The Iron Cup at the Park Jefferson Speedway was completed on Tuesday night, August 10th and Jacob Hobscheidt went home with five thousand dollars for his thirty five lap feature win in the IMCA Modified division. His win would be a tough one but he would also lead all the laps in the main event. A full show was again contested in four other IMCA divisions and the highlight of that group was the win by Minnesota's Justin Luinenberg which saw him win back to back Iron Cup mains and total two thousand dollars that he took back across the border with him.
Car counts were very similar to Monday night's show with about ten new drivers entered in the second night of racing while some could not return due to various reasons, thus leaving the car count in each class just about what it had been for the opener.
The Modifieds would compete in a pair of heat races that would set their running order behind the already qualified cars while the Sport Compacts, Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks would all run qualifying heats that would set their lineups for their main events.
While the Modified feature did not see a single pass for a change of leadership, it was still an interesting race that did see a lot of infighting for other positions. Hobscheidt would start on the inside pole after garnering the most points in Monday night racing and he would immediately set out to a nice lead as he out fought Bobby Moore in the early going and then started to pull away from him. Anthony Roth was third in the early going with Cody Thompson next in line. Most of the drivers were running the low line on the slick track but Chris Abelson moved to the top side immediately and when he started to have some success and started to gain from his eleventh starting spot, Brian Osantowski jumped up there too and they both started to advance.
With the green remaining out, Hobscheidt would build up a big lead with nearly a full straightaway over the field. The driver that looked fast and was starting to move up was Thompson as he moved into third and looked to be the fastest on the track. However, just before the halfway point, he clipped a ute tire in turn two, broke his front end and after fighting the car for a lap or so, gave up and headed for the infield.
Hobscheidt was in heavy traffic at this point and he did a masterful job working his way above and below the slower cars, lapping seven of them just before the only yellow of the race occurred when sheet metal littered corner one, slowing the race with twenty four laps complete.
And just as often happens, a yellow and its restart would shuffle the field. While Hobscheidt would break back into the lead, Shane Demey, who started tenth and gradually worked his way forward, would surge ahead of Moore on the green and take over second and the race was on.
With an open track, it would be a showdown for the win and Hobscheidt no longer had the best handling car as the track had changed and he was struggling through the corners. Demey pushed the issue and got close to him on several occasions, getting a nose inside twice in turn one but each time Hobscheidt would somehow fight him off. In the last few laps Hobscheidt would alter his line through the turns and that seemed to help him as he was able to pull away by a few car lengths. Demey had no last lap heroics to try and would settle for second as Hobscheidt would come home the winner by several car lengths. The battle for third would end up to be a great one following the yellow with a three car cluster for the spot and as they flashed across the line together, it would be Jay Noteboom edging out Abelsen and Osantowski for third.
The Stock Cars would participate in a nonstop green to checkered feature as a part of the overall program that went much smoother on night two. Mike Albertsen inherited the outside pole when Devin Schelm opted for the tail and he would lead the opening lap. But just like on Monday, he was soon tailed by Luinenberg who seems to have found the hot setup for this track. It took him only one lap to size up Albertsen and then he blasted under Mike to take over the lead.
And once in front and with no yellows to bunch the field, he was gone as he pulled away by nearly a full straightaway for what at least looked like an easy run to the checkered. For Justin, it was a repeat of Monday night and another thousand dollars into the racing check book.
The race for second was a dandy however as Albertsen fought to hold off Chanse Hollatz who dogged him for most of the track. Hollatz made repeated efforts to get by for second but lap after lap, Albertsen would hold him off. Finally, with just a few laps to go, Chanse would get by down the back chute and once in front, pull away to take second. However, he was way too far behind the leader to made a push in the remaining laps and would settle for second over Albertsen, Jason Schneiders and Travis Barker.
The Sport Mod feature also went nonstop and produced by far the closest finish of the night. Wayne Becker took the initial lead and would move away from the field, running by himself in the lead. All eyes were focused, however, deep in the pack where the action was. Keegan Nordquist, who failed to run his heat race after hot lap difficulties, started eleventh on the grid but he didn't stay there long.
Using the low line of the track, he was picking off competitors at the rate of a car a lap as he charged to the front. While Becker continued to motor along as the leader, Nordquist continued his surge. He got past Josh Blom for second with five laps to go but it seemed the distance to make up was too much.
Not so, as Nordquist quickly proved as the distance between himself and Becker was shortened dramatically and he caught the leader with two laps to go. Becker tried to protect the low line but he gave Nordquist just enough room to poke a nose under him but somehow, Becker fought him off.
They came out of the last corner side by side but Becker got just enough of a run off the middle lane to hold on and edge out Nordquist by half a car length for a thrilling win.
The Hobby Stocks, for the second straight night, spent as much time beating on each other and spinning out as they did racing and for their feature race was marked by several yellow flags, However, also for the second straight night, the battle for the lead was a good one right down to the wire.
Tony Fetterman would lead the first two laps before he was overtaken by Kaylb Brunssen for the lead. Storming up from the third row, Dylan Fitzpatrick would move into second and the battle would be on. Lap after lap, though interrupted three times by yellow, Fitzpartick would try to find a way past Brunssen, looking both high and low. He would get beside the leader several times, but just could not make his maneuver stick.
A late yellow would set up five laps of green flag racing and on the final restart, Fitzpatrick would not get a good start and that opening suited Brunssen who would then go on uncontested for the win with Fitzpatrick settling for second and David Miller third.
The Sport Compacts had another small field on Tuesday and national point leader Caine Mahlberg would lead this race from start to finish. Having switched cars from Monday night, he would again race a car with just a taped on number , but it was fast, as he would pull away for a relatively easy win. Second place finisher Kaytee DeVries was more concerned with holding off challenger Trent Reed for second than challenging for the win. It would be nice if the national point leader had a race car that was just a bit more appealing but perhaps he is so busy racing that he doesn't have time to put some decent graphics on it or perhaps is swapping so many cars back and forth that there isn't the time.
For all the laps on the track over two straight nights under blistering heat and bright sunshine, I thought the track held up well and provided smooth racing for the drivers. Even to the end, the Modified drivers were finding lines to run that didn't involve just hugging the bottom lane.
I spoke briefly with track owner Adam Adamson before the show and asked him if he was disappointed in the rather small car count, especially in the Modifieds. He did say that the Siouxland area is lucky in that they have a considerable number of cars so that they can put on a solid show even if no travelers arrive but also that, fair or not, the Siouxland area has gained a reputation of having drivers that race very hard, which he did not totally disagree with and that sometimes, because of that, it is hard to get drivers from the East to come over for their events. Nevertheless, I thought the racing was good and the track a very good one.
An interesting thing I discovered about this area occurred as I was searching out lunch today. I made what turned out to be a ten minutes drive to a restaurant but it turns out, during that ten minute drive, I actually passed through three states! I started out in South Dakota, passed through Iowa and sat down for lunch in Nebraska! I wonder how many other parts of our country is it possible to do that?
Thanks to Adam Adamson and all the folks at Park Jefferson for a couple entertaining nights of racing.
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