Tradition aim dictates date change for ARCA Midwest Tour at Hawkeye Downs

CEDAR RAPIDS - The ARCA Midwest Tour returned to Hawkeye Downs Speedway in 2014 after having last run before that in 2011, but unfortunately for everyone involved, it wasn't the return everyone hoped for.

Poor weather scared off many potential racers, and the 16 cars that did make the trip into Iowa had to weather rain showers all morning. Ty Majeski won the Coors Light Summer Shootout last July in a 100-lap, caution-free race, but the track and series were left wanting more.

Fast forward to 2015 and under new ownership, the Midwest Tour changed things up for its Hawkeye Downs date. Yes, new owner and President Gregg McKarns knew the new date clashed with Iowa football's opener.

But this was about building a new tradition.

'Every event we're doing, we're trying to establish as a traditional event, and we have had more success doing further-away events on holiday weekends,” McKarns said. 'We attract more cars when they have more time to travel and tie in their other race events or other family events. Moving forward, we hope Labor Day weekend will be the weekend we go to Hawkeye Downs from here on out.”

The bulk of the racers who compete in the Midwest Tour events come from Wisconsin and Minnesota, which means Hawkeye Downs is often an extra 100 or so miles than their typical destinations.

That makes the pre-entry list of 25 cars look good. But even better are some of the names on the list.

McKarns highlights guys like Bubba Pollard - who is widely considered one of the best Super Late Model racers in the country - Travis Sauter, Paul Shafer Jr., Ricky Baker and defending winner Majeski as either tour regulars or ones to watch.

Pollard, who is a Senoia, Ga. native, primarily runs in the south, and has seven wins in a Super Late Model this season. Two of those came in the Southern Super Series, a top Late Model circuit in the south. He also has two top-5s in the CARS Late Model Tour - perhaps the premiere southern Late Model series.

Majeski stands as the man to beat, though, given his win last year and that he's won three of the seven races run in the Midwest Tour this season. He's the series points leader by 81 points ahead of Skylar Holzhauzen, who is scheduled to be in Cedar Rapids for Saturday's race.

Those big names making the choice to come run at Hawkeye Downs is a reflection on both the date change and the holiday weekend, McKarns said.

'The holiday weekend helps on the travel plans. They can race Saturday and still have Sunday and Monday to spend with their families,” McKarns said. 'A lot of the weekly tracks around here (in Wisconsin) are finishing up their seasons, so guys are now out of the championship points hunt and are able to go race their racecars in other areas. And obviously Hawkeye Downs is a beautiful facility our racers enjoy racing at.”

None of them, though, have the desire to win at Hawkeye Downs that the two locals in the field do. Walcott's Caleb Adrian - who won the Big 8 Series main event at Hawkeye Downs this summer - and Cedar Rapids native Griffin McGrath are on the entry list and want to protect their home turf.

That's especially true for McGrath, who was fourth in last year's race and has had a rough year to date. He likes the date change for a few reasons - though he, too, was concerned with the Hawkeye football conflict - but chief among them is he wouldn't have had a racecar ready if the race was in July.

'We wouldn't have even been ready in the middle of the summer just because of all of our stuff being torn apart and the season we'd had to that point,” McGrath said. 'I'd like to see how this (change) works out. Gregg obviously knows what he's doing. He's been successful in everything he's touched. Maybe he's found a time of year that will work for Hawkeye Downs.

'There are a lot of big names as far as regional short track racing goes. I was surprised by some of the names, to be honest. This is probably one of the best fields they've had all year. … (It being this time of year is) probably right. They've averaged roughly 25 cars for a Wisconsin race, so to get that at Hawkeye Downs, which is a good 100 miles farther for everyone, could mean it's a nice portion of year where Gregg found a gap in the schedule.”

McGrath wrecked his Super Late Model twice in the Midwest Tour opener at Madison International Speedway - once in the pits before practice that tore the nose off the car, and then again on the second lap of the race, which totaled the car. Then came the big wreck at the Big 8 Series race at Hawkeye Downs in June. And finally, a few weeks later, a locked-up transmission that sent him into the wall during a weekly race at Hawkeye Downs.

So Saturday's race is just as much about surviving and finally having a clean race as it is about competing. McGrath's crew is no longer full-time as it was when he was on tour full-time, so most of his guys are volunteers and work until the wee hours getting the car ready.

But make no mistake, even if they want to keep all the fenders on the car, McGrath wants to win one of these Midwest Tour races at his home track.

'Deep down, obviously, we're always hoping to win the race because they're coming to Hawkeye Downs,” McGrath said. 'But getting out of the weekend without trouble would be a No. 1 goal for us considering what's happened this year - plus what we've got coming up with Oktoberfest in LaCross, Wis.

'We're going to pour everything into this weekend that we have. If there's a possibility we might not want to put our nose somewhere, but we'd get a win (if we did), this is the track we do it at. It's one we want. There's a couple different mindsets, but as we all know, when you get in the car, hopefully one goes away and the cautiousness goes away.”

Saturday's Coors Light Summer Shootout features the ARCA Midwest Tour Super Late Models as well as the MidAmerican Stock Car Series and INEX Legends Cars in support. Racing action is set for 7 p.m.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com