Round number two of the Midwest Madness Tour presented by Western Iowa Raceing Results was held on Tuesday night, June 29th at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa. After a disappointing rainout on Monday night at Park Jefferson where they happened to be in just the wrong spot to get dumped on by the scattered down pours and turn their facility into a muddy mess, everyone returned on Tuesday to Spencer refreshed and ready to get after it.
And when I say everyone, I mean that the pits was swelled to the breaking point as one hundred and sixty five cars in five classes signed in to race in what turned out to be a racing extravaganza of talent and competition. The highest car count was in the Modified class with forty entrants but the other classes racing, the Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks, were all very close to that number. Even the Sport Compacts had enough cars to legitimately hold two heat races. All five classes were under IMCA sanction but on this night it was draw/redraw for all five divisions.
This has been an incredibly busy time for many of the teams, most particularly those that race in the Mod, Stock Car and Sport Mod classes. Many raced a couple of weeks ago in eastern Wisconsin, then they just got done with a long weekend full of high dollar shows in central Minnesota with lots of them rushing straight here to western Iowa, there will be many holiday specials coming up in the next week and then many are also getting ready to head to North Dakota for a full week's worth of high dollar racing out there. This might be the busiest year yet for those racers seeking the big dollars and we are right in the middle of that time right now. Race cars and teams are being taxed to the limit right now and while this whole thing is supposed to be fun, right now it is becoming a job for lots of them.
When the pits opened this afternoon, the race cars just started streaming in and the line never got shorter up until almost race time as the folks selling armbands and signing in the drivers were taxed to the limit to get everything ready on time. One great advantage that this track holds is that they have almost unlimited parking space for the big rigs out in the parking lots that are used for the Fair. Many like pitting out there on the cement but the only draw back is that the entrance to the pits is just single file wide so everyone must pay attention so that they don't miss their race.
Clay County does one of the best jobs of anyone at running off a speedy program. Cars are staged on the concrete just outside the track and as one race is just finishing up, the next one is rolling through the gate and on to the track where they quickly get their starting spots and the race goes green on the following lap; no messing around here. And to make that point even stronger, Mike Van Genderen is on hand this week to function as Race Director and we all know his track record when it comes to moving along a race meet. and the thirty two race program we saw on Tuesday night was completed in under four hours. The one spin rule is insisted on here and it works so great that any track facing a big show that doesn't use the one spin rule deserves any criticism they receive for running an overly long program. There were only two races all night that had more than two yellow flags in them and they wre both feature events. Perhaps the only part of their entire race program that could use a little work is their hot lap sessions where they chose to hot lap all cars that desire to do so and this part of the evening does take quite some time to the point that they never do get started on time with tonight's first green flag at 7:37 pm, quite a bit behind the advertised time and this has been consistent for every show I have attended here. They do need to rethink this part of the evening and perhaps only hot lap first timers to the track, perhaps only some of the classes or as some tracks do, don't hot lap anyone and just start at 7 pm. All would work and it probably wouldn't hurt to cut down the number of pre race laps for the track, although it held up great tonight and provided multi groove racing from start to finish.
The racing was great tonight with top notch battles for the lead, some epic slide jobs thrown in and also some amazing charges up through the field, despite the fact that none of the feature races were bogged down with yellow flags. It is impossible on a night like this to highlight everything so I'm just going to give a summary of each main event.
The Modified feature was perhaps the best main of the night as forty cars were whittled down to twenty four for their thirty lap main event. Early on it was Chris Abelson that took the lead from the pole and he led for a number of green flag laps. However, Cody Thompson got up on the cushion and really started coming on fast and he caught the leader and blew past him on the outside.
Abelson tried to fight back and they made an epic turn four corner where both were flat out, not lifting as they went side by side. Thompson made it and Abelson spun out, triggering the yellow flag. Abelson's spin was met by loud cheers as apparently he is not a fan favorite here. Thompson wasn't out of the woods yet though, as Kyle Brown had been moving up from seventh and he drove under Thompson to take over the lead. However, Cody got back up on the wheel and squeezed past Brown with two laps to go, a move that was so tight the sparks flew off Thompson's car as he zinged the concrete wall with his spoiler.
Brown again fought back and they raced into the final corner for the win. Brown was able to squeeze past on the low side and Thompson's cross over down the main chute came up short as a great Modified feature was concluded. Jeremey Mills would finish third.
The Stock Car feature wasn't much less lacking in excitement than the Mods were. This race saw Damon Richards and David Smith battle it out for the early lead before Smith prevailed. However, Smith soon had to deal with Derek Green as the Granada driver found a line on the cushion that was working well for him and after starting seventh, he and Smith went at it lap after lap.
Green's race had started badly with a first corner jingle along with several other cars but he got his spot back and soon worked his way up to challenge Smith. They went back and forth before Green was able to edge into the lead. However, there was a swarm of about six cars just a few lengths behind that were swapping spots and threatening to challenge for the lead. Green also had more excitement when as the leader, the car of McCain Jennings slowed off turn two and Green ran up the back of him and spun him into the infield, triggering the second and last yellow of the race.
The last half of the race ran off non stop and Green found a line where he hammered the cushion in turn three while hugging the low groove on the other end of the track and that allowed him to pull away for a fairly comfortable edge which he maintained to the finish. Justin Luinenberg made a nice run to second and Richards, who had slumped back, also made a late run forward to get third.
The Sport Mod feature got off to a wild start as they were legitimately running five wide down the back chute and not the invented five wide that some announcers try to foist on the crowd, but the real thing. This kind of crazy behavior also triggered three yellow flags in the first five laps after which they settled down a bit.
Matt Looft used these early yellows to gain a bunch of spots and after they had continuous racing starting in lap six, he had worked his way up to fifth after starting eighteenth. After that, he had a magnificently handling car that was able to run right on the bottom of the track, maintain traction while others either spun their tires or slipped up the banking and he drove under car after car to take over the lead. Once in front, he was gone as he drove away from the field with no yellows to bunch the action. Cory Hoogland made his own strong drive up through the pack from seventh to finish runner up and Justin Svoboda, who was among the leaders throughout the race and did lead some laps, would finish third.
The Hobby Stock feature would bring us the most dominating performance of the night as Josh Sidles would start on the outside pole and drive away from the field. This race would go green to checkered nonstop and Sidles was able to pull to nearly a full straightaway over the field and with the pack running strong, he didn't even have to lap a single car. Cory Probst would make another of his patented charges through the field, coming from ninth to finish second and he might have had something for Sidles but never got the yellow he needed. Luke Ramsey came from tenth to finish third.
After a first lap yellow, the Sport Compacts ran green to checkered also and it was another run away win for Drake Bohlmeyer. He started on the pole and led from start to finish and never was challenged. Jaedon Erickson would finish second with Zach Bohlmeyer third.
This is a strange division with half the cars sporting nice paint schemes and lettering and half the cars having taped on numbers, flapping in the breeze and unreadable from the stands. I was told once that Sport Compacts purposefully keep their cars looking ratty so that others don't consider claiming them and I don't know whether it's true or not, but the ratty part sure is.
The track, as mentioned earlier, held up very well and they must have done a great job getting it ready. I suppose too, that we must give Mother Nature some credit as Spencer received some good rains on Monday night which always help a race track and in this case, made for a muddy East end of the pit area that was largely unused.
It was a top notch show from start to finish and if you like nonstop racing with nary a break, this is the place to be. Thanks to everyone at Clay County for their efforts on this night. Their formula of running around a half dozen shows a year, all of them being week nights, seems to be working great for them and might perhaps be a formula that other struggling tracks might want to consider.
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