DAVENPORT, Iowa (Sept. 28, 2024) – He’s been wrenching a lot more than he’s been racing again this season but Jeremiah Hurst still knows how to find the fastest way around the oval.
The Dubuque star led all 30 laps of the Dirt Stars main event for IMCA Sunoco Late Models Saturday night at Davenport Speedway, earning $3,000 for his first sanctioned win since 2019, the season after he reigned as national champion in the class.
“My brother Ian started racing four years ago and I’ve been helping him,” explained Hurst, who ran a Modified in the Clash on the Coast and had just a handful of starts before running fifth in the Friday show at Davenport. “The car was very, very good and I knew if I could get to the lead and get into lapped traffic, I’d be all right.”
Hurst took the initial green from inside row two and was quickly in front, staying on the inside line, catching up with the back of the pack by lap 18 and working through traffic.
Travis Denning, Matt Ryan, C.J. Horn and Cory Dumpert completed the top five.
“I’ve had a love, hate (relationship) with Davenport,” said Hurst, the winner in a car borrowed from Joel Callahan and with pit crew help from Stan Thomas. “It can be tough to get hold of sometimes but it’s fun when you get to race two or three-wide. I think they’ve been doing a phenomenal job with the track prep this year.”
Ethan Braaksma put the wraps on a phenomenal year of his own, leading all 20 laps of the $1,200 to win main event for Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds.
The win was his 17th of the season, a 180 degree turnaround from a zero win 2023 campaign.
“The car felt decent anywhere I went,” said Braaksma, fastest down low in the first set of turns and just as quick higher up on the track in the second set. “I just put the car where it felt best and it all worked out for us.”
Cody Laney started 10th and worked his way to second but Braaksma focused on hitting his marks after a late restart and crossed the stripe just less than a second ahead in putting his name of the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational eligible list.
Chris Zogg, Spencer Diercks and Charlie Mohr ran 3-4-5.
“We improved every night we raced. We got better and better every race, even if the results didn’t show it,” said Braaksma, who spent the final day of the point season relaxing and chasing the little white ball around Clermont’s Pleasant Valley Sports Club. “It was a fun year. We were able to go to a lot of different tracks and show that we were able to contend.”
His 17th Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature win of the season came Saturday at Davenport’s Dirt Stars special and paid Ethan Braaksma $1,200. (Photo by Nathan Truninger)
Other Saturday feature winners were Tyler Bannister in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods and Lukas Short in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks.
Friday checkers flew for Evan Miller in the Late Models, Matt Werner in the Modifieds, Logan Veloz in the Northern SportMods and Jordan Miles in the Hobbies.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.