The UMP Summer Nationals continues to struggle with the weather losing their show last Thursday night at the Quincy Raceways. As I watched the radar that afternoon everything was sliding to the north of Quincy, but just before I was set to leave for the track more storms developed on the south end of the line and I decided that perhaps another option would be more wise. The rains came down and hard at the track around 5:30 p.m. putting an end to the show and at about that time my wife was very pleased that I was accompanying her to Iowa City for dinner after she would run a few errands. Good decision on my part!
The only reason that I was even considering going to Quincy late on Thursday afternoon was because of the early call made by Lee County Speedway promoter Mike VanGenderen. The track was supposed to have been hosting the Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders along with the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds Thursday night, but neither the radar or the forecast was looking good around the noon hour. Knowing that drivers in both of those series would be having to make some pretty good hauls to get to the southeast corner of Iowa, VanGenderen pulled the plug on the show even before the rain started to fall at the track. There was little doubt that it was the right call and when a very heavy line of storms did come though around 3 p.m. I'm sure that there were several drivers who appreciated the fact that they were not already on the road and headed for Donnellson. The Hawkeye Dirt Tour portion of the event has been rescheduled for Monday, July 14th.
The heavy rains of Thursday left some doubt about the Sprint Invaders' Friday show at Bloomfield, but promoter Chris Eggers and his crew worked their tails off to get the place in racing condition and the word went out early that afternoon that that the show was on as scheduled. With its companion event being rained out the night before I wondered what we would have for a car count and I was very pleasantly surprised to reach thirty including several drivers making their first appearance with the Invaders in 2014. Billy Alley was one of the last cars to arrive and he was fast all night winning his heat and the dash before finishing as runner-up to feature winner Jon Agan. Alley had actually made the pass for the lead using the high side of turn two on lap fourteen, but a caution flag waving before the lap was completed put Agan back out front for the restart. Jon is posting a stellar 2014 season thus far and the current Sprint Invaders point leader showed that he was not only fast, but smart too as he moved up to Alley's higher groove in turns one and two once the green flag returned. Alley stayed close, but could not again make the pass over the final eleven laps as Agan scored his second series victory of the season.
Alley's car was getting some extra looks in the tech area as a large chunk of mud had blasted a hole through the body work on the right side of the driver compartment and fortunately it did not injure the driver. That chunk likely came from the hole entering turn three that had drivers searching for the best possible line to enter the turn at high speed without upsetting the car too much. During the drivers meeting Eggers stated that they have been having issues at the entrance of turn three and, with the heavy rains from yesterday, that hole would likely return so the drivers knew what to look for before they even hot lapped on the evening. Hopefully Chris can get that taken care of well before the Invaders return to Bloomfield on Friday August 15th to kick off a big three-day swing that should pull in another strong car count.
Corey Nelson of Eugene, Missouri, made his Invaders debut and won the B-Main before being the first car to drop out of the feature. And Justin Bucholz made his Winged Sprint Car debut after several successful seasons driving a Mod Lite. Sawyer Phillips and Trevor Reynolds were also with the Invaders for the first time this year and they will both hope for better results on their next visit. Reynolds fought mechanical issues all night and did not qualify for the main event while Phillips was making a run at the last transfer spot out of the B-Main when he hit the guardrail exiting turn two and did a few wild mid-air spins before landing right-side up on the infield. For a full rundown of the night's story and results from my colleague Bill Wright click here. The next event for the Sprint Invaders will be on Thursday night July 3rd at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines and it will be my first time to announce at the legendary half-mile since working one of the Driver's Dream races many years ago. I can't remember the exact year, but it was one of the first appearances by Doug Wolfgang after recovering from his tragic accident at Lakeside Speedway.
Bloomfield also had some exciting racing in their regular divisions Friday night highlighted by a great battle in the Stock Car feature between Jason Cook and Derrick Agee. Those two drivers swapped the lead back and forth on three occasions over the final five laps and in the final set of turns Agee went high in turn three and then dove low in four to get under Cook and pass him by a bumper at the checkers. Corey Strothman and Nathan Wood were right there as well and would have pounced if the two leaders would have stumbled proving once again that the Stock Car class will almost always put on some of the best racing no matter where you go. A win would have been a nice birthday present for Cook who turned forty the next day, but he had to enjoy the battle with the young driver out of central Missouri. Scott Dickey shook off the gremlins that have plagued him so far in 2014 and held off Mike VanGenderen to win the Modified feature. Dickey is always fast and winning one could lead to several more in succession. Sounded like there was some extra-curricular activity at the conclusion of the Hobby Stock feature as I was walking to my car in the parking lot and Brandon Dale closed out the evening with a win in the Sport Mods.
Saturday was one of those nights when you ask your wife "what do you want to do tonight?" And she responds, "I don't know what do you want to do?" So after trading those lines two or three times I boldly said, "let's go to the races." Now my wife is the best in that while she doesn't really like to go, she seldom if ever gives me a hard time about going racing without her. She has always said that if we could get there just in time for the features and be done by no later than ten o'clock that she would go all the time and of course that's just not feasible for me, but for this one night that was the deal that I made with her. It was five dollar admission night at 34 Raceway so I told her that we would leave the house at 7:45, that I would leave my notebook in the car and that no matter where they were in the program we would leave at ten and go to Perkins for a late night dinner/breakfast.
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| Features only, popcorn and a ten o'clock curfew makes my lovely wife a more willing race fan |
We arrived in time for the final heat race of the night, found a nice seat near the top of the grandstands and settled in for features only on a beautiful Saturday evening. Uncharacteristically the Stock Cars had several multi-car accidents before they could even complete a lap and that kind of got things off to a slow start, but finally they settled in with Tom Bowling Jr. taking the win. The Mod Lites were up next and Dan Keltner continued his domination of that class. I'm not sure what has happened to the car counts in this class as only seven were on hand again tonight after regularly drawing fifteen to twenty the past couple of years. The Sport Mods were up next and with some of the top drivers in the region competing here each week it is no easy accomplishment for a driver to score his first career win here at 34 Raceway. Creston Williams makes the long pull down from Atkins nearly every Saturday and on this night he looked strong racing out front while drivers like Dunker, Anders and Gower, all in the top fourteen of the current All Iowa Points standings battled behind him. Williams had taken the white flag and was racing through turns one and two when Dunker spun into the infield off turn four and then stopped just shy of the front stretch to bring out a caution and set up a one lap restart. It would have been a shame if Williams had lost under these circumstances, but even though Gower and Sean Wyett went three-wide with him for the lead into turn one, Creston kept his composure and maintained the lead to the checkers.
The Four Cylinder division was up next and they went non-stop green to checkers for twelve laps with Austen Becerra chasing down and passing Ron Kibbe late to win his ninteenth feature of the 2014 campaign. No wonder that Becerra is solidly atop the current All Iowa Points for this division. The IMCA Modifieds struggled through some cautions, but the racing was good with Jeff Waterman edging by Mitch Morris for the lead with just five laps remaining to score the win. On the final lap Brandon Rothzen and Tyler Glass collided in turn three and as the cleanup exceeded the victory lane ceremonies for Waterman my self-imposed ten o'clock curfew arrived before the final event of the night, the 305 Sprint Car feature was pushed off. A promise is a promise though and we headed for the parking lot and on to Perkins knowing that if I were ever to get her to do this again, she would need to know that I would keep my word! Sounds like I missed a thriller though as Justin Newberry completed a last lap pass to score the win. For a full rundown of the night's racing check out my Positively Racing colleague Brian Neal's Midwest Racing News.
Next up for 34 Raceway will be the return of the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Cars this Friday night June 27th. Unfortunately for me I will be on an airplane returning from a business meeting on the east coast, but I will look forward to hearing your stories on how the night went!
As I put a wrap on this one I am watching the radar closely to determine whether or not to make the trip over to Peoria for tonight's UMP Summer Nationals event. Another night and another threat of rain for the "Hell Tour". If I don't go to Peoria tonight I will then look to go to the Marshalltown Speedway on Tuesday night for the Deery Brothers Summer Series event. What to do? What to do?
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