VINTON, Iowa – The third time was a charm Sunday night for Jeff Larson.
The Freeport, Ill., driver made the third visit of his IMCA modified career to Benton County Speedway and won for the first time at Vinton, taking the $2,000 checkers on Michael & Dowd Night at The Bullring.
Larson stayed on the higher groove throughout the 25-lapper after passing pole starter Lucas Lamberies on the second circuit. He outran Cayden Carter following restarts on laps seven and 18.
Carter, Richie Gustin, Ethan Braaksma and Joel Rust completed the top five.
“I don’t like running inside so drawing the outside front row (start) helped,” said Larson, already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot. “It means a lot for me to be able to win tonight – I don’t usually beat these guys. I usually finish top five.”
Larson was already pulling away from the rest of the field when the first caution flew and was a lapped car ahead of Carter when the second yellow came out. Carter tried to catch up on the high side before midway; Gustin took over third for good on lap 13.
Carter already had two spring Frostbuster wins to his credit coming into the night, while Braaksma was the Saturday winner at Boone.
Hard charger Tim Ward started 23rd and finished eighth.
Other Frostbuster wins went to Jay Schmidt in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, Brayton Carter in the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods and Kaden Reynolds in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks. All three of those features ran caution-free.
Schmidt chased down Kevin Rose six laps in and won ahead of eighth-starting Dallon Murty and early leader Rose.
Brayton Carter had chased Brandon Tharp for 13 laps, then got around the leader and a lapped car the final time around, earning a $150 bonus for taking the lead on the last lap. Tony Olson ran third.
Reynolds, also the winner of the Marshalltown Frostbuster, led every lap of the Hobby Stock main. Luke Ramsey was second and third was Aaron Martin.
Logan Clausen won his second career start on dirt, leading Ashley Reuman and James Haring across the stripe in the Mach-1 Sport Compact feature.
The finish:
1. Jeff Larson; 2. Cayden Carter; 3. Richie Gustin; 4. Ethan Braaksma; 5. Joel Rust; 6. Spencer Diercks; 7. Jake McBirnie; 8. Tim Ward; 9. Sam Wieben; 10. Shane DeVolder; 11. Lucas Lamberies; 12. Mark Schulte; 13. Ryan Duhme; 14. Randy Brown; 15. Jerry Dedrick; 16. Patrick Flannagan; 17. Chris Snyder; 18. Derrick Stewart; 19. Tyler Droste; 20. Justin McCreadie; 21. Dylan Thornton; 22. Jed Freiburger; 23. Troy Cordes; 24. Jeremy Richey.