The Sport Mod Nationals, a traditional event at the Hancock County Speedway in Britt Iowa, was held on Monday night, May 13th and for the third consecutive year the winner would be Logan Anderson. His win would be a difficult one and he didn't take the lead until there were only two laps left in the race when he made the winning pass.
The "Spring Fling" Sport Mod Nationals pays a very fine two thousand dollars to the winner and typically draws some of the finest Sport Mod talent around which it did again in 2024. Along with the Sport Mods, a full show with some extra money, at least on top, is offered for the other four classes that race weekly at Britt.
A new promoter, Darin Toot, has taken over for 2024 at Britt although many of the familiar faces from years past are still working at the track. The program itself has also seen some change with the Sport Compacts lifted from the weekly program and instead replaced by an Outlaw Hobby Stock class, but more on that later.
A visit to this North Iowa track is always a good chance to catch up on racing in this area with track announcer Chad Meyer who has done it all and seen it all when it comes to racing in this area. While Britt has gotten just one race in so far this year prior to this night as they have been battling the weather, it report from the opener at Hancock County was a positive one with a nice field of cars, a good crowd and particularly good racing with much side by side battling down to the wire in all classes. It always is a treat to spend a few minutes with Chad finding out some of the interesting tidbits that are going on behind the scenes. Chad was saddled with a badly behaving p.a. system on this night that made it very hard to hear and while they were working on it before the show, it never did get to the point of being very workable.
And it was a special night for me as among the very first racers to roll into the pits were the legendary Hall brothers from Rochester Minnesota with perhaps the second and third ever IMCA Mods in existence. I say the second and third because Keith Knaak built the first one but the Hall brother's cars must have come off the assembly line right after his! The Hall brothers would start their races and then make a few laps before pulling off, which was probably a very judicious thing since they weren't up to racing speed and would have made themselves into a big hazard if they would have raced more laps. But in any event, it was interesting to see them on hand.
They picked a bad night to over water the race track, being as it was a Monday night with just about everyone scheduled to work on Tuesday. I'm told they apologized to the drivers at their meeting for having to spend more time packing than they probably wanted but it probably would have been nice to say something to the fans also since the extra packing caused the first green flag to fly at 7:46 pm, a bit late for a week night. After that they moved right through the show and the track came around nicely, but it would have been nice if this could have happened just a bit earlier in the evening. But as we know at the track, sometimes stuff happens.
The Sport Mods had the biggest field of drivers at twenty six and while that might not be a large field for two grand to win, for the fans there were many of the top Sport Mod drivers around on hand and as a nice bonus for the drivers that did attend, all got to start the main with no one eliminated through a B Feature.
The Sport Mod feature itself was a doozy with by my count, five different leaders during its twenty five laps! And while there was obviously much battling for the top spot, most of the race would fine four or five other drivers racing in a cluster just behind the leader's fight for the top spot.
And there was certainly plenty of drama also with two leaders spinning out of the top spot with some controversy there too. Matt Avila would make a bonzai charge on the drop of the green flag and come from the second row to lead the opening lap. One lap later, however, he would spin in turn two causing the first of six yellow flags during the race. All the yellows were the thing that kept this race from being a classic.
Justin Klynsma would inherit the lead and he and Jared Boumeester would take turns throwing side jobs at each other as they battled for the top spot. Right in the mix with them were the Fetts, Alec and Colby, along with Jake Sachau and Matt Looft so you can see that there was plenty of talent up front battling.
Winner Anderson didn't even appear in the top five runners until lap ten when he moved up to fifth after starting seventh on the grid. Things really started heating up when Sachau got up to second and he and Klynsma started exchanged some very aggressive sliders as they fought for the lead. Things came to a head in turn four when Sachau tried another slider but didn't have the leader cleared and Klynsma was shoved up toward the wall where he spun.
The yellow waved, Sachau was sent to the back for the move but both he and Klynsma opted to park their cars at this point.
Boumeester, who had been hanging with the pack this whole time, now inherited the lead but going down the back chute, both Colby Fett and Anderson blew past him on either side as they drove into the top two spots.
It would then be these two that would fight it out for the win. Anderson tried running off the banking and pulled up to Fett but couldn't quite get past and as he faded back a few car lengths, it seemed like Colby Fett was home clear. However, with just a few laps left, a one car spin would bunch the field up once again for a final race to the finish.
Again Anderson went to the banking as it was his only real shot but this time it worked better. The track seemed to be drying off in the lower groove and slicking off and Fett wasn't getting such a good run off the inside. Anderson crawled up next to him on the top side and with just two laps to go, edged past into the lead down the front chute. And he would then pull away as Fett's attempts to catch Anderson just didn't work out. Anderson crossed the line to a chorus of cheers, part of which I'm guessing is because Fett wins too much around here, and flying under the radar, Anderson has now won this race three straight years.
Behind Fett, Alec Fett would finish third with Cam Reimers and Looft rounding out the top five. Seventeen cars would take the checkers with all on the lead lap.
There was racing in three other IMCA classes along with the Sport Mods. Brandon Nielsen would redraw the outside pole for the Hobby Stock feature and then he led from start to finish to claim the four hundred dollar top prize. It wasn't an easy win though, as he had Drew Barglof nailed to his rear bumper for most of the contest. One slip and Barglof would have been past him but Nielsen made sure that didn't happen. Erik Knutson was the third place finisher.
The Stock Car feature started off wild with Troy Swearingen and Heath Tulp exchanging the lead three times in the first four laps. However, when Swearingen finally reclaimed the lead for good on lap four, he then would claim that spot for the rest of the race. Tulp stayed close, but couldn't ever manage a passing move as he settled for second with Minnesota driver Aaron Johnson finishing up third.
It was heartbreak for Drew Janssen in the Modified feature. He got the jump at the start and led all laps through about the halfway point when his motor suddenly erupted in a ball of flames, smoke and liquid and obviously, he was done.
Ryle Heckman then moved into the lead and he managed to stave off all challenges from both Jeremy Mills and Tim Ward to get the win. The highlight was the battle for second between Miles and Ward that carried on for many laps before Jeremy would claim the spot.
The Sport Compacts were dropped from the program here in 2024, largely due to lack of numbers, something I get. Every time I had been here in recent years, the number of Sport Compacts on hand was rather embarrassing and they couldn't put on a decent show.
They were replaced for 2024 with an Outlaw Hobby Stock class, apparently to draw in the USRA cars that race at a few tracks in this area. The Outlaw cars run on racing tires and use American Racer tires, unlike all the IMCA classes. However, the sticker is that the IMCA Hobbies are also allowed to run in this class, they just have to change tires.
So, on this night, there were eight for this class, five of which were IMCA cars that just changed tires and raced in two different classes. There were two drivers that had separate cars for each class while only one true Outlaw Hobby Stock only car was on hand.
Granted, we are very early in this experiment but to have the majority of the field just drivers that get to race four times instead of twice a night with the same cars doesn't seem like some big addition to the overall program. I did see that for their regular Friday night opener that they did have nineteen cars and more visiting Outlaw cars. Still, I'm not sure whether providing a racing venue for a competing sanctioning body rather than strengthening your own product is the way to go. I guess we will see how it plays out.
On this night, the only Outlaw car was the winner as Kolby Goepel would lead from start to finish for the win with Joshua Monson second and Nielsen third with only four finishing.
It was a good night of racing and for a Monday night with folks in the fields, the crowd was not bad. thanks to Darin Toot and all the staff at Hancock County for a nice night of racing and what better way to spend a Monday than at the track.
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