The IMCA Super Nationals are in sight, and the drivers are already prepping for the 38th annual event. Two hundred twenty-eight cars packed the pits on a night that included an IMCA Sport Compact shakedown along with all of the regular classes. Thirty-two Modifieds, 45 Stock Cars, 47 SportMods, 50 Hobby Stocks, 22 Sport Compacts, 18 Mod Lites, and 14 two-person Cruisers!
Jake McBirnie would earn his first win in an IMCA Modified, Donavon Smith made it three in a row in the IMCA Stock Cars, and Johnathon Logue repeated his win from last week in the IMCA Northern SportMod class. Mike Smith took the checkers in the IMCA Hobby Stock division, and Jake Benischek got geared up for next month's Super Nationals by winning in the IMCA Sport Compacts. Cody Yaw was a happy camper when he got his first career win under his belt in the Mod Lites. The two-person Cruiser feature, the last to be run during Patsy Cline's "Walking after Midnight" played by Jerry Vansickel and Ryan Clark (they too were gearing up for the upcoming Super Nationals) was a bit more chaotic than usual with so many cars that this week included full sized cars! All I can tell you is that the full sized version was won by the #6M piloted by the duo of Makiley and McKenna Pesicka. This was the last week for the Cruisers.
Cody Yaw was the happy recipient of the trophy and a visit to victory lane in the My Race Pass Mod Lites. Yaw led the early portion of the 15 lap race only to be passed by Jon Braathun and Mike Kennedy as the race came down to the final lap. However, a tangle and subsequent penalty to both drivers as the race ended, handed the win over to third place running Yaw. Bryan Zehm was awarded the runner up spot, coming from fourteenth starting spot, Randy Bryan, Ben George, and Tanner Gannon completed the top five. This was Yaw's first career win, and though he mentioned in the post race interview, it wasn't exactly the way he wanted to get it, he was happy to have the first win out of the way.
Johnathon Logue found the winner's circle again in the Elmquist Towing IMCA Northern SportMod 18 lap A main. He put his ride to the lead on lap seven, and then never looked back. Dusty Lynch chased the winner across the line to finish as the runner up. Colt Nelson took third, Tyler Titus was fourth, and Hunter Longnecker was fifth. Hard charger was Adam Birck, Canton, Missouri who started twentieth, and finished sixth. Logue matched his win from last week, and took his fifth win of the season.
The Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compacts were in town for their shakedown to the upcoming Super Nationals. Mitchell Bunch and Jake Benischek put on a good battle as they fought for the lead. Benischek finally claimed it as his own, and went home to the flying checkers in the fifteen lap contest. Bunch would trail the leader across the line to finish second. Kaytee Devries made the trip down from Spencer, Iowa, started twelfth and took third place. Hunter Patrick, St. Charles, Iowa, and Curtis Masterson, New Virginia, Iowa rounded out the top five. Benischek, who lives in Durant, Iowa in far eastern Iowa, made the trip worthwhile by taking the checkers.
Jake McBirnie grabbed the lead from Joel Bushore with a handful of laps in the books in the 20 lap main event for the D & E Outside Services IMCA Modifieds. Just a lap later, it was twelfth place starter Joel Rust who was challenging him for the lead. The two would swap the top spot back and forth for several laps until Rust was suddenly pulling into the infield with issues. McBirnie then pulled away from the field, and took the win well ahead of second place Nick Meyer. Bushore took third place, fourth went to thirteenth place starter Tim Ward, and Cory Sauerman was fifth. This was McBirnie's first ever win in the Modified class after jumping up from the Northern SportMod division.
Jesse Smith led the field in the early going of the Arnold Motor Supply IMCA Stock Car 20 lap contest. However, it was another Smith,....Donavon Smith, that would be standing in victory lane at the end. Donavon, who started twelfth. pulled away in the closing laps to take his third win in a row, and his fifth at the track this year. Kyle Everts finished as the runner up, Jeff Mueller was third, Troy Jerovetz took fourth place, and Tyler Pickett was fifth.
The Pickett Salvage IMCA Hobby Stocks ran their 15 lap feature next with sixteen year old Mike Smith paying a return visit to the winner's circle and getting a shiny new trophy as he begins his collection. Smith would finish comfortably ahead of runner up Curt Reed. Solomon Bennett took third, Eric Knutson started tenth and finished fourth, and Seth Janssen was fifth. Smith is the son of David Smith who drives an IMCA Stock Car, and of the well known Smith clan out of Lake City, Iowa.
It was good to get away and enjoy a night of racing...a reprieve from the chaotic week we, and much of Iowa, endured with the derecho that hit hard on Monday. Who knew that we would be adding two new words to our vocabulary in 2020...derecho ( a line of intense, widespread, fast-moving windstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized with damaging winds) and then of course, Covid! The derecho hit our town of Grinnell hard! As I write this mid-day Sunday, tomorrow, just before the noon hour, will mark one week that our neighborhood will be without power. Some of the town has power, even close by, and one side of the street has lights, the other, still dark. The town has rallied to provide food, shelter, hot showers, etc. to those in need. Many pulled out their grills, and began cooking frozen items that would be spoiled, and giving meals away, as did a couple of our local restaurants. Cell phone service was sporadic and poor. Now the destruction....it has been extensive! We are one of the very fortunate ones and thank our lucky stars and feel very, very grateful. All we had were a few limbs, and many, many sticks down in our yard, a twisted DISH satellite, and a tiny piece of decorative siding above our garage door that was a bit pulled loose. Even more fortunate, we have a whole house generator that kicked in automatically after about ten seconds, and has been running constantly ever since. Thank goodness for natural gas! Neighbors have used our plug ins to power their devices and we have offered shelter, etc. as well. Piles of trees and branches line every street as we await pick up the city will provide. People have lost so much food from their refrigerators and freezers, and the city has a place that those spoiled items can be discarded. For a bit, there was no way of obtaining food, nor gas, until a few places got back up and running, or partially functioning. Many had to journey to surrounding towns for provisions. But...we are Iowans! We are strong and resilient, and even the farmers....who have lost so much of their corn crop....fields completely flattened, buildings demolished, and livestock lost, we go on! It seems as though the media hasn't really noticed much about our "inland hurricane" nor do they seem to care. Wait until they can't get that food on THEIR tables, and then we will hear about it. Okay...off my soap box.
We were certainly surprised to find that we had internet up when we returned home last night! So evidently things are progressing our way, and power may be back on before too long. Our last check of the Alliant outage map, was a proposed Tuesday or Wednesday time frame. However, we feel blessed...we have continued to be comfortable with lights, a/c, etc. the entire time. The neighbors lost many trees, some damaging their homes, and one lost a partial roof. It was repaired and the entire house re-shingled in four days.
Stay strong, those of you who were impacted by the storm....it traveled 100's of miles and was very wide. This was just another blip in 2020 along with the Covid epidemic. It was good to get away at the races last night, and if possible during these trying times, it just may do you good to seek out a race to attend and forget your woes for a bit. The Marshalltown Speedway was hit by the storm and their racing program is on hold for the moment. Boone Speedway had very little damage, but we did notice a couple of sponsor signs blown away! Once again, stay strong, and let's all get through this together! Iowa strong!
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