(Mechanicsville, IA) – Mechanicsville’s Verlin Eaker was the first Iowan to win the prestigious World 100, winning the event in 1972.  That same year he won the inaugural Cornhusker Hawkeye Challenge. Verlin did try his hand at USAC and ARCA and even ran in a Daytona 125 qualifier. In 1971, he won the USAC 100-mile stock car event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. In 1978, Eaker won both the Yankee Dirt Classic at Cedar Rapids and the Midwest Dirt Track Championship at Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1979, he added the Miller 100 at Cedar Rapids to his list of laurels. Eaker was inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in 2007. Of all his wins, perhaps his victory in the inaugural Yankee Dirt Track Classic when he topped a field of nearly 70 late models from all around the country is most memorable. He held off Doug Kennimer from Dahlonega, Ga., for that victory in a race halted after 92 laps by a drenching rain.