Sunday, July 31, 2011

Havlik grabs another win at Boone

We headed over to our regular home away from home on Saturday night, the Boone Speedway. Much of the evening was used detangling cars on the track, entertaining the crowd, but causing some costly repairs to the drivers. It was almost like a full moon night---with no full moon! You would have thought the drivers were going for BIG money or a Supernationals win at times.

The MADCRA Dwarf Car feature saw the bright yellow X50 of Joel Huggins lead nearly the entire 15-lap event, taking his first win of 2011 at the speedway. Andy Hennigar tried his best to catch Huggins, but had to settle for second place on this evening. Jason Whitehead finished in third place, fourth went to Travis Stensland and fifth to last week's winner, Joel Keenan. The race went flag-to-flag.

The IMCA Northern SportMods ran next for their 18-lap event. Tara Longnecker was looking strong, leading past the halfway mark. By lap ten, Daniel Tasler had grabbed the lead from Longnecker and continued it on to the checkers. Tasler took his second win on the season.
Second place went to Geoff Olson who had started in eleventh place. Eric Elliott was third, fourth went to Clint Luellen, and point leader Scott Davis came from thirteenth to finish in fifth. Longnecker held on for a sixth place finish.

Joel Bushore was like a rocket in the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature, leading the pack through lap ten, pulling away even after cautions bunched the field and the ensuing restarts. An incident in turn one would end that when Bushore spun, gathering several cars behind him, allowing others to take the high road out of danger and continue on. Intense battling would then be between Mike VanGenderen, Randy Havlik, Jimmy Gustin, and Josh Gilman for the top spots. VanGenderen suffered a flat tire, taking him out of the equation with three laps remaining, but the others battled on. Havlik grabbed the prize, holding off Jimmy Gustin at the checkers to take his third win of 2011. Gustin, who finished as runner up, was followed closely by Josh Gilman in third, Russ Dickerson got in on the action to finish fourth, and Jake Durbin rounded out the top five.

The Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA Stock Cars, brought it to the track next for their 18-lap A main. Josh Daniels looked to be headed to victory lane, taking advantage of his pole starting spot. Daniels led from the start, withstanding the threats of Robert Stofer, Jerry Gifford and Alan VanGorp, who was running the high line in an attempt to gain positions. VanGorp's charge ended when he wound up at a stand still between turns one and two, ending his chances for a top finish. Jerry Gifford made his way past Stofer to pick up second place and was gaining rapidly on leader Daniels. Gifford edged past Daniels on the white flag lap, and just held him off at the checkers, capturing his third feature win of the season. Robert Stofer finished in the third spot, Wayne Gifford, brother of the winner, came home in fourth, and Jay Schmidt came from starting eighteenth, to finish in fifth.

The night was polished off with the running of the IMCA Hobby Stock 12-lap feature. This race too had it's early incidents--one of which found Marcus Kyle upside down on the backstretch with Matt Wahlert up against him. Both drivers were okay. Jay Arends, Robert Smith and Matt McDonald all held the lead briefly in the very early laps, but to few people's surprise, it was the familiar #4W of John Watson who took over the helm at lap seven. Newcomer for the year, Scott Pippert from Elberon, came from starting twelfth to briefly challenge Watson to no avail. Watson took the win, his sixth on the regular season, seventh including the Frostbuster, and Pippert had to settle for second. Scott Lograsso came from fifteenth to take third, Michael Murphy came from winning the B main to finish fourth, and Matt McDonald rounded out the top five.

Racing continues next week at the Boone Speedway, with grandstand opening at 6, hot laps at 6:45 and races at 7:30. More information may be found at www.raceboone.com. Until next time, happy racing!

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