The Race Committee of the Fair that runs the racing here in Spencer has opted for a special events only schedule this year with the vast majority of their races being on Monday nights. While some would question whether that would work or not, so far it seems to have been a big success here in Spencer. The races I have attended here this year all have had stout car counts and the grandstand crowds have been the biggest that I have seen in years here on a consistent basis. Once again on this night, perhaps assisted by some spectacularly beautiful weather that included a nice cool evening, the crowd was a big one.
Their "game plan" to pay all the classes a grand to win the feature for each race night(except the Sport Compacts) seems to have been successful to as even the support classes racing not as the featured attraction have produced large fields of cars.
For example, on this night the Modifieds were the primary attraction and forty of them signed in to race. But the Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks all had nearly thirty in each of their fields too. Only the Sport Compacts were lagging badly behind with them once again not being able to produce even a two heat race sized field. This has been the case for all the races I have attended here this year and I would say it would be time to "show them the door" until such time as they could guarantee that they could produce enough cars to justify the time it takes to run their events.
There were lots of visiting racers on hand Monday, particularly in the Modified class, as the number of big races in the Hawkeye State and close by are really picking up in the coming couple of weeks and drivers begin to congregate here in anticipation of all these high paying and prestigious events. A number of drivers from the West Coast and even some that haven't spent the summer in Iowa are adding to the field and most of the upcoming races will see very interesting fields of cars.
One driver I wanted to see back in a Modified was Jake O'Neil but he didn't have an open wheel car in the pits to race. Instead he was driving the Stock Car of Chance Hollatz but sadly that didn't last long as the motor blew on the car on the first lap of his heat race and the beer drinking started early for that crew.
I took a few minutes before the races started to chat with IMCA official Kevin Yoder who is one of the nice guys in the sport. I had not seen him all Summer as I missed the Dirt Knights races he worked at and with the Deery Brothers series no longer in operation, that was a time when I would always run into him. Considering all that has happened so far this year, and with the rest of the year still a question mark, he said that things have really been going quite well and as I have observed, those tracks that have been able to race have done very well so far this year as I think they have discovered that folks don't have a lot of other things to do or attend right now, and the races have been a good alternative for many. He said his figure eight races that he runs in have been well attended and things like that and demo derbies have been big hits this year.
Only the Modifieds needed B Features as they ran everyone in the other main events, and perhaps after the fact, might have wondered if it would have been better and quicker overall to run a couple of B's and perhaps eliminate a few cars that were struggling going the right direction around the track a a couple of the mains were plagued by yellow flags. Earlier things looked to be very promising as incredibly, seventeen heat races were run off with only a single yellow flag slowdown! That is amazing but our luck wouldn't extend through the rest of the night.
The track was in very good shape and drivers were running all over the surface, both high and low. With the Modified feature rolling out, it would be interesting to see where everyone ran. This was the last race of the night and by then most had trickled down to running a lower groove but the water truck gave the high side just a spritz before the Mods rolled out, and Chris Abelson saw that and once the green flew, he barreled to the cushion and made it work for twenty five laps.
It was a bit choppy up on the berm but he didn't let that slow him down as he roared past Nick Meyer and Tanner Black to take the lead early and he led the rest of the way for the win. A couple early yellows bunched the field but he pulled away each time. Late in the race the top side started to slow down and his lead began to evaporate but fortunately for him, the race ran out before anyone could get too close while a late yellow could have been a real problem, but it didn't happen.
Making the moves late were Kelly Shyock and Jesse Rogotzke who moved up from the sixth and fourth rows respectively to complete the top five. Both were working the low groove and really made up quite a bit of ground near the end. Earlier I had talked to Rogotzke who is in the midst of an eleven race in eleven days swing that has seen him crisscross the states of Iowa and Minnesota but race on every single night.
The Stock Car feature was dominated by Derek Green as he jumped into the lead early and controlled the action for most of the contest. It was a very good night for Shryock who also finished second in the Stock Car feature with Jake Masters coming from the sixth row for third.
The Sport Mods had the toughest time keeping the green flag waving but when they were under power, their race was a good one also. In a good three car battle for the win, it was Brian Osantowski who held off the challenges of Cody Thompson and Doug Smith for the victory.
The Hobby Stock feature saw about five cars in a swarm for the lead with them exchanging slide jobs and cross over moves nearly the entire contest. In the last couple of laps, Cody Nielsen made one of those moves to take over the top spot but on the next turn of the oval, Cody Probst returned the favor and his move was the winning one as he then held off the last lap charge of Nielsen to take the win with the hard driving Mike Smith coming home third.
Only four Sport Compacts were on hand and Kaytee DeVries rolled to an easy win that was quite predictable from the drop of the green.
The only thing I would say that would not fit the "positively" part of racing was that for the second straight time here, I thought the show ran quite late for a Monday night with the final checkered not waving until nearly 11:30 pm. I know that they were expecting a large field of cars and perhaps anticipating that, it might have been good to leave a couple classes home on this night so that a nice 10 pm finish would be more likely. I know that's a though thing to do but it's also tough to watch family after family head out because it was getting too late, particularly when the featured event was run last.
Now it's not that they run a poor program, in fact, it was anything but. One race followed the other immediately and Chad Meyer barely has time to get the names of the drivers out for the next race before the green flies. So there is not a lot of wasted time there.
The big problem, as I see it, is that they never start anywhere near the advertised time. Monday night it was 7:50 pm before the first green flag waved and the last time here it was 8 pm before racing started. I think they need to move up the starting time as it seems that the drivers always find a way to get there in time if necessary and hot laps take incredibly long here which is the primary reason they always start behind schedule. It's August, do all the cars really have to practice? Why not limit the hot laps to just the featured class of the night and then just start racing? Once they dropped the first green, it was about a three and a half hour show which is excellent given the field of cars. It's just that the whole thing starts too late in my opinion.
Otherwise, it was another good show here at Clay County and it is good to see this track prosper in 2020 after having a couple of years where things didn't go quite so well and the future of weekly(or more than just Fair races) seemed in doubt. Check their website for updates on the rest of their yearly schedule.
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