Rece Beats Veterans For First Win at Hawkeye Downs
2024-06-09
Rece Beats Veterans For First Win at Hawkeye Downs
When Will Rece made the decision to come race the "Clash at the Downs X", it was so that he could seek redemtion from 2022 that saw him have issues early on in the event which relegated him to a 16th-place finish. Rece did not expect the redemption to come in the form of his first Big 8 Series feature win.
"I honestly thought if we made it out of here in one piece and had some fun that was good enough," Rece said after.
The night began with time trials, where Randy Sargent set fast time with a 19.600, which was just .005 faster than Griffin McGrath. Sargent started the feature 10th and ran up in the top-5 until his handling began to falter and he slid back to finish 8th.
Brandon Laing and Jon Reynolds Jr. started on the front row for the 48-lap feature with Rece, the eventual winner, starting 5th. Reynolds Jr battled on the outside of Laing for the first couple laps before Laing slid off turn two allowing Rece to take it three-wide to take over second.
With 38 to go, Rece arrived at the bumper of the leader, and one lap later Reynolds Jr slipped up allowing Rece to take over the lead. While positions two through seven were in a single file line, Rece pulled away to a 3 second advantage when the first yellow flew with 20 laps to go.
Just two laps later, Del Schuler and Joshua Lundy ended up together on the back stretch which brought out the second yellow, and luckily were able to continue on. Shortly after, both drivers retired their cars from the damage.
Riddle made the pass on the outside of Michael Bilderback shortly after the restart to take over the runner-up position. For a few laps, RIddle was able to take small bites out of the lead, but Rece was able to stretch his legs inside 10-to-go.
"We just needed a little more," Riddle said. "Just missed it a little bit but we are going home with a good car."
In the eight previous races at Hawkeye Downs, nobody has been able to win multiple times. That trend continued with Rece picking up the win, with the remaining top-five drivers being Riddle, Bilderback, Reynolds Jr., and Noah Eisenhower.
The next race of the Big 8 Series takes place on Friday, July 5th at Grundy County Speedway.
