Just a few weeks ago we were wondering if it was ever going to rain again in eastern Iowa as the first half of June was the driest on record in several locations. Now we are wondering if it is ever going to stop raining and the good news is that the forecast for the upcoming Independence Day weekend is looking nice. The weather has forced me to make some longer than normal road trips to get a show in here and there and on Tuesday night I finally made it to the Clay County Fairgrounds Speedway in Spencer for the first time ever and with that, I have now been to every active "oval only" track in the state of Iowa!
After two turn one cautions, the third try would get the race underway with some "Sioux City Excitement" Chris Abelson getting out to an early lead. Another Sioux City driver and a rookie in the Modified division for 2021, Cody Thompson would make his way up from sixth to mount a challenge and on lap seventeen they would race down the back stretch wheel-to-wheel with Abelson down low and Thompson to his right. Neither driver gave an inch as they charged into turn three and while Thompson was able to catch the cushion, Abelson slid sideways and nearly made the save before having to stand on the brakes to keep from clipping the third place car of Jeremy Mills who was taking evasive action.
On the restart Thompson's high line looked like it would allow him to pull away from the field, but when the caution waved on lap twenty the race would change again. Thompson would take a low line into turn one on the restart before drifting to the cushion in turn two and that would allow Kyle Brown to drive underneath him and take the lead down the back stretch. Back to the cushion Thompson would battle back though only to have Brown come up to block his momentum down the straightaways. As the green flag waved to indicate two laps to go, Thompson was able to squeeze between Brown and the universal barriers exiting turn four, even knocking the right edge of his rear spoiler down as he took the lead.
One last caution would soon follow though as Wisconsin's Marcus Hoeppner spun in turn one and we were now poised for a green, white, checkers restart. This time Thompson did not drift to the cushion in turn two, but Brown still had a run and he would drive under the leader in turns three and four squeezing Thompson out to the barriers down the front stretch and under the white flag. When Cody went a bit too high entering turn one, Kyle took advantage and would lead down the back stretch and the large crowd would come to its feet as Thompson made one last high line charge. Brown knew it was coming going to the cushion to block, so Thompson tried to cross him over only to come up just a car length short at the checkers.
What a race!
Jeremy Mills had the best seat in the house in third and he was the first to stop and congratulate Brown in victory lane. Another recent Sport Mod graduate, Dakota Sproul from Hays, Kansas, started twelfth and finished fourth while Kelly Shryock passed Lucas Lamberies on the final restart to finish fifth. Another driver who has moved up to the Modifieds from the Sport Mods in the past two years, the Wisconsin based Lamberies had come from the twenty-third starting spot and was the reason for the first caution when he spun in turn one on the first try at starting the race.
The twenty lap Sport Mod feature set the tone for the evening as the first of five with Nebraska's Justin Svoboda and local driver Gregg Hamman swapping the lead early. Svoboda would take control following a lap five restart and it was then that I noticed that Matthew Looft was racing in the fifth position. That was notable because Looft had started from the outside of the ninth row after transferring from a B-Main and his march to the front would continue picking up two positions on lap twelve before taking the second spot with six laps remaining.
The leader was a sitting duck now and Looft would drive under Svoboda in turn two to take the lead on lap sixteen then cruise on in for the impressive win. Cory Hoogland dropped Svoboda to third in the closing laps, Alec Fett would finish in fourth with Cam Reimers coming from the seventh row to take fifth.
Front row starters Damon Richards and David Smith would swap the early lead in the twenty-five lap Stock Car headliner with Smith then leading the field who had mostly settled on the bottom groove. Young phenom Dallon Murty was the first to try the high line while running fourth, but when he had no luck that was not a good sign and it looked like this would be a catfish parade. Derek Green had other ideas though as he soon stepped to the outside and after a couple of laps he started to have some success and was now coming to the front quickly. On lap ten Green sailed around Smith for the lead and only a caution on lap sixteen, one that he might have had a hand in when the lapped car of McCain Jennings spun on the back stretch, would slow Green's drive to victory lane.
The battle for second over the closing laps was fantastic with six cars in tight formation. Justin Luinenberg would prevail to claim the runner-up finish just ahead of Richards and Murty made a nifty move in the final turns to go from sixth to fourth, Smith would compete the top five.
With 32 events on the schedule it was bound to be a long night and thank goodness both the Sport Compacts and the Hobby Stocks would run each of their features green to checkers.
Drake Bohlmeyer drew the pole for the ten lap Compact finale and he was never challenged cruising to the win. Jaedon Erickson chased him in for second, Jeffrey DeLonjay appeared to make the long tow from Quincy, Illinois, payoff with a third pace finish, but he was disqualified when he failed to report to post-race tech. That would put Zach Bohlmeyer in third, Logan Kelly fourth and Kaytee DeVries in fifth.
Josh Sidles started on the front row of the Hobby Stock finale and he would close out the night with a dominating performance to take the win. Cory Probst moved from ninth to second, but he could not track down Sidles to make a challenge while Luke Ramsey came from twelfth to third. Current All Iowa Points and IMCA National Points leader Daniel Wauters had a tough night pulling out numbers as he started from the back of his heat and from twelfth in the feature, but the eastern Iowa driver passed a lot of cars on the night finishing fourth in the feature while Drew Barglof was fifth.
The final checkers waved at 11:30 and believe me it would have been much later than that if not for the fact that Mike Van Genderen was serving as the Race Director for the night. The Midwest Madness Tour continues tonight at the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta before closing out on Thursday at the Stuart Speedway with the annual Ron Little Memorial.
Plenty of action on the schedule for the Independence Day weekend both with weekly shows and specials so make sure that you get out and support the track of your choice. Stay safe and we will see you again soon on the Back Stretch.
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