CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Defending ASA Midwest Tour champion Gabe Sommers held off a hard charging John Beale in the closing laps to win the Hawkeye 100 presented by Cassill Motors at Hawkeye Downs Speedway.
The Plover, Wis. driver picked up his first win of the season and hopes to repeat what he started last year, that is to defending his title.
“It feels good, we had a good car here last year and another good car this year. To be able to do that is real tough to do,” Sommers said after the race. “Have to thank to tour for coming here to Iowa, its a lot of fun.”
The event was broadcast live by SPEEDSPORT.tv affiliate MidwestTour.tv.
Sommers, who started seventh, ran in the top five most of the night slowly working his way to the front and was up to second by lap 47.
The only caution of the race flew on lap 57 when Bryan Syer-Keske spun in turns three and four. On the restart, Ty Fredrickson, who was leading prior to the caution, was able to get out ahead of Sommers for the top spot. 10 laps later, Sommers got by the 15-year-old rookie for the top spot.
Behind him, Beale made his charge to the front after starting eighth and falling back to 11th in the early going. As Sommers went to the lead, Beale went into the fourth position and continued his charge up to the front as he got to third on lap 77, then three laps later got by Fredrickson for the runner-up spot.
Beale would chase down Sommers, who had over a second lead, in the final laps to get to his rear bumper, but could never get by the defending winner and would on for the checkered flag.
“We were a little tight in the center and could get it to turn down in the middle which really helped Gabe out, and aero tight off, but we are happy with second,” Beale said smiling after the race. “You can’t be mad about that at an ASA Midwest Tour race.”
Kendrick Kreyer got by Ty Fredrickson with 13 laps to go to grab the final podium spot in his ASA Midwest Tour debut.
“It was a lot of fun, first time here at Hawkeye Downs as well. This track is a lot of fun,” Kreyer said. “It’s pretty special to end up in a podium in a race like this with all of the top dogs in the Midwest. A 100 laps taught me a lot about taking care of my tires a little bit more.”
Fredrickson held off a late charge from Kody King to finish fourth by a fender. Riley Stensen was sixth with Levon Van Der Geest in seventh. Joe Valento was eighth with Bryce Miller in ninth. Steve Seligman rounded out the top ten.
Syer-Keske held off Brent Edmunds to win the odd heat. Mondeik won the even heat.
Miller won the qualifier heat.
Beale set a fast time of 18.689 seconds and rolled a “one” for an eight car invert for the 100-lap event.