The Clay County Fair Speedway concluded their 2026 racing season on Sunday afternoon, October 11th on the half mile at Spencer. The highlight event of this afternoon's racing was the final event for the first year of the Western Iowa Area Modified Series where they would crown a point champion.
Along with the Modifieds, a nice pay day was in line for the other IMCA divisions that were racing on Sunday including the Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts.
What a spectacular weather day it was for the second week of October! Perhaps approaching record temperatures, the car count and race time temperature were the same, eighty nine! And along with the heat, there were bright blue skies and much wind which was fortunately out of the South and blowing away from the spectators or things might not have been quite so pleasant.
But this made for some very challenging conditions for the track prep crew but they came through and did a good job, keeping the track as racy as possible and the dust to a minimum. They even managed to somehow have the track build up quite a berm and in fact, that proved to be the fast line as the drivers pounded the cushion to gain speed which made for some interesting racing. I will say that this was the first time in recorded history and I had worn shorts to a race in October and was happy that I did. Unfortunately, upon arrival at the track I was warned that the no-se-ums were brutal and indeed they were as I later left the grounds down a few pints of blood, thanks to those little biting SOB's. But, one must take the good with the bad as life is a balancing act.
The Western Iowa Area Modified Series is a new series this year, organized by the folks that run the Western Iowa Race Report and the Midwest Madness Tour around the fourth of July holiday. It was designed as a series for Modified drivers from this area to try and keep the numbers in that class up, with a number of tracks plagued by low car counts in that class this year. Trevor Fitz went into the Sunday race with an eight point lead over Nick Meyer and later, with a runner up finish he would claim the title. With a substitute announcer working today's show for J VAN, there was not much mention of the series or updates on the points or even an announcement once the program was completed. PR work surrounding the series will hopefully improve in 2027.
As for the Modified feature itself, Beckendorf led from start to finish to take the twenty five lapper and the fifteen hundred dollars that went with the win. He was comfortably in front for most of the race. There was once bit of drama when second place Chris Abelson collided with Jake Sachau while they were battling for that spot with Abelson able to refire and Sachau sent to the tail.
Fitz did a good job late in the race, working his way up from fourth with passes of Abelson and Colby Fett. Kyle Brown, who missed his heat, started eleventh and completed the top five.
The Stock Cars had the largest field of drivers and twenty seven of them would start their main event. Tim Rupp picked a good time to win his first feature race of 2026 and he led all twenty five lap in doing so. He started on the outside pole, grabbed the lead early and then kept himself in front of the wild scramble for position that was going on behind him.
The second spot was a hot one with Fett, Randy Brands, Jake Masters and Kelly Shryock all slicing and dicing for that spot. The yellow waved five times during the race and there was a different driver in second each time that race was slowed.
Brands was driving the cushion hard and he would surge, then jump the cushion and lose what he had gained a number of times as he and Masters battled. Shryock appeared on the move and was just about to take second when contact while battling for position gave him a flat tire and he limped to the pits.
Rupp was in front of all this and he just drove a smooth race to take the win. Fett had a productive afternoon as after falling to fifth by the halfway point, he fought his way back up to second at the end, holding off Brands, Masters and Chris Palsrok.
Geoff Olson made perhaps the move of the day on the opening lap of the Sport Mod feature. He started outside of row three but when the waters parted in turn two on the opening lap, he cut left from the cushion, found a nice hole and shot into the lead on the opening lap. After that, he was not challenged as he drove for a wire to wire win.
This race was slowed only once by a yellow and after grabbing the lead, Olson pulled away from the pack. Zach Davis and Kyle Free locked themselves into second and third early and ran that way to the finish.
Blake Andrews was coming off back to back feature wins this weekend at 141 Speedway in Wisconsin and was looking for the weekend sweep but he got tangled up with another driver in his heat, resulting in a very poor starting spot in the main and he did well to charge up from twelfth to fourth at the conclusion.
The Hobby Stocks had some very entertaining heat races and the feature could have been much the same except for the fact that it was plagued by eight yellow flags that took much of the luster off it. Many seemed to be driving like it was their last race of the year and the resulting spins and collisions reflected that.
It was, however, quite a race for Eric Gillette who started eighth on the grid and had only advanced to fourth by the halfway point. He drove a smooth race and kept his nose clean as others crashed and burned and he steadily made his way forward, finally taking the lead on lap fourteen.
Chad Volk had led the first thirteen laps of the race with challenges from Chris Krug and Justin Frederick but as they battled and swapped spots, Gillette very quietly slipped up inside them and and once in front, he pulled away over the last few laps.
Frederick ended up second while Brandon Nielsen quietly moved up from ninth to finish in third with Steve Wickman, up from nineteenth and John Briggs completing the top five.
The Sport Compact feature was a two horse race from the start until one of the horses lost a shoe and was done.
Tyler Thompson took the initial lead but on lap three Caine Mahlberg got inside of him in turn four and took over the lead. Those two pulled away from the pack and raced nose to tail until suddenly, down the front chute on lap six, Mahlberg suddenly lost power and pulled into the infield.
Thompson cruised after that as he drove on for the win over Tyson Roush and Gilbert Aldape in what was a nonstop main.
The heat races clicked off very quickly while some of the mains got bogged down just a bit by yellows. There was lots of hard driving and while the track did get slick, it was still raceable and truly did hold up very well considering the conditions. It actually was kind of pleasurable to watch afternoon racing, see a full program and not have to even turn the track lights on. The full show took just about three hours to run and that is acceptable, no matter the circumstances.
Thanks to promoter Trent Chinn and the whole crew at Clay Co. I didn't make it near as many times this year due to weather issues and the much later than planned start to the season.
My wish list for the track for 2027 includes much better early season weather and a scoreboard. It is surprising that with such a nice facility they have no scoreboard. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a lap counter would more than suit me.
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