A five night swing for the Modifieds kicked off on Wednesday night, May 21st with the presentation of the USMTS Spring Classic at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City Iowa. Although the city of Webster City missed out on any storm damage, much like many places in the Midwest they had a large amount of rain that had fallen in the twenty four hours prior to this show. In fact, USMTS El Presidente Todd Staley told me that they had three inches at the track.
Often times, this would be more than enough to cause any show to be either postpones or cancelled outright but the USMTS has been fighting so much bad weather of late, they made the special effort to get this show completed. And with much hard work and long hours at the track, they were able to get this Wednesday night show completed under sunny skies and windy conditions.
And what we would eventually see would be one of the more thrilling conclusions to a feature event so far this year as Jim Chisholm would duck under Gary Christian on the last corner of the forty lap Modified feature to take the victory and leave Chisholm is a very disappointed state.
Along with the USMTS being in town, Hamilton County Speedway also presented the rest of their normal Saturday night USRA program which included Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks, B Mods and Tuners. Winners of those events would include Myles Michehl, Jeremy Crimmins, Bryer McCoy and Jake Paysen.
The heavy rains, while forcing the track crew to put in some long hours to get everything in shape, was probably a bonus for the race though as while it was fast and was hard on motors, it produced some of the best racing seen at this track in quite some time. The surface was smooth and gradually widened out at the evening progressed with more races on it and much packing between events to speed the process. While the track really doesn't look a whole lot different than it used to since it was shortened last year, it seems to race different and different in a positive way. The drivers seem to have many more lines to run through the corners and the overall racing seems much better. On this day, the big haulers hung out on top of the hill until the pits dried out, which was done by opening that surface up early in the day and letting the sun and wind to their thing. Really, except for the extra packing between races, all the rain was a nonfactor in the show.
The Modified car count was a bit disappointing as only twenty four pulled through the gates but this also allowed everyone that was still running to make the big show. Through the heat races, the big story was those drivers that had trouble as both Rodney Sanders and Steve Lavasseur were running good until their power plants let go in a cloud of smoke. Sanders would pull out a back up car to run the rest of the night but Lavasseur, without that option available, was done for the night.
All the heat races were clicked off in forty minutes as their was only a single yellow flag in the heats, and that was for the stalled Sanders after he blew up. Twenty two cars would start the Modified thirty five lap main as both Lavasseur and Lance Mari failed to take the green.
Gary Christian would start on the pole and he would pull to the early lead with Kyle Brown, Alex Williamson, Terry Phillips and Jake Timm chasing. Timm would run into trouble early with a flat tire on lap eight and this would mire him to the back of the pack where he would not be a factor the rest of the race.
Christian would continue to lead with those three just mentioned chasing him although Christian was able to maintain some distance on all of them. Williamson had bad luck when he also had a tire go flat and he would pay catch up the rest of the race.
Brown would continue to run in second through the halfway point when Chisholm first started to make his move, coming from tenth and after having a great battle with Phillips, would move into third. With ten laps to go, Chisholm got by Brown for second and began to reel in the leader as Christian felt heat for the first time during the race.
A late yellow when Mike Hansen appeared to blow up set up a seven lap race to the checkers. Chisholm was all over the leader, trying to get under him on nearly every corner. The margin kept getting smaller as Christian struggled to determine the best line to run in with two strong grooves available.
The white flag waved and Christian opted to stay high in turn one and this gave Chisholm the opportunity to duck under him down the back chute. Chisholm drove it deep in turn three and slid under Christian and when Gary tried to cross over, Chisholm had that lane blocked with Christian having to back off and in that moment, the race was decided. Chisholm would cross the line with a couple car lengths advantage over an obviously disappointed Christian. The last lap would see Brown get too high in turn one in his effort to pass both the leaders and Dan Ebert would sneak under Brown for third.
Seventeen drivers would finish the contest and all were on the lead lap as five yellows, more than the total of the rest of the racing program combined, would slow the event.
The other classes participating on this night would all suffer from a severe shortage of entrants with only the Hobby Stocks having enough drivers to fill two heat races.
The Tuners had the four octaves covered but that was it. Tyler Crimmins led the first five laps until Jake Paysen slid up under him to take over the top spot and while Crimmins continued to pester the leader, Paysen would his second straight main here. Crimmins finished second with Charles Prime third and T.J. Williams finishing bass.
The Hobby Stock feature ran off green to checkers also with Bryce Sommerfeld holding the top spot for the first six laps until Jeremy Crimmins pulled past him to take over the lead. The rest of the race the pack continued to chase Crimmins but no one caught him as he drove on for the win. Sommerfeld faded badly after losing the lead and would sink out of the top five with Josh Monson fighting his way back up to second and Scott Dobel third.
The B Mod feature had quite the strange occurrence happen when both the leader and second place runner both broke at the same time. Shadren Turner started in the second row but he had the lead by the time the field left turn two on the opening lap and he was walking away from the pack. That is, until lap nine when he suddenly slowed as he broke a drive shaft. However, at just the same instant, second place runner Ty Griffith saw his motor go up in smoke and the yellow flew with both leaders done for the night.
Klay Beemer then inherited the lead but he could only hold off Bryer McCoy for one lap before the #88 car drove past for the lead and McCoy then lead the final six laps for the win, pulling away from Beemer and Kaeden Bronner.
The Stock Car feature was dominated by Myles Michehl who started on the pole and led all fifteen laps for the win. Rodney Schweizer would run second for many laps until he was passed by Reid Keller for that spot and Keller did close up on the leader toward the end, but Michehl was still comfortably in front.
Michehl would hold off Keller in a green, white and checkers finish in an over time finish. Keller, meanwhile, did not pass inspection following the race and Schweizer was elevated to second with El Presidente finishing third as he still likes to race his Stock Car whenever he can.
Even though the car shortage made some of the races a bit mundane, there was also plenty of good action and the track seemed as good as I can ever remember seeing it here. All racing was completed before 10 pm and the fans on hand seemed satisfied with the show, as was I. Thanks to Todd and Janet, Trent, Ryne and everyone else associated with the Hamilton County Speedway and the USMTS for persisting and getting this show in the books.
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