Carter is speedy in IMCA SportMod win at Benton County Urbana Five Memorial

Feature, Hobby Stock, Modified, Northern SportMod, Sport Compact, Stock Car

Always a force to be reckoned with, Brayton Carter returned to Benton County Speedway to win Sunday’s Urbana Five Memorial feature for Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods. He’d also topped the Bulling special in 2020. (Photo by Spencer Emley)

VINTON, Iowa (July 16, 2023) – Brayton Carter brought his ‘A’ game back to Benton County Speedway.

As a result, he took $2,000 home to Oskaloosa.

Carter reeled in cousin Dylan VanWyk, took the lead just after midway and outran Taylor Kuehl and hard chargers Matt Avila and Tony Olson in winning the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod feature, the nightcap for Sunday’s ninth annual Urbana Five Memorial special.

“We’re just good at endurance-type races like these and we were able to make the most of our opportunities on restarts,” the national points leader said following his 19th IMCA win of the season.

“To come here and support this race, and to be able to win it is huge,” he added. “It’s one of our top five races. We’ve been lucky and won it twice (previously in 2020) and both times it was exciting.”

Sam Wieben drew the pole start and led the first 11 caution-free circuits. VanWyk took charge, Carter took over second and Wieben took a ride off the track after contact with another car on the ensuing restart.

VanWyk and Carter battled bumper to bumper and side by side the next three times around the track, with Carter finally gaining the advantage. Kuehl chased him to the checkers, with 12th starting Matt Avila, 21st starting Tony Olson and Joe Docekal completing the top five.

The Urbana Five Memorial event honors the memory of five area youth who lost their lives in a traffic accident near Urbana in 2015 while promoting organ donation and awareness. Volunteers presented a check for $1,503 to a representative of the Iowa Donor Network during the evening.

Also taking home $2,000 checks were Friesen Performance IMCA Modified winner Todd Shute and IMCA Sunoco Stock Car winner Dallon Murty.

Career win number 98 in the division, and win number one at Vinton for Shute came in a flag-to-flag run at the front of the Modified field.

Three cautions sullied the first five circuits before the feature ended with 20 green flag laps. Eleventh starting Tripp Gaylord and 23rd starting Joel Rust were next across the stripe.

“We’ve been close here many times,” said Shute, already Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible. “We’ve wanted to win here for a long time and finally got it done.”

Murty was running a distant second to his father Damon – chasing his career 300th IMCA Stock Car win – and inherited the front spot when the senior Murty pulled into the infield with a broken fan blade.

Cautions slowed the last half of the 25-lapper but Dallon Murty, already guaranteed a starting spot in the B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational, denied 10th starting Kaden Reynolds and Garrett Corn the rest of the way.

Calvin Dhondt worked his way from fifth at the start to the lead – by the width of his bumper – following a midrace restart and topped the $1,000 to win feature for IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks. Bradly Graham was second, Joren Fisher third.

And Jake Benischek needed just three laps to race from ninth starting to the front, then held on through three late restarts in winning the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact feature and $500.

Second was Lukas Rick and Spencer Roggentien was third.

Michael Weber won the feature for visiting INEX Legends Cars.

The Urbana Five Memorial was broadcast by IMCA.TV.

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