Welcome to the Midwest Madness Tour 2026. Round two was held on Monday night, June 29th at the Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer Iowa on what seemed to me to be one of the most brutal nights ever for racing, given the weather. But despite all that, it was an excellent night of racing with two particularly close feature race finishes that saw Levi Volkert make a final corner pass to top the Sport Compact main event while Colby Fett won the Modified feature as he made his winning pass as the field raced to the white flag.
Other winners on Monday included Justin Klynsma in the Sport Mods, Braden Richards in the Stock Cars and Cory Probst in the Hobby Stocks.
Two options became apparent for me on Monday night. The first option was to sit in the air conditioning and watch FIFA on tv. The point of this sport seems to be to run around for sixty minutes while kicking your opponent in the shins as many times as possible and then when the time runs out, declare the contest a tie based on a thrilling nil to nil score. The other option was to drive five and a half hours, sit out in the blast furnace heat and watch stock car racing. Obviously I selected the second option.
Trent Chinn and all the other workers, unnamed to me, that work at prepping the track at the Clay County Fair Speedway should all take a bow for the fantastic job that they did in not only keeping the racing surface manageable, but they did so much more than that as the track might have been the best I have seen it in quite some time. And all this despite some of the most brutal weather conditions imaginable. At race time the "feels like" temperature was ninety eight degrees with a blazing sun beating down. The wind was howling out of the South at well over twenty mph to make matters even worse but perhaps the saving grace was that it was very humid and while that is tough on the human body, the humidity does help much at keeping moisture in the racing surface. The crew worked tirelessly right up to race time and then between races, continued to "tickle" the surface and roll in the cushion to keep the groove wide for racing.
It was a "shorts night" for me and those that know me know that the conditions have to be very extreme for me to even consider wearing shorts to the races. I walked out of the house forgetting to even bring long pants so if there had been a major weather change, I would have been SOL.
This was the first time I had been at Spencer since the major reconstruction carried out this Spring which cancelled several racing events early on at the track. What seemed to me to be the biggest change was that the cement slab has been enlarged in front of the grandstands which I'm assuming will be used at the Fair for a stage, The race cars do not drive in front of the crowd before entering and exiting the track like they used to, and for me, the change was a negative as I always found that to be unique. They still have the same bottleneck with cars coming on to the track and leaving for the scale at the same time, it's just now that the bottleneck is in turn one and not right in front of the grandstand.
One hundred and thirteen drivers signed in to race on Monday night as a part of night tour for the MMT. And as always at Spencer with their primarily weekend racing, the drivers mostly arrived at the last second with the final thirty minutes before racing action begins a frenzy of activity as the drivers race to sign in and the scorers hustle to produce lineups so the racing can begin as soon as possible. Everythiing comes together here at the last minute but it seems to flow smoothly despite the last minute rush.
Tops were the Stock Cars with thirty four drivers racing for twenty four spots and the Hobby Stocks had just one less competitor with both these classes needing a B Feature while everyone else raced in the other three classes. For a grand to win, it was disappointing to see just fourteen Modifieds sign in. Where are all those drivers?
The first green flag dropped at 7:22 pm and for the next two and a half hours, there was virtually nonstop racing. Spencer always produces a tight racing program with their mostly weeknight shows requiring this, but there was added motivation on this night as the lightning started to flicker and then get more intense in the Western skies, alerting us to the fact that storms were headed our direction and if we wanted to see a full program plus not get caught out during a storm, things better be hustled along.
The extra activities associated with this special race were kept to a minimum, although I have to confess that as the lightning continued to our West, the redraw in front of the crowd for the top two classes made me more than just a bit nervous, although they moved it along as quickly as is possible for such an activity. In the end, we would be rewarded as we got to see a full program and still get to out cars in the parking lot before any storms cut loose. But even better, not only did we get to see five feature races but they were all very entertaining and for me, perhaps as good of a program as I have seen here in quite some time as I thought the track raced great and the drivers did a great job of their own keeping the races moving without a lot of time consuming yellow flags.
The Sport Compact feature was first up and this proved to be the closest of the main events. Three different drivers led during the twelve lapper with Michael Gardner taking the lead from the pole and holding the top spot for the first seven laps before he was passed by Tyler Thompson. Levi Volkert was also a part of the lead group with the top three battling throughout the contest.
In the final few laps, Volkert made numerous attempts to pass Thompson but each time Tyler fought him off with some slicing and dicing between the two. On the final corner of the race, Volkert climbed the banking and then cut under Thompson as they raced to the line with Volkert nipping Thompson by the narrowest of margins for an exciting win as Gardner settled for third. This race set the trend for the rest of the program and while not every race ended this closely, there were some intense battles for position to be found in all four of the remaining contests.
Blake Andrews grabbed the early lead in the Sport
Mod feature but could only hold off Klynsma for a single lap before Justin drove past him to take over the point. After that, Klynsma was in control the rest of the race and while the lead fight was not too dramatic, the battle for second and back was very good with about a half dozen drivers swapping positions on nearly every lap. Drivers would go for fifth to second and then just as quick, get shuffled back into the pack.
At the finish, it was Alec Fett who got second with Willy Kirk, Zach Davis and Cam Reimers next in line with several others who had been in the hunt early shuffled farther back in the running order.
I don't recall ever seeing Brian Mahlstedt win a feature race before but he was so close to doing so on Monday and taking home the grand for the winner. However, after holding the point for the whole contest, he got passed for the lead coming for the white flag and had to settle for second behind Colby Fett.
Mahlstedt had gotten up on the cushion early after taking the lead from Kurt Kile and never wavered as he weathered pressure from both Kile and Fett for most of the contest. Eventually Fett became the chief challenger and while he tried several moves to the inside of Mahlstedt and even a few sliders, Brian continued to hold on to the lead.
There was heavy pressure on the leader in the closing laps plus Mahlstedt had to deal with one slower car in front of him that was running the same line as he was, and I'm not sure if both or neither played a factor but going into turn one on the white flag lap, after running a flawless race, Mahlstedt jumped the cushion in turn one and Fett was right on it, turning under the leader and taking over the top spot.
Mahlstedt could offer no comeback and Fett extended his advantage by a few car lengths as he drove on for the win over Mahlstedt and Kile.
As had the Modified feature, the Stock Car feature also went green to checkers without a single stoppage, good since the lightning was no putting on a show of its own. Most drivers were up on the cushion exclusively by this point in the program but there were two that were able to drive the lower groove and they both prospered because of that.
They were winner Richards and Kelly Shryock who put on what was perhaps the show of the night. Richards took the lead immediately but Derek Green was soon all over him challenging. Green even appeared to have the faster car for much of the contest but two failed attempts to pass for the lead foiled him.
On the first, his slider didn't stick and Richards crossed him over, costing Green quite a bit of time as he had to again play catch up. Later, Green jumped the generous cushion in turn one and that set him back just enough that Richards had some breathing room. Late in the race, Green was back up to the rear bumper of Richards but just couldn't muster a challenging effort and had to settle for second as Richards drove a flawless race for the win.
As for Shryock, he put on a passing clinic. After starting sixteenth and being seemingly mired in the pack, he suddenly began to charge to the front, using a line that saw him low in turns one and two and up on the cushion on the West end of the track. That formula has worked well for Shryock here time and time again and once again on Monday, it made him a rocket ship. He was knocking off driver after driver, gaining a spot or two each lap.
Anyone that can move from the eighth row to finish third and not have a single yellow flag to pack the field and make moving up easier is really flying, and that was Shryock on Monday. For the leaders, it's just a good thing for them that there was not a late yellow or the results could very well have looked much different.
Cory Probst has won a lot of Hobby Stock feature races here over the years and his dominance at this track can not be argued. Once again on Monday he was in his zone as he quickly moved up from the third row to pass Will Smith and then drive away for the win.
Early on, Smith was the leader and those two put on an entertaining battle as they slid each other several times until Probst was finally able to gain the upper hand and once he did, he then pulled away from the pack.
Stopped only once by a yellow flag, this race was a smooth one that saw Kalyb Brunssen drive past Smith for second and try and track down the leader. He was able to stay within a few car lengths of Probst but never was able to serve up a challenge while Smith settled for third.
It was perhaps the quickest show that I had ever seen at Spencer with the final checkers waving just a few minutes after 10 pm despite the fact that it was a twenty race program and they took several brief opportunities during the night to rework the cushion. The drivers had much to do with the quick program was they raced very hard but did not trigger many yellow flags and likely at least part of that was due to the fine racing surface presented for them to use. Congratulations drivers and also to the track crew and management for both providing a great racing surface plus altering the program to changing weather conditions so as to get the whole show in. It was a top notch effort from all involved.
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