It was the second night of the 2021 racing season at the Kossuth County Speedway in Algona on Thursday night, May 13th. The opener, which I missed , was a success and with gradually warming temperatures, it would be a fine night for racing on Thursday of this week.
Algona runs five classes that are IMCA sanctioned every Thursday night with the usual classes that run at most tracks in this area from the Sport Compacts on the low end of the totem pole to the Modifieds as the premier class. However, as is the case also with many of the tracks, the in between classes such as the Hobby Stocks and Stock Cars often put on the best show of the night.
KCS is also one of the few bastions of racing that still also runs a Cruiser class. For those that haven't heard of the Cruisers, this is a class of full size cars, with two occupants, one of which does the steering and operates the brake while the other rider controls the gas. This makes for an interesting combination and perhaps one of the true "team" sports and coordination between the two is most critical. It used to be that many tracks ran this class but that number has dwindled considerably and Algona may be one of the very few that still has this class. And it doesn't seem to be growing as the same five cars race here it seems like every week, but as long as they don't cost the track either too much money or time, I suppose they will likely continue to run here as the crowd seems at least moderately interested in their races. On this night it was a lady team that took the top honors.
For all the times that I have been to Algona over the years, it wasn't until tonight that it dawned on me that the whole story of life is played out on the South side of Algona, right in front of us. On one side of highway 169 lies the hospital and right next to the hospital is the cemetery and right across the street is the fairgrounds, with the school district bus garage right in front of that.
The full scale of life, from birth, to growth, to fun and adventure and finally death is all played out in a few blocks right in front of us on highway 169.
At one point, the Kossuth County Speedway, which as also operated under several other names over the years, was in dire shape and facing the possibility of closing down permanently. There are so many tracks in this area and so few nights to race that they were getting squeezed out of race cars and fans. As almost a last resort, they opted to move their race program to Thursday nights and that seemed to make all the difference in the world. Now they appear to have a healthy program with plenty of race cars and a very solid fan count, if Thursday was an accurate representation. Their forumula for midweek success includes having the track ready to race on, running through a very quick program with few delays or down time and having their fans on the road home by 10 pm. It seems easy but so many tracks struggle to do exactly that.
The "Thunder Dome", as they call it, is the ultimate "paper clip" shaped track with long chutes and very tight corners that don't really have a lot of banking. But it works well for them as the races always seem close and the crowd very much a part of the action. Most of the racers are from the immediate area and that helps as their fans flock to be a part of the action every week.
Good people running the show always helps too and with Chad Meyer calling the action and Logan Kelly waving the sticks, things get done in short order and the fans get entertained too. On this night all qualifying was done within an hour and after a very short break of just a few minutes, they went directly into the main events. The winning drivers are interviewed in groups of three which speeds things up just a little also.
The Cruises were first and after their short event was won by the duo of female racers, it was on to the Sport Compacts. This would turn out to be one of the closer Sport Compact features I have seen recently. Trading the lead back and forth, Kaytee DeVries and Jade Lange battled right down to the wire with DeVries winning with such a small margin, it took an official call from the tower to verify that she indeed was the winner with Tyler Fiebelkorn, who must race at every track in the state, finishing third.
Hobby Stock came next and a three car battle would rage between Brandon Nielsen, Josh Sidles and Carter Koop for the top spot. Sidles led early until lap three when Nielsen used the top side of the track to take over the lead. After that, it was a close battle between the top three although Nielsen would lead the rest of the laps.
This race got stuck in the mud as four straight times, yellows waved with just two laps to go as it seems they just couldn't finish off the event. Finally they went single file and Nielsen, using the top side of the track, withstood the final challenges of Sidles and Koop to get his first win of the year here.
The largest field of the night was in the Stock Cars and no surprise, they responded with a tough battle for the win. There were three different leaders in the fifteen lap finale with first Troy Swearingen holding the point but he was quickly overtaken by Cody Nielsen as the Hobby Stock veteran has quickly learned the ropes in the Stock Car class. But he was passed one lap later by Granada Minnesota star Derek Green for the lead. Meanwhile, Kelly Shryock had moved up from the fifth row and pulled up behind Green. Shryock appeared to have the fastest car in the field and after tail gating Green, Shryock realized that he wasn't going to make a mistake on the preferred low side, so Shryock tried to pass him up high. Lap after lap we would pull up beside Green in turn one but not have quite enough momentum to make the pass down the back chute and would then have to tuck in behind Green, often almost running up his rear bumper as Shryock had the speed but just couldn't pull off the move.
This continued right to the finish with Kelly trying one last time but Green never bobbled and he drove home for the win with Nielsen a close third.
Alec Fett was the early leader of the Sport Mod feature and often, once he is in front that would be end of story for the race. But not on this night as George Nordman moved up from the third row and made a lap five pass of Fett and took over the lead. Fett tried to fight back and was soon joined by Matt Looft in a three car battle. After a first lap wreck that eliminated two cars, the rest of the race would go off nonstop and those three drivers would battle it out right to the finish.
However, Nordman would not make a mistake and after Looft got past Fett for second, he put the pressure on but George was up to the task as he drove home for the win.
The Modifieds would wrap up the evening with a nonstop twenty lap main and for Shryock it was more of the same, frustration wise. After Jeff Feaster led the opening lap, Cody Knecht would pass him to take over the lead with Shryock coming up from the fourth row to move into second. And much like the Stock Car feature, Shryock would then spend the rest of the race trying to find a way to maneuver around Knecht. He tried the same strategy of getting beside Cody into turn one and trying to out run him down the back chute.
On lap ten Kelly was able to get up beside Cody and would be scored the leader of that lap but he couldn't hold on in turn one and Knecht, not to be denied , would take back the lead. Shryock would make numerous attempts over the later half of the race to make the winning pass, but Knecht would have none of it as he maintained his line and crossed the stripe with a narrow victory over Shryock and Feaster. And other than the Hobby Stocks, the rest of the main events would be run off with either only one or no yellow flag slowdowns in their mains.
By 10 pm the fans were celebrating the night with many heading for the pits while I took advantage of the early night to head to the parking lot and then the pavement home. Thanks to everyone at Kossuth County Speedway for a nice show that was well run and entertaining.
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