With thunderstorms roaming around the Kansas City metro on Saturday afternoon some areas received some much needed rain that has been missing during this hot and dry summer thus far, however most of the region went without once again and one of those places was the Valley Speedway in the eastern suburb of Grain Valley, Missouri. For us race fans that was a good thing as night number two of Thunder In The Valley featuring the POWRi Midgets and Micro Sprints was on tap and other than a light shower around four o'clock and a few sprinkles as the Midgets hot lapped at 6:30 the rain went around the track, hopefully to come back sometime soon.
This was the second year in a row that Morgan and I have made the trip for this event and this time around we were joined by the infamous Statmaster (from Boy's State high school basketball tournament broadcasting fame on KILJ radio) who now lives just a few miles away from from the track, but was making his first ever visit to Valley Speedway. And, after the two very entertaining features that we were treated to you can bet that both he, and the two of us will be back again at the next opportunity.
Even with the USAC Midgets just a few hours to the north in Fairbury, Nebraska, the car count here was strong with 36 drivers on hand and there was definitely no clear cut favorites in the field. Tucker Klaasmeyer from nearby Paola, Kansas, had won the night before and he definitely had the loudest fan base while young Holly Shelton had delivered an amazing seventeenth to second run on Friday night as well. Tonight Shelton would start to the outside of fellow Californian and Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Ryan Robinson on the front row for the thirty lap main event and it would be Shelton who jumped out to the early lead as Robinson faded back to fourth.
Jake Neuman would take up the chase on Shelton and as the lead duo began to work traffic Neuman would take the lead on lap eleven. The caution would wave for Austin Brown's spin in turn two on lap sixteen and on the restart Joe B. Miller would have a similar issue in turn two. When green flag action returned it was short-lived as Zach Daum would slow with rear suspension issues on lap nineteen and the caution waved again.
Klaasmeyer would now line up second behind Neuman who still preferred the high line on both ends of the speedway, a fast way around but with the cushion very high it was also quite treacherous as one miscalculation would cost you several conditions as a couple of drivers found out in this final green flag segment. When Klaasmeyer bobbled once he was able to recover quickly and maintain second letting Neuman get out to big advantage, but when the leader backed off the curb in turn four with two laps to go that allowed Klaasmeyer to close the gap.
As the white flag waved Neuman appeared to have the race well in hand until the car ahead of him, Joey Wirth jumped the cushion in turn two and then returned to the racing groove right in front of the leader as he exited the turn. This caused Neuman to hesitate just a bit and Klaasmeyer decided to give it one last shot with a bonsai move to the bottom of turn three. With the monster slider coming up short, Klaasmeyer banged the cushion hard in turn four behind Neuman turning his car hard right and he was then hit by Wirth sending him spinning to a stop in the middle of turn four.
By now Neuman had taken the checkers for just his second career feature win with the POWRi series with Ryan Robinson and Holly Shelton crossing the line in second and third. The winner of the B-Main Wesley Smith rode the bottom line all the way up from seventeenth to fourth while Kory Schudy completed the top five. Klaasmeyer tossed out a sure second place finish in an effort to take the win and he was given a big round of applause as his car was towed back to the pit area. He was scored in the sixteenth position.
The winged Micro Sprints were up next for twenty laps and on the wide, smooth and slick track I am pretty sure that they were now turning quicker laps than the Midgets were and the racing was spectacular. Riley Goodno out of Knoxville, Iowa, started outside of many time feature winner Joe B. Miller on the front row and it would be Goodno who would set the pace using the bottom as Miller fell back a few spots early while riding the top. Goodno's first challenge would come mid-race when a lapped car spun just in front of him in turn four, but he was able to avoid contact and when the green flew he again opened up a lead on the pack that was racing three wide at times behind him.
Miller was now back in contention along with Jackson Frisbie and Austin Schaeffer and when Frisbie later dropped out of the race it would be Jack Wagner joining the battle for second. A few more cautions would test the patience of the leader and when Schaeffer, the current series point leader established himself in second after a wheel banging battle with Miller it looked like we would have a race for the front. Goodno maintained his line while Schaeffer was now closing and as the white flag waved Schaeffer had a run off the top side of turn four. He bobbled though in turn two and Goodno was all set to take the checkers only to have the caution wave again for s spin in turn one.
This would set up a one lap dash to the checkers and Goodno looked like a veteran as he timed the start perfectly to drive away from his challengers to record his first career win with POWRi. Wagner would slide up in front of Schaeffer in turn two only to have Schaeffer come back down the back stretch, but at the checkers it would be Wagner for second, Schaeffer in third, Gunner Ramey was fourth and Miller settled for fifth after jumping the cushion late in the race.
We would head for the gates from there hoping to beat the Kenny Chesney at Arrowhead Stadium traffic back into the city so we missed Clinton Boyles completing the clean sweep of the Midwest Lightning Sprints main event.
For the second year in a row we enjoyed our mid-July visit to Valley Speedway and you can bet that we will be checking the schedule in hopes of returning again in 2019!
After a couple of "one race weeks" in a row I hope to pull off three straight nights this week beginning on Tuesday at the Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa as the track holds its Season Championship for weekly racing action. There is some extra money on the line as well as some tight points battles so it should be an interesting night. Then on Wednesday the big half-mile at Osky will see the return of the United States Modified Touring Series along with Ironman Series action for the Stock Cars and B-Mods, plus Hobby Stocks. And on Thursday the Bloomfield Speedway will see its only night of racing in 2018 as the Sprint Invaders will headline the grandstand entertainment at the Davis County Fair along with the Bob Weaklen Memorial for the Stock Cars. The vintage sprint cars will be there as well so I do hope to see you somewhere this week on the Back Stretch!
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