It was a windy but beautiful Saturday as the thirty third annual Spring Nationals wrapped up on March 14th at the Beatrice Speedway in Beatrice Nebraska. Another full show was held in all five IMCA classes competing with nearly two hundred teams on hand to compete.
The only driver to score a clean sweep of the weekend's activities was Hobby Stock driver Brandon Stigge who charged up from the fifth row and made a late race pass, seemingly coming from no where to take the lead and win. Other winners including Jason Saathoff who drove a stellar race to come from the fifth row to win the Modified feature and Cole Wayman who wired the Sport Mod main event. The Stock Car feature was another brawl, just like Friday, with a surprising turn of events deciding the winner as Kyle Vanover and Kiowa Higdon who crossed the line second but was awarded the Sport Compact win when the apparent winner failed technical inspection.
With a planned early start on Saturday moved up even further to beat an incoming storm packed with wind and moisture, it was a race day that saw a changing and challenging track provided to the drivers and much of their challenge was to race the track provided for their mains, even as the track changed for nearly every race.
Fourteen additional drivers signed in to race on Saturday with a total of two hundred and thirteen different teams racing over the course of the two nights. And one of the Saturday night winners turned out to be a driver that wasn't on hand for Friday night action. Saturday's program saw the stakes raised in all but the Sport Compacts and five additional laps for the main events.
Despite winning on Friday night I don't think many had Stigge on their card as the winner of the Hobby Stock feature, especially after he started the main from the ninth position. Trent Matson, who started from the pole position, led the first three laps of the race but he was passed on lap four by Tyler Huss, who had started in the second row.
The first yellow flew with ten laps complete and by that time, Friday night runner up Nick Ronnebaum had moved into the second spot. Huss and Ronnebaum then engaged in a hard fought battle for the lead with Huss continuing to hold the top spot but under heavy pressure. Two more yellow on following laps kept the field bunched and when racing resumed, the two leaders got tangled together while they were battling for the top spot and Stigge, who had worked his way up to third, shot past both of them on the high side to suddenly appear as the leader.
Once Stigge got in his groove, he would prove to be uncatchable and despite Ronnebaum pushing to try and catch Stigge, the scenario from Friday night would continue to play out, however on Saturday Stigge was able to keep just a bit more of an advantage as he drove on for the win. Huss would settle for third ahead of Dan Nelson and Austin Jahnz.
Saathoff drove perhaps the race of the night as after starting ninth on the grid, he gradually worked his way to the front and when his opportunity appeared, he jumped on it to make a pair of decisive passes to take the win.
Early on there was a battle for the lead with Bryson Yeager, who started on the inside of row two, slipping to the inside of Shawn Harker to take the initial lead. Adam Wasserman and Harker put the pressure on Yeager and on lap seven, Yeager slipped up the track and Harker dove under him to take over the lead.
Harker continued to hold the lead with most of the front runners settling in on the low groove of the track. However, Saathoff and Jason Grabouski both moved to the second line and both made headway, with Saathoff particularly finding the second lane to be an advantage. He quickly moved to the fourth position by the halfway point of the race and as the pack ran in tight formation, he really began to advantage.
While the top three drivers continued to hug the bottom, Saathoff made the second lane work and he was spectacular as he drove past Troy Morris III, Yeager and then Harker to take over the lead. Grabouski was also close behind and he would eventually drive up to second.
A late yellow set up a two lap dash but Saathoff was up to the challenge and he kept Grabouski behind him to take the win after coming from the fifth row. Grabouski really passed drivers as he started sixteenth. Completing the top five were Harker, Jeremy Mills up from eleventh and Yeager.
It was another wild Stock Car feature, perhaps even more explosive than the Friday night race had been. However, the main characters in the race were the same as it was Jesse Sobbing and Grabouski that once again went at it for the win.
Sobbing drew the pole position and took the early lead but he slipped up the track on lap three and Grabo was right there to take over the top spot. After that, it was a lap by lap battle with Sobbing trying both high and low to get past but being unsuccessful. However, there was a third player as Kyle Vanover, who started eighth, moved into contention.
He and Sobbing exchanged the second spot on multiple occasions while they ran right on Grabouski's rear bumper. Multiple yellow flags kept the field bunched and on each green, the top three would again go at it, with plenty of close racing and a bit of rubbing perhaps also.
Things got explosive following a lap twenty one yellow that immediately followed a two race battle where Grabo and Sobbing had exchanged the top spot. On the green, things got very tight in turn one with the three leaders packed together. Grabo found himself spinning in front of the pack with perhaps some help causing the spin. The yellow flew, Sobbing left the track with a flat front tire and Grabo also left the track in a snit after he was told he would have to go to the tail. This prompted some off track activity with much foot traffic and officials heading for the "hot spot."
Vanover inherited the lead and he held off a charging Damon Murty for the win. The rest of the top five really got shuffled at the end with Lance Borgman third ahead of Doug Holzmeister and Zach Bohlmeyer.
Perhaps the most dominant performance of the weekend was pulled off by Sport Mod driver Cole Wayman. He started on the outside pole and simply drove away from the pack in his "plain Jane" looking X car and while it looked a fancy look, it definitely had plenty of speed. The first twenty laps of this race went green with Wayman ahead of Tyler Nerud, Cam Reimers, Adam Armstrong and Brayton Carter. The top five managed to stay in the same running order until Nerud, pushing to catch the leader, spun by himself and triggered the first yellow.
Wayman didn't let the slow down bother him and he pulled away from the pack again as he drove on for the win. Armstrong, Reimers, Carter and Trevor Noonan finished behind him.
I had been thinking that it had been a quiet weekend in the tech area. There was only one disqualification going into the last race of the weekend and typically, with this many drivers and lots of new cars, there generally are a few slip ups that are caught by the tech folks. Well, unfortunately for the apparent winner of the Sport Compact feature, there was a problem with his winning car.
Twenty seven Sport Compacts, all that were still running, started their fifteen lap feature race. Kaden Murray, who started on the outside pole, took off strong at the beginning and took the early lead. Only four laps were completed before a violent crash on the back chute saw Josh Lamreau flip wildly. Fortunately, he was uninjured.
The restart saw Murray again pull away from the field, opening up nearly a full straightaway lead over Kiowa Higdon. Tobey VanLaningham ran in second at the halfway point. The field got strung out with a number of slower cars presenting a traffic situation that Murray was able to handle. A three legged car, missing a rear wheel, even made a few laps before finally pulling off.
The last thirteen laps of the race went nonstop and Murray crossed the line as the winner by a considerable distance over Higdon. However, the tech folks stay had to have their "look see" and they apparently didn't like what they saw, as the post race finish shows Murray being disqualified and Higdon inheriting the win. Brandon Carmichael, Gilbert Aldape, Jackson Black and VanLaningham completed the adjusted top five.
An excellent crowd was on hand on Saturday for a well run show and with local and area drivers dominating the action, the local fans went home happy. I did also, having finally broke my string of back luck, weather wise, at this track. Thanks to J Van, the Beatrice Race Committee and all the track workers .
This evening would find me trying to outrun a blizzard to get back home before the weather exploded. This is not the first time I have had to do this for early Spring races, but the first time in quite a few years. However, this time I didn't quite make it and had to "hang out" for a few hours in north Iowa until the plows came through. That is my explanation for the late report. The final score, by the way, was twenty four cars and twelve semis in the ditches between Clear Lake Iowa and my mail box including one that spun out right in front of me just five miles from my house. Wow, you just never know.
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