Boone Speedway held its season points opener on Saturday night as the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, IMCA Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, and for the first time running under the IMCA banner, the IMCA STARS Mod Lites, as they all began their quest for a track championship. It was another chilly, and windy night, a much lighter crowd than last week's Frostbuster, but 171 race cars checked in for racing fun.
The IMCA Stars Mod Lites kicked off feature racing with their inaugural IMCA sanctioned 15-lap main event at the track. Five yellow flags would wave as the drivers tried to get into a good rhythm. Jon Braathun led the opening laps, only to have Cody Yaw take over the top spot by lap four. Yaw's lead would end just four laps later when he and a lap car collided, bringing out a yellow. Second place runner Joel Huggins inherited the lead for the restart, and would go on to be in command the remaining laps and take the checkers ahead of Josh May. Tenth place starter Randy Bryan crossed the line in third place, Mike Kennedy in fourth, and early leader Jon Braathun in fifth. However, Huggins was disqualified after a post race inspection found his body not meeting the spec requirements...the body was too wide. This handed that inaugural IMCA sanctioned win over to Josh May.
Chad Ryerson would lead all 18 laps of the IMCA Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod feature on his way to the checkered flag. Ryerson started on the outside pole and had no trouble keeping his competition at bay on his way to victory lane. Shawn Harker, Nebraska City, Nebraska made the trip over to Iowa's Action Track and took home the runner up spot. Third went to defending track champion, and last week's Frostbuster winner, Johnathon Logue. Dustin Lynch, and Michael Johnson, Bakersfield, California, completed the top five. Forty-four SportMods checked in to the pits.
Tim Ward took home the win in the IMCA Modifieds. He wrestled the lead away from Jimmy Gustin at lap eleven and pulled away to take the comfortable win. Nick Roberts finished a distant second, and Santa Maria, California's Dylan Thornton was third. Jimmy Gustin was fourth, and Jeremy Mills just beat Joel Bushore to the line as they finished fifth and sixth respectively. Ward is the defending track champion.
A little twist was thrown in to the Modified feature, when Ricky Thornton, Jr. (no, he was not even there!) decided to offer up $500 to any of the top twelve starters in the feature that would go to the tail and win. Well, that got the ball rolling, and by the time the feature event pulled on to the track, more contributors had raised that amount to $2,200! There was just one taker that I noticed, that being Shane DeVolder, visiting racer from Pacifica, California. He was to start fifth in the starting line up, and tagged the field. No one lost their money on this night.
I didn't catch who started the money challenge for the IMCA Stock Cars, but their feature was also a tag the tail, and win $1,400. No one took that challenge that I recall.
The IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars ran a 20-lap feature. Devin Smith started on the outside front row and immediately grabbed the lead....never to relinquish it. Smith was gone and easily outdistanced second place finisher Jeff Mueller. Michael Jaennette, Tommy Fain, Abilene, Texas, and Dan Mackenthun, Hamburg, Minnesota rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks put a night cap on the evening's racing with their 15-lap main event. Michael Smith would also lead this one from start to finish on his way to the checkered flag. Eric Knutson applied the pressure to Smith, looking outside, then inside, but to no avail. Knutson had to be content with the runner up position on this night. Eric Stanton came from sixth starting spot to take third place, fourth went to Bedford, Iowa's Luke Ramsey who started seventeenth, and Jack Phillips finished fifth. Smith is a second generation racer, son of David Smith of the Smith clan from the Lake City, Iowa area.
Unless I missed a track, I believe Boone Speedway was the ONLY track in the state of Iowa racing last night. The weather was just not conducive to drying conditions after the rain, and then the eastern portion of the state was still getting rain into the night. Let's hope for warmer, dryer weather in the upcoming weeks, so area racing can really get going. Regular season racing continues next Saturday night, April, 17. Pits open at 4, grandstands at 4:30, hot laps at 5, and the green flag drops at 6.
Check the calendar at Positively Racing and find a race to attend. Help support the sport we all love, dirt track racing!
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