Rust, Shryock, Logue, and Watson nab Prelude wins at Boone

A whopping 323 cars checked in to the Boone Speedway for the running of the Wild Rose Casino and Resort Prelude to the Super Nationals on Saturday night.  Cars from across the U.S., Canada, and Australia came to test the waters prior to the start of the upcoming 37th running of the IMCA Super Nationals starting on Labor Day Monday, September 2.  Despite the many out of area drivers, local racers captured the wins in all four classes.

The IMCA Northern SportMod twenty-five feature was led from start to finish by Johnathon Logue.  Logue weathered two caution flag restarts to take the victory.  Tyler Soppe chased Logue the entire distance to finish as the runner up.  Jake Sachau was third, Joe Docekal started fourteenth and finished fourth, and Austin Schrage moved from eighth to finish fifth.

The IMCA Modified twenty-five lap feature went to Joel Rust, a driver who has been on a hot streak in the area as of late.  Rust started sixth, grabbed the lead from early leader Dennis LeVeine, then fended off challenges by Kyle Brown and Jeremy Mills, before pulling away to a sizable lead when he took the checkers.  Kyle Brown took second place, Cody Laney came from twelfth to finish third, Kelly Shryock started tenth and finished fourth, and Richie Gustin was fifth after starting fifteenth on the field.  Jeremy Mills who was running in third place on the white flag lap, had his vision of a good finish disappear when he slipped high in turn four as the checkers awaited, and fell back to finish eleventh.

The twenty-five lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature went flag to flag.  John Watson took the win after passing Hays, Kansas racer Tathan Burkhart on lap eighteen and held on to take the win.  Burkhart was the runner up, Dylan Nelson ran at the front of the pack all race and finished in third place, Worthington, Minnesota's Malik Sampson was fourth after starting eleventh, and Chuck Madden completed the top five.

The night cap was twenty-five laps of IMCA Stock Car racing.  The early portion of the race saw Devin Smith, Jay Schmidt, and last year's Prelude winner Andrew Borchardt putting on the show up front for the fans.  Schmidt managed to nab a brief run as captain of the ship until veteran racer Kelly Shryock came into the picture and took command on lap fifteen.  From there on Shryock pulled away from the pack and scored the comfortable win.  Jay Schmidt was second, third went to Andrew Borchardt, Troy Jerovetz finished fourth from his twelfth place starting spot, and Devin Smith was fifth. The race went caution free.

Monday, September 2 is the start of the six day run of the 37th Speedway Motors IMCA Super Nationals. On tap will be the Deery Brothers Summer Series with a full show, and qualifying for the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks and IMCA Karl Kustom Northern SportMods.  The green flag flies at 2 p.m.  With over 800 pre-registered cars for the week long show it looks to be another outstanding event....one that is like a "happening" you will never forget.  If you've not had a chance to attend, it should be a must for any dirt track fan.  "South" Boone is alive and well again for the annual event, with RV's everywhere!  We will be here for the duration....our 32nd straight year of the Super Nationals and we are so looking forward to it all...the races, festivities, and of course, racing friends we catch up with each year, sharing our love of dirt track racing.  Here we go!!