Saturday night saw the Boone Speedway with a packed pit area of 223 cars. Wet and cold weather during the past week made for many cancellations around the state, but with the great "farming" prep and the drainage at Boone, the track was ready to go. Many tracks have not been able to get even their season opener in. With that being said, drivers appeared to flock to Boone to get in some racing. We noticed many cars from the Sioux City area in attendance as well as several drivers that are regulars at the Beatrice Speedway in Beatrice, Nebraska.
The Dwarf/Mod Lite saw 29 cars check through the pit gate. Twenty-seven of those cars started their A main event. Charlie Brown took command of the race from the start, and took his first win of the season at Boone. Behind Brown, it was Joel Huggins and Andy Hennigar fighting for position but Josh May would get in the mix from his sixth row starting spot to make it past both drivers and take the runner up spot. Following May to grab third was Joel Huggins, Andy Hennigar was fourth, and fifth went to Cory Dennis. For those of you who are a bit "clown-shy", you may want to avoid looking at the clowns that winner Charlie Brown has on the side of his ride.....rather spooky to some!
The IMCA Northern SportMods had an unbelievable 62 cars in the pits. This has been the fastest growing class the last couple of years, and it appears it is not slowing down. Three B mains were called for with David Schlicht, Brandon Leeman and Scott Davis taking those wins.
The SportMod feature found Adam Shelman at the helm through lap eleven of the 18-lap race. Meanwhile, it was the #21 of Kyle Brown, who had started back in 16th position, making a lot of headway. By lap fourteen, it was Cedar Rapids, Iowa driver Austin Lucas to the point and Brown was hot on his tail. Brown was able to make the pass with two laps remaining, and then a yellow flag halted the field. Brown took command at the restart and went home to the checkers for his first win at the Boone track. Lucas took the runner up spot, third went to Nick Roberts, fourth to Joel Rust, fifth to Jesse Sobbing and Shelman fell back to finish in sixth.
Up next was the IMCA modified feature. Thirty-nine cars were on hand, requiring two B mains to whittle their starting field to twenty-four cars for the feature. Those wins were taken by Dustin Smith and Mike VanGenderen. We had heard Smith was going to be making the leap from the stock car class into the modifieds, but this was the first time we had seen him in his modified in 2011.
The early fight for the top spots was among Jake Durbin, Randy Havlik, Todd Shute and Josh Most. Durbin's night would end when he dropped fluid on the track with an apparent blown motor. Josh Most and Todd Shute would then battle for the lead spot after racing resumed, with Most running the low line and Shute taking the top side.
With one lap to go, Most gave it a shot for the lead, only to spin, ending any chance for the win. Shute would then take his first win in a while at the Boone Speedway and Jacob Murray would finish a distant second. Russ Dickerson took the third spot, fourth went to Cale Sponsler and fifth went to visitor Jeremy Mills from Garner, Iowa.
A whopping 45 stock cars were on hand Saturday night. This brought about two consolation races and those were won by Ned Kalis out of Wells, Minnesota and Tama, Iowa's Jay Schmidt. A three-wide battle ensued with Eric Brown, Josh Brauckman and Michael Jaennette. Jaennette won that battle, and took over the lead while the other cars fell back. It was then Robert Stofer and Donavon Smith giving chase but they were not able to catch Jaennette who took the win. Smith finished in second, Stofer in third, Jay Schmidt came out of a B qualifier to capture fourth, and fifth went to David Smith from Lake City, brother of Donavon. We usually see David Smith in a #8 car, but on this night he was piloting the #68 which looked to be the car formerly driven by Josh Hohensee out of Pocohontas, Iowa during the 2010 campaign.
Forty-eight hobby stocks came to run. Those were split into two A mains and ALL of those cars made the call for each of their feature event. The first main found Michael Murphy back in Victory Lane for a third straight week. Murphy was followed past the checkers by a limping #59 of Hans Houfek, Emmerson, Nebraska driver, who suffered with a tire going down on the last lap, third was John Watson, fourth was Curt Reed and fifth went to Kyle Dirks in the #00 car.
Completing the night's racing was the second A main for the IMCA hobby stocks. It was pretty much a done deal from the get-go as Devin Smith took the win after leading from the start and pulling away. Boone driver, Tony Cox would follow Smith to take second, third went to Ray Stock, Jr. out of Ankeny, fourth to Eric Stanton and rounding out the top five was veteran driver, Donnie Gustoff.
It was a late night with so many cars, but what a field as there was both quality and quantity making for great racing for the fans. Many top notch drivers in their class, did not even qualify for their A main. Hopefully, the weather will soon be turning warmer and drier for more comfortable spectating for fans.
The full results are listed below this blog and for more information pertaining to the Boone Speedway, be sure and check out www.raceboone.com. Happy racing!
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