Sports : Brian\'s View from the Grandstands

Gary Phieffer Sport Compact winner

Scott Pippert Hobby Stock Winner

Sport Mod Winner Drew Fish and Jennie

Drew Fish races around the track toward Sports Mod feature win.

Stock Car Winner, Brett Mather

Celebrating his 1st career IMCA win, stock car winner, Brett Mather

Shawn Fisher mod winner

Shawn Fisher on the track

Welcome to another episode of Brian’s Views from the Grandstands. Tonight’s action on Autism Awareness night is brought to you by the fine folks at Stickfort Construction as well as kid’s bike races. Hang on as here we go again.
The first feature up tonight was the Hobby Stocks. 19 cars started the feature with Doug Laughridge taking the early lead. Josh Burrell got by Laughridge on the second lap, and then August Bach passed Burrell on the ensuing lap. Scott Pippert made his way around Bach at lap 7 and went on to score the feature win. Brad Forbes finished second with Matt Brown, Vince Bucholz, and Kyle Parizek the unofficial top 5. Heat race winners were Laughridge, Brown, and Russell Damme Jr.
Next up were the always dramatic Sport Compacts and tonight would be no exception. 18 cars were scheduled to start the A main. Nate Chandler was having problems after the heat with his familiar 22 and stepped into his brother, Dallas’ car for the feature event. Brett Vanous was the early leader. Two early cautions would keep the field tightly packed. Gary Peiffer made his way up front from his outside 5th row start on lap 7. With two laps to go the caution flew again as Merv Chandler got into the Vanous car in turns 1 and 2. On the previous lap Vanous and Nate Chandler were racing hard for second place. Merv was black flagged for rough driving. Peiffer took the win with Nate Chandler in his brother’s car finishing second. Vanous, Bill Whalen, Jr, and Cale Peterson rounded out the top 5. Heat race winners were Travis Ross and Justin Wacha.
The sport mods were next as 25 cars started the feature. Early leader Dawn Krall got sideways in 3 and 4 bringing out the first caution. During this caution Doug Smith wanted to see if he could get a better view from on top of the tractor tire. There were about 5 other cautions in this event and when the dust cleared Drew Fish emerged the victor. Austin Kaplan finished second with early leader Kyle Olson, Danny Dvorak and Jim Buhlman the top 5. Heat races were won by Kaplan, Fish, Joel Rust, and Jesse Belez. B Feature winners were Curt Hilmer and Dave Schulze.
Next up were the Stock Cars. 15 cars were on hand tonight. Brett Mather was the early leader and went on to win his first feature ever. Phil Holtz finished second with Justin Temeyer, Paul Shepherd, and Damon Murty completing the top 5. Heat race winners were Mather and Austin Evans.
The final feature up was the Modifieds. 16 cars were on hand tonight. On the very first lap a scary accident involving Jerry Luloff and Scott Hogan occurred on the backstretch with Luloff’s car barrel-rolling down the backstretch at least 4 times. Flagman Dan Hilby was quick to throw the red flag and get all of the cars stopped on the track. Fortunately Luloff was not hurt during the accident, but was seen by the track ambulance crew as a precaution. Once racing resumed, Pat Flannagan took over the lead and looked to have his hands full with a hard charging Shawn Fisher. The red would fly again when the Timm Jensen machine caught fire and again Hilby was quick to throw the red flag. The finish was arguably the best finish I have ever seen at Vinton as the cars of Fisher, Flannagan, and Joe Docekal crossed the finish line almost simultaneously. The crowd had to wait for the official word. Shawn Fisher was the winner with Flannagan and Docekal separated by maybe 2-3 inches. Tony Olson took fourth and Jonathan Thimmesch rounded out the top 5. Heat race winners were Flannagan and Thimmesch.
Next up on the docket and not to be forgotton was the kid’s bike races. I believe there were about 50 kids that were racing their bikes and they separated the kids by age groups. The younger kids did a ½-lap around the quarter mile and the older kids did a full lap. Each kid got their picture taken in victory lane along with a picture taken by Scott Tjabring of actiontrackphotography in which parents can order next week at the track. Thanks to the night’s sponsor, Stickfort Construction, Mick Trier, Dana Benning and crew for a great night of racing and an exciting night for the kids.

Photos courtesy of Scott Tjabring of Action Track Photos...thanks so much to both of these gentlemen for their superb coverage of the Benton County Races this year! The Editors