I hope to get my chance to challenge the weather tomorrow night when the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models will open its 2016 campaign at the West Liberty Raceway. Temps are predicted to be about five to ten degrees warmer than tonight and the wind shifts to a southerly direction and calms to about ten to fifteen miles per hour. Yes, it will still take every bit of warm weather gear that I have at the ready in the trunk of my car, but it should be a fabulous show at the historic half-mile Saturday night. Plus, I get my first shot at a Simmons Promotions tenderloin for the year! Best tenderloin in Iowa, somebody should enter them into that contest that the Iowa Pork Association has each year as I live a few miles from a former champion and I still prefer the sandwich at the track.
If you went to the races last weekend and survived then you are probably ready for this weekend as well. During his weekly Dirt Late Model Live show Tuesday night Dirt On Dirt's Michael Rigsby described the conditions at Farmer City as some of the toughest that he has ever experienced. Despite the cold temperatures and the strong winds though, the place was packed and the racing looked fantastic for the annual Illini 100. Saturday night's preliminary feature saw nine lead changes in the first ten laps of the race as Ryan Unzicker and Brandon Overton battled it out, but eventually it was Josh Richards who took the lead and the $6,000 win. Richards came back on Sunday to capture the $15,000 finale with Pierce as the runner-up. Scott Bloomquist made the long pull to Farmer City after racing with the Lucas Oil series in Phenix City, Alabama, the night before to finish third, the same position he finished at the East Alabama Speedway behind Jonathan Davenport and Jared Landers. Love him or hate him, you have to respect the effort put in by the veteran driver to make the overnight trip.
As I alluded to in my previous Notebook, I had a little better weather to deal with last weekend as my wife and I journeyed to the Dominican Republic to attend the wedding of our friends' daughter. It was a fantastic trip as not only was the wedding beautiful, but several of our friends as well as our oldest son and his wife also made the trip so there were about sixty of us taking full advantage of an all-inclusive resort. Hopefully some of that warm weather will filter its way into Iowa again soon!
We returned home late Monday and it was interesting to sift through the results of the events that were run over the weekend. Of course only the Frostbuster opener at Osky was able to be completed before the cold front pushed through and it looks like that threat of weather kept the car counts down a bit. The rescheduled events at Marshalltown, Boone and Vinton are set for this weekend.
Sammy Swindell drove A.G. Rains' car to victory in the NSL 360 National race at the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Missouri, on Saturday night collecting the $7,500 top prize and on Sunday night 18-year-old Chris Martin captured the season opener for the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders at 34 Raceway in Burlington. The NSL 360's and the Sprint Invaders were set to run together tonight in Donnellson and the National Sprint League 410's were looking to open their season at 34 Raceway tomorrow night, but as mentioned earlier both shows have been cancelled due to cold and windy conditions. Sprint Car engines don't like the cold! It will be difficult to say the least for either event to be rescheduled without conflicting with Knoxville which opens next Saturday as well as the Jackson Motorplex, the "home track" of the NSL that races on Friday nights. The next event for the Sprint Invaders will be Wednesday May 4th at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
Looks like several of the IMCA drivers who were likely coming to Iowa for the Frostbusters last weekend ended up in Salina, Kansas, Friday and Saturday night for the Salina Speedway's Race Fest.
Jordan Grabouski swept both nights in the Modifieds while North Dakota travelers Jason Wolla, Justin Medler and Jeremy Sorenson all ran in the top ten on Friday night. Wolla ran fifth on Saturday night as well.
In the Sport Mods Daniel Gottschalk was the winner on Friday night with Zach McKinnon from Wisconsin running second. Nebraska's Nelson Vollbrecht was third followed by Tim Echevarria and Ryan Moser from Engelwood, Colorado. That same top five repeated itself on Saturday night in the exact same order.
Shannon Anderson won the Hobby Stock feature at Salina on Friday night and then continued his trip a bit further south to win the regular season opener at Dodge City Raceway Park on Saturday.
Bundle up if you are headed out for a race this weekend and take comfort in knowing the the extended forecast, as of right now at least, is calling for temperatures in the 70's for next weekend. The updated Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model points follow......
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