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!
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