Dolan edges Cooney in furious final laps at Benton County Speedway

VINTON - The opening laps of the IMCA Late Model Sunday Series A-main event at Benton County Speedway didn't exactly instill a ton of confidence in the crowd on Sunday night in Vinton. With three cautions before the field had completed two laps, it looked headed for a plagued race.

But over the next 24 laps, the Late Model drivers put on a show worth waiting for.

Lisbon driver Ryan Dolan and Des Moines' Todd Cooney swapped the lead a dozen times - twice each lap in the final four circuits after a late caution - using slide jobs and crossover moves. In the end it was Dolan who timed his move just right with a run off Turn 4 to beat Cooney to the line by a bumper for the win. The two were focused so hard on racing each other, they lost track of the flag stand.

'It was fun, but the whole time you were thinking, ‘Well, I threw that away,' (when Cooney got back by),” Dolan said in Victory Lane. 'I didn't even know what flag they were waving (at the finish); I thought we had one more lap to go. I think that was good that I didn't have the opportunity to have the white flag shakes.

'The way it ended was like, ‘Whoa, OK.' And I was in the lead. That's what kind of race that was.”

Dolan and Cooney were both all smiles after the race was over, Dolan obviously thrilled with getting the win and Cooney happy to put on a good show for the fans.

The two racers have decades of experience and though they might not have raced against each other a lot - mostly in IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series races - they knew each were veteran drivers who could be trusted to race each other clean.

That's not to say there wasn't a little bumping and rubbing - both said they weren't giving the other an inch.

'That was an absolute blast; we raced really close, really tight,” Cooney said. 'We didn't give each other any more room than we had to, and actually we pinched each other a little tight. Once we made contact we gave each other plenty of room. That's more than you could ask for. Ryan's a great racer, obviously.

'It was a show. That's what we're here to do, is put on a show.”

Dolan led most of the first half of the race after starting toward the front, and as most dirt racers will say, that can sometimes be a disadvantage. Cooney had the benefit of starting mid-pack, and was able to experiment with different lines by watching Dolan in front and trying something different in an effort to catch him.

He did just that, taking the lead just before halfway and stretched the lead out just a bit. But Dolan didn't get discouraged, changed his line, caught the No. 30 and the battle described before was on. Cooney said chasing Dolan down wore out his tires, and if he'd saved a little more he might have had the little bit he needed to hold off Dolan at the end.

'Starting on the front is a son-of-a-gun, because you don't know for sure what's going to happen,” Dolan said. 'The minute he passed me I regrouped.

'We were definitely banging off each other, but that's short track racing. He threw the slider on me; I threw it on him. I think what won it for me was I did the diamond (in Turns 3 and 4). I knew he was going to do the slider (in the final turn) because we'd done it three or four times.”

Dolan's win comes after a race week that started out as one he'd like to forget.

Frustrating runs at Quad City Speedway in East Moline, Ill., Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City (both Deery Brothers Summer Series events) and Saturday night at West Liberty Raceway made rebounding for a win even more special.

'We went to East Moline and didn't run good; bent a couple shocks. We went to Webster City and had a whole set of problems there. We got this car out, which we won here with in the spring, and ran it (Saturday) and were lost,” Dolan said. 'We tuned this thing all night long; changed things on the car every time we were on the track. It feels great to go from chasing your tail to winning. We're happy.”

In other racing action, Scott Hogan pulled away late in the IMCA Modified feature to get the win. Shane Ebaugh got the win in IMCA Stock Car after lapped traffic helped him get back around Scott Pippert and Damon Murty. Dakoda Sellers held off a furious charge from Cedar Rapids' Tony Olson to win IMCA Sport Mod. Don Erger got another win in BCS MicroMod. And Marengo's Nathan Ballard got win No. 19 of the season in IMCA Hobby Stock.

BENTON COUNTY SPEEDWAY TOP FIVE FINISHERS

IMCA LATE MODEL SUNDAY SERIES

1. 51 Ryan Dolan; 2. 30 Todd Cooney; 3. John Emerson; 4. 60 Ben Seeman; 5. 53 Darren Ackerman.

IMCA MODIFIED

1. 33d Scott Hogan; 2. 71c Troy Cordes; 3. 5r Bill Roberts; 4. 11b Mike Burbridge; 5. F7 Patrick Flannagan.

IMCA STOCK CAR

1. 14 Shane Ebaugh; 2. 99d Damon Murty; 3. 47 Scott Pippert; 4. 566 Jim Lynch; 5. 22k Kevin Rose.

IMCA SPORT MOD

1. 7d Dakoda Sellers; 2. T23 Tony Olson; 3. 22h Curt Hilmer; 4. 15b Troy Burkhart; 5. 3r Danny Dvorak.

IMCA HOBBY STOCK

1. 29 Nathan Ballard; 2. 45 Justin Wacha; 3. 4p Matt Pohlman; 4. 78 Matt Brown; 5. 19 Bill Bonnett.

BCS MICROMOD

1. 6e Don Erger; 2. 64 Matt Post; 3. 1r Russ Olson; 4. 5t Tyler Inman; 5. J111 Jason Hard.

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