Bright blue skies and much cooler temperatures are greeting all of us here in the area on this Saturday morning and the question now is, just how wet are the race tracks that are scheduled to run tonight?
The rains of Thursday and Friday were persistent and quite heavy in many locations and even though today looks like a perfect day for drying, it just might not be enough for some facilities. I am playing the waiting game for my scheduled stop tonight as the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders Season Championship is scheduled to run at 34 Raceway in Burlington. A 9 a.m. check of the track's Facebook page show no new posts wince Wednesday so I am sure that the Laues and the Parrishes are out assessing the grounds right now to see whether or not they will be able to run after taking one last thunderstorm at ten o'clock Friday night.
Marshalltown will run a double show today for their World Nationals with the "day show" starting at 1 p.m. and the finale starting about an hour and a half following the conclusion of the day show.
The four day Yankee Dirt Classic at Farley will be condensed to just two days as they did get Wednesday's opener in, but following rain on Thursday and Friday it will be one BIG show tonight with action getting underway late this afternoon.
After getting Thursday night's preview in the books, the Friday portion of the ASCS Fall Brawl at the I-80 Speedway in southeast Nebraska was washed out and the Kosiski family will run double features for the 360 Sprints tonight to see if one driver can sweep for a $20,000 bonus.
The Peoria Speedway's first ever Fall Classic lost its Friday night opener as well and they will follow up tonight with a full show featuring the UMP Modifieds racing for $10,050-to-win and the UMP Late Models gunning for a $2,000 top prize.
Along with these events and assuming that the tracks can dry out enough for tonight you can catch the Shryock Memorial at Britt, Cheaters Night at Davenport, the first of two nights at Park Jefferson, the World of Outlaws at Deer Creek, the season championship at Clarke County Speedway among several more in the region tonight. We really do live in the best area to be a race fan!!
Hard to believe that we are already seeing some major announcements for the 2016 season!
Al Hejna along with Todd & Janet Staley will takeover the promotional duties at the I-35 Speedway in Mason City obviously changing from the traditional IMCA sanction to USRA. Assuming that the track will continue to run on Sunday nights it does setup a three track swing in the region for the A-Mods with Chateau on Friday and Deer Creek on Saturday as Mason City will dangle a $1,000 top prize for the class. The track will also draw USRA support class drivers from Decorah and Rock Rapids as well as the two previously mentioned tracks so it will be a completely different look at Mason City in 2016.
The GOMUDDY.com National Sprint League's $500,000+ "Cash Bowl" was announced this week and it is a very interesting and innovative concept. I will now look forward to see just how they are going to be able to schedule more than 150 races for next season by December 10th so that drivers can then meet the membership deadline of December 15th.
Positively Racing may have a big announcement soon as well, but I am going to bite my tongue until we have everything set up and linked in on the home page.
I just checked the 34 Raceway page again at 9:40 and still nothing definite, but here's hoping that I see you there tonight! And, if you aren't there, make sure that you attend the track of your choice.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Pierce and Harrison Log Farmer City Wins On a Thursday Night
It has been at least ten years since I last attended a race at the Farmer City Raceway and when an event that had been rained out on September 4th was rescheduled for a Thursday night in mid-September it was the perfect evening to return to the eastern Illinois oval. The track's five weekly divisions would be in action highlighted by a $5,000-to-win Late Model feature, a $3,000 top prize in the Modifieds and even a $1,000 winner's check in the Crate Late Models.
The Crates were the first feature to take to the track come feature time and on the opening lap twelfth starting Chris Reynolds went too high into turn one and then just slowed to a stop to take advantage of one of the worst rules in racing as Reynolds would be given his starting spot back for the "original" restart. Shawn Diggs would race to the early lead with point leader Dakota Ewing in hot pursuit and as the lead duo pulled away I found my attention on the three-car battle for third. With four laps remaining Ewing made a run at Diggs off of turn four, but contact would send the leader spinning down the front stretch where he then collected the lapped car of Reynolds as well as Ewing's challenger for the track championship Russ Adams.
Diggs, who experienced some damage on the right front of his car, would be placed back at the front of the field for the restart while both Ewing and Adams would start from the rear. Ewing for his spin of the leader and Adams for having to go to the pits to change a flat tire.
Once back to action Diggs would lead a lap before yielding to Nick Bauman and it would be Bauman who would celebrate the $1,000 win. Diggs would hold on for second ahead of the Taylor brothers, Matt and Guy, while Jose Parga filled out the top five. Ewing would finish ahead of Adams and would claim the track championship in his first year of racing.
The Summit American Modified Series main event would be up next with 22 of the 33 car field that signed in ready to go green for 35-laps. Devin Gilpin would lead the first two laps, but when he slowed in turn four it would be Allen Weisser who would be scored as the leader of lap three before the caution waved for Gilpin. Kevin Weaver would put Bobby Allen's #292 out front on the restart and on the following lap Weisser, Ray Bollinger and Weaver would go three-wide for the lead in turn four. The battle would have to be put on pause though when North Carolina's Nick Hoffman and local driver Zach Oedewaldt tangled in turn three on lap six.
The field would then have trouble getting restarted as Kentucky's Josh Harris spun in turn one collecting four other cars on the first try and then on the second attempt at a restart Steven Brooks would spin in turn one. Once back to green the race would stay that way the rest of the way as Bollinger applied the pressure to Weaver for the lead. The national UMP Modified point leader Mike Harrison joined the battle with ten laps to go and when Weaver dropped the right rear tire over the top of the front stretch on lap 26 Bollinger would take the lead. It was short-lived though as Harrison would take it away on lap twenty-eight and Harrison would pull away over the final seven laps to secure the win. Weaver would prevail in a thrilling three-wide battle for second while Paris, Tennessee driver Lucas Lee nipped Bollinger at the line for third. Brian Lynn finish in the fifth position.
It was now 10:38 and rain started to fall as Harrison was interviewed in victory lane, but the sprinkles subsided long enough to get the 22-car Late Model field to the speedway for their 35-lap finale. Bobby Pierce had earned the pole position, but the outside row would have the advantage all night on the starts and this one was no different as Brian Shirley raced to the early lead. The caution waved for local driver Curtis Hobbs on lap two and on the restart Shannon Babb shuffled Pierce back to third.
Lapped traffic, especially three much slower cars that created some tense moments as the leaders had to dodge them kept the fans on the edge of their seats as the top three held their positions and when the caution waved again with fifteen laps remaining it put the leaders back in clear space. Pierce would take second away from Babb on the restart and would then go to work on Shirley for the lead. On lap 26 Pierce threw a slider at Shirley in turn three only to have "The Squirrel" come back with one of his own in the next pair of turns. Pierce would come right back on the following lap though and take the lead away from Shirley. That would prove to be the winning pass as Bobby would pull away over the closing laps to take the win. Shirley would have to settle for the runner-up prize on this night while Babb, Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker would come off of turn four three-wide to the checkers crossing the line in that same order.
With the Street Stocks and Hornets still in staging at 11:05 I headed for my car as the announcer interviewed Pierce and the rain started to fall again as I pulled out of the parking lot. Despite being three hours from home I still ran into several friends and acquaintances as we waited for the show to start first talking with Larry Bontz and Mike Sunken before spotting Kevin Babcock, Jack Miles and Gary Lee up in the stands. I think that the four of us were very happy to be staying the night within thirty miles of the track as qualifying got underway more than a half hour after the scheduled starting time.
The racing was good though and how could you not love being at the track on a Thursday night in mid-September!
Here's hoping that the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley can avoid the rain the next two nights. Last year I had the honor of joining Jerry Mackey on the microphone at the Yankee and the offer was there again this year, however I will be with the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders as they run their Season Championship Saturday night at 34 Raceway in Burlington. Tony Shilling holds a one point advantage over Jon Agan going into the finale so it will be an exciting night of Sprint Car action at the three-eighths mile high banks!
Get out and enjoy a special event of your choice this weekend!
The Crates were the first feature to take to the track come feature time and on the opening lap twelfth starting Chris Reynolds went too high into turn one and then just slowed to a stop to take advantage of one of the worst rules in racing as Reynolds would be given his starting spot back for the "original" restart. Shawn Diggs would race to the early lead with point leader Dakota Ewing in hot pursuit and as the lead duo pulled away I found my attention on the three-car battle for third. With four laps remaining Ewing made a run at Diggs off of turn four, but contact would send the leader spinning down the front stretch where he then collected the lapped car of Reynolds as well as Ewing's challenger for the track championship Russ Adams.
Diggs, who experienced some damage on the right front of his car, would be placed back at the front of the field for the restart while both Ewing and Adams would start from the rear. Ewing for his spin of the leader and Adams for having to go to the pits to change a flat tire.
Once back to action Diggs would lead a lap before yielding to Nick Bauman and it would be Bauman who would celebrate the $1,000 win. Diggs would hold on for second ahead of the Taylor brothers, Matt and Guy, while Jose Parga filled out the top five. Ewing would finish ahead of Adams and would claim the track championship in his first year of racing.
The Summit American Modified Series main event would be up next with 22 of the 33 car field that signed in ready to go green for 35-laps. Devin Gilpin would lead the first two laps, but when he slowed in turn four it would be Allen Weisser who would be scored as the leader of lap three before the caution waved for Gilpin. Kevin Weaver would put Bobby Allen's #292 out front on the restart and on the following lap Weisser, Ray Bollinger and Weaver would go three-wide for the lead in turn four. The battle would have to be put on pause though when North Carolina's Nick Hoffman and local driver Zach Oedewaldt tangled in turn three on lap six.
The field would then have trouble getting restarted as Kentucky's Josh Harris spun in turn one collecting four other cars on the first try and then on the second attempt at a restart Steven Brooks would spin in turn one. Once back to green the race would stay that way the rest of the way as Bollinger applied the pressure to Weaver for the lead. The national UMP Modified point leader Mike Harrison joined the battle with ten laps to go and when Weaver dropped the right rear tire over the top of the front stretch on lap 26 Bollinger would take the lead. It was short-lived though as Harrison would take it away on lap twenty-eight and Harrison would pull away over the final seven laps to secure the win. Weaver would prevail in a thrilling three-wide battle for second while Paris, Tennessee driver Lucas Lee nipped Bollinger at the line for third. Brian Lynn finish in the fifth position.
It was now 10:38 and rain started to fall as Harrison was interviewed in victory lane, but the sprinkles subsided long enough to get the 22-car Late Model field to the speedway for their 35-lap finale. Bobby Pierce had earned the pole position, but the outside row would have the advantage all night on the starts and this one was no different as Brian Shirley raced to the early lead. The caution waved for local driver Curtis Hobbs on lap two and on the restart Shannon Babb shuffled Pierce back to third.
Lapped traffic, especially three much slower cars that created some tense moments as the leaders had to dodge them kept the fans on the edge of their seats as the top three held their positions and when the caution waved again with fifteen laps remaining it put the leaders back in clear space. Pierce would take second away from Babb on the restart and would then go to work on Shirley for the lead. On lap 26 Pierce threw a slider at Shirley in turn three only to have "The Squirrel" come back with one of his own in the next pair of turns. Pierce would come right back on the following lap though and take the lead away from Shirley. That would prove to be the winning pass as Bobby would pull away over the closing laps to take the win. Shirley would have to settle for the runner-up prize on this night while Babb, Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker would come off of turn four three-wide to the checkers crossing the line in that same order.
With the Street Stocks and Hornets still in staging at 11:05 I headed for my car as the announcer interviewed Pierce and the rain started to fall again as I pulled out of the parking lot. Despite being three hours from home I still ran into several friends and acquaintances as we waited for the show to start first talking with Larry Bontz and Mike Sunken before spotting Kevin Babcock, Jack Miles and Gary Lee up in the stands. I think that the four of us were very happy to be staying the night within thirty miles of the track as qualifying got underway more than a half hour after the scheduled starting time.
The racing was good though and how could you not love being at the track on a Thursday night in mid-September!
Here's hoping that the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley can avoid the rain the next two nights. Last year I had the honor of joining Jerry Mackey on the microphone at the Yankee and the offer was there again this year, however I will be with the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders as they run their Season Championship Saturday night at 34 Raceway in Burlington. Tony Shilling holds a one point advantage over Jon Agan going into the finale so it will be an exciting night of Sprint Car action at the three-eighths mile high banks!
Get out and enjoy a special event of your choice this weekend!
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Chad Simpson Headlines Governors Cup Opener at Davenport
While the big events in Boone and Eldora will take most of the headlines this weekend, promoter Bob Wagener and the Davenport Speedway will grab a few including this one with the two-night Iowa Governor's Cup. The unique format featured competition on the quarter-mile on Friday while tonight (Saturday) all five divisions will take to the historic half-mile oval at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds.
The Corn Belt Clash Late Models are the featured division and they turned out twenty-one cars for the opener as series point leader Chad Simpson and Davenport's weekly IMCA Late Model track champion Matt Ryan earning the front row for the thirty-lap main event. Ryan was called for a jump on the first try at a start obviously knowing that he needed to do whatever he could to get an advantage on Simpson and when the green flag waved again Chad began his march to a comfortable lead.
As Simpson put up a half lap lead Brian Harris moved to second while my attention was drawn to the moves being made by both Jason Rauen and Justin Kay. Rauen is always a treat to watch whenever there is any kind of a top groove and Kay was working the top line as well with both steadily making their way to the front after starting tenth and eleventh respectively. With five laps remaining Rauen and Kay had closed in on Harris and the battle for second was now a three-car tussle just before the only caution of the race waved on lap twenty-six as Jay Chenoweth and Dave Eckrich tangled in turn four.
As the field was realigned it would be Harris and Kay placed in the first row behind the leader Simpson much to the dismay of Rauen who appeared to be pointing to the scoreboard that still showed him in the third position ahead of Kay.
Remember though, the scoreboard is unofficial.
On the restart Harris, now driving the Roehlk Construction #21H, drove hard to the high side into turn three and pulled even with Simpson, but Chad would find the grip in his favored middle groove to maintain the lead and he would then stretch it out a bit over the final three circuits to take the $2,000 win. Kay was able to slip by Harris in the closing laps to take the second spot, Wisconsin's Paul Parker took advantage of the late restart to finish fourth while Rauen had to fend off Jason Utter to finish in the fifth position.
Even though there are more than 200 IMCA Modifieds in competition three hours west of here, there was still a stellar field of 34 here in Davenport Friday night. After drawing the back of his heat race and racing his way up to fourth to make the re-draw, Bruce Hanford's luck was much better as he pulled the pole position for the twenty-lap finale with veteran driver Rich Smith starting to his right. Hanford would hold the lead in the opening laps as third-starting Brad Dierks applied the pressure and as the leaders came off of turn four to score lap number four Dierks used the high line to take the lead by inches at the stripe.
Those inches were important though later in the lap as Dusty Kraklio and Milo Veloz Jr. collided in turn two to bring out the caution and it would be Dierks at the point for the restart. There would be no stopping the driver from Clarence from there as Dierks cruised to the win comfortably ahead of Hanford. Jeff Morris returned to the driver's seat and drove Todd Reed's #19R to an impressive third-place run, Matt Werner started twelfth and had moved up to fourth before being passed late by Dakota Hayden leaving Werner to fill out the top five.
After winning twenty-one Sport Mod features through mid-August in 2014, Austin Moyer took a step back from the Sport and has only made a handful of starts this year and the success has continued with four wins. So when Moyer drew the front row of the 15-lap Sport Mod feature it looked like this would be a race for second, but obviously the rest of the 21-car field had other ideas. Ross Neal would keep pace with Moyer early and when Austin made a rare mistake by going over the top of turn three on the fourth lap Neal was more than happy to takeover the lead..
The caution waved on lap nine when Keith Silvers spun into the infield in turn four and that would put two perennial winners, Moyer and Timmy Current right on the back bumper of Neal for the restart. Ross was up to the challenge though and maintained his lead, helped out a bit when Current also made a rare mistake driving off the top side of turn two with three laps remaining. Neal would close out the victory in fine fashion forcing Moyer to accept the runner-up money while Jacob Ellithorpe came from the tenth starting spot to finish third. Jacob Waterman, who started beside Ellithorpe on the fifth row, would finish in the fourth spot while Current recovered from his mishap to finish in fifth.
The Street Stocks were the first division to hit the track come feature time and when Keith Blum planted himself on the bottom groove with the lead following the drop of the green you knew it was going to be a tough task to get by him. Nick Clausson gave it a valiant effort though as he was one of the few drivers giving the high line a chance and after starting twelfth he just ran out of laps before he could make a run at the leader. Blum would score the win while Clausson was the show in second, Rob Nylin took third, track champion Perry Gellerstedt was fourth and Joe Bonney filled out the top five.
After starting ninth and winning the heat race it was no surprise that Brandon Setser would lead from flag-to-flag after drawing the front row for the 4 stock feature. Andy Loy would chase Setser all the way to finish second, Sean Fersch took third, Tristan Clark was fourth and Brad Rhoads was fifth.
With the two big events mentioned in the opening paragraph, plus with this being a football Friday night throughout the area I was pleasantly surprised at how large the crowd was on an evening that had a little chill in the air. And as always it was a fun evening sitting with many of my friends who I find at many of the tracks around the area although we were missing Dick and Joyce Eisele who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary while taking in the action over in Boone.
A big thank you to Carrie Rouse and Bob Wagener for the hospitality and with another beautiful night on tap here's hoping that the Davenport Speedway is packed tonight for the finale of the Iowa Governor's Cup on the big half-mile.
Other commitments will keep me away from the track for the remainder of the weekend so I am looking for you to get out there and fill my seat at the racing event of your choice!
The Corn Belt Clash Late Models are the featured division and they turned out twenty-one cars for the opener as series point leader Chad Simpson and Davenport's weekly IMCA Late Model track champion Matt Ryan earning the front row for the thirty-lap main event. Ryan was called for a jump on the first try at a start obviously knowing that he needed to do whatever he could to get an advantage on Simpson and when the green flag waved again Chad began his march to a comfortable lead.
As Simpson put up a half lap lead Brian Harris moved to second while my attention was drawn to the moves being made by both Jason Rauen and Justin Kay. Rauen is always a treat to watch whenever there is any kind of a top groove and Kay was working the top line as well with both steadily making their way to the front after starting tenth and eleventh respectively. With five laps remaining Rauen and Kay had closed in on Harris and the battle for second was now a three-car tussle just before the only caution of the race waved on lap twenty-six as Jay Chenoweth and Dave Eckrich tangled in turn four.
As the field was realigned it would be Harris and Kay placed in the first row behind the leader Simpson much to the dismay of Rauen who appeared to be pointing to the scoreboard that still showed him in the third position ahead of Kay.
Remember though, the scoreboard is unofficial.
On the restart Harris, now driving the Roehlk Construction #21H, drove hard to the high side into turn three and pulled even with Simpson, but Chad would find the grip in his favored middle groove to maintain the lead and he would then stretch it out a bit over the final three circuits to take the $2,000 win. Kay was able to slip by Harris in the closing laps to take the second spot, Wisconsin's Paul Parker took advantage of the late restart to finish fourth while Rauen had to fend off Jason Utter to finish in the fifth position.
Even though there are more than 200 IMCA Modifieds in competition three hours west of here, there was still a stellar field of 34 here in Davenport Friday night. After drawing the back of his heat race and racing his way up to fourth to make the re-draw, Bruce Hanford's luck was much better as he pulled the pole position for the twenty-lap finale with veteran driver Rich Smith starting to his right. Hanford would hold the lead in the opening laps as third-starting Brad Dierks applied the pressure and as the leaders came off of turn four to score lap number four Dierks used the high line to take the lead by inches at the stripe.
Those inches were important though later in the lap as Dusty Kraklio and Milo Veloz Jr. collided in turn two to bring out the caution and it would be Dierks at the point for the restart. There would be no stopping the driver from Clarence from there as Dierks cruised to the win comfortably ahead of Hanford. Jeff Morris returned to the driver's seat and drove Todd Reed's #19R to an impressive third-place run, Matt Werner started twelfth and had moved up to fourth before being passed late by Dakota Hayden leaving Werner to fill out the top five.
After winning twenty-one Sport Mod features through mid-August in 2014, Austin Moyer took a step back from the Sport and has only made a handful of starts this year and the success has continued with four wins. So when Moyer drew the front row of the 15-lap Sport Mod feature it looked like this would be a race for second, but obviously the rest of the 21-car field had other ideas. Ross Neal would keep pace with Moyer early and when Austin made a rare mistake by going over the top of turn three on the fourth lap Neal was more than happy to takeover the lead..
The caution waved on lap nine when Keith Silvers spun into the infield in turn four and that would put two perennial winners, Moyer and Timmy Current right on the back bumper of Neal for the restart. Ross was up to the challenge though and maintained his lead, helped out a bit when Current also made a rare mistake driving off the top side of turn two with three laps remaining. Neal would close out the victory in fine fashion forcing Moyer to accept the runner-up money while Jacob Ellithorpe came from the tenth starting spot to finish third. Jacob Waterman, who started beside Ellithorpe on the fifth row, would finish in the fourth spot while Current recovered from his mishap to finish in fifth.
The Street Stocks were the first division to hit the track come feature time and when Keith Blum planted himself on the bottom groove with the lead following the drop of the green you knew it was going to be a tough task to get by him. Nick Clausson gave it a valiant effort though as he was one of the few drivers giving the high line a chance and after starting twelfth he just ran out of laps before he could make a run at the leader. Blum would score the win while Clausson was the show in second, Rob Nylin took third, track champion Perry Gellerstedt was fourth and Joe Bonney filled out the top five.
After starting ninth and winning the heat race it was no surprise that Brandon Setser would lead from flag-to-flag after drawing the front row for the 4 stock feature. Andy Loy would chase Setser all the way to finish second, Sean Fersch took third, Tristan Clark was fourth and Brad Rhoads was fifth.
With the two big events mentioned in the opening paragraph, plus with this being a football Friday night throughout the area I was pleasantly surprised at how large the crowd was on an evening that had a little chill in the air. And as always it was a fun evening sitting with many of my friends who I find at many of the tracks around the area although we were missing Dick and Joyce Eisele who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary while taking in the action over in Boone.
A big thank you to Carrie Rouse and Bob Wagener for the hospitality and with another beautiful night on tap here's hoping that the Davenport Speedway is packed tonight for the finale of the Iowa Governor's Cup on the big half-mile.
Other commitments will keep me away from the track for the remainder of the weekend so I am looking for you to get out there and fill my seat at the racing event of your choice!
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Fall Specials Will Determine At Least Two All Iowa Points Champions
I am always amazed at how often one driver can dominate a division in the All Iowa Points system and 2015 is one of those years where nearly every class can already pencil in a champion. However, in at least two of the nine divisions, the September and October special events will determine who will be this year's state champion.
Chalk it up for the third year in a row, Justin Kay will be the All Iowa Points Late Model champion as the Wheatland drivers holds a virtually insurmountable 48 point lead over Matt Ryan. This would mean that Ryan would need to win nine features and finish second in one more to surpass Kay, and that would assume that Justin just packs it in for the rest of the season. I'm not even sure if Ryan could find ten more races on the 2015 schedule that he can attend because remember, he can't be two places at once. Kay's trifecta follows up four straight AIP championships by Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Ray Guss Jr.
Despite the fact that his Sunday night track has been shut down for the rest of the season due to an electrical fire, Chris Ableson will win his second straight All Iowa Points Modified championship. Abelson leads former road warrior Kelly Shryock by 95 points heading into September with three new names gracing the top five in J.D. Auringer, Nick Roberts and Jesse Dennis.
Damon Murty jumped out to a big early lead in the Spring before the western Iowa drivers reeled him back in, but Murty has again flexed his superiority by winning on the road in August and appears to be headed for his third straight AIP Stock Car title. Two-time champion Brian Blessington (2006 & 2007) is keeping him honest though only 36 points back and then you have three of the Smith brothers not far back with David in third, Donavon in fourth and Devin trailing Mike Nichols in sixth. Interesting that twelve Stock Car drivers have already surpassed the 100 point mark.
The Limited Modifed division is one of the two where the title is still up for grabs with at least three drivers still in the hunt for the championship. In late July Nick Meyer had charged to the top of this list, however with two straight weeks of rain at Britt and the early closing of Mason City Meyer has now dropped to fourth in the current standings. Tony Olson, who actually won the first race of the season at Donnellson in late March, has surged to the front and now holds an eight point edge over defending champion Clint Luellen. Doug Smith of Lake City is not far back in third, but may have to hit the road in October in order to add another AIP title to the Smith family name as the late season specials are not on tracks that he visits. Meyer who won in March at Beatrice (not an AIP track) still has a shot, but he too will have to hit the road if he wants to catch the drivers ahead of him.
It is not in the bag yet, but Shannon Anderson is a solid bet to earn his fourth All Iowa Points Hobby Stock championship as he holds a 47 point lead headed into September. Anderson previously won titles in 2008 and 2009 before sharing a championship with Devin Smith in 2013. Early leader Austin Luellen is tied for second with Nathan Ballard who has proven equally hard to beat on both dirt and asphalt while Cody Nielsen is only two points behind them in fourth.
Jay DeVries holds a 32 point lead over Cody Thompson in the Four Cylinder standings as both are looking for their first-ever All Iowa Points championship. It's a long shot, but you can't yet count out Kimberly Abbott even though she trails DeVries by 45 points. Many of the Fall specials are held on tracks that Abbott competes at on a regular basis, plus her home track in Quincy still has at least four more nights racing on tap so she could close the gap quickly over the month of September.
In the Sprint Car ranks, Danny Lasoski will set a new mark for the most amount of time between All Iowa Points championships as the 1992 & '93 champ has the 410 title wrapped up. The question now will be whether or not he can eclipse Terry McCarl's record point total of 120 in the 5-point system as Lasoski now sits with 102. The 360 Sprints are the second division where the champion is still in doubt and don't be surprised if Gregg Bakker repeats his title in the same fashion as last year. Bakker is currently four points behind Justin Henderson, but since Henderson really on competes at Knoxville where the sprint car season has ended, Bakker has at least three or four opportunities to overtake the leader. And in the 305's defending champion Clint Benson only has a nine point edge over Matt Moro, but unless Moro ventures out of Des Moines the only threat to Benson's repeat is Trevor Grossenbacher who is 16 back but with only a few events remaining.
2,257 drivers across the nine divisions have earned points this season, yet in at least six of those divisions and perhaps eight out of nine of them we will see a name at the top that has been there before. I find that to be amazing!
For a full rundown of the All Iowa Points visit the Points page at Positively Racing.
Chalk it up for the third year in a row, Justin Kay will be the All Iowa Points Late Model champion as the Wheatland drivers holds a virtually insurmountable 48 point lead over Matt Ryan. This would mean that Ryan would need to win nine features and finish second in one more to surpass Kay, and that would assume that Justin just packs it in for the rest of the season. I'm not even sure if Ryan could find ten more races on the 2015 schedule that he can attend because remember, he can't be two places at once. Kay's trifecta follows up four straight AIP championships by Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Ray Guss Jr.
Despite the fact that his Sunday night track has been shut down for the rest of the season due to an electrical fire, Chris Ableson will win his second straight All Iowa Points Modified championship. Abelson leads former road warrior Kelly Shryock by 95 points heading into September with three new names gracing the top five in J.D. Auringer, Nick Roberts and Jesse Dennis.
Damon Murty jumped out to a big early lead in the Spring before the western Iowa drivers reeled him back in, but Murty has again flexed his superiority by winning on the road in August and appears to be headed for his third straight AIP Stock Car title. Two-time champion Brian Blessington (2006 & 2007) is keeping him honest though only 36 points back and then you have three of the Smith brothers not far back with David in third, Donavon in fourth and Devin trailing Mike Nichols in sixth. Interesting that twelve Stock Car drivers have already surpassed the 100 point mark.
The Limited Modifed division is one of the two where the title is still up for grabs with at least three drivers still in the hunt for the championship. In late July Nick Meyer had charged to the top of this list, however with two straight weeks of rain at Britt and the early closing of Mason City Meyer has now dropped to fourth in the current standings. Tony Olson, who actually won the first race of the season at Donnellson in late March, has surged to the front and now holds an eight point edge over defending champion Clint Luellen. Doug Smith of Lake City is not far back in third, but may have to hit the road in October in order to add another AIP title to the Smith family name as the late season specials are not on tracks that he visits. Meyer who won in March at Beatrice (not an AIP track) still has a shot, but he too will have to hit the road if he wants to catch the drivers ahead of him.
It is not in the bag yet, but Shannon Anderson is a solid bet to earn his fourth All Iowa Points Hobby Stock championship as he holds a 47 point lead headed into September. Anderson previously won titles in 2008 and 2009 before sharing a championship with Devin Smith in 2013. Early leader Austin Luellen is tied for second with Nathan Ballard who has proven equally hard to beat on both dirt and asphalt while Cody Nielsen is only two points behind them in fourth.
Jay DeVries holds a 32 point lead over Cody Thompson in the Four Cylinder standings as both are looking for their first-ever All Iowa Points championship. It's a long shot, but you can't yet count out Kimberly Abbott even though she trails DeVries by 45 points. Many of the Fall specials are held on tracks that Abbott competes at on a regular basis, plus her home track in Quincy still has at least four more nights racing on tap so she could close the gap quickly over the month of September.
In the Sprint Car ranks, Danny Lasoski will set a new mark for the most amount of time between All Iowa Points championships as the 1992 & '93 champ has the 410 title wrapped up. The question now will be whether or not he can eclipse Terry McCarl's record point total of 120 in the 5-point system as Lasoski now sits with 102. The 360 Sprints are the second division where the champion is still in doubt and don't be surprised if Gregg Bakker repeats his title in the same fashion as last year. Bakker is currently four points behind Justin Henderson, but since Henderson really on competes at Knoxville where the sprint car season has ended, Bakker has at least three or four opportunities to overtake the leader. And in the 305's defending champion Clint Benson only has a nine point edge over Matt Moro, but unless Moro ventures out of Des Moines the only threat to Benson's repeat is Trevor Grossenbacher who is 16 back but with only a few events remaining.
2,257 drivers across the nine divisions have earned points this season, yet in at least six of those divisions and perhaps eight out of nine of them we will see a name at the top that has been there before. I find that to be amazing!
For a full rundown of the All Iowa Points visit the Points page at Positively Racing.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Fire and Flight
With its location just across the state line from Sioux City, Raceway Park in Jefferson, South Dakota, is one of our tracks where drivers earn All Iowa Points and is the Sunday night home of defending, and soon to be two-time All Iowa Points Modified champion Chris Abelson. Abelson now has more than a hundred point advantage over his nearest rival, so he could literally sit out the rest of the season and still be the champion, however he is also the current IMCA Modified National points leader and he just lost that Sunday night "home" for the rest of the season.
Following is a post from Greg Golden, promoter at Raceway Park in regard to an electrical fire that occurred during Sunday night's racing action.
"It’s Official.
Raceway Park is closed for the remaining of the 2015 season.
Sunday evening Raceway Park experienced an electrical fire that took out the track lights along with the electric in the concession stands, walk-in cooler and the well. Just two weeks ago we had an electrical problem and had an electrician come out and fix it. Now we’ve had a different panel go up in flames that caused major damage.
After talking with the fire marshal and electricians this will be a timely matter to get things fixed correctly, we will not be able to have things fixed by this weekend so after talking with IMCA we will be ending this season.
Unfortunately this happened at a bad time in the season with the Super Nationals just around the corner and the Iron Cup coming up at Park Jefferson Speedway. There are just too many conflicting dates. We had even considered moving the season over to Park Jefferson to finish out and were denied from IMCA.
After talking with IMCA the four divisions that did not get to race will all receive last place points in their division, leaving the driver positions in points the same. We will take the qualified cars and add the purse up for that division and divide by how many cars qualified so everyone gets equal pay.
We are very disappointed to end the season this way and would like to apologize, we are working on getting the electric fixed correctly to not have these problems in the future and keep everyone safe. The good thing is no one got hurt last night, it was a scary moment.
We would like to thank everyone who supported Raceway Park in 2015 and look forward to bigger and better things in 2016."
It is likely that this will not derail Abelson's quest for the National title either, but it may definitely have him looking for places to run such as Oskaloosa and Vinton when those two tracks run their season championship events later in September.
A couple of nasty Sprint Car wrecks to share with you today with the first one being the amazing flight taken by Ryan Bowers during the UMSS event at St. Croix Valley Speedway. I have seen Bowers race in person just once and that was last September when he showed up for the Thursday night Sprint Invaders show during the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley and won. And, despite this wild ride, the young driver continues to lead the UMSS point standings.
The young lady who has already won two features in the 305 division at Knoxville this season, McKenna Haase took a wild ride on Saturday night at the 2:47 mark of this clip. Don't speed ahead though or you will miss a wild ride taken by Jim Simbro at the start. Haase plans to move up to the 360 division in 2016 where perhaps there will not be as many moving speed bumps as there are in her current class.
With another opportunity to spend a weekend at a Lake with good friends I am taking a second week in a row away from racing. Well, actually there is a track that you can hear the cars from their house on a Saturday night, so I might be successful in organizing a "feature race" run over to the races, you just never know. And while many others will target the Super Nationals next week, I have my eye on the Corn Belt Clash Late Models on the quarter-mile in Davenport on Friday night and the Tom Knowles Memorial at the Spoon River Speedway on Saturday night.
Specials season is upon us, get out and find a race in your area soon!
Following is a post from Greg Golden, promoter at Raceway Park in regard to an electrical fire that occurred during Sunday night's racing action.
"It’s Official.
Raceway Park is closed for the remaining of the 2015 season.
Sunday evening Raceway Park experienced an electrical fire that took out the track lights along with the electric in the concession stands, walk-in cooler and the well. Just two weeks ago we had an electrical problem and had an electrician come out and fix it. Now we’ve had a different panel go up in flames that caused major damage.
After talking with the fire marshal and electricians this will be a timely matter to get things fixed correctly, we will not be able to have things fixed by this weekend so after talking with IMCA we will be ending this season.
Unfortunately this happened at a bad time in the season with the Super Nationals just around the corner and the Iron Cup coming up at Park Jefferson Speedway. There are just too many conflicting dates. We had even considered moving the season over to Park Jefferson to finish out and were denied from IMCA.
After talking with IMCA the four divisions that did not get to race will all receive last place points in their division, leaving the driver positions in points the same. We will take the qualified cars and add the purse up for that division and divide by how many cars qualified so everyone gets equal pay.
We are very disappointed to end the season this way and would like to apologize, we are working on getting the electric fixed correctly to not have these problems in the future and keep everyone safe. The good thing is no one got hurt last night, it was a scary moment.
We would like to thank everyone who supported Raceway Park in 2015 and look forward to bigger and better things in 2016."
It is likely that this will not derail Abelson's quest for the National title either, but it may definitely have him looking for places to run such as Oskaloosa and Vinton when those two tracks run their season championship events later in September.
A couple of nasty Sprint Car wrecks to share with you today with the first one being the amazing flight taken by Ryan Bowers during the UMSS event at St. Croix Valley Speedway. I have seen Bowers race in person just once and that was last September when he showed up for the Thursday night Sprint Invaders show during the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley and won. And, despite this wild ride, the young driver continues to lead the UMSS point standings.
The young lady who has already won two features in the 305 division at Knoxville this season, McKenna Haase took a wild ride on Saturday night at the 2:47 mark of this clip. Don't speed ahead though or you will miss a wild ride taken by Jim Simbro at the start. Haase plans to move up to the 360 division in 2016 where perhaps there will not be as many moving speed bumps as there are in her current class.
With another opportunity to spend a weekend at a Lake with good friends I am taking a second week in a row away from racing. Well, actually there is a track that you can hear the cars from their house on a Saturday night, so I might be successful in organizing a "feature race" run over to the races, you just never know. And while many others will target the Super Nationals next week, I have my eye on the Corn Belt Clash Late Models on the quarter-mile in Davenport on Friday night and the Tom Knowles Memorial at the Spoon River Speedway on Saturday night.
Specials season is upon us, get out and find a race in your area soon!
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