. After very minimal caution periods in all preliminaries, the yellow flag would fly four times in the first four circuits. With the jitters finally over, fourth starting Jeremiah Hurst put the Joel Callahan #40 out front. As Guss settled into the runner up spot, Matt Ryan and Mitch Morris battled for the third position. The laps now clicked off to the halfway mark as Guss, Ryan and Morris duked it out, and by the time Ryan took control of second sixteen laps in, Hurst had opened a nearly straightaway advantage. But a fifth and final yellow flag would bring Jeremiah back to the pack, and as racing resumed the top two dueled nose to tail and side by side, while Morris, Guss and third heat winner but twelfth starting Nick Marolf contested third behind them. Hurst maintained a slim lead as starter Doug Haack displayed the white flag, but down the backstretch for the final time, a slower car meant the leaders had to pick their line. Turn four saw contact between Ryan and Hurst, with Matt leading a scant few feet to take the checkers first. Jeremiah voiced his displeasure with the contact in victory lane, but it was the #07 claiming the belt between the two heat race winners. Guss topped the battle for third over Marolf and Morris. Steve Johnson led the second five, besting Fred Remley, Webb, Bobby Hansen, and T.J. Fortmann. 

   As the crowd buzzed over the dramatic finish, 4 Stocks lined up for a dozen laps. Alex Hayes charged ahead from the pole taking along fourth starting Cyle Hawkins. A side by side battle saw Hawkins use the inside groove on the constantly shifting fast line to move to the lead with four laps scored. Hayes would fight back to lead lap five, but it would be Hawkins out front at the crossed flags. Slower traffic came into play just ahead of a lone caution eight laps in. As the field restarted, Hayes dropped out, possibly with a tire issue. Hawkins would hold on for the win ahead of Dustin Forbes, eighth starting Shawn McDermott, Mitch Bielenberg and home town racer Josh Starr.

   Jeff "Bone" Larson and Jeff Mueller would bring the twenty four Stock Cars to green, racing for twenty laps. They would take off in that order with Gage Neal in third. Again yellow flags would interrupt the action, five times in total. While the inside line seemed the fastest way around, several times Larson would drift high in turns three and four, opening the door for Mueller, who could not quite complete the pass. As Larson finally settled on the bottom, one driver was making the higher line work. Dallon Murty had started in the eleventh position, and found the higher grooves his only opportunity to move forward. With four laps remaining he had climbed to fourth and had a run going that may have taken him to second, but a yellow flag left him restarting on the inside of the Delaware Style line up. Two more cautions marred the closing laps, but Larson held on for a flag to flag win in the Lee Kinsella #21. Mueller came home second while Murty nipped Neal for third. Winton, California driver Paul Stone wheeled his #66 to a fifth place finish. 

   Thirty one Hobby Stocks checked in and twenty four lined up for fifteen feature laps. Following an original restart, outside pole sitter Jordon Miles powered to the lead ahead of third starting Bradly Graham. Miles found the top line around the high banked quarter mile to his liking while Graham worked down low. Restarting after a lap two yellow, Miles opened a nice lead before a caution with ten circuits in brought him back to the pack. Once more the caution came, but it was of no consequence as Miles took a flag to flag victory. Graham held the runner up slot all the way, as Corey VanDerwilt advanced seven spots to slip around Daniel Wauters in the closing laps for third. Randy LaMar started and finished fifth. 

   We were now facing our self imposed 10:30 curfew, so with thirty four races down in just four hours and two to go, we headed for the parking lot. Sport Mod action saw veteran Tony Olson redraw poorly, but move up ten spots to claim the twenty lap win over Jason Roth, Tyler Bannister, Jarrett Franzen and Justin Veloz. 

   The twenty five lap Modified finale went to Torrance, California hot shoe Cody Laney after starting in row three. The next three in line at the checkers all climbed seven positions, fellow Californian Dylan Thornton in second followed by Zack VanderBeek and Drew Janssen. Tom Berry Jr. would top that, starting fourteenth and coming home in fifth. 

   As mentioned, the Fall Bash will continue for the next two nights on the quick quarter mile. Thanks to Ryan, Timmy and the entire Darkside crew not only for their hospitality, but for presenting an ultra competitive and lightning fast program. 

   Plans for the next two nights should find yours truly closer to home at Lee County Speedway for the annual Harvest Hustle. Six classes of cars will compete in separate shows with plenty of cash and bragging rights on the line. The weather looks great, so I hope you will attend one of these great fall specials!