It was one of those hot, humid Iowa summer night's at the Boone Speedway on Saturday night. The drivers must have been sweltering in their racing suits, helmets, and hot cars. That didn't stop any of the racing entertainment however, and the show went on. The fans were downing lots of liquids, trying to stave off the effects of the warm temperatures and at one point during the farming session a few of those fans got in on a frozen tee shirt contest and a water balloon toss, both of which cooled them down a bit! I believe that one driver also earned his first ever SportMod win. In the Hobby Stock class, a driver kept his unbelievable streak alive--minus his carburetor, and perhaps, more.
The Mod Lites was a scramble for the lead between Bryan Zehm and Mike Morrill early. Morrill, quickly made his way to the second spot from starting in tenth, to dog the leader Zehm. Morrill overtook Zehm on lap five, kept the lead to the checkers and the win. Morrill won for the second time in the past two races, his third for the season. Point leader Josh May extended his lead by snaring second place. Third went to Zehm, fourth was Randy Bryan and Joel Huggins rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Northern SportMods found a first time winner in victory lane. That is, as far as my records indicate, so I could be wrong. Tom Burke, who jumped from the Hobby Stock ranks a few years back, skillfully made the last lap pass on Matt Pinegar who had led the entire race--until that fateful last lap when his car pushed high. Waiting in the wings to also do the same were Scott Davis and Nick Roberts, who took advantage of Pinegar's misfortune. Burke took the win, Davis and Roberts in second and third, Pinegar held on to fourth and Jerry Hinton finished in fifth.
The first few laps of the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature was looking like a Texan might just take home the hardware this night. Greg Dinsmore, from the hill country of Kerrville, Texas, and making his second appearance at Boone, led through the first eight or nine laps. That would be when Jake Durbin had other ideas about a Texan taking home the win. Durbin flew around Dinsmore for the lead, pulled away to a comfortable lead, and took his second straight win at the track. Dinsmore did take a solid second place finish over Russ Dickerson in third, Randy Havlik in fourth and Kelly Lyons in fifth.
I was more than a little surprised when I checked my list of 2012 winners at Boone in the IMCA Stock Car class and didn't find the night's winner listed. Lake City's Donavon Smith scored his first REGULAR season win of the year at Boone; though he had nabbed the Frostbuster kick off. Smith, who started in row six, fought through the pack of battling cars, and had the lead by lap eight of the 18-lap contest. Robert Stofer out dueled the challenges of Jerry Gifford, Cory Bushnell and Michael Murphy as they finished second through fifth in that order. It appears that Smith has taken over the point lead from Wayne Gifford, who was scored in sixth.
The night was polished off with the 12-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Everyone was saying, "he can't do it again, can he"?...meaning could John Watson keep his string of wins going...seven straight, eight over the season, plus the Frostbuster win. Well, the answer was, yup! He was lucky to avoid a sideways car on the opening lap just after the green flew! When everyone was regrouped, and they were realigned and restarted, Watson seemed no worse for wear from the scare, and weaved through traffic to take the lead on lap three. The race was as good as over from there on, and Watson took his eighth straight win. A lap or two more and the situation could have gotten real interesting as Scott Pippert closed the gap and was closing in on Watson. The twelfth lap though was the end of the race, and yet another win for Watson. Pippert was the runner up, Curt Reed, the leader for the first two laps, was scored in third. Fourth place went to Matt McDonald, and fifth to Aaron Rudolph. After the race, Rudolph would claim Watson's carberator and later, though it may just be a rumor, we heard that Watson's claim motor may be going to be pulled for "a closer look". This is not confirmed however.
We noted that there was a real emphasize put on weight...especially in the Mod Lite division where a couple of cars were found to be too light in their heat races, and then a lot of penalties were handed out to cars that jumped the start in other classes. By the time the features rolled around, everyone had seemed to have those problems solved as no further penalties were imposed as far as we know.
Tuesday we will be at the Marshalltown Speedway for night two of the IMCA Stock Car Shoot Out. Wednesday, we plan to head back south to the Southern Iowa Speedway for the final night of three of the Shoot Out series. There is lots and lots of racing going on around the state of Iowa now, and it's nearby border states. We hope you will be able to find one that fits the ticket for you. Happy racing!
No comments:
Post a Comment