Sunday, May 14, 2023

Three drivers see their first career wins at Boone Speedway

The Boone Speedway avoided the bad weather rumbling around the state of Iowa on Saturday and the show went on as scheduled.  Three drivers would get their first ever wins.....Chris Burke in the IMCA Northern SportMods, Aron Fye in the IMCA Hobby Stocks, and Shawn Cooney in the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks.  Other winners on the night were Ronn Lauritzen in the IMCA Modified division, Jay Schmidt in the IMCA Stock Cars, and Josh May in the IMCA STARS Mod Lites.  It was the duo of Sean Allen and Max Allen taking the trophy home in the Two-Person Cruisers.

Feature racing kicked off with the 20 lap A Main for the IMCA STARS Mod Lites.

Josh May captured his first feature win at the track this season as he led all but the first two laps of the contest.  Randy Bryan kept on his tail for much of the race, but had to settle for the runner up position.  Riley Clem, the Bakersfield, California driver who is spending his summer in Iowa, came from tenth starting spot, to finish in third place.  Austin  Gray was fourth, and Ben George took fifth.

Summer Anderson and Chris Burke led the field of 24 IMCA Friesen Performance Northern SportMods to the green, with Anderson jumping to the point.  Her night was short lived however, as she suddenly broke on the backstretch on lap two, ending her run.  This put Chris Burke to the lead, as Hunter Longnecker tucked in behind and put on a relentless challenge.  Much of the rest of the race was a near side-by-side challenge as Burke kept his momentum up top, and Longnecker looked for a way under him.  Burke never gave up his advantage though, and would successfully hold off the challenge and see the checkers for the first ever time in his career, after four years behind the wheel.  Longnecker threw everything but the kitchen sink at Burke, but on this night, had to be content with second place.  Third went to eighth place starter Thomas Behle, fourth was Cam Reimers who recovered well after then leader Anderson broke right in front of him, and Dusty Masolini completed the top five. The race went flag to flag on the heavy track.

The IMCA Friesen Performance Modifieds ran their 20 lap A Main next  and this one too, would go caution free.

Ronn Lauritzen, in his Sonic the Hedgehog wrapped hot rod, started on the pole of the race, and would never relinquish that top spot on his way to the flying checkers.  There was a lot of good racing going on behind him though, with Jimmy Gustin getting the runner up spot after battling past third place Doug Smith, Russ Dickerson in fourth, and Brandon Leeman in fifth.

"The Class too Tough to Tame", the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars ran a 20 lap A main next.

Jay Schmidt kept it up top the entire 20 laps... sometimes a quite hairy spot being so close to jumping the "curb", and found Victory Lane.  Several drivers threw challenges at him, but to no avail as he sailed home to capture the win.  Austin Bouzek, Trenton, Missouri took second, just getting by Scott Davis in the closing lap, who was third. Fourth went to Jeff Mueller, and Kyle Everts started eleventh, and finished in fifth. Schmidt commented in Victory Lane, that he was glad to get his old car back that he had sold and bought back.

The Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks made their first appearance for 2023 at the Speedway, running an 18 lap feature event.

Brandon Toftee held the upper hand through the first five laps, holding off Shawn Cooney. Cooney then took command the following lap and would hold that top spot the remainder of the race to score his first ever feature win in a race that would see a green-white-checkered finish.  Brandon Cox would take the number two spot, Toftee took third, and Jared Myers, and point leader, Jeff Johnson completed the top five.

The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks made it one for the books. Another driver, Aron Fye, got that first ever win under his belt in the 15 lap feature contest.

Aron Fye, in his sharp looking #8F, led the 24 car field to green, and would never look back as he went on to the victory. After an initial call back on the start, this race went the 15 laps without a yellow. Andrew Burg took second place ahead of third place finisher, Brian Ashburn.  Seth Janssen was fourth, and tenth place starter John Watson, was fifth. Quite ironically, Aron Fye matched his brother Danny Fye's first ever win from last week in the Northern SportMod division.

There were storms rumbling across the state of Iowa on Saturday. One left a lake in the middle of the Knoxville Raceway when they got torrential rains, but avoided any damage from several tornadoes being spotted in the area. Several other tracks in the state also had to cancel due to rains. Everyone was watching radar at Boone as well, but luckily, no rain or storm caught Iowa's Action Track on Saturday.  Rain had been close however, as we ran into a wet pavement just a couple of miles east of the track as we headed home.   

Races at Boone Speedway continue to have the green flag drop at 6 p.m. The show with seven classes last night, was completed at 9:16 p.m. The early start times of hot laps at 5, and racing at 6, will be in place until further notice.  

Find a race to attend, and help support the sport we all love....dirt track racing.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment