Houdek at home at Hawkeye Downs

CEDAR RAPIDS - Hawkeye Downs Speedway was the place to be for Cory Houdek when he was younger.

The 27-year-old race car driver from Cedar Rapids still kicks off his weekends at the asphalt track.

In his 13th season competing at the track, Houdek sits atop the season points standings in the sportsman division. He added to that lead Friday night claiming his third straight feature win and sixth total this season.

Attending the weekly races was a family activity for Houdek.

"It's kind of the thing to do on Friday nights," Houdek said. "I didn't play football or basketball. I just kind of hung out at the track."

Houdek's brother, Clint, raced for about six years and allowed Houdek to get started in racing. It created a career that began win Houdek was just 15.

"I got my feet wet helping him," Houdek said. "I really learned a lot."

His start behind the wheel came during Hawkeye Downs' Saturday Night program, which was "for the beginner's beginner," according to Houdek. He ran hobby stocks, then super stocks and moved to the half-mile oval to race modifieds. Houdek moved back to the quarter-mile to compete in stock cars, winning a season points title in that class in 2009.

"The quarter-mile is a little more intense," Houdek said. "It's a little more fun. We enjoy that quarter-mile."

This season has been a little more enjoyable than most. He has won all but two features, competing in a new sportsman division, which somewhat combines the sportsman and stock car classes from a year ago. He likes the new division.

"The cars were already so close that really its just different names is all it is," Houdek said. "The cars are right there.

"We have a good group of guys that we're running with every week , so you don't have to worry about guys hitting into you, getting damages and other stuff to worry about."

A source of success is his team's ability to learn the intricacies of a new car. Houdek said every week is a learning experience, causing him and his team to adapt to the conditions, and once you think you have it figured out you don't. It could be bad news for other sportsman drivers, because Houdek said despite his dominance the car is now starting to come around.

"We're real consistent this year," Houdek said. "They haven't been very easy either. We still have to work. Everybody's just as fast as us."

Houdek took the lead on the second lap and pulled away from the field. A caution - the only one in six features Friday night - with nine laps left bunched the field again. Houdek had little margin for error as he held off Bob Ahrendsen, who challenged him to the finish line. Houdek won by half a car-length, and monitored the leaderboard the last few laps.

"I definitely knew Bob was there, so I just protected the bottom and got lucky," Houdek said. "Bob's fast."

The hornets class crammed 18 cars on the quarter-mile oval with packs of three-wide racing for most of the 20-lap feature. Dallas Chandler broke away from the field, using the high side to pass the many of the competition.

"I knew I had to get out front early, because first one in the front wins" said Chandler, who won his second feature of the year. "Thank God the high side was there tonight. That allowed me to pass a lot of the cars."

Brad Osborn continued his success with his third late model feature win. He ended almost a four-year victory drought in May and has multiple races for the first time since earning tallying five in 2005. The race had three leaders in the first three laps, but when Osborn took over he never surrendered it, building nearly a quarter-lap lead late.

"It's a dream come true after the last two or three years," Osborn said. "Man alive it feels good to win."

Nathan Ballard scored his fifth hobby stock feature, ending Matt Petrzelka's two-week win streak. They are the only hobby stock drivers with feature wins this season and ran side-by-side the last few laps. They were dead even on the final lap when Ballard, who was on the inside, gave Petrzelka a bump between turns 3 and 4 to create space, getting his 40th career win.

"You've got to do what you've got to do," Ballard said after the race.

Legends points leader Matt Blake claimed his second feature win and his seventh top-five finish in his rookie season.

Veteran driver Brian Gibson had reason to celebrate, capturing his first feature victory since 2008 in an IMCA Sportmod division. Gibson led most of the modified race to claim the checker flag. The only hiccup came when the leaders approached lapped traffic, but Gibson was able to maneuver his way through and kept his lead.

"We've been running hard all year long," said Gibson, who closed the 30-point gap on division leader Tim Plummer, who did not race Friday. "We finally hit a setup that seems to work pretty good."

Heat - 1. Matt Petrzelka, 2, Nathan Ballard, 3. Jeremy Robbins

Feature -1. Nathan Ballard, 2. Matt Petrzelka, 3. Jeremy Robbins, 4. Brad Chandler, 5. Bryan Glade.

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

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

Heats - 1st: 1. Matt Blake, 2. Dennis Diercks, 3. Warren Ropp; 2nd: 1. Troy Burkhart, 2. Ross Davisson, 3. Caleb Adrian

Feature -1. 1. Matt Blake, 2. Troy Burkhart, 3. Warren Ropp, 4. Dennis Diercks, 5. Al Diercks.

Heats - 1st: 1. Craig Bender, 2. Ryan Luedke, 3. Mike Schulte; 2nd:1. Brian Gibson, 2. John Spaw, 3. Steve Lindell

Feature -1. 1. Brian Gibson, 2. Johnny Spaw, 3. Ryan Luedke, 4. Craig Bender, 5. Mike Schulte.

Trophy Dash winner - 1. Jose DeJesus

Heats - 1st:1. Jose DeJesus, 2. Nathan Chandler, 3. Todd Ness; 2nd: 1. Brad Chandler, 2. Bryce Bailey, 3. Derek Parrott

Feature -1. Dallas Chandler, 2. Derek Parrott, 3. Nathan Chandler, 4. Bryce Bailey, 5. Todd Ness.

Heats - 1st: 1. Brad Osborn, 2. Kyle Hinrichs, 3. Mason Mitchell; 2nd:1. Joey Gase, 2. Andy Edwards, 3. Jay Jaspers

Feature -1. 1. Brad Osborn, 2. Joey Gase, 3. Kyle Hinrichs, 4. Mason Mitchell, 5. Andy Edwards.