BECKER, KING, BALLARD, BRING HOME OPENING NIGHT HARDWARE AT HAWKEYE DOWNS SPEEDWAY
DVORAK, DAINS, WILLIAMS PAY VISITS TO VICTORY LANE ALSO
by: Brad Grupe

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA April 28, 2006) - The 2006 season at Hawkeye Downs Speedway kicked off in fine fashion Friday night with old and new faces and cars filling the pits as 98.1 KHAK presented the opening night of the 81st season of racing..

The evening started off with a bang as Landon Cassill of Fairfax unofficially shattered the Performance Concepts ASA Late Models track record, cranking out a lap of 18.499 seconds around the half-mile. That time translates to just over 97 mph.

Arlo Becker, Norway, left little doubt that he was back in top form winning the first Miller Time Modified feature of the season. Becker was involved in an accident late last season which destroyed his modified and left him with bumps and bruises.

Becker started inside the second row in the 25-lap feature, quickly bolted into the lead, and then held off repeated challenges from defending champion Tim Plummer to take the checkers. Plummer settled for second after trying everything to get around the cagey veteran Becker. Rodney Rocarek crossed the Coors Light Finish Line in third while Chad Willett and Jim Hanson
finished fourth and fifth respectively.

A mere 6 one-thousandths of a second represented the difference between first and second place in the Performance Concepts ASA Late Model feature. The race was a dead heat by the human eye but the electronic transponder timing and scoring system declared Jeff King of Cedar Rapids the winner over Landon Cassill of Fairfax in front of a wildly cheering crowd.

King started the 25-lap feature on the point and then held off repeated challenges for the lead from Cassill. Cassill tried high and low moves for the lead and pulled alongside in the final lap but King had just enough to edge out Cassill. The driver with the best view of the action was no doubt third-place finisher Curtis VanDerWal of Oskaloosa. Kyle Hinrichs finished in fourth while newcomer Craig Roberts finished fifth.

The Budweiser Sportsmen feature also showcased some great side-by-side racing as Martin Ballard and Dave McCalla traded the lead back and forth before Ballard prevailed. Ballard started up front but McCalla ran his trademark high
line and the two swapped positions several times as the laps ticked off. McCalla lost the handle a bit at one point but battled back to again challenge for the win in the final laps.

Andy Duggan finished third while Kevin Lee and Ross Zumbach rounded out the top five finishing slots. Zumbach, who hails from Racine, Minnesota returns to Hawkeye Downs after running a Legends car a few years ago.

Brad Dvorak made the first of what he hopes will again be many appearances in Victory Lane winning the first feature of the year in the Barron Motor Supply IMCA Stock Car division.

Dvorak started inside the second row and took the lead from Greg Hentrich on the fourth trip around the quarter-mile. Bob Ahrendsen moved into the fray as the final laps wound down but Dvorak prevailed. Randy Filling took home third place in the twenty-lap feature with Logan Hale and Hentrich completing the top of the order.

Tim Dains of Marion became the first winner of the season in the Barron Motor Supply IMCA Hobby Stocks, winning both his heat and the 15-lap feature for the division. Dains finished ahead of Rodney Grother, Terry Shaffar, Kandi Floyd, and new driver Gary Phantz of State Center.

Creston Williams of Atkins won a wild Sunline Hornets feature holding off a persistent Brian Beatty. Nathan Ballard, Derrick Beadle, and Roy Parker crossed the stripe behind Beatty.

Racing returns to the speedway Friday night with all divisions in action on Hustler Turf Equipment night.

RESULTS
SUNLINE HORNETS
Heat- 1. Brian Beaty, Palo; 2. Creston Williams, Atkins; 3. Roy Parker, Marion; 4. Nathan Ballard, Marengo; 5. Derrick Beadle, Hiawatha; 6. Brad Fisher, Solon; 7. Connie Binder, Clutier; 8. Jeff Ballard, Marengo

Feature-( 12 laps) 1. Williams; 2.Beaty; 3. Nathan Ballard; 4. Beadle; 5. Parker; 6. Fisher; 7. Binder; 8. Jeff Ballard

BARRON MOTOR SUPPLY IMCA HOBBY STOCKS
Heat 1- 1. Tim Dains, Marion; 2. Rodney Grother, Cedar Rapids; 3. Perry Thomsen, Cedar Rapids; 4. Joe Sprague, Independence; 5. Chad Vozenilek, Cedar Rapids; 6. Matt Lacoursiere, Cedar Rapids; 7. Ron Fare, Cedar Rapids

Heat 2- 1. Deb Mefford, Marion; 2. Scott Siems, Cedar Rapids; 3. Terry Shaffar, State Center; 4. Jeremy Floyd, Cedar Rapids; 5. Gary Phantz, State Center; 6. Dwayne Herb, Marion; 7. Kandi Floyd, Cedar Rapids

Feature (15 laps)- 1. Dains; 2. Grother; 3. Shaffar; 4. Kandi Floyd; 5. Pfantz; 6. Siems; 7. Herb; 8. Mefford; 9. Thomsen; 10. Jeremy Floyd; 11. Sprague; 12. Fare; 13. Vozenilek; 14. Lacoursiere

BARRON MOTOR SUPPLY IMCA STOCK CARS
Heat 1- 1. Brad Dvorak, Cedar Rapids; 2. Logan Hale, Cedar Rapids; 3. Seth Thomas, Center Point; 4. Chad Siems, Marion; 5. Daniel Thompson, Cedar Rapids; 6. Wendy Carnahan, Cedar Rapids

Heat 2- 1. Kurt Bohnsack, Iowa City; 2. Bob Ahrendsen, Cedar Rapids; 3. Randy Filling, Toddville; 4. Greg Hentrich, Hiawatha; 5. Dennis Hundley, Center Point; 6. Doug Otto, Cedar Falls

Feature(20 laps) 1. Dvorak; 2. Ahrendsen; 3. Filling; 4. Hale; 5. Hentrich; 6.
Hundley; 7. Siems; 8. Otto; 9. Bohnsack; 10. Thomsen; 11. Thompson; 12. Carnahan

BUDWEISER SPORTSMEN
Heat- 1. Brian Franks, Central City; 2. Andy Duggan, Marion; 3. Dave McCalla, Cedar Rapids; 4. Bob Ahrendsen, Cedar Rapids; 5. Martin Ballard, Marengo; 6. Kevin Lee, Cedar Rapids; 7. Ross Zumbach, Racine, MN; 8. Joey King, Silvis, IL;
9. Sonny Parker, Cedar Rapids

Feature (25 laps) 1. Ballard; 2. McCalla; 3. Duggan; 4. Lee; 5. Zumbach; 6.
Franks; 7. Ahrendsen; 8. King; 9. Parker

MILLER TIME MODIFIED
Heat 1- 1. Chad Willett, Alburnett; 2. Tim Plummer, Norway; 3. Rodney Rocarek, Mt. Vernon; 4. Griffin McGrath, Cedar Rapids; 5. Aric Becker, Cedar Rapids; 6. Darrall Long, Cedar Rapids

Heat 2- 1. Arlo Becker, Norway; 2. Shawn Stinger, Palo; 3. Jim Hanson, Cedar Rapids; 4. Scott Strauss, Cedar Rapids; 5. Craig Bender, Cedar Rapids; 6. Steve Lindell, Marion
 

Feature (25 laps) 1. Arlo Becker; 2. Plummer; 3. Rocarek; 4. Willet; 5. Hanson; 6. McGrath; 7. Stinger; 8. Aric Becker; 9. Bender; 10. Strauss; 11. Long; 12. Lindell

PERFORMANCE CONCEPTS LATE MODELS
Qualifying – 1. Landon Cassill, Fairfax 18.499(new track record); 2. Scott Wennermark, Cedar Rapids 18.688; 3. Kyle Hinrichs, Swisher 18.859; 4. Jeff King, Cedar Rapids 18.915; 5. Craig Roberts, Des Moines 19.100; 6. Curtis VanDerWal, Oskaloosa 19.129

Feature (25 laps) 1. King; 2. Cassill; 3. VanDerWal; 4. Hinrichs; 5. Roberts; 6. Wennermark