Midwest Madness Tour Visits Spencer; Sobbing Tops List of Winners

So it is Monday. The last Monday before the fourth of July holiday weekend. What to do? Should I cut the grass today or perhaps try and get caught up on the laundry. Weeds need to be pulled in the flower bed. There's always something around the house that needs doing or repairing. Perhaps I should just spend the day chasing away the five black bears that have taken up residence in our yard, but that is another story for another time.
Wait. Maybe instead of doing any of the above I should just jump in the car, drive to Spencer Iowa and attend night three of the Midwest Madness Tour featuring five IMCA divisions and a guaranteed big field of cars. Yes. That is a much better plan and a wiser use of my precious time.
And so I did. Welcome to night three of the Midwest Madness Tour presented by Western Iowa Race Report.com. I enjoy their website and I get a lot of information off of it. I also got lots of entertainment in witnessing the event they put on Monday, June 29th at the Clay County Fairgrounds Speedway in Spencer Iowa. This was night three of their seven night tour and the car counts remained strong with the travelers supporting the entire series supplemented by area drivers that attend the short series of races that are being held here this year at the Clay County Fairgrounds. In fact this was just the second race at the Fairgrounds so far this year as they run a series of mostly Monday night specials and so far that format seems to have worked well for them.
By my count, one hundred and forty five cars signed in to race here at Spencer with four of the divisions producing over thirty cars per division along with a small handful of Sport Compacts that truly don't even deserve the time they take to run at an event like this. Four strong classes would be plenty of cars until and perhaps when the Sport Compacts could produce a field of cars big enough to even allow on the track.
There is a point series that goes along with this tour and the support, class by class varies wildly. While thirteen of the top fifteen in Modified points traveled on to Spencer on Monday, only seven in the Stock Cars were on hand and even less in the other two classes. The top six in Hobby Stock points were on hand and the top ten in Sport Mods points didn't even bother to show up with the highest point driver, Hunter Longnecker, currently running fourth. No matter though, as with over thirty in each class there were plenty of strong racers on hand.
A series of twenty two qualifying races set the field for the five main events. B Features were required for all classes except of course the Sport Compacts with many fast cars not even making the cut for the main events. The track held up well through all the pounding it was taking and the one spin rule kept the program moving on a number of occasions where if it wouldn't have been in effect, we would have seem a volley of yellow flags otherwise.
The Sport Mod feature was first up on the schedule and how many times do you see a twenty four car field of Sport Mods go non stop, green to checkered? That's what I thought, not very darn often. Well, it happened on Monday and I saw it. And not only did it go nonstop, all twenty four cars that took the green flag were still on the track and racing at the checkered! That doesn't happen often.
And as you can guess, the lapped traffic was unbelievable. Winner Cody Thompson spent the last half of the race bobbing and weaving through very heavy traffic and having to utilize the whole track to find the openings he needed. In fact, when the checkered flew, there were only eleven cars on the lead lap with the rest of the field down one lap which made for a nightmare scoring this event if they were using the old pen and paper style. It would have taken them hours to sort through this logistical nightmare.
Justin Klynsma was the early leader of the race but Thompson swept past him on the high side after a couple laps and then disappearing into the Clay County twilight as Cody kept himself busy weaving through what must have seemed like rush hour traffic in a bottled up MIx Master in Des Moines. But he survived just fine to take the win. Klynsma held off a late race challenge from Doug Smith to retain second.
Even though there were only six Sport Compacts, they managed to stage an entertaining of sorts main event. Kaytee DeVries was the runaway leader early with Jade Lange gradually reeling her in. A yellow bunched the field and on the green DeVries just didn't seem to have quite as much speed as Lange drove past her to get the win, one that was not particularly appreciated by DeVries' hometown fans. Tyler Fiebelkorn drove four hours here to compete and finished third.
Jesse Sobbing started on the pole for the Modified twenty five lapper and he led most of the contest but it wasn't quite as easy as it might have sounded. He got some still early competition from Bob Moore and then a group of about three other drivers worked their way into the mix and it led to an interesting contest.
A couple of late restarts scrambled the running order and Brandon Beckendorf made a determined advancement as he worked his way late into second but it was too late to put a challenge on Sobbing.  Chris Abelson and Kyle Brown also advanced nicely through the pack as they both came from the fifth row to third and fourth at the finish.
Jason Kohl led all laps of the Hobby Stock feature but again it wasn't near as easy as it might have sounded. The top side of the track proved to be the dominant lane to run as the evening wore on, and it was a struggle to protect that line while also trying to negotiate through traffic and at the same time protect yourself from the slide jobs that the others were trying.
Kohl had a pair of Nielsen's in his rear view mirror as Brandon and Cody took turns attacking him on the bottom lane while also having to slide back up the track and stay in the fast groove. They were also really battling with each other as they exchanged grooves on the track while at the same time trying to get past Kohl.
Cory Probst came from tenth on the grid to be a part of the conversation as the top four were running in a group. On the last lap, Brandon Nielsen went for broke in an attempt to take over the lead and it cost him second as he couldn't pull off the past and instead slipped off the fast lane. Probst would get the spot behind Kohl who had his hands full with Cody N. next in line. This race had just a single yellow and only three drivers that didn't finish off the event as the theme of the night was both few yellow flags and very few non finishers in the main events.
The Stock Cars wrapped up the night with the same scenario playing out as they went nonstop to the finish and only a single driver didn't finish the event.
This race proved to be a two car battle between Devin Smith and Elijah Zevenbergen for most of the race. Randy Brands started on the pole and he and Zevenbergen raced wheel to wheel on the opening lap. Smith made a brilliant move as he cut low down the back chute and ducked up ahead of Elijah to the dominant top side and then drove past Brands to take the lead.
This move seemed to fire up Zevenbergen who seemd to pick up the pace and then drive to second on the rear bumper of Smith. It was fun for a series of laps as they exchanged slide jobs and swapped lanes on the track as that top side was the place to be and they took turns wrestling for that lane.
However, after some close near misses, Smith started to assert some dominance and he pulled to a several car length lead. Things got dicey once again when the leaders caught traffic and Smith had a few anxious moments before he finally found the holes to get past the slower cars while also pinning Elijah behind them so he couldn't take advantage.
At the finish, Smith has three lapped cars between himself and Zevenbergen while a late charging Jeff Larson worked his way up to a close third place finish and Kelly Shryock came from eleventh to fourth.
As stated earlier, a big crowd was on hand for the Monday night show but many had to get up and leave early as things go a little late before the final checkered flag waved. The track crew did a commendable job running off the program as they were hustling cars out for the next heat almost before the previous one had crossed the line. Track announcer Chad Meyer was scrambling to keep up and when they out race this announcer you know that they are moving things along. All told, they got twenty seven races completed in about three and a half hours which is really moving things along.
The only problem is that they didn't throw the first green flag until almost 8 pm and that simply is too late when the racing card is this big. This was the same problem they had at their last show here.  They ran things off great, they just got started too late. So if that means making the cut off earlier, or perhaps not having hot laps which take a considerable amount of time with that many cars, something must change so that they can get started earlier and then they will be able to complete the show early, instead of at 11:30 pm on a Monday night.
Otherwise, it was a good show with an impressive car count and a much better way of spending a Monday night, rather than pulling weeds!

Late Models Put On The Show At Davenport; Heckenast And Kay Thrill With Late Passes

This is a slightly late report as I was traveling and unavailable to get anything out earlier. However, doesn't diminish the excellent show we saw on Thursday night, June 25th at the Davenport Speedway as the MARS Late Models and IMCA Late Models would provide a spectacular night of racing for a very big midweek crowd on hand.
This would be the first show for the MARS series in 2020 as new owner Tony Izzo Jr has been bitten by the same plague bug that has affected most of racing so far in 2020. A recently announced three night stand for the MARS cars was set up that would involve two Iowa and one Illinois tracks and finally get their season started.
Along with the MARS cars, the only support class, if you can call them fairly a support class after the show they put on Thursday, was the IMCA Late Models and with a rain delayed feature race from one week ago to complete, the fans would see lots of Late Model racing and nothing else for those folks that would prefer just Late Models. This was a rare event these days, and perhaps the big Thursday night crowd was them telling the promoters that once in a while at least, they like like to just have the "turkey and hold the trimmings".
Twenty one cars in each class signed in to race with their being much uncertainty just who would Whshow up to run the MARS series, given that it is really a whole new show this year. To emphasize that, only two of the top ten in MARS points from last year were entered and that would be Brian Shirley and Allen Weisser. Regional open motored drivers from Iowa and Illinois would dominate the entrants with some badly timed scheduling finding several drivers that would be expected to "jump all over these shows" to instead be off traveling this weekend with another series but the cars on hand put on a dandy show and the size of the field probably fit perfectly into the tight time schedule that is required at Davenport.
I guess it must have been some time since I was last at Davenport and I couldn't help but notice just what a nice facility the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds is these days with lots of refurbished buildings and some new construction that really make it one of the nicest Fairgrounds around. The only bad thing is that it is surrounded by the city of Davenport which makes noise issues probably a bigger deal than at some Fairgrounds.
The two Late Model classes running with no other support classes is indeed a rarity these days and it made every event both important and exciting and the action started almost immediately. The running order got messed up a bit right at the start and led to the only delay of the night as the MARS cars were lined up and ready to qualify when an issue was discovered with timing and scoring. After some minutes with no resolution to the problem, the MARS cars were sent to the pits and the IMCA Late Models came out to run their make up feature from June 19th.
It was good that the fans got to see feature racing right off the bat as they were an impatient crowd indeed and cut the officials no slack at all as they demanded action. Fortunately, the IMCA Late Models gave them a dandy race to satisfy their new for action.
Hall of Famer Gary Webb led the opening laps of this race until he was passed by Matt Ryan.  While Ryan continued to lead, Justin Kay was on the move as he slowly and then more quickly began to move up through the field. He was using the cushion and after the halfway point of the race was really coming to the front fast. He moved into second and continued to charge and as the leaders were receiving the white flag, he drove past Ryan on the top side and took the exciting win.
Kay came from sixteenth on the grid to take the win in a race that was only stopped three times for yellows and saw the last eighteen laps go nonstop so with those circumstances, you know that Kay was just flying. It was a  great race and just the first of what would be several top notch events.
The MARS officials never could solve their timing issue so their drivers drew for positions for their heats and then qualified for the feature based on the old draw/redraw format. The loss of time trials no doubt sped up the program by considerable measures and was met by smiles from yours truly as not only did it help get the program back on pace, it allowed us to see some intense heat race action where otherwise we likely would have seen a "train" for the heats.
Despite blowing a motor in hot laps and having to roll out a back up car, Bobby Pierce was a heat race winner along with Allen Weisser and Spencer Diercks. An interesting note found Daryn Klein in the ride usually driven by Michael Kloos this week.
No B Features were needed and then it was time to roll right into the second IMCA feature race. And this one was just as good as the previous race. Matt Ryan, trying to make for his late race loss in the first feature, started on the outside pole and took the initial lead. With his good starting spot, it would have seemed that he would likely dominant and while he led most laps, he couldn't put too much distance on the field as he would have liked.
Because, guess what, here came that 15K car again, this time from the eleventh starting spot and gradually and smoothly, he moved up through the field. However, he was only sixth following a lap seventeen yellow, the only slow down of the race. But that gave Kay his opportunity and he moved to the low groove and began picking off cars at a rapid pace. Soon he was challenging Ryan again for the lead and once again, as they came to the line for the last lap, Kay again drove past Ryan and took the win!
It was another spectacular finish for the IMCA cars and two great battles between Kay and Ryan. Very impressive was the fact that Kay won both after starting deep in the field for both and in the first feature he won with an outside pass while in the second he was working the low side of the track. If you can work both lanes of the track and have much success, you know that you have got a real good race car. And how frustrating must it have been for Ryan to lose both features right at the end, and to the same car both times! However, both deserve much credit for putting on a great show.
And let's not forget to credit the track prep crew who provided a great race track that was fast in multiple lanes as they were the ones that allowed the drivers to showcase their talents.
The MARS Late Models wrapped up the night with their forty lap main event which was a dandy too. Pierce led from the outside pole and maintained the lead for the first twenty five laps. However, moving up using the bottom side of the track was Frankie Heckenast who had started ninth and he became a factor near the halfway point of the race.
Continuing to work the low side, he showed himself to Pierce and then made a strong pass to take over the top spot. Pierce was all over the track, trying different lines on both the top and bottom side of the track but he just couldn't find the groove that would get him the lead back.
Later both Pierce and Brian Birkhofer, who was a strong challenger too, would take trips off the fourth corner that would cost them positions. The last twenty six laps of this race would go nonstop and Weisser would pick up the pace late, racing his way into second at the finish ahead of Brian Shirley.
All racing was done by 10 pm in what was a highly entertaining program that was "spot on" in nearly every phase. The track was great, the drivers raced all over it and the show, other than the hiccup with timing that slowed things down if only for awhile, was quickly and efficiently ran off. For the true Late Model fans, it couldn't have been much better and I was glad to see that the promoters were rewarded with a big crowd for their rather daring scheduling move. 

Berry Jr Among Dominating Winners at Durbin Memorial

Dominating performances were the order of the night on Wednesday night, June 24th at the Stuart International Speedway as the second annual Jake Durbin Memorial race was held on a spectacular night for dirt track racing in central Iowa.
Tom Berry Jr, Buck Schafroth, Chuck Madden Jr and Owen Richards led for most of their respective feature races to take wins while only the Sport Mods found a late race change as a lap fourteen yellow allowed Brian Osantowski to make andoutside pass and drive on for victory in that race.
It was another busy Wednesday night at the track with another special event featured on the schedule with the second annual Jake Durbin Memorial race being held. The schedule at Stuart holds many more special events than "regular" races during the course of the season and as long as the sponsors and fans continue to support the track, that is the plan they will take.
Certainly for this event they had a huge number of businesses and individuals they threw many and product into the purse that swelled it and made it a very attractive midweek stop. While I thought the crowd was down just a bit from perhaps some of the earlier specials here, that may have just been a reaction to the fact that this is a pre holiday week and many people may have been trying to just plan for a big week over the fourth. A factor to be considered also is that while there may have been a few less "butts in the stands", we don't know how many people bought the "pay per view" that might have been more handy for them as they get ready for the fourth of July holiday. That's a wild card that also must be fashioned into the equation these days.
Ninety four cars signed in to race in the five IMCA divisions that I monitor with the largest turnout being the Modifieds with twenty eight that required a B Feature and twenty four Stock Cars were all would start the feature.
A source of early evening entertainment even before the racing begins is the occasional controversy over the pit parking situation. It doesn't break out every week but every so often you can witness an entertaining and interesting flare up as crews "discuss" who should be parked where and how much room they should be allowed. It is interesting to watch them as they "arrange" just who should be parked where and to make sure that they aren't an inch over where they are supposed to be. These same people will them park their pick up trucks all kitty wampass in the McDonalds parking lot, take up three spaces and never give it a second thought! Figure that out.
Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Modifieds all used the draw/redraw format for racing on this night with the other divisions using their regular point average system. Did that have anything to do with the dominating performances that two of these three divisions had? Probably not, at least on this night as one of the winners came from the second row, one the third and one from the fourth row.
The track was in excellent shape once again, both smooth and fast and while later promoter Mike VanGenderen had to a couple times either sprinkle the track or scratch it slightly, that was done just to try and "even up" the track if one groove looked to be dominating more than the other. None of this took much time or slowed down the speed of the program.
Good track conditions probably had much to do with the fact that once again, the program moved by so quickly. There were only a total of two yellow flags in thirteen qualifying events and not a single event all night that saw more than two yellow flags. All this has much to do with spinning off a quick program which is very important for mid week shows.
The feature that was most contested was the Sport Mod main and it did come at a bit of a surprise as Brayton Carter was the driver that was overtaken by a late race pass and generally speaking, if he is in front near the end, he will likely win. But not so on this night. He had driven into the lead following an early yellow when he was able to make the pass on early race leader Cam Reimers.
Once in front, Carter dropped to the low groove and seemed comfortable there. However, Reimers started to work the top side and seemed to be gaining ground when a spin by Cody Thompson with fourteen laps complete really changed things up.
Reimers had a bad restart and dropped back but Osantowski went to the cushion himself and Carter found himself to be a "sitting duck" as Brian drove around him in the few laps that remained and Carter was unable to fight back and had to settle for second behind the Nebraska driver. Dusty Masolini came from eleventh to finish third.
Dominating the Sport Compact feature race was Owen Richards who started on the pole, led all laps and was never really challenged. Last week's winner Hunter Patrick settled for second with Brian Fiebelkorn third.
Riley Songer led the first two laps of the Hobby Stock feature until the yellow waved and following that slow down, Chuck Madden Jr drove past on the high side and pulled away for a comfortable win in a race that was not stopped again. Dylan Nelson got second over Brandon Ross.
Jeremy Gettler was the early leader in the Stock Car feature but it didn't take Schafroth long to come charging up from the third row and once he got to the top side of the track, he blasted into the lead and pretty much left the field behind him. Gettler was involved in a big battle for second when the lone yellow for a spin came out with fourteen laps complete.
Things really got shuffled on the restart, as they often do. Schafroth was not involved as he was long gone but Gettler and Mike Goldsberry both were the losers as they lost several positions at the end. The Murty's came charging to the front with Dallon and Damon ending us second and third as they tore to the cushion and gained some positions near the end.
The Modified feature did see three different leaders before Berry Jr took over. Dylan Thornton led at the beginning before being passed by Jordy Nelson for the top spot. A lap six yellow proved to be key as Berry Jr, who had started eighth, had worked his way up to third before the yellow waved.
On the green, he got a great run into turn one, slid up the track and was able to get past both of the cars in front of him to take over the lead. Once in front, he was gone as he pulled away from the pack.
Following a lap thirteen yellow, Richie Gustin was the challenger as he tried a couple sliders to get past Berry Jr but was unsuccessful as he experimented with an unusual line around the track. The last few laps saw Berry Jr draw away from the field and complete the win in style. Gustin held on for second while a late charge saw Cayden Carter finish third.
All racing was complete by 10 pm as another MVG promoted race ran off with a quick and organized fashion. Jeff Broeg was pinch hitting as the announcer on Wednesday with Tony Paris predisposed and he did his usual fine job, jumping right in and unless you knew that he wasn't the regular announcer, you would not have known the difference as he had the upcoming schedule, sponsors and other key facts covered. It helps that Broeg is one of the few announcers that still takes a tour of the pits to see who is on hand and what is going on, rather than just show up and be "fed" the script.
Next week its another special event at Stuart and a really big one. Racing on Thursday next week, it will be the twenty first annual Ron Little Memorial race which is a part of the Midwest Madness Tour this year which means it is a special for all five classes that race and will be traveling with the tour next week so expect a gigantic field in all five classes.

Ricky Thornton Jr Wins Again at "The Creek"

The annual "Clash at the Creek" wrapped up on Thursday night, June 18th at the 141 Speedway just North of Francis Creek Wisconsin and for the third time since this event was started, it was Ricky Thornton Jr who again sat in victory lane and collected the ten thousand dollar top prize. Support class winners, worth a grand each were Barry Maas in the Sport Mods and Luke Lemmens in the Stock Cars. Lemmens was a story in itself as he managed to sweep both nights of Stock Car action against a field of forty top notch entrants.
It was another beautiful night for racing in eastern Wisconsin with sunny skies, warm temperatures and quite a breeze out of the South. The only person that these conditions wouldn't favor would be the person in charge of track prep as keeping moisture in a race track would be very tough under these conditions. The result of that issue would pop up later in the evening.
One hundred and fifty four cars would sign in to race on Thursday with only two of the Modifieds that were on hand Wednesday not returning. They were Michael Long and Luke Lamberies, both of whom had miserable nights on Wednesday with Long returning to Illinois and not even being on the grounds while Lamberies didn't bother to unload his car, given where he was starting in a Last Chance race.
The program for Thursday would include five Last Chance races for the Mods plus the "Final Four" race that would qualify the last entrants. The Sport Mods and Stock Cars would draw once again on Thursday and both would run a full program.
Once again the show would start right at the advertised time and with less races on the schedule for Thursday, we would get done even earlier than the previous night, even though the show was topped by a fifty lapper for the Mods.
Twenty qualifying races for the three divisions would proceed the three main events and when it comes to racing here, they just simply race and don't cause yellow flags. Any driver that spins knows he better move quick or he will be in the pits and that's just what they do. It is so refreshing to not have the evening bogged down by a torrent of yellow flags being waved. On this night in those twenty qualifying races, all of which are very important and carry significance, the yellow flag waved only six times in total! That is remarkable to me but allows a speedy program to be run and the fans to know that they won't be spending a late hour at the track and those two things help make the show interesting and refreshing and that may very well be a top reason why 141 draws so many racers and fans.
One of the most crowd pleasing moments of the night occurred during a B Feature for the Sport Mods where female racers from Arizona, Shelby Frye and Taylor Kuehl finished first and second with both making the main and pleasing the crowd with their performance.
Sport Mods were up first for their main event and this was another race that went nonstop, green to checkered. The starting and finishing positions in this race might not reflect just what happened. Barry Maas and Derek Fehling started and finished first and second but that doesn't tell the tale of what actually happened in the race.
In truth, they battled side by side for the entire twenty laps, going side by side for almost the entire race and trading the top spot at the line more times than I can remember. First one, than the other would sure ahead but never by enough to clear the other driver and perhaps change lines on the track. So basically they raced side by side for twenty tours, racing for the lead.
In the late going Jayden Schmidt picked up the pace after starting fifth and he closed in to make it a three car battle. He might have been the fastest car on the track in the late going, but it was tough to find an opening to make a pass.
The top three raced to the line in a bunch with Maas holding on by half a car length for the win and Fehling nipping Schmidt by inches for second in and entertaining race.
Luke Lemmens has been dominating here all week in his Stock Car and he did it again on Thursday as he took his second win of the week. He started sixth but quickly closed in on leader Brandon Ross and when Ross slid up the track, Lemmens was right there to drive under him and take over the top spot.
Lemmens was able to put a little distance on the field but the race for second was a pack style event with about five cars jockeying for position. This race had two yellows and the last ten laps ran off nonstop with Lemmens adding to his lead at the end.
Ross hung on for second with Josh Mroczkowski edging Jeremy Christians and Kyle Frederick behind the dominating Lemmens.
Then it was time for the Modified fifty lap feature. The top ten in points earned on Wednesday night redrew for their positions in the starting field, an exercise that didn't seem quite fair since that was the whole point of Wednesday, to earn as many points as possible to start up front, or at least that's what I thought they were racing for.
In any event, when Thornton Jr redrew the pole, it was bad news for the field. He would have started outside pole if the passing points were used straight up, so it really didn't matter. Thornton Jr got the jump on Mike Mullen and led all fifty laps for the win.
Quite frankly, it was a rather anticlimactic way to wrap up two nights of spectacular racing but that is the way things play out sometimes. Sadly, the track locked down after about ten laps and it was a race to the bottom lane and then follow the leader after that.
There were four yellows in the first half of the race, most the by product of drivers running over the top of each other trying to get to the tires in the low groove. A few drivers would experiment with moving up a lane and sometimes they were able to gain a position, only to lose two if they tried the same move again. The last yellow, with twenty three laps complete, was when Tyler Stevens, who had been able to gain a few positions with this strategy, dumped Felix Dart on the front chute with both drivers calling it a night.
Terry Phillips got by Mullen for second and he occasionally tried to move up the track, usually on restarts but soon gave up on that and tucked in behind the smooth running Thornton Jr, who was hitting his marks on lap after lap and not providing any openings.
Near the end of the race, for the first time, the leaders caught the back of the pack without a yellow to bail them out, and it was up to Thornton Jr to maneuver through them. Dave Zeitler moved out of the way nicely and Thornton Jr timed his runs so that he could catch the back markers but not be forced to try a passing move as all cars were about the same speed at this point.
They were nose to tail the last few laps as Thornton Jr was not about to try a risky second lane pass and while Phillips rode him close, he was there to collect a check and not try any wild and unlikely to succeed last lap banzai outside run, so he just tucked in behind Ricky and rode it home for a second place finish. Mullen would be third with Ethan Dotson and the race's hard charger, Billy Kendall. completing the top five.
It was a somewhat disappointing end to what had been quite a couple of days of racing but sometimes that does happen, despite the best intentions of everyone. The same nice weather that everyone enjoyed was also the culprit in large measure that provided the kind of track that we saw for the finale. We all know that prepping a dirt track is about the toughest thing in our sport to do and sometimes the weather just throws a curve ball but by the same measure it is disappointing when it happens.
I waited around for Thornton Jr to do the traditional dive into the pond in the infield at 141 and he never did do it. I'm not sure if he did it later or not but I gave him plenty of time to do it and no belly flops were ever produced. Perhaps three times a winner is getting to be "old hat" or perhaps our current health situation had something to do with that.
The crowd was a huge one and perhaps the biggest ever I've seen at 141. For those states still with restrictions, forget it, we were shoulder to shoulder and butt to butt in the packed grandstands and the only mask I saw all week was when I was forced to wear one at my motel. That doesn't necessarily mean it's right, it's just a statement of fact.
Kruse, meanwhile, continues to hit "home runs" with his promotions and what a turnaround he and his top notch crew have done to convert an abandoned asphalt track in the middle of Wisconsin farm country into one of this country's most successful race tracks is a story for the ages. Thanks again to everyone at 141 for a great couple of nights of racing. 

141 Speedway Sees Schmuhl and and Lemmens In Victory Lane

After and early morning wake up call and a drive through much of Iowa and across Wisconsin, I pulled into the parking lot at 141 Speedway between the burgs of Francis Creek and Maribel. Wednesday night was night one of the twelfth annual Clash at the Creek featuring IMCA Modifieds, Stock Cars and Sport Mods.
This is one of Toby Kruse's signature events at this unique shaped track resting in the bucolic hills of eastern Wisconsin between Manitowoc and Green Bay. You know you're in "God's Country" when announcer Kruse makes a joke on a bad restart, calling it a "Minnesota Viking Cheerleader restart,  plUGLY."
Modifieds will be racing for a ten thousand dollar top prize in Thursday night's fifty lap main event and Wednesday would be qualifying night, along with a full show of Stock Cars and Sport Mods, both of which will be racing for a grand.
The car counts would be impressive as they always are for this event. Seventy six Modifieds would sign in to race along with forty eight Sport Mods and thirty nine Stock Cars. Since each night's show is an independent one for the last two classes, there likely will be some additional entries on Thursday that couldn't make it for tonight's show. One hundred and sixty three cars signed in to race alone for Wednesday night's show, and that in only three classes.
The format would be pretty straight forward for the two support classes, heats, a couple or three(depending) B Features and a main event for each class. Things were slightly more confused for the Modifieds. Each driver will race twice with the lineup for the second go round of heats flipped from the first set of heats. Each driver will race against the same drivers in each heat but from a totally opposite starting position. Finishing and passing points will be calculated for both heats with the grand totals at the end of the night locking in the top ten straight into the feature on Thursday with the other drivers running Last Chance Races plus the "final four."
Drivers from fourteen or so (I lost track, sorry) states were on hand for the Modified portion of the program with cars from as far West as the coast to Arkansas and Missouri and of course, most of the other Midwestern states.
Heat races were twelve lap events with ten or so cars in each one and a total of eight heats in the first set. The support classes ran in between and then the Modifieds did eight more heats to wrap up the night.
When all was done, the top total point earned would be Terry Phillips, with his decision to race here as opposed to doing the USMTS thing so far a good choice. Ricky Thornton Jr would be second and Jeremy Thornton would be third in points. I talked to Ricky in the pits before the show and told him we missed him at Stuart and he said he would have liked to go but was afraid that if he had any problems that he wouldn't have been able to make it to 141 and that was his primary goal for the week.
Phillips showed again what a versatile driver he is, having jumped into a car he had not been racing, doing some practice laps and then winning one heat and being edged at the line for the other. It was not a particularly good night for the local drivers as only Mike Mullen, Todd Dart, Shawn Kilgore and Dave Zeitler would be among the top ten. Tyler Stevens, Ethan Dotson and Billy "The Kid" Kendall would also go directly to the main on Thursday night.
Sixteen heat races were contested for the Modifieds and that is a lot of racing on a track, plus all the support class races. They misted the track and tried to keep it in top notch shape but there was a strong sun beating down on it plus it was also quite windy. Their best efforts lasted through most of the night but it locked down pretty hard for the second set of heat races.
For those that haven't been to 141 before, it is definitely a unique shaped, one of a kind track. I would best describe it as kidney bean shaped with the three four corner much tighter that the other corner and the back straightaway is mostly a turn into the ultra tight corner three. This track throws a monkey wrench into many driver's strategy and even veteran drivers here struggle from time to time. Throw in the slick, almost icy conditions that this track normally presents, and it can be a handful, no doubt.
The other amazing thing about this track is how quickly they run off their shows. Wednesday night they had a total of thirty races. Of those races, there was only one all night that had more than one yellow flag! Amazing! Most ran green to checkered. Laying down the law at the driver's meeting plus strict enforcement of the one spin rule keep the drivers moving if they error and the yellow flag is a rare thing to see. It is also a beautiful way to run a race program if you want to keep your customers entertained and not flat bottomed as they get huge fields of cars here for regular shows and pull off the same kind of quick paced program. Toby Kruse and his staff are right there with Mike VanGenderen in running off the quick kind of program that every track operator in the country should be doing.
Wednesday, despite the logistics of signing in over one hundred and sixty cars and having them parked all over the lot, the program started at 6:05 pm and was done four hours later. I think you would be hard pressed to match that any where else.
With Tyler Soppe on the pole, it seemed that the Sport Mod feature would be decided early. However, that was not the case as Soppe just had a tough time getting his car to turn in the corners and he quickly fell back in the field. From the second row, Jeff Schmuhl drove into the lead and then pulled away from the field. There was just a single yellow on lap three(no surprise) and he was able to pull away from the pack yet not deal with lapped traffic as the field was pretty well matched up and despite only two cars not going the distance and the last eighteen laps going green, he had to deal with only a single lapped car!
Tim Warner ran second and Jayden Schmidt completed the top five in a field that saw several cars all the way from Iowa and Illinois in the field.
The Stock Car feature saw a dominating performance by Luke Lemmens. Stuart Iowa fans saw earlier this year how fast Lemmens can be and after starting on the outside pole in this race, he simply ran away from the field. A good battle with the position swapped back and forth saw Modified ace Benji LaCrosse edge out Rick Dix for second. This race was the only one all night that saw the yellow waved more than once with this one having a heaping two yellow flags, although the last nine laps ran off green.
Aaron Karcz made quite a run as he drove up from seventeenth to finish fourth. Even making the feature fields here is especially tough as with the size of the track they normally only start twenty cars in their mains.
A big crowd was on hand for this mid week preliminary which has turned into a party week for the Wisconsin faithful with the camping lot having expanded greatly over the last couple of years and many people on hand to have fun and watch a few races.
Thursday night the Modifieds will crown a new champion while the other two classes will again run full shows.

Ramirez Leads USMTS Troups in Stuart Conquest

For the first time ever, the Modified stars of the USMTS got to race at the Stuart International Speedway on Tuesday night, June 16th. They were making their first visit as the opening night of a five night swing through Iowa in perhaps their longest string of races back to back so far this year. Along with the Modifieds, the Iron Man Series for Stock Cars and B Mods was also on hand with management opting to also include the Hobby Stocks and Tuners(USRA's name for the four cylinder class) so it was much like a regular Wednesday night show in the classes offered, just with slightly different rules and big blades on the Mods.
With USMTS not in one of their "hot beds" as far as drawing cars here, they made a strong push to try and minimize any rules differences so that the local and area cars could and hopefully would join to help beef up the field. By my count, nine what I would call IMCA cars were on hand that made the difference from it being a skinny two car heat event to what amounted to a full field of cars.
Among those that joined was Cayden Carter in a brand new Vanderbilt dressed up with USMTS body rules but still using a crate motor. Kyle Brown would be very much a presence later on during the evening as he "upgraded" with an open motor for his car while Chase Rudolf was driving a sparkling new entry also. All of the top ten in USMTS points were on hand for this show except Terry Phillips who instead opted to go racing in Wisconsin this week.
The usual format of passing points heats set the grid for the fifty lap feature race and on this night, we didn't have to endure a meaningless B Feature that would simply set the line up for those cars not already in the show. Jeff Broeg must have loved that!
All twenty four on hand took the green for the fifty lap finale with Joe Duvall pulling out a back up car after he missed his heat race with his primary entry. Rookie USMTS driver Calvin Iverson got the jump using the high side but Rodney Sanders quickly slid him for the lead. While Iverson and Jason Hughes were battling for position, Hughes slid Calvin in not the prettiest of moves and Calvin responded by "dumping" Sanders on the front chute, resulting in the first yellow and sending Iverson to the tail.
Sanders continued to lead while pounding the cushion as Tanner Mullins moved in to challenge him. For one of the rarest of times that I have seen these top drivers in action, it seemed to me that both Sanders and Mullins didn't see the track starting to change as the low groove started getting faster and faster. Perhaps it was just their unfamiliarity with Stuart, as Sanders is about the best around at spotting the fast lane on a track but when he got hung on the outside by a lapped car, Mullins drove under him and took over the lead.
As these two battled, Ramirez was making time on the bottom, a lane that he usually likes and he closed in on Mullins for the lead as Sanders continued to lose time pounding the cushion. A lapped car that slowed Mullins gave Ramirez his chance and Derek jumped on the opportunity, driving into the lead.
With the track now noticeably taking rubber in the low groove, drivers started to migrate to the bottom but Ramirez had things under control. He did have a few tense moments near the end of the track when he caught the back of the pack who were going just fast enough that he dared not get out of the groove of rubber and try and pass them on the outside, but he timed it well and kept Mullins behind him as he took his first win of 2020 with the series.
Brown really impressed fans in the second half of the race. It took him a while to get going but when he did he really came charging up using the low groove while a couple of the other drivers were still deciding where they wanted to go and his third place finish was very impressive as he passed both Sanders and Hughes near the end. The last thirty eight laps of the main went off nonstop and there were only three cars that failed to finish the distance.
Buck Schafroth really took it to the Stock Car field as he dominated their main event. He started on the pole and was the only one to truly navigate the cushion of the track which still existed when the Stock Cars ran. Other drivers were testing out grooves and moving around on the track but he just pounded the cushion constantly and pulled away, opening up nearly a full straightaway on the field. USRA Stock Car racer Austin Bouzek tried to stay with Buck but gradually slipped backward.
There was a nice scramble of cars racing for position behind the leader when a late race yellow set up a two lap sprint. This kind of messed up Schafroth as he had to regain his line while not letting the rest of the field sneak under him on the restart but he got his momentum going and drove away to record the win.
There was a wild scramble for position behind him on the last two laps and Josh Daniels able to take advantage of that as he drove up to second with Doug Keller, in a very fast but very ratty looking car finishing third.
A late yellow almost cost Dan Hovden in the B Mods too. He took the lead early and was also pounding the cushion as Brayton Carter and Josh Roney chased him. Carter would try both the top and bottom side of the track but just couldn't seem to close the gap on Hovden, who had some nice momentum built up using the top side of the track.
However, a late yellow set up a four lap dash to the finish and Carter, who has been running very well here of late, used the low side of the track to close in on Hovden who suddenly found the cushion not quite as quick. Carter was closing and it looked like a last lap dash to the line would be happening. However Hovden could also see things were starting to go bad and down the back chute on the final circuit he dove to the bottom, in essence cutting off Carter and taking away his line.
The strategy was sound and it took away any chance that Carter would make a last corner pass as he settled for second to Hovden with Roney and Trevor Fecht following.
The Hobby Stock field was a small one as trying to see this event to the IMCA cars was a tough sell since the USRA cars are on racing tires this year and it's not really a fair match against the street tired IMCA cars. So only nine cars took the green with USRA hotshots Eric Stanton and Dustin Gulbranson battling for the win.
All the Hobby Stocks were hugging the tires and when Gulbranson decided to try the top side to make a pass that cost him the race as he was passed by Chris Hovden for second and would eventually dive back to the bottom. This race went nonstop and Stanton drove to an easy win over Hovden and Gulbranson.
Tuners(or Sport Compacts or whatever they were calling them on this night as I heard both names used) saw Denny Berghahn Jr tow over from Nebraska and lead the opening laps but he couldn't get his car to hold the bottom and Hunter Patrick drove under him for the lead. Once that was accomplished, things stayed pretty much the same with those two running first and second to the finish ahead of Kolby Sabin in another nonstop main event.
Mike VanGenderen was Race Director on this night as Todd Staley focused on his Stock Car and we got the best of MVG as he cracked the show along at a crisp pace and on a Tuesday night, the final checkered in the Modifieds flew at just 10 pm, perhaps for the night. A big crowd was on hand and I suspect it won't be twenty some years before the USMTS reappears at Stuart. Thanks to both Todd Staley, his staff and MVG and his crew who worked together smoothly to put on a brisk and entertaining night of racing.

Aikey The Winner as SLMR Moves On to Hamilton County

The Malvern Bank sponsored SLMR Late Model Series traveled to their next destination on Thursday night, June 11th and that was the historic Hamilton County Speedway right in Webster City Iowa. The Late Models would be joined by three of the weekly USRA sanctioned classes that race weekly at the half mile here at the Fairgrounds.
The SLMA has been traveling well this week with the vast majority of the drivers that raced at Stuart on Wednesday night moving on to Webster City this night. A few didn't make the extra distance trip, while four new drivers showed up to spice the Late Model field and in total, a solid group of thirty five were on hand for the show.
Today I got a little more information on the qualifying format and after hearing about just how the details work, it made a little more sense with particularly the "sand bagging" part of the qualifying not really a workable part of a driver's strategy for the event. In fact, their format would be much like one used by Knoxville for their Sprint shows as the time trials also receive points and a combination of  qualifying points plus points earned during heat race action set the sixteen cars that automatically moved on to the main event and avoided the dreaded B Feature(s). So while I'm still not a fan of time trials and never will be, at least this format weighs both time trials and heats and does promote hard racing in the heats, particularly with a six car invert.
However, as several of the drivers told me, time trials are still very important and weighed heavily. For example, Kyle Berck crashed out of his heat race tonight and finished dead last in that event but because he was the quick qualifier for the night, he still had the outside pole for the B Feature, an event that he opted out of to take a provisional instead.
Speaking of Berck, the defending point champion has had a couple of tough nights this week. He had just an average performance for him last night in Stuart and tonight was even worse. After being the quick qualifier and being several tenths of a second faster than anyone, he took off like a rocket in the first heat race, passing a couple of cars from his third row starting spot immediately and looking to take second after just one lap. However, he tried to throw a slider in turn one for that position and went into the corner way too hot and slammed the outside wall hard.
He went off on a hook and ended up using that provisional to start nineteenth and was only able to work his way up to twelfth at the finish when he looked to have the dominant car of the night.
It was a wild and crazy day for track promoter Todd Staley. He was torn between two venues on this day as along with having this race at one of the two tracks he promotes, his USMTS traveling series was in night one of their big three night show at the Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin which is one of their "showcase" races of the year.
He left Hamilton Co. in the hands of his finely trained weekly crew while he took off up to Wisconsin but when one of his employees became ill, he had to make a banzai run back down here to Webster City this afternoon to help. He was doing everything from watering and tiling the track to helping run off the program all the while trying to monitor what was happening in Wisconsin. And after he got everything wrapped up here, he would have to make a return trip back up to Wisconsin for the rest of that racing event on Friday and Saturday. Ain't promoting fun?
Speaking of promoting, I had the chance to spend a few minutes talking with Ricky Kay this afternoon in the pits. Of course he is a busy man too, managing the race team of his son Justin along with his farming and other businesses. And of course, he added to his "plate" last Summer when he took over as the promoter at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds Davenport Speedway. It was interesting getting his perspective as one new to promoting but having been involved in racing for many years in other facets of the sport. It made it clear that one of the big reasons that he took over as promoter at Davenport was because that track and the Fair itself was something near and dear to his heart having had three generations of his family involved in activities at the Fair and its close proximity to where he lives.
It was also interesting to hear some of the things that come up when trying to run a race track and dealing with so many different elements that a promoter must that quite frankly, I never would have thought of. It is a full time job that unfortunately, pays off more like a part time job, if at all! So most do it simply for the love of the sport or to keep tracks "on the edge" surviving. Although lots of track owners and promoters seem pretty gruff, most have a soft spot in their hearts for the tracks they are trying to help survive these especially tough times.
As far as the racing itself, it is always high speed at the big half mile which is looking so much nicer since Staley took the place over. So many improvements have been made and it is just a much more appealing place that it was for the longest time. Jeff Aikey was a man on a mission Thursday night as he started on the outside of row two but boldly went to the high groove, a lane that most were avoiding and perhaps all his years of racing here gave him knowledge of, and it took him just over a lap to take over the top spot.
After that, he maintained a comfortable advantage for thirty laps and took the win. This race did come off nearly as smooth as the previous night with several yellow flags, many late in the contest when Aikey would just as well have seen the checkered flag.
Three times they had to do the green, white and checkered before they got it right and all three times Aikey pulled away for the most deserving win as he was clearly the fastest car on the track most of the night as we never really got to see what Berck could have offered.
The battle for second was full scale war as Tad Pospisil and Billy Leighton Jr made hard contact a couple of times on restarts as they battled for second. One time, they collided so hard in turn one that Pospisil took a little air but he kept right on going and on another occasion they were leaning on each other down the front chute as they took the green, followed by a couple of cross over moves that Pospisil retain the second spot. Josh Leonard and Andy Eckrich, up from tenth, completed the top five.
The support classes were pretty light on competitors on Thursday night and whether it was because they will be racing here again in just two nights for a weekly show or it was just tough to get here on a Thursday night, the field in all three classes offered was on the small side.
The Hobby Stocks were the best of the three with fourteen cars and they provided a good feature race to wrap up the evening. Daniel "Dilly Bar" Ayers sat on the pole but it was Cory Roe that was the early leader. This race ended up being a three car battle between Roe, Eric Stanton and Eric Knutson. Stanton would eventually make the winning pass with just a few laps left and then pull away slightly from Roe for the win. I was disappointed to see that Stanton has given up the Hatchback look with a more standard looking race car this year, but it is also probably his finest looking car, and clearly just as fast as the "grocery getter" was. The Hobby Stocks have a new look this year as they are on racing tires as opposed to passenger car tires that they used to run and by both looks and performance, on this big track they are hard to tell apart from the Stock Cars and that must be slightly confusing to the  casual race fan.
Ten B Mods took the green for what would be a nonstop main event for them. Levi Chipp would lead from start to finish with early pressure from Ben Moudry until he broke and pulled off the track. After that, it was Ty Griffith who spent the entire race trying to track down Chipp but he couldn't do so and had to settle for second.
The Tuners couldn't even hit a "high C" on this night as there were only three of them on hand and their race was a "flat" one with the Alto section a half beat behind! Matt Oberhelman held off John Gill(not the Modern Day Cowboy but the Marshalltown one) to take the win but in victory lane he was as happy and giving out hugs as if he had just won the Daytona 500 so good for him. As for me, they could have used just a few more Baritones.
All racing was done around 10:30 pm and would have been done earlier if not for the protracted Late Model event. Everyone on board seemed happy with the results as the weather finally cooperated and they were able to finally get a Late Model special completed here.

Pospisil Tops Malvern Bank Late Models at Stuart

Wednesday night, June 10th, was a very special night at the Stuart International Speedway(now renamed by me to the Howling Winds Motorsports Complex for obvious reasons) as the Late Models would be making their only appearance of the 2020 racing season in the form of the Malvern Bank Late Model Series. This would be the first race for the eastern region of this series, sponsored by Hoker Trucking and the second point race for the western, Malvern Bank region. It would also be the first combined race of both the season and for the newly split series after the eastern region series was purchased from IMCA in the off season. If all that makes sense, stay with me.
There was lots of rain in the Midwest the early part of this week, but fortunately, most of it missed the Stuart area and after some grim skies and a few showers this a.m, the skies cleared and racing was on as planned. In fact, some heavy watering would be required because of the strong winds, unfortunately blowing out of the North West or if you are direction challenged, directly into the main grandstand. Promoter Mike VanGenderen did his best to keep moisture in the track but with the conditions he was presented and the wide tired Late Models pounding the surface, we were reminded that yes indeed, it was dirt track racing, like it or not.
A very impressive field of thirty nine Late Models signed in to race with more being from the West than the East but there was a decent number of cars on hand representing the old IMCA interests. And by who was there, it was made abundantly clear who plans to race for the Eastern points region which was one of the question marks coming into the opener.
Along with the Late Models,  a nice field of Modifieds and Sport Modifieds was on hand plus a very strong field of Stock Cars too, all running under IMCA sanctioning on this night.
The Late Models qualified through time trials(more on that later) while the other classes were simply set up for their heat races. With five big heats of Late Models racing for passing points after already having time trialed(this is a rather confusing combination) and two B Features twenty two cars plus two provisional entries would start the Late Model feature meaning that quite a few entries would be sitting on the sidelines come feature time. The other classes had numbers sufficient that no B Features were necessary and all cars would start the main.
MVG spent more time than normal doing track prep  but it was understandable, given the conditions and the basic fact that Late Models are much tougher on a race track and more difficult to prepare for. Still, all the preliminaries flew by and it seemed like we were feature racing in a really quick time frame.
Sport Mods took to the track first for their A Main and this was a two car battle all the way. After a lap three stack up that sent a couple of cars to the rear, Matt Webb took the lead, running the high side of the track. Brayton Carter than moved up from the third row to challenge and a classic, side by side battle then commenced. It was broken up at one point by a mid race yellow but then continued once the feature resumed.
Carter was running the bottom while Webb was up top and each time they came down the chutes, they were side by side. I'm not sure if I just imagined it , or it actually happened, but it seemed to me that once Carter saw the halfway signal he picked up the pace. With only a few laps left he was able to edge ahead down the back chute and then finally clear Webb and in the final laps he put a few car lengths on to his lead as he drove to another win here and kept the string of a at least one Carter winning the feature every time I'm at a track South of I-80(technically the track is a couple miles North of the interstate, but let's not be too technical.) Dusty Masolini would come home third.
As a benefit to the fans on a week night and also likely in an attempt to make it easier on the racing surface, the Late Model feature would be second on the program and twenty four cars would take the green flag.
In this race there would be two early yellow flags in the first six laps for minor issues and then the last thirty laps would go green. Chargin' Charlie McKenna would take the early lead and he was very exciting as he pounded the cushion and edged away from the field. He was driving a hard line and really attacking the track and in the early going it would work. Justin Kay would also be fast on the top side and he would race up to second.
The leaders then moved up and started to catch the lapped traffic and things would then get dicey. As McKenna tried to work his way through several slower cars with brave moves, suddenly he was joined at the front by Pospisil and Bill Leighton Jr. And just at this time, the track started to change dramatically. It started to take rubber in the lower groove, which likely helped both Pospisil and and Leighton Jr in their runs to the front.
McKenna got caught in the upper groove and he was "freight trained" by both Pospisil and Leighton as the majority of the field suddenly dove to the low side and started to "catfish" on the tires. Kay was stuck up top too but managed to find a hole as he dove low back into the third spot. McKenna decided to go for broke, hoping the top side would come back in but after a number of cars drove under him, he finally threw in the towel and found a hole in the freight train and would eventually end up eighth.
The remaining laps would see the field roll around the bottom with leader Pospisil following Joel Callahan who was at the back of the pack but making no attempt to pass him for fear of getting hung up out of the lower groove. They continued in this fashion to the finish with Leighton Jr settling for second ahead of Kay, Kyle Berck and Jason Hahne.
While I think MVG did just about everything he could to provide a track that would hold up for thirty five laps, the environmental forces against him were just a bit too strong on this night and while no one likes to see a rubbered up track, sometimes it happens anyway.
The interesting thing as that while the Late Models were locked to the bottom, the two upcoming feature races would give no appearance of such an issue as the size of the tires and apparently the horsepower make a huge difference in where the cars can run on the track.
For instance, the Stock Cars came out to race their main directly after the Late Models and the put on the best show of the night using the same track the Late Models had just got done running on. This would be another two car battle to the wire, settled in the final laps.
Mike Nichols benefited in the early going when leader Shawn Ritter was turned around by Brad Derry on lap three and the yellow waved. Both went to the back and Nichols inherited the lead for the restart. He ran pretty much in the clear until he was tracked down by Damon Murty.
Murty started eleventh on the grid and after some tough racing was able to pass Todd Van Eaton and Josh Daniels and move into second. While Nichols was running the low side, Murty was pounding the cushion and was gaining on Nichols at a noticeable pace. Soon he was right behind Nichols and the race was on. Just as it looked like Murty might be able to drive around Nichols, who's car was starting to grow in width, the yellow waved for a spin and the field was bunched for a three laps sprint to the finish.
Nichols did a good job of doing what he needed to do as the green waved again. He moved his line around on the track, first going high and then changing up and diving to the bottom so that Murty didn't exactly know where to go and Damon had to go top speed to try and get by Mike as Nichols was still plenty fast.
Their closest encounter was coming to the white when Murty tried to dive under Nichols down the front chute and Mike sealed him off as they slid into turn one. Murty was able to come off the corner faster and he would hold on for the win. Van Eaton would finish third.
The Modifieds would finish off the night and when pole starter John Davis would have trouble on the pace lap and opt for the back, that would put Ricky Thornton Jr on the pole, as if he needed any help. The race, for all intents and purposes, was over when the green flew as Thornton Jr powered up to the cushion, the same line the Late Models could not run, and led comfortably all twenty laps for the victory. Tom Berry Jr would make a nice drive, starting seventh and making a fleeting attempt to get past Thornton Jr at the end but settle for second while Todd Shute finished a strong third.
Not to harp on it, but the format for qualifying the Late Models did seem a bit strange. While I am totally adverse to time trials, I must admit that they moved through them very quickly on this night. However, if they are going to qualify, then those times should mean something more than just setting the invert for passing points heats. I have not seen the passing points scale they use, but if it is like most, it would seen to me that drivers should "sand bag" in qualifying just a little so that they can start in row one or two of their heats, rather than farther back in say like the third row when the heats are only eight laps and passing is tough.
Normally series will either do draw/redraw, passing points or time trials but not a combination of them. But I guess this is a discussion that will never end and everyone has their own opinion on what is the best way of doing it. The ultimate, after all, is to produce the fairest method and the one that provides the best show come feature time.
However, if time trials are to be an important part of the program, the least they should do is keep the spectators informed by announcing the times, as the set up on this night didn't apparently afford announcer Anthony Ainslie the opportunity to do so and to just say that an app is available to see the times just doesn't cut it with me.
As usual, MVG and crew set a frantic pace to the program all night and the final checkered waved at 10:15 p.m., outstanding given that an extra distance feature was a part of the program. As veteran race chaser Gary Lee told me, MVG and Bob Sargent should hold a seminar for track owners and race directors to show them how to run off a quick race program. 

Abelson and Larson Top The List of Winners as Spencer Opens

Monday night, June 8th, I was in Spencer Iowa at the beautiful Clay County Fairgrounds Speedway for their opening race of the 2020 racing season. Five IMCA sanctioned classes would be on hand for this event and the Iowa heat remained cranked up as it was another toasty night with my car thermometer registering triple digests for the second straight day on this most recent of swings through South Dakota and Iowa.
Spencer will run a fairly short series of Monday night races this year along with events also during the Clay County Fair in September as a popular belief was that there was just too much racing going on in the area last year and Spencer was kind of the "odd man out" when it came to a night of racing that would work for them. So they came up with this plan of running a limited number of races, mostly on Monday nights where there would be no conflicts and then also during the Fair.
They have come up with a somewhat novel idea to make each night of racing special and what they have done is make the purse the same for the top four classes that race at the track. All classes run for a thousand bucks to win with seven hundred for second and so on down the line. Now a grand to win for a Monday night show is good money for the Mods but great money for the other classes and it looks like their plan will be a winner.
I would guess that based on the combination of a nice day, many drivers still trying to catch up on their racing after being sidelined for months and this novel purse structure all helped make this a popular event indeed as one hundred and fifteen drivers signed in to race on Monday and the crowd was by far the biggest I can ever remember for one of their "regular" nights of racing here.
With the big wide track here they are able to run a large field of cars in the main events so the only B Feature required after the preliminary heats were done was for the Hobby Stocks, who with thirty five cars in attendance were the largest field, and all but one of the cars in that class seems to run either the #27 or some variation of that number! I'm exaggerating, but just slightly.
The only exception to the rule of big fields of cars was in the Sport Compacts, where only five signed in. On a night when it is important to move the show along, if they can't muster more cars than that it might just be prudent to tell them to leave their cars at home and just run the classes that are racing for a grand. In the Sport Compacts, it was a two car battle between Kaytee DeVries and Jaeden Erickson with DeVries  driving away for the win late. Although Erickson crossed the line second, he was shown as running last in the official results so I must assume he was either docked some positions for a jump start or perhaps disqualified for some technical issue. There was no explanation in the official results and no announcement made at the track so the answer is somewhere in "the cloud."
The Sport Mods jammed twenty six cars on to the track for their main event and the redraw was kind to Doug Smith who started on the outside pole and led the entire contest. Zech Norgaard and Alec Fett tried to stay with Smith but they were unable to provide any kind of serious challenge.
After a smooth race for most of the distance, three late yellows just as the checkered was about to be waved stalled the action and delayed the inevitable.
One driver who benefited greatly from the late yellows was Matt Looft. He started twenty third on the grid after having trouble in his heat race when he had to spin to avoid a crossed up competitor and with the one spin rule in affect, he pulled off the track rather than continue racing from way behind.
However, he righted the ship in a big manner in the main, gradually working his way forward and taking advantage of the bunched up restarts to pass cars in packs and he cleared Norgaard near the end to take the second spot. For him it was a great ending to what looked like it would be a frustrating night.
The Hobby Stocks showed how it can be done was with twenty four cars starting their main, they raced with only a single yellow flag and that was when the second place car spun while trying to retake the lead and only four of twenty four failed to finish the race.
Josh Sidles took the lead from the pole and led the first half of the race with his strongest challenge coming from Malik Sampson who started right behind him. They were followed closely but a wad of cars that contained Zac Smith and Mike Smith with the Nielsens racing hard to try and become part of the group also.
Sidles made one mistake in turn one and Sampson was right there to jump on the opportunity and he ducked under Sidles to take over the lead. Sidles then pushed very hard to try and regain the top spot but turn four bit him as he spun while trying to gain the top spot back.
This took a little of the pressure off Sampson and he was able to drive home for the win. A late charge saw Cory Probst drive up from the seventh spot to grab second. He was trailed by M. Smith, B. Nielsen, Z. Smith and C. Nielsen and no, I'm not making this up just to be clever.
The Stock Car feature was probably the best race of the night as we saw some jockeying back on forth and more use of multiple grooves than at probably any other time of the night. Elijah Zevenbergen started on the pole as he looked to take another big dollar race after just coming off the big win at Stuart last week. He did grab the early lead but was closely pursued by Luke Saathoff, All eyes were on a group of drivers led by Jeff Larson, Jake Masters and Kelly Shryock who were making a hard charge toward the front.
Zevenbergen had settled on a line that was pounding the cushion in turns three and four while hugging the tires in turns one and two. Larson was running the low side all the way around the track and was really moving up quickly. He closed to the rear bumper of Elijah and when Zevenbergen slipped off the bottom in turn one, Larson was right there to grab the top spot.
After that it was Elijah and Jake Masters that took turns challenging Larson for the lead. They could gain using the top side on the West end of the track but turns one and two just wouldn't hold for them and they lost all the time they gained on the other end.
Larson meanwhile was hugging the tires and near the end, despite a couple of late yellows that bunched things up, he was able to extend his lead slightly and avoid a tight race to the flag. The Minnesota invader won over Masters, Zevenbergen and Saathoff.
The Modifeds wrapped up the evening with a quick twenty lap feature race, broken up by a lone yellow flag. Chris Abelsen started on the pole and twenty laps later, he was still in front. He survived a brief challenge by Shryock who tried to outside which worked to the degree that he was able to get up to second but then it slowed and Nick Meyer was able to drive under him for the runner up slot.
Meanwhile, Abelsen was just cruising up front and drove home to a relatively easy win.
While much of the opening night was successful including a great car count and a big crowd in the huge covered grandstand, there are a few things for management to work on for the next show, which is scheduled for Monday night, June 29th.
The races didn't get over until 11 pm and that is much too late for a Monday night program with many people getting up and leaving when their "magic time" hit and they had to head home. The actual races themselves lasted just under three hours with that being a great target number, particularly considering the big field of cars. However, with the success of this show, I think they can plan on having big fields for the whole year so a few changes are going to be necessary.
They have to figure out a way of getting the drivers and crews signed in quicker and getting the line at the pit gate moving faster. It would do no good to open up earlier because with the Monday night rush, it does make it tough because most people arrive after work and all at nearly the same time. But whether it is to have more lanes open to the pits so they don't have to come in one at a time or more people working the booths, they need to get the lines going quicker. Monday night they had the drivers meeting at 7:10 pm which is ten minutes after the scheduled hot laps were supposed to start.
And hot laps for that many cars takes some time, a primary reason why the first green flag didn't wave until 8 pm. Either shorten up the hot laps to maybe only a class or two each night or God forbid, just  skip hot laps and drop the green flag at 7 pm but that hour saved right there would have produced a final checkered at 10 pm which would have been awesome.
I was glad to see that northern Iowa legend Chad Meyer was doing the call of the races again, but even after they turned up the p.a. system,  I still had a very tough time hearing him. Perhaps it is my old worn out ears or perhaps where I chose to sit in the grandstands might have played a factor.
But hiccups aside, it was a very strong opening night for the track in Clay County and with much local backing and help from businesses and individuals who have stepped up to rescue the racing program, it looks like it will be a very good year at the Clay Co. Fairgrounds Speedway for their Monday night gatherings. 

Logue, Zevenbergen and C. Carter Are Big Winners at Stuart

It was another scorcher Wednesday night at the Stuart International Speedway(perhaps I'm just not yet prepared for warm weather, not having to deal with it hardly at all so far this year), minus the hurricane winds of the last two nights that while miserable in their own right did also move the air around. However, it's still better than Brass Monkey freezing cold plus it's race night, so we deal with it.
Wednesday was the night that everything came together, qualifying wrapped up and it was time to crown some champions in the Dirt Duels three night extravaganza That featured the Sport Mods and Stock Cars while not slighting the Hobby Stocks and of course, Wednesday was also the Bill Davis Sr. Memorial race for the IMCA Modifieds. Lots of racing and as it turned out, lots of excitement as both of the featured finales turned out to be dandies.
One hundred and twenty five cars in the four classes signed in to race on Wednesday with virtually everyone coming back in the Stock Cars and Sport Mods while an excellent field of thirty six Modifieds from if I can recall correctly from announcer Tony Paris' declaration, ten different states. That itself is quite impressive.
The Stock Cars and Sport Mods not already qualified ran heat races lined up by points with several moving directly into the feature and the rest running a B Feature in each class to fill out the field. Mods also ran heats and B Feature and the Hobby Stock a couple of heats to set their lineups. This part of the program really rolled through quickly and before we knew it, it was time for main event action. We would see a little more track prep on this night but it was fully required with the large number of laps that were being raced plus all the weather factors too and it proved to be more than worth the brief breaks, as we saw some excellent racing in all four features.
The Hobby Stocks rolled off first and this race proved to be entertaining with a number of lead changes. Dylan Nelson shot up from the second row to quickly claim the lead position but then he slid out and pole sitter Brandon Long was right there to take over. However, soon it was Brandon Cox who took over the top spot from Long, only to lose it back to Nelson.
You get the picture here, there was lots of passing and re passing as the leaders battled it out. Cox then re passed Nelson and this time made it stick as he held off the late charge of Solomon Bennett to take the win with Nelson settling for third.
Fifty laps was the distance for the Sport Mods, probably as long a race as they will run all year but they would do a good job at this longer distance with only seven of the twenty four starters not on the track at the finish and everyone on the lead lap. Brayton Carter, looking to repeat last year's win, got the jump at the start and actually led the first forty laps but it was anything but a comfortable lead.
He was constantly pressured by Dylan Van Wyk, Cody Thompson, Josh Most and Brian Osantowski and later both Johnathon Logue and Colby Fett would become part of what would be a six car pack fighting in close quarters for position.
Carter's lead was anything but comfortable as the lead group came up on their first lapped traffic to deal with. They were weaving and bobbing through the back markers when suddenly it was clear that Carter had a damaged front suspension on his car that was making it hard for him to turn and he began to slow. I must confess that I did not see any contact but was told that Carter and one of the lapped cars had banged wheels and the suspension break was the result.
Carter finally lost control and spun the car with forty one laps complete and his night was done. Thompson inherited the lead with a low running Logue his stronger challenger. Thompson was working the high banks while Logue was walking the low line right on the tires and they took off for a battle to the finish. One yellow bunched the field once again and the two battled it out for the win.
Thompson appeared to have the race won as he left turn four on what should have been the final lap, only to see the yellow after several cars stacked up in the first turn.
Now, in my world, if all the cars have taking the white flag and the yellow then waves, it is a race and should be scored back to the white flag lap. A number of tracks and sanctioning bodies do it just that way.
However, there are also a number of tracks that state in their rules that the leader must receive the checkered flag for it to be an official race and unfortunately for Thompson, that is the rule at Stuart.
The two lap shootout saw Thompson abandon the cushion and instead try to run through the middle of the track and this played into Logue's hands as he pushed hard on the bottom and was able to roll under Thompson off the last corner. They both pushed hard to the finish and Logue was able to edge ahead and take the win in what was a race that had the crowd on their feet. Most settled for a close third.
It was then time for the Stock Cars and their fifty lapper would end up being just as exciting. Officially, Zevenbergen would be scored the leader for all fifty laps but it was hardly that easy. While Zevenbergen banged off the cushion as the leader, he was sooned joined by two generations of racing Murty's , who gave him all he could handle. It was interesting watching father and son battle it out for second as they gave little extra space to each other, family or not.
When Dallon bobbled while second, Damon quickly drove in to take over that spot but when he tried to go low and slide under Elijah, he killed his momentum and Dallon quickly regained second.
Zevenbergen and Dallon were nose to tail when a yellow with six laps to go set the state for a wild finish. Murty seemed to be really quick off the corners as he pulled to the rear bumper of Elijah and it was just a question of when he would try his late race move.
On the final lap Murty got a good run off turn two and pulled even with Zevenbergen down the back chute. Murty blasted past him for the lead while Elijah set up the cross over move which he used in turn four. Zevenbergen would get back under Murty and they raced to the line with Elijah edging out the youngster for the thrilling win. Damon would finish a close third and Jesse Sobbing, who earlier in the evening told me he was worried that he wouldn't have enough speed to even qualify for the show, drove up from thirteenth to finish a close fourth ahead of Abe Huls.
It was another big win for the Northwestern Iowa racer but one must marvel at the tremendous skill that the younger Murty put on display.
The evening wrapped up with twenty five plus one laps for the Modifieds, in honor of Davis number. And seldom do I get to a race South of I-80 that at least one of the Carters does not win a main and that pattern held again on Wednesday as even though Brayton suffered a big disappointment, big brother Cayden was up to the task as he won the Davis Memorial.
Todd Shute was the leader for the first seventeen laps of the Modified finale after starting on the pole, but he had Joel Rust and Carter to keep him honest. A yellow for a spinning Anthony Roth proved to be the downfall of Shute as Carter got a great restart, threw a slider in turn one and was able to take over the lead.
He would go on to run up front the rest of the contest while the entertainment then was watching Tim Ward and Tom Berry Jr come charging to the front as they finished second and third.
It was another excellent night of racing that was played out in front of  the largest of the three nights of spectators but I have to admit that I thought the crowd would be even bigger than it turned out to be. Perhaps some of the issues going on in Des Moines and the heat may have played a part. Don't get me wrong, it was not a bad crowd but not the jam packed place I expected. A gentlemen seated in front of me told me that a bunch of his friends had stayed home with the heat and instead had rented the race to watch on their tv in the comfort of their air conditioning. And thus the eternal question reveals itself once again, is it really a good idea to broadcast all the races and turn short track racing into a tv sport. We could probably argue that question for quite some time.
Thanks as usual to MVG and his staff for a great three nights of racing and overcoming some challenging weather issues to produce main events that we highly entertaining. Malvern Bank Late Models will highlight the program next Wednesday and it is possible I might return to central Iowa once again.

Carter and VanEaton Nail Down Outside Poles For Stuart Dirt Duel

The Dirt Duel Continued on Tuesday night, June 2nd at the Stuart International Speedway in Stuart Iowa as the IMCA Sport Mods and Stock Cars took to the track for round two of this three night extravaganza with drivers qualifying for the outside row on Tuesday for Wednesday night's fifty lap main events. When all racing was completed shortly after 10 pm, it was Todd VanEaton and Brayton Carter respectively that won the Stock Car and Sport Mod mains and assured themselves outside front row starting spots for the four thousand dollar to win mains.
The IMCA Sport Compacts also competed in a full show on Tuesday and their slam bang main saw Chris Vannausdle make a last corner pass for the win in a race that had as much drama after the checkered flew as during the race itself.
It was another blast furnace day in central Iowa with the temps in the nineties and another powerful wind blowing out of the South all day and into the evening. For the second straight night the track prep crew was challenged as much as they will be perhaps all season with all hands on deck watering the track and pits and driveways constantly to try and get moisture into the racing surface and keep the dust from flying on other parts of the facility. And despite all the challenges, for the most part the track held up well and the dust in the stands during the racing program was negligible.
Car counts were thirty five in the Stock Cars and thirty four in the Sport Mods with four cars in each class not racing on this night since they have already qualified for the show. There were two new cars that showed up on Tuesday in an all or nothing attempt as if they don't make it on Tuesday, they will be very low in points for the Last Chance races on Wednesday and will  not have much chance in making the show. The Sport Compacts signed in with sixteen cars, perfect for two nice sized heats and a main.
Before the races started tonight, Sport Mod driver Kyle Bentley sang the National Anthem adorned in his fire suit for as soon as he belted out the last note, he had to hustle to the pits and get strapped in so as not to miss his heat race. He did an admirable job of signing the anthem it should be noted.
The Sport Mod and Stock Car portion of the program was identical to Monday night with four heats and two B Features setting the twenty four car fields for the twenty five lap mains. As mentioned above, the Sport Compacts ran two heats and a feature. The 600 Modifieds were also on hand but you will have to rely on some of the other ace bloggers from Positively Racing to get the news on that class. Sorry. It must be pointed out though that they had the biggest wreck of the evening by far with a double flip during their main event and a very close finish following a late race pass.
The defending Sport Mod winner of this race, Brayton Carter, had a sub par night last night but fortunately, with the format of this show, that is all in the past and a good night on Tuesday could start him right up front and on the outside and based on how the track has been racing this week, the perfect spot.
And that is exactly what happened for Carter tonight. He drew the pole for the first heat, won that and then redrew the pole for the Sport Mod feature. He led all twenty five laps to record the win although it wasn't a totally easy win as Brian Osantowski moved up from the third row to challenge him and Carter was never able to comfortably pull away from him. Carter was running the high side while Osantowski was one of the few making the low groove work and he drove up into second using that line. Several times he showed a nose under Carter but Brayton stayed true to the cushion and made it work for the win.
Perhaps the best race was for the final qualifying position and for lap after lap, it was Johnathon Logue and Colby Langenberg that battled for that spot running in tight formation down the front chute on each go round. Eventually near the end of the race Langenberg would clobber the wall and lose some ground and Logue would claim the last qualifying spot. In between him and Osantowski, Colby Fett would also make the inside work as he drove up from the fifth row to finish third.
After the race, promoter MVG would admit that he made a mistake in not doing a little bit more to the race track before the Stock Car feature race. In this event, the outside groove just gave up and most of the cars were fighting each other to get to the bottom and hugging the tires on the inside groove. Jesse Sobbing was one of the few to try the outside and he made it work for about half the race, battling for the last qualifying spot until that groove gave up, he sank like a leaky ship and eventually pulled off the track.
However, despite the fact that the track narrowed up during the Stock Car main, there was still a good six car battle up front with only four making the show on Wednesday. VanEaton started on the pole and he led all twenty five laps of the nonstop race but there was plenty of action behind him.
One of the highlights was the three wide battle of the #99 cars with the Murty family battling with Sobbing before Dallon claimed the spot and Sobbing called it a night.
Things still were tight at the finish as Murty was banging on the rear bumper of Troy Jerovetz for the second spot and Dad Murty(Damon), was beating on the rear bumper of Derek Green, trying to unsuccessfully steal the last qualifying spot.
The Sport Compact feature started out pretty tame until all heck broke loose late in the race. The Vannausdles were right in the middle of it with both Bryan and Chris involved at the end. Bryan quickly moved up from the second row to take the lead with Chris eventually moving into second. They had a comfortable lead on the field when suddenly Chris made his move and was able to drive into the lead.
They continued to hold the top two spots with Mitchell Bunch in third and trying to catch them. Also becoming part of the lead pack was Kolby Sabin and suddenly the top four were pretty much nose to tail. The leaders caught the back of the pack and with everyone hugging the low groove, there wasn't much room to maneuver. With the slower cars not yielding, it was time to go so the leaders put the bumper to the slower cars and moved a couple of them out of the way and one got hung up in turn one, triggering the only yellow flag of the event.
The slower car took umbrage to the driving style of the Vannausdle's and gave them a "little loving" as the cars circled under the yellow. This resulted in a black flag disqualification as that car was tossed from the track.
On the green, Sabin shocked the leading Vannausdle and dove under him to take over the lead. Chris V. moved back into second and then closed on Sabin, setting up a last lap, last corner maneuver where he dove under Sabin with both cars going up the track and Vannausdle recovering first to motor home the winner. Sabin and Bryan V. completed the top five.
However, the action wasn't over yet by a long shot as the angered DQ driver stormed across the track after the race was over, apparently looking for some redress of the situation. He used some inflamed gestures and had back up from his female crew chief and looked to make some trouble until MVG caught word of the issue and appeared and one look at the size and strength of MVG sent that group back into the pits, yapping all the way though. There still seemed to be something going on later in the pits and I'm guessing they weren't making appointments for a canasta party. The wise choice for management would probably be to tell that crew to load up and try it again in 2021!
Again, it was a smooth running program with very few yellow flags and the one spin rule used through the heats and B Features certainly does get the attention of the drivers. Wednesday night the two big features will wrap up this three night show with the Modifieds also on hand to run the Bill Davis Memorial and the Hobby Stocks will also get their crack at the track for the first time this week.
A word of caution, the June bugs are out so don't wear white on Wednesday and wear something that you can hike the collar up to keep those disgusting things from going down your back. UGH.

Paris and Zevenbergen Top Openers at Stuart For Dirt Duels

Monday night, June 1st, Mike VanGendren kicked off the first of many specials he will hold this year with the first of his three nights of the Dirt Duels at the Stuart International Speedway on the North side of that community. Featuring the IMCA Sport Mods and the IMCA Stock Cars, the winners were Paris and Zevenbergen. And no, that is not two cities in Europe but instead Shane Paris and Elijah Zevenbergen.
Both the Stock Cars and Sport Mods would qualify the top four finishers of Monday night's qualifying races for the big main on Wednesday night. The outside row will qualify on Tuesday night and then the main events will be on Wednesday, along with the rescheduled Bill Davis Memorial Race that will feature a thousand dollar to win Modified feature along with Hobby Stocks. Sport Compacts will also join the show on Tuesday night so all of the classes that race at Stuart will get at least one night of racing during this special event. It will be possible for the big winners on Wednesday night to earn up to four thousand dollars so these qualifying nights are very important indeed.
With that in mind, I was a bit surprised that there were not more entrants in each class for this event. While the pre entered list carried more names than actually showed up on Monday night, there were thirty eight each of Stock Cars and Sport Mods that raced on Monday and not a single entrant that wasn't on the pre entered list. I guess that a three night commitment at this time of the year is just a bit difficult for many drivers and perhaps the uncertainly whether or not this race would actually take place kept others away. But there was certainly no complaining about the quality of the field and as we have already seen this year at Stuart, even a weekly show can be spectacular racing.
MVG would not have ordered up the kind of weather he got on Monday ideally. While it was nice to have some warm weather and not worry about how many coats to take in the grandstands, the wind was absolutely brutal and the combination of the heat, super strong winds and low humidity made it difficult to keep moisture in the racing surface. They had multiple water trucks working constantly as they sought to keep moisture in the track while keeping down the sand storm that was howling through the pit area. The one saving grace was that the wind was out of the South so there was no dust in the grandstands once racing began, even as the hurricane continued to howl.
For this reason, they were a little late getting the show started but once the first green flag flew, it was a typical MVG show with the racing being almost nonstop after that.
Four big qualifying heats and a pair of B Features set the grid for the two main events with twenty four cars going for twenty five laps in each one. And has been shown before, time after time, even with big money on the line and lots of cars in the mains, they somehow manage to pull off feature races with few yellow flags and not many non finishers.
An example would be the Sport Mod main, a class that has more than its share of difficulties at some other speedways. On this night they would run the feature with only one yellow flag and only a single driver not completing the distance and NO lapped cars. That is quite a statement to make, all this on a tight quarter mile where the field is running side by side more often than not. So here is proof that it can be done.
A pair of "Flying Dutchmen" from Osky, Carter VandenBerg and Dylan VanWyk, shared the front row for the Sport Mod feature and they battled for the lead for much of the event, slipping in and out of the lead spot. They were joined by Paris and Cody Thompson as the main challengers for the top spot but others like Brian Osantowski and Mitch Morris were also challenging.
A late yellow set up a eight lap dash to the finish and it was Paris, who got up on the cushion, that was able to take the top spot away. Drivers had been trying both the top side against the wall and running right on the tires as the two preferred lines, and for Paris the top side worked for him as he was able to edge into the lead and then hold off challengers for the win. Thompson made a late rush for second and VanWyk, who probably led the most laps of the race, settled for third ahead of VandenBerg and those four will not have to race on Tuesday as their spots are secured.
The Stock Car feature was every bit as exiting. They managed to run the first seventeen laps without a yellow before a spin slowed the proceedings. Jake Masters started on the pole and led until the first restart as he did build up quite a lead running right on the bottom of the track. Behind him it was wild as a whole group of drivers were battling for position and changing spots on virtually every lap.
On the restart, Derek Green managed to get a nose under Masters and as those two battled for the lead, Zevenbergen moved up to the high side and drove by both of them to take over the top spot. Two more late race cautions bunched the field and the action was crazy as everyone scrambled to try and get into the top five.
Green and Todd VanEaton were two that got shuffled back and lost their spots as Zevenbergen continued to bump off the cushion and drove on for the win. Luke Lemmens materialized out of no where in the late going, coming from twenty first to finish third right behind Abe Huls who had started in the fifth row himself. Masters managed to hold on to the last qualifying spot and he had to have wondered why that darn yellow had to fly and break his momentum.
Many strong cars in both classes are not yet in the show and they will come back and do it again to try and qualify on Tuesday night with the Sport Compacts also racing.
Manufacturers Features were also held on Monday after the two main events and Thompson and Lemmens both earned a grand for wins in those races. So they had very good nights , winning and also qualifying for Wednesday night too. Thompson came from the sixth row to win his main while Lemmens stole the win late from Zevenbergen when the cushion finally gave out on him and he spun with only three laps to go while trying to fight off the Wisconsin racer.
The mains were done before 10 pm and all racing was done within another half hour as once they got rolling, things clicked along at typically MVG speed.