Thursday night racing returned for the second straight week to the Kossuth County Speedway in Algona for another night of IMCA racing in the five core classes that entertain the fans here every week as well as the six Cruisers that were on hand for yet another week.
Incredibly, weather conditions were almost identical to the previous week, which previously I had thought were very rare for this time of year in Iowa. The temperature was again around the ninety degree plateau with another hurricane wind blowing, this time out of the Southwest which for the second straight week challenged the track prep crew to try and keep some moisture in the racing surface. And again for the second straight week, track officials would be chasing the weather with storms in the forecast once again but this week a tornado watch through in just for good measure. If there ever was both a fan and race car killer forecast, it would be one calling for severe storms to hit just around race time but that's exactly what the forecasters cooked up.
Fortunately, for the benefit of the track and the safety of all concerned, this forecast never materialized. We did watch the storms build up virtually right over our heads and sprinkle for just a minute or two but then everything drifted off to the Northwest, were a lightning show continued throughout the night plus a nice rainbow thrown in for good measure.
The car count was not good with fifty four cars on hand in the five sanctioned classes. However, for weekly shows this year, something tells me that particularly here in northern and western Iowa, for the weekly shows, a field of two heats per class might be all that can be expected this year. But I guess we will see how that all plays out but it does seem early in the year to already be concerned about car counts.
Despite putting more than sixty thousand gallons of water on the track this week, with the wind and sun the track was still drier than a popcorn flatulate. They even tried doing some misting between races but while the track wasn't dusty for the fans, the second groove has yet to be opened up for the drivers and for the second straight week there was a lot of hugging the inside line on the track. With that being said however, the winners still found a way to move up through the field as the point average has now kicked in with it being week two and we would see the five feature winners come from the five, six, seven, ten and ten starting spots in their mains so they found a way to get to the front.
The track welcomed back announcer Chad Meyer, absent last week to call the races at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway as Chad continues to add to his resume by doing a number of high visibility races. However, he told me that he still enjoys coming home and doing the local shows were he runs into so many people he knows as he works, Algona, Britt and Spencer.
With the weather still being an uncertainty, little time was wasted once the action got underway. The show started at 7:30 pm and forty eight minutes later, all the qualifying was done and after a brief break to set up the lineups, it was feature race time.
The one driver that so far has mastered the track conditions as they have been the first two weeks has been Kelly Shryock. Perhaps that is also why he has won three of the four feature races he has participated in over the first two weeks of the season while finishing a close second in the other.
On this night he would sweep both the Stock Car and Modified mains and not really work up much of a sweat in doing either. It took him only four laps to go from tenth to the lead in the Stock Car feature as there has been no one able to get through the corners like he has and if necessary, make an outside pass to take over the lead. Once he got by Calvin Lange he was gone and while McCain Jennings did his best, he wasn't able to stay with Shryock who drove home for an easy win. Lange would settle for third.
That difficult outside pass, the one that Shryock tried last week but just wasn't able to pull off on Cody Knecht, was available again on this night but the difference was that Shryock made it work this week. Austin Wolf led nearly the whole first half of the race as Shryock worked his way up from fifth.
However, once he got to second, he didn't hesitate to step outside of Wolf and while it took a couple laps to build up his momentum, on lap nine he drove into the lead and with the rest of the race running off nonstop, Shryock was able to stretch his advantage to the point that some in the crowd started to head for the parking lot early. Jeremy Mills would work on Wolf for second but not be able to pull off a pass.
Alec Fett would record a fine win in the Sport Mod feature, coming from the third row to pass Jacob Tacheny for the lead by the second lap. After that, the challenge was to hold off last week's winner Matt Looft who moved into second by the halfway point of the race.
Despite two late yellows in the last three laps, Fett had things under control on this night and Looft wasn't able to close in on him and had to settle for second with Charlie Stevens finishing a strong third.
Steve Wickman would return to the Hobby Stock field despite last week's roll over that took him out of the action but it would be Josh Sidles that would lead the first nine laps of the Hobby Stock feature. As he led the field, it would be a pair of #22 race cars, Seth Butler and Mike Smith, that would come storming through the pack, to challenge. Smith would get past Butler for second and following the only yellow flag of the event, make a pass on Sidles for the lead when Josh got just a bit high in turn four.
Once in front, Smith would pull away to take the win for the second straight week, making his and Shryock the only repeat winners. Sidles would hold on for second but there was again last corner action, just as there was last week. Last week there was a couple drivers mad at each other after some last corner bumper business and it happened again on this night.
Butler was running third going into the last corner when it appeared that he got some bumper help and around he went, spinning out of a nice finish. James Burns was scored third officially but no doubt there were some inflamed feelings in the Hobby Stock pit ounce again.
The disparity in speed between the fast and slow Sport Compacts is quite noticeable and the green flag for their main event usually triggers the equivalent of a nine alarm fire as the fast cars try to storm to the front, generated first lap mayhem more often that not. Charles Prime would hold off the pack for one lap but then Kaytee Devries would blow past him to take over the lead.
Not letting wheel bearing problems that fell her last week mess her effort, she pulled away in the green to checkered main event to record the win. Tyler Fiebelkorn did his best to stay with Devries but he had to settle for second while Kolby Sabin came from tenth to finish third.
Yellow flags were a rarity on Thursday as starter Logan Kelly had a relatively easy night with the sticks and the final checkered flag waved at around 9:20 pm. Skies to the West had cleared and a lot of people made their way to the pits with the early hour to meet and greet their favorite drivers. For me it was a time to celebrate another race completed without a rain event and get my five hour trip started.
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