The Clay County Fair Speedway continued their series of successful Monday night race programs as they hosted the Masters Manufacturing Clay County Classic for Stock Cars on Monday night, May 23rd at the Fairgrounds dirt oval in Spencer Iowa. Along with the special for Stock Cars, they also featured the IMCA Modifieds, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts, all paying the thousand dollars to win purse format that they have been using this year, except for the Compacts where their feature paid five hundred dollars to win. Perhaps what was most impressive about the Stock Car purse was that while it was five thousand dollars to the winner, everyone that started the main event earned at least five hundred dollars and for many of the teams, that's what they notice, not necessarily what it pays to win but what it pays to start. As we all know, there can be only one winner but it costs just as much for every team to get to the track.
The response among the drivers so far this year has been great as these Monday night events have been pulling in solid fields of race cars and putting fans in the stands. Monday night one hundred and forty eight drivers signed in to race with nearly half that group being in the Stock Cars as sixty four of them turned out to race. The crowd in the stands was excellent again, and to me it seemed even larger than the one they hosted for their first Monday night show a couple of weeks ago. Success breeds success and right now the Clay County folks are on a very nice roll.
There were teams that pulled all the way from Kansas to race on this night along with drivers from Minnesnowda, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Missouri to race, some I would presume, on their way for a full week of racing in the Hawkeye State as scheduling this event right before the holiday weekend was a very smart thing to do.
Among a few new items(at least to me) as I walked the pits before the program was that there are now three Rogotzke Brothers from Sanborn Minnesota now racing Modifieds. Jordan is new, never having raced anything before but jumping right into a Modified. Over course, given family tradition, the car would be numbered in a derivative of the X so now this class features an X, XX and XXX racing plus throw in Chris Abelson's 1X and you have more X's on display than the last film festival on Times Square in New York.
Jeff Steenbergen, long a Sport Mod driver from Wisconsin, is now racing a Stock Car and Brandon Beckendorf would be behind the wheel of Jim Horejci's car on this night and would do great things with the car. Dylan Fitzpatrick has moved up to a Stock Car from a Hobby Stock as has Matt Olson and Tyler Pospisil and Jason Brees is in a Stock Car from a Modified. Matthew Looft has added a Stock Car to his Sport Mod arsenal, a car believed to be one built by Shryock. And there may have been others that I missed as some of these drivers I just don't see very often.
It was good to run into Chad Meyer in the pits and we has a quick chat about what it takes for a track to be successful or not, in our own humble opinions. Hopefully, when I next return to Spencer there will be room for him in the announcing booth as to me his voice is synonymous with racing at Spencer.
While the number of cars on hand was substantial, with this big track they were able to squeeze all the drivers on the track for the feature races except for the Stock Cars, where it was necessary to run three B Features to get all qualified for the main event.
As you can imagine, with only two drivers coming out of the ten and eleven car heat races in the Stock Cars and a lot of really good drivers on hand, the action was intense during qualifying with the B Features more like main events with eighteen or so cars in each and only four making the show. There was a lot of heartbreak and more than a few ruffled features before all the qualifying was done with only twenty four of sixty four Stock Cars making the show.
There was much qualifying to be done and lots of racing so by the time they got to the feature events, even with virtually straight through racing, the hour was already starting to get late. The Stock Car feature, the highlight event of the night, would be the third main to take the green.
Twenty four drivers would take the green for the thirty lap feature and following a first lap spin when Kansas driver Troy Burkhart got turned around, the field was able to make a number of nonstop green flag laps. Eric Mahlik would lead lap one before he was passed by Breckendorf for the lead. However, it was fourth starting Shryock that was soon challenging for the lead and he would make a pass and take over the top spot.
Quite frankly, after that it was a battle for second and Shryock was in control the rest of the way. There was only one other yellow when Mahlik was turned and the offender missed with Mahlik going to the back but none of this would bother Shryock and he once again pulled away for the win. There was a good battle for second with Beckendorf challenged for the spot several times but he would hang on for second over Dylan Thornton. Chanse Hollatz would make a nice run from the sixth row four fourth and even farther back, Damon Murty would come from sixteenth to complete the top five. Shryock has been off to a great start this year at tracks in western Iowa and he continued that tonight, taking on and defeating the best of the invaders. By the way, after the redraw for the feature, not surprisingly, no one took the Back Row Challenge to try and win an extra $1,000. Just too many good cars to make that kind of attempt with so much other money on the line.
The best feature of the night without a doubt though, was the Hobby Stock main. While it took awhile with four yellows to slow it down, it also saw five different leaders in eighteen laps and a last corner pass for the win by Dylan Nelson. Cory Gronewald would lead the first lap until he was passed by Brandon Nielsen and as well as he has been running so far this year, it could likely be that this would be the end of the battle.
But not on this night as the lead pack was running in a tight bunch and after following Nielsen for a number of laps, some drivers started to experiment by moving up the track and not just following Nielsen around in the low groove.
John Briggs made a spectacular move to the second lane and was able to drive past Nielsen and it looked for all the world that he would spring the upset. However, things would play out different and there would still be two more different leaders before the race was over. After a yellow, Briggs gave too much room on the low side and John Watson would drive under him and take over the lead with only two laps to go.
But Watson fell victim to the same conservative strategy that cost Nielsen and that was to hug the inside line and slow down too much in the corners. Dylan Nelson, who had been running third when the yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish, charged the second lane on the final restart and he made it work spectacularly as he dove past Briggs and then keeping his momentum up, would drive around Watson on the final corner to take a very exciting win. Watson would settle for second and another driver who used Nelson's line, Gavin Bussinger, would charge up to third ahead of Briggs and Nielsen in what was a spectacularly competitive race.
By the time the Stock Cars were done, the track was starting to take rubber and the low side was the place to be. The Sport Mod feature was a largely follow the leader event and when Alec Fett took the early lead and there were few yellows for others to gain ground on him, he would drive on to win, leading from start to finish. Jared Boumeester and Looft would be next in line.
It was a pretty heavily rubbered up track that the Modifieds used in the last event of the night. With the late hour and no time to do track prep, they raced on what they had and Cody Thompson would lead this race from start to finish to take the win. Tim Ward did a sensational job, making the most of track conditions as they were as he fought his way forward after starting eighth and made it up to second before a late race yellow. He went for broke and tried for the win and just about pulled it off before the second lane bit him but he somehow fought his way back past Shryock and Josh Rogotzke to claim that spot.
Earlier the ten car Sport Compact field would have their feature event and Jaeden Erickson would lead from start to finish to claim that win. Nate Coopman would go to the back early for a spin and then fight his way back up through the field and he would make a last lap charge that would see him get to Erickson's rear bumper but no closer as he settled for second with Brandon Hartmann finishing third.
It got to be a pretty late evening with so much racing to be completed and it was about 11:45 pm before the final checkered waved, more than a little too late for a Monday night in May. So far, both shows run here this year have gone a little bit later than they should have and I am just a bit concerned about that going forward. A lot of people were gone home by the time that the Modifieds took to the track and I would be a little concerned it those people will return next time, now knowing that the shows have run just a bit late.
I am not a big fan of hot laps, especially for all classes on a night when so much racing is going to take place. I noted that when the first car rolled on to the track for hot laps until the time the first race started, it was forty minutes. Forty minutes that could have been used much more productively with racing taking place. And think about the extra strain put on the track with one hundred and fifty cars making extra laps during hot laps, laps that could have been saved for a track that got locked down pretty bad before the night was over. Perhaps just hot lap the featured class and not everyone. Heck, more and more tracks don't even have hot laps any more with time constraints an issue, especially for a week night show and why burn up any more tires than we need to? Just line 'em up and race 'em has always been my credo.
Other than that, it was another successful show for the folks here at Spencer. This does to be one track on the rise again this year with big car counts and lots of butts in the stands. Spencer's next race is Monday night, June 6th with a Hobby Stock special paying two grand to win while the other classes except the Sport Compacts, will again be racing for a grand. With the show the Hobby Stocks put on Monday, that might be the race of the year! Thanks to Trent Chinn and all the folks at Spencer.
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