As we headed west on Friday morning, we were hoping the forecast was going to be wrong for the Beatrice Octoberfest racing weekend. The farther we traveled west, the more the skies cleared and by the time we arrived in Beatrice, the sun was shining, it was 54 degrees and the winds were calm. That gave us hope of getting to see some racing that evening, which we did. However, Saturday was a different story!
Friday, four classes ran complete shows; IMCA Sport Compact, IMCA Hobby Stock, IMCA SportMods, and IMCA Modified. First up was the Sport Compact class which saw nineteen cars run their feature. The winner was the 94M of Brock Mcdougall. In the IMCA Hobby Stock division, local Beatrice driver, Jesse VanLaningham came from starting 15th to catch and pass Robby Marsh, who finished second. Third was Hans Houfek, fourth went to Lonnie Greuter, and fifth to Nick Beckman.
The IMCA SportMods had to narrow their field down to 24 cars by running two B mains. The feature did not get off to a good start, as on lap one, eleven cars were involved in a mess on the front stretch. One car, that of Shay Woods of Humeston, Iowa, knocked down one of the inside cement barriers, and then proceeded to end up on top of the next barrier. Early leader was local driver Gary Saathoff with Ankeny, Iowa's Kevin Sather hot on his tail, and Tyler Frye giving chase to the top two. Later, Sather would exit the race with what appeared to be a broken tie rod. Taking the checkers was Gary Saathoff, second went to Tyler Frye, third to Adam Armstrong, fourth to Kyle Olberding, and fifth to Daryl Dorn.
There were 55 IMCA modifieds in competition on Friday evening. Six heats and two b mains later, the field was narrowed to a 24 car starting field for the evening's final feature. The temperatures had dropped into the 30's by this time, but the saving grace was there had been very little wind all night long, which made it bearable for drivers and fans alike. The track had stayed quite racy all night, though there was a spongy area or two in turns one and two. Early battling on the track was between Will Brack, Chris Abelson and David Murray. Brack and Abelson got together resulting in Brack's early departure from the race. Murray was giving it his all later, when he spun in turn two and also retired just about the same time as Johnny Saathoff's car caught on fire and he went to the pits. Will Brack's brother, Matt in his 16M machine, came from seventh spot to overtake Abelson for the top position. Meanwhile, an impressive run behind the leaders by Jay Noteboom and Chase Junghans had ensued. When the final checkers of the night flew, it was Matt Brack from Mead, Colorado taking home the win by a good margin, followed by Chris Abelson. Third went to Jay Noteboom, fourth to Chase Junghans, and fifth to Bob Zoubek.
We knew it was not sounding good for racing on Saturday. When we peeked out of the motel room window, we saw a rain/snow mixture falling and temps were in the 20's. The Weather Channel was showing 17 inches of snow that had fallen to our northwest, in North Platte, Nebraska and snow was currently falling up in Omaha. Promoter Toby Kruse made the decision about 10 a.m. and "pulled the plug" on racing. It had already been decided that Sunday would not be used as a make-up day which had been originally scheduled. We loaded up and headed out, traveling in an alternate direction from our usual route home, in hopes of avoiding the snow that was said to be currently falling up in the Omaha area. We had a short distance of freezing rain on our windshield, but avoided any snow.
We counted ourselves lucky to have seen some good racing on Friday night and not have the whole weekend be lost. We had heard that some races back home in our area had also been scrapped and postponed, which will now leave us with more choices to finish out our racing season. The last we have heard, the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa will be running this coming Saturday, October 17 as a make-up date, the following Saturday, October 24th will be Shiverfest in Donnellson, Iowa at the Lee County Speedway, and the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa will attempt to finish the second night of their Fall Challenge, on Saturday, October 31st. Also check out the calendar of events on http://www.positivelyracing.com/ for even more possibilities. However, at this time of the year, it would always be a good idea to call the tracks to make sure the events are still on. Happy racing!
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