The 26th annual Harris Clash was Tuesday night at the historic half-mile at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa. There were fifty-two prestigious Modifieds and thirty-eight Northern SportMods on hand on a beautiful night for racing for one of our "must" races of the year. The drivers on hand represented eleven states, Canada, and Australia.
The IMCA Northern SportMod feature honored and dedicated their 20 lap race to Robbie Conway. Conway, who was from Westhope, North Dakota and raced at the Harris Clash last year, recently succumbed to a heart attack while racing. The parade lap for the feature honored him with a "missing man" formation, leaving the pole position open.
Two B mains were needed to complete the SportMod 24 car starting line up. Those winners were Dan Drury and Sam Wieben.
The SportMod 20 lap feature found Austin Luellen and Taylor Musselman sitting on the front row for the start. Luellen would lead the first lap, Musselman muscled to the lead on lap two, and by lap three, Jared VanDeest was the man in charge. VanDeest had started fourth, took to the topside of the track...often his preferred line, and flew to the lead. VanDeest was distancing himself from the pack, when a yellow flew at lap six, bunching the field for the restart. Luellen was still running in the number two spot and Musselman was third. Two laps later, Oskaloosa hot shoe, Curtis VanDerWal, had moved into the picture. VanDerWal had started eleventh and took over the runner up spot on lap eight. He gave chase to VanDeest, looking out and looking in, for a way around. VanDeest wasn't to be denied on this night however, and he took the win by a comfortable margin. VanDerWal had to settle for second, a distant third was Jake McBirnie, fourth was Austin Lullen, and Jake Sachau came from sixteenth starting spot, to finish fifth. VanDeest took home $1,000 for his win.
Ten Modified drivers had qualified through out the year at certain designated tracks, to earn their way into the $500 to win "Dash at the Clash". Those ten drivers were 37 Mike Jergens, 3 Kelly Shryock, 5R Tad Reutzel, 19D Darin Duffy, 26J Joel Rust, 17 Jon Plowman, 62 Hunter Marriott, 1X Chris Abelson, 141 Jeremy Jacobs and 19G Richie Gustin. Two drivers, Duffy and Jacobs were not in attendance, and they were represented by Jeff Aikey and Mike Mashl respectively. Their starting spots for the 10 lap dash were determined by selecting a Frisbee on the front stretch. Joel Rust took the $500 prize. He overtook and passed Abelson for the win late in the race. Rust, who won the Harris Clash one year ago, got to visit victory lane again.
Three B mains were needed for the IMCA Modifieds. Those wins went to Tom Berry, Jr., Tyler Droste, and a last second win by Kyle Brown over Joel Rust.
Finally, it was feature time for the long awaited 26th running of the Harris Clash. The drivers had 25 laps lying ahead of them...the front row starters of Todd Shute and Richie Gustin anxious for the start. Gustin wasted no time in flying to the lead, and once he had it, he wasn't about to give it up. Gustin would lead the entire 25 laps on his way to victory, his first as a Harris Clash champion. Gustin had no trouble in doing so, even through two restarts. Tim Ward finished as the runner up, third went to Ryan Ruter, Hunter Marriott was fourth, and Kelly Shryock started sixteenth, and slipped by eighteenth starter, Joel Rust in the dash to the checkers, as they finished fifth and sixth in that order.
Gustin once again lived up to his nickname, "G" Money. He has been on a roll lately, winning two at Boone Speedway for a total of $2,200 last Saturday night, and tonight's prestigious Harris Clash victory earned him another $2,000.
As we made our way out of the grandstand, the night's finale was a fireworks display that matched any 4th of July display. It went on forever!
We enjoyed our night of racing, sharing it again with racing friends. Our thanks go out once again to Bob Harris for continuing the tradition of the Harris Clash.
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