I was questioning my sanity as I made the five hour drive west to Beatrice, Nebraska, on Friday afternoon. The temperature was hovering near the freezing mark, road crews were pre-treating the highways and snow was on the way, the reason why the annual IMCA Spring Nationals had been moved up a day in the first place. I have been to a couple of races before where there were snow flurries in the air, but this was the first time that I had ever driven this far to take that risk! The trip was well worth it though as more than 250 cars in five divisions provided us brave fans with a good night of action that moved along steadily despite the less than favorable conditions.
Racing started promptly at 5 p.m. with heats and B-Mains setting the fields in all five divisions for feature races that started shortly after nine. The Sport Compacts were up first and the 15-lap feature got off to a rough start when Wilton, Iowa's Levi Heath hit the wall and then rolled several times in turn one on the opening lap. Thankfully Heath escaped injury in the scary wreck and the field was reassembled for a second start with southeast Iowa driver Barry Taft on the pole, but it was fellow front row starter Cole Krichau who would take the early lead. Taft and Denny Berghahn Jr. kept the pressure on Krichau, but it was not until Tyler Thompson stormed his way to the front of the field before anything changed at the top of the scoreboard. The Sioux City driver had started eighteenth on the grid and he was using the Sport Compact version of a slidejob to muscle his way to the lead as he passed Krichau with three laps to go. Thompson then pulled away over the closing laps to take the apparent win as at least three drivers pulled up next to him on the cool down lap to express some sort of emotion to him.
Defending track champion Dillon Richards came from the fifth row to finish second, Berghahn was third, Taft finished fourth and another Sioux City driver Jake Newsom was fifth, but midway through the next feature I noticed that a wrecker truck had delivered the large trophy to Richard's trailer in the infield and it was later announced that Thompson had failed post-race tech. This would put the early leader Krichau back in the top five at the pay window.
North Dakota's Erik Laudenschlager would pace the opening lap of the Sport Mod main event before Taylor Metz took over on lap two. The caution waved five laps later when Cole Wayman and Jake McBirnie tangled in turn three. Restarts would not be good for Metz as he faded to fourth on this one as Colby Langenberg picked up the point and on a later restart Metz again would lose several spots to eventually finish tenth.
Langenberg escaped disaster with just five laps remaining as he spun on the cushion in turn three. Fortunately for the leader though the caution had already waved for local driver Rick Rohr who had stopped against the wall at the start of the front stretch. Langenberg would bring the field back to green and as Laugenschlager and Justin Addison raced side-by-side for second, Langenberg stretched his lead. When Addison locked himself into second he quickly closed the gap on the leader, but he was still too far back to mount a challenge as the leaders went into the final two turns. Then the unthinkable happened as Langenberg throttled it too hard and drifted way high in turn four handing the lead, and the win over to Justin Addison who was breathless in victory lane. Langenberg knows that he gave this one away as he finished second, Austin Luellen was third, Laudenschlager finished fourth and Tyler Soppe completed the top five.
The 20-lap Stock Car headliner rolled to the track next with Albia, Iowa's Jason See taking the lead from his second starting position. The caution waved early on lap three when Randy Brands tagged the inside wall entering turn three and the action heated up when the race went back to green. See continued to set the pace, but there were a couple of three-wide battles for position going on behind him and they soon got physical. Two of the top-five contenders, Jason Rogers and Damon Murty were eliminated on a lap eight caution and on the ensuing restart two separate skirmishes left five cars sitting on the front stretch needing tow vehicles to get them back to the pit area.
Once back to green it was hometown driver Jason Kreft applying the pressure on See, but the young southeast Iowa driver maintained his cool and pulled away to a convincing victory. Kreft was the runner-up after starting thirteenth, Marcus Fagan came from the eleventh row to finish third, Mike Albertson parlayed an eighth row start to a fourth place finish and the 24th and final starter on the grid, Alvie Christofferson completed the top five.
Local favorite Roy Armstrong would set the pace for the 20-lap Hobby Stock main event and he would lead the opening laps before Andrew Borchardt powered by. Armstrong and Jeff Ware would keep the pressure on the Mason City driver for several laps, but Borchardt would eventually pull away and take the win in the non-stop event. Armstrong would hold off Luke Ramsey to take the second spot, Ware finished fourth and Jesse VanLaningham passed Brendon Stigge on the final lap to finish fifth.
A talented field of Modifieds would close out the evening for thirty laps with Hunter Marriott and Jimmy Gustin drawing the front row. It was the third-starting Dylan Smith who would take the lead on the completion of lap one and the caution would wave on lap two when Jacob Murray and Jay Noteboom tangled in turn three. Smith would maintain his lead through the first third of the race while Thursday's winner Jordan Grabouski steadily picked his way up from his eighth starting position. Smith was no match for Grabouski who drove under the leader on lap eleven and he would stretch his lead as Smith faded through the field.
Marriott was now running second and was cutting into the lead, but just as Grabouski was going to have to deal with lapped traffic his teammate for the weekend, Terry Phillips stopped in turn three with a flat right front tire. In this case the caution was a blessing for the leader and once back to green there would be no catching the defending IMCA Modified National Champion as he would make it two wins in two nights at his hometown track. Marriott was a solid runner-up ahead of Jesse Sobbing while central Iowa drivers Jimmy Gustin and Kyle Brown rounded out the top five.
Full feature results for all five divisions can be found here.
The final checkers waved just past eleven o'clock and promoter Toby Kruse and the entire Beatrice Speedway staff should be commended for not only how well they presented tonight's program, but for how they handled the entire scenario moving the three day event up a day at the last minute when the weather forecast deteriorated. This is obviously an event that can survive and even thrive in weather that would destroy almost any other race weekend. There were nowhere near as many fans here tonight as there was when I was here two years ago when it was unusually warm, but there were a few hundred of us who stuck it out for the entire evening. I couldn't tell you any names of those brave souls, but I could give you about a hundred or more names of those who were watching online as the announcers were giving "shout outs" to those viewers throughout the night.
I had planned to make the trip south to the Humboldt Speedway on Saturday night, but the final event for the Battle of the Bullring has been postponed to Sunday afternoon, so I will instead wait out the snow and then head back for home Saturday, more than pleased with the racing that I was treated to this evening. I guess it can still pay to be a little insane from time to time.
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