Another one of those highly unusual Monday night specials was held at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa on Monday night, June 3rd. Spencer and Stuart International in Stuart run the most varied and nontraditional schedules of perhaps any track in Iowa or even the Midwest and it is no coincidence that many events at Spencer are co-promoted by Trent Chinn and Mike VanGenderen, who runs things at those two tracks.
Monday night would be round two of the IMCA Modified Summer Challenge Series, a new venture in 2024 put together by MVG and Chinn. Round one of this series was run last month At Independence and a spectacular field of over forty Modifieds was on hand on another Monday night. There would seem to be, however, more Modifieds in eastern Iowa than there are in the western side of the state so a field of twenty five was found acceptable by MVG for this night of racing. I was unable to find the point standings for this series after the first race but with a healthy point fund available, most of the high point cars managed to find their way to Clay County for this race.
Along with the Modifieds, the other four IMCA sanctioned classes that typically race at Spencer would be on the card, each racing for extra money for this event.
It was a hot and humid early June night as the feel of Summer was in the air for at least the first time for me to experience in 2024. Even MVG was complaining that it was hot and he seems much more adapted for this weather than I. The sun was brutal as it got lower in the western sky and I have no idea how the drivers could even see where they were going during the early action. Why are so many tracks in the Midwest built facing West and East when that is the worst possible direction for a track to be facing?
Car counts in classes besides the Modifieds were a bit disappointing in a couple cases and while there never seem to be any Sport Compacts in this part of the world, someone forgot to tell the Sport Mods they had a show on Monday too.
The last show held here in Spencer had really picked up the pace when it came to moving things along and avoiding delays between races and they kept that scenario going on Monday night. In fact, in the first couple of races, a couple of drivers almost got left at the gate as they didn't get to the track before their race started. A couple of heats were also sent onto the track for their pace lap before the previous race was completed and a couple of trail enders had to take evasive action to avoid the next heat that was already positioned to receive the green flag.
With less cars in the pits, less heat races were needed but that still doesn't diminish a couple of interesting statistics that were generated on Monday. With the first green flag waving at 7:14 pm, nine heat races were completed in thirty five minutes with ZERO yellow flags waving during those heats. The Modifieds were running under the passing points system debuted at Inde which the drivers seem to favor as being the most fair while the other classes were doing draw/redraw.
With just a little track prep, we were feature racing by 8 pm which did feel good on a week night. The feature races produced a mixed bag of action and entertainment value, for me at least. Fortunately, the two highest paying races produced the best racing in my opinion with both the Modifieds and Stock Cars having some good battles for the win while the other three classes saw breakaways and not much in the way of drama.
There were only two different leaders in the Modified thirty lap feature but the lead was exchanged officially three times with numerous other passes during the race as the two leaders battled. It was a classic battle between Tom Berry Jr and Tim Ward and on this night, it was Ward that would emerge the winner.
Berry Jr was the passing points leader and grabbed the lead on lap one. Just one lap later, Ward, who started right behind Berry Jr,. would duck under Berry Jr and take over the lead. The next lap saw Berry Jr again regain the lead and then these two would size each other up for many laps.
It was interesting watching as they used different lines, especially on restarts of which there were three in the first eight laps. However, after that, it was green flag racing and with two distinct lines on the track available, it was a game of finding the fast line at the right time and then taking advantage.
Berry Jr slipped high a couple times exiting turn two and this was where Ward eventually made his move, drawing up beside Berry Jr and then eventually edging in front. Berry Jr tried to fight back but would have to settle for second. Ethan Braaksma and Brandon Beckendorf were close the first half of the race but eventually slipped back just a bit. Joel Rust rounded out the top five driving a substitute car on this night as he had his number taped on the Luke Bird #88 car.
The Stock Car feature was just as good as Jeffrey Larson, Kelly Shryock and Jake Masters battled right down to the wire for the win. Larson started on the pole and led for most of the contest but Shryock came from the third row and Masters much farther back, in row six.
By the halfway point of the race, they had secured the top three spots and then did a shuffling of positions as they jockeyed with each other, trying to find a line that would best suit them. The winning pass by Shryock came after Masters got past Larson and then Kelly crossed them over and passed both to take the lead. Shryock has to be one of the top feature winners since they started to race regularly here several years ago and a bet on him is always a good choice. He drove home with the win by several car lengths overly a seemingly miffed Larson and Masters.
The other three feature races had much less drama. Levi Volkert led the first lap of the Sport Compact feature over a small field of drivers but it didn't take Oliver Monson long to gain speed and then pass him. And once in front, Monson was gone in the nonstop main. Anthony Clark missed the heat as he had not yet arrived at the track but started in the back and finished third in the main.
The Hobby Stock feature was notable in that while it was the twelfth race of the night, a first lap spin would trigger the first yellow flag of the entire night! I had hopes that I would see a night without a single yellow but my hopes for a record breaking night were dashed when a couple of cars near the back failed to get through the first corner without getting turned in the wrong direction.
The other takeaway from this race was just how dominant Mike Smith was over what I would consider a strong field of drivers. He started in row tow and split the front row cars and was in the lead before the first lap was done, only to have it cancelled by that yellow.
No matter. He did the same dang thing on the second try to start the race. Wouldn't you think that someone would have tried to block him but it didn't happen. Once he was in front, he pulled away by a full straightaway as he showed speed that no one else could match. I began to wonder that maybe he was in the wrong class!
Cory Probst did some strong driving of his own, coming from the fifth row to race into second and then when there was a late yellow with just three laps to go, the crowd sensed that there might be another tight battle for the win. Wrong. Smith again pulled away and even Probst couldn't stay with him, although he would get a nice runner up finish. A last lap shuffle saw Jeremy Wagner race up to the third spot.
There were only eight Sport Mods and when Matthew Looft drew the outside pole, it was lights out for the field. They couldn't even draw a caution that would have been needed to get Looft back in the same zip code with the pack. Matthew drove on in the nonstop race to win by a full chute over Justin Klynsma and Willy Kirk.
All racing was complete by 9:15 pm and what looked to be a slightly smaller than normal Spencer crowd was happy to head to the gates early and perhaps go home to fire up that AC. The next race at Spencer is not until June 24th and that is probably a good thing. There has been a lot of racing in this area in the past few weeks and a chance to put a pause on might be good for everyone.
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