The Midwest Madness Tour moved on to night five of their holiday grind as the traveling troupe headed about an hour South from Fairmont to Algona Iowa and the Kossuth County Speedway where they would be running on Wednesday night at the "Thunder Dome" as Kossuth Co. is called.
Somewhere in length between a third mile and a three eighth mile black dirt oval, this track has long straightaways and tight corners and generally produces some interesting racing action. The Fairgrounds themselves are very well maintained with some new buildings having been added since I was last there and two nice restrooms in the pits that have made the "satellites" expendable. A big covered wooden grandstand definitely gives the entire place the feel of your classic Midwestern Fairgrounds and there are many shade trees to provide some comfort as folks mill about during the day while waiting for the evening action.
The pit area is a tight one though and race rigs are parked in every nook and cranny available including opening up a fence and parking some of the big rigs on neighboring property lots. But everyone makes due to this yearly procedure that is required.
By this time of the racing week, a lot of race car maintenance is going on in the pits and teams arrive early as many have much work to be done. Those lucky enough to be living close by utilize their own shops but many are working in the sweltering heat and here is where the crews more than earn their money. Many of the cars are looking pretty rank by this time of the week with some having numbers that can't even be read on their doors due to the black dirt stains and beating that many have taken. Once this racing week is over many will be due for a considerable overall maintenance check before they head out for racing action again.
Car counts were down just a little bit for this show but I have no explanation why. This track races just as well as most of the tracks on this schedule and it might be that some not racing for points just need a one night midweek break. The Modified count remains solid with most of their field visiting all tracks but the other three classes were down to the point that no B Features were required except for the Modifieds. Only four classes were racing on this night with the Sport Compacts and the tracks own Cruiser division getting the night off.
This would be an evening that would provide both expected results and at least one shocking finish in the four feature races. Kossuth County has some very strong teams that race in the support classes on a weekly basis and the fact that they would again be up front surprised absolutely no one but the Modified feature provided a stunning finish with a shocking result. Who would have guessed that one of the most veteran of Modified drivers who perhaps has as many laps in a Modified as any driver on the planet could not pass a young driver that is still not old enough to have a driver's license! But that is exactly what happened.
Young Jayden Larson pulled off the upset of the year to date as he held off the constant challenges of Kelly Shryock and Travis Hatcher to win the Modified thirty lap main event and stun the crowd as well as everyone monitoring the race results.
I have some history with Larson, having seen him race since the very beginning of his career. He started out racing B Mods/Midwest Mods/ Sport Mods ,racing under virtually every sanctioning body in the Midwest at one time or another and actually mixing in racing with various groups with several different cars. In fact, he still has a fleet of race cars at his disposal to meet the needs of various sanctioning body rules.
Age, or rather the lack of age, has always been an interesting facet of his career. He raced at the age of twelve for about four years or until he was actually old enough to officially declare his age so as to meet the regulations of the various racing bodies. In other words, he really started racing when he was about ten years old or perhaps even younger. Even now, I asked a relative of his following the win on Wednesday just how old he was and she said he is now fifteen with this being perhaps his fifth or sixth year of racing. He always showed talent, even from the beginning but now has really started to smooth out his driving skills to the point that he can now race with the best that IMCA can provide.
Wednesday night he started on the outside pole and drove around Hatcher to take the early lead. As Shryock moved up to battle Hatcher for second, Larson was able to pull away slightly but eventuallly the group of Shryock, Hatcher and Nick Meyer were following him closely, lap after lap.
Larson was running the trickly outside line up against the cushion and while that lane was fast, it was also very tricky with several contenders having jumped the cushion and lost spots. However, lap after lap, Larson continued to hit his line just right and despite having Shryock and Hatcher flashing below him, he remained smooth and didn't let them bother him.
Yellow flags were a concern and with ten laps to go, a yellow for a spin almost proved his downfall. He missed his mark in the corner and was passed by both Shryock and Hatcher but another yellow before a lap was completed saved him and on the following restart he got right back in his groove and maintained the lead.
The last six laps ran off nonstop and Larson pulled away for what would be a memorable win for both him and his family but also for all of us that saw it in person. Hatcher was able to sneak past Shryock for the second spot.
Shryock was a busy guy, racing both his Stock Car and as well as the Modified and while he couldn't win the open wheel class, he did take the Stock Car win after a good battle with several other drivers. Troy Swearingen was the early leader but he got passed by Elijah Zevenbergen who was running the cushion as he seems to enjoy doing.
That lane was a handful though, and his car was fighting the ridge as he tried to hold off a group of drivers that included Shryock and Derek Green. Zevenbergen began to fade some, just like he did the night before at Fairmont as his car seemed to go away from him as the race continued and Shryock, who was "catfishing" around the bottom, drove under him to take over the lead.
Green continued to provide a challenge throughout the race but Shryock, who never once moved off the bottom, was able to hold off Green to take the win. Chad Palmer, who pitted early for a tire replacement under yellow, was able to work his way back up to third at the finish as attrition was huge in this race.
Shryock is a popular figure here and received a much louder ovation in victory lane than he does at many other tracks. In fact, overall the crowd here is very supportive and vocal and much more so than the two previous stops on this Madness Tour week.
Both the Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks have a pair of brothers racing that are tough to beat anywhere and particularly so at Kossuth County. In the Sport Mods it is the Fett brothers. On this night it was Alec who took the early lead but Colby put a moster slide job on and took over the top spot as he led the last twelve laps to take the win. Behind the Fetts, it was Matt Looft who came from tenth to finish third.
The Hobby Stock duo is the Nielsens and they took advantage of an early pileup to take over the top spots. Kevin Bruck led the first lap until he spun out and was clobbered by a couple of cars, causing considerable damage to them.
The green saw Cody Nielsen drive by on the outside to take over the lead and that's the way the last eleven laps would go with Nielsen comfortably in front. For the second straight night, Jason Fusselman would finish second but on this night he simply couldn't catch the leader.Brandon Nielsen would settle for third.
Only one suggestion for improvement for the track and that would be to somehow fence off that area off turn four where in the "smokers lounge" the folks there were right up against the track fence, signaling and waving to drivers. It was a very dangerous place to be and while announcer Chad Meyer, during a break between mains went down there to shag people away from the fence, as soon as he left they returned. That is an issue that needs dealing with; otherwise it was a very nice night at the races. The final checkered waved about 10:30 pm and it would have been even earlier if not for couple of late yellows in the Modified feature.
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