The Boone Speedway saw some fantastic racing on Saturday night and this time, it was due in part to Mother Nature! It had rained mid-morning, more than an inch from some reports, and it made for a fast track and multi-grooved racing all night long. There were over 150 cars checked in and we noticed several cars making the trip over from the rained out Independence Speedway and from Webster City which has wound up their season. A few other "visitors" also graced the field, maybe to do a little fine tuning for the upcoming Super Nationals. The more comfortable weather also brought out a great crowd of race fans.
The Mod Lite feature went to Mike Morrill--his third visit to victory lane there this season. Morrill got out to the lead, leaving about five cars battling for position a distance behind him. That ended when two of those cars, Joel Huggins and Bryan Zehm, went spinning in turn one, bringing out a yellow with three laps remaining. When racing resumed, Morrill had little trouble in holding off competitors, and took the win easily. Joel Keenan finished in second, point leader Josh May was third, fourth went to Jason Whitehead and fifth to Andy Hennigar
The Northern SportMod feature saw Tim Love and Corey Rose fighting for the lead early on. Then visiting driver, Austin Lucas from Cherokee, Iowa, who started in row six, joined in the fray. Fans were treated to some great racing by those three in the last handful of laps. Lucas was able to make his way into second, and then soon made the pass on Rose to take over the top spot. Lucas motored home to the win, his first at Boone this year, Rose had to settle for second, and Love was third. Fourth went to Eric Elliott and Randy Roberts finished in fifth.
The 20-lap Modified feature came next and it became one of those "wow" races! Cale Sponsler started on the pole spot, Chad Louk along side. Sponsler took the lead and was stretching it out. By lap six, Sponsler was cruising along in first place, Louk still in second. Shay Woods was in third from his second row starting position and the 57V machine of Mike VanGenderen was suddenly in fourth after starting tenth. A caution for a mess at the top of turn one involving several cars, erased Sponsler's straight away lead at lap nine. On the restart, Woods was in second, VanGenderen had made it into third and Todd Shute, who had also started in row five, was in fourth. By lap ten, VanGenderen took over second place and from there on, the battle was on. The remaining laps was quite the show between the two---Sponsler choosing the inside line, VanGenderen the topside. For a brief moment, VanGenderen took the point with two to go, but Sponsler regained it and was able to protect his lead as they came to the checkers in the exciting finish. There was also a lot of action happening behind the top two finishers the last few laps. Joel Bushore made it up to finish third just ahead of Jimmy Gustin. Gustin had lost a motor in his heat race,-- flames and all-- and had started eighteenth and had a great run to finish in fourth. Todd Shute fell back a bit to finish in fifth.
The Stock Cars followed up with their own fast and furious racing action. The track was fast and the 18-lap feature doled out it's share of three and four wide racing This was looking to be a shoot out between Rod Richards, who had led from the start, and Jerry Gifford, the two duking it out as the laps wound down. As the two crossed the finish line with the white flag flying, a little bit too much duking it out became a factor as the two went spinning after contact was made as they approached turn one. The race ended under yellow/checkered then. The lucky driver who had been running in third, Corey Bushnell, was awarded the win. Jay Schmidt was scored in second, Donavon Smith was third and Mike Goldsberry and Trent Murphy were fourth and fifth.
There was a King of the Hill match earlier for the Stock Cars, sponsored by Harris Auto Racing.... located just down the road. This pitted the top two drivers from the four heats against each other. The final round came down to Corey Bushnell against Jerry Gifford. Gifford took the $500, so even with his spin at the conclusion of the Stock Car feature, his night was not all bad.
There were two Hobby Stock features tonight...for only the second time this season. The first one went to Aaron Rudolph who fought off the challenges of Tony Cox, the runner up. Third was Curt Reed, Nathan Ballard who ventured over from his hometown of Marengo, Iowa was scored in fourth and Dustin Filloon rounded out the top five. Filloon claimed Rudolph's carburetor after the race.
The second Hobby Stock Feature polished off the night's racing. Matt McDonald came from starting seventh to gain the lead by lap five and then held off the persistent challenges of Scott Pippert who took second. Third was Bill Atcheson, fourth was Derek Moede who came all the way from Casco, Wisconsin, and Shaun Wirtz took fifth.
As a note, we were hearing regular announcer Jerry VanSickle and Ryan Clark, who came to join in with mic duties last night, calling Scott Pippert...."Peep ert". Thanks to Ryan Clark's asking Pippert just recently, he discovered this is the correct pronunciation! It's been years of every announcer we've heard, saying it wrong!
Four weeks of weekly racing still remains at the Boone Speedway, with season championships on September 1. Then on Monday, September 3, the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals will begin. The six-day racing event is really a racing spectacle that should be experienced at least once. For us, it will be our 25th straight year of attending every night of the Super Nationals held at Boone.
Hope to see you around a race track somewhere! Happy racing!
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