The Clint Walrod Memorial for Suicide Prevention was held on Monday night, July 24th at the Stuart International Speedway in Stuart Iowa. On one of the hottest nights for racing that I can remember in quite some time, a cool lady, Taylor Kuehl, would top a highly contested Sport Mod feature to highlight the racing action at the Stuart quarter mile.
As my Mother used to say, "It was a beaner" on Monday night. I'm not sure just exactly what that refers to, but every time we heard that reference, we knew that it was going to be an excessively hot day. And so it was on Monday with temps around ninety, humidity to match and not much shade to be found on the grounds.
The hot temperatures were reflected in most of what happened on Monday. It may have been the smallest car count for a race that I have seen since I was coming to Stuart and also probably the smallest crowd too. Hopefully a lot of folks stayed home and watched the race on tv from the air conditioned comfort of their easy chair. However, Crazy Martin stuck it out and was on hand along with the toughest of the fans.
The Walrod Memorial would feature all five classes from the IMCA sanction that routinely race here along with the along with the Outlaw Mini Mods and Mod Lites. There would be fifty cars signed in to race in the five core classes and actually three of the five classes had only enough cars to provide one heat race. However, on this night I didn't hear a single complaint about that as I think most folks were just happy to see a quick show and to be truthful, some of the feature races, though smaller than normal, provided plenty of racing action.
I had seen him race many times over the years but Monday night was the first time that I had a chance to talk to long time racer Martin Bennett for any length of time. He proved to be a most interesting individual to talk with and I was impressed just what lengths he has to go to to even get to the races these days after Covid severely altered his life style. As a retired person, he is racing with a budget in a sport that has some that can spend whatever it takes to win. He races at Stuart because it is closest to home.
Racing would start right after 7 pm under a blazing sun but it should not have been a surprise that while one might have expected a slick and perhaps dusty track given the conditions, instead it was tacky, fast and not a whisper of dust. MVG was at it again and to be truthful, humid nights like this, even with the heat and sun, often produce some of the tackiest tracks of the year and it would be so all night. The major work after racing started was not to add more water, but to continue to pack and widen out the cushion to improve the racing.
It took only twenty four minutes to run off the heat races for the five core divisions. The other heats were then held, a quick break to do some packing and it was feature time.
The sticky track would be reflected in the first feature to hit the track and that was the Sport Compacts. Early on, Owen Richards would race into turn one and grab so much bite with his right side tires that his car bicycled and he went flying off into the night sky, flipping several times and nearly clearing the wall in turn two. He ended up upside down and after a couple of anxious moments, he exited the car without help and appeared to be fine. The crazy thing was his ride was so much in the air that the car was hardly bent, despite providing a spectacular moment for us.
On the restart, Jake Paysen would grab the lead and he would go on to win the race, fighting off challenges from Kolby Sabin, who was in a different ride than when I last saw him, for the win with Texas driver Stephen Stiteler third.
The Stock Cars don't need a huge field of cars to provide plenty of action and such was the case on Monday. There were only nine of them, but they put on an exciting and hotly contested main event. Nick Roberts would officially be scored the leader for all twenty laps but it was far from that easy.
For most of the race, there would be five cars snarling around the track in close formation and diving at each other on each corner. Roberts had point leader Austin Bouzek trying to get past him on each corner and with the cars mostly on three wheels and all hiked up in the corners, there was action galore. Rowdee VanGenderen had the team of Schafroth and VanEaton all over him as the top five continued to race close.
Bouzek changed lines in turn four and nearly got by Roberts on the high side but got squeezed into the wall and had to back off. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and the final corner saw all five laying on each other but not in a severe manner, just hard racing in trying to pass.
Roberts would hold on for the win and in victory lane thank Bouzek for not dumping him in the last corner while also apologizing for "walling him" earlier. Rowdee would hold on for third in a very interesting race.
The Hobby Stocks would go back and forth in their main with five official lead changes among three drivers plus heart break for one also. Ethan Atcheson would take the early lead but it took only two more laps for Buddy Haidsiak to make a pass to take over the top spot. However, Atcheson would change up his line which would allow him to gain more speed and three laps later he would regain the lead.
However, just one lap later Atcheson would slow in turn three, the victim off a mechanical failure while holding the top spot. This turned the lead back over to Haidsiak but he couldn't hold off the charging Skylar Pruitt who was fast on the low line and slid under Buddy to take over the lead with five laps to go and then drive away for the win.
Pruitt had been involved in a first lap tangle with Solomon Bennett with both going to the back but due to the small field and a fast car, Pruitt was able to overcome that issue and still drive on for the win. Luke Ramsey would finish second ahead of Rusty Bates.
The Sport Mod feature would see quite a gaggle of cars racing for the lead with heavy traffic indeed throughout the pack. Josh Sink would be the early leader but it took just one lap for Jackson Harpole to pass him and take over the top spot. However, in heavy traffic, Sink would fight back and on lap seven again grab the lead.
The race took a major turn one lap later when, in that heavy traffic, Brayton Carter and David Schwartz would get their car tied together and it took quite a bit of time and work by the wrecker crew to get the separated.
At this point Kuehl was only running fourth but she took off like a rocket when the green came back out and finding some racing room low, she shot past Sink to take over the lead at the halfway point of the race. After that, she would lead the final half of the race, maintaining enough of a lead that she wouldn't be severely challenged. Cam Reimers would drive up to second after starting eleventh and Carter was on fire the second half of the race, roaring all the way back up to third.
The Modified feature would be completed nonstop and with Roberts looking for a double, he would lead the first five laps. However, Todd Shute was flying and he would make a pass down the back chute for the lead after climbing the banking on the East end of the track and getting an incredibly strong run down the back chute. And once in front, he was gone.
There would be no catching him after that as he pulled away for an easy win with Roberts holding on for second ahead of Happy Gilman.
American's number one track chaser Randy Lewis and his wife Carol came walking into the grandstand around the halfway point of the evening. I did not talk to him but announcer Tony Paris mentioned that he was on the grounds. Whether or not Lewis could add Stuart to his list is questionable as I'm assuming that he must have been here at some point as I'm guessing that he has been to every track in the state of Iowa.
Thanks to MVG and his hard working crew for a good night of racing with tough conditions to contend with. Nights like this are really hard on the track workers who must do their jobs, no matter how hot it is. If this heat continues, I would not be surprised to hear of some tracks that end up cancelling their shows this week, particularly if the program is just a regular night of racing.
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