Adrian wins ‘chaos’-filled Clash at the Downs

CEDAR RAPIDS - It may not have been a full moon Friday night, but that didn't stop the inaugural Big 8 Series Liz Girl Clash at the Downs from getting wild and crazy at Hawkeye Downs Speedway.

The biggest field in a decade saw 30 Big 8 Series Late Models entered, and 24 qualify for the main event. Four major wrecks - and seven cautions overall in the 48-lap race - sent cars into the foam barriers protecting the outside wall, one of which involved both Cedar Rapids natives Joey Gase and Griffin McGrath taking evasive action into the grass. The second turned McGrath right, head on into the outside wall and destroyed his car. Gase didn't escape the barrier either, getting spun backward into the Turn 3 barrier on the final lap.

In the end, it was another weekly racer who stayed out of the fray back in the pack and got the win. Walcott's Caleb Adrian made a pass of J Herbst on the outside after a late restart and cruised home to his second career victory.

'I knew I had to take it on the outside because (Herbst) was a bottom feeder, and there was no way I was getting under him without ruining my right rear,” Adrian said. 'It's amazing to win. There's such good competition here.

'Even up front, they were still dooring, hitting each other in the left rear. It was a tough race, for sure.”

It was close racing - fun for the drivers up front - but rough for those trying to come from the back.

The racing was intense up front, with contact among all the leaders at one point or another. For the most part, though, it was clean racing. Farther back was a different story. To a man, every driver who was asked what the racing was like from sixth place on back gave some form of 'chaos” or 'crazy” to describe the racing.

McGrath's hit that ended his race was 'one of the harder ones” he's taken and will take a total rebuild of his car. He was credited with 20th finishing position.

'Our car is junked. It'll need a front clip and I don't know what else. It was just chaos,” McGrath said. 'When I was in the front it wasn't bad. A lot of guys just aren't using their heads. It's not the Daytona 500, my Lord. I don't get it.

'It was just melee back in the back. Guys were cutting each other off and weren't handling very well.”

McGrath's first incident came while running fourth. He had made a pass on Austin Nason coming out of Turn 4, one that involved contact in the middle of the turn. Nason repaid the favor by Turn 1, though, and wrecked McGrath - sending them both to the back.

The contact between the two was, from McGrath's perspective, purely incidental.

'(Nason) just decided to use me as his brakes going into the corner,” McGrath said. 'I think he was a little upset that we bumped a couple times in the center when we were racing side by side. I didn't know what else to do. I don't know if he wanted to race five feet apart from each other or what. I figured it was just racing. He thought it was an excuse just to completely dump me.”

Nason obviously disagreed with that assessment, believing the contact that allowed McGrath to pass was more than incidental.

The two discussed the incident after the race, but left the meeting without coming to an agreement on what happened.

'Coming off Turn 2 he doored me a little bit, then going into (Turn) 3 he completely just ran me over. I gave him the lane going in,” Nason said. 'I didn't feel like it was necessary. I probably shouldn't have done what I did going into (Turn) 1, but it's over with now.

'We talked. It didn't go the way it should've went. We might talk again and hopefully it goes the way it should.”

As for Gase, he was caught up in the first wreck into the barrier with 20 laps to go that broke a portion of his spoiler and forced him into the pits. He made his way back out, though, and was up to 10th by the final lap. But, as happened three other times in the race, foam barrier was spread across the track as Gase was coming to the checkered flag.

He never had the car under him the way he wanted throughout the night, but he said it didn't really matter. The craziness of the one hour, 16-minute race left him unable to do anything but laugh off his 18th-place finish and torn up racecar.

'It was a mess and a cluster,” Gase said. 'They all drive aggressive and whatever. The last time on the outside, a car pushed up and hit me and that's what spun me into the wall. That and I basically lost my brakes with three laps to go. It was just a mess. We're lucky the car isn't worse than it is. There was two big wrecks right in front of us. One we missed, the other we didn't.

'It was fun being back out here (at Hawkeye Downs), but the race wasn't that fun for me, that's for sure.”

RESULTS

BIG 8 SERIES LIZ GIRL CLASH AT THE DOWNS

1. Caleb Adrian, Walcott; 2. J Herbst, West Salem, Wis.; 3. Michael Bilderback, South Beloit, Ill.; 4. Brian Gibson, Walford; 5. Jon Reynolds Jr., Rockford, Ill.; 6. Brad Osborn, Janesville; 7. Bobby Wilberg, Beloit, Wis.; 8. Lyle Nowak; 9. Cole Anderson, Northfield, Min.; 10. Eric Connell, Fort Atkinson, Wis.; 11. Michael Ostdiek, Lakeville, Min.; 12. Austin Nason, Roscoe, Ill.; 13. Wayne Freimund, Elkhorn, Min.; 14. Rich Schumann Jr.; 15. Michael Clapper; 16. Chad Siems, Shellsburg; 17. Adam Pescheck, Oconomowoc, Wis.; 18. Joey Gase, Cedar Rapids; 19. Dave Edwards, Salem, Wis.; 20. Griffin McGrath, Cedar Rapids; 21. Adam Bendzick, Elko, Min.; 22. Scott Siems, Cedar Rapids; 23. Brian Allen, Hiawatha; 24. Collin Olson, Maplewood, Min.

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