Sports : Vinton drivers Dvorak, Stander win Mid-Season features in Independence

INDEPENDENCE – A great field of 113 race teams filled the pits for Budweiser Mid-Season Championships at Independence Motor Speedway. A pair of brothers, while another pair of drivers from Vinton, all claimed titles during the special event. Brothers and defending IMCA Modified and IMCA Stock Car champions Adam Johnson and Sean Johnson last won on the same night during Season Championship action last season. They repeated that feat during this year’s mid-season special on Saturday. Meanwhile, Vinton natives Danny Dvorak and Justin Stander extended their points leads with wins in the IMCA SportMod and IMCA Hobby Stock divisions, respectively. An extra five laps were added to all features in the five weekly divisions, which were lined up straight-up based on season point totals. The top four in points were given the chance to double their money if they won after starting from the tail. While the two who took the challenge didn’t quite make it back to the front, both of those drivers made it back to finish in the top four. In the 25-lap Modified main, outside front row starter Ronn Lauritzen paced the field through a few caution periods over the first seven laps. While Lauritzen led, a trio of drivers battled for the runner-up spot in exciting fashion. Points leader Mark Schulte and third row starters Adam Johnson and Troy Cordes engaged in a terrific battle for second, swapping high and low grooves throughout much of the event. Cordes ran the low groove past Lauritzen in turn two on the 11th circuit to snag the lead while Johnson raced his way past Schulte for third. Running the high groove, Johnson worked past Lauritzen four laps later, then chased Cordes for a couple of laps before sweeping past him on lap 17. Johnson then pulled away from the pack to take the exciting win, his second of the season, ahead of Schulte and Lauritzen. Jerry Luloff took the challenge and started at the tail of the 20-car field. He raced through the pack to come home fourth ahead of Patrick Flannagan. Cordes suffered mechanical problems late in the event and finished 15th. In the 23-lap Stock Car feature, points leader Sean Johnson took the lead from Norman Chesmore following a first-lap restart. Johnson, who made his way into the lead on lap two, was chased to the front by John Emerson, who took over second one lap later. Emerson remained glued to Johnson’s rear bumper throughout the duration of the event, attempting to find racing room numerous times beneath Johnson’s number 8R. Although he successfully pulled to the inside of the leader at various points, Johnson held on to take the victory, his fourth of the season, and the 21st of his career at Independence. Emerson ran a close second ahead of a hard-charging Chesmore and Jason Hocken. Tim Helle rounded out the top five. Jarod Weepie, who was involved in the first lap stoppage, made a nice run from the back of the pack to finish sixth. Points leader Danny Dvorak led all 20 laps in the SportMod headliner, although it wasn’t without a fight. Dvorak was initially pressured by Jim Buhlman for the lead before Matt McCahen slipped past his machine for second on the 13th circuit. Mechanical problems sidelined Buhlman one lap later when his engine expired, leaving debris on the track to bring out the race’s only caution. When racing resumed, Dvorak continued to set the pace while Lucas Lundry battled into contention from a sixth row starting spot. Lundry worked past the outside of McCahen and Dave Schulze for second as the flying green waved, then set his sights on Dvorak. Lundry pulled alongside the leader and inched ahead at the stripe on the white flag lap, however Dvorak charged back from the bottom in the final set of turns on the final lap to take the exciting win. Lundry ran second ahead of Sam Wieben, who took the challenge, started 20th and came home third. Schulze and Jim Aschenbrenner completed the top five. Stander led all 20 laps of the Hobby stock feature to take his second win of the season and his first mid-season title. Following a pair of early cautions, Stander pulled away from the pack while Chris Luloff worked his way into second on lap four after starting in the third row. Stander extended his advantage as he encountered lapped traffic on the 11th circuit. As Luloff pursued, Stander made his way through the backmarkers with ease to hold a big lead. Luloff, too, cleared the lapped cars with a handful of laps remaining, however Stander maintained his advantage to take the victory. Luloff ran second ahead of Marcus Wayne, Benji Irvine and Quinton Miller. With points leader Curt Martin vacationing with his family, Tyler Bruening inherited the pole position for the 30-lap IMCA Late Model feature. It was fellow front row starter Jon Passick who took the early command until the only caution occurred following the completion of lap two. On the restart, Bruening swept past the leader, then pulled away from the pack in dominant fashion. Bruening came upon his first lapped car just nine laps into the event, then ran away from the field to take his second win of the season and emerge as the division’s new points leader. In heavy lapped traffic that was running two and three-wide in front of the leaders, Jon Passick held off challenges from Dale Hackwell to finish second. Likewise, Hackwell held off Dean Wagner in traffic to finish third. Jason Rauen, in only his second night of action at the speedway this season, came from a 17th place start to an impressive fifth place finish. Greg Kastli and Joel Brasch completed the top seven, the final cars on the lead lap at the checkers. For the second straight week, the IMCA Sport Compacts were on-hand for a special draw/redraw show. On lap three, Merv Chandler took the lead from last week’s winner Steve Miedke to make his way to the winner’s circle in Independence for the first time since he piloted an IMCA Modified to victory in May of 1984. Miedke came home second ahead of Ryan Schilling, Jeff Vislisel and Travis Losenicky. After two trial runs for the Sport Compacts, the division will be added to the weekly racing program for the remainder of the season, provided the track gets a minimum of 10 cars per week. Although their first two events were good for state and national IMCA points, the track points season for the Sport Compacts will start next Saturday, July 7.The division will have one more draw/redraw show that night to establish point averages. Coming up Monday, July 2, is the annual appearance of the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models. In honor of the series’ 25th all-time appearance in Independence, the winner’s share will be increased from $2,000 to $2,525. Also competing will be IMCA SportMods and IMCA Hobby Stocks. Gates open at 5 p.m. with hot laps at 6:45 and racing to follow. RESULTS IMCA LATE MODEL
Feature – 1. 16 Tyler Bruening (Decorah); 2. 2P Jon Passick (Waterloo); 3. 145 Dale Hackwell Jr. (Washburn); 4. 60 Dean Wagner (Evansdale); 5. 40 Jason Rauen (Farley); 6. 73 Greg Kastli (Waterloo); 7. 21B Joel Brasch (Dunkerton); 8. 98 Travis Smock (Independence); 9. 7 Greg Hunter (Indpendence); 10. 4D Rick Dralle (Waterloo); 11. 0 Rory Metcalf (West Union); 12. 3X Chad Lerch (North Liberty); 13. 83 Russell Hesse (Waterloo); 14. 4 Leon Thomsen (Waverly); 15. 88 Drew Johnson (Belle Plaine); 16. 68 Tysus Pattee (Vinton); 17. 14 Tracey Rigel (Waterloo); 18. 25P Kenny Pint (Independence). IMCA MODIFIED
Feature – 1. 24R Adam Johnson (Independence); 2. 27M Mark Schulte (Delhi); 3. 10K Ronn Lauritzen (Jesup); 4. 18 Jerry Luloff (Independence); 5. F7 Patrick Flannagan (Cedar Rapids); 6. 98 Jason Snyder (Dunkerton); 7. 1J Jeff Streeter (Vinton); 8. 85 Johnathan Thimmesch (Independence); 9. 57B Dennis Betzer (Central City); 10. 32 Chris Snyder (Raymond); 11. 75 Josh Sherbon (Cedar Falls); 12. 01 Ed Thomas (Waterloo); 13. 41P Keith Pittman (Waterloo); 14. 11 Timm Jensen (Dunkerton); 15. 71 Troy Cordes (Dunkerton); 16. 111 Buster Pate (Hiawatha); 17. 83C Todd Conrad (Central City); 18. 23B Brett Bumgardner (Hawkeye); 19. 25 Duane Peterson (Beaman); DNS 1X Steven Streeter (Vinton). IMCA STOCK CAR
Feature – 1. 8R Sean Johnson (Independence); 2. 87 John Emerson (Waterloo); 3. 15 Norman Chesmore (Rowley); 4. JR3 Jason Hocken (Independence); 5. 15T Tim Helle (Garnavillo); 6. 3 Jarod Weepie (Dunkerton); 7. 00 Tony Schimmels (Readlyn); 8. 7H Phil Holtz (Manchester); 9. 4JR Russell Damme Jr. (Waterloo); 10. 9E Austin Evens (Independence); 11. 11J Jerome Jacoby (Waterloo); 12. 09X Cole Mather (Lamont); 13. G1 Mike Padden (Waterloo); 14. K38 Kenny Taylor (Strawberry Point); 15. 85 Bryce Carey (Nashua); 16. 21 Joe Harken (Waterloo); DNS 22K Kevin Rose (Waterloo). IMCA SPORTMOD
Feature – 1. 3R Danny Dvorak (Vinton); 2. 96 Lucas Lundry (Maynard); 3. 198 Sam Wieben (Dysart); 4. J2 Dave Schulze (Keystone); 5. 6 Jim Aschenbrenner (Aplington); 6. 21 Brennen Chipp (Waterloo); 7. 25T Travis Peterson (Gladbrook ); 8. 29 Sean Vogt (Watkins); 9. 23W Robert Whalen (Nashua); 10. 11M Mike Mitchell (Cedar Rapids); 11. 39 Brian Hilbert (Independence); 12. 15B Troy Burkhart (Urbana); 13. 30 Chris Marchese (Cedar Falls); 14. 7Z Zac Becker (Waterloo); 15. 28P Rick Paulson (Tripoli); 16. 49 Brandon Smith (Rowley); 17. 63 Matt McCahen (Waterloo); 18. 14 Shane Ebaugh (Evansdale); 19. 00 Jim Buhlman (Cedar Falls); 20. 11 Bob Ebaugh (Raymond). IMCA HOBBY STOCK
Feature – 1. 67 Justin Stander (Vinton); 2. 18 Chris Luloff (Independence); 3. 5 Marcus Wayne (Independence); 4. 79 Benji Irvine (Cedar Falls); 5. 73 Quinton Miller (Independence); 6. 66 Rod Grother (Cedar Rapids); 7. 64JR Jeremiah Wilson (Waterloo); 8. 45 Justin Wacha (Vinton); 9. 26 Nathan Christie (Waterloo); 10. 64 Jerome Wilson (Waterloo); 11. 35B Shawn Kuennen (Hazleton); 12. 58B Randy Byerly (Tipton); 13. 20B Matt Burmeister (Dunkerton); 14. 12OZ Gary Gates (Waterloo); 15. 7B Jim Ball (Independence); 16. 55 Vince Buchholz (Cedar Falls); 17. 95 Matt Lundry (Oelwein); 18. 90 Lowell Potter (White Bear Lake, Minn.); 19. 8 David Wheeler (Fairbank); 20. 25 Jamie Whitaker (Oelwein); 21. 14J Jacob Floyd (Cedar Rapids); 22. 20JN Justin Ginther (Independence); 23. 2 Nick Welch (Cedar Falls); 24. 12J Jeremy Floyd (Cedar Falls); DNS 57 Malena Betzer (Cedar Rapids). IMCA SPORT COMPACT
Feature – 1. 2 Merv Chandler (Vinton); 2. 11 Steve Miedke (Shellsburg); 3. 21X Ryan Schilling (Bernard); 4. 78 Jeff Vislisel (Mt. Vernon); 5. 22T Travis Losenicky (Garrison); 6. 83 Travis Ross (Evansdale); 7. 73 Ian Pate (Cedar Rapids); 8. 007 Adam Gates (Cedar Rapids); 9. 9D Dan Schmidt (Cedar Rapids); 10. 8 Duayne Herb (Cedar Rapids); 11. 11M Eric McDonough (Peosta); 12. 111 A.J. Witten (Cedar Rapids); 13. 03 Neil Nabholz (Waterloo).
First heat – 1. Chandler; 2. Schilling; 3. McDonough; 4. Schmidt; 5. Ross; 6. Nabholz; 7. Witten.
Second heat – 1. Miedke; 2. Vislisel; 3. Gates; 4. Pate; 5. Herb; 6. Losenicky.