Downs weekend home for Houdek

CEDAR RAPIDS - Hawkeye Downs Speedway was the place to be for Cory Houdek when he was younger, and the 27-year-old race car driver from Cedar Rapids still begins his weekends at the asphalt track.

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

“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 at just 15 years old.

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

His debut behind the wheel came in 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 2009.

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

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

“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 used the high side to break from the field.

“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 tallying five in 2005.

“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. Gibson led most of the modified race.

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