Another one of those rare but generally successful and enjoyable Monday night races was held on June 19th at the Independence Motor Speedway in Independence Iowa. Mike VanGenderen, who brought this novel idea to the Stuart International Speedway when he bought that track, made it a successful staple of their racing schedule there to many people's surprise has moved on with the idea to Independence which he now co-promotes with Dana Benning.
They actually opened up their season in early May with a Monday night show when they suffered a number of early season rainouts. This would be the second of the four Monday night shows scheduled and for the second straight time, they would exceed one hundred cars racing on this night.
Dubbed "Monday Night Madness", this show would feature five of the six classes that routinely race at Inde, with the Late Models missing on this night. I started out the evening being just a bit disappointed as through my own oversite, I was under the impression that the Late Models would be racing but when I arrived and saw that Curt Martin's pit spot was open, a spot he has had reserved for himself as long as I have been attending races at Inde, I was immediately led to believe that there would be no Late Models, am assumption that proved to be correct.
However, that problem was quickly surpassed when a fine field of cars showed up in the other five classes and put on a good show so realistically they would not have been able to probably run off a reasonable length six class show and getting done early is critical on a weekend. One hundred and twenty two cars did sign in to race with a high of thirty three in the Modified class, a very fine turnout indeed.
It was a hot and somewhat humid June day and MVG was busy trying to keep moisture in the racing surface. I was told that they had a big downpour on Sunday but that it came so quickly and so hard that it likely didn't help get any moisture into the ground as it likely all just ran off. I was told the infield was a lake on Sunday and remnants of that were still visible on Monday night.
Despite having hot laps for all classes, racing would begin by 7:15 pm and then it would be high speed racing to follow immediately. I have to say that MVG's programs are just about the most difficult for me to keep up with as the races come marching on and off the track with such speed, I barely have time to write the lineups and finishes down before he funnels the next event on to the track. His shows are almost as intense for me as they must be for the competitors. And Jeff Broeg would love the size of the heats as all featured between eight and ten cars apiece, again likely to keep the show moving along faster with the one spin rule also helping out here. Fourteen qualifying heats were buzzed through in fifty two minutes and there were a grand total of two yellows in all those qualifiers as spinning cars knew they better get moving or risk being sent to the pits.
B Features were needed for both the Stock Cars and Mods because of the size of their fields and that was followed by a rather extensive refreshing of the racing surface. This did get a bit long but later we would see why they attempted to do such a thorough job of redoing the track.
The Sport Mods would get the fresh track as their feature event would be first with twenty cars taking the green flag. This would be a draw/redraw program and that event would play a big part in racing success on this night as we would see three drivers win mains off the first row with two more coming from row two as big charges from back in the pack were limited on Monday.
Taylor Kuehl would start on the pole for the Sport Mod feature and she would be recorded the leader for all twenty laps on the main. While there was quite a battle for second, she would remain comfortably in front by herself as she got a good jump early and then would pull away again on each of the two restarts that occurred. Tony Olson, Shane Paris and Matthew Mayo had a good battle for second with Olson passing Paris late in the race to secure second over Paris, Mayo and Jarett Franzen.
The Sport Compacts would go green for fifteen laps and would see a late race battle for the lead. Stephen Randall would grab the initial lead but it took only three laps for Kukas Rick to pass him and take over the top spot. Rick would build up quite a nice sized lead before Jake Benischek would work his way into second and set off after the leader.
Benischek had bobbled right off the bat and lost several positions but when he finally got going, he was able to knock off car after car on the top side after starting tenth. The race remained under the green but lap after lap, Benischek would cut into the advantage that Rick had, aided by a slow car that seemed to be wobbling around on the track and made Rick unsure just where to go.
On the last lap, Benischek got close in the final corner and Rick had to bounce off the slower car to make the corner but he held on by a couple car lengths to take the win over Benischek in a race that fortunately wasn't any more laps for Rick. Randall, Noah Beenken and Jace Tuttle would complete the top five.
A full field of twenty Stock Cars would take the green for their main event with Brett Vanous starting on the pole and taking the initial lead. A great advance on the opening lap by Kaden Reynolds would see him move from seventh to second and one lap later he would pass Vanous for the lead.
However, also on the move was Damon Murty and he made the top side of the track work for him. Not too many drivers were up on the tall side of the track but he made it a fast lane for himself and he blew past Reynolds to take over the lead. A series of three yellows on lap eight would slow things down but after that they raced to the checkers.
Murty would continue to lead but Reynolds also moved to the cushion and he started to make time on Murty. He appeared ready to make a big challenge when he overshot a corner and got over the banking on this track that has no outside walls. He was able to save it but lost valuable time and spent the rest of the race trying to chase Murty back down.
He wasn't able to do so though, as seldom are people able to do that to Murty who would drive on for another win. Tom Schmitt made a fine drive from ninth to finish a strong third, ahead of Cole Mather and Jarod Weepie. This race was red flagged on lap eight when Json Hocken flew off turn four and rolled up on to the pit wall. He was OK but out of the race.
Tyler Ball made a great move on the opening lap as he ducked under front row starters Chad Clubine and Eric Knutson to lead the opening lap and after that, the remaining sixteen laps would also be his as he led from start to finish to claim the win. Jacob Floyd would be the story of the race though, as he started eleventh and was able to drive up to a strong second place finish. Benji Irvine would start fifth and end up third with Knutson and Chubine trailing at the finish. Only two yellows would slow the action and all but three starters would be on the track at the finish.
Twenty four Modifieds would go twenty laps in their main, racing for a grand to the winner. Jerry King would start on the pole but it would be Ryan Duhme that would use the cushion to take the early lead. King would slip into second but then lose that spot to Brennen Chipp. Duhme would continue to hold the lead, riding the cushion as most of the racers were. However, the track would suddenly and dramatically change and those drivers that spotted the change or perhaps were lucky enough to be in the correct lane, would benefit greatly.
Joel Rust was the first to spot the change as the low line suddenly started to take rubber and he was able to gain three spots very quickly as he moved up to third. King had been about the only driver to be racing the low line and as his speed picked up in the rubber, so too did Duhme start to lose speed and suddenly King found himself in the lead, taking the point just at the halfway signal of the race.
King would then pull away from the field until a late yellow slowed the action. It appeared that all cars had taken the white flag before Kyle Bentley stalled on the front chute but the ruling was to go back to a two lap sprint to the finish. The double file restart found drivers on the outside trying to hang on by a toe nail but several slipped back including Rust.
King would drive on for the win with Jed Freiberger making a late march from seventh to finish second with Jeff Aikey, Dallon Murty and Duhme completing the top five. Rust would fall all the way back to eighth at the line.
I was told that King had won the previous event here after not winning a feature for twenty one years before that. If so, he definitely deserves the two race winning streak.
I rarely disagree with MVG in the operation of his program (largely because he's big enough to break me in half!) but the decision to double file the cars for the two lap dash seemed like the wrong move as the rubber was so strong on the inside line that the drivers on the outside line were really put at an unfair disadvantage(Rust and others).
An icon of the Independence Motor Speedway, Jim Roper, was making the call of the races on this night. In a surprise move, Chris Stepan, visiting with a day break in his UMP Summer Nationals schedule, helped out doing the Modified events. I am hopeful that with the successful promotion of MVG and Dana Benning that a scoreboard can be secured for the track as it is badly needed.
A nice sized crowd was on hand on a sizzling Monday night for the show and all racing was done before 10:30 pm as this Monday night variation appears to be building steam among both the fans and drivers. Thanks to everyone at the track for their help. A return trip is planned at some point later this Summer.
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