The Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa held a Fall Special this past Saturday night. With 183 cars packing the over-flowing pits, it was clear that drivers were not ready for their season of racing to end. Though this was our first trip of the year to the track, in prior years, it has not been often that we would see the over-flow spill into the open area west off of turn one. However, Saturday night, it was a tight fit even out there! There was a delay in the first heat reaching the track due in part to an extended driver's meeting that encircled the speaker, plus all of the hot laps needed for the large amount of race cars. The first heat hit the track at 5:49 according to my notation, and hot laps had been scheduled for 4:30 with racing to follow.
The first feature to run, the Hornets, came to the track a bit after 10 p.m. Not being very familiar with the class, we can only comment that the winner was Adam Strunk, followed by Daniel Ayers in second, the #37 of Dustin Haggard in third, fourth went to Megan Lappegard, and fifth was Paul Atchison.
The Late Models ran their 25-lap feature next. Local racer, Ryan Griffith made short work of showing his dominance and led the entire contest, pulling away from his nearest competitors. After a false initial start, the feature went flag-to-flag. Todd Cooney slipped by Scott Badker on the final lap as they finished second and third in that order. Fourth went to local driver, "Hollywood" Jason Hahne who had made the pass at lap seventeen to get around Dean Wagner who took fifth.
The Hobby Stocks followed suit with their own flag-to-flag 12-lap feature next. The IMCA Super National's champion, Cody Nielsen took off from his pole starting spot and sprinted to the lead. It wasn't long until he had company with Devin Smith and John Watson hot on his heels. By lap five, Smith took over the helm and then sailed on to the win, stretching his lead at the checkers. Nielsen kept the runner-up spot, Watson was third, followed by the 2EZ of Josh Niemand, and George Hood was fifth.
The Stock Cars ran a 15-lap feature on the half-mile. Dan Trimble and Ryan Leeman sat on the front row--Trimble shooting to the lead immediately. Mike VanGenderen, the "Flying Dutchman", took to the topside in turns one and two, trying to catch some traction--where there was very little. It was working though, and VanGenderen took the lead. Meanwhile, Steve Jackson had evidently taken note of that topside working, and also set sail up there. Caution flags flew and the cars were aligned double file behind the leader and upon the restarts, positions were changed up a bit. Jackson got the advantage over the 57V of VanGenderen and subsequent yellows that flew late in the race, found Lance Deal making the pass into second. Jackson took the win, Deal was runner-up, third went to VanGenderen, fourth to Kevin Opheim and Minnesota driver, Ken Tietz rounded out the top five. Jackson started seventh on the field and Deal came from seventeenth.
The B Modifieds also ran a 15-lap feature event. Track champion, Joel Rust and Cayden Carter drew the front row starting spots. Carter wasted no time in taking the lead and Bryon Weyer, who started fourth, made his way into the "catch up" second place spot. Ryan Ruter was piloting the #53 car on the night, and had just made the pass on Weyer for second, when his fortunes on the night were changed, as his car went spinning, bringing out a caution flag. The final few laps that remained saw Carter pull away from Weyer, who had regained the second place position after Ruter's spin. Carter crossed in first place, Weyer in second, third went to Alex Zwanziger, who I believe to be the grandson of the legendery driver, Bill Zwanziger of the '60's era, fourth was Joel Rust and fifth was Greg Sidles by inches over Jason Mallicoat, who was driving the #36 car of Matt Pittman. Upon checking the official results found on www.speednetdirect.com this morning, I discovered that the win was awarded to the second place finisher, Bryon Weyer, which leads us to believe there was a disqualification of the first place finisher for some sort of infraction. Thus the finish was Weyer in first, second was Zwanziger, third Rust, fourth Sidles, and Mallicoat was fifth.
The A Modified feature was 20-laps. Thirty-two cars were whittled to the starting field of twenty-four cars through two B-Mains. Those winners were Luke Wanninger, and Kyle Brown, who drove his first ever A modified when he jumped into his dad David Brown's car. Levi Nielsen and Chris Abelson drew the front row spots. Abelson took the lead followed by the second row starters, Keith Schmitz and JD Auringer. And then....here came that #12 car of Mark Elliott! Elliott, who had started back in tenth place, was soon up to second, Jay Noteboom had followed to gain the third spot, and then there was a dog fight behind them with Schmitz, Nielsen, Auringer, Bill Crimmins and Ricky Stephan really going at it! With about four laps remaining, Elliott established the point position and Noteboom also got around Abelson to gain second spot. That would be the way they would finish---Elliott taking the win, followed by Noteboom in second, Abelson in third, fourth went to Keith Schmitz and JD Auringer was fifth. Ricky Stephan ran a good race to finish in sixth after starting twelfth and Jammin' Jimmy Gustin came from nineteenth (he was scheduled to start 21st but a car opting to tag the field, moved him up a row) to finish seventh.
The track did rubber down and much of the racing was down around the bottom. However, as noted from some of the above starting positions and eventual finishing spots, there was passing on the dry, dusty, slick track. It was also a long night of racing with the final checkers flying at just a bit before the midnight hour. We were glad however, just to be watching racing, on a beautiful October night; knowing that it was all going to be coming to a screeching halt in the very near future. It was also nice to catch up with some racing friends and drivers as well.
Also, thanks to announcer Ryan Bergeson for the shout out to this reporter. As of right now, our plans are to catch the first of two nights of the Fall Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Friday night, October 14, and then head to the Lee County Speedway down in Donnellson, Iowa for their annual Shiverfest race on Saturday the 15th. This will most likely end our 2011 racing season. Of course, there is always a chance that we could travel a bit and catch yet another race later in the season. Time will tell. Happy racing!
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