Hawkeye Downs drivers adjust to first night of high heat, humidity

CEDAR RAPIDS - With ice packs in his fire suit, Braxton Franks relearned how to drive his car.

Thanks to high heat and humidity Friday night, in the middle of the race, Franks said he had to adjust his lines, his driving, and just about every other part of what goes into driving a racecar.

The Cedar Rapids-based racer said the temperatures in the car get to twice that in the stands, necessitating the ice packs. In the tech barn after the race, Franks held an ice pack to his forehead.

As for the track, Franks said he slid.

'The heat and humidity made the track real slick,” he said. 'It's kind of challenging. You've got where to run, who's around you, just be aware of your surroundings.

'When we started last year, my dad told me I've got to learn how to drive the car differently according to the track, just kind of adjust to it, let the car do what it did. It felt good,” said Franks, the runner up in the Anderson Automotive Hobbystock division.

Other drivers echoed Franks. Griffin McGrath, who won both the makeup late model feature from the May 27 rainout, and the regularly scheduled late model feature later in the evening, said he also adjusted how he drove.

McGrath and Brody Willett battled for the win in the first late model race. McGrath passed Willett with six laps to go and drove to the win.

'The cars are sliding around a lot, not getting very much grip,” McGrath said. 'You're going to see mistakes being made, but that makes it fun. If everyone's hooked up and going real fast it's hard to pass. Everybody's sliding around and the driver has to put a lot of it on his shoulders.”

Few mistakes were made, however. The late models ran both feature races clean and green, and no major wrecks occurred throughout the program, save for the occasional spin on the track or run in the infield.

Most of the drivers said the biggest impact on the racing was the heat. Tempers were kept to a minimum, and the racing was of a high quality.

The Mountain Dew Sportsmen race did end with a calamity. Jimmy Hanson spun Greg Hentrich's car and crossed the line first.

However, Hanson was disqualified for the rough driving and the 35 car did not cross the finish line. As a result, the third-place car of Kevin Franks took the win in a car he said had added cross to hold tight to the bottom of the track in the turns.

'That's normally not what we do,” Kevin Franks said. 'Tonight, like I said, the track was so slick, we had to drive a completely different style.”