Tracks are winding down their seasons at a rapid pace as August comes to an abrupt end with Labor Day soon to be upon us and school restarting for many kids. That for me, for decades, was my sign that Summer was over, and I still fall back on that as a sure sign that Summer is quickly exiting stage right.
On Wednesday night, August 24th, I caught one of those wrap up events out in western Iowa as the Buena Vista Speedway, more affectionately known as "The Beaver", completed their season by crowning season champions in six divisions. They almost didn't get this accomplished as the weather had other ideas. Rain early in the day made the infield quite a sea of mud in spots with the track prep crew dragging the whole facility when the rain stopped so the air could get to it. When I arrived at the track, promoter Trent Chinn was a whirling dervish, going in several directions at once as he worked on the track to get it race ready. Trent must have been operating on fumes as he had quite a day on Tuesday as he and his wife welcomed an addition to their family but somehow he found the time to get back to BVR and get the track ready.
As I wandered the pits, the atmosphere felt explosive with thunderheads blossoming and drifting over the track but the big rain stayed just to the East of the Fairgrounds, although just as the National Anthem was playing, it was about as close as it could get without cutting loose on us.
It was Tyson Turkey night at the track as well as being championship night but fortunately there weren't too many birds during the racing. To be honest, there were a couple of turkeys during the feature race action but we'll get to them shortly.
BVR does like many tracks in this part of the world do and that is they don't crown "Season Champions" as such, they just add up the track points for the season and whoever is leading when the final night is done is crowned the champion. So, while it is claimed as Season Championship night, it is just a regular purse night using the regular lineup formula.
Six IMCA classes would be racing on this night as the IMCA Racesaver Sprints would also be running along with the track's Bomber division that was restarted this year. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of race cars in any class on this night. The core five classes showed fifty one entrants and then add in eight Bombers and nine Sprints and you have sixty eight cars, but that is in a whopping seven divisions. My question is this, other than Spencer that always has nice car counts, is there a track in western Iowa that has solid car counts on a weekly basis? And what is the problem? Too many tracks or too much racing? It seems like racing is available eight nights a week and every track struggles to have enough Modifieds for two heats. Tonight's turnout of five, with one scratching out of the main, was down right embarrassing. And yet, there were some good feature races to be talked about. The presence of some tight point races also added to the drama.
The Hobby Stock and Stock Car features were perhaps the best of the night. The Hobby Stock feature saw three different drivers lead for a time before Craig Brotherton assumed control at the halfway point and would then go on to lead the rest of the way. However, his lead was very small with Dayton Ullrich, Nick Schilling, James Johnson and Cory Probst all racing him hard at various times for the lead. Also, Johnson and Probst were battling for the point title with them only being a single point apart.
The final lap saw them go four wide in turn four with Brotherton holding on for the lead while Probst used the outside line to go from fourth to second at the line, tying him with Johnson in the points. Having to go all the way to the second tie breaker, Probst was crowned the champion.
The Stock Car feature would see Justin Nehring lead the first half of the race in a three car battle before Vondrak would edge past him and Brian Blessington and take over the lead. Late in the race David Smith would come charging to the front and it turned into a three car battle at the finish in a race that finished up way to quick for me as it was just getting real good when the checkered flew.
The Bomber class still hasn't produced very many cars with the high water mark of eight being achieved on this night. However, for the fever level the crowd reached, there might as well have been a hundred cars on the track. Crowd favorite Wyatt Johnson started on the pole, led for one lap and then got passed during a strange deal where just about all the racers assumed the yellow came out and it didn't and nearly everyone came to a near halt. Doyle Logan used the opportunity to take the lead but Johnson soon took it back and received a huge ovation when he crossed the line and held off champion Will Smith to get the win.
Johnson entertained the crowd with a back flip in victory lane, after which half the grandstand came down on the track to get into the winning picture.
To be truthful, Tyson did serve up a few turkeys along the way too. The Sport Compact feature would see Caine Mahlberg shoot up from the third row and take the lead before the first turn of the feature race and then disappear into the Iowa night with no one near him. Apparently he's so far that the announcers can't even see the number as they kept referring to him at the #24M even though it was pretty clear on the car that he was driving the #22.
It took Jake Sachau only one lap to grab the lead in the Sport Mod feature and he then was also gone with no one even close to him.
Chris Abelsen would win the Modified feature by a country mile with only four cars on the track. It only took him two laps to get the lead but he did use up Doug Smith pretty good in turn four to take over the top spot. He forgot to mention that part in his victory lane speech.
Only nine Racesaver Sprints were on hand but they ran a smooth race that went green to checkered. Matt Friedrichsen would lead the first half of the race and it took Brandon Halverson a few laps to figure out how to pass him but once he got that done near the halfway mark, it was easy sailing after that .
Despite the early day weather issues, the track proved to be in great shape and promoted some fine racing. Trent and all his guys did a great job getting the track ready and racing would start just as it was supposed to. With the program sailing along nicely, the final checkered waved about 10:15 pm. The most impressive part of the whole night to me though, was both the crowd size, especially with weather being a factor, and the high energy level of the crowd. This might have been as enthusiastic and energizeda crowd as I have seen all year. And all that for what basically was just a regular season finale. But good for them. They were having fun and that doesn't happen near enough at the races anymore.
Thanks to Trent and his staff for all their help this year that the various tracks he works.
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