Veteran Ahrendsen back at Hawkeye Downs

CEDAR RAPIDS – For 19 years, Bob Ahrendsen never missed a Friday night race at Hawkeye Downs Speedway.

The streak ended when he decided to slow down his racing schedule for this summer, cutting out driving at the asphalt track where he has claimed a season points title.

Ahrendsen has returned to Hawkeye Downs Speedway and won his first sportsman division feature race this season during Friday night's weekly points races in SW Cedar Rapids. His victory came before the weekly program was cut short to weather for the second straight time.

The longtime Hawkeye Downs supporter, who used to run a modified car to help with car counts in the past, eliminated some of his weekly racing schedule this year. He decided to focus on dirt racing, running full-time at Benton County Speedway in Vinton and traveling to various area dirt tracks competing for an IMCA stock car title.

The change was smoother than anticipated.

“I didn't know how I'd react, but I reacted much better than I thought I would,” Ahrendsen said about not competing on asphalt. “I've done it long enough I pretty much have the ‘go straight, turn left' thing down pretty good.

“The neat thing is taking a little bit of time away from asphalt has definitely shown an increase in performance in my dirt track efforts.”

Ahrendsen said his decision to step away from Hawkeye Downs was due to the economy and being busy away from racing. The 47-year-old driver from Cedar Rapids continued racing on dirt but wanted to take devote more time to social activity.

“I've done it 20 years,” Ahrendsen said. “I'm old. I used to race three nights a week and now I've told myself I'm going to make a commitment to having a little bit of a personal life outside of racing.”

Ahrendsen started on the pole Friday after winning the second of two heat races. he led all 20 laps of the feature, finishing ahead of runner-up Craig Stepanek and season points leader Cory Houdek, who was third. He seems to adjusted to the new class, which somewhat merges the stock car and sportsman classes from last year.

“The first night took me a little while to get back in the swing of it,” Ahrendsen said. “I thought I'd get back in the saddle but with a variety of rule changes and different drivers it probably took me halfway through the first feature race when I decided I needed to differently to get my car to perform the way I wanted it to.”

Ahrendsen decided to renew his support for the venue and expects to be here the rest of the season while they see how things progress at various tracks and determine what he will do next season.

“I'd say Hawkeye Downs is in the cards for the rest of the summer,” Ahrendsen said. “Hopefully, we have a good strong finish for ourselves and Hawkeye Downs.”

Matt Petrzelka didn't wait long to reclaim a feature win that was taken away with a disqualification last week. He captured his fourth win of the season, adding to his season points lead in hobby stocks.

Joey Gase also notched his fourth feature win of the season, winning the first of two scheduled late model contests that was a make-up for last week's race that was rained out.

For the second straight week, the weekly races her shortened due to weather. Rain wiped out half of last week's slate while the threat of impending weather, including high winds canceled features in the legends, which was in progress, modifieds, hornets and late models divisions.

Heat winner -1. Matt Petrzelka, 2. Jeremy Robbins, 3. Kandi Floyd, 4. Brad Chandler, 5. Brian Bries.

Feature -1. Matt Petrzelka, 2. Jeremy Robbins, 3. Brad Chandler, 4. Kandi Floyd, 5. Brian Bries.

Heats -  1st:1. Ben Glascock, 2. Cory Houdek, 3. Greg Hentrich; 2nd:1. Bob Ahrendson, 2. Craig Stepanek, 3. David Ballstaedt.

Feature -1. Bob Ahrendsen, 2. Craig Stepanek, 3. Cory Houdek, 4. David Ballstaedt, 5. Ben Glascock.

Trophy Dash winner -Dennis Diercks.

Heats – 1st: 1. Al Diercks, 2. Tory Burkhart, 3. Dennis Diercks; 2nd: 1. Warren Ropp, 2. Matt Blake, 3. Danny Lemkuhl.

Heats - 1st:1. Brian Gibson, 2. Mike Schulte, 3. Ryan Luedke; 2nd:1.Johnny Spaw , 2. Tim Plummer, 3. Craig Bender.

Heats – 1st: 1. Brad Chandler, 2. Jeff Dvorak, 3. Dallas Chandler; 2nd: 1. Nathan Chandler, 2. Casey Bilden, 3. Todd Ness.

Make-up feature (from 7-15 rainout) – 1. Joey Gase, 2. Thor Anderson, 3. Jay Jaspers, 4. Andy Edwards, 5. Brad Osborn.

* – No heats were schedule due to plans for two feature races.