ARLO BECKER “SCHOOLS” FIELD ON BUS DRIVING
MCCALLA, HALE, DIGHTON AMONG OTHER WINNERS AT HAWKEYE DOWNS
By Brad Grupe

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (July 27) - Part of the object of racing is to have fun and there was plenty of that to go around at Hawkeye Downs Speedway on Friday night. Nine brave drivers signed in to pilot retired school buses around the Hawkeye Downs quarter-mile on Hawkeye International Trucks Night in front of the largest weekly crowd of the season.

After a couple preliminary heats earlier in the evening, eight drivers answered the initial call for the fifteen lap school bus feature. They soon found out they would be racing clockwise instead of counter-clockwise as pace car driver took an abrupt left turn while entering the quarter-mile.

Dave Coghlan had things well in hand for the first five laps when guest flagman Sonny Parker threw the yellow flag for a competition yellow, inverted the field and commanded them to reverse direction. Chaos ensued as the drivers turned their buses around. While that was happening, a ninth bus appeared from the pits, roared down the front stretch, stopped under the flagstand and tossed a Papa Johns Pizza and a Coke to Parker in the flagstand.

It seems that the bus was piloted by Papa John’s Pizza rep Mark Hauder. After the “delivery,” Hauder was mysteriously placed at the front of the field by guest flagman Parker and restarted the race from there.

When racing resumed, the next five laps saw three wide action, bump drafting, high-low moves and with five laps to go Scotty “OT Guppy” Welsh dumped the Department of Corrections Express on it’s side exiting turn three blocking the entire track.

Once the track was cleared and the race resumed, the last few laps developed into a battle between Arlo Becker and Dave McCalla with some lapped traffic thrown into the mix to keep things interesting. McCalla turned Becker almost sideways entering the final turn but Becker saved the bus and picked up what historians say was Becker’s first career school bus feature win.

Dave Coghlan, Sr. edged out McCalla for second while Ryan Schoop crossed the stripe in fourth and Shaun Myers finished fifth.

There was some more serious racing at ASA Sanctioned Hawkeye Downs Speedway on Friday night as well.

Dave McCalla of Cedar Rapids picked up his seventh feature win of the season in the Budweiser Sportsmen division.

In the early going, last week’s winner Michael Weber and Kevin Lee battled side- by-side for the lead before the two made just enough contact to send Weber
spinning into the wall in turn one and sent the rest of the field scrambling.

Some of the field was unable to continue when the race restarted with Dave McCalla now in front. None of the remaining eight cars had anything for McCalla as he cruised to an eventual winning margin of 4.297 seconds over Andy Duggan. Kevin Lee was third, Mel Schappert fourth and Mark Hauder was fifth.

In other Papa Johns Cup/I Wireless Championship action, future U of Iowa student Logan Hale recovered from a couple weeks of mechanical problems and won the 25-lap Barron Motor Supply IMCA Stock Car feature. Hale started outside the first row, took the lead from Dennis Hundley and was never
challenged the rest of the way. Doug Otto earned a second place finish followed by Kurt Bohnsack. Randy Filling was fourth and point leader Bob Ahrendsen
finished fifth.

Ron Dighton picked up his first win of the season in the Barron Motor Supply IMCA Hobby Stock feature. After starting in the third row, Dighton wrestled the lead from early leader Ron Fare and then held off Roland Bohnsack and Gary Pfantz to secure the win. Pfantz finished second after starting eighth and Bohnsack finished third after starting in the third row. Tim Dains and Dennis Klinksy also posted top five finishes.

The Sunline Hornets feature saw a member of the Chandler family in Coca- Cola Victory Lane yet again. This time Brad Chandler of Vinton brought home
the checkers finishing just ahead of Brian Beaty from Palo. The current point leader, Shaun Myers finished third while John Schroer was fourth after missing a couple weeks. Shane Hanson was fifth.

The IMCA Sportmods division has been a battle between Arnie Reif and Ryan Luedtke trying to catch point leader Tony Olson almost every week. Olson posted some wins early in the season and Reif and Luedtke have caught up in terms of number of wins but haven’t quite caught Olson yet- At least not until Friday night.

Reif pulled out the feature win Friday night which will now time him with Olson in the points chase as he finished two positions better than Olson. Finishing behind Reif was Brian Kauffman, then Olson was third, Luedtke fourth and Jason Doyle fifth.

Racing resumes Friday night August third with Performance Concepts Late Models, Miller Time Modifieds, Budweiser Sportsmen, Barron Motor Supply IMCA Stock Cars, Barron Motor Supply IMCA Hobby Stocks, Sunline Hornets and Go Karts
all in action.



FEATURE RESULTS
July 27, 2007

BUDWEISER SPORTSMEN (30 laps)
1. Dave McCalla, Cedar Rapids, IA; 2. Andy Duggan, Marion, IA; 3. Kevin Lee, Cedar Rapids, IA; 4. Mel Schappert, Cedar Rapids, IA; 5. Mark Hauder, Dubuque, IA; 6. Jon Leonard, Vinton, IA; 7. Michael Weber, Ryan, IA; 8. Jeff Franks, Rowley, IA; 9. Bob Ahrendsen, Cedar Rapids, IA; 10. Tom Burke, Ames, IA; 11. Martin Ballard, Marengo

BARRON MOTOR SUPPLY IMCA STOCK CARS (25 laps)
1. Logan Hale, Cedar Rapids, IA; 2. Doug Otto, Cedar Falls, IA; 3. Kurt Bohnsack, Iowa City, IA; 4. Randy Filling, Toddville, IA; 5. Bob Ahrendsen, Cedar Rapids, IA; 6. Dennis Hundley, Center Point, IA; 7. Mark Bolton, Cedar Rapids, IA; 8. Greg Hentrich, Hiawatha, IA; 9. Chad Siems, Marion, IA

BARRON MOTOR SUPPLY IMCA HOBBY STOCKS ( 25 laps)
1. Ron Dighton, Cedar Rapids, IA; 2. Gary Pfantz, State Center, IA; 3.Roland Bohnsack, Clutier, IA; 4. Tim Dains, Marion, IA; 5. Dennis Klinsky, Ely, IA; 6. Ron Fare, Cedar Rapids, IA; 7. Duayne Herb, Cedar Rapids, IA; 8. Scott Siems, Cedar Rapids, IA; 9. Rodney Grother, Cedar Rapids, IA; 10. Deb Mefford, Marion, IA; 11. Kris Jones, Cedar Rapids, IA; 12. Bill McVey, Cedar Rapids, IA; 13. Steve Wilhelm, Cedar Rapids, IA; 14. Malena Betzer, Cedar Rapids, IA

SUNLINE HORNETS
1. Brad Chandler, Vinton, IA; 2. Brian Beaty, Palo, IA; 3. Shaun Myers, Cedar Rapids, IA; 4. John Schroer, Marion, IA; 5. Shane Hanson, Cedar Rapids, IA; 6. Johnny Williams, Atkins, IA; 7. OT Guppy, Marion, IA; 8. Derek Parrott, Marion, IA; 9. Larry Wolfe, Cedar Rapids, IA; 10. Bryce Bailey, Cedar Rapids, IA; 11. Nathan Chandler, Cedar Rapids, IA; 12. Brian Sekafetz, Iowa City, IA; 13. Brian Bries, Norway, IA

IMCA SPORTMODS
1. Arnie Reif, Hiawatha, IA; 2. Brian Kauffman, Cedar Rapids, IA; 3. Tony Olson, Cedar Rapids, IA; 4. Ryan Luedtke, Norway, IA; 5. Jason Doyle, Cedar Rapids, IA

SCHOOL BUS
1 Arlo Becker,; 2. Dave Coghlan, SR.; 3. Dave McCalla; 4. Ryan Schoop; 5. Shaun Myers; 6. Mike Felske; 7. Brian Toma; 8. OT Guppy; 9. Mark Hauder