The July heat and humidity continued on Saturday for racing at the Boone Speedway. Father and son won in the Modified and SportMod divisions, and a driver in the Stock Car class, surprisingly won for the first time this year in what turned out to be a dandy of a three car shoot out.
Mod Lites ran their feature first and it was Chargin' Charlie Brown with the win. Brown led by lap two after passing Justin Rankin, and he would then sail home to the victory in the caution free race. He won comfortably over Cory Sauerman in second, Josh May, point leader, in third, last week's winner Bryan Zehm in fourth, and Randy Bryan in fifth. This was Brown's second win of the year.
The IMCA Northern SportMods had Curtis Veber and rookie Cory Pistotnik leading the pack of cars in the first couple of laps. Eighth place starter Jonathan Logue was quick to throw his hat into the ring and by lap four, he was looking for a way around leader Veber. The two raced side by side for a couple of laps with Logue able to take the lead on lap six. Logue began stretching out his lead, looking comfortable with his run at the front. When a yellow flew at lap fourteen, that distance was erased, bunching the cars for the restart. Veber was still holding second place but Brandon Williams and Jake McBirnie had been steadily moving forward, and now running third and fourth. McBirnie quickly took advantage of the closed gap when the race went green, taking over second place, but Veber and Williams hanging tough. Logue wasn't to be denied on this night however, and would continue on to the checkers and the win. McBirnie, point leader, finished as the runner up, and third went to Williams. Fourth and fifth place finishers, Randy Roberts and Doug Smith also took advantage of the late race restart situation to better their finishes. Jonathan Logue won for the third time this year at Boone.
It was the usual 12-lap feature for the IMCA Hobby Stocks. Last week's winner Bryan Keeney, who had earned his first career win, was looking early to repeat. Andrew Burg had other ideas however. Burg quickly took his ride from starting tenth to second to challenge Keeney by lap three. Three laps later, Burg, (known as "the Burglar" and sporting a new look with a masked burglar cartoon on the side) took over the top spot. From there on, he stretched out his lead and took the easy win. It was a different story behind him however! There was a pack of six cars fighting for all their worth. Keeney was able to hang on to the runner up spot, Eric Stanton increased his point lead with a third place finish, fourth went to Dustin Lynch, fifth was Seth Janssen and a close sixth was Dustin Graham. Burg has scored four wins at Boone this year, including the Memorial Day special.
A few traveling IMCA Modified drivers were on hand that had made the trip in anticipation of running the canceled Harris Clash last Thursday. Kyle Strickler, the North Carolina driver known as the "High Side Tickler", Tim Ward out of Gilbert, Arizona, and Jason Batt, from Killeen, Texas were in the house. Two of those drivers, Strickler and Ward had been in the area prior to the scheduled Harris Clash, and had been having successful runs in the area. Last night, not so much.
The 20-lap Modified feature did not get off to a good start when Kyle Strickler and Kent Croskey made it a "no go" as they sat dead in the water due to an incident in turn one. When things did get going, Devin Havlik shot to the lead. Havlik kept the top spot until lap four when veteran John Logue took over. Logue was gone, stretching out a healthy lead until a caution flew at lap sixteen when Denny Pittman spit out a drive shaft.....negating Logue's 4 second lead. The final four laps saw Logue deny any real threats, taking his ride to the checkers and the win. Mike VanGenderen took second after starting ninth, Joel Bushore was third, fourth went to eleventh place starter, Richie Gustin, and Scott Davis was fifth. Jimmy Gustin continues to lead points, but with a 21st place finish last night, the gap is tightening between him and second place Scott Davis.
If anyone left before the final race of the night---the IMCA Stock Cars, you missed a dandy! Once again, the Class too Tough to Tame came shining through. Matt West from Kellerton, Iowa put his ride to the front from his fourth place starting within the first few laps. By lap six, tenth place starter Donavon Smith was on his tail, and eleventh place starter, Jay Schmidt was running third. From there on, those three cars put on a thrilling show for the fans! They raced the rest of the caution free race, in a side by side battle. At times, the only determining factor in positions was determined by the transponders as they crossed the buried finish line. Most of the time, it was the 31X of Matt West showing as leader on the scoreboard, Jay Schmidt sneaked into second place at times, but on the final lap, it was the 35 of Donavon Smith making it to the finish line first, snatching up the win. Schmidt took the runner up spot, maintaining a slim three point margin over Smith in the points battle, and Matt West was third. Not far behind in fourth was veteran Robert Stofer, and first time visitor this season was Todd Reitzler from Grinnell in fifth.
It's back to regular weekly racing next Saturday night, July 25 at the Boone Speedway. Hot laps are 6:45 and racing at 7:30. An announcement was made this past week that the weekly points racing will end with the running of the season championship on August 29th. Then....the following week, September 5, will be an "open" night of racing being called the "Prelude to the Super Nationals". It's expected to have an abundance of drivers in all IMCA classes getting in a little trial run before the Super Nationals begin on the following Monday, Labor Day, September 7. How quickly that time is approaching!
Check out the calendar at Positively Racing for a race you may want to attend in the upcoming weeks. There are more than a few specials in our area. We need to keep supporting the sport of dirt track racing. Thanks for reading.
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