Monday night, June 13th, was a big night for the Sport Mods and for Logan Anderson as the Landus Cooperative IMCA Nationals were held at the Hancock County Speedway in Britt Iowa and Anderson would dominate the event, taking home $2,500 for his efforts. He would take the lead on lap nine of the thirty lap main event and then pull away from the field for the win, despite the best efforts of Matt Looft to try and track him down. Other winners on the night would include Jade Lange, Chad Palmer, Chase Rudolf and Josh Sidles. All winners, except for the Sport Compact winner, would earn a grand each for their victories.
We were all very lucky indeed to even be seeing racing on Monday night. An early morning storm dumped about a half inch of rain in the Hancock County region of northwestern Iowa and it was touch and go whether or not racing could be held. It was a very poor drying day with cloudy conditions hanging on all day, much humidity in the air and a stiff breeze out of the East that felt like getting hit in the face with a wet blanket. It was quite uncomfortable.
However, Fair Board members in this largely agricultural county stepped up and there was a fleet of tractors and other heavy equipment working the grounds quickly. Promotor Trent Chinn, working just his second event since being named Promoter for this track, coordinated the efforts at drying the facility.
I was able to talk to Trent for just a minute as the gates opened and he said that if this was just a regular event, it likely would have been canceled but being the Sport Mod Nationals and a lot of drivers pulling a distance, they wanted to get it in if possible. He said it was a tremendous amount of work to get everything ready and surprisingly, the biggest effort was required to get the pits passable. The track had been rolled in hard the previous night and while it would be very heavy and tacky, it would be fine. The big problem was getting the pits so that the haulers could drive in. But they got it accomplished and while I saw a few big rigs slipping and sliding a bit, I didn't see anyone get stuck or any one need a pull.
One of the ongoing projects at the track is the rearranging of the pit area. The pit gate will eventually be moved more to the East and more of the new pits along the back chute will be used, thus giving more of the space on the West end of the pits to be used for spectator parking, particularly during the fair. The ticket booth hasn't been moved quite yet, but soon will be.
Monday night's program would include all five classes that normally race at Britt, with thirty three Sport Mods on hand to battle and enough cars in the other classes for a couple of heats and a feature, except for the Sport Compacts, which seem to struggle at all tracks around here getting any kind of numbers.
With the success of the programs at Spencer in the last couple of years, it appears that all the tracks around here have gone to the format used at Spencer, with offering nice money, generally a grand to win, for the other classes that run with the special event featured class and such was the case here on Monday night. Of course, many of those tracks are also under the command of Chinn, who is now in charge of three tracks in this area and a disciple of Mike VanGenderen.
The track was extremely fast on Monday with most likely record speeds being turned. It was "hammer down" racing at its best for those that like those kinds of races, but it also made passing tough as the groove was a bit narrow and the tacky surface made everyone fast. The motors were groaning, they were pulling so hard and overheating, especially while running in pack formation was a large concern. However, we were racing and given the conditions, the Hancock County crew provided the absolute best track that they could.
Four heats and a pair of B Features were necessary for the Sport Mods while the other classes just ran heats and a main. With passing being a challenge, such drivers as Izac Mallicoat, Braden Richards, Colby Fett, George Nordmann, Jared Boumeester and Nate Chodur all found themselves in a B Feature, fighting to make the show.
Twenty four cars would take the green for the thirty lap Sport Mod feature with Nate Whitehurst taking the early lead. Josh Appel was challenging him while Alec Fett, Jake Sachau and Logan Anderson all tried to work their way forward. The pace was blinding fast and opportunities to pass were rare so a slight slip up had to be taken advantage of quickly. Anderson was able to move his way up to third quickly and then the first yellow flew when several drivers at the back of the pack decided to play demo derby with each other, intentionally hitting each other while using a questionable thought process.
Both Whitehurst and Fett dropped out with mechanical issues and on the restart, Anderson made a great move from third to slide into the lead ahead of Appel. Just at the halfway point of the race, Looft moved into second and the race was on. The second half of the race clicked off nonstop and it was a two car battle. However, Anderson really stepped up his pace at this time and despite both cars having an open track, Anderson was pulling away from the entire field, including Looft who was doing his best to cut the margin.
It was a very impressive and dominating performance by Anderson, and even though he backed off on the last lap to avoid traffic, he was still the better part of a straightaway ahead of Looft as he took the double checkers from Kevin Long. Appel would hold on for third ahead of Jake Simpson and Taylor Kuehl.
The Modified feature would produce another dominating performance as Chase Rudolf would start on the pole and lead from green to checkered in a nonstop main. I believe it was the first win at Britt for Rudolf and he would run away from the field. Austin Wolf would finish a distant second with Kelly Shryock third. Just as the checkers flew, Jamie Anderson would jump the cushion in turn three and produce a spectacular and violent flip. Fortunately he was OK in what was one of the more violent wrecks seen so far this year.
Perhaps the best passing move of the night would secure Josh Sidles the Hobby Stock win. Gavin Bussinger would be the early leader but when he pounded the cushion too hard, he popped his right rer tire off the rim and slowed to produce the only yellow of the event.
Drew Barglof would inherit the lead with Sidles chasing him. Just past the halfway point of the race, Sidles made a bold move as he rode to the outside of Barglof and was somehow able to squeeze by him on the high side and take over the lead. With the track being so blinding fast, outside passing was almost unheard of on Monday but somehow Sidles got it done. He would then drive on to the victory over Barglof and Brandon Nielsen.
The Stock Car feature would see a sudden change of events decide the outcome. Troy Swearingen would take the lead from the pole and build up a big lead over Chad Palmer and Dan Ekblad. The yellow flew for debris and just about the same time Kelly Shryock, charging to the front, suddenly shut his car down. And before the race resumed, suddenly Swearingen was gone too, headed to the pits. Either overheating problems or motor failure appeared to be the culprit for both.
Palmer then inherited the lead and he would hold off all challenges from Ekblad and Calvin Lange to take the win.
Jade Lange would lead all the way to take the Sport Compact main over Oliver Monson and Brandon Hartmann.
What a strange couple of nights for me in terms of weather extremes already this week. On Sunday night I was at a race on the shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota and the wind off the lake was so strong I was wearing my heaviest coat and still cold and then less than twenty four hours later, I'm at another race where I have removed all the clothes the law and civility will allow and I am still hot and clammy. But I saw racing at both and that is the big thing.
Thanks to Trent Chinn and the staff at Hancock County for persevering and getting this show in. They were rewarded with a nice size crowd, especially for a Monday night.
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