Monday, October 11, 2010

Zoubek and Wilkinson win modified features at Octoberfest

We made our annual trip to Beatrice, Nebraska this past weekend for Octoberfest. The weather was near perfect, unlike last year when the second night of racing was SNOWED out! Four classes of cars ran each night and with the track staying wide and smooth, we were treated to excellent racing.

Friday night's action was comprised of IMCA Sport Compacts, IMCA Hobby Stocks, IMCA SportMods, and IMCA Modifieds. A nice field of cars was on hand considering two other racing events were being held in the area.

The IMCA Hobby Stocks rolled onto the track right at 9 o'clock for their feature event. The entire race was a two-car battle between father and son drivers, Roy and Adam Armstrong. Father Roy Armstrong would prevail and take the win ahead of son Adam Armstrong. Third went to R. J. Macku, fourth to Shawn Slezak and fifth was Mike Hansen.

The IMCA Sport Compact feature saw the #21 car of Cameron Meyer cross the line first in a dominating fashion. However, he was later disqualified due to a rule infraction. This handed the win over to the #66G of Kyle Gannon. Mary Lenz was second, third went to Nick Lindblad, fourth to John Sedlacek and fifth to Mike Simpson.

Thirty-seven IMCA SportMods entered the pits. Two B mains qualified the final cars in the 24-car starting field for the feature. Dusty Leonard led the 20-lap feature early on but the #55 of Tyler Frye took the number one spot by lap seven and was looking to be taking the win. A flat tire with two laps to go would end Frye's quest for the win. Benji Legg then inherited the lead and sailed home to the checkers. Dusty Leonard finished in the second spot, Greg Metz was third, fourth went to Craig Evers, and rounding out the top five was Matt Pittman.

The 30-lap modified feature required two B mains to qualify the final six cars in the 24-car starting field. Bob Zoubek, who is no stranger to the track having taken the checkers many times, drew the pole starting position. He would lead the entire race, distancing himself from any contenders most of the race. Zoubek took the popular win over Dan Nelson, Lance Borgman, Cory Wray and Chris Alcorn. Racing action was completed by 11:48 p.m.

Saturday saw more unbelievable October racing weather. The track appeared to be chunking up a bit during hot laps, but again, when racing started, the track smoothed out and stayed wide all night. We are more than happy to see in the last two years that the awful hole has disappeared that was always rearing it's ugly head in turn one.

Heat racing started at 6:30 with the new class to the program, the Factory Stocks which replaced the Sport Compact division from Friday night. Their feature was run first with Curt Drake taking the early lead in their 20-lap event. By seven laps down, Kyle Vanover had made the pass for the lead, never to look back. Vanover took the win over Eric Haase, Brandon Stigge, John Meyer and Dustin McClurg.

The IMCA Hobby Stock feature was won by Jesse VanLaningham, who is also no stranger to the track. VanLaningham started outside front row along side Shawn Slezak and those two battled the entire race. Slezak led the race until four laps to go when VanLaningham saw his chance and made the pass for the lead. VanLaningham took the win to the cheers of the grandstand with Slezak having to settle for runner up. Third and fourth went to the father/son duo of Adam Armstrong, son and Roy Armstrong, father, with Mike Hansen in fifth.

The IMCA SportMod feature found Tyler Frye making his way to Victory Lane after suffering a flat tire while leading the previous night. Frye drew the lucky pole spot, and led start to finish. Former A modified driver, Greg Metz chased Frye from a distance much of the race, but was never able to get within striking distance. Metz finished in second place, Max Harder in his #34 machine finished in third, fourth went to the 11E of Beau Kaplan and fifth was Dusty Leonard.

The IMCA modified main event closed out the night's action. It was looking to be back-to-back wins for the #5s of Bob Zoubek as he claimed the lead immediately in the 30-lap feature. Later, Jordan Grabouski moved into contention as did Johnny Saathoff and Chris Burk. A yellow flag flew with six laps left in the race. An unknown driver to us, the #15 of Andy Wilkinson, had methodically made his way into the third position from starting fourteenth by this time. At the drop of the green, Wilkinson went to work on setting his sites on the leader. With four laps to go, he was running in second spot and would then snatch the lead with just a lap left. Andy Wilkinson, in his BMS ride, took the $1,500 payday with Zoubek following him to the checkers in second spot. Third went to Jordan Grabouski, fourth to Johnny "The Jet" Saathoff, and fifth to Chris Alcorn. In the post-race interview with announcer Derek Long, we learned that Wilkinson was the track champion at nearby Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Nebraska, but this was his only win on the year.

Racing was completed by 10:20 p.m. Saturday night, allowing for drivers and fans to make their way to their destinations at a good hour. Promoter Toby Kruse thanked all in attendance for making this another successful Octoberfest. We always enjoy our trip to Beatrice and happy to enjoy it with fellow racing friends and acquaintances at this wind down to the 2010 racing season in the Midwest. We have Shiverfest on October 23rd at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa on our calendar which will more than likely, end our year of racing for 2010. Happy racing!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Moyer and Gustin take first night wins at Knoxville

This past Thursday evening, we headed to the famed Knoxville Raceway for the first of three nights of the 7th Annual Lucas Oil Late Model event. Sixty premier late models were in attendance along with 37 modifieds, providing the nice crowd of fans on hand a night of exciting racing action. For a change, the weather was near perfect.

The first feature was the modifieds who had earlier qualified through four heats and two B main events to fill in the 24-car starting field. Sitting on the front row of the 20-lapper, were a couple of #19s...Richie Gustin in the 19G and Darin Duffy in the 19D. Gustin dominated the entire race....pulling away even after caution flags flew. Duffy chased Gustin until past the halfway mark, when Ryan Ruter made the pass into second. Gustin took the checkers for the second time this year at the famed speedway as he'd also won the Harris Clash back in July. Quite an accomplishment to say nothing of the other dominating wins he has had at other Iowa tracks this season. Ruter finished in second place ahead of Duffy in third. Fourth went to Todd Shute who had a good run from starting in the 12th spot, and rounding out the top five was Mark Schulte.

The Lucas Oil Late Model 25-lap event was action packed. Tim McCreadie jumped to the lead from his outside front row starting spot and took off with the lead. Polesitter Josh "Kid Rocket" Richards was having none of that however, and made the pass for the lead with just a couple of laps in the books. McCreadie in turn, took back that lead with fifteen to go and was looking comfortable. Meanwhile, many eyes were on two favorites in the pack with Iowa ties...Billy Moyer and Scott Bloomquist. Neither disappointed the crowd in their move to the front with Moyer taking over the lead with about eight laps to the checkers. Earl Pearson, Jr. in the 44 car had also been making great strides and had worked himself into the third position with Bloomquist hot on his tail. When the final checkers flew, Billy Moyer found himself in a familiar spot...the winner's circle, and from the cheers in the crowd, it seemed to be a popular win. Moyer is a Des Moines native, and gained interest in racing through his uncle Carl Moyer, according to his profile we recently read on line. Second place went to Tim McCreadie, son of the legendary "Barefoot" Bob McCreadie. He has made a great recovery after an accident at the 2009 Chili Bowl left him with broken vertebra after rolling his midget. Third went to Scott Bloomquist, also an Iowa native born in Fort Dodge, fourth was Earl Pearson, Jr. racing for the Bobby Labonte racing stables, and fifth went to Brady Smith out of Wisconsin and a former winner of the Lucas Oil Nationals at Knoxville.

Though it was a great night of racing last night, we must mention the absence of one Super Fan...Gary Storey. Sadly, Gary lost his battle with cancer this past week. Gary, who lived in Oskaloosa, Iowa, could be found at most any track we might happen to attend...near or far. He truly was a Super Fan attested to by his naming of such in the National Speed Sport News publication. He was a wealth of knowledge about most any form of dirt track racing. He could tell you every short cut in the area to get to a racetrack too! His familiar laugh when he spotted a racing friend...and he had many...will always be fondly remembered. Unfortunately we were not able to attend his service on Wednesday, which was conducted by...fittingly, a racer, the Rev. Sonny Smyser. We were able, however, to make the trip to Albia for the visitation on Tuesday evening to pay our respects. Rest in peace Gary. You will be missed by the racing family.

Still a few more races to be found in the area. Check the racing calendar at Positively Racing. On our calendar next is Octoberfest at Beatrice Speedway in Beatrice, Nebraska. This has become a semi-annual trip for us as we also attend the Spring Nationals there. You can find more information about this upcoming event at http://www.beatricespeedway.com/. Happy racing!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

2010 Super Nationals Notes

The 28th annual IMCA Super Nationals is in the books and we will give a few of our observations. For more detailed information over the course of the six day event, check fellow Positively Racing bloggers, "Tapfan's Tours" and "In Staging" as well as http://www.raceboone/ and http://www.imca.com/.

We saw the usual marathon of racing as 805 cars competed over the six day competition. Monday brought a rain delay of about an hour and a half and racing was not completed until around 3:40 a.m. Friday again brought rain that resulted in the jet dryer being fired up---not once, but twice! For those who have never seen the jet dryer in use on a dirt track, it really does work wonders! The noise, unbelievable amount of heat that then causes the steam to roll up from the track, along with the mud splattering up, means you do not want to be standing anywhere close to the machine in operation! After a couple of passes around the track on the topside, the spring tooth is brought out right behind to start digging up the track, and behind that, the packers and then the dryer moves down to the next groove and the process continues. The dryer consumes 130 gallon of jet fuel in a half an hour.

Monday, Labor Day, kicked off the 28th Super Nationals which highlighted the running of the Deery Brothers IMCA late models. Forty-three late models competed and Ray Guss, Jr. repeated his win from last year. The track was a bit bumpy after the rain delay and resulting track packing and it was a rough go on getting consecutive laps in early on before a yellow flag flew--five yellows, in five laps. Guss advanced quickly, avoiding trouble, and advanced nine positions from his 15th place starting spot, in four laps. He took the win, being the first 2010 Super Nationals Champion crowned. Jeff Aikey came from 19th spot, to finish as the runner up. Rookie Andy Eckrich started 23rd in a provisional spot, to garner third place, fourth went to Tyler Bruening, also from a provisional start, and rounding out the top five was Ryan Giles.

Tuesday's show completed the qualifying for the IMCA Hobby Stocks and IMCA SportMods as they had also run on Monday--a change up in the format from previous years. This night concluded at 11:10 p.m. and allowed for a much earlier bedtime for us from the previous night's 4:30 a.m.....thankfully!

Wednesday brought in 160 IMCA stock cars and 270 IMCA modifieds as they competed for the first time, for a total of 67 races on the night. Radar showed rain just to the north of the track during the night, but tonight Mother Nature was kind and allowed for a rain-free program which ended at 12:20 a.m.

Thursday finished up the qualifying for the IMCA stock cars, and continued for the IMCA modifieds. Of note on this night was heat #8 for the modifieds---nine cars from nine different states! Justin O'Brien from West Union, Iowa, A. J. Ward, Ionia, Michigan, Jerry Lobdell, Jr., Groton, New York, Mark Griffin, Canton, Pennsylvania, Todd Wilson, Spicard, Missouri, Olen Shields, Central Point, Oregon, Chris Burk, Friend, Nebraska, Keith White, Little River, Texas, and Duane Cleveland, Plumas Lake, California. Only at the Super Nationals!

Friday was the weather threat day. Shortly before the 2 p.m. scheduled hot lap time, the raindrops began. Then, it stopped, and even had a peak of sun. Hey, this is Iowa. Wait five minutes and the weather will change! Soon the jet dryer was brought to the track and so began the methodical drying and reconditioning of the track. Racing restarted about 4:15 p.m. However, we heard there was only about a three hour window before rain would come again. With that, the program went into high gear and the first scheduled track prep was not needed. Due to the heaviness of the air and cloud cover, the track remained in good shape and the show continued non-stop.

The show was moving along in good time and the final A qualifier for the stock cars was brought to the track shortly after 8 p.m. Then that three hour window closed! With just one lap down in the stock car qualifier, Mother Nature came calling again. The cars were called into the infield only to be sent to the pits shortly after when the track became shiny slippery. Once again, the jet dryer returned for an encore, did it's job, and we were racing again around 10:30 p.m. and all was wrapped up at 12:31 a.m. Not bad at all for a four hour delay thrown in.

This now brings us to the Saturday show and "The Big Dance" for Hobby Stocks, SportMods, Stock Cars, and the Modifieds. In all classes, first time winners walked away with the trophy.
The Hobby Stock feature went to Jason Wilkinson from Neligh, Nebraska. Second place went to Dustin Larson from Rushmore, Minnesota, third to Robby Marsh from Belvidere, Nebraska, fourth to John Watson, Des Moines, Iowa, and fifth was Michael Murphy from Jefferson, Iowa.

The IMCA SportMod dance was up next. Jesse Sobbing was leading at lap sixteen of the 30-lap feature but by lap 20, it was Lytton, Iowa's Brett Meyer taking over the number one spot. Sobbing would soon develop mechanical problems and exit the track. Meyer sailed home to take his first Super Nationals championship. Eric Flander from Barnes City, Iowa took the runner up position, followed by Randy Roberts in third, Nate Chodur in fourth, and fifth was Brett Moffitt.

The 30 car strong IMCA Stock Cars took to the track next. A disaster was avoided on lap six, when Damon Murty came to a very sudden halt coming out of turn four and sat immobile in the middle of the track. How all of the cars missed him we don't know but they were all very alert and not one car touched the stalled 99D. At halfway, Jeremy Christians, from Horicon, Wisconsin put his bright orange car to the top spot and from there on, never looked back. Christians has always been a top runner everywhere we have seen him run....even from back in the days of the Winner's Series for IMCA Stock Cars. It was an excited Christians who was joined after the race with family and friends, including his 2 month old baby. Second and third places went to Dustin Smith and Donavon Smith in that order, fourth was Marcus Fagan who came from starting in the middle of the sixth row, and fifth was Michael Bruns from Olivia, Minnesota.

The long awaited final feature for the IMCA modifieds proceeded the three-wide parade lap -- always a stirring sight. Forty laps was ahead and what a feature it was! Thirty-two laps straight of non-stop racing, through lap traffic was just awesome. The #9 of Brandon Blochlinger out of Concordia, Kansas was the top dog and looking good until a handful of laps remaining, saw him exit off of turn three....victim of a brake roter failure. Jimmy Gustin was now in the driver's seat...literally...and he would go on to take a very popular win with the crowd. We've seen Gustin race many times and anytime he pulls on to the track, he is a contender for the win. We have written his name amongst the winner's we've seen many times, but feel sure that this just might be his most memorable win to date.

The 28th IMCA Super Nationals is now in the books. It was a grand six day run which we enjoyed tremendously. We have witnessed the previous 23 years of the Super Nationals and have watched it grow into the grand event that it has revolved into. Congratulations to all of the newly crowned IMCA Super National champions and thanks to all the competitors who entertained us all. It was also great to catch up with racing friends and drivers we see each year at the Super Nationals. Good times with good friends makes it special.

There are specials still to be found in Iowa and the surrounding states. Check the calendar at Positively Racing for one that you might want to attend. Happy racing!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Track Champions Crowned at Marshalltown and Boone

Two tracks concluded their 2010 season of racing this past weekend and with that, the crowning of a total of ten track champions--one of which made it four in a row. One driver would also run his final race of his career at the Marshalltown Speedway, ending a 22-year span.

September 3rd, 2010 was Marshalltown Speedway's season championship night. On track driver introductions were made and are always a nice touch allowing fans to see and salute their favorite drivers. All classes also started their features straight up by points. First to be crowned a 2010 track champion was Tim Hennigar in the Dwarf/Mod Lite class. Hennigar had no trouble in taking the win as he came to the checkers ahead of second place finisher, young Josh May. Third was Mike Morrill, fourth went to Dusty Masolini and fifth was Joel Huggins.

The IMCA Hobby Stocks feature went to Devin Smith who also claimed the title of track champion. He bested Michael Murphy to the finish line. After Murphy in second place, came the 20E of Eric Larson in third, fourth was Newton driver Calvin Dhondt, and rounding out the top five was another Newton driver, Josh Saunders.

The IMCA Northern SportMod feature went to Cayden Carter who took his sixth win at the track. Scott Davis led early on until Carter made the pass about lap six, and then pulled away from the field effortlessly. Davis finished in second but was the track champion. Third went to Jake Strayer, fourth to Geoff Olson, and Gatlin Leytham was fifth.

The Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA Stock Cars were up next. During introductions, driver of the #75 Ford Thunderbird, The Flyin' Farmer, Rick Brown was recognized as he was ending his 22 years of racing. Former announcer at the track, Denny Grabenbauer made an appearance to call the stock car race--Brown's final race--as he had called his first race 22 years prior. It was a touching tribute to the veteran driver as he led the pace truck before his final start around the highbanks of Marshalltown, a track he had called home for his entire racing career.

Trent Murphy paced the field of stock cars from the drop of the green flag as he stayed ahead of point leader Dustin Smith. Damon Murty made a charge to the front and momentarily appeared to take the lead...only to exit the track immediately off turn one at about lap sixteen. The restart put Murphy back to the top spot with Smith in second and Jeff Wollam now in third place. Jay Schmidt had started the feature near the very back, but had worked his way forward many positions and was now in fourth. When the final checkers fell, Murphy took the win, followed by Dustin Smith who is the 2010 track champion, Wollam remained in third, Jay Schmidt kept fourth place with Andy Bryant taking fifth. Rick Brown ended his career with a very respectable sixth place finish, after recovering from an incident in turn one on the opening lap.

The modified feature went to Jon Snyder who trailed Jimmy Gustin by 11 points going into the night's A main. Snyder controlled the entire race to take the win. Richie Gustin grabbed second place away from brother Jimmy early in the 25-lap feature, as they finished second and third. Brett Ladehoff picked up a fourth place finish followed by Mike O'Lear in fifth. Jimmy Gustin is the 2010 track champion...for the fourth year in a row.

On Saturday, September 4, it was the Boone Speedway with their season ending race. It was already a sea of racecars, haulers, and campers at the track, all in anticipation of the upcoming 28th running of the IMCA Super Nationals slated to start on Memorial Day. Only hot laps were allowed to any new cars that had not previously run at the track, but plenty would take advantage of those hot laps. On track driver introductions were made for all classes before the start of their feature event.

The Dwarf/Mod Lite was won by point leader Josh May making it a double-your-pleasure night for him...a "W" and a track championship. Charlie Brown came from starting eleventh to grab the runner up spot followed by Dusty Masolini in third, James May in fourth and Tim Hennigar with a fifth place finish.

The IMCA Northern SportMod feature saw Scott Davis take his second track championship in as many nights. He also won the main event, leading all laps. Eric Elliott finished in second place, after making the pass on Jeremy Embrey on the last lap. Following Embrey for fourth was Geoff Olson and fifth went to Tim Love.

The modified feature was won by Cale Sponsler as he too led all A main laps. Jimmy Gustin chased Sponsler across the line to pick up second place, third went to Kelly Lyons, fourth to Jake Durbin, and fifth was Russ Dickerson. Jake Durbin also picked up his second track championship in as many nights, as he won track points at the Iowa State Fair Speedway on Friday night.

The stock car feature was mainly a two car breakaway with Donavon Smith closely chased by the 19A of Alan VanGorp. Hot Rod Richards finished in third place, Wayne Gifford was fourth and the Flyin' Dutchman, Mike VanGenderen advanced from well in the pack to pick up a fifth place finish. Smith took home the track championship crown.

The hobby stock was the last feature to run. A mere two points separated the two drivers sitting on the front row--Michael Murphy and Pat Mather. Mather would take the win, and Murphy was content to follow for a second place, giving him the track championship. Third went to Randy Embrey, fourth to Cody Gustoff, and father Donnie Gustoff, finished fifth.

A "Gambler" race for the IMCA modifieds was also on tap, pitting Tim Stevens, Kelly Lyons, Jake Durbin, Jimmy Gustin, Joel Bushore, and Jon Snyder in a friendly one-on-one green-white-checkered contest. Several rounds brought the final series to be Gustin versus Lyons with Gustin taking home the $500 prize. A fun little added contest to be enjoyed by the nice crowd on hand.

Our congratualtions to all the 2010 track champions for their hard work and dedication to this great sport we all enjoy. Thanks also to ALL of the drivers who entertain us week in and week out.

As mentioned earlier, it is looking like another huge gathering of cars and fans for the upcoming IMCA Super Nationals kicking off on Labor Day. Many cars took advantage of hot laps and all the while, more haulers arriving in the pits. We look forward to those six days of marathon racing and hope you can at least make it for a race or two. We call it a race "happening" and something you should at least experience once. Come join us for the "Racin' Vacation". Happy racing!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Boone - 9-4-10

Unofficial results - 126 cars

Modified - 21 cars

Feature only, no heats, no B

1. 93 Cale Sponsler
2. 19 Jimmy Gustin
3. 27 Kelly Lyons
4. 18 Jake Durbin - Track Champion
5. 28R Russ Dickerson
6. 12E Mark Elliott
7. 1 Bill Davis, Jr.
8. 12C Kent Croskey
9. 75H Clint Wendel
10. 22D Daniel Hilsabeck
11. 58 Denny Pittman
12. 1J Jonah Chinn
13. 87 Joel Bushore
14. 77C Craig Carlson
15. 69X Jon Snyder
16. 49T Tim Stevens
17. 10K Ronn Lauritzen
18. 24 Robert Avery
19. 00X Jim Cooper
20. 15X Scott Baker
DNS: 23 J.J. Scott

SportMod - 28 cars

B Main - Top 4 to A. No heats

1. 7W Tim Wilcox
2. 28R Mark Rose
3. 11C Justine Campbell
4. H1 Mark Hunziger
5. 25 Scott VanBuskirk
6. 86J Rod McDonald
7. 1T Tyler Olson
8. 7I Steve Inman

Feature

1. 81D Scott Davis - Track Champion
2. 9E Eric Elliott
3. 41 Jeremy Embrey
4. 2G Geoff Olson
5. 27 Tim Love
6. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
7. 6 Darren Huntley
8. 3L Clint Luellen
9. 57 Lynn Brockett
10. 23JR Nick Roberts
11. 32L Ty Lullen
12. 28R Mark Rose
13. 5B Tom Burke
14. 3 Stacey Clark
15, 59 Tara Longnecker
16. 7W Tim Wilcox
17. H1 Mark Hunziger
18. 17 Jamie Ganoe
19. 3R Randy Roberts
20. X4 Jason Purvis
21. 11C Justine Campbell
22. 28 James Reichart
DNS: 66 Cody Hennings
1TX Bobby Davis III

Stock Car - 23 cars

Feature - no heats/B

1. 35 Donavon Smith - Track Champion
2. 19A Alan VanGorp
3. 23HR Rod Richards
4. 22 Wayne Gifford
5. 57V Mike VanGenderen
6. 87 Travis Shipman
7. 99D Damon Murty
8. 12+ Ryan Rose
9. 9 Jerry Gifford
10. 3H Ty Hill
11. 24K Kevin Shaw
12. 81B Dave Baugh
13. 5 Keith Miner
14. 52 Nathan Wood
15. 18 Jeff Harkrider
16. 77 Andy Bryant
17. 76 Norm Belew
18. 22S Toby Smith
19. 556 Terry Cornelison
20. 45 Larry Crocheck
21. 2L Jon Lang
DNS: 12 Bryan Trogdon
27M Mike Munson

Hobby Stock - 35 cars

B Main - 4 to A - no heats

1. 39 Larry Embrey
2. 8 Merle Bass
3. 96 Mark Hidlebaugh
4. 22 Chris Jensen
5. 23G Dustin Tepp
6. 47W Shaun Wirtz
7. 20N Justin Nehring, Storm Lake
8. 20T Richard Yaw II
9. 67 Ed Mahlstedt
10. 21 Ross Marshall
11. 4JR Russell Damme
12. 293 Jake Wirtz
13. 9 Andrew Arends
14. 26T Jeremy Tilley
15. 10B Brandon Pruitt

Feature

1. m15 Pat Mather
2. 25M Michael Murphy - Track Champion
3. 40 Randy Embrey
4. 23 Cody Gustoff
5. 20 Donnie Gustoff
6. 46J Jesse Hopkins
7. 83 Chris Hupp
8. 10 Travis Fenton
9. 74J Dean Hartwig
10. 911 Darin Rothfus
11. 1BC Tony Cox
12. 22 Chris Jensen
13. 96 Mark Hidlebaugh
14. 83S Scott Logarsso
15. 63 Cory Tasler
16. T15 Jacob Thompson
17. 8 Merle Bass
18. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
19. 16B Jay Arends
20. 14 Matt Wahlert
21. 5A Tyler Pickett
22. 3A Austin Luellen
23. 38R Aaron Rudolph
24. 39 Larry Embrey

Dwarf - 19 cars

Feature - no heats/B

1. 99 Josh May - Track Champion
2. 82 Charlie Brown
3. 8 Dusty Masolini
4. 88 James May
5. 57 Tim Hennigar
6. 0B Colby Oberembt
7. 20 Jeff Stensland
8. 01 David Schmalzried
9. 5X Matthew Goodin
10. 46Z Bryan Zehm
11. 46 Kevin Grisham
12. 11R Jason Whitehead
13. 8T Todd Thorson
14. 76 Terry Sorenson
15. 00 Phillip Reeves
16. 95 Mike Kennedy
17. 4L Larry Sorenson
18. 3G Dustin Forsberg
19. 37X Tim Milner

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Tesch Takes Rain-shortened USMTS at the Highbanks

Tuesday's show at the Marshalltown Speedway was one we were really looking forward to. The powerful USMTS modifieds were coming to town to try their hand at conquering the Highbanks.
Thirty-one of the traveling series cars were on hand and while Mother Nature tried to spoil all the fun, the show was hurried along enough to salvage 20-laps of the proposed 40-lap feature, making it an official race. Also on the program were the USRA stock cars running their Dart Ironman Challenge series, B-modifieds, Dwarf/Mod Lites, and the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks.
The stock cars and trucks did not get their features in and it is our understanding that they will complete their features at the upcoming Havoc on the Highbanks on September 17-18.

Karsyn's Krusaders were also on hand at the speedway, selling shirts and decals, holding a "walk-the-track" event; all in the hopes of bringing cancer awareness to the public and gathering funds for donating to Make-A-Wish Foundation, Lymphoma and Leukemia Society, and Give Kids the World. Check out www.karsynskrusaders.com for all the info on this great effort as they "Kick Cancer's Butt, One Lap at a Time".

By the time the first feature pulled on the track, the clouds were rolling in and, as has been the all too common occurrence of approaching rain, was of concern, AGAIN! That first feature was the Dwarf/Mod Lites which were thirteen strong. Mike Morrill put his red #6 to the lead early but Tim Hennigar was moving well through the field and into the second spot by lap six. Hennigar made the pass on Morrill at lap ten, and went home to the checkers first. Morrill kept the second spot, Joel Huggins captured third place, fourth went to Ivan Guerra, and fifth was Mike Kennedy.

The B modifieds quickly took to the track for their A main. It was pretty much a "who will get second" as the 10 of Cayden Carter dominated the entire race. Danny Dvorak in the 3R car tallied a second place finish, followed by Matt Lettow in third, Carter VandenBerg in fourth, and young Tyler Droste captured fifth.

The USMTS modifieds were sent to the track next for their 40-lap feature. By this time, we had been watching the flashes of lightning that were becoming more prevalent in the western sky.
With the show hurried along, the usual patriotic parade lap did not happen. Darin Duffy and Jon Tesch were the front row sitters and took off to lead the field in those positions. It was appearing this race was going to go to the "Karsyn's Krusaders" wrapped #19D car of Duffy as he was skillfully circling the track to maintain the lead over Tesch. However, at lap 17, Duffy slowed, came to a halt in turn four, the victim of a blown motor. Tesch then inherited the lead spot on the restart, with Happy, Texas driver Rodney Sanders and Oklahoma driver, Jason Hughes tailing him. On the half-way lap, the 17S of Mike Spaulding took a roll in turn one, bringing out the red flag. Spaulding emerged from the car, without injury. As things were being cleared on the track, drops of rain began to fall, becoming heavier and heavier. Radar was showing it was not going to be just a light shower, so we---along with most of the grandstand--began our exit move, while the field of cars remained on the track. We got to our vehicle and then heard the announcement that the races were called and the feature scored complete. Jon Tesch took the win, Jason Hughes had slipped by Rodney Sanders as they finished second and third respectively, fourth went to Tommy Myer and fifth to Mark Elliott.

Positively Racing was well represented last night, so take the time to check out "Back Stretch" and "Tapfan's Tours" for their take on the action last night as well. It was nice to have two people approach us last night to say they read our blog. We always appreciate meeting those people and thank them.

For complete results from last night, check www.usmts.com as well as info on their upcoming events. We plan to head to the Southern Iowa Speedway for their next race tonight, Wednesday, September 1, and can only hope that the weather holds off. Until next time, happy racing!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Father/Son Grab Boone Wins

Boone Speedway was blessed with beautiful weather and a packed pit area this past Saturday night with 168 cars checking in. Every class had a repeat winner from this season, and a father-son matched wins. We noted some visiting drivers testing the waters at Boone...no doubt in anticipation of the upcoming Super Nationals.

The Dwarf/Mod Lite feature was led early on by the 76M of Angelo Montgomery but by lap five, a familiar name was ahead of the field. Troy Hudson in his 4+1 ride (which equals 5...the number he has driven in the past) made it three in a row by reaching the checkers first. Charlie Brown tallied a second place finish, Dusty Masolini, Davide Schmalzried and Angelo Montgomery finished third through fifth place in that order.

The SportMods took to the track next for their feature run. Adam Shelman held a substantial lead through lap fourteen when a yellow flag flew. On the restart, Shelman would get jostled around a bit and loose many positions. Jeremy Embrey was the leader now and with just a few laps remaining, took another win at the Boone Speedway--his fourth on the year. Geoff Olson took the runner-up spot, followed by Jake Strayer in third, the #2 of Bill Wears in fourth, and rounding out the top five spots, was Cayden Carter. Sixth place went to Randy Roberts..minus much sheet metal, and Shelman recovered nicely from his shuffle backwards, to grab seventh. There will be much sheet metal being replaced this week as several cars were minus whole sides of their car.

The IMCA Modifieds put on quite the show as the fast track provided multi-grooves and much action. Mike Molle was fast from the get go from his pole starting spot. Luke Wanninger made the challenge on Molle by taking the low road as Molle motored away on the topside. Wanninger nabbed the lead with five laps to go in the 20-lap feature, but here comes Jimmy Gustin! Gustin made the pass into second and rode the very rim of the track. He would take the lead with one lap to go and take the checkers first. It was Gustin's fourth regular season win but he had also won the Frostbuster making it five victories at the track this year. Gustin puts on a show for the fans for sure, and we always say if he'd learn to push his car to the limit, he would REALLY be good! Ha, ha.....as if he doesn't do that already...and makes it work!

The IMCA Stock Cars brought their A main to the track next. It turned into a five or six car breakaway with Cory Bushnell leading the pack. Bushnell put distance between his competitors fighting for position behind him, taking the win for the second time this year. Travis Shipman finished in second with Alan VanGorp, Wayne Gifford and point leader Donavon Smith finishing closely behind for third through fifth positions respectively.

The first of two A mains for the IMCA Hobby Stocks found John Watson in his #4W repeating his win from last week. He had a good battle going with Kevin Fee who took second place at the checkers, third went to Scott Lograsso, fourth to Cory Tasler and fifth was Aaron Rudolph.

The second feature in the IMCA Hobby Stocks saw Tyler Pickett lead the charge for much of the race. That is until Randy Embrey came calling with two laps to go...overtaking Pickett for the lead. Embrey took the win, his second of the year, and matched the win earlier by his son Jeremy, in the SportMod class. Pickett had to settle for second place followed by Kenny Loftus in third, Pat Mather in fourth and Nyle Godwin in fifth.

The final week of regular season racing at Boone will be next Saturday night, September 4th, with Season Championship night. Of course, there will still be a lot of racing to come at the track when the 29th running of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals come to town for their September 6-11 run. We have attended every year since 1988 and we plan to be there for the duration once again. It's the highlight of our racing year. We always look forward to great racing, and seeing racing friends we have met through the years, drivers and fans alike. For more information and complete results, check out http://www.raceboone.com/ and http://www.imca.com/. There is much info at these sites for questions concerning the upcoming "Racin' Vacation". Happy racing!

Boone - 8-28-10

Unofficial results - 168 cars

Modified - 25 cars

Heat 1 - 5 Todd Shute
Heat 2 - 19 Jimmy Gustin
Heat 3 - 20 Luke Wanninger

Feature

1. 19 Jimmy Gustin
2. 20 Luke Wanninger
3. 27 Kelly Lyons
4. 18 Jake Durbin
5. 33M Mike Molle
6. 2L Adam Larson
7. 93 Cale Sponsler
8. 23 J. J. Scott
9. 12C Kent Croskey
10. 3Z Randy Havlik
11. 28R Russ Dickerson
12. 22D Daniel Hilsabeck (different car)
13. 49T Tim Stevens
14. 1 Billy Davis
15. 83G Josh Gilman
16. 98 Jeremy Brogaard, Kanawha, IA
17. 15M Shane DeMey, Denison, IA
18. 58 Denny Pittman
19. 36 Jeff Conner, Panora, IA
20. 87 Joel Bushore
21. 131s Ed Seibert
22. 5 Todd Shute
23. 69X Jon Snyder
24. 32H Lloyd Henderson

SportMod - 41 cars

Heat 1- 3s Adam Shelman
Heat 2 - 81D Scott Davis
Heat 3 - 18J Jake Strayer
Heat 4 - 32L Ty Luellen

B Main #1 - 2 advance to A

1. 10 Cayden Carter
2. 9X Austin Lucas
3. 9E Eric Elliott
4. 57 Lynn Brockett
5. 28R Mark Rose, Elcho, WI
6. 7 Carter VandenBerg
7. 7W Tim Wilcox, Ida Grove, IA
8. 28 James Reichart
9. 17 Jamie Ganoe
10. 21ZC Sean Allen, Des Moines, IA

B Main #2 - 2 advance to A

1. 27 Tim Love
2. 1TX Bobby Davis III, Des Moines, IA
3. 57T Tyler Gross, Bondurant, IA
4. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
5. 36 Matt Pittman
6. 321 Andy Tiernan
7. 5B Tom Burke
8. 3 Stacey Clark
DNS: 22J Jeff Blume
92 Mike Pruitt
46 Trevor Oberholz, Adair, IA

Feature

1. 41 Jeremy Embrey
2. 2G Geoff Olson
3. 18J Jake Strayer
4. 2 Bill Wears
5. 10 Cayden Carter
6. 3R Randy Roberts
7. Adam Shelman
8. 32L Ty Luellen
9. 29B Ben Wilson
10. 6 Darren Huntley
11. 1TX Bobby Davis III
12. 81D Scott Davis
13. 27 Tim Love
14. 3L Clint Luellen
15. 9X Austin Lucas
16. 23JR Nick Roberts
17. 63 Daniel Tasler
18. 59 Tara Longnecker
19. 29 Jamie Daughenbaugh
20. 5M Matthew Meinecke
21. 25 Scott VanBuskirk
22. 86 Cory Rose
DNS: 56 Lonnie Hodges

Stock Car - 27 cars

Heat 1 - 9 Jerry Gifford
Heat 2 - 22X Josh Brauckman
Heat 3 - 23HR Rod Richards


Feature

1. 55 Cory Bushnell
2. 87 Travis Shipman
3. 19A Alan VanGorp
4. 22 Wayne Gifford
5. 35 Donavon Smith
6. 12+ Ryan Rose
7. 50 Robert Stofer
8. 25 Trent Murphy
9. 45 Larry Crocheck
10. 59 Larry Portis
11. 77 Andy Bryant
12. 04 Don Vis
13. m2 Matt Fox, Payton, IA
14. 81B Dave Baugh
15. 3s Bryan Snell
16. 76 Norm Belew
17. 3H Ty Hill
18. 5 Keith Miner
19. 22X Josh Brauckman
20. 7I Andrew Inman, Mason City, IA
21. 99D Damon Murty
22. 9 Jerry Gifford
23. 23HR Rod Richards
DNS: 60 Clay Deppe
556 Terry Cornelison
B1 Russ Byriel

Hobby Stock - 47 cars

Heat 1 - 52 Kevin Fee
Heat 2 - 63 Cory Tasler
Heat 3 - m15 Pat Mather
Heat 4 - 24B Brandon Brinton
Heat 5 - 23 Cody Gustoff
Heat 6 - 3A Austin Luellen

Feature #1

1. 4W John Watson
2. 52 Kevin Fee
3. 83S Scott Lograsso
4. 63 Cory Tasler
5. 38R Aaron Rudolph
6. 25M Michael Murphy
7. 23 Cody Gustoff
8. 10B Brandon Pruitt
9. 12M Matt McDonald
10. 3A Austin Luellen
11. 47 Scott Pippert, Elberon, IA
12. 74J Dean Hartwig
13. T15 Jacob Thompson
14. 20G Curt Ganoe, Stuart, IA
15. 9R Matt Hudspeth
16. 46J Jesse Hopkins
17. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
18. 51D Dustin Filloon
19. 67 Ed Mahlstedt
20. 27R Clint Rothfus
21. 85 Seth Janssen
22. T10 Tim Barber
23. 293 Jake Wirtz
24. 14 Matt Wahler

Feature #2

1. 40 Randy Embrey
2. 5A Tyler Pickett
3. 18L Kenny Loftus
4. m15 Pat Mather
5. 11G Nyle Godwin
6. 27 Clint Nelson
7. 51 Matthew Webb
8. 911 Darin Rothfus
9. 47W Shaun Wirtz
10. 10S Ray Stock, Jr.
11. 33 Nick Genkins, Stuart, IA
12. 21CZ Cody Cleghorn or Sean Allen...not sure
13. 20T Richard Yaw
14. 26T Jeremy Tilley
15. 23G Dustin Tepp
16. 10 Travis Fenton
17. 96W Danny Watson, Des Moines, IA
18. 20 Donnie Gustoff
19. 24B Brandon Brinton
20. 22 Chris Jensen
21. 16B Jay Arends
22. 59 Joe Myers
23. 21 Ross Marshall


Dwarf/Mod Lite - 28 cars

Feature

1. 4+1 Troy Hudson
2. 82 Charlie Brown
3. 8 Dusty Masolini
4. 01 David Schmalzried
5. 76M Angelo Montgomery
6. 95 Mike Kennedy
7. 5X Matthew Goodin
8. 2 Bobby Harris
9. 11R Jason Whitehead
10. 4 Cliff Barber
11. X50 Joel Bushore
12. 3G Dustin Forsberg, Wichita, KS
13. 14J John Gardner
14. 99 Josh May
15. DC5 David WScandrett
16. 88 James May
17. 64 Randy Bryan
18. 8T Todd Thorson
19. 76 Terry Sorenson
20. 4L Larry Sorenson
21. 37X Tim Milner
22. 66F Eric Hendrickson
23. 20 Jeff Stensland
24. 41Z Ed Zehm
25. 0B Colby Oberembt
26. 1 Kenny Hake
DNS: 33 Gayle Worthington
11 Michael Stoker

Blog to follow

Saturday, August 28, 2010

A "New" Gustin in Victory Lane!

It was a beautiful night for racing at the Marshalltown Speedway this past Friday night. By night's end, we would see history in the making, when a "new" Gustin was in Victory Lane for the very first time. The track stayed fast and smooth, but unfortunately, the yellow flags seemed to wave much too often.

An added class of the Micro Mini Sprints visited the track for the second time this year. We understand that the drivers love coming to the Marshalltown Speedway. Fourteen of the cars were checked into the pits. Since we are not familiar with the class (not sure where or IF they run anywhere on a regular basis in our area) but we do know that the winner was the 11B ride of Ben Woods.

Feature number two was the Dwarf/Mod Lite with their 15-lap main. The 95 of Mike Kennedy won for the third time this year. Second place went to point leader Tim Hennigar, starting from the 10th spot. Hennigar tried to reel in Kennedy but appeared to be having difficulty negotiating turn two at times. Following Hennigar for third was Ivan Guerra, fourth went to Mike Morrill and fifth was Josh May.

The IMCA Northern SportMods brought their rides to the track next. Jenae Gustin wasted no time in putting her 19J to the point spot by lap four. Tyler Droste made his move up to the second position before halfway, and at the same time, Cayden Carter and Scott Davis were moving up to the front runners as well. A yellow flag flew with just two laps to go, and no doubt, was not what Gustin was wanting to see. The Gustin family talent showed through though, as Jenae kept her cool, hit her marks, and won her very first A feature. It was a happy Jenae Gustin in Victory Lane and much of the grandstand gave her a standing ovation. Congratulations to Jenae on getting that very first feature win under her belt. We see many more coming to her down the line. Tyler Droste took the runner up spot followed by point leader Scott Davis for third after nipping fourth place finisher Cayden Carter on the final lap, and fifth was Carter's cousin in the #7, Carter VandenBerg. After the race, we noted some close post-race inspection going on in the tech area, but as far as we know, the results stood.

The IMCA Modifieds ran their 20-lap feature next. Yellows flew in this race too, plus one red flag situation that caused a lengthy stop in the action. That red flag was brought about when three cars were involved in an incident on the front chute. The cars involved were Jay Schmidt, Brett Ladehoff and visitor on the night from Hartford, the 15M of Jason Murray. Not knowing exactly what happened in the situation, we do know that Schmidt was against the frontstretch wall and ended up getting punted down the track into turn one from contact with one or both of the other cars, Ladehoff and Murray. Murray and Ladehoff came to a halt just past the flagstand. Murray had to be cut from his car (we heard his feet/legs were pinned) but he was alert and talking the entire time. He was transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure and hopefully, had no significant injuries. The car on the other hand, did not appear to fare well at all. The other two cars also had substantial damage. The incident happened with only four laps remaining with Jon Snyder taking the point position when action was restarted. Snyder took the win with Mike O'Lear in second, third went to Jimmy Gustin in his recent new ride, Ronn Lauritzen finished in fourth and Adam Larson returned to the Marshalltown Speedway after quite an absence, to finish fifth.

Things were shuffled a bit in their feature running order from the norm, with the IMCA Hobby Stocks next on the night. Clint Nelson led for nearly the entire 12-lap feature and took his first win at the speedway. Scott Durlin took second place, followed by Michael Murphy in third, Eric Knutson in fourth and rounding out the top five was point leader Devin Smith.

The IMCA Stock Cars ran last for the regular classes. The #2 of Dave Atcher took the lead by lap three, after starting sixth. Not surprisingly, point leader Dustin Smith came from 10th starting spot, to be on Atcher's tail by lap five! Smith made the pass for the lead on lap six and from then on, it was another easy victory.....what we believe was his sixth in a row at Marshalltown and eighth in all. No surprise that Smith is the point leader with that record. Damon Murty got by Atcher coming to the checkers, as they finished second and third. Fourth was Trent Murphy from Jefferson and fifth went to the "Flyin' Dutchman", Mike VanGenderen in the 57V. VanGenderen was testing the track for the upcoming Iron Man Challenge series for USRA stock cars which will be on the docket this coming Tuesday when the USMTS modifieds come to town.

An added event tonight at the track was the popular "Gamblers" race for the modified class. Drivers wishing to participate, tossed $50 each into the pot with the winner taking all. With eleven cars starting, the $550 was an enticing carrot dangling in front of the drivers. Jon Snyder made it a clean sweep for the night by winning the Gambler in easy fashion after taking the A main earlier.

How the season has flown, and next week at the Marshalltown Speedway will be Season Championship night. Joining the regular classes will be the Nostalgic Vintage cars running as well. This Tuesday night, the USMTS modifieds will come to the track with Nascar driver Kenny Wallace scheduled to be in attendance. Racing starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday with the USRA Iron Man Challenge series for stock cars also racing. If you haven't seen these two classes run before, they WILL put on a show, so make plans to attend. Support classes running will be B-modifieds and the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks. It was announced that local driver Darrel DeFrance will be piloting one of the trucks. There will be more than a few tv crew and cameras around the track too. A dirt track documentary is being filmed as they follow the USMTS series from track to track. For more information and results from last night's racing, check http://www.marshalltownspeedway.com/ and also check http://www.usmts.com/ for information on their upcoming race. Until next time, happy racing!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Southern Iowa Speedway Completes Regular 2010 Season

It had been several weeks since we had been to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, and it was good to get back to what has been one of our regular weekly stops for years and years. The track has had more than its share of rain outs this season, but this Wednesday brought fabulous weather. It was Season Championship night and four track champions would be crowned at night's end.

The Carter Mfg. USRA B-modifieds ran their 15-lap feature first. There were twenty cars checked into the pits tonight, with two unable to start the feature, those being Brad Iverson and a name we remember from years past, Mark Mundell. The front row found the D1 of Drew Lawson and the 3 of Derek Kirkland. Kirkland, a regular hobby stock driver, was piloting the car previously driven by Chris Ammenhauser. Announcer Tony Paris said this was just Kirkland's second time behind the wheel of the B mod.

Bill Gibson got to the front quickly in the B mod feature but had to battle with Tyler Groenendyk for that front spot. Groenendyk would fall back several spots when AJ Johnson made a bid for the lead and Andrew Schroeder (making his appearance after a stay in Chicago)
followed Johnson into third place. As the final checkers flew, Gibson claimed the victory with AJ Johnson in second, Schroeder kept third spot, fourth was Jason McDaniel (who came from starting dead last) and crossing in fifth was Cayden Carter. Things would get shook up a bit after post-race inspection. It was announced that two cars in the top five were disqualified for rule infractions; AJ Johnson for a fly wheel issue, and Cayden Carter for an illegal transmission. AJ Johnson was later deemed legal and kept his second place finish. With Carter being dq'd, Tyler Groenendyk was moved to the fifth place car. Groenendyk is the 2010 track champion.

The 15-lap USRA stock car feature was next, with visiting driver from Webster City, Dennis Plain on the point starting spot. Mike VanGenderen, the Newton, Iowa driver who races all over the state of Iowa and sometimes beyond, immediately took over the top place. He had company coming fast behind him by lap six, when Nathan Wood made it into second, and Shane Weller followed to take third. It was quite the battle for a while when those three cars jockeyed for position and then the 15K of Kyle Harwood made his presence known and joined in. Weller outran those challengers and took the win. Following him to take second was Nathan Wood, the track champion for 2010, third went to Mike VanGenderen, fourth to Kyle Harwood, and fifth was Brian Sterling.

The USRA hobby stock feature up next, would determine who would be the track champion for the year. Tony Paris indicated that IF Kris Walker could pull off the win tonight and point leader Derek Kirkland finished sixth or worse, Walker would be walking away with another track championship. With Walker's record of wins at the big 1/2-mile in Osky, that scenario really wasn't much of a stretch. However, Kirkland has had a great season this year with consistently good finishes. Consistency is often the determining factor in winning championships, and tonight that is what played into the outcome. It wouldn't be either of those two drivers getting the win on this night, however. Andy Coleman led most of the 15-lap feature and took his second win of the year at the track. Kris Walker was trying his hardest for a win and hoping for a chance at that track crown, but had to settle for a runner up place. Third went to Steve Allen, fourth to Craig Brown, and fifth to Don Nunnikhoven. With a sixth place finish, Derek Kirkland took his first Southern Iowa Speedway championship by just 3-points over Walker.

The A modified feature completed the action for the night with their 20-lap event. Fifteen cars were in attendance and all started their main. Zack VanderBeek led from his pole starting spot through lap eight when Colt Mather, who had been reeling in the leader, was able to make the pass into the lead on lap nine. Mather would keep that top spot for the win, and VanderBeek finished second. In third would be the plain white car with an "X" on it. The car was driven by Kelly Shryock and we understood it was an "R.D."(research and development) 2011 Skyrocket.
The body seemed larger than most of the Skyrocket cars we've seen, but it definitely was getting around the track. Following Shryock to finish in fourth, was Scott Dickey and fifth was Steven Blattler. Though we did not hear it announced, we believe that Blattler kept his point lead over Dickey, and is the 2010 modified champion at the track.

So ends another regular season of racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway. However, there will be racing at the track next Wednesday night, September 1, when the USMTS comes to town. Nascar driver, Kenny Wallace is scheduled to be in attendance for that race. Also on the docket will be the USRA Dart Ironman Challenge for the stock cars, plus B mods and hobby stocks. Film crews will be on hand as they will be filming for a tv dirt track documentary, Dirt Knights. For more information check www.rlpromotions.com/oskaloosa.

Congratulations to all the track champions and thanks to ALL the drivers for entertaining us this past year. With the season winding down everywhere, try and catch a few more races before we all have to call it a year of dirt track racing in our neck of the woods. Until next time, happy racing!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Osky - 8-25-10

Unofficial results

Modified - 15 cars

Heat 1 - 8 Colt Mather
Heat 2 - 94 Steven Blattler

Feature

1. 8 Colt Mather
2. 33Z Zach VanderBeek
3. X Kelly Shryock (in a 2011 experimental Skyrocket)
4. 40 Scott Dickey
5. 94 Steven Blattler
6. 4R Ron VerBeek
7. 26 Dan Fetters
8. 22 Brandon Banks
9. 17P Brad Pinkerton
10. 00 David Ott
DNF: 70 Jesse Dennis
47 Josh Truman
15K Kevin Harwood
55D Nick Deal
j40 Clayton Jensen

B Mods - 20 cars

Heat 1 - 17T Tyler Groenendyk
Heat 2 - 8T Tony Johnson
Heat 3 - 7 Carter VandenBerg

Feature

1. 38 Bill Gibson
2. 8J AJ Johnson (originally announced dq'd for flywheel infraction, but was later declared legal)
3. 02 Andrew Schroeder (back from Chicago)
4. 85 Jason McDaniel
Note: 10 Cayden Carter crossed in 5th but was dq'd for an illegal transmission
5. 17T Tyler Groenendyk
6. 16 Mike Shelton
7. D1 Drew Lawson
8. 1 Curtis Vander Wal
9. 41 Bob Lynch
10. 777 Jayme Duinink
11. 7 Carter VandenBerg - limped across the line
12. 50X James Krier
DNF: 8 Tom Lathorp
3 Derek Kirkland (in the car formerly driven by Chris Ammenhauser)
49 Leroy Groenendyk
25 Scott VanBuskirk
8T Tony Johnson
DNS: 8x Brad Iverson
15X Mark Mundell

Stock Car - 9 cars

Heat - 15K Kyle Harwood

Feature

1. 20dub Shane Weller
2. 52 Nathan Wood
3. 57V Mike VanGenderen
4. 15K Kyle Harwood
5. 98s Brad Sterling
6. 7 Rick Todd
7. 62X TJ Henderson
DNF: 57 Dennis Plain, Webster City, IA
60K Clay Deppe

Hobby Stock - 18 cars

Heat 1 - 3S Steve Allen
Heat 2 - 22R Todd Reitzler

Feature

1. 78 Andy Coleman
2. 18 Kris Walker
3. 3S Steve Allen
4. 69 Craig Brown
5. 2N Don Nunnikhoven
6. 2K Derek Kirkland
7. 47 Tim Pettibone, Moravia, IA
8. 911 Shawn Coleman
9. 53D Ron Downing
10. 67 Tyler Ruepke
DNF: 12 Mike Kincaide sp?, Cincinnati, IA
10G Dustin Griffiths
33 Justin Hook
84 Danny Thrasher
64 Casey Grueubel
29 Wes Almond
22R Todd Reitzler
DNS: 558 Jim Hughes

Blog to follow

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Watson and Gustoff Take First Wins at Boone

A hot, muggy night awaited us at the Boone Speedway this past Saturday night...to say nothing about the swarm of mosquitoes that attacked in the latter part of the evening! We heard comments like, "they are as huge as sparrows", and fans were sharing their supply of spray to help dispense the little buggers. They didn't put much of a damper on the racing though as drivers added to their wins this year and in the hobby stocks, two new winners emerged.

Troy Hudson put it back in Victory Lane after his first win last week. He had the 4+1 Mod Lite humming, as he zoomed from starting fifth, to leading by lap two. Charlie Brown wasn't able to catch Hudson and had to settle for the runner up spot followed by Dusty Masolini in third, Josh May in fourth, and fifth went to Randy Bryan.

As usual, a large car count was on hand for the IMCA Northern SportMods resulting in two B mains. Those were won by Eric Elliott in the 9E and Jeremy Embrey in the 41 car. Several yellows would plague the feature and shake up the field. Clint Luellen led at lap nine and was fighting off the challenges of Nick Roberts and Daniel Tasler. Meanwhile, point leader, Scott Davis was making his move and moving up well as he positioned himself in the fourth spot behind veteran Rick Ringgenberg. Things would get changed up a bit as the cars charged to the checkers when Roberts would spin low in turn four, ruining his top finish. Clint Luellen took the checkers for the second time this year, Davis finished as the runner up, third went to Ringgenberg, fourth to Randy Roberts, and visitor Tim Wilcox from Ida Grove, and who came from qualifying through a B main, was scored in fifth.

The IMCA Modifieds saw all twenty-one cars start their feature. Young Joel Bushore once again showed his composure in scoring his third win of the season at Boone. A lap car nearly caused a big problem for Bushore on the white flag lap, but he was able to gather the car under him and take the win. Jimmy Gustin (we noted with a new body on his car) was in his usual fast mode, and finished in second from having started back in 16th spot. Randy Havlik, last year's Super National champion, finished in third, fourth went to Russ Dickerson, and fifth was Jake Durbin.

We have been noticing large fields of IMCA Stock Cars as of late, and tonight was no exception as there were 34 of them on hand. This would call for a B main to qualify the final four cars in the feature event, and it was won by the 19J of Jay Schmidt. The 83E car of Thomas Thompson from Hopkinton, Iowa led the opening laps from his pole starting position. Not surprisingly, point leader Donavon Smith charged to the lead by lap eight and from there on, never looked back. We count this as win #5 on the season at the Boone Speedway for Smith. Robert Stofer finished in second, third went to Wayne Gifford, Jay Schmidt; after qualifying through the B, finished in fourth, and fifth went to Thomas Thompson.

There were two A mains for the IMCA Hobby Stocks. Feature #1 brought a new winner as the 4W of John Watson took the checkers first. A tire going down, ended leader Austin Luellen's chances for a win in the closing lap of the race. When that incident happened, Watson shot around second place runner, Tony Cox and into the lead. Watson took his first win of the year, Cox was scored in second, and Luellen hung on to finish in third. Fourth would go to Justin Maschke in the 4JW car and fifth was Jesse Hopkins.

The second A main for the IMCA Hobby Stocks closed out the night's action. It too would have a first time winner in veteran Donnie Gustoff. Gustoff took the lead over Cory Tasler with just two laps to go to take that win. Tasler held on for the runner up spot, third went to another veteran driver, Randy Embrey, fourth was Cody Gustoff, and fifth to the 9R of Matt Hudspeth.

The regular racing season is quickly winding down with only two more races on tap at Boone before the 29th running of the IMCA Super Nationals September 6-11th. Don't forget to bring your bug spray! Check out http://www.raceboone.com/ for information about the track as well as details about the Super Nationals. Until next time, happy racing!

Boone - 8-21-10

Unofficial results: 158 cars

Modified - 21 cars

Heat 1 - 3C Max Corporon
Heat 2 - 93 Cale Sponsler
Heat 3 - 33M Mike Molle

Feature

1. 87 Joel Bushore
2. 19 Jimmy Gustin
3. 3Z Randy Havlik
4. 28R Russ Dickerson
5. 18 Jake Durbin
6. 93 Cale Sponsler
7. 27 Kelly Lyons
8. 1 Bill Davis, Jr.
9. 3C Max Corporon
10. 12C Kent Croskey
11. 32H Lloyd Henderson
12. 131S Ed Seibert
13. 26 Phil Levri
14. 20 Luke Wanninger
15. 33M Mike Molle
16. 49T Tim Stevens
17. 5 Todd Shute
18. 58 Denny Pittman
19. 15X Scott Baker
20. 69X Jon Snyder
21. 85 Johnathan Thimmesch

SportMod - 38 cars

Heat 1 - 63 Daniel Tasler
Heat 2 - 3L Clint Luellen
Heat 3 - 9X Austin Lucas
Heat 4 - 2 Bill Wears

B main #1 - 2 transer to A

1. 9E Eric Elliott
2. 7W Tim Wilcox
3. 6 Darren Huntley
4. 3S Adam Shelman
5. 27 Tim Love
6. 29B Ben Wilson
7. 29 Jamie Daughenbaugh
8. 22J Jeff Blume
DNS: 59 Tara Longnecker

B main #2 - 2 transfer to A

1. 41 Jeremy Embrey
2. 17 Jamie Ganoe
3. 34J Jerry Hinton
4. 13D Dan Wetzel
5. 56K Kyle Webb
6. 25 Scott VanBuskirk - Fairfield, IA
7. 28 James Reichart
DNS: 18J Jake Strayer
2G Geoff Olson

Feature

1. 3L Clint Luellen
2. 81D Scott Davis
3. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
4. 3R Randy Roberts
5. 7W Tim Wilcox, Ida Grove, IA
6. 63 Daniel Tasler
7. 41 Jeremy Embrey
8. 35 Bruce Egeland
9. 1C Cody Warrick
10. 9E Eric Elliott
11. 17 Jamie Ganoe
12. 22X Troy Oliver
13. 2 Bill Wears
14. 23JR Nick Roberts
15. 57 Lynn Brockett
16. 5B Tom Burke
17. 8 Brad Iverson
18. 56 Lonnie Hodges
19. 86 Cory Rose
20. 32L Ty Luellen
21. 9x Austin Lucas
22. 20T Mike Tanner, Kansas City, MO
23. 3 Stacey Clark
DNS: 24 Brian Miller

Stock Car - 34 cars

Heat 1 - 18 Jeff Harkrider
Heat 2 - 12 Bryan Trogdon
Heat 3 - 23A Jeremy Gettler
Heat 4 - 50 Robert Stofer

B main - 4 transer to A

1. 19J Jay Schmidt
2. 52 Nathan Wood
3. 12+ Ryan Rose
4. 31s Paul Shephard, Marengo, IA
5. 9 Jerry Gifford
6. 76 Norm Belew
7. 93 Michael Jaennette
8. 24K Kevin Shaw
9. 35B Donny Boucher
10. 5 Keith Miner
11. 5X Luke Skalla, Scranton, IA
12. 23HR Rod Richards
DNS: 77 Lonnie Bryant
27 Gary Bass

Feature

1. 35 Donavon Smith
2. 50 Robert Stofer
3. 22 Wayne Gifford
4. 19J Jay Schmidt
5. 83E Thomas Thompson,
6. 17A Todd Inman
7. 3S Bryan Snell
8. 45 Larry Crocheck
9. 25J Josh Daniels
10. 23A Jeremy Gettler
11. 55 Cory Bushnell
12. 38 Rich Vogt, Fairfield, IA
13. 52 Nathan Wood
14. 3H Ty Hill
15. 19A Alan VanGorp
16. 18 Jeff Harkrider
17. 31S Paul Shephard
18. 12 Bryan Trogdon
19. 25 Trent Murphy
20. 22X Josh Brauckman
21. 60 Clay Deppe
22. 57V Mike VanGenderen
23. 556 Terry Cornelison
DNS: 12+ Ryan Rose

Hobby Stock - 40 cars

Heat 1 - 67 Ed Mahlstedt
Heat 2 - 20 Donnie Gustoff
Heat 3 - 27R Clint Rothfus
Heat 4 - 47W Shaun Wirtz

Feature #1

1. 4W John Watson
2. 1BC Tony Cox
3. 3A Austin Luellen
4. 4JW Justin Maschke
5. 46J Jesse Hopkins
6. 83 Chris Hupp
7. m15 Pat Mather
8. 16B Jay Arends
9. 12M Matt McDonald
10. 51 Matt Webb
11. 27R Clint Rothfus
12. 18L Kenny Loftus
13. 2L Leonard Loftus
14. 67 Ed Mahlstedt
15. 07 Jacob Keiser, Marengo, IA
16. 85 Seth Janssen
17. 26T Jeremy Tilley
18. T10 Tim Barber
19. 78 Tim Hadley
20. 52 Kevin Fee, Knoxville, IA

Feature #2

1. 20 Donnie Gustoff
2. 63 Cory Tasler
3. 40 Randy Embrey
4. 23 Cody Gustoff
5. 9R Matt Hudspeth
6. 74J Dean Hartwig
7. 38R Aaron Rudolph
8. 14 Matt Wahlert
9. T15 Jacob Thompson
10. 24B Brandon Brinton
11. 5A Tyler Pickett
12. 83S Scott Lograsso
13. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
14. 22R Todd Reitzler
15. 25m Michael Murphy
16. 20T Richard Yaw II
17. 47W Shaun Wirtz
18. 10 Tim Barber
19. 21 Ross Marshall
DNS: 00 Kyle Dirks

Dwarf/Mod Lite - 25 cars

Feature

Heat 1 - 88 James May
Heat 2 - 99 Josh May
Heat 3 -- 82 Charlie Brown

1. 4+1 Troy Hudson
2. 82 Charlie Brown
3. 8 Dusty Masolini
4. 99 Josh May
5. 64 Randy Bryan
6. 95 Mike Kennedy
7. 46Z Bryan Zehm
8. 88 James May
9. 11R Jason Whitehead
10. 2 Bobby Harris
11. 01 David Schmalzried
12. 20 Jeff Stensland
13. 5X Matthew Goodin
14. 37X Tim Milner
15. 8T Todd Thorson
16. 4 Cliff Barber
17. 51 Justin Efkamp
18. 5K Kent Efkamp
19. 76 Terry Sorenson
20. 4L Larry Sorenson
21. 14J John Gardner
22. 1 Kenny Hake
DNS: 11 Michael Stoker
35 Bruce Egeland

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Miller "The Thriller" Nabs Iowa State Fair Deery Brothers Win

A trip to the Iowa State Fair was on tap for us this past Monday, where the evening brought the running of the IMCA Deery Brothers show along with IMCA Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks, SportMods and the Dirt Trucks. We had arrived shortly after 8 a.m. and by the time for racing, we had walked miles touring the fairgrounds, and ready to sit and enjoy the traditional racing at the Iowa State Fair. Over 150 cars filled the infield and the huge grandstand had a great crowd.

After the heats and B's, it was feature time with the Hobby Stocks coming to the track for the first of two A main events. It turned into a great battle between the 99jr of Nick Murty and the 78 of Shannon Anderson. Those two challenged each other back and forth for the lead through much of race. There was contact between the two in turn two late in the race, with Anderson leading at that point. However, haulers parked in the infield prevented us from seeing exactly what happened, but Anderson would loose his lead due to the incident and Murty would then take the checkers. Eric Stanton who had been running third, was also able to get around Anderson, as he took second. Anderson recovered to take third placed, fourth was Justin Maschke and fifth went to Kris Walker.

The second Hobby Stock feature then immediately took to the track. The program was picked up a notch, as radar was showing some shower activity nearby. John Watson would lead this one, flag to flag to take the victory. He was tailed by the 31 car driven by Steve Jones much of the race, but Blaine Peterson in the 68+1 ride, was able to make the pass into second with one lap to go. The final run to the checkers saw a bit of bumping and jockeying for that top spot, but Watson maintained control for the win. Peterson was second and Jones held third. Fourth went to Ray Stock, Jr. in the 10S and fifth was Jeremy Purdy in the 4 car.

It was decided to run the main attraction of the night next as the IMCA Late Models pulled onto the track. The 35-lap feature had current point leader Ray Guss, Jr. sitting on the pole with Jay Johnson alongside. Just a couple of laps into the feature, brought out a yellow and on the restart, it didn't take long for Darren, "The Thriller" Miller to make his move around leader, Guss. The big mover of the race was Todd Cooney. Cooney qualified for the A by winning the first of two B mains, putting him starting from the 13th starting position and he made his way into fourth by the halfway mark. Miller would go on to take the feature win, and what we understood was his first Deery win since 2001. Ray Guss, Jr. kept his runner up position and padded his point lead, Cooney was able to slip by Tom Darbyshire as they finished third and fourth, and rounding out the top five was Dubuque driver, Jeremiah Hurst.

The IMCA Northern SportMods were up next and Jesse Sobbing shot to the lead from his outside starting position. A yellow flag situation stopped the action and took a while before the green flag was thrown. On the restart, Sobbing was leading and Kyle Brown had maneuvered around Tyler Gross and moved into the second spot. A bit later, Sobbing would pull high in turn four; off power from a shucked drive shaft. On the restart, it would be Brown, who had inherited the lead and Austin Kaplan on his tail. Only another few laps were scored when another yellow came out and while under caution, Mother Nature decided to water the track with a shower. The track was never lost as cars were kept on the track, and thankfully, the sprinkling ended. On the restart, Brown kept his lead but Scott Davis had made the pass on Kaplan to slip into second. The remainder of the race went caution free and Brown kept his line and took the State Fair win. Davis was scored in second, Austin Kaplan in third, brother Beau Kaplan and the track point leader, was fourth, and fifth went to Jeremy Embrey who had started well back in the starting field.

The Dirt Truck 16-lap feature was next. Early leader was the 16m driven by Todd Inman with Bret Moyer tailing him. Those two trucks would swap the lead several times until Inman took the final command at the checkers. Bret Moyer had to settle for second Steve "Scuba" Churchill from Creston was third, fourth went to Bryan Nevins, Jr. and fifth was the 03 of Ed Nelson.

One final feature remained, that being the IMCA Stock Cars. I counted right at 40 stock cars on hand to test the big half-mile oval and the final four cars in the starting field of 24 cars, was completed by running a B main. Jeff Johnson won that consy. Chelsea, Iowa driver, Damon Murty began his quest for another win, from the pole starting position. Murty had just recently won his 100th IMCA stock car feature up in Britt, Iowa, and was looking for win #101. Murty kept it pretty well in command and that 101st win was looking pretty good. That is until current track point leader, Mike Nichols, came calling late in the race. Nichols had eliminated some competition by getting by Todd Inman and Donavon Smith, gotten in to second place, and was wanting more. Nichols would gain that top spot a few laps later and take his #63 ride to the checkers first. Murty, had to settle for the runner-up spot. Third went to Todd Inman, fourth to Donovan Smith, last year's winner of this race, and scored in fifth was Mark Elliott in the #412.

So concluded another Iowa State Fair race, something that has been a traditional event for us for years and years. It's always a nostalgic race as the Des Moines track brings back fond memories of not only the many, many races we've watched there, but also of the Iowa State Fair itself, with it's colorful Midway lit up just off of turns one and two. We've watched many cars circling that track as we go back to the days of the 200-300 lap races.

For complete results of the features, check http://www.jjamracing.net/, and click on 2010 points under the Iowa State Fair Speedway. Until next time, Happy Racing!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Baugh Bags a Win at Boone

Heavy rains and terrible flooding in nearby Ames during the week, did not stop the racing at the Boone Speedway as they continued their scheduled season without a cancellation. New faces and old faces visited Victory Lane, a new way of starting each race was implemented when the "cone rule" was put in force, and the evening would end with an unusual circumstance occurring in the infield area.


The Mod Lite feature ran their feature event immediately after the regular farming took place during "halftime". A driver who has had much success at the track got back in the winner's circle as Troy Hudson picked up the win. We are still trying to recognize Hudson in his new ride, the #4+1, instead of his familiar bright orange #5 from previous seasons. Hudson began the race sitting on the pole, and led the entire circuits to take his first win at Boone this year. Joel Huggins let a second place finish slip through his fingers when he spun between turns one and two after the white flag flew, giving second over to Ed Zehm. Jeff Stensland, Colby Oberembt, and Dusty Masolini finished third through fifth, in that order.

Twenty-nine IMCA Northern SportMods checked into the pits, calling for a B Main to complete their feature starting field. Tara Longnecker took that checkered flag. This race would go green to checkered. Five cars raced closely upfront in the late going of the 18-lapper. It was Randy Roberts, Daniel Tasler, Eric Elliott, Jeremy Embrey and point leader, Scott Davis going at it. On the final lap as the cars rounded turn four, Eric Elliott would find himself the unfortunate car sideways and lose his second place position. The fortunate driver in the situation, was third running Jeremy Embrey as he avoided the situation and raced to the checkers for the win. Randy Roberts held on for a second place finish, Scott Davis grabbed third, fourth went to Daniel Tasler and fifth was Jared Timmerman. Elliott recovered enough to take seventh, behind the sixth place car of Ty Luellen.

All seventeen IMCA Modifieds on hand took the start for their A main. Mike Molle was flying in his 33M ride and Tim Stevens was trying hard to take over that top spot as they raced wheel-to-wheel. Just past halfway of the 20-lap feature, it was Scott Baker who came calling after Stevens dropped back. Baker made the pass for first around Molle who in turn, was also passed by Cale Sponsler. When the checkers flew, Baker took his second win of the year at the track, Sponser was second, and Kelly Lyons slipped by Molle as they finished third and fourth. Rounding out the top five was Jammin' Jimmy Gustin. This was another race completed without a yellow flag flying, making for "hold on and hang on" racing!

Now to the IMCA Stock Car feature. Their starting grid needed to be filled in by also running a B Main as twenty-nine of the "Class Too Tough To Tame" were on hand. Trent Murphy triumphed in that consy. Dave Baugh who has recently made his appearance back at the Boone Speedway, sat on the pole position with Kevin Shaw along side. Behind Baugh was Brian Irvine who was piloting the O1U car normally driven by Chris Ullrich, but with a taped on #26B. Irvine positioned himself quickly into the runner-up spot as he dogged Baugh and on lap ten, took the lead. Meanwhile,Ryan Rose was waging a battle with Kevin Shaw and Josh Daniels behind the leaders. Upon seeing the green held high, Irvine then drove off of turn one and into the pits, which handed the lead back to Baugh. Baugh would then keep the lead and take his first win at the track. Ryan Rose was scored in the runner-up spot, while Kevin Shaw finished with a good run, in third. Fourth went to Josh Daniels and Jeff Harkrider was fifth.

The first of two A features for the IMCA Hobby Stock class now took to the track. A first time winner also enjoyed the spoils as Brandon Brinton took the checkers first. Brinton led most of the 12-lap event and Donnie Gustoff came from starting 10th, to finish in second. Third went to the 63 of Cory Tasler, fourth was John Yaw, Sr. and John Watson finished fifth.

Before the final A for the Hobby Stocks came to the track, we noticed Brian Irvine being pushed to the infield, which led to much speculation about a possible promoter claim taking place. We had witnessed Irvine pulling off the track while leading with two laps to go for two consecutive weeks, but later we were told that he had also done it the week we were not in attendance due to being at the Nationwide race at the Iowa Speedway.

Back to racing as the final feature in the Hobby Stocks came to the track. Point leader Michael Murphy chalked up another win to add to his numerous victories this year at Boone Speedway. Early leader was Leonard Loftus battling to stay ahead of the 4JW of Justin Maschke. Murphy put his 25M in the lead at lap seven of the 12-lap affair, and sailed home to the win from there. Loftus hung on to second place and Jesse Hopkins garnered a third place finish. Fourth went to Michael Peterson and fifth was Chris Hupp. The 4JW of Maschke faded late to take sixth.

As racing was completed, we noticed a mass of people waiting at the pit entrance to cross the track into the infield. Speculation again arose as to what was happening. After gathering our belongings and heading to the vehicle, we heard an announcement on the loud speaker, and curiosity made us return to the grandstand area. We were told that Robert Lawton had used his option of a promoter claim and taken Brian Irvine's motor. Our understanding was, all other drivers that were in the A main stock car race, were able to toss in a dollar with their name on it, all monies put in a pot, and a winner for the motor drawn from said pot. It has been many years since we have seen a promoter claim, but we have seen it. It is stated in the IMCA rules that that option is in place; an uncommon occurrence, but not unheard of.

The cone rule mentioned earlier seemed to work in keeping cars in line and eliminating "jump starts" as there was not one "no-start" on the evening. A cone was positioned coming out of turn four and cars approached the cone for the start of each race. No car was to pass another until they had passed the cone. Rumor was this rule will continue and even be used during the upcoming IMCA Super Nationals.

The schedule of events for the Boone Speedway shows that you can vote for your favorite driver next week, August 21st, in addition to all of the regular divisions of racing in action. Further details and full results can be found at http://www.raceboone.com/ and if anyone would like to check the IMCA rules, they can be found at http://www.imca.com/. Happy racing!

Boone - 8-14-10

Unofficial results: 143 cars

Modified - 17 cars

Heat 1 - 15X Scott Baker
Heat 2 - 93 Cale Sponsler

Feature

1. 15X Scott Baker
2. 93 Cale Sponsler
3. 27 Kelly Lyons
4. 33M Mike Molle
5. 19 Jimmy Gustin
6. 18 Jake Durbin
7. 69X Jon Snyder
8. 49T Tim Stevens
9. 28R Russ Dickerson
10. 49 Michael Manson
11. 85 Johnathan Thimmesch, Aurora, IA
12. 87 Joel Bushore
13. 3Z Randy Havlik
14. 58 Denny Pittman
15. 26 Phil Levri
16. 75X Garry Hall, Rochester, MN
17. 1 Bill Davis, Jr.

SportMod - 29 cars

Heat 1 - 3L Clint Luellen
Heat 2 - 63 Daniel Tasler
Heat 3 - 3R Randy Roberts

B Main - 3 advance to A

1. 59 Tara Longnecker
2. 57 Lynn Brockett
3. 3S Adam Shelman
4. 3 Stacey Clark
5. 28 James Reichart
6. 84 Brandon Morris
DNS: 56 Lonnie Hodges
7X Kris Law

Feature

1. 41 Jeremy Embrey
2. 3R Randy Roberts
3. 81D Scott Davis
4. 63 Daniel Tasler
5. 7+ Jared Timmerman
6. 32L Ty Luellen
7. 9E Eric Elliott
8. 35 Bruce Egeland
9. 3L Clint Luellen
10. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
11. 6 Darren Huntley
12. 23JR Nick Roberts
13. 22J Jeff Blume
14. 57 Lynn Brockett
15. 5B Tom Burke
16. 59 Tara Longnecker
17. 32Z Alex Zwanzinger
18. 17 Jamie Ganoe
19. 34J Jerry Hinton
20. 2G Geoff Olson
21. 5M Matthew Meinecke
22. 13D Dan Wetzel
23. 3S Adam Shelman
DNS: X4 Jason Purvis

Stock Cars - 29 cars

Heat 1 - 23HR Rod Richards
Heat 2 - 24K Kevin Shaw
Heat 3 - 26B Brian Irvine

B Main - 3 advance to A

1. 25 Trent Murphy
2. 556 Terry Cornelison
3. 35 Donavon Smith
4. 17S Rob Schneider
5. 76 Norm Belew
6. 22X Josh Brauckman
DNS: 77 Andy Bryant
22S Toby Smith

Feature

1. 81B Dave Baugh
2. 12+ Ryan Rose
3. 24K Kevin Shaw
4. 25J Josh Daniels
5. 18 Jeff Harkrider
6. 50 Robert Stofer
7. 87 Travis Shipman
8. 23HR Rod Richards
9. 3H Ty Hill
10. 27 Gary Bass
11. 22 Wayne Gifford
12. 9 Jerry Gifford
13. 19A Alan VanGorp
14. 45 Larry Crocheck
15. 556 Terry Cornelison
16. 3S Bryan Snell
17. 25 Trent Murphy
18. 26B Brian Irvine (in the O1U car of Chris Ullrich)
19. 23A Jeremy Gettler
20. 04 Don Vis
21. 55 Cory Bushnell
22. 35 Donavon Smith
23. 83E Thomas Thompson, Hopkinton, IA
24. 27D Brad Dutton

Hobby Stock - 38 cars

Heat 1 - 63 Cory Tasler
Heat 2 - 2L Leonard Loftus
Heat 3 - 3A Austin Luellen
Heat 4 - 67 Ed Mahlstedt

Feature #1

1. 24B Brandon Brinton
2. 20 Donnie Gustoff
3. 63 Cory Tasler
4. J4 John Yaw, Sr.
5. 4W John Watson
6. T15 Jacob Thompson
7. 51 Matthew Webb
8. 3A Austin Luellen
9. 40 Randy Embrey
10. 9R Matt Hudspeth
11. 16B Jay Arends
12. 26T Jeremy Tilley
13. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
14. 11G Nyle Godwin
15. 85 Seth Janssen
16. 14 Matt Wahlert
17. 23 Cody Gustoff
18. 21 Ross Marshall
DNS: 911 Darin Rothfus

Feature #2

1. 25M Michael Murphy
2. 2L Leonard Loftus
3. 46J Jesse Hopkins
4. 1X Michael Peterson
5. 83 Chris Hupp
6. 4JW Justin Maschke
7. 38R Aaron Rudolph
8. 39 Larry Embrey
9. 12A Rob Allison
10. m15 Pat Mather
11. 69 Calvin Dhondt, Newton, IA
12. T10 Tim Barber
13. 10 Travis Fenton
14. 5A Tyler Pickett
15. 74J Dean Hartwig
16. 67 Ed Mahlstedt
17. 20T Richard Yaw II
18. 23G Dustin Tepp
19. 47W Shaun Wirtz

Dwarf/Mod Lite - 30 cars

Heat 1 - 11R Jason Whitehead
Heat 2 - 14J John Gardner
Heat 3 - 41Z Ed Zehm

B Main - 3 advance to A

1. 51 Justin Efkamp
2. 4L Larry Sorenson
3. 76 Terry Sorenson
DNS: 9 Rick Taylor
37X Tim Milner
5K Kent Efkamp
10 Ivan Guerra
14 Michael Thomas
1 Kenny Hake

Feature

1. 4+1 Troy Hudson
2. 41Z Ed Zehm
3. 20 Jeff Stensland
4. 0B Colby Oberembt
5. 8 Dusty Masolini
6. 5X Matthew Goodin
7. 82 Charlie Brown
8. 95 Mike Kennedy
9. 01 David Schmalzried
10. 76M Angelo Montgomery
11. 4 Cliff Barber
12. 46 Kevin Grisham
13. 88 James May
14. 2 Bobby Harris
15. 8T Todd Thorson
16. X50 Joel Huggins
17. 76 Terry Sorenson
18. 4L Larry Sorenson
19. 11 Michael Stoker
20. 64 Randy Bryan
21. 51 Justin Efkamp
22. 11R Jason Whitehead
23. 99 Josh May
24. 14J John Gardner

Blog to follow

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Marshalltown Speedway Endures Friday the 13th

It was raining AGAIN on Friday but luckily the Marshalltown Speedway did not receive the heavy rains that some parts of Iowa received. This allowed the racing program to go on as scheduled. Also on the docket for the evening was another round of "Spectator Eliminator" competition and the annual Cardboard Classic races.

By feature racing time, Mother Nature was causing concerns as the clouds rolled in and once again, radar was showing rain close by. The program was hurried along and the first of the five main events, the Mod Lite feature, took to the track quickly. Ivan Guerra would lead the entire distance, taking his first win of the year. Finishing second was Eric Hendrickson who rode along in that position most of the race. Tim Hennigar stole third position from Josh May at the flag, leaving him with a fourth place finish, and Mike Morrill took fifth.

It took three attempts to get the IMCA SportMod feature underway--doesn't that always happen when things are trying to be hurried along? By this time, the sky was looking bad and we were expecting raindrops to start falling at any moment. Thankfully, that did not happen for a change! It was a familiar face back in Victory Lane as Cayden Carter won for the sixth time this season at the Speedway. Tyler Droste chased Carter most of the 15 laps, to take the runner up position. Point leader Scott Davis moved through the field to pick up a third place finish, fourth went to Brad Iverson, and fifth was Eric Flander.

In the IMCA Stock Car class, Dustin Smith just continues to dominate as he scored another "W".
The stock cars provided great excitement as multiple cars vied for third and fourth positions at times. Veteran Tommy Thompson put his yellow #72 out front and was pulling away from those cars jockeying for position behind him. Dustin Smith had however, gotten to the second spot and was pursuing Thompson relentlessly and made the pass with four laps to go. Thompson may have regained the lead, but only for a brief moment, with Smith taking final command to take the win. Rob Schneider had his newest ride running well as he took the third position, with fourth place finisher Rick Brown unable to catch him. Rounding out the top five, was the 3W car of Jeff Wollam.

A shorter than normal field of only twelve IMCA Modifieds entered the pits Friday night. A new winner would emerge when Todd Conrad put his 83C machine across the finish line first. Late in the race, second place finisher Brett Ladehoff was catching Conrad, but was not quite able to over take him. To no one's surprise, the 19 of Jimmy Gustin was racing hard from starting about ninth, to make a strong third place finish, fourth went to Jay Schmidt in his J & V Napa ride on this, Napa Night at the Races. It was great to see the #5 of Todd Shute make an appearance at the Marshalltown Speedway, and grab a fifth place finish.

Devin Smith was the winner for the sixth time this season, in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature.
He quickly positioned himself in second place behind Clint Nelson, as he moved from starting eleventh, to second, with just a couple of laps in the books. Smith took the lead at the half-way mark of the 12-lap contest, as he also added to his multiple wins on the year. Michael Murphy was the runner-up and Clint Nelson held on for a third place finish. Fourth went to a crowd favorite, Jennifer Hulin, and Calvin Dhondt grabbed a fifth place finish.

Racing was completed right at 9:50 p.m. The kid's Cardboard Classic contest was then held on the frontstretch and after that, the second of the year, Spectator Eliminator contest, pitting licensed vehicles against one another. Not a drop of rain fell, making for a lucky Friday the 13th at the Marshalltown Speedway! Check www.marshalltownspeedway.com for the full results and all other information concerning the track. Happy racing!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Marshalltown and Boone Recaps

Marshalltown 8-6-10

We have certainly seen a lot of racing this weekend. Friday night at Marshalltown Speedway, racing action started a half-hour early at 7 p.m. with make-up features in four divisions. These features were from two week's prior as last week's show was rained out even before the gates opened. The stands were packed in anticipation of all of the racing to be had on this night.

The IMCA Northern SportMod feature resumed with two laps in the books with Shawn Simatovich in the lead. Simatovich maintained that lead until two laps to go when Cayden Carter made the pass and went home with the win. Simatovich had to settle for second, third was Ryan Ashton, fourth went to Eric Flander, and fifth was Fred Leytham.

The Stock Car make-up feature saw Andy Bryant lead early on until Dustin Smith came calling.
Smith took the win with Bryant in second place, Trent Murphy in third, veteran Tommy Thompson was fourth, and Steve Meyer in fifth.

The IMCA Hobby Stock was won by Newton's Calvin Dhondt. This was Dhondt's second win of the year. Point leader Devin Smith had taken the lead late in the race, only to suffer a tire going down causing him to drop positions. Dhondt took the win, Eric Larson grabbed second, third went to Michael Murphy, fourth to Eric Knutson and Smith held on to finish fifth.

The IMCA Modified make-up feature saw many cars dropping out with both mechanical and racing incidents. Both Josh Gilman and Andrew Kinser took rolls off of the track, which ended their nights early. They were not hurt. Jimmy Gustin was in fine form as he flew through the pack to take the early modified win of the evening as Brett Ladehoff chased him across the line for second. Jon Snyder came from well back in the field to score third place, Denny Rosenberg was fourth and Rick Speck got fifth.

This would end the make-up session of the night and the show would then proceed to the heats and b mains, followed by the features for the current night.

The Dwarf/Mod Lite feature began poorly when James May and Johnny Mordock became tangled on the front chute, and both went tumbling. Thankfully, they were okay. Most of the race saw Mike Morrill and Tim Hennigar waging a great battle with Hennigar winning out. Hennigar would take the win over Mike Morrill, young Josh May came home in third, fourth went to Eric Hendrickson, and fifth was Dusty Masolini.

Point leader Scott Davis added to his lead in taking the second feature of the night in the IMCA SportMod A main. Kyle Brown drove a nice race and avoided on track incidents, to score a runner-up position. Third went to Grinnell's Brad Iverson, fourth was Jake Strayer and Jenae Gustin was a crowd-pleaser in fifth.

The IMCA Stock Car feature was like deja vu from year's past, as The Flyin' Farmer Rick Brown and Jeff Wollam raced lap after lap, side-by-side for the lead through the first half of the 18-lap race. Dustin Smith ended that when he passed both drivers on the backstretch to take over the lead. Smith took another win, Wollam followed in second and Brown in third. Fourth was Dave Atcher and fifth went to Steve Meyer.

The modified feature was led the entire 20-laps by Brett Ladehoff. Ladehoff had the field covered but a late race "blip" and subsequent slowing when the hood became torn back, caused second place car, Luke Wanninger to see a chance at catching the leader. It wasn't to be however, as Ladehoff was the winner with Wanninger in second. Joel Bushore was scored in third, fourth went to Jon Snyder and fifth was Todd Conrad.

The finale of the night was the Hobby Stock feature. Michael Murphy took this win with Gene Nicklas scored in second, Dustin Filloon in third, Jennifer Hulin was fourth and Devin Smith took fifth. We noted that Eric Larson crossed in second place but indications were that he was disqualified for an infraction...perhaps the "questionable driving" rule.

It was right at 11:30 when all was said and done at the Marshalltown Speedway. Next week will be Cardboard Classic racing as well as the second Spectator Eliminator competition. For full results and more information about events and the Marshalltown Speedway, check out http://www.marshalltownspeedway.com/


Boone Speedway - 8- 7-10

Saturday night we were back at our regular stop at the Boone Speedway after having missed the prior week when we took in the Nationwide race at the Iowa Speedway. The Nationwide race was fun and a change of pace, but we can truly say we missed our good ole dirt track racing.

One hundred fifty-one cars were checked into the pits according to our count. We noted several new cars that were perhaps in attendance to gear up for the fast approaching Super Nationals. Before the features began, the cardboard racers sprinted in front of the grandstand to the delight of the crowd. Kids and drivers alike took their turns and it was Josh May, Mod Lite driver, winning the driver's portion. No word was received if he weighed too light.

The Dwarf/Mod Lites were the first up for feature action. Charlie Brown put his #82 ride back in the winner's circle and it was Josh May chasing him across the line for second place. Third was Joel Huggins, fourth went to Tim Hennigar and fifth to Bryan Zehm. We have not checked it out, but we would suspect that Bryan Zehm is the son of veteran Dwarf driver Ed Zehm.

The Northern SportMod feature found the orange cars of Jason Purvis (new skin) and point leader Scott Davis battling for the lead. Purvis would then lose the handle and spin, giving the point spot over to Davis. Davis scored yet another of his numerous victories this year, several coming here at the Boone Speedway. Cory Rose was the runner up and Bill Wears took third. Fourth went to Lynn Brockett and rounding out the top five was Randy Roberts.

The IMCA Modified feature was won by Jimmy Gustin. This was Gustin's third regular season win at Boone plus he also won the Frostbuster. He started back in tenth position as he chased down leader Joel Bushore and took the lead by the half-way point of the 20-lapper. Bushore had to settle for second, Kelly Lyons was third, fourth went to Russ Dickerson and Adam Larson took fifth.

The IMCA Stock Car class feature looked to have two-time Super Nationals winner, Brian Irvine stepping back into victory lane as he took command early and was sailing away comfortably. Irvine would then suddenly pull off the track with two laps to go, handing the lead over to Mason City driver, Travis Shipman. Shipman took the win with Robert Stofer following him for second. Third went to Jerry Gifford, fourth to Jeff Harkrider, and fifth to Josh Brauckman.

Chris Hupp was awarded the win in the first of two IMCA Hobby Stock features. Cody Gustoff was second, after he led early on, third went to Matt McDonald, fourth to Jesse Hopkins, and fifth was Tim Barber.

Finishing the night off was the second IMCA Hobby Stock main event. The 4JW car driven by Justin Maschke led the race flag to flag. A slight bobble at one point allowed second place car of Tyler Pickett to get a bit closer, but not enough to overtake the leader. Pickett was the runner up with Michael Murphy in third, Donnie Gustoff in fourth and fifth was Travis Fenton. It appears that Murphy has now taken over the Hobby Stock point lead from Pat Mather. Mather had problems in the first feature and finished 10th. Murphy had only been four points behind Mather going into tonight's racing thus giving him now a slight 3-point advantage.

Next Saturday night, August 14, will be a regular points race along with a candy toss for the youngsters. Check http://www.raceboone.com/ for full results and more information concerning the track. Until next time, happy racing!