The last day of June, 2025 produced beautiful weather as the Midwest Madness Tour made stop number two of their week of racing on Monday night at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa. Five of IMCA 's divisions were in racing action, corresponding to those classes that usually race at this half mile oval with an excellent field of one hundred and thirty eight drivers signing in to race on a Monday night. Along with the full pit area of drivers, there was an excellent crowd on hand to support the event.
The top prize of a grand to the feature winners in the Modified and Stock Car divisions saw Kansas driver Dakota Sproul take the Modified win while area driver Jake Masters dominated the Stock Car field to also earn the top prize. Other winners in a fast paced program included Jake Sachau in the Sport Mods, Cory Probst in the Hobby Stocks and Tyler Thompson in the Sport Compacts.
Track crews had done an excellent job of getting moisture into the racing surface for this event and the track might have been in as good of condition as perhaps for any of the races I have seen here. There was a big berm that remained all night and allowed those drivers that like to run the cushion plenty of dirt to lean on while the lower part of the track stayed smooth and clean so we saw much side by side racing and plenty of passing and perhaps as much close racing as has been done on a half mile recently.
And while the drivers had to race hard to make the mains with B Features necessary for both the Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks, they raced clean and without incident. That is, until the main events when things got a little bit more contact laden.
As always, the one spin rule is a savior of putting on a quick show and it was clearly in effect on Monday as we saw time after time where spinning drivers would restart their cars and rejoin the race after an incident as opposed to just sitting and waiting for the green. The benefit of this was very pronounced on Monday as we saw sixteen heat races completed in just fifty seven minutes with the yellow flag only being used one single time! That is amazing. A couple of B Features and we were ready to being the main events.
Sport Mods started off the action and a familiar driver ended up in victory lane but driving and unfamiliar car as Jake Sachau, driving the #39 car, led from start to finish to win the feature. It was not an easy win however, despite the fact that he led from start to finish after starting on the outside pole.
The smooth early part of the program was soon changed with the Sport Mods however with two yellow flags by back marker spins and three more yellows added on later. Sachau took the lead immediately with Jacob Tacheny and Willy Kirk following. The early yellows shuffled the running order and soon it was Caleb Woodard, who had started way back in the sixth row, that would find himself all the way up to second.
In between slow downs for spins and collisions, he put plenty of pressure on Sachau for the lead, making a number of attempts to pass but not quite getting the job done. Also on the move was Taylor Kuehl and Matt Hollerich who both cracked the top five by the halfway point.
Sachau continued to lead with Woodard still trying hard to get past as Cam Reimers also cracked the top five. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and Woodard made an all out attempt to take the lead but he jumped the cushion and lost ground, with Sachau then crossing the line without challenge for the win. Reimers made a last lap pass on Kuehl to take third with Kirk completing the top five.
The Sport Compact feature went green to checkers and after an early exchange of the lead, it was Tyler Thompson who controlled the action. He and Mike Vogt shared the front row with Vogt leading the first lap before Thompson made the pass that proved to be the winning one on lap two.
Once in front, he controlled the action the rest of the way with Vogt trying to keep up with him. Behind these two however, there was some dandy racing going on as drivers fought for position, exchanged spots every lap and ran in a pack of six or more.
On the last lap, Tyler Fiebelkorn made a strong move and edged out Texan Stephen Stiteler for third with Gilbert Aldape rounding out the top five.
The Stock Cars were impressive as a full field of twenty four drivers ran off twenty five nonstop racing laps in their event. Jake Masters was the show as after starting third, he ran down early leader Levi Feltman and after passing him with an outside move, simply drove away from the field. The top side of the track was really picking up during this event and those drivers that picked up on that found a better path to the front of the field.
Justin Luinenburg and Austin Brands both moved to the high side of the track as they marched from the fourth and fifth rows respectively to move into contention. By the halfway point of the event, they were up to third and fourth spots and continuing to march forward. Feltman continued to use the low side of the track and gradually the other drivers started to reel him in.
As Masters continued to drive away from the field, Luinenburg was able to take over second with Brands following him forward. They would finish up that way, as no one had anything for leader Masters who drove on for a convincing victory. One can never count out Kelly Shryock at this track and he made a late charge after starting twelfth, as he drove up to third, edging out Brands for that spot as Feltman held on to complete the top five.
The Modified feature got off to a very bad start. With twenty four drivers pounding off turn four on the opening lap, Matt Bonine, who started on the outside pole, got crowded up into the wall on the home stretch which he then hit and turned sideways facing the track. With so many other drivers running tight together and no room to avoid the "dead in the water" car, the grinding collisions then took place as driver after driver either piled into Bonine or ran into each other trying to avoid him.
The aftermath was a mess on the front chute with several cars badly damaged. Josh Rogotzke ended up sitting on his side, propped up on the rood of Cody Hokenstad's ride while the cars of Bonine and Nick Meyer both showed heavy damage. In all, four drivers were out before a lap could be scored but fortunately, there were no reported injuries.
On the restart, Chaz Baca Jr, who started sixth, made a great opening lap move and edged past Sproul to take the initial lead. Some slide jobs broke out between the two and they traded the top spot but by lap three, Sproul had cleared Baca Jr. to take over the lead.
After that, it was a game of chasing as Sproul continued to lead with Baca Jr staying close as both worked the heavy cushion which occasionally became tricky for both as each had at least one incidence when they jumped the cushion but were able to say themselves without losing positions.
The driver on the move, however, was Brandon Beckendorf who started way back in eleventh. He quickly moved into contention but it took him, on the tricky track, a considerable number of laps to get past Shawn Harker and take over third. However, once that was accomplished, he started to reel in the leaders at a high pace.
Things tightened up toward the end, with Beckendorf clearly the fastest driver on the track. However, he ran out of laps as after the initial wreck, the rest of the race ran green to checkers. Sproul kept his car pointed the right direction and fought his way around the berm as he headed home for the win. Beckendorf's late rush climaxed when he passed Baca Jr on the final tour to take second. Behind them, Harker and Kelly Shryock completed the top five.
The Hobby Stock feature gave Cory Probst another chance to flex his muscle, as he added to his mid season feature win total which is now up to fifteen with another impressive performance. The first lap was a scramble with cars spinning and plowing into others on both ends of the track and the yellow waved quickly to get everyone sorted out and the cleanup completed.
On the second attempt, Blake Luinenburg made a great move as he took to the high side of the track and came from the third row to lead the opening lap. However, Probst, who started fifth, quickly moved into contention and while Luinenburg chose the low side of the track, Probst moved high and quickly drew in on the leader.
Probst was unstoppable as he drove past Luinenburg to take over the top spot and once in front, he pulled away from the field. There was some great jockeying of position behind him though and following a yellow flag that saw Luinenburg get over the cushion and lose several spots, there was quite the battle for second on back with a group of six or more drivers trading paint and positions.
As Probst checked out, the battle behind him raged and would carry on right to the finish. Probst was already declared the winner when the second group came of of turn four with Brandon Nielsen coming from the fifth row to claim second. Will Smith made a great low side move on the last corner, gaining perhaps three spots as he crossed the line in third with Tyler Smith and Luinenburg tight behind him as second through eighth were in a tight group.
As usual, Spencer runs off a quick program under the direction of Trent Chinn Promotions. The first half of the show blazed through quickly but with a number of yellows in the features, it was sometime after 10:30 pm before the final checkers took place. I would like to see them somehow shorten up the hot lap sessions, which always make the start of the program at nearly 7:30 pm so they barely took over three hours to run off a big show, but they just get too late a start in my opinion.
Three more nights of the Midwest Madness Tour remain with visits to Park Jeff, Alta and Stuart upcoming.
No comments:
Post a Comment