The Buena Vista Raceway, in Alta Iowa, under the direction again this year of Trent Chinn, began their 2022 racing season on Wednesday night, June 1st. Sanctioned by IMCA for five divisions of racing, they also have restarted a Bomber class and on this night had also invited the IMCA 305 Sprints to be a part of the action also, thus making it a big seven division program.
Eighty four cars were on hand in those seven divisions with only the Bombers and Modifieds being short on cards so as to only be able to serve up one heat race and a main. There are, unfortunately, several tracks here in western Iowa that just don't get very many Modifieds and I can come up with four or five tracks right off the top of my head where getting enough Mods for two heats is a struggle week after week.
The Bomber class was restarted here at Buena Vista again this year after having been and on and off class for a number of years. This class had pretty good numbers and was quite successful for a time but then the numbers started to drop as racers instead built Hobby Stocks and the class was eventually dropped. Now it is back again as apparently some feel that the Hobby Stock class is too big a step for a first time racer, even though that class had the largest number here tonight with nineteen of them on hand. And some are just not interested in starting out in a four cylinder class(I know I wouldn't be).
However, if this class is going to take off, they better get some more cars on the track soon as three cars of widely varying speed, which is what they had on Wednesday, just doesn't make for much of a show.
Speaking of the four cylinder cars, joining the Sport Compacts this week will be Mylee JoAnn and her team who pulled all the way from Farmington New Mexico to race in Iowa this week. However, they were disappointed upon arrival to hear that their Thursday night race at Algona had been canceled as their class was dropped this week because the Late Models are in town. That's a long way to drive, just to sit and watch.
All three of the racing Rogotzke's from Sanborn Minnesota were on hand with their Modifieds. Jesse told me they kind of enjoy the looks and comments from particularly the announcers when they roll out for a heat that they are all in, as happened on this night with their three "X" cars, X, XX and XXX. Throw in Chris Abelson with 1X and most announcers heads are spinning by this time.
The evening got off to an inauspicious start when a three car crash in hot laps off all things, The severely damaged the Hobby Stock of Drew Barglof, who was scheduled to start on the pole of one of the heats and took him out of action for the entire night. Some tracks and some drivers are way too in love with hot laps. Tonight they got the cars rolling on the track by 7 pm(good job) but by the time they got done with tedious hot laps for seven classes of cars, the first race didn't hit the track until 7:45 pm, way too late for a week night show. They then proceeded to run off a quick program in three hours flat(good effort) but that still made the show last until 10:45 pm, again too late for a week night show.
There were a couple of noteworthy performances in the many main events run. The driver that passed the most cars for his win was Hobby Stock driver Mike Smith. In the last race of the night, Smith, who redrew the twelfth and final spot in the redraw, came from that sixth row to make a late race pass and take the win. Jay Devries had led the first half of the race until he was overtaken by Cory Probst but Probst only stayed in front for a lap or so before Smith came roaring up and took the lead away.
A late yellow bunched things up but Smith showed great speed as he pulled away on the final restart and led Probst and John Briggs home for the win. It's not too often you see drivers come from that far back in such a competitive field to win.
The Sport Mod feature also had plenty of action. It started out wild when a jingle on the back chute on the opening laps saw Wayne Becker turn over on his roof and then sail high into the air like a surfboard. Fortunately there were no injuries but Becker and Kirk Beatty were eliminated.
Zech Norgaard would then lead the first half of the race with Rusty Montague gradually tracking him down. Dyllan Ricks, who got shuffled back into the pack early, then would make a charge back up through the field. Ricks, who wasn't even in the top five at the half point of the race, continued to roar through the field in the late going. Montague got by Norgaard for the lead but Ricks was closing on him.
On the final lap, Ricks would throw a huge slider at Montague in turn three and at the same time, Montague would half spin and lose time. The double down effect was that Ricks would come out of the corner as the leader and drive on for the victory, his first ever in a Sport Mod. Kaylb Brunssen would finish third.
Chris Abelsen would lead all the way to win the Modified feature in an event that started only seven cars. The Stock Car feature would see Mike Vondrak get the jump and lead early but it didn't take long for David Smith to get going and overtake Vandrak for the lead. And once in front, he was gone as no one could provide a challenge to the driver that is now sporting a 1970 Monte Carlo body on his Stock Car. Stefan Sybesma would finish second with Devin Smith third.
The eleven car Sprint feature would see Mike Houseman Jrand Brandon Bosma trade the lead back and forth before Bosma would go on to take the win over Trevor Serbus.
Kaytee Devries would hit Gilbert Aldape so hard on the opening lap that she would likely have loosened any fillings he had. Still, she would nevertheless drive on for the win to the crowd's cheers over Caine Mahlberg and Tyler Fiebelkorn. Wyatt Johnson would win the Bomber feature while the rest of the field spent much time pointed the wrong direction on the track.
A very nice crowd was on hand for the opener on cool June night and we hope that this trend continues all through the Summer. Thanks to the folks at Buena Vista on Wednesday .
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