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!
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