The 2025 Iowa IMCA Racing SPEEDweek began on Monday night, August 4th at the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta Iowa. The Buena Vista Raceway, affectionally known as "The Beaver," was hosting a Monday night, five class special event program to start off SPEEDweek with the top money being two grand to win the Stock Car feature and a thousand dollars to win the Modified main event.
Also on the card were the Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks, Sport Compacts and the BVR Bombers. The winners in the big money paying events were veteran Stock Car driver Randy Brands and Sioux City's Cody Thompson in the Modified feature.
There will be special event racing each night this week, right up to the Saturday night Night of 1000 Stars race at Hancock County in Britt that concludes SPEEDweek for 2025.
It was an excellent night for racing in the Siouxland of Iowa with the threatened rain of this morning long gone without producing any precipitation. BVR has been snake bit all season and they have actually only raced three times so far this year due to seemingly every race night being hit by rain! They have lost so many shows that they have actually rebooked a couple of races on Monday nights yet this month to try and get a few more races in this year. So when it turned cloudy here this morning, everyone was thinking bad thoughts indeed but for once it threatened but did not deliver and as the clouds moved off to the Southeast and the sun reappeared, everyone, especially promoter Trent Chinn, breathed a sign of relief.
Car counts on Monday were not spectacular but again, it is a long week of racing and for the local drivers, it is indeed a Monday night and tough for some of them to get to the track. Three of the six classes offered had only enough drivers on hand to fill a single heat including the Sport Mods, Sport Compacts and BVR Bombers but the Stock Cars and Modifieds, where the bigger money was offered, had solid fields that produced some excellent racing.
The Buena Vista County Fairboard gets a big "thumbs down" for their lack of caring for the racing and for making their fairgrounds look nice for this special event. About a quarter of the infield, which is used as the primary pitting area for the race cars here, was still filled with giant piles of dirt, left over from the Fair where they were used for jumps etc, for the stunt racing that took place during that event. Promised to be removed by this time, there they still sat even as some that had been hauled away sat over the end of turn three. It made the place look extremely shabby and made for a big parking problem with drivers squeezed together, parked at awkward angles and forced some of the drivers to pit outside the track in very inconvenient spots. Also, it wouldn't hurt to cut the grass in the spectator parking lot before it gets up to the doors of the vehicles parked there. This lack of effort makes one wonder just how much they value racing at the Beaver.
Promoter Trent Chinn was busy adding water to the track almost constantly so I didn't get to talk to him but between here and Clay County, the other track he promotes, it has been a challenging year with both tracks losing countless shows in 2025.
With a good sized crowd in the stands, especially for a Monday night, racing would begin just after 7 pm and the heats moved through quickly, with the thirteen qualifying events taking less than one hour to complete. I have to admit, the qualifying events as a whole were a little on the ordinary side on the dry slick track, but thankfully, the main events were much better with some excellent side by side racing, drivers finding multiple lanes to race on and some good finishes.
A word about the reporting here, this track certainly could use, but doesn't currently have a scoreboard so it gets a bit tough to report all the facts that I would like but I do the best I can with what I have. Really, it doesn't need to be a jumbotron, just get a simple scoreboard even if all it does is count down laps. Every high school in the nation, no matter how small, has one at their football field, surely Buena Vista County could come up with one somewhere.
The highlight event was the Stock Car feature and the drivers in this race did a great job of finding the different lines available to race on. The track was dry and slick and it seemed like hugging the inside line and playing the "catfish" was the best way to go. However, several drivers, led by Brands, found a way to cut through the traffic and then use the high side to their advantage.
Jake Masters got a great start as somehow he found an opening on the first lap to go from inside of the third row into the lead by the time the field had crossed the line for the first time. Tim Rupp was also charging and he quickly moved into second and was riding the rear bumper of Masters as they circled the track. Mike Albertsen, Devin Smith and Justin Nehring were all close behind.
However, at about this point, several of the drivers moved to the top side of the track, including Nehring, Brands and Brian Blessington. It was a long way around way up on top but they started to make it work and while Masters and Rupp were still right on the inside tires, a line formed up against the cushion also and it made for very interesting racing.
There were two yellows early in the going but then lots of green flag racing took place. A key moment was when Brands got past Nehring to lead the group that was running the top side and once Randy got clear, he began to close rapidly on Rupp and Masters.
The crowd really got into this, and they were on their feet cheering on the charge of Brands, who blew past Masters down the front chute to take over the lead and then he proceeded to march away from the pack. His drive was a dandy and by the time the checkers flew, he had nearly a full straightaway on the pack that couldn't keep up with him.
There were other substantial changes in the running order late with David Smith coming from the sixth row to drive into second late with Blessington rounding out the top three. The two early leaders, Masters and Rupp, were relegated to fifth and sixth as the pack kind of overcame them late.
The Modified feature was a real nail biter too with some great side by side battles for the lead marking this contest. Jesse Rogotzke used the outside pole to take the early lead and when Cole Czarneski moved into second, they had a good race for the lead for several laps before Czarneski took over the top spot.
A yellow at the halfway point saved Rogotzke's butt, as he spun in turn two but another driver fortunately beat him to the yellow so Jesse got second back. However, he couldn't hold off Cody Thompson, who after starting tenth was really on the charge.
He got past Rogotzke for second and then closed on Czarneski for the lead. These two did come great racing for the lead then, with Thompson boring hard into the corners to slide under Czarneski several times and they got oh so close at high speed but I don't think they even touched. It was dandy racing but Thompson wore out Czarneski eventually and took over the lead.
Once in front, Thompson pulled away and the focus was on second where national Late Model driving start Ethan Dotson was driving the Snyder #98 and came roaring up to challenge Czarneski. He threw the biggest slider in captivity at Czarneski but couldn't quite make it work, settling for third with Czarneski finishing ahead of him.
A small field of Sport Mods found Mike Smith starting on the pole and driving away from the small pack as he led from start to finish and was never really challenged. Rusty Montague started sixth and raced up to second late in the going to beat out Joe Reetz for that spot.
The field of Sport Compacts was also a small one and front row starter Levi Volkert led for a number of laps before Tyler Thompson moved up from the second row to make what would be the wining pass.. Volkert would later tangle with Cody Gorden while battling for second and trigger the lone yellow of the race. Volkert led off what was probably the fastest parade lap in recorded history to start off the race.
There was quite a scramble for the second position and on back as Thompson pulled away and Brooke Osler surged forward right at the end to get the second spot while Gorden came from the back to finish third.
The Hobby Stock feature was a rough and tumble affair with five four yellows and one red flag thrown in. Before a lap could be completed, there was a mad scramble down the back chute that saw several drivers impact with each other, a couple pound the guardrail and Max Pogeler go for a flip. Everybody was OK but several cars were eliminated.
Officially Dayton Ullrich was scored the leader of all sixteen laps of this race, but he was under the gun constantly with his most persistent challenger being Will Smith. Smith threw several sliders at the leader but Ullrich was always able to come out ahead on the other side of the corner.
Spins kept the field bunched but each time Ullrich fought off all challenges from Smith and drove on for the win with Justin Frederick coming from the fifth row to complete the top three.
The "Beaver Bombers" were just that with Kyler Mattson leading from start to finish to win this race. They only got four recorded laps completed before track officials stuck a fork in this one, due to multiple yellows for spins, crashes and point leader Coltley Timmerman who went off the turn one banking and was stuck on the edge of the fairgrounds property until discovered by the search crew. Grant Smith was second across the line with Wyatt Johnson third.
The feature races provided some good racing action and some high speed, side by side racing, perhaps better than I can recall from previous visits here. All racing was completed by 10: 30 pm but it would have been earlier with the Hobby Stock feature being quite the time eater.
Interestingly, BVR will complete their 2025 season with a Monday night show on August 25th with Wednesday night shows scheduled for the next two weeks, weather permitting of course.
Thanks to Trent Chinn and the staff at "The Beaver" for a nice night of racing.
No comments:
Post a Comment