Sports : He wasn't the fastest, but he was first

He didn’t have the fastest car, but Jerry Luloff was in front when the checkers flew for Sunday’s Hogan Memorial IMCA Modified main event at Benton County Speed­way.

The beneficiary of a caution with four laps left, Luloff passed race-long leader Scott Hogan and held on to the finish to earn the top prize of $1,350, plus $200 in lap money and a spot on the ballot for the 2012 Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational.

“In reality, I probably had the fourth place car,” Luloff said from victory lane. “I knew a restart would be the only chance I’d have to catch Scott and I just got lucky.”

A four-time winner of the event, held in memory of his parents, Hogan drew the outside row one start and, following a lap eight bobble in front of J.D. Auringer and Dan Chapman, proceeded to check out on the rest of the 24-car field well before the competition yellow midway through the 40-lapper.

Back under green, Hogan picked up where he left off and brought Auringer and Chapman along in pulling away from Luloff and the rest of the pack.

Auringer got sideways trying to wrestle the lead from Hogan on lap 29 and collected Chapman in the first set of turns. Their departure promoted Luloff to second and he’d capitalize following what proved to be the final caution of the contest.

“I’ve finished in the top four in this race a bunch of times but I’ve never been able to win it,” Luloff said. “This really means a lot to me.”

In addition to second place pay, Hogan took home $1,800 in lap money and a $250 bonus for leading on lap 20. Brandon Banks, Jeff Waterman and Mike Burbridge completed the top five.

Wisconsin visitor Dan Ratajczak, winner of the season-opening Frostbuster special at Vinton in April, won his “B” feature and earned the $250 Ron-Da-Voo Lounge hard charger bonus by improv­ing 11 positions to finish sixth.

Justin Temeyer was the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car winner and Scott Pippert paced the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks. Racer Hulin chalked up the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod victory and Brett Vanous was best in the Mach-1 Sport Compacts.

Feature Results

Modifieds – 1. Jerry Luloff; 2. Scott Hogan; 3. Brandon Banks; 4. Jeff Waterman; 5. Mike Bur­bridge; 6. Dan Ratajczak; 7. Patrick Flanagan; 8. Troy Cordes; 9. Richie Gustin; 10. Mike Van Genderen; 11. Ronn Lauritzen; 12. Tony Olson; 13. Joe Docekal; 14. Chris Snyder; 15. Jerry Dedrick; 16. Timm Jensen; 17. Ed Thomas; 18. Shawn Fisher; 19. Keith Pittman; 20. Mike Weik­ert Jr.; 21. Dan Chapman; 22. J.D. Auringer; 23. Johnathan Thimmesch; 24. Dawn Krall.

Heat winners were Luloff, Waterman, Van Genderen and Chapman. “B” winners were Ratajczak and Gustin.

Stock Cars – 1. Justin Temeyer; 2. Damon Murty; 3. Scooter Dulin; 4. Bob Ahrendsen; 5. Andy Bryant; 6. John Emerson; 7. Jay Schmidt; 8. Norman Chesmore; 9. Mike Galli; 10. Andrew Burk; 11. John Schaefer; 12. Phil Holtz; 13. Derek St. Clair; 14. Curtis Roster; 15. Thomas Thompson.

Hobby Stocks – 1. Scott Pippert; 2. Justin Stander; 3. Brad Forbes; 4. Doug Laughridge; 5. Rod Grother; 6. Justin Wacha; 7. Matt Brown; 8. Justin Lichty; 9. Jacob Keiser; 10. Vince Buchholz; 11. Jacob Floyd; 12. Steve Higham; 13. Cale Peterson; 14. Kyle Parizek; 15. Greg Sweerin; 16. Adam Streeter.

Northern SportMods – 1. Racer Hulin; 2. Danny Dvorak; 3. Aric Becker; 4. Ken Kositzky; 5. Curt Hilmer; 6. David Schulze; 7. Kyle Olson; 8. Jared Van Deest; 9. Brian Anderson; 10. Brad Iver­son; 11. Kyle Brown; 12. Austin Lucas; 13. Jim Buhlman; 14. Bryan Rodman; 15. Mike Hogen­camp; 16. Jonny Williams; 17. David McCalla; 18. Creston Williams; 19. Jeff Weller; 20. Rick Paul­son; 21. Drew Fish; 22. Ed O’Brien; 23. Al Sweerin; 24. Josh Burrell; 25. Jesse Belez.

Sport Compacts – 1. Brett Vanous; 2. Brad Chandler; 3. Merv Chandler; 4. Jacob McVay; 5. Gary Pfeiffer; 6. Tyler Whalen; 7. Jeremy Wheeler; 8. Craig Streeter; 9. Bill Whalen Jr.; 10. Bryce Bailey; 11. Nathan Chandler; 12. Louis Trachta; 13. Travis Ross.