On Monday night, June 2nd, I settled in for what I hope will be three consecutive nights of IMCA racing at the Summer Nationals hosted by Mike VanGenderen and Trent Chinn at the Spencer Co. Fair Speedway at the beautiful fairgrounds in Spencer Iowa.
On Sunday the Sport Compacts and Hobby Stocks ran a full program and on Monday night the Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Modifieds join in to present a five class program. Monday night will be the last night for the first two classes while the other three are just beginning, racing each night through Wednesday night with progressively bigger purses on the line each night.
One hundred and forty three drivers signed in for Monday night's show which required B Features for all classes except the Sport Compacts. It was definitely going to be a full night of racing, especially for a Monday night but then other circumstances came into play that made brevity an even bigger consideration.
It was a brutal day to keep moisture in a race track. The temperatures were in the nineties with a bright sunshine most of the day. The winds were extraordinary, blowing up to forty miles an hour at times but it was a hot, dry wind that felt like it was sucking the moisture right out of your body. How in the world they could or would keep moisture in the race track was anyone's guess. We would learn when they started racing that the track would be just fine, thank you and actually produce some of the finest half mile racing I have seen in quite some time.
Throwing a further monkey wrench in the proceedings was the fact that the weather took a turn for the worst, with a forecast that previously called for rain after Midnight that was suddenly bumped up to 6 pm and rapidly darkening skies that would confirm that update. When first the storm watches, followed by the storm warnings for areas West of Spencer were issued, I was more than worried.
I have to hand it to MVG though, as when I spoke to him just before the driver's meeting, he was cool and calm about the whole thing. He quietly believed that they would get the show in, and while he admitted the hot weather followed by the threat of severe storms would likely kill the crowd, that was why they ran three full and independent shows so that one or more nights might make up for a bad one. I had no skin in the game, other than time and money invested to attend the races but when there is a chance an event might get rained out, I always go "bonkers', yet here he was cool as a cucumber with much more invested than I! I have to hand it to him.
Despite all the factors that were making it tough to present and complete the program on Monday, I have to say that the races were some of the finest that I have ever seen at Spencer and as I said, one of the best "half mile" programs I had seen in a long time. Throw in the fact that it was one of the quickest and smoothest run programs of the year on top of that, and there was much to smile about on the way to the hotel after the final checkered flag.
I was particularly stunned at how well the track raced. The heat races in most classes were just epic with great battles throughout the pack with only a certain number of drivers making the mains. They therefore had to really fight to get to the front and hopefully make a redraw starting position. They were going back and forth, high and low and yet, managing to race very hard without getting into each other.
With the weather conditions deteriorating, track officials were in an epic battle to push through the program as quickly as possible and at least get the heats done so they could run double feature programs on Tuesday. And despite the fact that the heat race action was very intense, the drivers managed to put on a show without drawing much in the way of yellow flags. In fact, sixteen heat races were completed in sixty minutes and during those heats, the yellow flag flew only two times, both in heat race number nine! In fact, all qualifying, including B Features, was completed by 8:27 pm as the drivers delivered just what track officials wanted on a night when everyone was in attack mode to get the show done and not have to make anything back up at a later date. It was a great job done with everyone working together.
And on top of everything else on a positive note happening, we would be in for two of the finest charges to the front of feature races seen all year with one feature winner coming from the fifth row and one from the seventh row.
Let's highlight the biggest charge of the night and that was in the Hobby Stock feature where Dillon Richards came from the fourteenth starting spot to add to his rapidly increasing number of feature wins already in 2025. As Blake Luinenburg took the early lead from the outside pole, Richards was on the charge immediately. Passing through traffic like " a hot knife through butter" he was soon in the top five and by the first yellow with five laps completed, was up to fourth.
He continued to move forward, passing Tucker Richardson and Tyler Smith to gain second and then he set his sights on Luinenburg, who was running at a quick pace. One more yellow on lap thirteen bunched the field and on the green, he was all over Luinenburg for the lead, finally sliding past on lap fifteen to take the lead and once in front, he pulled away for quite a remarkable win.
Luinenburg settled for second ahead of Smith with Austin Jahnz and Will Smith's late charges moving them into the top five. Richards earned fifteen hundred dollars for his win.
The other double digit charge to a win came from the driver that seems to own this place, that being Kelly Shryock. However, he won in a very un-Shryock type way tonight as the driver that seems married to the "ditch" or low side of the track, used the top side and the banking to make up much of the distance he gained.
Jake Masters grabbed the lead from the pole and would be the only other leader, other than Shryock, to lead the field. Mike Albertsen and Dallon Murty were the early challengers to Masters but it was Shryock, who started on the outside of row five, who went storming to the front as he rode the cushion of the track and was able to pass cars in bunches as they chose to run lower on the track.
He continued to fly forward and by the halfway point of the race was up to second. He put the pressure on the leader and when Masters stumbled in the turns, Kelly was right there to drive past him and take over the lead. It was quite a remarkable run by the veteran as he earned another feature win in a most unusual way. Masters would hold off Murty for second with Shelby Williams from the seventh row for fourth ahead of Justin Luinenburg. Shryock took home twelve hundred and fifty dollars.
A driver that is among the leaders in the state of Iowa in feature wins so far this year added another to the total and that was Sport Mod driver Brayton Carter. However, Carter will be the first to say that except for a late race yellow flag, he would have been a runner up driver on Monday night.
Willy Kirk was the class of the field, starting on the outside pole and opening up a large lead over the field. Tyler Watts and then Brayden Ahlers chased Kirk, but he continued to maintain a comfortable lead over the pack.
Carter started fifth and it took him until well past the halfway point of the race to move up into second. Then he did start to close on Kirk, but it still was doubtful whether he could have caught up, except for late race yellow.
And as we have seen all year, the best time to make a pass is just following a restart and that is what Carter did, hugging the inside line in turn two and getting a big boost down the back chute to take over the lead. Kirk tried to fight back and jumped the cushion and then Carter was home free to lead the last four laps and get the win. Kirk held on for second while Taylor Kuehl made a big charge of her own, coming from twelfth to move into third on the final lap ahead of Jake Sachau and Matthew Looft, all strong competitors.
Two dominating runs completed the feature race action. In the Sport Compacts, it was Gilbert Aldape who led from start to finish. He made a big move on the opening lap to come up from the second row and duck under Brooke Osler to take the lead. After that, the field just got a glance at the back end of his Cavalier as he drove away from the field, never being seriously challenged.
I was very impressed with the communications between the drivers and the officials during this race. Twice during the feature, drivers suffered flat tires and slowed on the track but by listening to Race Control and following the signals of the flagman, they were able to avoid the other cars and safely pull into the infield without causing a yellow flag which was very important on this night.
Osler held the second spot the reset of the way but Tyler Fiebelkorn did some hard charging as he drove up from thirteen to finish third. Justice Limoges and Tyson Roush completed the top five after early challengers Zach Frye and Travis Roush both left with flat tires.
A big opening lap move by Tripp Gaylord from the fourth starting position to the lead before one lap was completed would set the stage for his race long lead and win in the Modified feature. Tanner Black was able to stay close to Gaylord but Tripp was in control the whole distance, even after a mid race yellow bunched the field.
Following the yellow, Gaylord was again able to pull away from Black and had no problems as he drove home for the win. Behind Black, Chris Abelson made a nice run up to third and Jerry Flippo, who runs the highest line of anyone on the track, moved up to fourth in the late going, edging out Clay Money.
The weather was a battle all night. It started lightning during the Sport Mod feature and sprinkling during the Hobby Stock feature. The last two winner's presentations were held until after the final checkered, just to make sure that all racing was completed. But they beat the rain, which was coming down harder by the time I headed for the pits after the show. It was an impressive performance by all, from the drivers who raced hard but clean and lined up and were ready to go on short notice, to all the track officials who did their jobs quickly and efficiently and certainly to the track prep crew who prepared the track as well as it has ever been despite most difficult conditions. All should take a bow.
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