TIPTON, Iowa — Bakersfield, Calif., and Tipton, Iowa, may be worlds apart, but don’t tell that to Ethan Dotson. The California racer put it to the local drivers at Modified Madness, held Friday at Cedar County Raceway.
The feature race started with Delhi, Iowa driver Mark Schulte taking the lead from the pole. Schulte held the lead through the first 10 circuits and a rash of caution flags. Troy Cordes then took the point and held it for a handful of laps. Schulte regained the lead until the caution flag flew again with five laps to go.
On the restart, Dotson went to the high side and with three laps remaining, passed Schulte on the backstretch. Dotson led the rest of the way to the checkers and claimed the $2,000 top prize.
Schulte finished second, with Cordes third. Fellow California racer Cody Laney took fourth. Mike Burbridge completed the top five.
Tyler Soppe led flag to flag in the SportMod portion of the program. Gage Neal made it a close race, getting to Soppe’s rear bumper. However Neal would have to settle for second, followed by Aaron Mitchell, Austin Heacock and Jacob Arp in that order.
Joe Zrostlik, doing double-duty, won the stock car feature over Matt Picray and Chase Zaruba.
Steven Struck rolled to victory in the 4-Stock main. Zrostlik finished second. Cyle Hawkins, Ryan Havel, and Brandon Cruise finished third through fifth, respectively.
Midwest Jalopies were the guest class for the evening. Chuck Gerard scored the feature win with a late race pass for the lead. Early race leader Jeff Blunt held on for second. Kurt Zimmerman was third.