It was evident Saturday night that the season is winding down, many tracks have already concluded their season of racing, and the drivers are heading to the Boone Speedway for some testing for the quickly approaching Super Nationals. There were 168 drivers checked into the five weekly classes, plus six Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks came for some playtime. By the end of the evening, there had been 20 heat races, six B mains and six features completed. More new drivers took home wins as well, adding to a long list of many different winners at the track this year.
The MADCRA Mod Lites were the only weekly class not requiring a B main, but still with a strong field of 23 cars. Travis Stensland led from the get go, of the 15-lapper. He was content to let Mike Kennedy and Randy Bryan hash it out behind him as he stretched out a lead. In the closing laps, Bryan Zehm joined Kennedy and Bryan, and as Stensland easily took the win, it was three-wide behind him as they approached the checkers. Randy Bryan won the battle for second, finishing just ahead of Kennedy in third and Zehm in fourth. Joel Keenan completed the top five. This was Stensland's third win this year.
Bruce Egeland led the early portion of the 18-lap IMCA Northern SportMod feature, but by lap seven, he had Jake McBirnie to contend with. McBirnie, who had started back in ninth, quickly got through the pack and was hounding the leader. McBirnie made it work a couple of laps later, taking over the lead and pulling away. That lengthy lead ended at lap thirteen when Randy Roberts dropped his drive shaft, setting up a restart and tightening up the field. Egeland still ran in second place, and Chad Ryerson and Bryan Johnson had been locked in a battle for third and fourth. When the race restarted, McBirnie simply drove off from the field again, and won by a comfortable margin as the checkers flew. Egeland held the runner up spot, and Ryerson won out over Johnson as they finished third and fourth in that order. Fifth place went to point leader Ben Kates, who had started back in thirteenth spot. This was McBirnie's second win at Boone this year.
There were six of the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks on hand for their second trip to the Boone Speedway in 2014. Carl Knight jumped to the lead from his pole starting position, and it was Kevin Sather following along to tag him in second. Those two drivers raced in the one-two position for the entire race, until they approached the checkers as they came out of turn four. Sather swung to the outside of Knight and just beat him to the checkers first, snatching up the win. Knight had to settle for second, Lou Sipolt had run at the front of the pack the entire distance, and went away with a third place finish. Fourth was AJ Nelson, fifth went to Bret Moyer and Oskaloosa driver Pat Gordin was sixth.
Over half of the 12-lap Hobby Stock feature was led by Ryan Grochala. By lap seven, Cody Gustoff had moved to the runner up position from starting ninth and began pressuring the leader. With just two laps remaining, Gustoff pulled off the pass into first, and then stretched the lead to win comfortably. Grochala finished second, well ahead of Ross Marshall who just held off point leader John Watson for third and fourth, and Andrew Burg took home a fifth place finish after starting tenth. Gustoff won for the first time this year at the track.
Tyler Prochaska got revenge this week by taking the win after his second place finish last week. Prochaska led the entire 20 laps and secured his first win of the year at Boone. A lap fourteen caution worked to Mike VanGenderen's advantage when he restarted the race in sixth spot and shot past cars to finish in second place. Third went to Devon Havlik, fourth was Joel Bushore, who recovered after an early race slip up the track, and point leader, Jammin' Jimmy Gustin took fifth after starting in eleventh place. Prochaska made the thirteenth different winner in the Modified division.
The IMCA Stock Cars started off immediately with three and four wide racing. Veteran Larry Crocheck held down the lead the first three laps, but the #55 of Cory Bushnell was the guy in command at lap four. The tussling up front was furious from there on. "Hotrod" Rod Richards made the move to the point spot by lap six, passing Bushnell and right on Bushnell's tail was Jay Schmidt. A yellow flew at lap eight when Bushnell and Cody Frerichs got together, bringing out a yellow. When things got back underway, Richards was in command, but now Jay Schmidt was in second place. Three cars were going at it three-wide for third through fifth, Jerry Gifford, Donavon Smith and Larry Crocheck. Crocheck was out of the game when he went spinning in turn two, bringing out another yellow flag. On the restart, Richards was having to contend with Schmidt and Smith behind him, all three cars running ever so closely together. Smith briefly got to second around Schmidt, but Schmidt made it back around him to take it back. Just after the white flag flew, Schmidt's car would erupt into a cloud of smoke in turn one, sitting high in the corner out of harms way as the rest of the field completed the race to the checkers. Richard kept that top spot, scoring his first win of the year, Smith took the runner up spot, Wayne Gifford came from sixteenth starting spot to take third, Robert Stofer was fourth, and fifth was eleventh place starter and point leader, Jerry Gifford.
Two regular weeks of racing remain at Boone. Then on Monday, September 1, the 32nd IMCA Super Nationals will begin their six night run. Check www.raceboone.com for more details.
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