The very aggressive 2025 schedule at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa continued on Monday night, May 5th with the second show in as many nights. The top attraction on Monday was an appearance by the Dirt Crown Stock Car Series with the Stock Cars running for five grand to win on Monday. An elevated payoff found the Modifieds racing for two grand to win while the Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks were racing with the winner earning a thousand dollars and the Sport Compacts were racing for five hundred bucks to the winner.
Clay Co. has been battling with the weather so far this year with two events on the specials only schedule having been rained out so far but they hit a winner this week with excellent Spring fair weather conditions for both their Sunday and Monday night shows. I was told they had some excellent racing on Sunday night and with even more money on the line on Monday, most of the racers returned along with some different drivers that were competing at other events on Sunday.
All told, in the five IMCA classes that were racing, one hundred and twenty three drivers signed in to race, making for multiple heats in all classes with B Features needed for the Stock Cars. Not surprisingly, with the most money on the line and Dirt Crown points available, the Stock Car class fielded the biggest contingent of drivers with forty two of them on hand to race.
Most of the officials that have worked Clay Co. in past years were on hand including Trent Chinn Promotions in charge and Jerry VanSickel calling the action from the grandstands. New comers visiting the track for the first time always express their surprise at the vastness of this supposedly County Fair facility and are shocked by the size of both the grounds itself and the grandstand specifically.
It was a draw/redraw show on Monday with the Mods and Stock Cars doing their redraw in front of the crowd after all the qualifying was completed and as you might expect, the heat race action was intense, particularly so in the Stock Cars where barely over half the field would be allowed to start the twenty four car, thirty lap main event. Some very good teams like Dustin Reeh, Maquire DeJong, Gage Neal and Damon Marty were left on the sidelines when the Stock Car feature rolled out.
The Stock Car headliner got off to a bit of a shaky start with a first turn grinding collision that eliminated four drivers and then a spin on the second attempt that slowed the action once again. However, from that point on, it was green flag racing with thirty laps clicked off without the need of a single more yellow.
Nebraska driver Austin Brauner held the pole with Wisconsin driver Cole Czarneski along side of him and they proceeded to put on quite an early show. Brauner took the initial lead but Czarneski moved up beside him and edged past into the top spot. Brauner came back to grab the lead once again but Czarneski once again edged back in front. They continued to run nearly side by side with Shelby Williams less than a half car length behind in third and Kelly Shryock in four. Most of the drivers were running the inside line but Czarneski was up a lane on the track and repeatedly drove harder into the corners and was able to fight off Brauner.
Just before the halfway point, Williams bobbled and Shryock shot up to third and closed quickly on the lead duo. With lots of green flag laps in a row, the track seemingly started to take rubber in the low groove and some of the drivers started to fight a pushing condition in their cars. Shryock is the low groove master here as well as at many other tracks and he quickly moved up and then past Brauner to take second and then closed on leader Czarneski.
Cole was also fighting in the corners and not able to find the best line as he continued to slide off the bottom and Shryock quickly caught him and on lap twenty four, ducked to the inside and took over the lead which he immediately enlarged. Czarneski then tried to use the top side and that didn't work as he faded back more with Brauner passing him for second.
The last few laps saw Shryock even start to struggle as he slid off the bottom a bit and Brauner had new life as he looked for a pass for the lead. It came down to the final lap with Shryock just a bit higher down the back chute then he would have liked. Brauner bored into turn three and taking a clue from all the NASCAR punks and other asphalt drivers and their driving tactics, gave Shryock's car a sharp shot in the left rear, sending Kelly sliding up the track and then Brauner drove under him and to the flag as the winner. His driving tactics drew a decidedly mixed reaction from the many Shryock fans in attendance and then he tried to apologize away his driving tactics in a victory lane interview with J VAN. Shryock was clearly not happy but he didn't have time to voice much displeasure as he had to jump into his Modified for their feature which was the next event. However, I would say that Mr. Brauner better be checking his rear view mirror that next time the two meet on the track, and for a decidedly good reason. Behind Shryock, it was Williams in third with Dallon Murty and a fading Czarneski completing the top five.
The Modified feature saw Jordan Grabouski lead from green to checkers to take home the big money in that class. He started on the outside pole and grabbed the early lead from Jake McBurnie as Tim Ward moved into third and then second.
Grabouski had built up a nice early advantage which Ward slowly cut into as this race also had a long stretch of green flag racing. Nick Meyer went over the edge of the track which brought out the only yellow of the race and bunched the field. There weren't many laps remaining in the contest but Ward was all over Grabouski on the restart. With just two laps to go, he had his chance when Grabo jumped the cushion in turn one but Tim couldn't quite it the job done and his momentum was killed which didn't allow him the chance to perhaps throw a last corner slider.
Grabouski would motor on for the win with Ward settling for second. Brandon Beckendorf, Czarneski and McBurnie completed the top five.
The Hobby Stocks generally run a pretty clean race here but they were a bit off on Monday with several crashes and spins slowing their main event. Though it all though, the driver to beat was Cory Probst. Brandon Nielsen did take the initial lead as he got the jump on Probst but when Brandon started sliding up the track, Probst quickly drove under him and took over the top spot. After that, it was a matter of trying to catch Probst and despite several yellows that continued to bunch the field, no one could get pat him.
There was much jockeying of position behind Probst and a considerable amount of pushing and shoving as the positions were changing rapidly. Late in the race, Blake Luinenburg, who had started eleventh, drove past Nielsen for second and put as much pressure on Probst and anyone but he too came up short as Probst drove on for the win. Nielsen nipped Justin Frederick for third with Nick Schilling also in the top five.
There was a slew of really fast Sport Mods starting right up front in their main event with Colby Fett taking the early lead. He struggled to hold off Alec Fett however, who was able to pass him and take over the lead. Meanwhile, Brayton Carter, who started fifth, started to pick up the pace and he found a line that was paying him dividends, particularly when he started to diamond the track off turn one and got a great run down the back chute.
By the halfway point of the race, he was up to second and closing on Alec Fett. It was not an easy pass to make however, as Fett fought hard and Carter had to attempt several times for the winning move as he experimented looking for the best line and would eventually settle for the high side all the way around the track that gave him enough boost to shoot into the lead. After that, he could set his own pace and line and pulled away in the last five laps for the win.
A close battle for second found Colby coming back and passing Alec for the spot. Matt Looft and Matt Avila completed the top five.
A good field of Sport Compacts was on hand but Mike Vogt led from start to finish to take the win. He started on the outside pole and got the jump on Gilbert Aldape to grab the early lead and then spent the entire race fighting off challenges from Devin Jones. Jones was digging on every corner, trying to sneak under the leader and make the pass but Vogt continued to hold his off as the lead pack of racers was quite large.
Jones made one last attempt off the final corner and got to the inside of Vogt but came up a half car length short as Vogt drove on for the win. Caine Mahlberg, Levi Volkert and Camden Nehring finished very close behind the lead duo.
A lot of racing was crammed into just over three hours of racing with the final checkered waving right around 10:30 pm. A very nice sized Monday night crowd was on hand, particularly given that they had just raced also twenty four hours earlier. If I beg enough, I keep hoping that the Fair will invest in some kind of a scoreboard. It sure would be nice to know just how many laps are being run and just where we are in each race without having to rely on J VAN and it seemed like a notable omission from a facility that offers just about everything else for the fan.
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