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BALLARD, PLUMMER CONTINUE TO ROLL AT HAWKEYE DOWNS
CHANDLER FAMILY DOMINATES HORNET FEATURE
By Brad Grupe
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (July 9) - Weekly racing continued at Hawkeye Downs
Speedway on Friday night with NAPA Auto Parts presenting seven divisions
racing action. Drivers and race teams were competing for Papa Johns
Cup/I-Wireless Championship Series points as well as Hard Charger Series
points.
The second in a series of Promoters Choice Hornet Trophy Dash events led off
the program Friday night with Hallie Hanson of Cedar Rapids and her “Breast
Cancer Awareness”Hornet earning the win over Jamie Witham, Joe Bean, Dakota
Dains, and Todd Ness. JR Dvorak was scheduled to start the dash as well but
was unable to make the race.
Promoter Mike Becker instituted the race to give some of the drivers that
hadn’t found their way to Victory Lane yet to earn a trophy while gaining
some more experience.
In regular feature action, Nathan Ballard of Marengo found Victory Lane for
the 7th time this season, winning the 15-lap Barron Motor Supply IMCA Hobby
Stock feature. Ballard started tenth and moved steadily through the pack,
reaching the second slot on lap eleven and slipping into the lead two laps
later. Rod Grother led early before surrendering the point to Jeremy Robbins
on lap nine and then Robbins held the point until Ballard made the winning
pass with two laps remaining.
While Robbins was second across the finish line, the finishing order changed
after Robbins failed post-race inspection. Robbins also had his engine
claimed after the race.
Rod Grother was shown as second once the results were official with Matt
Petrzelka, Shane Koopman, and Scott Siems finishing out the top of the
order.
After struggling a bit in the heat race, Larry Clausen of Cedar Rapids
earned his second victory of the 2010 campaign in Budweiser Modifieds.
Clausen started the fifteen-lap feature in the rear and quickly moved to the
front, taking the lead on lap four.
Point leader Tim Plummer finished second, despite tangling with a spinning
Brian Allen early in the race although the incident may have affected his
handling somewhat. Clausen posted an impressive 1.621 second margin of
victory over the defending champion, Plummer. Ryan Luedtke, Craig Bender and
Allen completed the running order.
In the fifteen-lap Barron Motor Supply IMCA Stock Car feature, Kurt Bohnsack
of Iowa City returned to Victory Lane, his second win of the season.
Bohnsack started outside row one, quickly bolted into the lead, and went
virtually unchallenged the rest of the way.
Greg Hetrich gave chase early but surrendered second place to Jim Hanson at
the halfway mark. Hanson did pull within striking distance a couple times as
the final laps ticked off but Bohnsack prevailed. Haons maintained second
while point leader Bob Ahrendsen was third. Dave Ballstaedt and last weeks’
feature winner, Cory Houdek made up the rest of the top five.
Moving back to the Hawkeye Downs half-mile, Andy Duggan notched his fifth
win of 2010 in the Speed-e-Pan Sportsmen division. Travis Thompson led the
early laps with Duggan and McCalla giving chase. Duggan chose the outside
lane and was able to overtake Thompson on lap five with McCalla right
behind. McCalla stayed tight on Duggan’s rear decklid as the laps ticked off
but was unable to make a bid for the lead.
McCalla finished second behind Duggan with Ben Glascock and Thompson filled
out the running order.
Aric Becker returned to winning form in Coca-Cola IMCA Sportmods, picking up
his fourth win of the season. Becker started the race in fourth, moved to
second with four laps gone and scooted into the lead one lap later. Blake
carson, who started on the pole, finished second followed by Scott Kositzky
and last weeks’ feature winner Tim Dains.
Moving to the Sunline Hornets, Bryce Bailey took advantage of last weeks’
misfortune, a last place finish that landed him on point for this weeks’
feature. Bailey, who was dealing with a stubborn transmission this week,
faltered a bit on the start but found himself back in the lead on lap three.
The transmission wasn’t an issue the rest of the race as it went green the
rest of the way.
The rest of the top five was dominated by the Chandler family as Dallas
finished second, Brad was third, and Nathan was fifth with Danny Grother
sandwiched between in fourth.
Lapped traffic did prove to be a bit of a challenge without a caution to
bunch the field but the leaders did pick their way through slower traffic
without any serious incidents.
Finally, in Performance Concepts Late Models, Tim Plummer moved into the
lead on lap six after starting in seventh and racked up his fourth win of
the season in a 30-lap feature.
There were a couple hairy moments on the opening lap sending Speedway Fire
Rescue into action as Griffin McGrath, Thor Anderson, and Justin Jennings
tangled as they ran three wide exiting turn four. Jennings was the only one
of the three that was able to continue but he didn’t stay out long once the
race restarted. None of the drivers suffered any apparent injuries.
Ken Reiser shot into the lead once the race restarted but it took little
time for Brad Osborn to make the pass for the point before he surrendered
the lead to the eventual race winner, Plummer.
By the halfway mark, the first five cars of Plummer, Osborn, Johnny Spaw,
Kyle Hinrichs, and Andy Edwards had distanced themselves from the rest of
the field and the rest of the order went relatively unchanged as the final
laps ticked off.
Racing continues next Friday night as 100.7 “The Fox” presents their annual
Free Race. Listen to 100.7 The Fox for locations to pick up Free tickets.
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