It took four tries, but the Hamilton County Speedway was finally able to get in at least one night of the Boone River Bayou on Wednesday night, June 27th. Originally scheduled for the 19th and 20th of the month, the whole program was backed up one week by heavy rains in central Iowa.
Then, on its second try on Tuesday the 26th, once again it rained. Co-Promoter Todd Staley told me that last week they actually could have raced on Thursday but by then they had to make the call to postpone the whole event. Then, yesterday it didn't rain nearly as much as last week but it was more of the slow, soaking kind of rain and there was no way that racing could have been held of Tuesday. Of course, after it stopped raining it turned into perhaps the most gorgeous night of the early Summer and Staley was even able to get out of the golf course on Tuesday night.
So, the Boone River Bayou turned into a one night event this year, held on Wednesday and featuring the bigger second day payoff that the event had promised. By the way, the Boone River , which runs right behind the back chute of the Hamilton County Speedway was lapping at the tires of the maintenance vehicles parked outside the track and it wouldn't take much more in the way of rain before the back chute would be underwater. Fortunately, hot but dry weather is in the forecast for central Iowa for the next few days as the whole region needs to dry out.
It was an extremely "sticky" evening on Wednesday and if the fans and pit personal can stand it, this kind of weather is a beautiful thing for the race track as was shown Wednesday with a top notch track where drivers could run side by side and passing was certainly not hard. Good reports have been coming out of Hamilton County is recent weeks about the good racing surface and it was again very nice on Wednesday. Comparing it to most big half miles, there was much more close action than usually seen and Brad Radcliffe, who is in charge of track prep, is the man currently getting the credit. Of course, if he screws up one week there will be those that want to hang him from the city water tower, but such is the nature of the beast in this sport.
As a special promotion, the first thirty spectators in line when the gates opened on Wednesday would get in absolutely free and folks started lining up in the heat and humidity before 3 pm. One of those in line was Iowa icon, "Crazy Martin."
Big money was on the line for the drivers on Wednesday with the Stock Cars running for twenty five hundred dollars to win, the B Mods two grand and even the Hobby Stock winner would receive twelve hundred bucks. That's why I was surprised that the field of cars wasn't any larger than it was. Perhaps the rain out on Tuesday kept some from long distance from driving for just the one day show and there were two other Wednesday night tracks in action on this night, but it still seemed like there should have been more cars on hand then there were.
Not that the fields weren't acceptable but fields of twenty one, twenty five and thirty respectively were somewhat smaller than I would have guessed. Heat races using passing points set the fields with B Features required(perhaps) in the B Mods and Stock Cars.
The boss here at Positively Racing would have been livid when a seven car field of B Mods fought for six spots in the main. Fortunately track officials released what they had going and they cut the laps in half to five while the Stock Cars had a legitimate field of thirteen going for six spots also.
no break was taken and as soon as the B Features were completed, the first of four main events hit the track.
The Tuners were up first with twelve cars racing and as usual, Nate Coopman just motored around trying to make it look like a race until the two to go signal was given and then he stepped on the gas and drove away from Denny Berghahn for another easy win. Coopman, who wore out his welcome with IMCA is now beating on the competition at USRA tracks begging the question, will he be a career Tuner driver or will he ever move up and how much fun can it be to beat on the competition, week after week?
Eric Stanton started on the pole for the Hobby Stock feature and that made him the prohibitive favorite. He probably would have come through on that set up except for a mechancial issue that saw him shut his car down while in the lead one lap past the halfway point.
After that, the race was wide open with Chanse Hollatz taking the lead on the restart and holding off a stiff challenge from Miles Michehl , Dillon Nelson and Dustin Gulbrandson. They, along with Jamie Songer did a lot of jockeying for position while Hollatz continued to maintain the lead to the checkered flag in a race slowed three times for minor issues.
The twenty five car B Mod feature race was a good one that highlighted a two car battle between Ty Griffith and Cayden Carter. Carter was driving the #01 of his brother Brayden and I was not aware that he even drove the B Mods any more but here he was on Wednesday.
Griffith started on the pole and Carter to his right and they spent most of the race battling for the lead. Griffith was running the low line around the track while Carter was spraying the mud as he rode the outside guard rail. Time after time Carter would pull up to pass but just couldn't quite get the job done.
At about the three quarter mark of the race the #56 car seemed to get a bit loose in the corners and while Carter actually dropped to the bottom for a time , experimenting with that line, he eventually moved back to the top and drove past the former leader down the front chute to take over the point and he then held on through a late yellow to get the win.
At the end of the race, Jared Boumeester made a move and took over second, dropping Griffith to third. Big charges were made by Jake Sachau(eighteenth to fourth) and Johnathan Logue Jr(fifteenth to fifth).
This class was run with each group running their own rules as a nonsanctioned event with the IMCA cars using their spoilers and Hoosier tires while the USRA car ran sans spoiler and on American Racers. It's a good thing that a nice field of the IMCA cars invaded as thirteen of the starting field were on Hoosiers and four out of the top five, minus Griffith, were all running the IMCA spoilers.
Twenty four Stock Cars started their thirty lap main event and if not for a yellow flag, Brett Heeter might have run away with the show. He started on the outside pole and was a "rocket ship" at the beginning, pulling to nearly a full straightaway ahead of the field as Zevenbergen and Derek Green tried to stay with him.
However, things changed following the yellow as Zevenbergen and Green were all over him and a good, three battle broke out for the lead. As they raced for the top spot, Cayden Carter quietly moved his way forward, never being "showy" but being very effective as he worked the low side of the track and moved up into a challenging position.
Things got hot up front as Green made a slider to try and take over the lead but at the same time Zevenbergen made his own move, splitting the other two and taking over the top spot. Elijah then pulled away slightly from the pack while Carter started to work on Heeter for second. It took a bunch of laps but Cayden was finally able to move into second and he then set off after the #66z car.
The last fourteen laps of the feature ran off nonstop and Zevenbergen had a head of steam and while Carter was able to cut into his lead slightly, he was never able to offer a serious challenge and the northwestern Iowa star drove home to the win. Late in the race, Mitch Hovden and Dillon Anderson both made strong moves and worked into the top five at the finish.
Promoter Todd Staley still races his Stock Car at events like this and I always get just a bit nervous when the promoter is racing at an event he is running but Todd seems to make it work as he has a good staff to run the show and somehow manages to avoid the potential pit falls that a competitor that is also writing the checks can get into.
By the way, he does pretty darn good in the Stock Car, finishing a strong second in his heat and while he started sixth in the main, he did fade just out of the top ten at the finish, having jumped the cushion a few times in the late going.
It was a bad night for the Murty family, always one to be counted on to pull off a win. Damon was leading the B feature when he started to loose power and he eventually dropped off the pace on the last lap, missing the show. Meanwhile, Dallon got punted in the rear bumper just as the green flag flew, he spun into the guard rail on the inside of the track where much mud was sitting as a result of all the rain. He hit the rail, sprayed down a few of the pit people across the way and was done for the night before even crossing the line the first time.
The crowd seemed OK for a Wednesday night with support classes as the show and while the field wasn't quite what was hoped for, the big takeaway from the night seems to be that the interest in racing in Webster City is on the rise and the track seems to be moving very much in the right direction with much enthusiasm from the community and sponsors.
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