With the change of schedule for the Harris Clash, and with a radar that was only lighting up down in our corner of the state, Jean and I loaded up and made the three hour drive up to the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City Tuesday night. The Motor Inn Summer Spectacular featuring IMCA Late Models was on the card and it has been way too long since I have seen the friendly faces of the Pro Track Promotions folks. Al Uhrhammer was one of the biggest supporters of the NKF Tour when we ran it nearly a decade ago and I always enjoyed my trips to Webster City, not only for the great racing, but for the nice people as well.
A lot of hard work went into putting this event on and I learned later in the evening that former IMCA Late Model Tech Director Dick Griffith had a lot to do with it. Of course that was no surprise to me and Dick was one of the first ones to slide in next to me in the grandstand to shake my hand and say “welcome back to Webster City”. This event would pay $2,500-to-win and $300-to-start, plus with lap money being paid out to the leaders each circuit it would be possible to walk out of the rustic half-mile with $3,000. Needless to say, the solid field of twenty-four that pulled in tonight should have all felt pretty decent when they went to the pay window.
The feature race had a hard time getting any kind of flow to it as the caution waved on lap one, two, three, seven, fifteen, nineteen and twenty-four with that last one mentioned being used for a pre-announced ten minute break where crews could do anything but change tires or add fuel. When the green came back out, it didn’t stay out for long as a car spun in turn one on lap twenty-five. Then on lap thirty-three the fourth-place car of Bryan Klein bicycled and rolled hard landing on its wheels in turn one. At this point, with my next workday set to start in nine hours and with a three hour drive still ahead of me, we decided to call it a night. Honestly, I probably would have stayed for the checkers, but two other factors helped make my decision. First was that it was pretty evident that nobody was going to touch Jeff Aikey as he had gone unchallenged during the green-flag segments after starting from the pole, and second, I thought that if I lost any more blood to the mosquitoes I might not have the strength to even walk out to the car, let alone drive home! (Note to self, when a track was completely under water the week before, make sure that you bring bug spray with you)
The racing behind Aikey was fun to watch as we saw several instances of three-wide action and it was great to see Greg Kastli running up front again. This was also my first opportunity to see Jeremy Hodapp wheel a Late Model and he stayed in the front half of the pack through that red flag. I do know that Aikey held on to take the win and the big $3,000 payday and you can visit TapFan’s Tours for the rest of the results.
Support classes offered up some exciting action as well. In the Sport Mods, track point leader Rocky Caudle paced the first eight laps of the twenty-lap main event and on a lap six restart he actually got shuffled back to third momentarily behind Matt Lettow and Scott Davis before passing them right back down the back stretch. Caudle would bobble two laps later in turn three though and spin to the infield handing the lead, and the eventual win over to Davis. Defending IMCA Northern SportMod National Champion Jesse Sobbing was able to put a nose under Davis in turn four on the final lap, but had to settle for second while Lettow, Bob Sutherland and Cayden Carter completed the top five.
In the Hobby Stocks Kyle Schmauss was the early leader before his driveshaft decided to venture out on its own. Robert See, who we saw roll hard at Fort Dodge a couple of weeks ago, had his new ride humming as he took over from there. Brad Ratcliff made a run to the inside of See in turn four on lap nine when suddenly sparks flew from the front of Ratcliff’s car turning him hard right into See. With both cars eliminated this put current track point leader Matt Ring out front and he went on to take the win ahead of Brandon Chaplin, Daniel Krieger, Adam Hagen and Craig Graham.
We also ran into Kevin Babcock as we entered the grandstands and I always enjoy taking a look at his Chasin Racin website to get his views and to check out all of the old pics. Wow, do they bring up a lot of memories, just like seeing all of the names of the HCRSA Hall of Fame members posted around the ampitheater. It was great to see the big black dirt oval once again and, while the show ran a little late, Jean and I both agreed that it was well worth the trip. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m Positive that I don’t like double-file restarts.
I let the radar talk me out of going to Spoon River tonight, so we’ll see if that was a good decision or not. Hopefully we’ll see some of you in Knoxville on Thursday.
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