When the temperature is only in the thirties and snow flurries are swirling around outside, it is definitely not a good day for dirt track racing. That was the situation I was contending with at home and virtually every race track was calling off their shows for Saturday April 24th after many others were rained out on Friday.
So, I had to go to plan B which was a good alternative for me anyway. In the Hawkeye state, most tracks were racing even though it was going to be a cold, cold night and likely none would make any money as they knew that only the hearty fans would come out on a miserable night like what was on tap. But this gave me the chance to attend the races at the Independence Motor Speedway at the Buchanan County Fairgrounds in Independence, a double bonus for me as not only would I get to see a race on Saturday but it would be at one of the tracks that has always been a personal favorite for me.
I like just about everything about Independence. The grandstand gives one of the best views of the racing of any venue around, the lighting is spectacular, I like the size and shape of the track and it always seems to race well. In short, there is nothing about the track that keeps me from coming every chance that I get.
So I made a quick phone call to Justin Temeyer just to confirm that everything was on and set off on my approximately five hour drive on two lane highways, winding my way down toward Northeast Iowa. The pits were open and the first race cars had just arrived when I got there and son of a gun, who would pull in right next to me in the parking lot but the famous Ryan Clark, making a rare visit for him to Independence himself. We have been running into each other quite often this Spring and that is a good thing. Plus Ryan knows everyone at every track and that is always helpful.
On tap for Saturday was a full show in all the classes that race at Independence plus it was a special for the Modifieds with bonus money from fine supporters raising the top prize to twelve hundred bucks to win, nice money for a twenty lap main event.
Full fields of cars were on hand in all classes except for the Late Models which so far have really been hurting with there not being enough of them to field two heat races. Obviously this is not a good situation with hopefully more cars in this class getting on the track soon as short fields like this tend to force promoters to make some hard decisions. With Independence having a long history of producing some of the best Late Model racers around, it would be a shame to see that all go away.
Stock Cars, Mods and Sport Compacts needed three heats on this night along with duo heats for the other classes before it was time to go feature racing. A short break was taken after the heats to work on the three and four corner which was a little bit choppy with that work seeming to help quite a bit. It was interesting how the fast lane changed after the heats to. Early on their was quite a cushion and everyone was running around the bowl but come feature time the track really slicked up from top to bottom and the drivers were all over the track with the low groove really coming alive.
The Modifieds were the featured event on this night and twenty five of them would take the green flag for their main event. But it was a Late Model stalwart that would dominate the show on this night. Chris Simpson would redraw the pole and that was bad news for the rest of the field as he would lead this race from start to finish for the win.
Early on he was chased by Jordan Hicks, Mark Schulte, Jeff Aikey and Troy Cordes. That group would hang close together and swap spots behind Simpson but no one was getting close enough to put a challenge on him. Three restarts for minor spins kept the field bunched but each time it would be Simpson and Hicks leading the way with the others behind dicing for position. Near the end of the race Kelly Shryock would make an appearance in the top five after starting nineteenth after a bad heat race.
There was quite a shakeup near the end as Spencer Diercks raced into the top five and Hicks lost a great finish when he spun with just three laps to go, triggering the last yellow while Aikey dropped out at the same time. Simpson would power away from the field to take the win but Diercks' charge continued as he raced up to second at the finish with Cordes next in line.
Shryock would finish fourth and get the "Hard Charger" award but that was thanks to Ronn Lauritzen. Near the halfway mark of the race, Shryock spun and was headed to the back until Lauritzen "tapped out" and Shryock got his spot back and Ronn went to the tail with a show of sportsmanship.
The Stock Car feature saw Jason Hocken lead the first lap after starting on the pole. However, he was quickly overtaken by Cole Mather who stormed past him on the top side. Tom Schmidt moved into second but there was nothing he could do with Mather. This race ran green to checkered and Mather was untouchable running the rim as he pulled to nearly a full straightaway lead in a dominating performance. Schmidt settled for second while Jay Schmidt weaved his way up from twelfth to finish third.
The Sport Mod feature saw a battle among the Olson's with Tony coming out as the winner. Kyle took the lead from the start and led the first nine laps after coming from fifth on the grid to lead by lap one. Meanwhile, Tony was on the charge after starting seventh and the two Olson's basically followed each other to the front.
They continued their battle with Kyle repelling all efforts by Tony to get by. However, the lone yellow of the race was the turning point as on the green, Kyle wasn't able to fight off Tony who blew past him to take over the lead and then stretch it as he drove home to another win this weekend. Nate Albrant with Brandon Tharp next in line.
Perhaps the most dominating performance of the evening was turned in by Kaden Reynolds in the Hobby Stock feature. Somehow, he found himself second after one lap of the main after starting ninth to Tyler Ball. One more lap and he was in the lead and once in front, he was gone. This race also ran off nonstop and Reynolds had most of a straightaway over the field. There was a good battle for second though as four cars fought and swapped the position. At the finish, it was Billy Rhoades over Shawn Kuennen, Luke Schuetter and Justin Hanson.
The Sport Compact main would see Cristan Grady lead from start to finish in the twelve lapper but it would be a battle from start to finish. He was closely followed by Lukas Rick, Jacob Morris and last week's winner Zeke Wheeler. A late yellow when Rick lost a wheel set up a four lap dash to the finish.
The top three were in a close scramble and they came off the final corner in tight formation but Grady was able to hold on to the win by a car length over Wheeler and Logan Clausen.
Shawn Johnson rounded out the evening by leading from start to finish to win the Late Model feature. He used the high side to drive past Curt Martin and once in front, was able to power away both times following yellow flags to take a relatively easy win. Martin would finish second with Eric Pollard in third. By the time the Late Models hit the track the grandstand was relatively empty as many of the fans had frozen out by then on a cold, windswept night.
I was sorry to see that the track scoreboard, which is probably one of the oldest around in this part of the country, wasn't working but Jeremy Fox, who is announcing here this year, did a good job of notifying us what the lap count was during yellow flag situations.
All racing was complete before 10 pm at which time I limped to my car on frozen toes, happy to have seen racing but wondering how long it would be before I could feel my feet again. Thanks to Justin and Mick Trier for pushing on through less than ideal circumstances to put on the show.
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