Boone Speedway was back in action on Saturday night for their weekly racing series with 161 cars checking in for some fun. Thanks to Sauerman Trucking, all heat winners got $50. There were storm clouds in every direction last night, some lightning in the distance late in the evening. Everyone was checking radar on their phones, but luckily no rain ever fell at the track.
Todd Shute nabbed his second feature win of the year in the IMCA Friesen Performance Modified class, and Nick Roberts made it to Victory Lane for the first time in taking the checkers in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. It was Jake Sachau seeing the winner's circle for his first regular season victory in the IMCA Friesen Performance Northern SportMods after just winning at the Eve of Destruction on July 4th in a non-track points race. Making it to Victory Lane for the first time ever at Boone was second generation racer Dayton Ullrich in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, and Charlie Brown was an easy winner of the IMCA Stealth STARS Mod Lites.
Feature racing kicked off with the Mod Lite 15 lap A main, presented by Carquest Auto, Truck and Farm.
Charlie Brown started fourth, and quickly made his way to the lead by the time the first lap was scored. It was smooth sailing for Brown in the rest of the caution free race as he pulled away and easily took his second feature win of the year. Polesitter Scott Bailey chased Brown the entire race from a distance and finished as the runner up. Joe Glick came from seventh starting spot to take third place, it was Josh May coming from ninth to take fourth, and eleventh place starter Austin Gray rounded out the top five. Brown, who just returned this season after some time off from racing was a happy camper and pleased with his ride that was, "fast right out of the box".
It was 18 laps of Northern SportMod feature racing, presented by Elmquist Towing, next.
Roland, Iowa's Chris Webb led through lap eight when the yellow flew. It would be his undoing as when the race restarted, Jake Sachau, who started twelfth and in fifth place when the caution came out, was on it immediately when the race returned to green. By the following lap he was leading. Sachau would easily weather another yellow at lap fourteen, and pull away in the final circuits to take the comfortable win....his second in three days at the track after having won the 4th of July non-track points race at the speedway. Ironically, it was also ten years to the day that he had won his first ever SportMod feature at the very same place. In his post race interview, he said he, "loves this place and running the topside". Dusty Masolini sliced through the field from tenth starting spot to take second place, third went to ninth place starter Cory Pestotnik, Randy Havlik was the hard charger of the race, starting nineteenth and finishing fourth, and Eddie Ingram, Kansas City, Missouri came from sixteenth place to finish in fifth.
The IMCA Modifieds ran 20 laps in their feature race, presented by D & E Outside Services.
It was third time's the charm in getting the race started after two yellows flew before the first lap was scored. When it did get underway, Mike VanGenderen was at the helm and was still leading when caution #3 waved. When things got back underway, Ridgeway, Missouri racer Kaden Cochran got around the leader, and Jimmy Gustin followed to take over second place. Cochran had company close behind in Gustin, Ron Lauritzen, and now Todd Shute had made his way from twelfth starting spot, to run in fourth. Early contender VanGenderen pulled to the infield with mechanical issues putting him out of the game as Cochran continued to lead with Shute now on his tail. With a handful of laps still remaining, Shute got around Cochran and took the helm. The final laps saw Shute pull away to go home to the flying checkers, and seal his second victory of the 2024 season. Cochran finished a distant runner up. Some "rubbin' is racin'" was in the mix further behind and in the end it was Johnathon Logue taking third after starting tenth, fourth went to Jake McBirnie who bettered himself twenty positions, and Ron Lauritzen rounded out the top five.
Stock Cars came next for their 20 lap A Main, presented by Boone Moose Lodge.
Jeff Mueller appeared destined to go to Victory Lane after taking the lead on lap four as he hugged the corners, his preferred line. Nick Roberts had worked his way from starting seventeenth to catch the leader at lap fourteen and was weighing his strategy on how to get around the leader. After taking the white flag, Roberts somehow nosed under Mueller in corner two with a little door rubbin', and took the lead on the backstretch and made it to the checkers first for the win. Devin Smith and Donovan Smith were also able to get around Mueller in the closing moments as they went second and third respectively, with Mueller, a not too happy fourth, and Bob Daniels taking fifth. Nick Roberts marked his first win at the track this year in the race that went flag to flag.
The IMCA Hobby Stock 15 lap feature, presented by Pickett Salvage concluded the night's racing.
After the initial start was yellow flagged, it was Jimmy Johnson, Cherokee, Iowa hot shoe taking advantage of his pole starting spot as he flew off into the lead. Meanwhile, it was young Mike Smith ripping the lip on the topside after starting eighth, and by lap four he had the lead. Smith led easily for the next four laps, until a flat tire would put him out of the game. Two laps later, it was second generation racer and tenth place starter Dayton Ullrich, Kiron, Iowa taking over the lead from Johnson. Ullrich would then keep that lead the rest of the contest and take home his first ever win at the track. Johnson finished in second, fifteenth place starter Joe Doran finished third, Solomon Bennett was fourth, and Josh VanCannon was fifth. The race continued caution free after the initial yellow before lap one was scored.
As we made our way out after the races, we noticed a change in direction of the wind, and noticed some lightning as we neared Ames. Ames is where we ran into rain.....and we never ran out of it until we were a mile from home! We both said it was the worst rain we had ever been in! It was torrential, bright lightning in the face, and hard to see lines on the road! Evidently it was just following Hwy. 30, as it never let up! When we reached Marshalltown, we pulled off and sat at a gas station until it let up a bit. It still wasn't great as the rain continued to fall, and sometimes we ran into waves of it. Luckily, we were able to follow a race hauler the last part of our trip that helped a lot! When we went under a viaduct about a mile from home, the rain stopped! We drove through inches and inches of rainfall, and at home, our rain gauge measured .2! Crazy Iowa weather continues. We NEVER want to drive through a rainfall like that again!
Find a track to support, and help keep the sport we all love....dirt track racing....alive and well!
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