Saturday night at Boone was a night of racing almost likened to qualifying night at the Super Nationals! It seemed every heat was a scramble to qualify! With 186 cars checked into the pits, there were six B mains run--- three for the SportMods, two for the Stock Cars and one for the Modifieds.
The Mod Lite division was a close one at the finish line. Josh May did all he could do to get around Bryan Zehm who had led most of the race, but just couldn't make it happen. Jason Whitehead chased the leaders to finish in third, fourth went to Andy Hennigar and Mike Kennedy was credited with fifth.
Scott Davis padded his point lead by taking the win in the IMCA Northern SportMod feature. He had to fight past earlier leader Cole Ferguson from Dexter to get to that victory. Ferguson finished in second, Chad Ryerson from Wellsburg was third. Racer Hulin, Laurel, Iowa driver came from starting in row six, to nab a fourth place finish and Nick Roberts nipped at his heels at the finish line to take fifth. It took three B mains to whittle the starting field to 24 cars. Those winners were Randy Roberts, Jason Mallicoat and Tim Wilcox who came from Ida Grove, Iowa to test the waters at Boone.
Twenty laps of Modified racing kept up the frantic pace established throughout the night. With 31 of the powerhouses checking in, they needed a B main also. Kyle Krampe took that consy win. Kelly Lyons, Joel Bushore and Cale Sponsler were jousting early for the top spots. Sponsler's night ended when he had to exit to the infield. This left Bushore at the point position and now Jammin' Jimmy Gustin, who started tenth, came into the picture. Bushore gave up his topside line and that was all Gustin needed to make the pass into first. Gustin took the win, his third of the season, Visiting driver from Hinton, Iowa, Jay Noteboom showed his muscle by getting to the runner up spot from starting twelfth. Jon Snyder, who had just taken wins the previous two nights at The Night of 1000 Stars in Britt, and at the Marshalltown Speedway, finished in third. Bushore faded a bit but held fourth and Kelly Lyons took fifth.
Earlier in the night after their heat races, there was a King of the Hill race for the Modifieds. It pitted the top two from the four heats against each other. The race, sponsored by Harris Auto Racing and John Logue, paid a nice $500 to the winner. In the first round, Jon Snyder took out Cale Sponsler, Kelly Lyons won when Todd Shute pulled off, Kyle Brown beat Matt Meineke and Mike VanGenderen took out Jimmy Gustin. Round two found Snyder beating Lyons, Brown eliminating VanGenderen. This set up the final match up of Brown versus Snyder for all the marbles. Brown wound up his 21K on the topside of the track and won the two lap shoot out. Brown, a rookie in the class after moving up from the SportMod, was a happy camper in his post race interview.
The 18-laps of the Stock Car feature were no less entertaining with multi-wide racing going on throughout the pack. Point leader Donavon Smith, showed why he is in that spot, making his way from starting twelfth to take the lead by lap four. With about a handful of laps remaining, disaster was avoided when a car sitting low on the apron out of turn three opted to pull back on to the track....right in front of the approaching leaders! Smith went on to take the win, his second of the regular season to go along with his early Frostbuster win in the pre-season. Josh Daniels had a strong run to finish in second, and Jared Dirks from Rowan, Iowa, Alan VanGorp and Cory Bushnell finished in a tight pack for third through fifth in that order.
For the third week in a row, a hefty field of IMCA Hobby Stocks came to play and two A main features were run. In the first of the two, Tony Cox paced the field in his 1BC ride. That would end at lap four when his motor let go, spewing the race track with oil. After the clean up process, it was Aaron Rudolph inheriting the top spot. Scott Lograsso ran in second. The finish was nearly decided when the two leaders bore down on a lap car, but no change occurred with Rudolph winning and Lograsso scored in second. A visiting driver from Dickens, Iowa, Josh Peters came from starting in row six to take third. Garrett Eilander, Newton, Iowa was fourth and Matt McDonald finished in fifth. After the race, John Watson, the driver who had been nearly unbeatable until recently, claimed the carburetor of winner, Rudolph. This was a "pay back" for the claim that Rudolph had made back on June 30 when he claimed Watson's carb.
It was nearly the bewitching hour when the second and final feature rolled onto the track. This one was still yielding 3-wide racing behind leader Craig Graham. Graham, from Webster City, Iowa got to the lead by lap two after getting by Jared Dirks. Another new driver of the many on hand last night, David Rieks, who lists Eldora, Iowa as his home, made the final few laps very interesting. He caught Graham and was able to briefly take the lead with a lap to go, but drifted a bit too high in turn four as they approached the checkers, handing the win back over to Graham. Following those two to take third was Curt Reed, Noah Ludwig from Logan, Iowa started back in row six along side the winner, to take fourth, and Matt Hudspeth rounded out the top five.
There are still three nights of weekly points racing remaining at the Boone Speedway. It appears from the car counts of the recent weeks, drivers from a distance away are coming to do a little testing of the waters in anticipation of the fast approaching Super Nationals. We enjoy seeing those visiting cars and as witnessed last night, many of them are getting it already dialed in.
Get out and find a race to attend and support our great sport of dirt track racing. Check the calendar on the Positively Racing home page for some choices. Happy racing!
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