Saturday, April 8th saw night two of the Awakening II take place at the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan Iowa. The Awakening was the name dubbed to the opening two weekends of racing here in Harlan with the weather claiming week number one.
This week it would be the SLMA Malvern Bank Late Models, the Malvern Bank 360 Sprint Cars and the Sport Modifieds racing at the newly shortened Shelby County Speedway. 2023 will be the second year of racing at the new shorter track and as other improvements continue, including a new concession stand, the weekly IMCA programs will be starting in weeks upcoming here also.
On tap on Saturday would be a full show for the 360 Sprints and Sport Mods, plus last chance B Features for the Late Models and their main event for the weekend. It was nice to see just the three classes in action but certainly tough luck for those classes that were scheduled to race last week but got their show rained out.
It was a beautiful early Spring day to be outside but also a tough one for preparing a dirt track as the sun and especially the very strong winds made getting moisture into the racing surface very challenging. Much dust would be produced but here was where the wind did help out as it proved to be self cleaning as all the dust was swept off to the North and away from the grandstands which allowed us to be dust free and likely aided the visibility for the drivers also.
Being the second straight night of racing, the car count would be altered somewhat with some new Sprints coming in for day two plus both different and more of the Sport Mods than had raced on Friday night. The lone change in the Late Models found Kyle Berck getting his car done to race on Saturday which forced him to start in the tail of a B Feature but a provisional in hand guaranteed him a starting spot in the main event. The Sport Mods ran three qualifying heats and the Sprints three heats and a B Feature while the Late Models started out with a pair of B Features to set the remainder of their starting field after Friday night racing determined the cars to start up front. The Sprints did utilize passing points which sped up their part of the program.
With a scheduled starting time of 6:30 pm, hot laps ran off smoothly and rather than wait around, they moved directly into racing with the first Sport Mod heat starting a half hour ahead of schedule. Thus a lot of the crowd showed up after the racing had already begun but also made for an earlier completion time for the show.
A twenty one car field would start the Sport Mod feature that ultimately would see three different leaders. Dylan Peterson shot into an immediate lead and looked like he might be hard to catch. Unfortunately for him, his car only lasted for two laps before it broke and he was done, turning over the lead to Kaylin Lopez. She would have Jake Sachau and Hayden Hillgartner challenging until Josh Most began to roll. He had started eighth but after a few laps he picked up the pace dramatically, charging to the front by being able to run lower on the track and faster than anyone.
Most moved into second and after just a couple more laps, he was able to drive under Lopez and take over the lead on lap ten. After that, the race was for Most to lose and he built up a nice sized lead. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the checkered and Most was able to fight off a late challenge from Corey Madden to take the win. Lopez would settle for third. For Most, he just got the car done in time to race on Saturday and taped on numbers and a plain car were evidence that they just had gotten the car rolling.
There would also be three different leaders in the Late Model feature as the Malvern Bank cars would run thirty laps for four grand to win. Jake Neal got the jump off the pole to edge ahead of Tad Pospisil on lap one. However, Neal couldn't hold his car down and Pospisil would drive under him to take over the lead one lap later. The inside line would be the way to go and Jesse Sobbing would slip under Neal for second.
After two quick yellows for spin, the last twenty four laps of this race would go off nonstop with Sobbing pressuring Pospisil for the lead on a regular basis. Also on the move was Dylan Sillman who would drive up to third and occasionally pressure the top two.
Lapped traffic would prove to be a problem as the leaders caught the slower cars who were fighting their own battle and not wanting to move off the bottom either. Pospisil was not interesting in trying to drive to the outside of the slower cars for fear of getting "hung out to dry" and his pace got slower and slower. Fourth running Justin Zeitner decided to try and pass the top three in one big move and he made a nice attempt but the outside just had no bite and after a few tentative laps, he dove back to the bottom and got in line as the freight train continued.
Sobbing was getting a good run off the corners while Pospisil was drifting out just a bit and with just three laps to go, Jesse made a big run down the back chute and squeezed inside Tad to take over the lead. Proving he was the fastest car, Sobbing then pulled away from the pack to take the win. Just at the finish, Sillman was also back to slip past for second with Pospisil settling for third. Only five of the twenty five starters weren't on the track at the finish.
Twenty two 360 Sprints would take the green for their main event to wrap up the program. Surprisingly, despite the fact that this race would pay three grand to the winner, the race distance was only twenty laps. However, as much trouble as they had keeping the race going, twenty laps turned out to be plenty.
Among the drivers having the biggest issues was Cody Ledger who managed to flip on two separate occasions during the feature before he decided he had enough. Stu Snyder would start on the outside pole and would lead from green to checkered, surviving two red and two yellow flags to take home the win. Tim Estenson, who would be one of the new drivers after running with the Outlaws in Missouri on Friday night, would challenge early until he broke. After that it was Jason Martin who would chase Snyder.
While Snyder was the class of the field, Martin would continue to press him for the lead but despite the stop and go nature of the race, Snyder would make no mistakes and would drive home for the win over Martin and Brenden Mullen. This Malvern Bank sponsored series that used to be headquartered at I-80 Speedway, has become a traveling series for 2023 with the closure of I-80 and they have a busy schedule upcoming.
All preliminary events motored by fast but between a very lengthy "tilling session" that unfortunately didn't do much to help the track and a Sprint feature that took its time to complete, it was close to 10 pm before the final checkered flag waved. The track was just not as good as the last time I was at Harlan but much of that was due to the strong wind that was just sucking the moisture out of the surface.
Nevertheless, the changing of this track seems to have injected much racing enthusiasm to this area and a large enthusiastic crowd was on hand to watch the action. Thanks to everyone at Shelby County for their help.
(Note: These last two reports were delayed due to travel circumstances surrounding the Easter holiday.)
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