7/23/2023
Benton County Speedway
Harris tops late models, DeVilbiss scores first Benton County Speedway win
Brian Harris led wire-to-wire in an appearance by the Pro Late Model Tour Sunday night at Benton County Speedway. (Spencer Emley Photo)
VINTON, Iowa (July 23, 2023) – Brian Harris impressed in qualifying, then ran away during the main event when the Pro Late Model Tour made its second stop of the season at Benton County Speedway.
The Late Model veteran earned the most passing points through heat race qualifying after charging from an eighth place start to second at the checkers. He then drew the ace during the invert redraw, leaving him on the pole for the 25-lap main event.
At the drop of the green, Harris pulled away from fellow front row starter Logan Duffy and built a sizable lead before caution slowed action early.
Neither that restart nor a couple other stoppages slowed down the veteran racer as he pulled away from the pack each time the green flag waved to score the convincing win.
Duffy fought off pressure from Sean Johnson to finish second. Nick Marolf, who was involved in an early caution, raced through the 17-car field to finish fourth.
In his storied career, Zane DeVilbiss had never been to The Bullring. The two-time Friesen Performance IMCA Modified national champion from Farmington, N.M., showed why he’s one of the best in the nation as he ended his night in victory lane.
Jerry Dedrick held the early lead in the Beaty Excavating 20-lapper before Troy Cordes worked his way to the front from a second row start a few circuits into the event.
While Cordes paced the field, he was pursued by Patrick Flannagan and a hard-charging Joel Rust. Meanwhile, DeVilbiss was making his way through traffic from a row five start and settled into fourth just prior to a mid-race caution.
On the restart, DeVilbiss shot to the inside of Flannagan and Rust to secure the runner-up spot before caution again slowed action late.
When racing resumed a final time, DeVilbiss made the winning pass and drove away from the pack to score the victory. Rust ran second ahead of Cordes and Flannagan.
Vern Jackson’s first win at The Bullring came in the local roadrunner division on June 29, 1980. His most recent came Sunday night in an IMCA Sunoco Stock Car.
A veteran of many divisions in his storied career, Jackson is in his first year in the Stock Car division. As of Sunday night, he’s already earned two wins.
Jackson, who won earlier this season in Independence, started Sunday’s Christie Door Company 15-lapper from row five and raced the low side into contention early.
He worked into a battle for the lead midway through the event and raced past Tyler Carey for the top spot on his way to victory. Norman Chesmore came home second ahead of Leah Wroten and Jeff Wollam.
Tony Olson marched closer to the top of the speedway wins list for Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods. Olson reeled in Brandon Tharp late in the Houdek Auto Center 15-lapper to earn his second win of the season and the 59th of his career in Vinton. He now sits one victory shy of Danny Dovrak’s track record for SportMod wins.
Tharp ran second in Sunday’s feature ahead of Kyle Olson and Sam Wieben.
Lukas Rick remained perfect in weekly racing action for the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compacts presented by iHeart Radio. From a fifth row start, Rick worked through traffic to pass Matt Miller en route to his sixth consecutive win in weekly points racing at the speedway. Miller, Korey Lana and Steven Schmitz rounded out the top four.
Rick’s six-race winning streak in weekly points racing is the longest in track history for the division.
Matt Brown ran down race-long leader Dalton Weepie late to score his second win of the season in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks presented by Vermedahl Logistics. Cory Vanderwilt and Justin Wacha completed the top four.
Fresh off his win last week in the Urbana 5 Memorial, Michael Weber continued his winning ways in the INEX Legends presented by Legends.Direct.
Weber raced the low groove from the third row into the lead to score the victory ahead of Robby Morrison, Jordan Miklas and Bryce Barnhardt.
Article Credit: Ryan Clark
