PLOVER, WI – Gabe Sommers Racing made its much anticipated return to Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa last Saturday night. The flat half mile is the ASA Midwest Tour’s only stop in an otherwise dirt dominated region of the Midwestern United States, and makes for an always energetic crowd when the big boys roll into town for the Hawkeye 100. As the defending winner of the event in 2023, Gabe and the crew had their sights set on a successful defense of the trophy.
Practice kicked off with ease, as Gabe set down a lap time of 18.993 seconds, good enough to take second place on the time charts in the opening round with an average lap speed of 94.77 miles per hour. Not totally satisfied with their racecar, the Travis Sauter led crew got feedback from Gabe on the platform and handle of his No. 15 Ford, looking for some more long run stability first and foremost, even if it meant sacrificing a little bit of fire off speed. The second and final practice session saw Sommers slip to fifth of nineteen on the leaderboard, making just two laps before retiring from the session, evidently ready to move forwards to qualifying.
Time trials kicked off with a live look in for the fans on facebook from Track TV, and GSR fans from all over the country got to watch as Gabe slotted his machine into the second spot and the invert for the Hawkeye 100 with a 18.837 second lap, and an average lap speed of 95.56 miles per hour. As always, GSR would spend their time in their assigned heat race well off the pack and out of any potential danger, using the laps to get a feel for the changing track conditions as dusk began to fall over the speedway.
Nighttime would blanket the speedway in dancing shadows underneath Hawkeye Downs’ state of the art lighting system as the ASA Midwest Tour field prepared to take the green. Gabe would strap in and roll off from the seventh position after the invert shook up the top eight qualifiers. Not one to waste time, often lamenting “if I have to save in a one hundred lap race, I didn’t make the car good enough”, Sommers would immediately set off and get to work on the drivers in his windshield, making his way inside the top five by lap 8/100. From there it was all about moving forward while keeping the nose clean, and making the most of every slip up by the cars in front of him. Gaining spots on laps 14 and 24 put Sommers into a podium spot, but he was far from finished with his march to the front. Dealing with a sprinkling of cautions also seemed to better the handle on the No. 15 Ford, as he climbed into the runner up position just before the halfway mark. Now stalking the leader, Gabe would wait patiently for his opportunity. On lap 66, it appeared. Moving to the point, Sommers would put it into high gear and run away from the field, fending off late challenges to go back to back in Cedar Rapids, bringing home the big check and a shiny new trophy. With a fresh head of steam,
Gabe and his GSR team will roll into Madison International Speedway on Friday, August 23 for the Howie Lettow Classic 100. You can tune in live on Track TV or purchase tickets at the speedway gates. Qualifying will roll off at 6:15 PM, with racing to follow at 7:30.