After suffering three straight weeks of rain outs, and their only race of the year being the Frostbuster special back on April 8, the Boone Speedway finally got its regular season of track points racing underway on Saturday night. Joining the regular weekly classes were the Outlaw Mini Mods. Many area tracks were rained out from the previous night's rain, but not Boone Speedway. Their great drainage system and top notch track prep, produced a great racing surface last night. One hundred fifty-seven cars put on a full night of racing action for the fans.
The IMCA STARS Mod Lites ran their 15 lap feature first. Randy Bryan had a bit of luck on his side with his win in the contest. He passed early leader Ben George on lap four to take over the number one spot, but was docked two spots for a jump on the start. He pulled away from the field then, and though running out front, was only being scored in third spot. Luckily for him, a yellow flew at lap seven which realigned him in third spot for the restart....running behind George in first place and Bryan Zehm in second. He immediately was up to pester George, and on lap thirteen, had the legitimate lead. He held it then to the flying checkers and win #1 for the year. Ben George held on to the runner up spot, Josh May placed third, Bryan Zehm was fourth, and it was Jason Toppenberg completing the top five.
Next up was 20 laps of racing action for the IMCA Friesen Performance Northern SportMods.
Danny Fye, Boxholm, Iowa would lead all 20 of those laps on his way to his first ever feature win. He had to hold back the advances of Cole Fenske in the closing laps, but succeeded in capturing his first ever victory. Following second place Fenske was hard charger and fifteenth place starter Braden Richards in third. Fourth place went to pole sitter, Jessiah Taylor, and fifth was Taylor Kuehl, who started tenth.
It's always great to see a driver get his first career win and see how excited they are in Victory Lane. Unfortunately, due to a wet and muddy infield due to all of the rain the previous night, the fans did not get to see that moment. Congratulations to Danny Fye on that first ever win.
The IMCA Friesen Performance Modifieds were brought to the track next for their 20 lap main event.
Johnathon Logue looked to be a runaway winner in this contest, but bad luck stepped up and bit him as he sailed along out in front of the field of cars. A lap car spun, and came to a halt in turn one, right in front of the leader, and with no where to go, contact was made. A stop on the track under yellow would delegate Logue to the tail on that fateful lap seventeen, and rather than going to the tail with just three laps remaining, he exited the track.
This put second place running, and eighth place starter Todd Shute to the point position. Shute, who had been chasing Logue for much of the contest, would then go on to score the victory. Jake McBirnie scored a second place finish after starting eleventh on the field. Twelfth place starter Jeremy Mills placed third, fourth went to thirteenth place starter Jimmy Gustin, and Paul Nagle came from fourteenth to score fifth place.
"The Class too Tough to Tame", the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars ran a 20 lap feature, and it was Johnathon Logue getting his revenge satisfaction from his disappointment in the Modifieds, taking the win in dominating fashion.
Logue started in third place, ran down then leader Troy Jerovetz on lap four, and never looked back. He pulled away convincingly from the rest of the field in the caution free race to take the dominate win. Trailing a distant second was Jerovetz, a distant third was Kyle Everts, who had to fend off a close battle with Scott Davis in fourth, and Clint Wendel in fifth.
The Outlaw Mini Mods joined the regular classes as an added attraction of the evening, bringing 20 cars to compete.
Logan Brown, Clear Lake, Iowa battled by Ben Kraus, Kanawha, Iowa on the outside to nab the lead late in the race and held him off at the checkers to score the victory. Following second place Kraus was Kamdyn Haggard, Humboldt, Iowa in third place, early leader Chase Daniels, Carlisle, Iowa was fourth, and Dalton Faber, Burt, Iowa was fifth. It took a bit to get this feature completed as the tiny-tired cars were often spinning.
The night cap was 15 laps of IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock racing....which may have been the most exciting racing of the entire night.
Most of the race saw youngster Mike Smith dogging leader Solomon Bennett. No amount of pestering seemed to fluster Bennett as he held on to his lead. However, the youngster had something up his sleeve in the closing moments. He threw a "White Castle slider" out of turn three on the final run to the checkers, and stuck it coming out of turn four to snatch the win. Bennett had to settle for the runner up spot. John Watson ran third most of the race, and finished in third, Skylar Pruitt finished fourth, and it was Chad Rigby taking fifth.
Next Saturday night, May 13, the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks will join the five regular IMCA weekly classes. Pits open at 3:30, Grandstands at 4:30, Hot Laps are 5, with racing at 6.
We watched lightning flashing to our southeast on our drive home, and drove through some pretty dense fog at times. Mother Nature just had to show her hand again.
Find a race to attend, and keep supporting the sport we all love....dirt track racing!
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