Flannagan, VanDeest top furious racing in Urbana 5 Memorial

VINTON — Benton County Speedway in Vinton has a few nights each season that simply mean more than all the rest. One is the Hogan Memorial. The other has become the Urbana 5 Memorial, which now also doubles as Iowa Donor Network night.

The races hold extra meaning because of who they honor — in the former's case, Dick and Janet Hogan and in the latter the 'Urbana 5' of Quentin Ary, Triston Randall, Hunter Tuttle, Zoey Tuttle and Nicole Jacobson, who were killed in a car accident in April 2015.

With extra money on the line — $1,500 for Sport Mod and $1,000 for Modifieds the headliners — it was fitting Sunday night's Urbana 5 Memorial lived up to the meaning with the racing on track.

The two headlining divisions featured last-lap passes for the win. Cedar Rapids driver Patrick Flannagan crossed over Waterloo's Tyler Droste to get the lead back and win in IMCA Modified, and Grundy Center's Jared VanDeest finished off a pass of Dysart's Sam Wieben off the final turn to win Sport Mod.

In Flannagan's case, he started up front and held off Droste for nearly the entire race. With self-described handling issues, working the cushion on the high side was a fine line to walk, Flannagan said.

'I just held on,' Flannagan said. 'I was on the high side and just stuck my foot in it. I just crossed back over and I was going to come back up if I was halfway by him. It was (no holds barred) for this kind of money.

'I gave him a little so I figured he could give me a little. It's the last lap. Anything short of spinning a guy out is what's in play.'

Flannagan's win was his second straight at Vinton, after he won last week.

Flannagan is a self-described 'low-buck guy,' and said he builds as much of his car as he can at his shop. After a hard wreck earlier this season at Farley, coming back and getting two straight wins is a feat in and of itself.

But to win against the caliber of racers in the Modified field Sunday — including third-place finisher Kyle Brown, fourth place Scott Hogan, fifth place Joel Rust and more — added all that much more.

'We built this car, it's got swap meet and auction parts, it's all thrown together; I don't have fancy stuff and we make it work,' Flannagan said. 'We want to go fast; we don't just want to look good. There were some top-of-the-line drivers here. I just told myself not to screw up starting on the pole. I tried to, but they just didn't capitalize when I did.'

It was also a second for Droste — and not just his finishing position. It was the second time in less than a week where Droste found himself racing for the win and in a position to throw a slide job to pass the leader. He ended up second to Todd Shute at Marshalltown Speedway last Tuesday in the Hawkeye Dirt Tour main event, and had to settle for second again Sunday.

While he could never clear Shute on Tuesday, he did slide by Flannagan coming to the white flag. Despite the frustration every racer has with finishing second, Droste was upbeat about it

'Hey, we're consistent at least,' Droste said. 'It gets a little frustrating when you keep finishing second, knowing you're that close.

'I didn't want to do it too early. I tried it with a lap to go; he got back by me. I don't know if I should've waited until the last lap and seen what I could've done, but oh well.'

The high side was the place to be throughout the Modified main event, but not as much in Sport Mod — at least until the end.

Wieben led all but two laps of the main event, riding the bottom lane and twice building leads of at least a straightaway before cautions bunched the field back up.

It was a caution with less than 10 to go that ultimately thwarted his chance to finally close out an Urbana 5 win. He finished second to Tony Olson in 2015 and was running for the win last season before getting caught up in a late incident. Wieben stuck to the bottom on that late restart, and it was his friend VanDeest to 'threw something at the wall' and made it work.

'We came here to win, and I figured we had to try something,' VanDeest said. 'I knew I wasn't going to get him on the bottom. It was tight up there, but we got lucky enough, we made it work a couple corners in a row.

'I was going down the back stretch saying, 'Hit your marks and you'll be fine.' I knew as long as I didn't jump the cushion I'd be fine.'

Wieben was understandably disappointed after the race, leading all but those final two laps.

He said after the result was 'definitely toward the top,' of his list of all-time frustrating races.

'I figured if I went high I'd screw it up, so I stuck to my gut,' Wieben said. 'He timed it right. Props to him; we're good friends. It's just tough to swallow.'

There was even more incentive on the Sport Mod guys than the advertised $1,500 to win, with a 'bounty' placed on Olson, who had won the first two Urbana 5 Memorials. Any driver other than Olson would get the bonus, so VanDeest cleared $1,850 for his win.

Olson ended up fourth after having to start 24th thanks to a disqualification in his heat race after his MSD box read too high an RPM in tech. The Cedar Rapids driver said he needed one more caution in the main event and he might've had a shot at a third straight.

Instead, it was VanDeest, who pounced when he could — and gladly took both the checks.

'It doesn't get much better,' VanDeest said. 'I just try to take what I can get. It's my biggest win by far.

'And we don't get to race Tony (Olson) much, but when we do it's fun. It's too bad he had to start at the back, but we'll take it any way we can get it.'

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