A Business Decision

When the lights went out on lap eight of the Stock Car feature Monday night at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, I had to make a decision to stay and see how long it would take to get the lights back on so that the rest of the show could go on, or leave and get back home just before midnight. The racing had been pretty entertaining up to that point and the best was yet to come with the USMTS Modified main event to follow the completion of the Stock Car main. It was only 9:15, but with just over a two hour drive still ahead of me and with announcer Tim Trier saying there just wasn't much that they could do but wait, I felt that my boss would appreciate me being wide awake at work the next day so the decision was made and I left. Wouldn't you know it, within fifteen minutes of my departure the lights were back on and the show was concluded just before 10:30, one hour before I crawled into bed to prepare for another day at work. It truly was a "business decision".

As I mentioned the racing that I did see prior to the power outage was pretty entertaining. A nice field of thirty-one Modifieds were on hand for the Monday night show and after the first heat went single file for eight laps, the remaining three heats saw plenty of action. Kenny Wallace was strong as he held off Steven Pfeiffer to win the third heat race. Pfeiffer is from Bowbells, North Dakota, the same hometown as former University of Iowa basketball player Les "Is More" Jepsen.

The Sport Mod feature race saw Jesse Sobbing and Austin Kaplan run side-by-side for several laps as they left the rest of the field way behind. During a lap ten caution period Kaplan dropped from the event with a broken left front and the third place car of Tyler Gross retired with a flat tire. Gross had run the previous six laps with his hood blown up on his windshield area and was probably looking forward to the final five laps once the track official removed it only to have the flat tire occur. Bryan Weyer picked up the challenge on Sobbing and made one last run off of turn four coming to the checkers. Sobbing held on by about three feet at the checkers for the victory with Tommy Killen Jr., Gary Stajcar and Jack Myer rounding out the top five.

The Hobby Stock main event took five attempts and a single-file alignment before they could get a lap in and when the caution waved again a few laps later the checkers flew as well. Only mechanical gremlins would have kept Shannon Anderson from taking the win as he was chased by Rob Allison, Ray Stock Jr., Alan Van Gorp and Kenny Lofthus. Lofthus was involved in the first caution and restarted at the rear of the 22-car field.

Steve Jackson led the first three laps of the Stock Car feature and one lap after he yielded the advantage to Todd Inman, Jackson's motor let go on the front straightaway. The light went out on lap eight and even with some twilight still in the sky on the second longest day of the year, it was too dark to continue. For a full rundown on the show, including a controversial ending to the Stock Car feature as well as the story on the USMTS main, head back to www.PositivelyRacing.com and click on Tapfan's Tours. You can also check the 4D Fan Report as they should have their blog up soon.

We were treated to three fine announcers on the evening as Toby Kruse handled the Modifieds and Bucky Doren and Tim Trier split time on the other classes. Without making Tim feel old, I was telling my son Morgan last night that it was the styles of Denny Wachs (former voice at West Liberty) and Tim Trier that influenced me the most when I started announcing races nearly thirty years ago and I still enjoy hearing Tim whenever I make it up to Des Moines.

Great weekly racing and a bunch of specials coming up over the next several weeks, make sure that you check out the Calendars at www.PositivelyRacing.com