Tuesday night, June 2nd was night number two for the third annual IMCA Summer Nationals held this year at the Independence Motor Speedway in Independence Iowa. It was another beautiful early Summer day in Iowa and one hundred and seventy nine drivers signed in to race in the five IMCA divisions offered.
There were five new winners on Tuesday night with no repeaters from Monday and in the two top paying events, both Stock Car winner Tony Olson and Modified victor Joel Rust drove from behind to make passes on the leaders and take home the biggest checks. Other Tuesday night winners included Cam Reimers, Karter Miles and Mitch Bielenberg.
As in often the case for multi day shows such as this one, night number two goes much smoother than the opening night as drivers figure out the track, officials spot things that need to be changed and make the necessary improvements and things overall just flow better.
Among the changes made for the Tuesday night show were less laps for some of the feature races, the running order for the races was changed and the track prep crew learned better when to freshen the track and when to leave it alone. The drivers meeting was moved up so that everyone was more prepared to start the show at its advertised time and while it seemed to me that the drivers raced even harder than they did on Monday night, there were many less yellow flags and not the serious incidents that occurred on Monday night. The snafu with the redraw for the feature races was ironed out thus eliminating the delays between main events which helped also while cutting down on some of the rising tempers in the pits.
The vast majority of the drivers that raced on Monday returned with the crews for the teams doing their usual amazing job of fixing what looked to be unfixable equipment. Kyler Hefty, the roll over victim right in front of the crowd on Monday was back on the track after some extensive repairs over night and even raced to a top ten finish in the Hobby Stock feature.
The other roll over victim, Devin Coghlan, was taken in for treatment last night after he wasn't feeling well at his pit area and while the car was in the pits again on Tuesday, it was not entered in competition.
Other than the running order being changed, the program used the same format as on Monday with heats using the draw/redraw format and B Features for all divisions except the Sport Compacts where all drivers that were running started the feature race. In a show such as this with so many competitors and so many fast teams, the draw is critical and many of the drivers that ran up front on Monday struggled to get through the heats on Tuesday.
For the second straight night, all feature races were started three abreast and while that does pose some challenges, the drivers have done a good job navigating the heavy traffic early on in the main events. And impressively during the Tuesday night show, three of the five main events would go green to checkers with not a single yellow flag in them with the other two having just two and three slowdowns during them. However, as we have seen time and time again, one of the yellows during the Modified feature made the difference in who sat in victory lane.
The Stock Cars started off the main events on Tuesday with this class starting twenty seven drivers in their twenty lap main, the largest field for the largest class assembled here this week.
The track was a challenge to the drivers on this night with a big berm during the heat races that really caused some difficulty for many drivers. However, that berm was bladed off after the heats and after that, the issue was the changing fast lane which switched so many times it was hard to keep up based on track prep and some of the classes that seemed to run better on different parts of the track. It was a "heads up" time for the drivers and trying to pick the fast lane, either by planning or just "seat of the pants" racing was key. And sometimes that fast line changed during the race, leaving some potential winners high and dry by checkers time.
Such was the case in the Stock Cars were Zach VanderBeek started on the pole and jumped into the immediate lead. he began to pull away from the pack quickly as the low line seemed to serve him well. However, Tony Olson, who started next to Zach, decided after losing some ground to the leader to move up to the cushion and that made him faster immediately. Lap after lap, Olson began to eat into the margin he was trailing by and with no yellows to slow the action, VanderBeek saw his lead get smaller and smaller.
Finally, Olson blew past him to take over the top spot with VanderBeek defenseless to stop him. Olson then continued his charge as he drove away for the win. VanderBeek did hold off a late rush from Braden Richards to salvage the runner up slot however. Richards has been the most consistent driver in the field so far with two top three finishes. Kaden Reynolds and Kodey Miles completed the top five.
Twenty four Modifieds were set to go for twenty two laps in their main event, racing as the Stock Cars had for three grand on Tuesday. Jed Freiburger blasted out from the middle of row one to take the early lead in the feature. Not many laps were completed before a wild scrum on the back chute saw several drivers turned in the wrong direction and last night's winner Cayden Carter slide off the track with several calling it a night at this point.
Freiburger continued to lead back on green and began to extend his advantage while a good battle for second saw Brennan Chipp fighting to hold off Spencer Diercks and Joel Rust who had started fourth.
They were battling for the runner up slot but Freiburger was motoring away from the pack and eventually would have the better part of a straightaway lead over the field as his lead seemed to be solid. However, this would all change with the blinking on of the yellow light when Ethan Braaksma slipped over the banking and stalled.
When the green reappeared, the race had changed complexion considerably. How often have we seen the whole character of a race change caused by a yellow? Well, Rust, who was running the top side of the track suddenly found that he had speed to burn and he blew past Freiburger, who just a few laps earlier seemed to be untouchable, and took over the lead. That's how quickly things change sometimes following yellow flags.
Tripp Gaylord, who started sixth, also drove by Freiburger in the last laps to finish second while Freiburger must have been asking himself why that yellow had to have happened while winner Rust certainly celebrated that late yellow, that saw him make the winning pass with just four laps remaining in the race.
The Sport Mod feature went green to checkers with twenty quick laps spun off by the twenty four drivers that started this race. This race bore a similar look to the Modified feature with one big exception, that late yellow that might have changed things never appeared. It was a Cam Reimers show on Tuesday as he started on the pole and led all laps. He pulled away to a big lead and without any slowdowns, his only problem was lapped traffic that one the rubbered up track, made getting by some of the slower cars dicey.
However, he had a big enough advantage that he was able to show patience and most of the slower drivers did a good job yielding so he was never in any danger. There was a good battle for second with Keegan Nordquist holding off a persistent Zach Davis to take that spot. Caleb Woodard and Dylan VanWyk completed the top five in this race.
Carson Butt took the initial lead in the Hobby Stock feature but could only hold off Karter Miles for a single lap before Miles drove past him to take over the lead. And once in front, Miles would lead for the rest of the sixteen laps of the contest although Butt remained close enough to be a challenger. A couple collisions slowed this race and on every green Butt gave it a shot, but Miles was just a bit stronger and held off every challenge.
Miles drove home with a few car lengths to spare over Butt while Brent Vanous recorded a second top five finish, and on Tuesday he still had both doors on the car as managed to avoid any skirmishes on the track. Only two drivers failed to complete this race and everyone was still on the lead lap at the finish.
Twenty five Sport Compact drivers took the green for their fifteen lap finale to the night and in a field of like looking cars, the three very different looking Fords would dominate, going one, two and three at the finish.
Jay Orr started on the pole and led the opening laps but it wasn't long before he was challenged and then, shortly after passed for the lead by Mitch Bielenberg. Bielenberg, Orr and Monday night's winner Brad Chandler then engaged in their own little battle for position, far in front of the rest of the field.
In the third and final nonstop feature of the night, these three continued to battle but while they raced close, they never did exchange positions and would finish in that same order. The second group was led by fourth place finisher Devin Jones and Michael Gardner but they were far back from the top three.
The third annual IMCA Summer Nationals concludes on Wednesday night and the winnings jumping back up to the Monday night levels with $1000, $2000, $3000 and $5000 and $5000 going to five lucky and skillful drivers. Race time is again at 6 pm.
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