The Western Iowa Racing Results Tour made it's fourth stop of this busy racing week on Wednesday night, June 29th at the new look Shelby County Speedway in Harlan Iowa. And on a night when three of the five feature races came down to the last lap, it was Wisconsin "Cheesehead" Lucas Lamberies who made a last corner pass on Jarrett Brown to win the Modified feature and send the crowd home happy, knowing that they had seen an outstanding night of racing action. Other feature winners included Devin Smith and Mike Smith, both with close victories also and Caine Mahlberg and Brayton Carter also found victory lane in this five class extravaganza that was played out in front of a very large Wednesday night throng of fans on a hot and sticky June night.
One hundred and fourteen cars signed in to race on Wednesday including forty four cars that were making their first tour race of the week, the vast majority of them Shelby County regulars, several of whom ended up being right in the hunt for wins on this night.
Only veteran race fans might recall the name, but as soon as I cracked the city limits of Harlan I could not help but think about the most famous race driver that came out of Harlan and that would be NASCAR Hall of Famer Tiny Lund. I wax slightly sentimental about this because the Shelby County Speedway is one of the few race tracks in Iowa that I had never been to before until this night and Lund was the driver that made this track famous on the old half mile days before he moved to NASCAR county to make a name for himself. I might not be the Iowa expert that Jeff Broeg is, but I have been to most of the tracks in Iowa at some point, however Harlan was one that I had always missed for no particular reason, it just never worked out.
But this is a new day for the "new look" Shelby County Speedway and while the remnants of the old half mile can be seen surrounding the new track, things are new and exciting now in Harlan with the new track that was built early this year. Instead of a big flat half mile, the new track is somewhere between a quarter and a third mile and while one driver told me that the distance was more like three eighth, I disagree with that unless that would be running on the wall all the way around the track. But whatever the official distance is, it has made for a great improvement in my opinion over what they had.
Of course, I was raised on quarter and third mile tracks and have never been a big fan of big half miles, and I would say this track is just about the perfect size for great racing. After watching the show on this night, it is hard to imagine that this was only the third race on this new track, as the show was spectacular and offered just about everything that a race fan would want. The action was super close, there was much passing and also plenty of rubbing which fans like a bit of too. Three of the features came right down to the finish and the amount of side by side racing could never be achieved on a bigger half mile.
The new track uses part of the front straightway from the old track so the racers run right in front of the fans just like they always did. The new track has been placed inside of the old track, the remnants of which are used for pits down the back chute and through turns three and four. The pits has been moved out of the middle which is always a positive for me. The scoreboard was back up and operating on this night and the new lights have been smartly located not on the outside of the back chute like some tracks have mistakenly done, but on the inside of the track so the race cars are illuminated for the fans. Drivers enter off turn four and exit the track entering turn three. Right now the corners seem to flatten off a bit near the wall and keep drivers from running right up against the concrete but they were able to use much of the track in the feature races and keep in mind, this is still a work in progress with much left to refine. But what they have done to this point I give them a double thumbs up for a job well done. It takes guts to break with a long tradition and if I check around, I'm sure I could find some people that still miss the old half mile but this new track that they have created will provide much closer and competitive racing, a great viewing experience for the fans and will be much easier on the equipment than a big half mile would be. It's a little bigger than Stuart but will race much like Stuart once they build up the cushion on the top size and to my untrained eye, the entire place reminds me very much of what they have done at Mason City, to the size of the track, the way the drivers race it and even the old track surrounding the new one.
The old grandstand, a wooden one that likely dates back many years, gives the place a "throw back" feel to the glory days of fairgrounds racing but the many poles holding up the roof are an annoyance but I chose to sit under the roof rather than get toasted sitting in the open grandstand just to the West of the old stand. If I had a dollar for every beam in the stands obstructing my view, I'd leave Harlan a rich man! It was a day with temperatures in the nineties and with a strong wind blowing right out of the South, it would be challenging for the multitude of water trucks on hand to keep the track, pits and driveways moist but they gave it a great effort.
With the smaller track, Midwest Madness Tour officials opted to start slightly smaller fields of cars in the main events on Wednesday with twenty two instead of twenty four which meant that there would be one more B Feature as the Sport Mods would need one also on this night.
The biggest fields remained in the Modified and Stock Car classes with twenty nine and twenty seven respectively in those classes.
As has been the case this week, racing would start right on time with the first heat to hit the track at 7:17 pm. Despite the fact that the majority of drivers racing here on this night had never turned laps at Shelby County before, they put on a great show yet one that didn't include a huge number of crashes and yellow flags. In fact, the seventeen qualifying heat races had a grand total of just two yellow flags! The one spin rule certainly helped keep things moving and the whole qualifying process took just over one hour. Four more B Features and it was time to go feature racing.
They had watered the track generously just before race time and the cars needed to do some extra wheel packing before the show started but this resulted in a very fast track with plenty of bit and we saw several of the Stock Cars particularly three wheeling it around the oval. The heavy conditions would prevail during the feature races also which I can best describe as very intense with much close racing, side by side action and also plenty of drama.
The most dramatic of the feature races was the last race of the night, the Modified feature. Jarrett Brown would start on the pole and while he was constantly chases, he would lead for twenty four and three quarters laps. Unfortunately for him, the money was distributed based on twenty five laps and that cost him dearly. Lucas Lamberies would start fifth in the main event which was stopped twice for spins on laps seven and eleven. By lap six, Lamberies had drove up to second and he and Jacob Hobscheidt would continue their chase on Brown for the rest of the race.
The last fifteen laps would go nonstop and Brown seemed to have a fairly comfortable edge built up but then he started to struggle in the later laps, having a tougher time getting through the corners and Lucas started to close on him. It seemed Lamberies last his chance with three to go when he jumped the cushion but he fought back and as Brown was slower in the corners, Lamberies closed again rapidly.
On the final lap, Lucas got a great run off turn two, flew down the back chute and executed a perfect slider, nosing under Brown in turn three. And Brown didn't have anything to return him with as Lucas pulled away off the last corner and would drive home for a thrilling and somewhat unexpected, comeback win. The three "Cheeseheads" in the crowd, Lucas, his father and I would bask in the glory of the moment. Brown would settle for second ahead of Hobscheidt.
Dallon And Damon Murty never get beat when they start side by side in the front row. Except, on this night they did with Devin Smith being the spoiler. Dallon would lead lap one, Smith would take over on lap two after starting in the third row, but Dallon would overtake him again just two laps later.
Dallon would continue to lead but Smith was all over him for the top spot and on lap eleven, when Dallon slipped off the bottom, Smith was right there to drive under him and take over the lead. After that, the Murty's chased but simply couldn't catch Smith on this night who drove home for the win with the Murty pair close behind in a battle of perhaps the two top racing teams around in the Stock Car class.
The other very close feature was in the Hobby Stock class, where Mike Smith would edge out Zac Hemmingsen on the last lap with a somewhat questionable pass. Smith had led since the drop of the green from his pole spot while Hemmingsen gradually worked his way into second quickly after starting fifth.
Hemmingsen would dog Smith and in the last few laps really start to pick up the pace. In the last couple laps, the two would exchange thrilling slide jobs as they exchanged the lead, each one done cleanly by both drivers. However, as they came out of turn four to see the white flag with Hemmingsen holding a tenuous lead, Smith would crowd inside him and shove him up to the wall where Zac would have to lift, giving Smith the lead. Hemmingsen would then dive to the bottom of the track in turn one, giving him a perfect opportunity to "dump" Smith for what he had done. However, Zac, with the bottom covered by Smith, instead hit the brakes and rolled through the corner glued to Smith's rear bumper.
Smith kept the low groove blocked and there was no opportunity for Hemmingsen to try a last conner pass as Smith drove on for the win with Zac close behind. Smith received the first place check and the trophy but the real winner here was Hemmingsen who played it clean to the finish. Perhaps there will be a time and a place where this move might come back to haunt Smith.
Brayton Carter has the uncanny ability to find the smallest of openings on the track and make passes that don't seem possible and it did it again on Wednesday as he showed why he is so successful winning races despite always starting deep in the field.
While Izac Mallicoat and then Geoff Olson would lead the opening two laps of the Sport Mod feature, Carter was busily moving up after starting tenth on the grid. By lap three he was third and following a lap six yellow for a slowing car, he would challenge leader Olson for the top spot.
When Geoff slipped up in turn four, Carter made a quick move to the bottom of the track and took over the top spot. From then on, it was easy sailing as Brayton would lead the rest of the way for the win. Tyler Watts made a nice drive to finish in the runner up slot with Olson third.
Rounding out the racing, Caine Mahlberg would start on the pole and lead all the way to take the Sport Compact feature over Matt Miller and Tyler Fiebelkorn.
All racing was completed before 11 pm and this first chance to show off the new Shelby County Speedway before a larger audience was no doubt a smashing success. They have done some very good things with this track and it can only get better as more racing is done on it. My first visit here was most certainly a very positive one and the hard and intense racing will be remembered for some time. I look forward to the opportunity to again get here in the future and before too long I hope. Thanks to everyone at SCS for a great night of racing.
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