Monday night, June 7th marked the opening race for the 2021 season for the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa. Nestled on the grounds of what is known as the biggest county fair in the state of Iowa(and I might say also much larger than many of the state fair grounds I have seen) Spencer will again in 2021 operate under a specials only format. With so many race tracks compressed in a relatively small area, the folks here have found that running a relatively short season that is filled with special events only works much better for them. And perhaps surprisingly so, they have found that Mondays work well for them although this year they will be running two Monday night shows, one Tuesday and one Wednesday and then on Tuesday and Wednesday during the Clay County Fair in September. The first four shows feature the five popular classes that run at virtually every track in this area while in September they bring in Sprint Cars and Late Models for one show before wrapping up the season with their basic five class show once again.
Since they first experimented with Monday night shows several years ago amid a time of struggle when they were having trouble getting fans and racers on a regular basis, the Monday night approach has worked well for them and again on this night, despite us being in the middle of the year's first heat wave, a fine field of racers and a good crowd of spectators(albeit noticed that more were sitting under the roof and not in the open bleachers on this night), were on hand for the opener here.
One hundred and nine race cars and fine group of fans were on hand for the opener. Racing on Mondays(or for that matter on any week night) does provide some extra challenges. Being a Monday, many of the spectators arrive at about the same time after they get off work and most arrive hungry so the concessions area has to be ready for them and they have to serve their customers in a quick fashion.
Much the same way, the vast majority of the racers all arrive at the same time so track officials must be ready to get them signed in and to their parking spots quickly to keep a long line from forming and allow them to start on time. Hot laps must be a little bit later than for a normal show to make sure everyone is allowed time to get to the track but the show must be run off at perhaps an even quicker pace than for most weekly programs because it is essential, perhaps the most important part of the whole evening, to get the show done early and quickly so everyone can get home and ready for work on Tuesday. This item, if it slips away from them, will be the one thing that will keep more racers and fans from attending than anything else. So, once they start, it is a race within a race to get the show moving, keep it moving and get it done at a reasonable time.
And for the most part, they do a really good job of doing that here at Spencer. They do hot lap all classes which is something I might consider changing, if for no other reason than to allow the show to begin a bit sooner and in this heat to save the race track a bit. However, on this night the first heat took the green at 7:35 pm and all fifteen qualifying events were completed in just sixty one minutes. Race time temperature, by the way, was 91 degrees with a blazing sun beating down.
Most significant of the events during the qualifying heats were the wild rides taken by Stock Car driver Elijah Zevenbergen and Sport Compact driver Dan Chinn. Chinn was directed off the first turn where he flew over the banking and hit the wall that borders the facility on the East end of the grounds. He would be done for the night. Elijah would be redirected off the other end of the track during his heat and he flew past the barns and into the pit area at high speed, fortunately not hitting anything(at least that is the assumption as the race wasn't stopped and we couldn't see where he ended up). He did return to start twenty seventh in the Stock Car feature but was a DNF in that event.
Except for the Sport Compacts, all the other features pay exactly the same purse to each class, something that they started during here several years ago and has been highly popular and certainly has in part led to the large fields of cars they get for their midweek shows. This trick has been now used by other tracks and to come up with a new concept that others copy is always a strong form of flattery.
A very brief break to do some track prep was taken but it was very short and soon the /Sport Mod feature was being lined up. With no B Features, some large fields of cars would take the green for their main events. The one down side to Spencer is that they have no scoreboard so it is impossible to know during races just how many laps are being run and just where they are in each event. I suppose that track announcer Chad Meyer does mention that but in another down side for Spencer, under the roof where I sit it is impossible to hear Mr. Meyer too so whatever nuggets of humor or wisdom he imparts are lost on most of us.
Twenty eight Sport Mods would take the green for their main event with it being a two car race between Jared Boumeester and Alec Fett. Boumeester would lead from the pole and would be in front for most of the event. However, he had to pause when he came up on a couple of lapped cars and he lost his momentum and Fett blew past him to take over the lead.
With momentum being such a big item on this big track and the two front runners being so equal, once in front it was impossible for Boumeester to return the favor and he had to settle for second behind Fett. Geoff Olson ran a strong third in a race that had only two yellows.
The Modified feature was a "walk over" for Chris Abelson who started on the front row and led the entire distance. With this race going green to checkered, there would be no challenges against Abelson who would win by nearly a full straightaway over the field. Cody Thompson would get past Brandon Beckendorf late in the race for second and Kelly Shryock would come from eleventh to finish fourth.
A huge field of twenty nine Stock Cars would take the green flag for their main event but this would be the one race that had its issues as the yellow flew six times during this race as they found it tough to make many consecutive laps in a row without the yellow being waved. Through this all, it would be veteran racer Randy Brands that would hold the point. He made a strong move up from the third to get past Justin Luinenburg and Colton Arends to take the lead and once in front, despite heavy pressure he refused to yield the lead.
There was quite a battle for second with much swapping of positions before Jeff Larson secured second and he would be the one that would continually challenge Brands for the top spot but although he was right with Brands, he couldn't find a way by.
Special notice should go out to Derek Green who triggered the first yellow of the race with a rare spin and went to the back of the field. On the final corner of the feature, he would go to the top side of the track and pass David Smith and Shryock to get the third place awards.
As is usually the case here, the Sport Compacts always have a teeny field of cars and thus run a teeny length feature race. Monday night the seven on hand went six laps and it was Jaedon Erickson who held off the challenges of Jade Lange and Kaytee Devries. At least that's what is seemed as Erickson took the trophy and the winner's interview.
However, as the show was completed, Lange would return to get an interview after the fact and My Race Pass would show that Erickson got disqualified for some sort of malfeasance that was not identified to us.
Twenty four Hobby Stocks would wrap up the evening and this would also prove to be a two car battle all the way for the win. Josh Sidles would take the lead right from the pole and lead the early laps. He was guarding the bottom lane of the track and after Cory Probst moved into second, he would do more of the same.
The track was getting tired and the inside lane was the place to be so the leaders lined up single file, hoping for a mistake. And that would happen, although not the fault of the leader. A car near the back of the pack blew a radiator hose, watering down a lane on the track as it headed to the infield. The race stayed under the green but unfortunately, Sidles got his right side tires in the water and slid up the track, opening the door for Probst who said "thank you" as he drove by on the bottom to take the lead.
Sidles then tucked in behind the leader but Probst was able to put some distance on him as he pulled away for the win. A sterling drive was made by Blake Arends who started nineteenth and drove past Drew Barglof in the late laps to take third with only two yellows to help him out.
The final checkered flag waved before 10:30 pm and it would have been even earlier if the Stock Cars hadn't had such a tough time of it Monday. They very much succeeded in their efforts to run off a quick show and get everyone on their way home early. Thanks go out to race promoter Trent Chinn and all the workers at the track and employees of the Clay County Fair. It was another hot night and a tough one to keep moisture in the track but they worked hard and for the first race of the year under difficult conditions, I thought they did a fine job.
No comments:
Post a Comment