A rare Monday and Tuesday doubleheader was scheduled for the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Iowa on the first two day of August. Participating were the IMCA classes that race at Donnellson which would be the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Sport Compacts along with the Lee County Late Models.
It is hard to believe that we are already turning the calendar over to the month of August which means that we have just one more full month of racing before the special events and end of the year classics besiege us.
With the unique format of this event supported by many sponsors, all of the four major classes were all racing for a grand to win with only the Sport Compacts running for somewhat less.
I believe that this event was also designed to showcase the new Lee County Late Model class started this year which features some combined runs which are supposed to allow drivers from several different sanctioning bodies and rules packages all be able to run competitively. However, after a strong middle part of the season, the numbers have started to drop in the class locally, perhaps due to the same syndrome that seems to strike most of racing during the "dog days" of Summer.
There was a mix of rules packages though as one IMCA car was on hand with the rules for this week not requiring them to make any changes while there were also two Grand Nationals from Nebraska and one UMP Pro Late Model from Illinois.
The Pro Late Model was driven by Brad Denney from Canton Illinois who was on hand along with his frther Morrey. They also co-own the Spoon River Speedway in Illinois, a track that rules UMP rules for most of their classes although their B Mod class is unsanctioned because of rear suspension rules.
In talking with the Denney's, it was interesting to get their perspective on how racing was going in Illinois this year. Most of the same issues facing tracks and promoters elsewhere are being seen by them including spotty car counts and uneven attendance, along with tracks trying to "pirate" drivers. They came to Donnellson just to have a few days of fun with the hopes that they could be competitive. All the Pro Late Models run crate motors and they had a 604 crate motor in their car.
The pits was slow to fill on Monday night, as I suppose it should be since most of the drivers on hand are working guys trying to put in a full day of work before heading to the track. However, by race time the last minute rush had produced a good field of almost one hundred cars in the five classes that raced.
The big winner of the night was Stock Car driver Mike Hughes. Not only did he win the Stock Car feature, he also won the Shootout event left over from a previous combined special at Oskaloosa and Donnellson that saw more rain than racing.
Jeremy Pundt led most of the Stock Car feature until Hughes was able to get under him in turn four and take over the lead with just a few laps let. He then came back to dominate the Shootout, leading all laps in front of a small field for this event as many who had qualified for it failed to avoid problems in the Stock Car feature or were just plain absent on this night. The Stock Car feature was a smooth affair that went green to checkered.
The Late Model feature proved to be another smooth event with another green to checkered race that Sam Halstead dominated from start to finish while a good three car battle for second saw Jay Johnson get the $200 bonus for the highest finishing IMCA car. Earlier in one of the heats, one of the hardest hits of the year took place when a couple of cars banged wheels exiting turn two and Colby Springsteen flew into the guard rail before he could even begin to get his foot to the brake pedal. The hit was almost head on and the damage was substantial as it looked like the whole car got shortened but he was able to exit under his own power.
The biggest field of the night was in the Sport Mods who needed a B feature to settle the last qualifiers. It was also the "clunk" event of the night as it was plagued by multiple yellow flags with the number nearly hitting double figures. Jim Gillenwater drove from the fifth row, helped by the numerous shuffling of positions caused by the yellow flag fever, but he earned the win, if for no other reason, than to be able to keep his cool and continue to be consistent with so many slow downs. Brett Lowry gave him a strong challenge in the late going too.
The Sport Compacts ran a smooth and what appeared to be uneventful race as Michael Grossman led from start to finish and happily took the victory lane honors. However, this race was settled in the tech shed where Grossman was disqualified for an illegal motor(that's a pretty broad category, by the way) and Josh Barnes became the winner by default.
The Modifieds may have presented the best main event of the night, although they had their issues too with five yellows in twenty five laps. Veteran Bruce Hanford led for most of the race with Scott Dickey and the Gustin brothers challenging him. Eventually it was up to Richie Gustin, who was working the outside, to try and get Hanford.
Bruce had a handsome lead until a late yellow cost him nearly a straightaway lead and the restart killed him as Gustin got a great run on the start and the three lap sprint to the finish went to Richie over the obviously disappointed Hanford.
The track was in good shape for the program despite the heat and humidity and early threat of rain and there was much passing, lots of two groove racing and very little dust. It would have been nice to see the grandstand a little more packed but it was a Monday night after all and the hard core fans all found a way to get there.
Ken Schrader was on hand to race his Modified and he had one of his better runs in his IMCA car as he came from thirteenth to fifth at the finish. As is the case for his shorter trips, he brought the race car on an open ramp truck, retro style.
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