The 27th Annual IMCA Super Nationals notes

The 2009 IMCA Super Nationals is in the books as it saw 816 cars compete (down slightly from the 2008 record car count of 825) over the six-day marathon of racing. What a change we have seen since the first running of the Super Nationals at Boone in 1988. That year saw Mark Noble win the modified feature, Steve Jackson take the stock car feature and Bob Hill win the Late Model. Two of those drivers; Noble and Jackson, were in competition this year. A check back into some of our records show a few others that were also on scene back then as well as this year; John Logue, Jeff Schroyer, and Chris Jensen all running in 1988 in the stock car class.

Since many of our fellow Positively Racing members were on hand for this year's races and have given their more in depth take on the races, we will attempt to merely note some of our observances during the six-day run.

This was the best weather straight through that we have ever experienced at any Super Nationals! It was nice to see 68-year old Larry Embrey make his way into the A main for the hobby stocks on Saturday night. Racing was completed shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday nights. We noticed far less wood chips in the racing surface this year than in years past. The "Flying Hall Brothers" made it an official Super Nationals again with their appearance. Garry was in his "vintage" red #75 as usual, but brother Larry was piloting a #2 "newer" (I use the term lightly) Dodge powered ride instead of his familiar yellow #55. It was amazing to watch Thursday night's A Main qualifier #2 as David Murray made his way from starting 19th of 20 cars. At three laps down, he was in 6th place, by 10 laps down he was 3rd and at 13 of 20 laps down, he was leading! Quite impressive and a thrill for the fans.
The #7S car of Todd Stinehart won his heat on Thursday night in a home-built car that his brother put together. "Outlaw" Jesse James Freelen in the #24F modified, is the mayor of Paris, Texas. Two of the youngest drivers in competition ran 1-2 in heat 26 on Thursday night as Nick Deal beat Nate Caruth to the checkers. Bad luck plagued multi-time Super National winner John Logue most of the week. He had mechanical problems while leading a heat by a huge margin and later dropped his transmission on the backstretch causing the car to jump up into the air. With all his bad luck, he was still able to qualify for the A Main on the final night.
Jeff Taylor in the #5X from Texas, had never seen Boone Speedway prior to his visit this year.
He made "The Big Dance" and finished second in the All-Star Race. Quite the accomplishment. Rich Smith from Davenport was racing again this year. He was a qualifier in the very first Super Nationals back in 1983 which was held in Vinton, Iowa. "It's not over until it's over" held true in the grand finale of the modified feature. Misfortune struck leader Jake Durbin near the end of the race when he spun. Leading the final few laps was Jay Noteboom as he appeared to have it in the bag. White flag flying, Noteboom's car developed mechanical problems and slowed. Going down the back chute, he is the "filling in the sandwich" as Randy Havlik and Craig Reetz pass him on either side with Havlik taking the checkers first. Drivers from more than 20 states competed throughout the Super Nationals and with the exception of the Deery Brothers Late Model winner Ray Guss, Jr. from Milan, Illinois and the Sprint Car winner, Shannon Eriksen from Lakeville, Minnesota, every "Big Dance" winner was from the state of Iowa.

We had a great time once again at "America's Racin' Vacation". We met new racing friends and racers. One in particular made a long journey from Farmington, New Mexico. We enjoyed meeting Regan Tafoya the driver of the #24R, his wife Yvette, and crew and occasional racer Tyrone Yazzie. With Tafoya being a barber back home, we loved the saying on the back of his car with the barber poles and "This could get hairy!!" Of course, we also enjoyed our time with racing family and friends, some of which we only see each year at the Super Nationals. It's nice to share the love of racing with those friends who share our passion.

With the racing season winding down, weekly shows are nearly closed. However, there are still specials to be found into October. Marshalltown Speedway will be racing this Friday and Saturday, September 18 and 19 as they hold the 3rd annual Havoc on the Highbanks and on Sunday, September 27th, the IMCA modifieds will "go topless" for the Oktemberfest City Festival Race. Check http://www.marshalltownspeedway.com/ for more details of each race. Happy racing!