Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Probst the Big Winner at Spencer

Monday night, June 26th, It was "Monday Night Madness" at the Clay County Speedway in Spencer. Normally now a Sunday night track in 2017, the Fair Board has scheduled a few midweek shows at the Fairgrounds when they have special events targeted for a specific class while also running the other classes in their normal program.

Monday night there were actually three classes running for extra money as the Hobby Stocks were racing for a grand to win, the Modifieds were also racing for a grand and the Sport Mods had a top check of five hundred dollars waiting for them. The Sport Compacts and Stock Cars were presumably racing for their normal weekly purse while awaiting their special events which are upcoming.

Actually, Monday night was just the opening volley in what will be a very busy week for racers in Western Iowa and particularly the Hobby Stock drivers. Monday was opening night of the "Sizzling Summer Speedweeks" with thousand dollar to win shows slated Monday at Spencer, Wednesday at Alta, Thursday at Algona and Saturday at Fairmont(technically not in Western Iowa). And not included in this schedule is the big Salute to Veterans race on Tuesday night in Britt where the Hobby Stocks are racing for eighteen hundred dollars to win as a part of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds where that class is going for over three grand. All classes are also racing on all these nights so you can see its a huge week for racers in this area.

Interestingly, until less than a week ago, I didn't even know that this Monday night show was taking place. Originally it was scheduled to be run on Tuesday but when track officials discovered that Britt was also racing, they decided that in everyone's best interests it would be better to find a different date. So, with some clever thinking, they came up with the Monday night show which made a big week even bigger and a potential bonanza for the drivers. Curiously, Britt didn't tag along with the other tracks on advertising for this series, but the drivers were probably most concerned that the events weren't being run on top of each other.

There must be something special about the dates of this week as Webster City also had a two day Stock Car and B Mod special planned for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week but with all the clutter going on, Todd Staley did reschedule that event for August.

Eighty three cars signed in for the five classes racing including thirty two Hobby Stocks for the grand and a season high twenty Modifieds also going for a grand. This week long series was attractive enough to draw three Hobby Stocks who towed all the way from Kansas to race including Cody Williams, Tathan Burkhart and Eric Cross.

I have had the pleasure of attending races a couple of times at the Clay County Speedway in Spencer and it is a very fine facility with great seating and lighting for the drivers. The pits are a little cramped but everyone makes due and rolling the cars out on the stage past the main grandstand as they enter the track is a very cool entrance procedure.

The only thing that concerns me is how exposed the flagman  is and potentially how unsafe his position is. All that protects him is a low wall that could easily be jumped by any class car and he has no screen, shield or anything else to help him ward off flying objects. The starter on this night was highly regarded Grant Ostvig and he made it through the night unscathed but this track remains just one freaky circumstance away from a real tragedy. Seriously, they really need to revisit where and how they have their starter placed.

Calling the action on this night was replacement announcer Steve Zwemke, the regular announcer at Alta and Worthington. Steve drives all the way over from South Dakota to call the action and has been a long time friend.

Surprisingly, this fine facility with seating for thousands under either a covered grandstand or in an open one(your choice), doesn't have a scoreboard and that seems to be the only thing missing from what is otherwise a top notch facility. Of course, they haven't been running a weekly program for that many years and are still searching for their niche in terms of what is the best night for them to be racing. And in this area of limited populations, there are an awful lot of race tracks all trying to make a go of things. It can't be easy.

The most disappointing thing of the night was the track condition. When I looked at it early, it looked a little dry but not bad. However, when I headed to the grandstand for hot laps, I was shocked to see that they had "souped" the track up really bad and racing certainly wouldn't be starting on time. They had many packing vehicles working the track including one that I can't even begin to describe. My best guess; a huge propane tank mounted vertically on wobble wheels with a wing attached to it!  Seriously!

But even more important than the late start that the overly watered track caused, was that it negatively affected the racing all night. It was tough to get more than one lane for racing no matter how hard they tried to pack in the high side and it rolled up into a big berm that was tough to straddle. The racing was fast, and it certainly was exciting but for most of the night the vast majority of the track couldn't be used and most were banging on each other to get to the low side.

Speaking of intense racing, the first three Hobby Stock heat races all saw the black flag used by Ostvig for rough driving. That kind of set the tone for the night. Most spectacular was Cody Nielsen who was turned around in the final corner of his heat race while battling for the lead. Despite the fact that he had a flat tire, he slammed his car into reverse and roared across the finish line going backward at high speed. This move earned him the fifth position in his heat instead of just stopping and sulking about his bad luck. His "heads up" move would allow him to later win the B Feature and after starting seventeenth in the main, he would come home third. How about that?

According to Zwemke, both Matt Looft and Ricky Stephan would come into Monday night's action with ninety nine IMCA feature wins but neither would score that big victory they were looking for. Coincidentally, both would end up fourth in their respective mains.

In the featured event, Cory Probst would make a great move to come from the second row into the lead early and then he would weather five yellow flags to take the fifteen lap main. He was challenged several times on restarts, but each time he would pull away and at the end, it was Brandon and Cody Nielsen chasing him across the line.

When I saw the lineup for the Modifieds, it figured it was not premature to write the check immediately. Kelly Shryock started on the pole and he wasted no time taking the lead. Once in front, he never truly was pressured as he topped Travis Hatcher and Mike Jergens in the "screaming banana."

Clay Evans came from the third row to win the Sport Mod feature as he was strong to fight off point leader Zech Norgaard.

The big news in the Sport Compacts was that Nate Coopman actually lost a feature race! He's probably up close to triple digits in wins already this year but Monday Tyler Thompson got a good head start on Nate, and by the time Coopman came up from tenth, he didn't have enough time to catch the leader.

The Stock Car feature saw Randy Brands and Justin Nehring go at in a class that could have used a a few more cars. Still, they put on a good race that went right down to the wire before Brands claimed the win.

It was an interesting racing program and an enjoyable one also. It did get done just a bit late for a Monday at around 10:45 pm. but that forty five minutes was just the amount of time that they started late due to the extra track packing needed and frequent quick packing sessions that took place between races. Thanks to everyone at the Clay County Fair Board and the people at the track organizing and putting on the show. 

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