Monday, July 4, 2016

Gustin Holds Off Shute for 2nd Career Hogan Memorial Win

Gustin Holds Off Shute for 2nd Career Hogan Memorial Win
by Jeremy Fox

Vinton, Iowa (July 3rd, 2016) - Sunday its the Benton County Speedway for the 22nd Annual Hogan Memorial in honor of Dick and Janet Hogan and 47 IMCA Modifieds checked in to add their name to the history books of being Hogan Memorial Champion. 19 IMCA Stock Cars, 21 IMCA Hobby Stocks, 37 IMCA Northern SportMods and nine BCS Micro Mods making the total car count of 133 cars checked in.

Richie Gustin (IMCA Modifieds), Damon Murty (IMCA Stock Cars) and Don Erger (BCS Mirco Mods) all claimed another Hogan Memorial win meanwhile Ben Chapman (IMCA Northern SportMods) and Benji Irvine (IMCA Hobby Stocks) claim their first Hogan Memorial wins.

SportMods ran four heats and two b-features, Hobby Stocks ran three heats, Modifieds ran six heats and three b-features and Stock Cars ran three heats. BCS Micro Mods ran only a feature.

First feature of the night was the 12 lap BCS Micro Mod feature, Josh Havlik and Cole McNeal led the field to the green and it was Don Erger grabbed the top spot early and never looked back leading all 12 laps in the feature that went caution free. Erger claimed his third Hogan Memorial win the Micro Mods. McNeal finished second, Havlik was third, Matt Post was fourth and Scott Beatty was fifth.

Before a single lap was completed in the 16 lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature, the caution came out when Kyle Dulin spun turn two collecting Matt Brown and Justin Wacha. On the restart it was Benji Irvine taking full advantage of his pole postition grabbing the top spot but he had a familiar challenger in Nathan Ballard on his back side however the caution came out on lap two for Chad Siems in turn three. Irvine and Ballard continued to battle it out but the caution came out on lap ten for August Bach in turn two. Irvine held off every challenge by Ballard to claim his first Hogan Memorial win. Bill Bonnett, Leah Wroten and Justin Wacha finished third through fifth respectively.

Just like the Hobby Stocks did the 18 lap IMCA Northern SportMods feature saw the caution came out when Cory Pestotnik spun turn two before a lap was scored. Ben Chapman grabbed the top spot on the restart though but it was shorted lived as Matt Petrzelka took the lead away on lap two. Chapman did not give up because he came back and took the lead away on lap six. Chapman and Petrzelka battled for the lead until the caution camae out on lap eight when Andy Edwards hit the implement tire in turn four sending it on to the racing surface.  Chapman saw Petrzelka and Tony Olson on his back bumper and all three battled it out but it was Chapman leading the entire time and the final caution came out on lap 14 for Mitch Manternach in turn one forcing a four lap shootout. Chapman held off Tony Olson and Petrzelka to take his first Hogan Memorial. Olson finished second with Petrzelka in third. Danny Dvorak played electrican during the day started 13th and finished fourth with Carter VanDenBerg in fifth.

Jared Daggett and Kevin Rose led the field to the green in the 20 lap IMCA Stock Cars feature and it was Daggett grabbing top spot early, Jeff Mueller started fifth took second by lap two and then the caution came out on lap three when Rose and Lon Mercer got together in turn two. Daggett saw Mueller and Damon Murty on his back side and those three got in to a very intense battle before Murty took the top spot away on lap seven. Mueller followed in to second and tried to get by Murty but it Murty holding on to take his fourth Hogan win. Mueller finish second and had his shocks claimed by Shane Ebaugh. Kyle Brown, doing double duty and driving Murty's back up car finished third, Daggett was fourth and Scooter Dulin was fifth.

Final feature of the night was the 50 lap Hogan Memorial for IMCA Modifieds and before the feature started it was drivers introductions, the reading of previous winners and top 12 (top two from each heat) redraw for its starting spots. "G-Money" Richie Gustin and "Flyin' Banana" Mike Jergens redrew the front row with Todd Shute and Cody Laney getting the second row. Gustin took advantage grabbing the lead early but Jergens made several attempts to get by Gustin but that allowed Shute to get by Jergens on lap four. Shute set his sights on getting be Gustin and he managed that on lap 12. Shute led until the caution came out on lap two when Jergens came to a stop in turn two forcing a restart with five laps to halfway. Gustin snuck back on by Shute for the lead on the restart but Shute powered back by on lap 22. Shute led at the halfway point.

Running order at the halfway pit stop : 1) Shute 2) Gustin 3) Corey Dripps 4) Cody Laney 5) J.D. Auringer 6) Kyle Strickler 7) Ethan Dotson 8) RC Whitwell 9) Kyle Brown 10) Joel Rust 11) Zach Less 12) Hunter Marriott 13) Jake Bowman 14) Ronn Lauritzen 15) Nick Roberts 16) Tony Snyder 17) Brandon Maitland 18) Scott Hogan 19) Troy Cordes 20) Cayden Carter 21) Jerry Dedrick 22) Racer Hulin 23) Ryan Maitland 24) Patrick Flannagan  Out: 25) Josh Gilman 26) Mike Jergens

Shute got a great restart when the race resumed after the pit stop as did Corey Dripps. Dripps battled with Shute before Dripps took the top spot away on lap 30. Dripps looked comfortable out front meanwhile Gustin got by Shute on lap 35 and three laps later, lap 38, the caution came ou for debris on the frontstretch and in turn three. Dripps saw Gustin and Shute on his back bumper and held them off for the meantime but the caution came out on lap 40 for Troy Cordes in turn two. On the restart, Gustin got by Dripps and cruised on to his second Hogan Memorial Win. Shute managed to come back and finished second after slipping back to third. Hunter Marriott worked his way from 12th at halfway to finished third, defending race winner J.D. Auringer was fourth and Dripps was fifth.

Finishing order : 1) Gustin 2) Shute 3) Marriott 4) Auringer 5) Dripps 6) Carter 7) Strickler 8) Kyle Brown 9) Laney 10) Dotson 11) Hulin 12) Less 13) Whitwell 14) Hogan 15) Nick Roberts 16) Tony Snyder 17) Bowman 18) Ryan Maitland 19) Brandon Maitland 20) Lauritzen 21) Dedrick  DNF: 22) Rust 23) Flanngan 24) Cordes 25) Gilman 26) Jergens

Special Thanks to Scott and Jolyne Hogan and the entire Hogan Family for all your hard work making this event bigger and better every year. Thanks to all the sponsors that helped sponsor the Hogan Memorial, Don Burkey for his fantastic work on the racing surface and everybody that helped paint the implement tires and the wall. Can not wait to see what the 23rd Annual Hogan Memorial next year will bring to the Benton County Speedway.

Racing returns next sunday with Autism Awareness and Salute to Freedom Night. Gates Open at 4pm, Hot Laps at 6pm and Racing to Follow.

For more information check out http://www.jjamracing.net/

Benton County Speedway
Hogan Memorial
July 3rd, 2016


Hogan Memorial IMCA Modifieds

Feature – 1. 19G Richie Gustin (Gilman); 2. 5 Todd Shute (Des Moines); 3. 62 Hunter Marriott (Brookfield, MO); 4. 00J J.D. Auringer (Waterloo); 5. 31 Corey Dripps (Reinbeck); 6. 10C Cayden Carter (Oskaloosa); 7. 8K Kyle Strickler (Mooresville, NC); 8. 21K Kyle Brown (State Center); 9. 11 Cody Laney (Torrance, CA); 10. 174 Ethan Dotson (Bakersfield, CA); 11. 505 Racer Hulin (Laurel); 12. 20L Zach Less (Manchester); 13. 96RC R.C. Whitwell (Tucson, AZ); 14. 33D Scott Hogan (Vinton); 15. 23JR Nick Roberts (Des Moines); 16. 8 Tony Snyder (Readlyn); 17. 25 Jake Bowman (Maquoketa); 18. 4 Ryan Maitland (Waterloo); 19. 2 Brandon Maitland (Waterloo); 20. 10K Ronn Lauritzen (Jesup); 21. 80 Jerry Dedrick (Vinton); 22. 26J Joel Rust (Grundy Center); 23. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Cedar Rapids); 24. 71C Troy Cordes (Dunkerton); 25. 83G Josh Gilman (Earlham); 26. 37 Mike Jergens (Plover)

B-Feature 1 (top 4 transfer) - 1. Auringer; 2. Cordes; 3. Rust; 4. Hogan; 5. 3 Chris Snyder (Raymond); 6. Flannagan; 7. 19D Darin Duffy (Urbana); 8. 12D Joe Docekal (Dysart); 9. 415 Josh Barta (Cedar Falls); 10. Dedrick; 11. 49 Rod McDonald (Manchester); 12. 43B Tommy Belmer (Denver)

B-Feature 2 (top 4 transfer) - 1. Kyle Brown; 2. Roberts; 3. Tony Snyder; 4. Ryan Maitland; 5. 33Z Zack Vanderbeek (New Sharon); 6. 57B Dennis Betzer (Central City); 7. 7SR Shawn Ritter (Keystone); 8. 21D David Brown (Kellogg); 9. 51JR Johnny Walker (Mechanicsville); 10. 98 Jason Snyder (Dunkerton); 11. H7 Dean McGee (Galesburg, IL); 12. 17 Steve Stewart (Burlington)

B-Feature 3 (top 4 transfer) - 1. Bowman; 2. Hulin; 3. Marriott; 4. Carter; 5. 1XX Chris Abelson (Sioux City); 6. 5R Bill Roberts (Burlington); 7. 1J Jeff Streeter (Madera, CA); 8. 10 Kaleb Bentley (Fairbank); 9. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 10. 1X Stephen Streeter (Madera, CA); 11. 11B Mike Burbridge (Delhi)

Heat 1 - 1. Brandon Maitland; 2. Laney; 3. Auringer; 4. Flannagan; 5. Hogan; 6. Dedrick; 7. Barta; 8. Docekal
Heat 2 - 1. Strickler; 2. Lauritzen; 3. Rust; 4. Cordes; 5. Chris Snyder; 6. Duffy; 7. Belmer; 8. McDonald
Heat 3 - 1. Less; 2. Gilman; 3. Kyle Brown; 4. Nick Roberts; 5. Jason Snyder; 6. Walker; 7. Ryan Maitland; 8. Betzer
Heat 4 - 1. Whitwell; 2. Dripps; 3. David Brown; 4. Tony Snyder; 5. Stewart; 6. Vanderbeek; 7. McGee; 8. Ritter
Heat 5 - 1. Shute; 2. Gustin; 3. Bowman; 4. Marriott; 5. Burbridge; 6. Bill Roberts; 7. Abelson; 8. Carter
Heat 6 - 1. Jergens; 2. Dotson; 3. Chipp; 4. Hulin; 5. Jeff Streeter; 6. Bentley; 7. Stephen Streeter

IMCA Stock Cars

Feature
– 1. 99D Damon Murty (Chelsea); 2. 77M Jeff Mueller (Mt. Pleasant); 3. 99K Kyle Brown (State Center); 4. 22D Jared Daggett (Marshalltown); 5. 3T Scooter Dulin (Cedar Rapids); 6. 05 John Oliver (Danville); 7. 15 Norman Chesmore (Rowley); 8. 47 Scott Pippert (Elberon); 9. 8 Curtis Roster (Vinton); 10. 14 Shane Ebaugh (Evansdale); 11. 22K Kevin Rose (Waterloo); 12. 76 Mike Galli (Urbana); 13. 8E Austin Evens (Independence); 14. 6X Bob Ahrendsen (Cedar Rapids); 15. 171 Buck Swanson (Waterloo); 16. 76S Scott Siems (Shellsburg); 17. 42 Lon Mercer (Urbana); 18. 67 Justin Stander (Shellsburg); 19. 22J Justin Lovig (Clemons)

Heat 1 - 1. Dulin; 2. Mueller; 3. Chesmore; 4. Evens; 5. Roster; 6. Stander; 7. Lovig
Heat 2 - 1. Brown; 2. Daggett; 3. Rose; 4. Ahrendsen; 5. Pippert; 6. Oliver
Heat 3 - 1. Murty; 2. Swanson; 3. Galli; 4. Mercer; 5. Ebaugh; 6. Siems

IMCA Northern SportMods

Feature – 1. 1JR Ben Chapman (Clarence); 2. T23 Tony Olson (Cedar Rapids); 3. 22 Matt Petrzelka (Norway); 4. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 5. 7 Carter VanDenBerg (Oskaloosa): 6. 2 Joey Schaefer (Waterloo); 7. 13T Taylor Musselman (Urbandale); 8. 7D Dakoda Sellers (Waverly); 9. 22H Curt Hilmer (Dysart); 10. K3 Kyle Olson (Cedar Rapids); 11. 57R Ryan King (Montour); 12. 36A Andy Edwards (Parkersburg); 13. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 14. 1M Mitch Manternach (Earlville); 15. 34 Jerry Hinton (Adel); 16. 11 Ethan Braaksma (Newton); 17. 3 Tony Dunker (Quincy, IL); 18. 12S Sean Wyett (Danville); 19. 99 Erick Knutsen (Cedar Rapids); 20. B21 Brandon Tharp (Center Point): 21. 35 Kyle Bentley (Independence); 22. MR09 Kurt Hogan (Vinton); 23. 96 Lucas Lundry (Maynard); 24. 62 Cory Pestotnik (Boone)

B-Feature 1 (top 5 transfer) - 1. Dvorak; 2. Bentley; 3. Hinton; 4. Manternach; 5. Buhlman; 6. 8 Tom Lathrop (Ottumwa); 7. 87 Aric Becker (Cedar Rapids); 8. Tharp; 9. 29V Brett Vanderheiden (Earlham); 10. 01 Brayton Carter (Oskaloosa); 11. Erick Knutsen; DQ 69JR Johnathan Logue (Boone)

B-Feature 2 (top 5 transfer) - 1. Hogan; 2. Edwards; 3. Dunker; 4. King; 5. Lundry; 6. 05 Aaron Mitchell (Palo); 7. 95 Mike McDonald (Marion); 8. T17 Tom Rawlins (Kellogg); 9. 10 Lee Rouse (Atkins); 10. 71 Scott Meyers (Newhall); 11. 50H Steve Wimer (Toddville); 12. 6K Mike McNeal (Van Horne); DNS/13. 3B Brian Anderson (Garrison)

Heat 1 - 1. Chapman; 2. Schaefer; 3. Hilmer; 4. Dvorak; 5. Logue; 6. Hinton; 7. Carter; 8. Vanderheiden; 9. Tharp
Heat 2 - 1. Tony Olson; 2. Sellers; 3. Braaksma; 4. Bentley; 5. Manternach; 6. Knutson; 7. Becker; 8. Lathrop; 9. Buhlman
Heat 3 - 1. VanDenBerg; 2. Petrzelka; 3. Kyle Olson; 4. Rouse; 5. Mitchell; 6. Rawlins; 7. Wimer; 8. Anderson; 9. McDonald; 10. McNeal
Heat 4 - 1. Wyett; 2. Petotnik; 3. Musselman; 4. Hogan; 5. Edwards; 6. Ludry; 7. Dunker; 8. King; 9. Meyers

IMCA Hobby Stocks

Feature – 1. 79 Benji Irvine (Oelwein); 29 Nathan Ballard (Marengo); 3. 19 Bill Bonnett (Knoxville); 4. 14C Leah Wroten (Independence); 5. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 6. 09 Daniel Wauters (Iowa City); 7. 4P Matt Pohlman (Keystone); 8. 23J Justin Hanson (Hawkeye); 9. 78 Matt Brown (Dysart); 10. 48 Adam Petrzelka (Norway); 11. 7 David Simpson (Ankeny); 12. 357 Brett Vanous (Quasqueton); 13. 19X August Bach (Newton); 14. 14J Jacob Floyd (Cedar Rapids); 15. 6 Bryan Keeney (Nevada); 16. 58B Randy Byerly (Tipton); 17. 46 Brian Happel (Vinton); 18. 20CK Justin Ginther (Independence); 19. 1 Chad Siems (Cedar Rapids); 20. 7X Dustin Graham (Boone); 21. 71A Kyle Dulin (Brandon)

Heat 1 - 1. Bonnett; 2. Wroten; 3. Irvine; 4. Ballard; 5. Petrzelka; 6. Byerly; 7. Ginther
Heat 2 - 1. Pohlman; 2. Graham; 3. Dulin; 4. Hanson; 5. Siems; 6. Brown; 7. Wacha
Heat 3 - 1. Vanous; 2. Bach; 3. Wauters; 4. Simpson; 5. Happel; 6. Floyd; 7. Keeney

BCS Micro Mods

Feature - 1. 6E Don Erger (Brandon); 2. 51 Cole McNeal (Dysart); 3. 419 Josh Havlik (Toddville); 4. 64 Matt Post (Walker); 5. 13 Scott Beatty (Urbana); 6. 4 Russ Olson (Cedar Rapids); 7. 5 Jason Morehouse (Evansdale); 8. 99D Dallon Murty (Chelsea); 9. 1 Kaden Reynolds (Cedar Rapids)