Saturday night found the pits packed at the Boone Speedway with 147 race cars that put on another great show for the big crowd on hand. Two drivers left with their first wins of the season, while three others came away with repeats from earlier.
One of the drivers getting his first ever win at Boone Speedway came out of the Mod Lite division when Joel Huggins took the checkers. Huggins led the entire 15-laps on his way to victory. Josh May started eighth and took the runner up spot after getting around third place finisher Mike Kennedy in the closing laps. Randy Bryan just held off Bryan Zehm at the finish line, as they went fourth and fifth respectively.
Jake McBirnie found his way back to the winner's circle in the IMCA Northern SportMod 18-lap feature event. McBirnie started in the eighth position and by lap three, had the lead. From there on, he was captain of the ship, taking the comfortable win. Chad Ryerson came from thirteenth starting spot to finish second. and tenth place starter Jonathon Logue, was third. Fourth went to pole sitter Bill Wears, and first time visitor Colby Fett from Thompson, Iowa started twelfth, and rounded out the top five. This was McBirnie's seventh win of the season.
Jon Snyder took the win in the 20-lap Modified A main, but it was a drawn out affair with many yellows marring the feature event. The field finally found their racing rhythm, but not until a handful of cautions had flown with just five laps in the books. By that time, Snyder had made his way to the front of the pack and from there on, never relinquished the spot. He finished well ahead of second place Denny Pittman. John Logue started tenth, and finished third, Josh Truman was fourth, and point leader Mike VanGenderen was fifth. Snyder also won on season opening night.
Veteran competitor in the IMCA Stock Car class, Kevin Opheim, paid the Boone Speedway a visit, and found it to his liking in winning the 20-lap feature. Opheim, who is from Mason City, Iowa had to wrestle by Trent Murphy after dueling lap after lap, talking command with just three laps remaining. He held on to take the checkers and the win. Murphy had to be content with the runner up spot. Finishing a distant third was Robert Stofer, fourth went to Josh Daniels and visiting driver David Brandies from Wilton, Iowa, started twentieth and was fifth.
John Watson repeated his win from last week in the 12-lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature. He was able to finally get around leader Aaron Rudolph, who had led the entire race, with just two laps remaining, and secured the victory. Rudolph held second place, third went to Tyson Overton, point leader Eric Stanton was fourth, and Seth Janssen completed the top five. This was Watson's third feature win of the year.
We heard from some of the locals last evening, that Boone had been dumped on the previous night with a deluge of rain. Thanks to the great drainage system of the track, it was groomed and ready to go. A pesky dip did keep appearing in corner one, but the "green machines" kept it in check as they made an appearance every few heats early on. By feature time, we did not notice the dip.
Several area and beyond tracks were rained out last night, adding to the big car count. Some tracks are also done with their season. We noticed several racers from the Sioux City area as well as drivers from Nebraska, Missouri, and Minnesota. Of course, more cars keep showing up about this time every year as they want to do a little testing before Super Nationals. Some of the out of town racers were Dave Plowman from Omaha, Nebraska in the Stock Car class, Brad Whitney from Trenton, Missouri has been coming the last couple of weeks and last night he was joined by fellow Missourian's Greg Kevhn in the Stock Cars, and Erik Maggard from Springfield, who was competing in the Modified division.
Dan Menk from Franklin, Minnesota raced his IMCA Modified as did Trent Loverude from New Ulm, Minnesota. Two California racers, who called Iowa home during the summer, were also in the house...the 174 of Ethan Dotson and 11L of Cody Laney have both done well piloting their IMCA Modifieds around the state, and Arizona native Tim Ward (4TW) was also racing his Modified. There were some real hot shoes in the Stock Car division as veteran racer Johnny Spaw (00), David Brandies (71B), Kevin Opheim (44K) and Randy Brands (271) came to play. Both Opheim and Brands are former Super National's champions. Several northwest Iowa racers made the drive to the Boone Speedway last evening. Dustin Smith, Dave Smith, and Daniel Smith drove from Lake City, Iowa to join their brother Donavon Smith (who races weekly at Boone) for some fun.
Next Saturday, August 27 is Season Championship night...drawing to a close the weekly point's racing. Most of the championships are all wrapped up except for the Hobby Stock class where Dustin Graham has a LONG shot at catching Eric Stanton. Mike VanGenderen wrapped up the Modified track championship, Stock Cars will have Donavon Smith winning, Jonathon Logue will be the SportMod Champion and Bryan Zehm has the Mod Lite title.
The following Saturday night, September 3, is the second "Prelude to the Super Nationals" show...a draw/redraw format, which will only allow cars to race that have pre-entered this year's Super Nationals. Then, on Monday, September 5, the 33rd running of the IMCA Super Nationals will start...and the madness shall begin!
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