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Hawkeye Ovals 7/31/09
By Eric Arnold
The USAC Sprints and Silver Crown Series' showed off their open wheeled machines on Friday night at the Iowa Speedway during the Casey's General Stores Challenge. The Sprint Cars were up first for a 50-lap event with Jerry Coons Jr. starting on the pole with a time of 21.728 (146mph), just 2 tenths off of track record held by Darren Hagen at 21.554. Shane Hmiel started outside of Coons and shot out to a 3 second lead by lap 30 as the yellow came out for a competition fuel stop. On the restart is was Hmiel leading the field followed by Coons, Jacob Wilson, Dave Darland, and a surging Bobby Santos III who started 14th. Santos quickly moved passed Darland and Wilson on the restart and went by Coons a lap later. It seemed as though Santos was reeling in Hmiel, but Hmiel was able to hold of Santos and take the win. Coons dropped out with apparent mechanical problems on lap 39 while running third, and Brad Sweet pulled in as well on lap 45. The win was Hmiel's first USAC National Sprint Car win.
Sprint Car Finish (started): 1. Shane Hmiel (2), 2. Bobby Santos III (14), 3. Dave Darland (8), 4. Tracy Hines (12), 5. Jacob Wilson (6), 6. Bobby East (9), 7. Cole Whitt (3), 8. Damion Gardner (16), 9. Levi Jones (5), 10. Darren Hagen (7), 11. Henry Clarke (11), 12. Brian Gerster (13), 13. Brad Sweet (4), 14. Jerry Coons Jr.(1), 15. Billy Wease (10), 16. Russ Gamester (15).
The USAC Silver Crown Series had a 100 lap event as Jacob Wilson put his #07 machine on the pole with a time of 22.123. The race was caution free throughout and Wilson shot out to a big lead from the start, leading by 8 seconds over Cameron Dodson at the halfway point. Bobby Santos once again proved he is the man on pavement open wheel cars as he started 17th and picked off cars steadily through out the first half of the race. Santos continued to make up ground and passed Dodson on lap 52 to take the second spot and set his sights on the leader Wilson. On lap 81 Wilson wiggled his rear tires coming off turn four allowing Santos to close in, but Santos then got loose going into turn 1 and lost momentum. But by lap 83 Santos was within reach of Wilson's bumper. But on lap 86 Santos had run out of gas and pulled in. But last years winner Cameron Dodson had also stayed within reach of Wilson and managed to drive by on lap 94 to take the lead and pulled away to win by 2 seconds. Wilson also had fuel troubles the last few laps and managed to nurse his machine home to a 6th place finish. Levi Jones made a nice run from 15th to 2nd. Dodson also won the Silver Crown race a year ago at Iowa Speedway.
Silver Crown Finish (started): 1. Cameron Dodson (2), 2. Levi Jones (15), 3. Kody Swanson (9), 4. Bobby East (4), 5. Bud Kaeding (6), 6. Jacob Wilson, 7. Eric Gordon (11), 8. Zach Daum (8), 9. Coleman Gullick (18), 10. Shane Hmiel (3), 11. A.J. Fike (10), 12. Bobby Santos III (17), 13. Russ Gamester (16), 14. Jerry Coons Jr. (7), 15. Josh Wise (14), 16. Tracy Hines (5), 17. Michael Annett (12), 18. Brian Tyler (13), 19. Rodney Weesner (19).
Eric Arnold
Social Media Manager & Track Historian
Knoxville Raceway
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