Rust goes from B-main to Victory Lane in Hawkeye Dirt Tour main event

VINTON — While lightning danced across the sky in three directions of Benton County Speedway, the field of IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modifieds danced around the ¼-mile oval.

Through some deep ruts and an overall challenging racing surface caused by a brief-but-fierce rain shower midway through the event, it was Grundy Center driver Joel Rust who had the best moves. Rust went from a B-main to Victory Lane, capturing his first Hawkeye Dirt Tour win and pocketing the $1,000 check.

'We had a tough deal in that heat race, but this car was more than good enough to get up there,' Rust said. 'Man, it was good. I just bided my time, and it worked out.

'I just told myself to calm down (throughout the race), and I knew it could end up good.'

Rust was forced to come from his B-main, last-chance-qualifying race after getting caught in an incident during his heat race. Even through a stacked field full of national and track champions, Rust used the track time from his B-main to his advantage.

Between the time the already-qualified cars had been on track for heat races and the main event, that brief rain shower soaked the track — which had to be reworked in. Having the knowledge of where the ruts were developing and negotiating the tractor tire that had been moved far out into Turn 1 (to cover up another deep rut) helped tremendously.

'I haven't run a lot of features at 40 laps, so I just kept telling myself to have patience,' Rust said. 'I knew we were good, I just wanted to bide my time. I knew the car was good on the bottom, and I didn't want to go anywhere else. I was just going to keep it there, and it ended up being a good spot.

Rust wasn't the only one who made moves around the rough spots and through traffic up to the front.

Des Moines' Todd Shute also had to come from a B-main, and also drove forward as the race progressed. While Rust worked that bottom lane he found so successful, Shute rode the cushion up top. But around halfway, Shute's left rear shock over-indexed, which kept the left rear fully extended on the four-bars and didn't allow the chassis and suspension to flex the way it normally would.

He still made it to second and had a shot at the lead through a pair of restarts, but the malfunction certainly affected the handling of the car. Whether or not it was the specific catalyst that kept him from winning, Shute wasn't sure.

'When that thing cams over, it puts a bunch of positive pinion angle in it, and the car can't move. There was a lot of things wrong, but hats off to (Rust), he drove a really good race,' Shute said. 'He got around me early there when I got caught up with some guys. I knew after one of the early cautions that we had something for these guys. The more we went, the better we got — until that thing cammed over on me. We just keep coming up short on these deals.

'I can't say really, if it was what kept us from winning. We had the car to beat, I think, but it's hard to say.'

Rust and Shute had to work their way around early race-leader Joe Docekal to eventually battle for the win. Docekal led for most of the first half of the race, battling with Kyle Brown and Zach Less in the opening stages.

Brown, who won the makeup main event and $1,000 earlier in the night, looked headed for the lead as cars approached halfway, but contact with Docekal cut his left rear, and sent him to the back after he stopped on track.

With the early favorite out of the picture, Rust had one less car to deal with as the race wore on. A driver who had many laps at Benton County Speedway in a Sport Mod returned in a Modified and took it to weekly and touring guys alike.

'We came down here a few times with the old Modified we had last year, and now we've got this new Rage car, and last night was our first night here to get some practice in. And (we found out) this car's real good,' Rust said. 'We're going to hit this Hawkeye Dirt Tour a lot now with this first one being a win. We're going to focus on that for sure.'

IMCA HAWKEYE DIRT TOUR MODIFIEDS

BENTON COUNTY SPEEDWAY TOP 5

1. 26j Joel Rust, Grundy Center; 2. 5 Todd Shute, Des Moines; 3. 8 Tony Snyder, Readlyn; 4. 1x Chris Abelson, Sioux City; 5. 12d Joe Docekal, Dysart

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