It was just like a night at the Super Nationals on the grandstand side at the Boone Speedway Saturday night.
A fan appreciation night and free admission drew the crowd, there were some fun activities, and the weather was beautiful. The enthusiastic crowd cheered on the drivers as they witnessed three first time winners this year, and a race decided in the final moments that had them on their feet.
The Mod Lites came out in full force last evening, with 30 cars strong. This required a B Main which was won by Terry Sorenson. The feature's opening laps were led by Travis Stensland as he outraced Dusty Masolini. Stensland bobbled slightly, allowing Masolini to take over the helm as the two continued their run at the front of the pack. Randy Bryan mounted the charge to the front as well, running down Stensland and taking over second. No one was catching Masolini though, as he took the checkers and stamped his name in the record book for the first time this year. Bryan held second place, third was point leader Josh May, who had started eleventh, Stensland kept it at the front to score fourth, and fifth went to veteran Mike Morrill.
The IMCA Northern SportMods saw a driver win for the second time in just a few days. Eric Elliott had won the Eve of Destruction race on July 4th, and showed his power again, winning the feature in easy fashion. Elliott outdistanced Taylor Musselman who had a nice run to score a second place finish, third was Ben Kates, the Tonganoxie, Kansas driver who is spending his summer in Iowa, Paul Nagle the opening laps leader came home in fourth and Randy Roberts finished in fifth. This was Elliott's fourth win at the track this year.
The Modifieds ran their usual 20-lap feature and this one would "wow" the crowd with a final lap pass determining the winner. Matthew Meinecke leaped to the lead from his pole starting position when a yellow at lap two halted the action. The guy on the move at that point had been the 69X of Jon Snyder, as he had gotten to third. He then lost the handle going into turn one, but was able to keep it going, At the same time, a car had came to a halt in turn four, which was the cause for the yellow. This allowed Snyder to regain his position, tucked back in behind Robert Avery who was running second. As the field restarted, it was but a lap or two later that Snyder made the pass into second and he began reeling in leader Meinecke.
Meinecke was doing a great job in holding Snyder off and was looking to taking the checkers with just three laps remaining. Then....enter a caution at lap 17 when 81D Scott Davis came to a halt in turn four. On the restart, Meinecke maintained his lead but Snyder was not done yet. As the field took the white flag, Snyder saw his opportunity on the backstretch of that final lap, snatched the lead, and got to the checkers flying first.
Following in third behind winner Snyder and second place Meinecke was Joel Bushore, and visiting driver from Mooresville, North Carolina, "The Highside Tickler", Kyle Strickler finished in fourth. Kyle Brown took fifth place. This was Snyder's first victory at the Boone Speedway this year.
Earlier, immediately after the Modified heat races were run, there was a King of the Hill contest. It pitted the top two finishers of the heats. Round 1 saw Kyle Strickler besting Russ Dickerson, Cale Sponsler out ran Jon Snyder and Kyle Brown beat Randy Havlik. Round 2 pitted Strickler and Sponsler. Those two would get together as they got to turn one after taking the green. Since the green was still out, Strickler got going again, but Sponsler opted for the infield, giving Round 2 to Strickler. Brown had drawn the bye, so the final round was Strickler versus Brown. Strickler would take home the Harris Racing sponsored event and the $500 top prize.
The IMCA Stock Cars saw the winner lead from start to finish. Ty Hill captured his first win at the track in a couple of years, as he held off Marcus Fagan at the checkers. Fagan made a late race pass around brothers Wayne and Jerry Gifford who took third and fourth. Fifth went to Jay Schmidt who searched the bottom of the track for a while, while all the rest of the field was freight training along the top. He later put his ride up top as well and got a top five finish.
The final of the evening was the 12-lap IMCA Hobby Car A main. The familiar #78 of Shannon Anderson took the lead by lap three from his eleventh starting position, and had no trouble in taking another win. Early racing was 4-wide on the backstretch as they searched for second through fifth spots. Tyler Pickett won the war in that, getting to second and keeping it to the finish. Curt Reed, who had started in row five beside Pickett, took the third spot, followed by Dustin Tapp in fourth and Matthew Sorenson in fifth.
It was great to see so many people at the track last night, enjoying the races. Hopefully some of those first timers saw what a great sport we enjoy and will come back again and again. Thanks to Boone Speedway for the fan appreciation night and the free admission to the grandstand. Happy racing!
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