Saturday, June 30, 2012

Boone - 6-30-12

Unofficial results:

Modified - 19 cars

Heat 1 - 3Z Randy Havlik
Heat 2 - 27 Kelly Lyons

Feature

1. 18 Jake Durbin
2. 8G Greg Dinsmore - Texas
3. 28R Russ Dickerson
4. 3Z Randy Havlik
5. 27 Kelly Lyons
6. 5 Todd Shute
7. 19 Jimmy Gustin
8. 12C Kent Croskey
9. 57V Mike VanGenderen
10. 20X Chad Louk
11. 58 Denny Pittman
12. 2L Adam Larson
13. 24 Robert Avery
14. 7X Clint Wendel
15. 36 Jeff Conner
16. 4R Michael Reichart
17. 87 Joel Bushore
DNS: 3W Chris Webb
          83G Josh Gilman

SportMod - 29 cars

Heat 1 - 57 Lynn Brockett
Heat 2 - 6 Darren Huntley
Heat 3 - 5B Tom Burke

B Main - 3 advance

1. 91 Shawn Hunter
2. 77 Jack Myer
3. 39 Larry Embrey
4. 4A Dan Swank
5. 63R Richard Fasse
6. 28 James Reichart
DNS: 55R Rick Routh
         22J Jeff Blume

Feature

1. 5B Tom Burke - 1st win in a SportMod ?
2. 81D Scott Davis
3. 23JR Nick Roberts
4. 30 Matt Pinegar
5. 34J Jerry Hinton
6. 59 Tara Longnecker
7. 24 Brian Miller
8. 6 Darren Huntley
9. 27 Tim Love
10. 57 Lynn Brockett
11. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
12. 86 Cory Rose
13. 66 Cody Hennings
14. 182 Joe McBirnie
15. 91 Shawn Hunter
16. 22B Brian Eppert
17. 33R DJ Robinson
18. 56 Joe Simbro
19. 77 Jack Myer
20. 8C Rob Charapata - Ocono, WI
21. 9E Eric Elliott
22. 63 Daniel Tasler
DNS: 15A Carl Allbee
          39 Larry Embrey

Stock Car - 25 cars

Heat 1 - 35 Donavon Smith
Heat 2 - 55  Cory Bushnell
Heat 3 - 50 Robert Stofer

Feature

1. 35 Donavon Smith
2. 50 Robert Stofer
3. 9 Jerry Gifford
4. 55 Cory Bushnell
5. 25M Michael Murphy
6. 22 Wayne Gifford
7. 23HR Rod Richards
8. 19J Jay Schmidt
9. 19A Alan VanGorp
10. 24 Eric Brown
11. 45 Larry Crocheck
12. 64X Aaron Palmer
13. 27 Gary Bass
14. 52 Ben Walding - Des Moines
15. 1 Bradlee Clark
16. 76 Norm Belew
17. 12+ Ryan Rose
18. 25X Bob Daniels
19. 50K Kevin Balmer
20. 04 Don Vis
21. 6 Adam Hilgenberg
22. 25 Trent Murphy
23. 46B Mike Bilyeu
DNS: 93 Michael Jaennette
         68X Shay Woods

Hobby Stock - 33 cars

Heat 1 - 38R Aaron Rudolph
Heat 2 - 3W Matt Hudspeth
Heat 3 - 9 Andrew Arends
Heat 4 - 99W Danny Watson

B Main - 4 advance

1. 16B Jay Arends
2. 83 Chris Hupp
3. 5 Dustin Lynch
4. 47W Shaun Wirtz
5. 8B Bobby Smith
6. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
7. 36S Mike Smith
8. 77G Ryan Grochala
9. F1 Blaine Frist
10. 00 KyleDirks
11. 48B Brett Knight
12. T71 Marcus Kyle
DNS: 85 Seth Janssen


Feature

1. 4W John Watson - 8 in a row, 9 for season, plus Frostbuster
Note: 38R Aaron Rudolph claimed the 4W's carb
2. 47 Scott Pippert
3. 4C Curt Reed
4. 12M Matt McDonald
5. 38R Aaron Rudolph
6. 24B Brandon Brinton
7. 5A Tyler Pickett
8. 3W Matt Hudspeth
9. 500 Garrett Eilander
10. T15 Jacob Thompson
11. 77 Derek Hodges
12. 51D Dustin Filloon
13. 9 Andrew Arends
14. 78B Andrew Burg
15. 46J Jesse Hopkins
16. 911 Darin Rothfus
17. 5 Dustin Lynch
18. T56 Tim Barber
19. 16B Jay Arends
20. 27R Clint Rothfus
21. 83 Chris Hupp
22. 47W Shaun Wirtz
23. 99 Jeff Knight
24. 99W Danny Watson

Mod Lite - 24 cars

Heat 1 - 99 Josh May
Heat 2 - 6 Mike Morrill
Heat 3 - 46Z Bryan Zehm (after winner 66F Henrickson was too light)

Feature

1. 6 Mike Morrill
2. 99 Josh May
3. 46Z Bryan Zehm
4. 64 Randy Bryan
5. X50 Joel Huggins
6. 11R Jason Whitehead
7. 95 Mike Kennedy
8. 8 Dusty Masolini
9. 4+1 Troy Hudson
10. 15 Andy Hennigar
11. 09 Joel Keenan
12. 01 David Schmalzried
13. 20 Jeff Stensland
14. 3C Duane Coffman
15. 1JJJ John Gardner
16. 23 Michael Parcel
17. 73 Jason Smithson - Ladora, IA
18. 4L Larry Sorenson
19. 76 Terry Sorenson
20. 3 Dustin Forsberg - Salina, KS
21. 19JR Danny Foster
22. 66F Eric Hendrickson
23. 08 Ben Larson
DNS: 44J Justin Hopkins


Thursday, June 28, 2012

Four new winners at Osky and Chandler keeps rolling

Whew!  It was a hot one at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday night.  The racing had a lot of hot action as well.  This night would see four new drivers win for the first time this season, and one veteran driver just keeps racking up the wins.

The features kicked off with the IMCA Sport Compacts and their 6-car, 8-lap main event.  John Whalen led the first three laps but veteran Merv Chandler was soon on his tail.  Chandler would take the lead on lap four and never look back--taking his seventh win at the track this year.  Bill Whalen, Jr. would finish a distant second, with John Whalen in third, fourth was newcomer on the night, Tim Bevins from Eldon, and fifth was Anthony Cassat and Trent Orwig finished in sixth.

The IMCA Northern SportMods ran their 15-lap A main next and it would be a caution-free affair.  Bill Gibson had little trouble in taking the win; leading all laps.  Ryan Fullencamp crossed the finish line in second, but would be disqualified in the tech area with what announcer Tony Paris said was, "an illegal MSD box, and the chip was not working".  This handed the runner up spot over to Curtis VanDerWal who made up significant distance from starting in eighth place.  Third would go to Eric Flander, fourth was Jesse Sobbing, who continues to make his weekly long-distance trip over from Glenwood, Iowa in far western Iowa, and Carter VandenBerg took the fifth place.

The IMCA Hobby Stocks were vying for an extra $100 (as were the SportMods, Stock Cars and Modifieds, thanks to generous sponsors on the night) with a $50 bonus thrown in for second place.  This one didn't start off so well as it took a couple of tries before they could get more than lap one scored. When things finally got into real racing mode, the race was up front between Dustin Griffiths and Jamie Songer, the two challenging each other the rest of the feature.  Justin Hook was scrambling to catch the two front running cars, but would slip off of the backstretch and loose many positions before gaining control of his ride.  Griffiths would eventually take command of the lead and race home to his first victory of the season at the Southern Iowa Speedway, Songer taking second.  Third went to Mike Hughes, fourth was Kevin Fee, and no stranger to the big ole half-mile monster, Kris Walker rounded out the top five.  Walker was piloting Scott Shull's usual ride.

It was now time for the 16-lap IMCA Stock Cars.  Leroy Groenendyk and Todd Reitzler were the front row sitters.  Groenendyk led the first lap but he was soon off power and took his ride to the pits.  This put Todd Reitzler in charge with cars going 3-4 wide behind him.  Alan VanGorp took over the second spot with a toss up for third between Matt Greiner, Corey "from just across the street" Stout, and Colt Mather.  Damon Murty threw his hat into the ring as he caught the front runners and took over third.  Greiner had other ideas about Murty's pass, and slipped by him for a brief moment until Murty took third place back with a lap to go.  Reitzler would score the victory, his first ever in the Stock Car class (he's a former Hobby Stock driver) at Osky, VanGorp took the runner up spot, followed closely by Murty in third.  Fourth was Matt Greiner and Nathan Wood was fifth.  Reitzler was a happy camper in the victory lane interview, deeming the track "perfect" and to his liking.


It was a slicked off track by the time the IMCA Modifieds ran their 15-lapper.  Billy Davis, Jr. and Beau Kaplan led the field to the green flag.  Scott Dickey quickly made his move into second as he chased Davis. Davis and Dickey put on the show early and Andrew Schroeder ran third with visitor on the night, Todd Shute coming from ninth to quickly take over fourth.  Shute's run would end on a restart situation when contact was made with another car, sending him to restart at the tail and with a right side damaged car. Another vistor who is often seen running at the front, Jake Durbin from Perry, Iowa, now stuck his #18 into third place.  As the laps wound down, Durbin challenged Schroeder for second, but just fell short at the finish line.  Davis took the win, Schroeder scoring second and Durbin in third.  Jacob Murray finished in fourth, recovering nicely from a spin at lap seven that sent him to the tail end of the starting field, and fifth went to Beau Kaplan.  I believe we heard Davis to say in his post-race interview that this was his first win at the Monster Half-Mile.  


The show got off a little late last night, starting right at 8 p.m. This was due to a finicky water truck that was eventually brought back to working order. The program was still completed by 10:18 p.m., that being with five classes of cars.  A short intermission brought a little extra entertainment to the crowd when the top two in points from each class tried their hands at a slightly different type of racing on the track....remote controlled cars.  The 10th-scale cars were run in front of the grandstands on the track, and I must say, some did not have a lot of control!  The eventual winner was Cayden Carter who confessed on the mic after his win, that he had a car very similar to what they were racing.  


Next Wednesday night will be not only a 4th of July celebration at the speedway, with a giant fireworks display after the racing, but it will be the 17th Annual Stock Car Shootout. This is always a must see event.  Please note that there will be an early start time with hot laps at 5:30 and racing to commence at 6 p.m. It was announced that there will be a "party area" in the pit area.  You can bring your lawn chair and enjoy the action from the "party pit" for a total of $15.  These special wristbands will be sold at the front ticket booth and you will access the area by crossing the track under the flagstand.   Hope you will be able to attend.  Happy racing! 


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Osky - 6-27-12

Unofficial results:

Modified

Heat 1 - 02 Andrew Schroeder
Heat 2 - 12H Dakota Hayden

Feature

1. 1+ Billy Davis, Jr.
2. 02 Andrew Schroeder
3. 18 Jake Durbin
4. 48J Jacob Murray
5. 11 Beau Kaplan
6. 7W Mark Widmar
7. 5 Todd Shute
DNF: 40 Scott Dickey
         12H Dakota Hayden
         20Dub Shane Weller
         10 Cayden Carter
DNS: 22 Brandon Banks

Stock Car

Heat 1 - 99D Damon Murty
Heat 2 - 49G Leroy Groenendyk

Feature

1. 22R Todd Reitzler
2. 19A Alan VanGorp
3. 99D Damon Murty
4. 29 Matt Greiner
5. 52 Nathan Wood
6;. 30J Alex Buffington
7. 44 Todd Fisher
8. 73C Carl Yaw
9. 11 Scott Seaman
DNF: 94 Corey Stout
          62 Brad Pinkerton
          7 Todd Phillips
          8 Colt Mather
         27J Jason Cook
         49G Leroy Groenendyk

SportMod

Heat 1 - 7 Carter VandenBerg
Heat 2 - 38 Bill Gibson

Feature

1. 38 Bill Gibson
2. 1 Curtis VanDerWal
3. 12 Eric Flander
4. 99 Jesse Sobbing
5. 7 Carter VandenBerg
6. 8T Tony Johnson
7. 85 Jason McDaniel
8. 72 Brett Lowry
9. 198 Sam Wieben - Dysart, IA
10. 64 Casey Greubel
11. 8 Tom Lathrop
DNS: 01 Brayton Carter
Note: the 10R of Ryan Fullencamp crossed in second place but was dq'd for "an illegal MSD box and the chip was not working." per announcer

Hobby Stock

Heat 1 - 78 Shannon Anderson
Heat 2 - 10G Dustin Griffiths

Feature

1. 10G Dustin Griffiths
2. 96R Jamie Songer
3. 18H Mike Hughes
4. 52 Kevin Fee
5. 57W Kris Walker (in Scott Shull's car)
6. 32T Bobby Greene
7. 2N Donovan Nunnikhoven
8. 84 Danny Thrasher
9. 20 Andrew Husted
10. 77 Derek Hodges
11. 33 Justin Hook
12. 76 Richard Puhlka, Jr.
DNF: 73 Aaron Martin
          78 Shannon Anderson
            6 Jarred Gann

Sport Compact

Heat - 04 Trent Orwig

Feature

1. 2 Merv Chandler
2. 00W Bill Whalen, Jr.
3. 77 John Whalen
4. 95 Tim Bevins
5. 15A Aanthony Cassett
6. 04 Trent Orwig



Saturday, June 23, 2012

The High Banks Sees Three New Drivers Take the Checkers

After the Marshalltown Speedway suffered it's fourth rain out of the season last week, this Friday it was blessed with beautiful weather.  Three new drivers saw the checkers for the first time this year, and one keeps his perfect record going.

Only four of the mighty little IMCA Sport Compacts entered the pits this week, and with one car unable to start their feature, it was just three cars chasing each other in the main event.  Veteran Merv Chandler had little trouble in taking the win--his seventh of the year, which is ALL for the year, and kept his perfect tally going.  Dave Moormann chased Chandler to the finish line to score second and third was Jordan Peters.  John Gill was the driver left watching from the pits.

The Mod Lite feature took their 15-lap main caution free.  Mike Kennedy led early, chased by Mike Morrill and Andy Hennigar.  Josh May soon joined in the fray as Morrill made the pass on Kennedy for the lead.  Hennigar would soon drop into the infield, his night done.  With but a couple of laps remaining, May challenged Morrill for the lead, made the pass and raced home to the win.  Morrill finished in second, Kennedy in third.  Fourth went to Randy Bryan and Joel "Huggie Bear" Huggins finished fifth.

The IMCA Northern SportMod main was an 18-lap affair.  Two cars, Jake Strayer and Racer Hulin got to the front quickly.  They swapped leads a couple of times until Strayer finally established his point position and from there, went home to the take his first win of the year at Marshalltown.  Hulin finished in the runner up spot, third went to Scott Davis, fourth was Joel Rust and Tom Rawlins, the early leader, rounded out the top five.

Twelve laps awaited the IMCA Hobby Stocks.  Josh Saunders nabbed the lead on lap two, racing hard with Gary Pfantz and Eric Knutson.  A "nudge" off the back stretch by the car running behind Saunders, sent him back several positions and his momentum lost.  Meanwhile, Eric Knutson snatched the lead with Pfantz and now Scott Pippert breathing down his tailpipe.  Pfantz's night would end when he spit out his axle, dropping oil along the backstretch, and bringing out a yellow.  The final three laps after the restart, was a frantic attempt for positions behind Knutson, who did take the win, his first of the season.  Brandon Brinton took second over Scotty Pippert in third and Eric Larson and Kevin Fee who finished fourth and fifth in that order.  It appears Pippert is still holding a slim lead in points over Fee.

IMCA Stock Cars!  They ALWAYS seem to provide a great show and tonight was no exception.
They were running three-wide and in packs from the get go.  Trent Murphy got to the point early but "The Chelsea Charger", Damon Murty would have none of that and swung around him for the lead.  Murphy's brother Michael was now chasing his brother in third when a caution brought the racing to a halt.  On the restart, Brian Irvine, with his left front wheel seldom touching the ground all night, flew into second.  But the fun wasn't over yet, as the yellow rag flew again, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. You just knew then, it would be one of those NASCAR Sprint Cup finishes---and it was. Murty, Irvine and Trent Murphy had no trouble coming to the checkers, finishing 1-2-3 in that sequence, but turn four proved to be the down fall of those running close behind them.  Two of those unlucky drivers were Tracy Gienger and Jeff Wollam who got caught up in the melee, giving them finishing positions far behind the field.  Drivers lucky to avoid the mess were Kevin Temeyer, making his first appearance at the track this season and piloting the "old" car of Jay Schmidt, and fifth was Steve Meyer.  Sixth went to Trevor Titus in his Ford Thunderbird...which has seen many, many a race under it's belt as his father-in-law Rick Brown piloted it all over the Midwest in years gone by, and seventh was Jay Schmidt who debuted his NEW #19J.

The near picture-perfect evening ended with the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature.  Zach Rawlins sprung to the early lead chased by Tim Murty and Kyle Brown.  It wasn't long until Adam Larson slipped into the runner up position, and soon thereafter, took over the helm.  Josh Truman followed Larson up through the field to nab second spot which would be the way the two would finish at the checkers in the caution free race. Crossing in third was always fun to watch, Jammin' Jimmy Gustin who started twelfth, Ronn Lauritzen started in ninth and crossed in fourth and Kyle Brown was fifth.  As a note, it was hard to miss the spoiler on Adam Larson's car, plus hearing the buzz that he was running an experimental IMCA crate motor.  We did also hear over the PA that he had to cross the scales weighing 2,250 pounds as opposed to the other cars at 2,450 pounds.  That being said, we do not know if any adjustments in points/scoring were made for sure, only rumors.

Check out the calendar at Positively Racing's home page for an upcoming race you may like to try and hit.  There are many specials on the docket as well as tracks running their regular weekly races, so no loss for finding a race to take in.  Happy racing!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Denny Eckrich Takes Deery Win at Osky

The Monster Half-Mile at the Southern Iowa Speedway hosted the IMCA Deery Brothers Late Models on Wednesday night.  It was "The Boys of Summer"....on the first night of Summer coincidentally...taking their turn for some fun at Osky.  Would it happen?  The radar was once again rearing it's ugly head and everyone crossed their fingers that the show would get in. As a note, the IMCA Modifieds took a night off on Wednesday.

The IMCA Sport Compacts had eight cars come to play last night.  It was looking like Merv Chandler's choice to bring his son Brad along for the night, may have been the wrong thing to do for him!  Brad Chandler had won his heat earlier and started off by leading the eight lap feature race---for the first two laps anyway.  On lap three, his dad, Merv Chandler, stuck his #2 machine in front of the field and from there on, he motored home to another win; his sixth of the year at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Brad Chandler finished second, third went to Bill Whalen, Jr., fourth was Cody Thompson and Ricky Kay (maybe related to the late model driver Justin Kay, but not for sure) was fifth.

The IMCA Stock Car class was in it's usual entertaining form for their 16-lap event.  It could have been a disastrous moment before one lap was scored!  Cars were going three-wide coming to the starter's stand when Zack VanderBeek found himself shoved to the inside with his car pointed into the inside guardrail and about to be launched into the scoring tower! Thankfully, his driving skills avoided anything more than causing a restart situation after he was able to gather the car beneath him.  Of course, this put him at the tail of the starting field, and a lot of ground to make up.  Alan VanGorp, Matt Greiner and Damon Murty put the show on for the fans up front in the early portion of the race--going at it tooth and nail for the lead.  About lap ten, Matt Greiner established the point position, Van Gorp chasing him in second, and Murty began to fade a bit. At the finish, Greiner took a comfortable win--his second this year at Osky--VanGorp finished a distant second, and Zack VanderBeek was the man on the move, taking third.  Murty hung on for fourth place and Nathan Wood was fifth.

By the time the IMCA Hobby Stocks pulled on the track, we were nervously watching radar on our phones (as were many) and hoping that the rain just to the west would hold off for two more features!  They ran in a pack for a while, but things got sorted out by the halfway mark of the 15-lap event.  The leader, Jamie Songer, was pretty much on cruise control and would sail to his first win of the year over Bobby Greene in second.  Shannon Anderson, point leader, came from starting tenth on the grid, to finish in third.  Fourth went to Danny Thrasher and Mike Hughes rounded out the top five.

Now it was time for those Boys of Summer, and their scheduled 35-lapper.  The top 12-drivers on the night who had qualified through their heat events, had earlier played a card game to determine starting positions.  We always enjoy this portion of the Deery events, as it is fun to actually SEE the drivers, and hear them interact with IMCA's Kevin Yoder. After the cards were passed around at the driver's calling--keep your card or give away--the lucky guy on the night was Denny Eckrich as he held the coveted ace.

The race went pretty much incident free except for one yellow flag flying at lap 20 when Justin Diercks ended up in the turn two wall.  Denny Eckrich had been unchallenged so far, but would this bunch the field and change the whole complexion of the race?  It wasn't to be as Eckrich just drove off from his competitors and took the checkers.  Veteran Ray Guss, Jr. had run second the entire time, and snagged a runner up finish.  Todd Cooney took third place over Jeff Aikey, who started in twelfth spot, was scored in fourth.  The winner's brother, Andy Eckrich took the fifth spot.

Yay!  We avoided the rain.  Not sure how, as we ran into rain just a bit north of the track, and drove in it the entire way home.  We enjoyed our night at the races sharing it with racing friends and fellow PRer's. Be sure and check out Jeff Broeg's "Back Stretch" and Ryan Clark's "In Staging" at www.positivelyracing.com for their takes on the night's action.  Everyone can see it differently, you know!  Happy racing!    

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Osky - 6-20-12

Unofficial results -

Deery Brothers Late Models

Heat 1 - 56 Andy Eckrich
Heat 2 - 14 Mike Murphy
Heat 3 - 50 Denny Eckrich

Feature

1. 50 Denny Eckrich - Led all 35 laps
2. 58 Ray Guss, Jr.
3. 30 Todd Cooney
4. 77 Jeff Aikey
5. 56 Andy Eckrich
6. 14 Mike Murphy
7. 77X Kurt Kile
8. 93 Jay Johnson
9. 29D Spencer Diercks - 15 years old
10. 99D Darrel DeFrance
11. 88 Kevin Kile
12. 38 Colby Springsteen
13. 15K Justin Kay
14. 6 Jay Chenoweth
15. 40 Joel Callahan
16. 5J Jeff Mitrisin
DNF: 16 Tyler Bruening
          30D Justin Diercks
          3 Kevin Sather
          33 Paul Glendenning
 DNS: 45 Mike Klinkhammer
           31 Jason Utter

SportMod

Heat 1 - 12 Eric Flander
Heat 2 - 27 Bryon Weyer

Feature

1. 27 Bryon Weyer - led all laps
2. 99 Jesse Sobbing
3. 1 Curtis VanDerWal
4. 7 Carter VandenBerg
5. 95J Jason Hall
6. 8T Tony Johnson
7. 72 Brett Lowry
8. 12 Eric Flander
9. 48R Adam Bell
10. 8 Tom Lathrop
11. 1D Bobby Davis III
DNF: 01 Brayton Carter
          42 Tyler Heckart
          85 Jason McDaniel
          30X Josh Modde
          10L Levi Laymon
          38 Bill Gibson
DNS: 26J Joel Rust

Stock Car

Heat 1 - 29 Matt Greiner
Heat 2 - 52 Nathan Wood

Feature

1. 29 Matt Greiner
2. 19A Alan VanGorp
3. 33Z Zack VanderBeek
4. 99D Damon Murty
5. 52 Nathan Wood
6. 566 Jim Lynch - Donnellson
7. 68 Cole Simmons - Morning Sun
8. 30J Alex Buffington
9. 22R Todd Reitzler
10. 94 Corey Stout
11. 55 Steve Hill
12. 49G Leroy Groenendyk
13. 39 Clayton Garden
14. 73C Carl Yaw
DNS: 11 Scott Seaman

Hobby Stock

Heat 1 - 78 Shannon Anderson
Heat 2 - 18H Mike Hughes

Feature

1. 96R Jamie Songer
2. 32T Bobby Greene
3. 78 Shannon Anderson
4. 84 Danny Thrasher
5. 18H Mike Hughes
6. 10G Dustin Griffiths
7. 52 Kevin Fee
8. 2N Donovan Nunnikhoven
9. 21 Nick Ulin
10 33 Justin Hook
11.69 Craig Brown
12. 6 Jarred Gann
DNF: 20T Richard Yaw II

Sport Compact

Heat - 26 Brad Chandler

Feature

1. 2 Merv Chandler
2. 26 Brad Chandler
3. 00W Bill Whalen, Jr.
4. 3C Cody Thompson
5. 40K Ricky Kay
6. 77 John Whalen
7. 04 Trent Orwig
DNS: 59R Ron McCish

Blog to follow

Sunday, June 17, 2012

McBirnie and T. Murphy Win for First Time, Watson Keeps it Near Perfect

The radar was looking bad on Saturday, but we know Boone's track record and it was appearing that it just might slip through a break in the big cell.  It rained on us the entire way until we reached Ames, and shortly thereafter, the pavement was dry.  The sun was out by the time we reached the track, the ground was not even wet, and Boone was in business for racing!

There was an old familiar face back in victory lane again, but in a new class, two other drivers also took their first win of the season at the track, one got his  second win, and one guy just keeps rolling along in what  can only be described as phenomenal  with a near-perfect record.

The Mod Lite feature started off with a car rolling between turns three and four, bringing out the red flag before any action got underway.  The driver, Brad Melton was okay, not sure on the car.  Bryan Zehm was looking for a repeat win from earlier in the year as he led the pack early on.  Mike Morrill had other ideas however, and he grabbed his chance on a restart situation and swung around Zehm and into the lead.  It was pretty clear sailing from then on, as Morrill motored home to the win, his second of the year.  Zehm finished in second, just ahead of Jeff Stensland, last week's winner, who was third.  Fourth went to Mike Kennedy and Josh May finished fifth.

The IMCA Northern SportMods were up next for their 18-lap feature.  This one was a yellow flag nightmare!  It seemed that the cars could get no more than one or two laps in, when the yellow rag would fly again!  Debris got scattered all over the track, and fuel was spilled at both ends of the track, resulting in burning it off under a red flag.  It was about lap seven before the cars were able to keep themselves going in a real racing situation.  All this time, Joe McBirnie, driving what we believe to be a Harris House Car, easily maintained his lead from his point starting position.  He pulled away in the closing laps to secure his first win.  Though we aren't sure, we believe this to be his first ever SportMod win, though he had a very successful career when piloting a modified in years past. Darren Huntley finished a distant second over Clint Luellen who just fell short of the pass, and was scored in third.  Fourth place went to Nick Roberts and Scott Davis finished in fifth.

Earlier in the night, the SportMods ran a King of the Hill event, sponsored by John Logue and Harris Auto Racing.  This was for the first two finishers of the heat races.  First round saw Cody Henning beat out Brian Eppert, Eric Elliott beat Jerry Hinton, and Nick Roberts beat Darren Huntley.  Second round, Elliott took out Henning.  This set up the championship round with Elliott going up against Roberts. Eric Elliott took the win and pocketed a cool $500.

Jake Durbin got back to the winner's circle last night in the IMCA Modified division.  Durbin led the entire 20 laps in securing his first win of the year at Boone. Jon Snyder finished a distant second over Randy Havlik in third.  Jimmy Gustin was in his usual flying mode, but ran out of laps to finish more than fourth.  Todd Shute rounded out the top five.

The IMCA Stock Cars ran 18-laps and the finish was a thriller.  Lonnie Hodges was seeking his first win of the year as he maintained his lead throughout the entire race, took the white flag and was tasting victory.  Trent Murphy had been knocking at the door in those closing laps, seized the moment on the backstretch after the white flag and would go home to snatch the victory.  This was Murphy's first win this year, matching his brother Michael's win from several weeks prior.  Lonnie Hodges finished in a no doubt disappointing second place, third went to Cory Bushnell who had won the previous two weeks, Eric Brown took fourth place and Donavon Smith was fifth.

We finished off as always, with the IMCA Hobby Stocks.  We've been keeping an eye on the 4W of John Watson each week and keeping tabs on his remarkable record at the track.  This guy, as track point's leader, starts in the sixth row each week and wins, week after week.  It couldn't happen again, could it?
Thinks were starting off looking like that just might not be in the cards on this night when on the start, some cars got together on the front stretch, Watson got a little nose crunching, but was able to continue at the restart.
By lap two, the 4W was back in business, and leading the race!  The real racing was going on well behind the leader with Curt Reed, Jacob Thompson and Austin Luellen fighting it out for second.  Reed would win that battle, and finished a distant second behind the winner, again, John Watson.  Austin Luellen took third over Jacob Thompson in fourth and Matt McDonald in fifth.  This was Watson's seventh STRAIGHT win at Boone, his eighth out of nine (he finished second in the one race he lost) on the regular season, PLUS, he won the Frostbuster special!

We enjoyed some fun racing this past week, though we did have a rain out on Friday at Marshalltown.  Our highlight of the week however, was the birth of our beautiful granddaughter Brenna on Thursday evening.  She joins big brother Brycen, children of our son Chad and daughter-in-law Angie. We are blessed.

Though we need the rain, there is much racing still going on in our area, so hopefully it won't put a damper on  a show you want to take in.  Get out an support our great sport of dirt track racing.  Happy racing!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Boone - 6-16-12

Unofficial results:

Heat 1 - 69X Jon Snyder
Heat 2 - 18 Jake Durbin

Modified - 19 cars

1. 18 Jake Durbin
2. 69X Jon Snyder
3. 3Z Randy Havlik
4. 19 Jimmy Gustin
5. 5 Todd Shute
6. 28R Russ Dickerson
7. 87 Joel Bushore
8. 93 Cale Sponsler
9. 57V Mike VanGenderen
10. 27 Kelly Lyons
11. 20X Chad Louk
12. 58 Denny Pittman
13. 2L Adam Larson
14. 12C Kent Croskey
15. 83G Josh Gilman
16. 4R Michael Reichart
17. 24 Robert Avery
18. 4 Tony Hilgenberg
DNS: K1 Kyle Krampe

SportMod - 24 cars

King of the Hill - Sponsored by John Logue and Harris Auto Racing - $500 to win
Winner - 9E Eric Elliott over 23JR Nick Roberts

Heat 1 - 9E Eric Elliott
Heat 2 - 6 Darren Huntley
Heat 3 - 34J Jerry Hinton

1. 182 Joe McBirnie
2. 6 Darren Huntley
3. 3L Cling Luellen
4. 23JR Nick Roberts
5. 81D Scott Davis
6. 34J Jerry Hinton
7. 63 Daniel Tasler
8. 57 Lynn Brockett
9. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
10. 59 Tara Longnecker
11. 27 Tim Love
12. 22B Brian Eppert
13. 22J Jeff Blume
14, 63R Rick Fasse
15. 36H David Hoover
16. 4A Dan Swank - Madrid, Iowa
17. 91 Shawn Hunter
18. 66 Cody Henning
19. 24 Brian Miller
20. 15A Carl Allbee
21. 9E Eric Elliott
22. 55R Rick Routh
23. 28 James Reichart
DNS: 33R DJ Robinson


Stock Car = 22 cars

Heat 1 - 56 Lonnie Hodges
Heat 2 - Cory Bushnell

1. 25 Trent Murphy
2. 56 Lonnie Hodges
3. 55 Cory Bushnell
4. 24 Eric Brown
5. 35 Donavon Smith
6. 25M Michael Murphy
7. 9 Jerry Gifford
8. 22 Wayne Gifford
9. 45 Larry Crocheck
10. 76 Norm Belew
11. 27 Gary Bass
12. 25X Bob Daniels
13. 22X Josh Brauckman
14, 04 Don Vis
15. 23HR Rod Richards
16. 5 Keith Miner
17. 19A Alan VanGorp
18. 93 Michael Jaennette
19. 6 Adam Hilgenberg
20. 50 Robert Stofer
21. 1 Bradlee Clark
DNS: 27M Mike Munson

Hobby Stock - 23 cars

Heat 1 - 12M Matt McDonald
Heat 2 - 4C Curt Reed
Heat 3 - 3A Austin Luellen

1. 4W John Watson - 7 in a row, 8 this season, plus won the Frostbuster,
2. 4C Curt Reed
3. 3A Austin Luellen - only driver to beat Watson
4. T15 Jacob Thompson
5. 12M Matt McDonald
6. 8B Robert Smith
7. 38R Aaron Rudolph
8. 99 Jeff Knight
9. 5A Tyler Pickett
10. 500 Garrett Eilander
11. 85 Seth Janssen
12. 51D Dustin Filloon
13. T56 Tim Barber
14. 5 Dustin Lynch
15. 16B Jay Arends
16. F1 Blaine Frist
17. 48B Brett Knight
18. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
19. 36S Mike Smith
20. 46J Jessie Hopkins
21. T71 Marcus Kyle
22. 9 Andrew Arends
DNS: 911 Darin Rothfus


Mod Lite - 16 cars

Heat 1 - 46Z Bryan Zehm
Heat 2 - 99 Josh May

1. 6 Mike Morrill\
2. 46Z Bryan Zehm
3. 20 Jeff Stensland
4. 95 Mike Kennedy
5. 99 Josh May
6 . 01 David Schmalzried
7. 8 Dusty Masolini
8. 66F Eric Hendrickson
9. 3C Duane Coffman
10. 76 Terry Sorenson
11. 00 Phillip Reeves
12. 64 Randy Bryan
13. 09 Joel Keenan
14. 11R Jason Whitehead
15. X50 Joel Huggins
16. 19 Brad Melton - rolled, was ok


Thursday, June 14, 2012

Murray and Sobbing Repeat, Pinkerton Back in Victory Lane at Osky

It was a FULL night of entertainment at the Southern Iowa Speedway last night.  It was Halloween in June with Trick or Treating, an Australian Pursuit race in the Stock Car class, and a King of the Hill in the SportMod division, all that in addition to the regular racing in all five classes.

Before the racing action began, the youngsters got to Trick or Treat participating drivers who pulled their vehicles to the front stretch for the little beggars.  We counted 28 drivers handing out treats.  A little later, after the heat races were completed, the costumed youngsters AND adults were called onto the track in front of the grandstand, and by applause, a winner chosen in each age division.

The first feature was the IMCA Sport Compacts.  Five drivers were on hand tonight.  A chain of four straight wins was broken when Bill Whalen, Jr. beat out Merv Chandler.  Chuck Fullencamp was third, fourth was John Whalen, and Ron McCish finished fifth.

In the IMCA Hobby Stock feature, the winner ended his night with a flip....but not with the car!  There was great racing going on throughout the pack, with cars going 3-wide at times.  Most of this was happening behind leader Bobby Greene, who had taken the lead by lap five.  With just a couple of laps remaining, Shannon Anderson had made his way up into the runner up spot and was looking for more.  It wasn't to be though, as Greene kept command and took the win.  Anderson finished second, third went to a familiar name  from the past, Mike Hughes who was racing for the first time in a while. He was piloting a car that looked suspiciously like an old Kris Walker car.  Kevin Fee finished fourth and Jamie Songer was fifth.  It was a happy Bobby Greene in victory lane and with a little encouragement from the crowd, celebrated his win with one of his signature back flips off of the car.

The IMCA Modifieds ran their 15-lap feature next.  Jacob Murray, who has taken a real liking to the track this year, was leading by lap three, after starting 10th.  He grab the lead after a restart situation occurred when Dakota Hayden smacked the fence between turns one and two.  He had smooth sailing from there on, stretching out his lead by a good margin.  Josh Foster made the trip back over from his home base in Ft. Madison, and took home the runner up spot.  Cayden Carter finished in third and Mark Widmar won the battle over Brandon Banks, as they finished fourth and fifth.  As a note, Beau Kaplan showed up in a modified tonight--not sure if this was his first time in the class or not--but it was the first we had seen him in it, as he has been running in the SportMod division previously.

And speaking of SportMods, they were up next for their 15-lapper.  Grinnell's Jason Hall motored along in the lead through lap twelve, but behind him, Jesse Sobbing had been reeling him in lap after lap.  Sobbing made the pass on lap thirteen, and pulled away, taking the checkers for another win.  Jason McDaniel just got by Hall on the final lap, and took second over Hall who was scored in third.  Fourth went to Ben Kates, Tonganoxie, Kansas, who made a good return after his incident last week at the track.  Kates, who was hit in the helmet by a piece of debris, received a broken nose to go along with his cracked helmet, so he had a much better night this week!  Brett Lowry had a good run to finish fifth.

Sixteen laps were run in the IMCA Stock Car feature, polishing off the great night of racing.  This one was nearly over from the start when Brad Pinkerton rocketed to the lead and never looked back.  Pinkerton, seemed to be in his comfort zone again, running the topside of the track, smooth and steady and we've often seen him do in the past.  During the race, there was much going on behind him though, with the Osky's usual 3-4 wide battles.  Colt Mather made put his #8 in the runner up spot, third went to Nathan Wood who won the battle over Matt Greiner, who finished fourth.  Rounding out the top five was Alan VanGorp.  Jeff Anderson, veteran stock car driver from Atlantic, who made his first appearance at the track in 2012, finished in sixth.

It was a choked full night of entertainment at the ole Monster Half-Mile again. The Modifieds, SportMods, Stock Cars, and Hobby Stocks all got $100 extra for winning their features last night thanks to generous sponsors. The Modifieds got $100 just for starting the feature! The winners of the Austrailian Pursuit and the King of the Hill features also pocketed an extra $100 each.  Next week, it will be the Deery Brothers Late Models coming to town for their turn at the track.  Please note that the IMCA Modifieds will be taking a night off, but the IMCA Stock Cars, SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts will be on the docket.  Hope to see you there!  Happy racing!



Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Osky - 6-13-12

Unofficial results:

Modified

1. 48J Jacob Murray
2. 77F Josh Foster
3. 10 Cayden Carter
4. 7W Mark Widmar
5. 22 Brandon Banks
6. 20W Shane Weller
7. 14 Tyler Cale
8. Steve Pumphrey
9. 36 Jeff Conner
DNF: 02 Andrew Schroeder
         11 Beau Kaplan
         62 Greg Cox
         40 Scott Dickey
         12H Dakota Hayden

SportMod

1. 99 Jesse Sobbing
2. 85 Jason McDaniel
3. 95J Jason Hall
4. 23K Ben Kates
5. 72 Brett Lowry
6. 1 Curtis VanDerWal
7. 81D Scott Davis
8. 10R Ryan Fullencamp
9. 7 Carter VandenBerg
10. 01 Brayton Carter
11. 38 Bill Gibson
12. 30X Josh Modde
13. 8T Tony Johnson
14. 42 Tyler Heckart  - Ottumwa
15. 3J Jim Blazina - Blair, NE
DNS: 1D Bobby Davis III
          25 Scott VanBuskirk
          12 Eric Flander
          48R Adam Bell ?  announced but never saw the car

King of the Hill for SportMods

99 Sobbing beat 81D Scott Davis

Stock Car

1. 62 Brad Pinkerton
2. 8 Colt Mather
3. 52 Nathan Wood
4. 29 Matt Greiner
5. 78 Jeff Anderson - Atlantic
6. 19A Alan VanGorp
7. 99D Damon Murty (may have been a lap down, but was not realigned as so on a restart)
8. 49G Leroy Groenendyk
9. 94 Corey Stout
10. 7 Todd Phillips
11. 39 Clayton Garden
12. 15K Kyle Harwood
DNF: 46B Michael Bilyeu
         73C Carl Yaw
         22R Todd Reitzler
         22S Toby Smith

Stock Car Australian Pursuit - 99D Damon Murty beat 62 Brad Pinkerton

Hobby Stock

1. 32T Bobby "Back Flip" Greene
2. 78 Shannon Anderson
3. 18H Mike Hughes (in an old Kris Walker car)
4. 52 Kevin Fee
5. 96R Jamie Songer
6. 84 Danny Thrasher
7. 7B Eric Stanton
8. 2N Donovan Nunnikhoven
9. 10G Dustin Griffiths
10. 73 Aaron Martin
11. 6S Shannon Sherwood
12. 79 George Hood
DNS: 00 Kyle Dirks
           6 Jarred Gann

Sport Compact

1. 00W Bill Whalen, Jr.
2. 2 Merv Chandler
3. 48 Chuck Fullencamp
4. 77 John Whallen
5. 59R Ron McCish

Blog will follow

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Watson Keeps Rolling at Boone

We headed back to the Boone Speedway on Saturday night--our home away from home, as it's been for many a year.  One driver seems to just keep chalking up the wins week after week at the track, other classes saw drivers getting another win, and the Mod Lite division put a new face in victory lane.

The Mod Lites kicked off feature racing.  This one was dominated by the winner Jeff Stensland.  Stensland, who took his first win at the track this season, led the entire race, which went caution free.  David Schmalzried, Mike Kennedy, Josh May and Joel Keenan were in pursuit behind him most of the race.  They would finish second through fifth in that order.

Matt Pinegar and Anthony Onstot led the charge in the IMCA SportMod division's A main event for the first handful of laps.  By the halfway mark of the 18-lap race, Nick Roberts came knocking and took over the lead. Roberts would keep the lead to the checkers, taking his second win of the season at the track, in addition to having won the Frostbuster special.  Veteran racer Rick Ringgenberg came home in second, over Tim Love in third, Scott Davis in fourth and Andy Tiernan in fifth.

It was a nail bitter in the IMCA 20-lap Modified feature.  Kelly Lyons led the early portion of the race, but it wasn't long until Jake Durbin and Mike VanGenderen were flying through the field, to challenge the leader.  Durbin nab the lead, and VanGenderen made a nifty move in corner four, to also slip by Lyons, and take over second. Those two would chase each other closely for the next several laps until it appeared Durbin faltered a bit in turn one, and VanGenderen had to check up--but both continued on.  A guy who knows his way around the Boone Speedway, former Super Nationals champion Todd Shute, seized the opportunity and flew into the lead around those faltering cars and was in the lead on the ensuing restart.  With a lap to go, it was Durbin and VanGenderen chasing Shute when Durbin again found himself in a "loop" putting him out of contention for a top finishing position.  Shute took the win, his third this year at Boone, VanGenderen finished second, third went to Kelly Lyons, fourth to Joel Bushore and Russ Dickerson was fifth.

The IMCA Stock Cars never seem to disappoint in their performance.  After a "no-go" on the first attempt of a start, the race went 18-laps caution free.  Ty Hill battled with Lonnie Hodges through lap twelve of the 18-lapper.  That's when last week's winner, Cory Bushnell  put on the pressure.  Bushnell would soon take over the lead, Jerry Gifford following him up into second.  Bushnell took his second win in as many weeks, Gifford scored in second.  Eric Brown scored a third place finish, Ty Hill dropped back to take fourth, and Robert Stofer was fifth.

The finale for the evening, as always, was the IMCA Hobby Stock 12-lap feature.  We've been watching closely the point leader, John Watson.  Watson has been on a tear at the track this year, having notched five straight wins.  He also won the Frostbuster special.  Having to start back in twelfth spot each week, it is remarkable that he has accomplished that feat week after week.  Would it happen again? Sure enough!
Watson took the lead by lap eight, and pulled away to his SIXTH straight win, his seventh in the regular season (he was second in the only race he did not win this year) plus that Frostbuster win.  Wow!  Eight wins out of nine at the track.  Pretty darn good record, I'd say.  Curt Reed took the runner up place, Matt McDonald who had led early on, was third, fourth went to Austin Luellen...the ONLY driver to beat Watson this year in a feature, and Aaron Rudolph was fifth.

Next week is being billed as a "Father's Day Special and Little League Night, so would think there would be a lot of youngsters in uniform and some balls flying during the farming session.  Check www.raceboone.com for more details and other information.   Happy racing!



Saturday, June 9, 2012

Boone - 6-9-12

Unofficial - Total 113 cars

Modified: 18 cars

Heat 1 - 57V Mike VanGenderen
Heat 2 - 5 Todd Shute

Feature
1. 5 Todd Shute
2. 57V Mike VanGenderen
3. 27 Kelly Lyons
4. 87 Joel Bushore
5. 28R Russ Dickerson
6. 69X Jon Snyder
7. 49T Tim Stevens
8. 83G Josh Gilman
9. 12C Kent Croskey
10. 75 Denny Rosenberg
11.4 Tony Hilgenberg
12. 58 Denny Pittman
13. 5D Devon Havlik
14. 34B Wayne Struchen - Marion, IA
15. 18 Jake Durbin
16. 8G Greg Dinsmore - Kerrville, TX
17. 19 Jimmy Gustin
18. 3Z Randy Havlik


SportMod - 27 cars

Heat 1 - 66 Cody Hennings
Heat 2 - 22B Brian Eppert
Heat 3 - 81D Scott Davis

Feature

1. 23JR Nick Roberts
2. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
3. 27 Tim Love
4. 81D Scott Davis
5. 321 Andy Tiernan
6. 30 Matt Pinegar
7. 86 Cory Rose
8. 24 Brian Miller
9. 9E Eric Elliott
10. 34J Jerry Hinton
11. 5B Tom Burke
12. 66A Anthony Onstot
13. 77 Jack Myer
14. 63 Daniel Tasler
15. 30X Josh Modde
16. 91 Shawn Hunter
17. 55R Rick Routh
18. 22B Brian Eppert
19. 66 Cody Hennings
20. 59 Tara Longnecker
21. 6 Darren Huntley
22. 57 Lynn Brockett
23. 13T Taylor Musselman
DNS: 182 Joe McBirnie
          27L Lukas Onstot
          3L Clint Luellen
          26 Jason Carney

Stock Car - 20 cars

Heat 1 - 56 Lonnie Hodges
Heat 2 - 9 Jerry Gifford

Feature

1. 55 Cory Bushnell
2. 9 Jerry Gifford
3. 24 Eric Brown
4. 3H Ty Hill
5. 50 Robert Stofer
6. 22 Wayne Gifford
7. 25M Michael Murphy
8. 35 Donavon Smith
9. 22S Toby Smith
10. 23HR Rod Richards
11. 25X Bob Daniels
12. 45 Larry Crocheck
13. 76 Norm Belew
14. 12+ Ryan Rose
15. 56 Lonnie Hodges
16. 19J Jay Schmidt
17. 5 Keith Miner
18. 1 Bradlee Clark
19. 19A Alan VanGorp
20. 7K Jeramie Kane

Hobby Stock - 30 cars

Heat 1 - 911 Darin Rothfus
Heat 2 - 4C Curt Reed
Heat 3 - 5 Dustin Lynch

B Main - 3 advance

1. 46J Jesse Hopkins
2. 00 Kyle Dirks
3. T71 Marcus Kyle
4. F1` Blaine Frist
5. 36S Mike Smith
6. 48B Brett Knight
DNS: 8B Robert Smith
         67 Ed Mahlstedt
         T56 Tim Barber

1. 4W John Watson - 6 in a row, 7 total, plus the Frostbuster
2. 4C Curt Reed
3. 12M Matt McDonald
4. 3A Austin Luellen
5. 38R Aaron Rudolph
6. 77 Derek Hodges
7. 911 Darin Rothfus
8. T15 Jacob Thompson
9. 5 Dustin Lynch
10. 78B Andrew Burg
11. 13D Dan Wetzel
12. 46J Jesse Hopkins
13. 00 Kyle Dirks
14. 16B Jay Arends
15. 5A Tyler Pickett
16. 85 Seth Janssen
17. T71 Marcus Kyle
18. 9 Andrew Arends
19. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
20. 500 Garrett Eilander
21. 99 Jeff Knight
22. 47W ShaunWirtz
23. 78X Tim Hadley
DNS: 51D Dustin Filloon

Mod Lite - 18 cars

Heat 1 - 95 Mike Kennedy
Heat 2 - 01 David Schmalzried

Feature

1. 20 Jeff Stensland
2. 01 David Schmalzried
3. 95 Mike Kennedy
4. 99 Josh May
5. 09 Joel Keenan
6. 64 Randy Bryan
7. 11R Jason Whitehead
8. 46Z Bryan Zehm
9. 8 Dusty Masolini
10. 3C Duane Coffman
11. 93 Tim Milner
12. 44J Justin Hopkins
13. 19 Brad Melton
14. 4L Larry Sorenson
15. 19JR Danny Foster
16. X50 Joel Huggins
17. 9 Rick Taylor
18. 76 Terry Sorenson

Blog will follow

Modifieds See Wild and Woolly Finish at Motown

The night's entertainment at Marshalltown started off with a tumble in the Faster Pastor race, and ended with a wild and woolly finish in the modified feature. The night sure didn't lack for exciting action that's for sure, with pesky yellow flags flying abundantly though out the night and bringing about some close bunched up race finishes.

Before any of the regular racing action began, the annual Faster Pastor race was held.  It ended quickly when the pastor driving the car of Adam Rickett , went tumbling off of turn two and the race was red flagged and called complete.  Thankfully he was okay...but seeing the car in the pits afterwards, it didn't fare so well.  Pastor "Kenny" from the New Hope Christian Church was the trophy winner.

Sport Compact time was the first feature action.  Veteran Merv Chandler did it again, keeping his perfect record and winning for the sixth time.  He had little trouble finishing ahead of David Moorman and Duayne Herb.  Justin Tharp did not finish.

The Mod Lite division found Mike Morrill back in victory lane.  Josh May finished a close second over Randy Bryan, Dusty Masolini and Mike Kennedy.  Morrill started seventh but led by lap three, May coming to second from starting in eighth.

The IMCA Northern SportMods ran their 18-lap contest next.  Racer Hulin took this one, coming from starting back in row five.  Hulin had little trouble in holding off his contenders even during the numerous restarts due to cautions.  Nick Roberts slipped by Carter VanDenBerg on the final lap, as they finished second and third in that order.  Scott Davis came from row six, to finish in fourth over Jenae Gustin in fifth.  Gustin, who had to tag the field earlier, came flying through the pack.

 In the IMCA Hobby Stocks, Kevin Fee endured an early race mishap on the backstretch that sent cars in all directions...him included, as he teetered on two wheels, avoiding an even worse fate.  Eric Larson led through the halfway point of the 12-lap event, but Fee was soon to challenge him.  Fee made the pass and took the win, Larson keeping second place.  Austin Luellen came from well back in the starting line up to finish third, fourth was Josh Saunders in his best run of the season, and Gary Pfantz rounded out the top five.

The IMCA Stock Car 18-lap feature, was setting up to be an unbelievable shoot out between Brian Irvine and rookie Michael Murphy.  That ended when the two got together at the bottom of turn one with just a couple of laps remaining, bringing out the yellow, and sending them to restart at the tail.  Jay Schmidt, who had been chasing the two, would now be the lucky recipient of the lead.  Schmidt would take the win, his second of the year, over Jeff Wollam in second.  Tracy Gienger finished third, Scooter Dulin was fourth and Trevor Titus put the Ford Thunderbird in fifth place.  Irvine finished a close sixth after flying up through the pack.

After all of the earlier thrilling finishes, the IMCA Modifieds were not to be out done, as they produced that previously mentioned wild and woolly finish.  Rookie Zach Rawlins took the lead early, maintaining it through the halfway mark; veteran Pat Graham snapping at his heels.  Richie Gustin joined in the chase, as the three circled around the top of the track, lap after lap.  On a restart, another rookie, Kyle Brown, seized his opportunity and took the number two position.  With two rookies, both from Kellogg, Iowa, leading the pack, it was appearing they would finish in that order.  That wasn't to be as the yellow flew just as the white flag unfurled, and the race was put under caution.  A car, ironically Kyle's father, David Brown, was unable to get far enough off of the pit road exit and was "dead in the water"...victim of a distributor wire coming off.  So, this would set up one of those infamous "green-white-checkered finishes.  It turned out to be much like one of those NASCAR "bonus" lap finishes and it was wild.  Brown slipped into first on the white flag lap, but with everyone in a tight pack battling for positions, cars would bump, in the "rubbin' is racin'" fashion and mix up the eventual finish.  It was Jimmy Gustin--who had earlier fallen victim to mechanical problems in his heat race--having to start way back in nineteenth place (there were 21 cars in competition last night) and zoom through those top running cars, and take another of his numerous wins at Marshalltown.  Richie Gustin, Gilman, Iowa, took the runner up spot, third went to new father Jon Snyder, fourth was Ronn Lauritzen and Pat Graham finished in fifth.

For the complete results, check www.marshalltownspeedway.com as well as other information about the track's upcoming events.  Happy racing!


Thursday, June 7, 2012

Osky Roars Back to Life

The Southern Iowa Speedway roared back to life on Wednesday night.  It was great to once again see a big crowd and a nice car count to go along with the extra racing action.  Three make-up features from last week's rain out went along with the regular night's racing.  There was a special format for the regular Hobby Stock feature with a draw/redraw format and a $500 payday for the winner. Add in a fun little contest for some of the drivers, and a "loss of locks" for Brandon Banks as he helped the cause of a young race fan, and it was one full night of entertainment.

The first make up feature was the IMCA Hobby Stock class.  New drivers were allowed to tag the original line up after getting the okay from the top points drivers and I believe a payout adjustment was also made for those new drivers. Bobby Greene led the first few laps, but point leader Shannon Anderson quickly made his way into the top spot.  Anderson pulled away to the victory in the caution free race.  Greene finished in second, third was Kevin Fee, fourth Donovan Nunnikhoven and fifth went to Danny Thrasher.

The IMCA Stock Car make up feature ran their 16-lapper next, and it too was a flag-to-flag contest.  It was looking to be a runaway for Colt Mather, as he motored away from the field from his pole starting spot.  The real racing was behind him with cars battling in packs, and positions changing constantly.  One of those cars, Matt Greiner, finally broke loose from that mass of cars and then began methodically reeling in the leader.  With one lap to go, Greiner had gotten on the heels of Mather and Todd Reitzler was snapping at his heels as well.  With a last effort surge coming to the checkers, Greiner nosed ahead to snatch the win, and Mather and Reitzler crossed in a near dead heat.  A check of the scoreboard showed Reitzler had made his last ditch effort pay off as he was scored in second ahead of Mather in third.  Fourth went to Damon Murty and fifth to Zack VanderBeek.  The Stock Cars never seem to disappoint--giving the fans their money's worth time after time!

The IMCA Modifieds had 18 cars on hand for the make up feature--five cars joining the original line up at the back of the field.  They too followed suite, and made it 15-laps of caution free racing.  Polesitter Jeff Waterman led thirteen of those laps, being chased by Scott Dickey.  Dickey made the pass  with a couple of laps remaining and took the victory; Waterman in second.  Third was Greg Cox, fourth went to Jacob Murray and fifth to newcomer, Josh Foster from Ft. Madison.

When the make up features were completed and the regular night's heat races were finished, four drivers competed in a three-legged race.  Of course, there were a few other things thrown in...crawling beneath a tarp and going around and around a bat causing a bit of dizziness and then back under the tarp and to the finish line.  Although the team of Donovan Nunnikhoven and Brandon Banks made it to the finish line first....it was at separate times, as their tethered legs were no longer together!  That would give the win and the prize of two free pit passes next week, to the team of Corey "from just across the street" Stout and Justin Hook.

Then Brandon Banks was brought over to the grandstand.  Banks was about to be "shorn"!  This was in conjunction with a promise to loose his head of hair if fans would help contribute to the growing medical bills for a youngster fighting a rare disease.  The young man, Payton Schultz, who has the rare condition known as HIDS, and is in a constant battle to keep the disease in check, donned the shears--and he appeared to be having a grand ole time doing it!  Banks walked away with a pretty darn bald head...except for a small patch he kept on the back of his head.  The best part of the deal however, was that $1,643 was raised for Payton!!

The IMCA Sport Compacts found the familiar face of Merv Chandler back in victory lane.  Chandler would take his fifth win at the track this year.  Second went to Bill Whalen, Jr., sporting a new ride after having destroyed his old car at a race last weekend.  Third was Larry Hopkins, fourth went to Cory Houk and fifth was Anthony Cassat.

It was now time for the IMCA Northern SportMod's regular feature event.  Jason Hall led the field for the first handful of laps but then Jesse Sobbing ended up swinging by him to take the lead.  He would pull away from the field, and take another of his numerous wins--his third at the Southern Iowa Speedway this year.  Announcer Tony Paris asked him how many wins in total he has this year and his reply was twenty.  We recall that he had 55 last year.  Remarkable!  Brett Lowry finished in second, third was Scott Davis, fourth went to Jason Hall and Curtis VanDerWal rounded out the top five.

A scary situation did occur earlier in the evening during the SportMod heats.  Tonganoxie, Kansas driver, young Ben Kates was hit by flying parts from a detonated transmission from another car.  He had the unfortunate luck to have a piece hit him in the helmet, and his race car ended up at the bottom of turn one, in the guardrail.  The ambulance was called, the top of his car cut off to extract him, and he was transported to the hospital.  Thankfully, he was back at the track before the night was done, donning stitches, but one lucky guy.

The IMCA Hobby Stock 18-lap feature was for a $500 to win challenge.  Shannon Anderson, the make up feature winner already, took over the lead from Kevin Fee by lap three.  That was when, unbelievably, the FIRST yellow flag in a feature flew.  Upon the restart, Dustin Griffith began reeling in the leader, Anderson, who ran the high line, Griffiths choosing the low line.  Griffiths, however, was not able to catch the leader, and Anderson took his second win on the night.  Griffiths was second, over Danny Thrasher in third, Kevin Fee fell back to fourth and Andrew Husted finished fifth.

The IMCA Stock Cars produced another exciting race right from the start when cars went three-wide as they passed the starter's stand.  Three cars would break away, Brad Pinkerton, Zack VanderBeek, and Colt Mather, but behind them was a shoot out for positions with cars going four-wide at times for the coveted fourth spot.  VanderBeek would pull it off this night, taking the win ahead of Brad Pinkerton in second and Colt Mather in third.  Those three are no strangers to the track having turned many a lap at the Monster Half-Mile.  Damon Murty, "The Chelsea Charger" won the fourth place finish over Nathan Wood in fifth.  Matt Greiner, Alex Buffington, and Leroy Groenendyk finished closely behind for sixth through eighth.

The last feature of the night was the IMCA Modified 15-lap A main.  Mark Widmar and Tim Murty sat on the front row.  Widmar took the lead at the drop of the green, but at lap three, it was four wide as Murty, Scott Dickey, Jacob Murray and Widmar battled.  Murray got to the lead by lap four and pull away from the field with a comfortable lead.  At lap eight, the "rare-for-the-night" yellow flew for just the SECOND time in a feature race for the entire night.  The field bunched up for the restart, but Murray just motored off from second place Josh Foster, and secured his third feature win of the year at Osky.  After Foster in second, was another newcomer to the track, Tyler Cale from Donnelson, Iowa, in third place, fourth was Cayden Carter and fifth was Tim Murty.

I'm not sure that many people even noticed what to me was a glaring difference in watching the races last night at the track.  The fencing in front of the grandstand had been painted BLACK and the view of the cars was so much clearer in my opinion.  We have seen this done at several tracks before, and whatever the optical illusion may be, it makes for seeing the cars a whole lot better--for me at least!

For the complete and official results, check out www.oskyspeedway.com as well as other information about events coming up at the track.  Happy racing!


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Osky - 6-6-12

Unofficial results

Make up Modified feature

1. 40 Scott Dickey
2. 71W Jeff Waterman
3. 62 Greg Cox
4. 48J Jacob Murray
5. 77F Josh Foster
6. 12H Dakota Hayden
7. 10 Cayden Carter
8. 99M Tim Murty
9. 14 Tyler Cale
10. 7W Mark Widmar
11 .02 Andrew Schroeder
12. 77 Jim Lynch
DNF: 20Dub Shane Weller
         22 Brandon Bank
         13 Matt Waugh
         49T Tim Stevens
         17 Steve Pumphrey
         1+ Bill Davis, Jr.

Make up Stock Car Feature

1. 29 Matt Greiner
2. 22R Todd Reitzler
3. 8 Colt Mather
4. 99D Damon Murty
5. 33Z Zack VanderBeek
6. 94 Corey Stout
7. 30J Alex Buffington
8. 15K Kyle Harwood
9. 52 Nathan Wood
10. 49G Leroy Groenendyk
11. 88H Randy Hemsley
12. 19A Alan VanGorp
13. 27 Gary Bass
14. 7 Todd Phillips
DNF: 73C Carl Yaw
          22S Toby Smith
          39 Clayton Garden
          62 Brad Pinkerton
          44 Todd Fisher

Make up Hobby Stock Feature

1. 78 Shannon Anderson
2. 32T Bobby Greene
3. 52 Kevin Fee
4. 2N Donovan Nunnikhoven
5. 84 Danny Thrasher
6. 7B Eric Stanton
7. 10G Dustin Griffiths
8. 96R Jamie Songer
9. 33 Justin Hook
10. 51 Matt Webb
11. 12K Eric Knutsen
12. 6 Jarred Gann
13. 20 Andrew Husted
14. 27C Cory Adams
15. 69 Craig Brown
16. 00 Kyle Dirks
17. 76 Richard Puhlka, Jr.
DNF: 77 Sam Hodges

Regular Modified Feature

1. 48J Jacob Murray
2. 77F Josh Foster
3. 14 Tyler Cale
4. 10 Cayden Carter
5. 99M Tim Murtty
6. 40 Scott Dickey
7. 7W Mark Widmar
8. 62 Greg Cox
9. 22 Brandon Banks
10. 71W Jeff Waterman
11. 02 Andrew Schroeder
12. 17 Steve Pumphrey
DNF: 12H Dakota Hayden
          13 Matt Waugh
          49T Tim Stevens
DNS: 1+ Bill Davis, Jr.
          77 Jim Lynch
          20Dub Shane Weller

SportMod Regular Feature

1. 99 Jesse Sobbing -
2. 72 Brett Lowry
3. 81D Scott Davis
4. 95J Jason Hall
5. 1 Curtis VanDerWal
6. 12 Eric Flander
7. 8T Tony Johnson
8. 7 Carter VanDenBerg
9. 38 Bill Gibson
10. 85 Jason McDaniel
11. 10R Ryan Fullencamp
12. 01 Brayton Carter
13.  8 Tom Lathrop
DNF: 27 Bryon Weyer
 DNS: 23K Ben Kates
         30X Josh Modde
         48R Brandon Greene

Regular Stock Feature

1. 33Z Zack VanderBeek
2. 62 Brad Pinkerton
3. 8 Colt Mather
4. 99D Damon Murty
5. 52 Nathan Wood
6. 29 Matt Greiner
7. 30J Alex Buffington
8. 49G Leroy Groenendyk
9. 88H Randy Hemsley
10. 94 Corey Stout
11. 27 Gary Bass
12. 7 Todd Phillips
13. 15K Kyle Harwood
14. 22X Toby Smith
15. 39 Clayton Garden
16. 73C Carl Yaw
17. 44 Todd Fisher
DNF: 19A Alan VanGorp
          22R Todd Reitzler
DNS: 55 Steve Hill

Regular Hobby Stock Feature - $500 to win

1. 78 Shannon Anderson
2. 10G Dustin Griffiths
3. 84 Danny Thrasher
4. 52 Kevin Fee
5. 20 Andrew Husted
6. 33 Justin Hook
7. 32T Bobby Greene
8. 69 Craig Brown
9. 96R Jamie Songer
10. 2N Donovan Nunnikhoven
11. 51 Matt Webb
12. 00 Kyle Dirks
13. 76 Richard Puhlka, Jr.
DNF: 7B Eric Stanton
          6 Jarred Gann
          77 Sam Hodges
          27C Corey Adams

Sport Compact Feature

1. 2 Merv Chandler
2. 00W John Whalen
3. 4 Larry Hopkins
4. 48 Corey Houk ?
5. 15A Anthony Cassatt
6. 59R Ron McCish

   

Hawkeye Dirt Tour and 1st Annual Wayne Redmond Rumble

We ventured north to the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City last night...wondering much of the time if we would EVER run out of the persistent sprinkles--sometimes heavier than sprinkles--on the windshield. However, by the time we were nearing Webster City, the pavement was dry, and upon arrival at the track, it didn't appear that the pesky rain cloud that had been dogging us, had even dropped a raindrop there.

We were looking forward to the night's action in the Hawkeye Dirt Tour and program that had also been deemed the 1st Annual Wayne Redmond Memorial.  Redmond, who lost his life a year ago in April from an ATV accident I believe, was a racing fixture around the area for years. He was a third generation racer, but had devoted much of his recent years to the Aero Wheels business.  He had a great sense of humor that left a person with a smile on their face just thinking of some of the things he said...or DID.

The IMCA Hobby Stocks ran their feature first, right before the two HDT Modified B mains.  After a complete runaway in his heat race earlier, and then drawing the pole for the feature, we were expecting nothing less of Devin Smith in the feature.  The first three laps was appearing so, but then a flat tire put a sudden end to that thought.  Smith changed the tire quickly and rejoined the field immediately upon the green flag restart.  The leader was now hometown boy, Ty Griffth, but veteran Randy Embrey and last year's IMCA Super National's winner Cody Nielsen were readying for the challenge close behind.  Embrey made the pass, with Nielsen doing the same, but things would change up before the checkers flew.  Griffith would have a motor let loose late, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.  Another local boy, Craig Graham had slipped into second spot, and Devin Smith, who had tagged the field earlier, had moved into third.  It would finish with Embrey taking the win, Graham held second, Smith kept third, Cody Nielsen was scored in fourth and second generation driver, Austin Wolfgram came home in fifth.

The IMCA SportMods ran 15-laps.  Scott Davis sat on the pole along side Mitch Frakes from Eagle Grove. It wasn't long until second-row starter, Carter VanDenBerg passed into the lead.  Roland, Iowa's Matt Lettow, who had just won the SportMod special a few days earlier at Britt, Iowa, moved into second after getting around Davis.  Those two would battle for that second spot for several laps and then with a lap to go, the pesky yellow flew, setting up a green-white-checkered finish, or what we like to call, "a bonus laps" race.  The race would then end after that "bonus lap" with VanDenBerg taking the win, Lettow made the pass into second, over Davis, who finished third.  Fourth was Joel Rust and fifth went to Brandon Leeman.

A field of only nine Stock Cars came to play on Tuesday night.  They would run a 15-lap feature.  This turned into one of those "ho-hummer" races with Lance Deal making it look easy, leading all but the first lap. Deal won by a lengthy margin over second place Adam Silvey,  Third went to Ryan Leeman, fourth to Dennis Plain, and Vince Loewen was scored in fifth.

Thirty laps awaited the Modifieds for their headliner event.  Jeremy Mills left little doubt on his mission for the evening when he rocketed to the lead from his pole starting spot, and would motor home to the win, leading all laps.  Mike VanGenderen had started back in eleventh spot and had made great headway early when an incident forced him out of the race after hitting a spinning Josh Most.  It appeared the car sustained considerable damage including a leaking fuel cell.  Several more yellow flags would halt the racing action, requiring several restarts, but Mills never faltered.  Behind him, Mark Schulte and point leader in the HDT series, Richie Gustin, were dueling it out.  Gustin finally established second place, and would finish there.  Schulte took third over Jay Noteboom, in fourth, who had started back in 14th place, and fifth was Kevin "Porky" Pittman who came from 13th starting spot.

Karsyn's Krusaders were on hand for their cause last night, selling t-shirts and sweatshirts for their campaign of "Kickin' Cancer's Butt One Lap at a Time".  Check out the story behind the campaign at www.karsynskrusaders.com. One of the drivers supporting their cause is Hazelton, Iowa's Darrin Duffy who was in competition last night.  Duffy finished eighth in a good showing after qualifying through a B main.

The night's mic action was provided by regular track announcer Ryan Bergeson along with a sidekick last night, Jerry VanSickle.  They provided an entertaining time on the PA along with calling the racing action.
A couple of Positively Racing cohorts were also on hand last night.  Check out Ryan Clark's always excellent take of the racing action at www.positivelyracing.com. under "In Staging" and look for Kevin Trittien to hopefully be back up soon with a working computer with his thoughts at "Tapfan's Tours."

Next up for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour will be next Tuesday night, June 12, at the Cedar County Speedway in Tipton, Iowa.  Also on the program will be the IMCA Deery Brothers for Late Models. For more details check www.dirttour.com and www.imca.com.  Happy racing!


Monday, June 4, 2012

Full Fenders Run again at Knoxville

It took the third try, but the 1st Annual Shootout at Knoxville for Modifieds, SportMods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks finally happened on Sunday.  The show was originally scheduled back in April, got weathered out, rescheduled for May, got weathered out again, and the third time became the charm.  The Modifieds, SportMods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks all ran, this being the first time I recall in recent years that the Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks got their turn at the track. More on that later.

The original format for the show was to limit the first 50 to register in each class, with alternates on the waiting list.  We noted that many of the out of state registrants that had a far distance to come, did not make the haul, nor did some drivers who run regularly at their local tracks on Sunday nights.  A few drivers on the "alternate" list got to run, but the count in the classes were only 31-36.  It had to be a struggle for those drivers having to choose between their local track or an opportunity to run at the famed Knoxville track.

The SportMods ran a 20-lap feature and by this time, the track was dry and slick, much like one of those Iowa State Fair day races.  Jeff Jones, a former A modified driver who made the trip over from far southwestern Iowa,  led the first dozen laps or so, with former Super National's champion, Scott Davis dogging him.  Davis got the door opened when a yellow flew, bunching the field on the restart, and seized the opportunity to make the pass shortly there after.  Scott Davis took the win, Jones hanging on to second, young Tyler Droste finished third, fourth went to another former A modified driver out of Keokuk, Jim Gillenwater, and former Super National's winner in the SportMod division, Jason Mallicoat, finished fifth after starting back in the sixth row.

It was a 15-lap feature for the Hobby Stocks.  Polesitter and veteran driver Bill Bonnett who calls Knoxville home, and another hometown boy Mark Fee, battled for the first couple of laps with Andy Boeckman, four-time IMCA Super Nationals champion joining in.  Bonnett dropped back a position and the fight was on then between Boeckman and Fee for the top spot. Boeckman from Lake View, Iowa, was the victor on this day, Fee having to settle for the runner up spot.  Bonnett finished in third, ahead of Matt Webb in fourth and fifth place finisher, Robby Marsh out of Bellevue, Nebraska.

Then it was time for the Stock Cars to take the stage.  They would run a 20-lap main event which found Damon Murty and Cresco, Iowa driver Shay Curtin on the front row of the starting grid.  The first lap found Jeff Mueller challenging Murty for the lead, which was only the beginning of a back and forth battle for all the front positions.  This was a barn burner of a race up front.  Mueller, Murty, Beatrice, Nebraska driver Kyle Vanover, Curtin and Keith Knop all battled tooth and nail for the lead for most of the race.  It was a toss up on the final lap as to who would pull it off between Mueller and Knop, but Mueller made it to the checkers first, and the victory. Knop was second, Vanover took third over Shay Curtin in fourth, and Damon Murty in fifth.

The show's closer was the 25-lap Modified feature.  Pole sitter Dylan Smith, former IMCA National Champion out of Osceola, Nebraska was fighting off Gilman, Iowa's Richie Gustin through well over the halfway mark of the feature.  Todd Shute, a former IMCA Super National's champion had slipped by Mike VanGenderen to take over third, and was on the move to catch Gustin.  With about a handful of laps remaining, Gustin pulled into the infield...apparent mechanical problems...and ending his run.  This put Shute in the attempt to catch leader Smith as the laps wound down.  Shute drew close, but it was "no cigar" on this day, as Smith took the win, and Shute taking second.  The "Flying Dutchman", Mike VanGenderen took third, Josh Most, Red Oak, and a driver that will hop into about any class of car...we've seen him in many...took fourth place over veteran driver Mark Elliott who was scored in fifth.

It's always fun to see a show such as this when drivers you don't often see, or those who are completely new to us, make an appearance.  The more the merrier, we say!  After doing a little digging through some old records, we discovered that Jeff Mueller made the third time his charm after racing back in those two previous Stockville National races in 2003 and 2004 for the Stock Cars. Those two races were only for the Stock Car class and both had the Dirt Trucks as a support class. The top three in 2003 were Brandon Bandstra, Mike Robinson, and Bobby Greiner, Jr., all no longer racing as far as I know.   In 2004, the Stockville National top three were Damon Murty, the now retired "Flyin Farmer" Rick Brown, and Jay Schmidt.

We enjoyed our time at the Knoxville Raceway on Sunday and making it more enjoyable was having a great bunch of  "racing family" to enjoy it with.  We hope to catch up with many of them again as this busy racing month continues.  Next up for us will be the IMCA Hawkeye Dirt Tour and 1st Annual Wayne Redmond Memorial tomorrow night at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City.   You can find more information on this series at www.dirttour.com.  Happy racing!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Watson Keeps Chalking Up Feature Wins

It was a beautiful night to be sitting at a race track on Saturday.  From the size of the crowd at the Boone Speedway--I'd say the largest they've had so far--many others thought the same thing.  The night not only brought a bonus King of the Hill race for the IMCA Stock Cars, but there were rubber chickens flying in front of the grandstand during the farming session!

Mod Lites ran their feature first.  Last Saturday night's winner, Ed Zehm would take the win, nosing ahead the last few feet to the finish line.  David Schmalzried had led the entire race previously, but had the win snatched away from him during the final seconds.  Josh May finished third, Bryan Zehm, (I believe the son of the winner) finished fourth, and fifth was Jason Whitehead.

In the IMCA Northern SportMods, Eric Elliott made it back-to-back Saturday night wins.  Scott Davis made a valiant effort to challenge the leader but fell a bit short and finished second.  Rick Ringgenberg finished in third, the early leader Jerry Hinton was scored in fourth and Darren Huntley rounded out the top five.

The IMCA Modifieds put on quite a show for the fans tonight.  Kelly Lyons, pole sitter, led the charge of about five cars for the first nine laps, cars swapping positions behind him at a frantic pace.  Todd Shute came flying through the field and into second--with Jimmy Gustin on his tail in third.  Gustin made the pass on Shute and then on Lyons for the lead and was pulling away by lap thirteen and then a yellow flag flew a lap later.  This bunched the field but Gustin would pull away after the restart.  He had little trouble from there on, taking the win by a comfortable margin. Todd Shute and Mike VanGenderen finished second and third, also a sizable distance ahead of fourth place Denny Rosenberg and fifth place Kelly Lyons.  Gustin and VanGenderen had started in row five, Shute just ahead of them in row four.

The IMCA Stock Cars also had an entertaining feature.  The 18-lap main saw Cory Bushnell grab the lead early, maintaining it to the checkers, and taking the win.  It was a hard fought battle behind him, as Jerry Gifford and Jay Schmidt fought hard for position.  Gifford would finish second ahead of Schmidt who was scored in third.  Donavon Smith finished fourth after starting in tenth place, and Michael Murphy was fifth.

Earlier, immediately following their heat races, there was a King of the Hill contest for the Stock Cars, paying $500 to the final man standing.  The top two from each of the three heats went up against each other by a draw.  First rounds found Jay Schmidt eliminating Rod Richards, Cory Bushnell beating Bob Daniels, and Wayne Gifford beating Donavon Smith.  Second round was Bushnell eliminating Jay Schmidt and the final round was Wayne Gifford pitted against Bushnell.  Bushnell was looking to take this one, almost counting the $500 top prize money, when coming out of turn four, the money floated over to Gifford as Bushnell appeared to have a flat.  Bushnell redeemed himself a bit when he won the feature later. The King of the Hill was sponsored by John Logue and Harris Auto Racing.

The night ended with the IMCA Hobby Stocks going at it in their feature.  Jacob Thompson led the first few laps from his pole starting spot, but by lap four, there was John Watson taking over the helm.  This guy is FUN to watch on the Boone track week after week.  As point leader, he is starting in twelfth spot, but can work through traffic in such a smooth manner, it's amazing!  Watson checked out again, and took the win easily.  This is his fifth regular Saturday night win at Boone, plus winning the Deery Brothers Memorial Day special...which was also for track points if I'm not mistaking...plus the Frostbuster.  That's SEVEN total wins in the EIGHT times the track has run this season.  A check back at my records show that the one night (5-5-12) that he did not win, he was runner up.  Aaron Rudolph, who is second in points, finished in second, Matt McDonald was third, fourth went to Austin Luellen, and Cory Adams came out of the B main to finish in fifth.

Yes, there were chickens flying in front of the grandstand at intermission/farming time!  The kids and grown ups alike were having a fun time tossing rubber chickens into oversized clown pants being worn by their "target".  It was a good laugh for many and announcer Jerry VanSickle was having a good time interacting with the activity as well.  Next week is "Soccer Night" on the Boone Speedway schedule and there will be free admission for those 18 and under. No doubt, there will be soccer balls flying next week.

Get out and attend a race somewhere and support the sport we all love, dirt track racing.  Happy racing!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Boone - 6-2-12

Unofficial results

Modified

Heat 1 - 20X Chad Louk
Heat 2 - 27 Kelly Lyons

Feature:

1. 19 Jimmy Gustin
2. 5 Todd Shute
3. 57V MikeVanGenderen
4. 75 Denny Rosenberg
5. 27 Kelly Lyons
6. 28R Russ Dickerson
7. 83G Josh Gilman
8. 3Z Randy Havlik
9. 49T Tim Stevens
10. 24 Robert Avery
11. 12C Kent Croskey
12. 5D Devon Havlik
13. 20X Chad Louk
14. 87 Joel Bushore
15. 131s Ed Seibert
16. 18 Jake Durbin
17. 58 Denny Pittman

SportMod

Heat 1 - 72 Rick Ringgenberg
Heat 2 - 63 Daniel Tasler
Heat 3 - 66A Anthony Onstot

Feature

1. Eric Elliott
2. 81D Scott Davis
3. 72 Rick Ringgenberg
4. 34J Jerry Hinton
5. 6 Darren Huntley
6. 86 Cory Rose
7. 57 Lynn Brockett
8. 66 Cody Hennings
9. 63 Daniel Tasler
10. 59 Tara Longnecker
11. 22B Brian Eppert
12. 27 Tim Love
13. 30 Matt Pinegar
14. 66A Anthony Onstot
15. 27L Lukas Onstot
16. 182 Joe McBirnie (in the #1 Harris car)
17. 15A Carl Allbee
18. 36H David Hoover
19. 91 Shawn Hunter
20. 24 Brian Miller
21. 23JR Nick Roberts
22. 5B  Brian Eppert
DNS: 13T Taylor Musselman
          3 Stacey Warren

Stock Car

Heat 1 - 23HR Rod Richards
Heat 2 - 55 Cory Bushnell
Heat 3 - 22 Wayne Gifford

Feature

1. Cory Bushnell
2. 9 Jerry Gifford
3. 19J Jay Schmidt
4. 35 Donavon Smith
5. 25M Michael Murphy
6. 27M Mike Munson
7. 25X Bob Daniels
8. 19A Alan VanGorp
9. 12+ Ryan Rose
10. 93 Michael Jaennette
11. 25 Trent Murphy
12. 24 Eric Brown
13. 3H Ty Hill
14. 04 Don Vis
15. 7K Jeramie Kane
16. 22S Toby Smith
17. 22 Wayne Gifford
18. 23HR Rod Richards
19. 5 Keith Miner
20. 56 Lonnie Hodges
21. 1 Bradlee Clark
22. 50 Robert Stofer
23. 76 Norm Belew
24. 45 Larry Crocheck

Stock Car King of the Hill

Round 1:

19J Jay Schmidt beat 23HR Rod Richards
55 Cory Bushnell beat 25X Bob Daniels
22 Wayne Gifford beat 35 Donavon Smith

Round 2

55 Cory Bushnell beat 19J Jay Schmidt

Final Round

22Wayne Gifford beat 55 Cory Bushnell
Bushnell led until coming out of turn 4

Hobby Stock

Heat 1 - 38R Aaron Rudolph
Heat 2 - 4W John Watson
Heat 3 - 3A Austin Luellen

B Main - 3 advance

1. 5 Dustin Lynch
2. 8B Robert Smith
3. 27C Cory Adams
4. 77 Derek Hodges
5. 13D Dan Wetzel
6. 85 Seth Janssen
7. 911 Darin Rothfus
DNS: F1 Blaine Frist
         2J Ralph Jones

Feature

1. 4W John Watson
2.38R Aaron Rudolph
3. 12M Matt McDonald
4. 3A Austin Luellen
5. 4C Curt Reed
6. 5A Tyler Pickett
7. 99 Jeff Knight
8. 47W Shaun Wirtz
9. 16B Jay Arends
10. 51D Dustin Filloon
11. 500 Garrett Eilander
12. 9 Andrew Arends
13. 66 Andy Mahlstedt
14. 78B Andrew Burg
15. 00 Kyle Dirks
16. 5 Dustin Lynch
17. 67 Ed Mahlstedt
18. 27C Cory Adams
19. 36S Mike Smith
20. 27R Clint Rothfus
21. 48B Brett Knight
22. T15 Jacob Thompson
23. T56 Tim Barber
24. 8B Robert Smith

Mod Lite

Heat 1 - 41Z Ed Zehm
Heat 2 - X50 Joel Bushore

Feature

1. 41Z Ed Zehnm
2. 01 David Schmalzried
3. 99 Josh May
4. 46Z Bryan Zehm
5. 11R Jason Whitehead
6. 95 Mike Kennedy
7. 8 Dusty Masolini
8. X50 Joel Huggins
9. 09 Joel Keenan
10. 64 Randy Bryan
11. 6 Mike Morrill
12. 89 Travis Stensland
13. 08 Ben Larson
14. 76 Terry Sorenson
15. 3C Duane Coffman
16. 4L Larry Sorenson
17. 19 Brad Melton
18. 23 Michael Parcel
DNS: 19JR Danny Foster
          93 Tim Milner


Motown Wins for Wanninger, Leythem, Murty, Luellen, and Chandler Keeps his Perfect Record

It was back to business as usual at the Marshalltown Speedway on Friday night after Mother Nature claimed last week's racing event.  The track was fast, the racing close and exciting, making for an entertaining night for racers and fans alike.

Merv Chandler kept his perfect record going in the IMCA Sport Compact class, claiming another win--his fifth of the season at the track.  Newcomer to the track, Duayne Herb led the first two circuits of the race, but Chandler was leading by lap five, and motored home to the victory.  David Moormann was second, third went to Herb, followed by Josh Keller in fourth.  Justin Tharp did not finish the race and John Gill was a DNS.

Josh May found his way to victory circle for the second time this season in the Mod Lite division.  May took the lead early in the contest, never to look back. A restart with a lap to go produced a green-white checkered finish but May would still win easily.  Joel Huggins took the runner up spot, followed by Mike Kennedy, Mike Morrill and Randy Bryan--third through fifth in that order.

The IMCA Hobby Stock class ended their feature with a green-white-checkered.  Winner Austin Luellen led nearly the entire race with a comfortable lead over Eric Larson, when the yellow flew, making for that "bonus lap" situation and bunching up the field behind him.  Scott Pippert took advantage of that restart situation and swung around Larson and into second and closed in on the leader during the final lap.  It wasn't to be for Pippert tonight, as he finished as runner up to Luellen.  Larson held the third spot over Kevin Fee in fourth and Donovan Nunnikhoven in fifth.

The IMCA Northern SportMods went 15-laps caution free.  Gatlin Leythem, starting on the outside front row, jumped to the lead immediately and was never really challenged.  Behind him was a different story with Carter VanDenBerg, Jake Strayer, and Jenae Gustin moving forward fast and all battling for position.  Strayer would take the second spot, Jenae Gustin took third after starting back in tenth place, fourth was VanDenBerg and Nick Roberts rounded out the top five.

The Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA Stock Cars waged an 18-lap match.  Trent Murphy, who had started on the pole position, took the lead at the drop of the green but he was quickly challenged by Jay Schmidt, Damon Murty and Brian Irvine.  Those four gave the fans a good show, wheeling around the high banks of Marshalltown.  Murphy's luck would end when he pulled off of the racing surface, the lead now in Murty's hands.  Murty would take the win by a comfortable margin over Jay Schmidt in second, and a close third went to Irvine. Steve Meyer finished in fourth and Michael Murphy was fifth.

The 20-lap IMCA Modified feature ended the night's program. Josh Truman led the early laps but there were challenges looming behind him.  Kyle Brown, who had just gotten his first ever A modified win under his belt at the Benton County Speedway on Sunday night, was hanging on to second, but he soon had company.  Luke Wanninger and Jammin' Jimmy Gustin were coming full speed, both up for the battle that lay ahead of them.  Wanninger was able to make the pass into first, Gustin in tow behind him for second.  The only caution of the race would then come with just three laps to go, scrunching up the field.  However, nothing would change in the running order of those final circuits with Wanninger taking the win, Gustin in second, Truman held third, and Kyle Brown and father David Brown finished in fourth and fifth.

So ended another night at the Marshalltown Speedway.  This time, Mother Nature cooperated, though some people in the grandstands appeared to have forgotten some warmer clothes as the night cooled off considerably.  We also heard that not too far to the west in Ames, it was raining.

We are looking forward to Knoxville Raceway's First Annual Shootout for Modifieds, SportMods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks this Sunday.  It has already fallen to rain outs twice, so we are hoping the third time is the charm. We also plan to travel to Webster City on Tuesday night for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour and Wayne Redmond Memorial race at the Hamilton County Speedway.  You can check out a listing of some races coming up that you might like to see.  A calendar of events is listed at Positively Racing.  Hope you can find a race you might like to attend.  Happy racing!