Thornton three-peats, and Nelson repeats at Boone Speedway

It was a chilly, windy, damp Saturday night at the Boone Speedway, but the racing action was hot, with 150 drivers checked into the pits. It was a bit surprising given the conditions of the day in the area. However, the big race over in eastern Iowa at the Farley Speedway had been cancelled and several of  those that were planning to race for the $50,000 prize, opted to take a run at the Boone Speedway.  Ricky Thornton, Jr. made it three in a row in the IMCA Modified class, and two Smith brothers took wins in the IMCA Stock Car and IMCA Northern SportMod divisions.  Dylan Nelson repeated his win from last week in the IMCA Hobby Stocks, Mike Moore scored his second win of the season in the IMCA RaceSaver Sprints, and Bryan Zehm got back to his winning ways in the Mod Lites.

Charlie Brown led the opening lap of the Mod Lite feature, only to have his night end when he lost a front wheel in turn two. His misfortune handed the lead over to Bryan Zehm.  From then on, Zehm held tight to that top position and motored home to the feature win.  Zehm had a few challenges thrown his way from Travis Stensland, but on this night, Stensland had to be content with the runner up spot.  Eighth place starter, Randy Bryan was third, fourth went to last week's winner, Joe Glick, and visiting driver from Salina, Kansas, Trace Ayers started tenth, and finished fifth. Zehm has been the track champion in the Mod Lite class the previous two years.

Last week, Tyler Inman, captured his first career victory at Boone.  He looked poised to get that second win under his belt as he led the IMCA Northern SportMod feature for the first seven laps.  Doug Smith however, had other ideas. Smith started eighth and took the reins at lap eight, weathered a couple of yellow flag restart situations, and kept that lead to take the flying checkers first.  Johnathon Logue came from ninth to finish second, Jake McBirnie was third, coming from eleventh starting spot, early leader Tyler Inman was fourth, and Austin Luellen came from twelfth to finish fifth.

Thirteen IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Cars were on hand for the racing action. Their feature racing was plagued with cautions. When the checkers finally flew, it was Mike Moore taking the win in the 20-lap event.  Moore, who also won back on April 28th, snatched the lead away from Tyler Thompson with a nifty move on lap thirteen.  From there on, Moore held tight to the top spot and sailed home to win by a comfortable margin.  Thompson trailed a distant second, Newton, Iowa's Ben Wood started eleventh and finished in third, C. J. Houseman was fourth, and Devin Wignall completed the top five.

Cody Gustoff took the immediate lead in the IMCA Stock Car 18-lap event.  He threw off early threats by veteran Robert Stofer and Devin Smith, and then pulled away.  However in the closing laps, it was Smith who finally closed the gap.  He was able to make the pass for the lead with just a couple of laps remaining, and took his first win of the year.  Gustoff held on to take second place over Robert Stofer in third.  Kevin Opheim finished fourth and Cedar Rapids racer, Johnny Spaw, was fifth. Both Opheim and Spaw are making the long hauls on Saturday nights from their home bases of Mason City and Cedar Rapids. Smith matched his brother Doug's earlier win in the SportMod division.

Ricky Thornton, Jr. pretty much has the Boone Speedway figured out.  Thornton, who is a past Super Nationals champion, has claimed the last three features in the IMCA Modified weekly events.  Thornton, who started twelfth, made rapid progress in running down the front of the pack, passing then leader Tony Hofbauer by lap seven.  He then stretched his lead and took the easy win.  Tim Ward came from eleventh to finish as the runner up,  Hofbauer held third, pole sitter David Brown was fourth, and Todd Shute started twentieth, and was fifth.

Earlier in the evening, a 16-car Dirt Dominator race for the IMCA Modifieds was held, pitting drivers head to head for two laps.  When all other drivers were eliminated, it was Joel Bushore defeating Eric Elliott to take the $1,000 prize.

The finale for the evening was twelve laps of IMCA Hobby Stock racing.  Seth Butler led the troops from the start of the race only to have it taken away at lap eleven by Dylan Nelson.  Nelson, who started eleventh, then kept the lead to take the flying checkers.  Butler held on to finish second, Ryan Wells came from seventeenth starting spot to finish third, thirteenth place starter Adam Ayers was fourth, and Todd Bass finished fifth.  Nelson matched his win from last week and has looked strong at all tracks we've been seeing him race.   He is a new driver to us and we understand that he also races, or has raced at both Adel and Indianola tracks, honing his skills.

The weather wasn't the most pleasant yesterday and after being at a rainy soccer game in the morning, and then a windy and chilly soccer game in the afternoon...with a nice buffet brunch thrown in between as a Mother's Day treat...and then the races in the evening, it was a rather long and tiring day.  I was glad to crawl in bed about 2 a.m., only to have a strong rain, thunder and lightning storm plant itself over us!  We had a deluge in a short amount of time!