TIPTON, Iowa — Tyler Erb kept his Lucas Oil MLRA record perfect on the season Thursday night, by winning the inaugural “Hawkeye Land 40” at Cedar County Raceway.
The win marks his second MLRA win of 2024 in as many starts.
Erb’s perfect night started off with him collecting a special $500 bonus for recording the night’s overall fast time, which he then followed up with a heat race victory to place him on the pole for the start of the 40 lapper.
As Erb led the field to the green flag, a major pile-up occurred in the middle of turn three as the field bunch up behind the front row starters.
The incident which brought the race to a stop involved nearly half of the field, but fortunately all but Jimmy Vanzandt were able to continue.
Alberson recorded his best MLRA finish of the season with a runner-up effort, while Heckenast Jr. capped off a strong podium run in third.
Tony Jackson Jr. and Chris Simpson completed the top five.
“Garrett was really good. When I got to lapped traffic, I was not running the top as hard as I possibly could have,” said Erb, who earned $5,000. “I saw Garrett underneath me a couple of times and I just knew I had to go and get clear of those lapped cars. It was a good car, I just had to make good decisions in traffic, and I was kind of fortunate they all were on the bottom, so it left the top wide open for me.”
The finish:
Feature (40 laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 3. 99F-Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 4. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[15]; 5. 32-Chris Simpson[14]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[4]; 7. 38T-Dylan Thornton[8]; 8. 25-Chad Simpson[17]; 9. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[10]; 10. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[5]; 11. 11-Jeff Herzog[3]; 12. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 13. 29D-Spencer Diercks[7]; 14. 78S-Steve Stultz[13]; 15. 22H-Dustin Hodges[11]; 16. 17-Tim Simpson[24]; 17. 25K-Bryan Klein[21]; 18. 99-Sawyer Specht[16]; 19. (DNF) 42-Johnathan Huston[12]; 20. (DNF) 15C-Curt Schroeder[20]; 21. (DNF) 44W-David Webster[23]; 22. (DNF) 10P-Paul Parker[19]; 23. (DNF) 07-Matt Ryan[18]; 24. (DNF) 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[22]