One of the hottest new races for 2024 that has been talked about extensively as the date for the event approached kicked off on Monday night, May 20th at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa.
The $250,000 Challenge event, put on by Mike VanGenderen and Trent Chinn, will pay the winner of both the Stock Car and Sport Mod feature events twenty five grand on Wednesday night if pre entered and fifteen thousand if not. For this reason, the number of entries for this race was off the charts as anyone that had even a possibility of racing would want to enter so that they would be eligible for an extra ten grand. There was a huge "buzz" beforehand for this race and for all I know, it might have been the highest paying event for both classes ever in the state of Iowa.
The only possible thing that could throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings would be the weather, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Over a week ago the weather forecasters were talking about a multi day "event" which was supposed to arrive on Monday and affect the entire Midwest for perhaps two or more days. But with the event still scheduled to take place, drivers and crews had to make a tough decision on whether to pull to Spencer or not and many did although the entry list did show a number of drivers that didn't actually make it to the track. And for some of them at least, the weather was probably not the deciding issue as there are certainly lots of things that might come up causing someone to change their plans.
As for me, it was a race morning decision and after a discussion between me, myself and I, I won out and I threw my stuff in the car and headed South to Iowa. I thought that the forecast looked favorable enough to at least get the opening night completed but it turns out that I was just a bit too optimistic on that.
The car count, upon arriving at the Fairgrounds, was spectacular. One hundred and four Stock Cars signed in to race along with an even one hundred Sport Mods. Modifieds, which were on the program, then off when they didn't have many pre entries, and then added once more when their numbers rose, had twenty five drivers sign in for the first of three full nights of racing for them.
Teams were scattered all over the Fairgrounds and it was quite the challenge to make the rounds and see just who had come to race. It was neat to see people like Ricky Thornton Jr on hand to race in two classes and there were drivers representing quite a number of states. The beauty of this early week show was that drivers could come and race and still get back to where ever home was to race Memorial weekend specials too. It was a hot, steamy and windy Monday and the weather caught me off guard, as it was probably twenty degrees cooler when I left to make the trip.
Cars continued to funnel in all afternoon and the Dusty Masolini Team has the best parking spot on the whole grounds, under a big shade tree just off the paved parking where it felt at least ten degrees cooler! I'm guessing they will request that spot forever.
With so many teams and spread all over creation, the logistics of getting this show started or operating well seemed daunting to me, but once they set the wheels in motion, things flowed like a well oiled machine, at least from what I could observe. A tight time schedule was posted and they followed it strictly. Racing got started just a few minutes after the advertised time but that was due to a few extra minutes needed for Modified hot laps and track packing. After that, it was full speed ahead with no delays.
What was so amazing to me was that with so much on the line and the heat races being so important, and with so many drivers never having raced here before that the heats went extremely smooth. While there were some great battles for position in the heats, there were very few yellow flag stoppages with certainly part of that due to the one spin rule, which I would implore my local tracks to start using. However, that is a debate for another day.
But the point is, that with twenty two heat races run off, the yellow flag was only used seven times in total! That, to me, is remarkable. And also certainly a key element in getting those twenty two races done in two hours and three minutes! We were on track for a speedy completion of the program, despite the daunting number of races to be run.
Interestingly, off all those twenty two races, there was not a single disqualification although I noted that two drivers got docked positions, for what I would assume would be either jump starts or restarts.
However, the skies to the West of the track were progressively darkening as the evening progressed and an ominous wind was blowing from the wrong direction that it should have been. With the last Modified heat and last heat of the night rolling on to the track, it started to rain at 7:46 pm. Storm warnings were going off on everyone's phone, tablet and electronic devices and we were forced to evacuate the grandstand due to lightning. We were lucky in that the worst of the storm including the hail, missed us but it was an impressive light and thunder show put on.
The rain stopped and they tried to re prepare the track but then it started raining again and with the radar telling us that more was coming, a wise choice was made to call it a night and allow us to shelter. The show was called complete and on Tuesday they will pick up right where they left off on Monday and then proceed with Tuesday's show. That is if the weather cooperates and as I keyboard this, it doesn't look promising.
I made an executive decision not to hang around in Spencer for two days and I had predetermined that Tuesday would rain out so I am now in a holding pattern, deciding once again what my next move will be. It is a shame that they couldn't have had three nice and sunny days but one must take the good with the bad.
Thanks to MVG and Trent for their help along with J VAN and all the other track workers at the speedway. I guess we'll all see together what the rest of the week brings.
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