Is was more like chilly football weather than an August night of racing Saturday at the Boone Speedway. Fans were bundling up even before the sun went down and extra layers kept going on all night long. Thankfully, the good racing helped keep minds off of the breezy nip in the air. By my count, 161 cars were on hand to try their hand at the famed home of the IMCA Super Nationals.
The Dwarf/Mod Lite feature came to the track first after the usual mid-point farming session. Joel Huggins jumped to the lead right away...looking for another win to add to his recent string of victories. Dusty Masolini had other ideas as he took the lead away from Huggins, who would then have to be content to chase him the remaining laps. Dusty Masolini took the win, Huggins was runner-up, third went to James May, his son Josh May followed in fourth, and fifth was Andy Hennigar. Hennigar, the point-leader maintains a sizable lead going into season championships next week.
Rolling onto the track next, was the Northern SportMods for their 18-lap feature event. It took at least two complete restarts before the first lap was able to be scored as incidents happened on the track, bringing out the yellow. Joel Bushore was one of the cars that received significant damage and he was towed from the track; his night ended. When racing did get underway, pole sitter, Brett Moffitt took command of the top spot which he never relinquished. Moffitt took the win, Austin Lucas followed him across the finish line for second, Rick Ringgenberg crossed in third, fourth went to Iowa State student Geoff Olson who had started in eighth place, and rounding out the top five was point leader Scott Davis. Davis has an untouchable lead going into next week's season championship race.
All 26 IMCA modifieds started their A main. On hand were two Kansas drivers, David Murray who is IMCA's all-time win holder at over 400, and Jason Schoenberger from the Russell, Kansas area. Murray was not piloting his own machine, but the #23x of Matt Gilbertson from Minnesota. Schoenberger, who was the Super National's stock car winner several years back, was in his own 6X machine. Both drivers had raced the previous night at Marshalltown Speedway and we were anticipating that they would be in attendance at Boone as well. Also back from Moorsville, NC was James Allbee who piloted the 15J car last evening. We understand that Allbee works for one of the NASCAR teams in that area, having moved from Iowa a while back.
The modified feature yielded multiple yellow flags flying throughout their contest. In fact, the race was put under the time limit signal when it exceeded the one minute per lap rule. Jacob Murray led much of the race with JJ Scott in tow. Murray continued to lead with 11 laps down when the time limit rule was put into effect...meaning the race would be called over if another yellow flag flew. The cars were able to complete under the green flag, but with three laps to go, JJ Scott made the pass around Murray and Jake Durbin followed him to second place. Scott took the win, his first of the year at Boone, Durbin was second, Jacob Murray held on for third, fourth went to Kelly Lyons and fifth to Scott Baker. David Murray was scored in sixth place.
Unofficially, it looks as though Cale Sponsler took over the point lead by four points over Todd Shute, making for a down-to-the-wire championship contest next Saturday.
The Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA stock cars were up next. Going into the night, Trent Murphy held a large lead in points and with an 11th place finish last night, his championship is not in jeopardy. Damon Murty sat on the pole and took off like a rocket and stretched his lead.
Battling for second and third behind him, were Ryan Rose and Josh Brauckman. Mike VanGenderen in his yellow 57V ride for the night, was keeping in the hunt as he did battle with Chris Webb and Donavon Smith. With just two laps to go, Murty would exit the track handing over the lead to Ryan Rose. Rose went on to take the win, Donavon Smith advanced to second, Brauckman was third, fourth was The Flying Dutchman, Mike VanGenderen, and Bill Reetz advanced to fifth in the late laps.
Two hobby stock features remained. In the first feature, Pat Mather would repeat a win from last week. He made his way to the winner's circle from starting back in tenth starting spot when he took over the lead with five laps to go. He passed Richard Yaw II who held on for second, Joe Myer worked his way up to finish third, fourth went to Michael Murphy the continuing point leader, and fifth went to Matt Drottz.
The night-ending second hobby stock feature was led early by veteran driver Donnie Gustoff.
At four laps down, Scott Lograsso and Daniel Hilsabeck were both able to get around Gustoff.
Gustoff would fall back several positions as Chris Hupp made his way into third, When the final checkers of the night flew, Lograsso came home to the win, Hilsabeck was second, Hupp in third, fourth went to Leonard Loftus and Alan VanGorp was fifth.
Hard to believe that next week is the season championship, thus ending the regular season racing at Boone Speedway. Then, on Monday, September 7, begins the Speedway Motors IMCA Super Nationals. Racing will begin each day this year at 3 p.m. and a slightly different format will prevail for modified qualifying with 30 heats and the top two going to one of three A qualifiers. We look forward to this event every year as we have since 1988. We are hoping for great weather and know we will see great racing. For more complete details on the Super Nationals, check the IMCA website at http://www.imca.com/ and the Boone Speedway site at http://www.raceboone.com/. Happy racing!
Full results are listed below.
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