Sunday, April 19, 2009

Mother Nature Smiles on Boone Speedway

We have said many times, Boone seems to be "the hole in the doughnut" and escapes the rain. With rain cancelling most, if not all of the racing programs in Iowa, Boone was able to get their show in. However, with the threat of rain in the area, the program was run straight through without a break or even their traditional farming session.

The Dwarf/Mod-Lite feature took to the track as soon as the only B feature of the night, which was the SportMods, was completed. Mike Kennedy took home the win coming from his 7th starting spot, followed by the 9th place starter of Ed Zehm, and coming home third from deep in the pack was Tim Hennigar with Jeff Stensland and Randy Bryan rounding out the top five.

The popular IMCA SportMod class had their feature end under the time limit with several mishaps delaying the race. Luke Wanninger came from 12th to take the win, followed by Scott Davis, Kevin Sather, Paul Nagle and David Schlicht.

The modifieds had their share of mishaps on the track as well with some damaged racecars resulting. In the end, it was Glidden's Mike Molle taking the checkers first, with Rod Scheuermann close behind followed by Jake Durbin, Todd Shute (from starting 15th) and South Sioux City, Nebraska driver, Ricky "The Racer" Stephan.

The stock cars saw the GT1 of Brian Efkamp in his Ford powered car, lead early, but Wayne Gifford became the eventual winner, followed by the brothers Smith, Donavon and Dustin, and Brian Efkamp settling for fourth and Bill Reetz taking fifth. As a note about the Smith brothers, there were five of them racing last night with Donavon, Dustin and Dave in the stock car class, Doug in the SportMod class, and Devin in his hobby stock. They are a true racing family.

The night ended with the two hobby stock features. Ankeny driver, Beau Kaplan put his car in victory lane in the first feature, followed by Richard Yaw II, Jason Stringer, Michael Murphy and Aaron Rudolph. Feature number two, saw Cody Gustoff win, with Pat Mather, Brandon Ratcliff from Kamrar, Alan VanGorp and Carl Knight, round out the top five.

It was another entertaining night at the Boone Speedway with the final checkered flag flying before 10:25 p.m. Thanks once again to all of the drivers who put on the show for us fans each week.

Full results are listed below. Happy racing, everyone!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Boone Speedway Results 4/18/09

Unofficial results for 4/18/09

Modified

Heat 1 - 93 Cale Soonsler
Heat 2 - 1 Billy Davis, Jr.
Heat 3 - 18 Jake Durbin

Feature

1. 33M Mike Molle
2. 14R Rod Scheuremann
3. 18 Jake Dubrin
4. 5 Todd Shute
5. 25 Ricky Stephan
6. 2L Adam Larson
7. 69x Jon Snyder
8. c19 Jeremie Hedrick
9. 48J Jacob Murray
10. 72 Austin Wolf
11. 15X Scott Baker
12. 49T Tim Stevens
13. 27 Kelly Lyons
14. 93 Cale Sponsler
15. 58 Denny Pittman
16. 83G Josh Gilman
17. 28R Russ Dickerson
18. 6 Darren Huntley
19. 3Z Randy Havlik
20. 02 Brian Law
21. 1 Billy Davis, Jr.
22. 12 Stacy Warren
DNS: 07 Chris Wilke
69 John Logue

SportMod

Heat 1 - 12 Doug Smith
Heat 2 - 5M Matthew Meinecke
Heat 3 - 81D Scott Davis
Heat 4 - 7+ Jared Timmerman

B Main - 9E Eric Elliott

Feature

1. 20X Luke Wanninger
2. 81D Scott Davis
3. 3 Kevin Sather
4. 05 Paul Nagle
5. 19 David Schlicht
6. 2 Dustin Dalton
7. 99 Jesse Sobbing
8. 4R Michael Reichart
9. 12 Doug Smith
10. 7+ Jared Timmerman
11. 5M Matthew Meinecke
12. 24 Brian Miller
13. 9 Craig Elliott
14. 20W Shay Woods
15. 13 Brett Moffitt
16. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
17. 87 Joel Bushore
18. 3R Randy Roberts
19. 2G Geoff Olson
20. 35 Bruce Egeland
21. 66 Cody Hennings
22. 12c Kent Croskey
23. 41 Jeremy Embrey
24. 9E Eric Elliott

Stock Car

Heat 1 - 35 Donavon Smith
Heat 2 - GT1 Brian Efkamp
Heat 3 - 55 Cory Bushnell

Feature

1. 22 Wayne Gifford
2. 35 Donavon Smith
3. 85 Dustin Smith
4. GT1 Brian Efkamp
5. 26 Bill Reetz
6. 2J Steve Jackson
7. 25 Trent Murphy
8. 55 Cory Bushnell
9. 23HR Rod Richards
10. 57V Mike VanGenderen
11. 3H Ty Hill
12. 12 Bryan Trogdon
13. 8 David Smith
14. 3W Chris Webb
15. 22X Josh Brauckman
16. 9 Jerry Gifford
17. 18 Jeff Harkrider
18. 556 Terry Cornelison
19. 50 Robert Stofer
20. 2L Jon Lang
DNS: 45 Larry Crocheck
77 Andy Bryant

Hobby Stock

Heat 1 - 82 Joel Tigges
Heat 2 - m15 Pat Mather
Heat 3 - 81 Devin Smith
Heat 4 - 22D Daniel Hilsabeck

Feature #1

1. 11 Beau Kaplan
2. 20T Richard Yaw II
3. 28 Jason Stringer
4. 25M Michael Murphy
5. 38R Aaron Rudolph
6. 81 Devin Smith
7. 74J Dean Hartwig
8. 78 Tim Hadley
9. 44J Justin Hopkins
10. 87Z Matt Drottz
11. 8B Robert Smith
12. 82 Joel Tigges
13. 3L Clinton Luellen
14. 16B Jay Arends
DNS: 11B Solomon Bennett
47W Shawn Wirtz

Feature #2

1. 23 Cody Gustoff
2. m15 Pat Mather
3. 10R Brandon Ratcliff
4. 19A Alan VanGorp
5. 23c Carl Knight
6. 67 Ed Mahlstedt
7. 38 Austin Luellen
8. 00 Kyle Dirks
9. 911 Darin Rothfus
10. 01 Alex Berghefer
11. 8J AJ Johnson
12. 83 Chris Hupp
13. 22D Daniel Hilsabeck
14. 33J Jesse McCollaugh
DNS: 5 Keith Miner

Dwarf/Mod-Lites

Heat 1 - 20 Jeff Stensland
Heat 2 - 03 Rick Dennis
Heat 3 - x50 Joel Huggins


Feature

1. 95 Mike Kennedy
2. 41Z Ed Zehm
3. 15 Andy Hennigar
4. 20 Jeff Stensland
5. 64 Randy Bryan
6. 99 Josh May
7. x50 Joel Huggins
8. 3C Duane Coffman
9. 82 Charlie Brown
10. 5X Matthew Goodin
11. 01 David Schmalzried
12. 8 Dusty Masolini
13. 37 Mike Thomas
14. 57 Tim Hennigar
15. 88 James May
16. 8W Joe Wood
17. 8T Todd Thorson
18. 11R Jason Whitehead
19. 89 Travis Stensland
20. 76 Terry Sorenson
21. 9 Rick Taylor
22. 98 Brad Talbert
23. 66F Eric Hendrickson
DNS: 03 Rick Dennis

Blog to follow.

A Full Moon Night at Marshalltown Speedway -- Without a Full Moon

Friday night at Marshalltown Speedway found the weather near perfect, but the features found an abundance of yellow flags flying! The Dwarf/Mod-Lites was the class that proved to be the most incident free feature of the whole night. They ran their feature in less than 4:30 minutes. Mike Morrill has been dominate this year and again took home the win followed by Tim Hennigar, Andy Hennigar, Joel Huggins, and Johnny Mordock from Creston, rounding out the top five.

The hobby stock finished their feature with a green, white, checkered to complete the A main. Todd Reitzler from Grinnell, took the checkers first, followed by Terry Shaffar, Eric Larson, Michael Murphy, and Dustin Elliott. The hobby class also ended the evening with a King of the Hill which resulted in Dustin Elliott winning over Justin Lichty.

The class to tough to tame, the IMCA stock cars, also had their share of yellow flags. In the end, the 85 car of Dustin Smith was the winner, followed by Newton's Michael Jaennette, Dusty Vis, Ryan Leeman, and the Chelsea Charger, Damon Murty.

The SportMod class saw two B mains with Rod McDonald and Joel Bushore taking wins.
Kyle Brown lead much of the feature, but in the end, it was Kevin Sather continuing his winning way and Brown settling for second. Scott Davis took third, followed by Brad Iverson and Austin Lucas.

The IMCA modfieds once again had a strong field of cars. The B main was won by Tim Stevens from Cedar Rapids. Adam Larson dominated in the feature and easily took home the win. Second was Jon Snyder, followed by Scott Simotavich, Ronn Lauritzen,
and Joey Schaefer. As a note, in the early going of the feature, it was quite the sight to see the modifieds going five wide coming out of turn two!

Happy racing!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Marshalltown and Boone Season Openers

The season officially opened for two tracks in our area this past weekend. There were big car counts at each track. Friday night at Marshalltown, announcer Denny Grabenbauer told the big crowd on hand, there were 172 cars packing the pits. Though the wind was blowing and the temps were chilly, the racing action was hot. The little Dwarf/Mod Lite cars were the only class not having to run a B main but with 23 cars, it was a near full field. Mike Morrill took home the win, followed by Tim Hennigar, brother Andy Hennigar, Joel Huggins, and coming home in fifth was Johnny Mordock. The IMCA SportMods were out in full force as two B Main had to be run. The first B Main was won by Jake Strayer and the second by Iowa State student Geoff Olson, who has relocated to the area for school, from the Sioux City area. Kevin Sather took home the win in the feature, followed by Luke Wanninger, Scott Davis, Joel Bushore, and Jake Strayer.

The IMCA hobby stocks ran four big heats and a B Main with Todd Reitzler taking the consy win. The feature saw Chad Koch first across the line, followed by Devin Smith, Justin Lichty, Terry Shaffar and Michael Murphy. The stock cars had 33 cars in attendance. The B Main was won by Marshalltown's own Jeff Wollam and taking home the win in the A feature was Trent Murphy, followed by Steve Meyer, Dustin Smith, Shawn Hoskins, and Michael Jaennette. The IMCA modified class had to run two B Mains and those winners were Troy Cordes and Richie Gustin. It was fast and furious action in the A feature. Coming out on top was the #2 car of Joey Schaefer and behind him was Ryan Ruter, Jon Snyder, Jimmy Gustin (who made his way from far back in the pack)Scott Simotavich, and Tim Murty. Once again, promoter Toby Kruse was pleased with the crowd and the car count.

We made our way to Boone Speedway on Saturday for their season opener. The racecars were nearly lined up on the highway, waiting for the pit gates to open when we arrived. This may have been in part due to the later than normal times that have been established for this year and many were not tuned into that fact. Pit gates opened at 5:30, the grandstand at 6 and hot laps began at 6:45 and racing action at 7:30. There was plenty of racing action with right at 178 cars in the pits. There was also a little shift in the order of events as first on the track for feature time, was the first of two A mains for the Hobby Stocks, then the SportMods, followed by Modifieds, Stock Cars, the second Hobby Stock feature, and rounding out the night, the Dwarf/Mod Lite cars. There were B features run in every class except the Dwarf/Mod Lites and they had more than 24 start their feature. The modified feature was a good show between Cale Sponsler, the eventual winner, and John Logue hot on his heels. The stock car winner was Dustin Smith, followed by Newton's Mike VanGenderen. In the SportMods, it was Jeremy Embrey taking the win for the second week in a row after winning the previous week's Supernational Shakedown, followed by Matthew Meinecke. Hobby Stock main #1 was won by Michael Murphy and Pat Mather took second. The second A main saw Daniel Hilsabeck take the checkers first, followed by Devin Smith. The final feature of the night was the mighty little Dwarf/Mod Lites and Andy Hennigar won followed by Matthew Goodin. For full results, see my earlier post.

The season is now underway here, and we look forward to posting more reports from the races we attend. Happy racing!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Boone Speedway Season Opener

Unofficial results for 4/11/09

Modified - 32 cars

Heat 1 - 24 Robert Avery
Heat 2 - 33M Mike Molle
Heat 3 - 14R Rod Scheuermann
Heat 4 - 4P Skeeter Paris

B Main- 92 Jeff Stephans
62 Greg Cox
58 Denny Pittman
48J Jacob Murray

Feature

1. 93 Cale Sponsler
2. 69 John Logue
3. 14R Rod Scheuermann
4. 33M Mike Molle
5. 27 Kelly Lyons
6. 19G Richie Gustin
7. 4P Skeeter Paris
8. 55D Nick Deal
9. 1 Billy Davis, Jr.
10. 24 Robert Avery
11. 3Z Jeff Havlik
12. 5 Todd Shute
13. c19 Jeremy Hedrick
14. 19J Jay Schmidt
15. 26S Steve Glenn
16. 62 Greg Cox
17. 58 Denny Pittman
18. 83g Josh Gilman
19. 92 Jeff Stephens
20. 28R Russ Dickerson
21. 07 Chris Wilke
22. 77C Craig Carlosn
23. 18 Jake Durbin
24. 48J Jacob Murray

SportMod - 37 cars

Heat 1 - 5 M Matthew Meinecke
Heat 2 - 7+ Jared Timmerman
Heat 3 - 56 Jamie Schirm
Heat 4 - 81D Scott Davis

B Main

1. 87 Joel Bushore
2. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
3. 24 Brian Miller
4. 9 Craig Elliott

Feature

1. 41 Jeremy Embrey
2. 5M Matthew Meinecke
3. 2G Geoff Olson
4. 19 Dave Schlicht
5. 92 Mike Pruitt
6. 9X Austin Lucas
7. 81D Scott Davis
8. 87 Joel Bushore
9. 9E Eric Elliott
10. 44G Randy Grimmett
11. 9 Craig Elliott
12. 3 Kevin Sather
13. 56 Jamie Schirm
14. 57 Lynn Brockett
15. 24 Brian Miller
16. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
17. 35 Bryce Egeland ?
18. 6 Whitney Huntley
19. 20 Chad Luke
20. 19F Fred Leytham
21. 7+ Jared Timmerman
22. 24B Brandon Brittain sp?
23. 66 Cody Hennings
24. 12 Doug Smith

Stock Car - 33 cars

Heat 1-25 Trent Murphy
Heat 2 - 26 Bill Reetz
Heat 3 - 35 Donovan Smith
Heat 4 - 85 Dustin Smith

B Main

1. 21 Larry Silbaugh
2. 3W Chris Webb
3. 22 Wayne Gifford
4. 45 Larry Crocheck

Feature

1. 85 Dustin Smith
2. 57V Mike VanGenderen
3. 35 Donovan Smith
4. 25 Trent Murphy
5. 10 Rod Snellenberger
6. 57 John Heinz
7. 23hr Rod Richards
8. 22SX Lonnie Hodges
9. 12 Bryan Trogdon
10. 26 Bill Reetz
11. 22 Wayne Gifford
12. 3S Bryan Snell
13. 9 Jerry Gifford
14. 2J Steve Jackson
15. 20X Thomas Roberts
16. 93 Michael Jaennette
17. 3W Chris Webb
18. 77 Andy Bryant
19. 20S Jeff Segebart
20. 27 Gary Bass
21. 45 Larry Crocheck
22. 18 Jeff Harkmeyer ?
23. 50 Robert Stofer
24. 21 Larry Silbaugh

Hobby Stock - 44 cars

Heat 1- 10B Brandon Pruitt
Heat 2 - m15 Pat Mather
Heat 3 - 88 Michael Leffler
Heat 4 - 81 Devin Smith
Heat 5 - 23 Cody Gustoff
Heat 6 - 11 Beau Kaplan

A Main #1

1. 25M Michael Murphy
2. m15 Pat Mather
3. 10B Brandon Pruitt
4. 88 Michael Leffler
5. 74 Tim Pessek, MN.
6. 74J Dean Hartwig
7. 87Z Matt Drottz
8. 83 Chris Hupp
9. 19A Alan VanGorp
10. 33J Jesse McCollaugh
11. 5 Keith Miner
12. 28 Jason Stringer
13. 8J AJ Johnson
14. 7B Eric Stanton
15. 12M Matt McDonald
16. 83S Scott Lagrosso
17. 20T Richard Yaw, III
18. 00 Kyle Dirks
19. 21cz Cody Cleghorn
20. 47W Shawn Wirtz
21. 83 Robert Smith
DNS: 4M ?
38 ?

A Main #2

1. 22D Daniel Hilsabeck
2. 81 Devin Smith
3. 4W John Watson
4. 82 ?
5. 23C Carl Knight
6. 911 Darin Rothfus
7. 44J Justin Hopkins
8. 38r Aaron Rudolph
9. 78 Tim Hadley
10. 3L Clint Luellen
11. 67 Ed Mahlstedt
12. 55 Reesberg ?
13. 11B Solomon Bennett
14. 23 Cody Gustoff
15. 46J Jesse Hopkins
16. 16B Jay Arends
17. 01 Alex Burdick ?
18. B00K Del Dillenbook ?
19. 9R Andrew Arends
20. 11 Beau Kaplan
DNS: 19X Bill Bonnett

Dwarf/Mod Lite - 28 cars

This is all I was able to get for a finish

1. 15 Andy Hennigar
2. 5x Matthew Goodin
3. 3 Cory Dennis
4. 57 Tim Hennigar
5. 3C Duane Coffman
6. 88 James May
7. 17 Johnny Mordock

Blog to follow

Monday, April 6, 2009

A Frostbuster and a Shakedown

Finally, some racing in Iowa to report. We were happy to be able to see two racing programs locally this past weekend. First up was the Frostbuster special at the Marshalltown Speedway. There were 205 cars on hand and a packed grandstand, which no doubt, made promoter Toby Kruse very happy. Also evident were the new bleachers that were erected on the west side of the grandstand. The track was groomed and ready for racing and proved to remain racy all night long, with multiple lines for the drivers. Drivers from five or six states and one from Canada were in attendance with a large contingency from Wisconsin.

The little dwarf cars/Mod Lites love the 1/4 mile track at Marshalltown. It was noted that many of the drivers are switching to the newer style bodies which appear to be miniature modifieds, and thus the name Mod Lites. Mike Morrill took his first win of the year in one of those bodies, followed by Andy Hennigar in the old style, and rounding out the top five was Tim Hennigar, Ed Zehm and Johnny Mordock.

The SportMod class is growing and growing and tonight saw six heats and two B mains from the good field of cars present. Kevin Sather continued his winning way, and took home the feature, followed by Luke Wanninger, Nate Chodur, Kyle Brown and Scott Davis.

The hobby stocks put on a good show with Lake City driver, Devin Smith winning the feature, followed by Terry Shaffer, Todd Reitzler, Brandon Pruitt and Beatrice, Nebraska driver, Adam Armstrong.

The class called, "too tough to tame", the IMCA stock cars, saw another Lake City, Iowa driver take home the feature win, with Dustin Smith crossing the finish line in first, with Damon Murty, "The Chelsea Charger" coming home second. Third was young Ryan Gustin in the John Hunnell car, followed by Dusty Vis and Trent Murphy. Dusty Vis would go home with a different motor, as he was claimed by Larry Silbaugh and they exchanged motors.

Wow! What a field of IMCA modifieds! There were 66 on hand and they put on a show.
It was an exciting finish coming right down to the wire, but Beatrice, Nebraska driver, Jordan Grabouski held on by a nose, over area driver, Troy Cordes. Following not far behind was Jay Noteboom, Jimmy Gustin and Ryan Ruter.

We got a chance to chat with young gun Randy Brown from Chowchilla, California who was piloting his Jet modified #16B. We saw him recently at the Spring Nationals in Beatrice, Nebraska and was surprised to see him at Marshalltown. From talking with him, it sounds as though he will be staying around the area for a while and racing in Iowa and Nebraska. He was none too pleased with his welcome to Iowa when he was ticketed with having his window tint on his hauler a tad too dark by just 1%! Randy was the Western Region Rookie of the year in 2008.

We were off to Boone on Saturday for an earlier race start of 5 p.m. for their "Supernationals Shakedown". The wind was horrific and with temps none too warm and weather theatening, the crowd was more sparse than normal. It was nice to hear a familiar voice from the past on the microphone this year, as veteran Bill Haglund began his announcing duties at Boone Speedway. Bill is a wealth of racing knowledge and we enjoyed hearing some of his trivia about racing from the past as well as the present.

Four classes of IMCA cars ran on Saturday with the little Dwarf/Mod-Lite cars getting a hot lap session. The hobby stock class was won by the #88 of Michael Leffler with Beau Kaplan on his heels, and then it was Beatrice, Nebraska driver, Adam Armstrong taking third, followed by Daniel Hilsabeck and Richard Yaw. The fast growing SportMod class put on a good show with local area third generation driver, Jeremy Embrey taking the checkers first. Behind him was Kevin Sather, Brett Moffitt, Luke Wanninger and Kyle Brown. About 20 cars were present for the stock car class and Trent Murphy was the winner, followed by Wayne Gifford, Wisconsin driver John Heinz, and two Newton, Iowa drivers, Michael Jaennette and Mike VanGenderen. Close to 40 cars were there for the modified class and it was nice to see John Logue get win number 100. Crossing the line behind him was Wisconsin's Benji LaCrosse, Nate Caruth, Adam Larson, and Missouri's Steve Glenn. The night had only a short break in the action for rain sprinkles, and then the track was quickly packed back in for racing. The program was done shortly after 8 p.m. With the weatherman predicting a winter storm for the area, Boone continued its lucky ways with a completed show.

We look forward to reporting on more racing in our area in the weeks to come. Happy racing everyone!