After staying overnight in El Dorado, Kansas, Saturday night which just happens to be the hometown of the better half of my favorite race car driver/dj, we rode the stiff south wind up to Stuart on Sunday for the second and final event of a weather abbreviated IMCA Frostbuster schedule. Despite that only the Boone and Stuart races could overcome Mother Nature there was still an impressive group of travelers who made the trip to central Iowa to kick off the 2022 season.
Track owner and promoter Mike Van Genderen was still not confident that all of the frost had worked its way out of his track surface and in fact did not put any water on it until the day of the race in an effort to keep the holes and ruts from developing. He knew though that this would be a give and take situation as with sunny skies and that same whistling wind from the south temperatures soared into the upper seventies quickly sucking up any moisture that was being applied. As long as that wind would remain from the south it would keep the dust off of the nice crowd that had gathered in the warm late afternoon hours.
The track prep strategy played out well as far as getting a good hard smooth base, but as the wind shifted to a more westerly direction with an earlier than expected passage of a front, that dust was now challenging those fans to watch anything other than turns one and two as they shielded their eyes from both the sun and the dirt. That meant more than the normal amount of track touch ups required to keep the track racy and to make it enjoyable for the fans and when the sun was finally shaded by a bank of clouds approaching from the west, conditions were once again bearable despite the fact that the temperature was now dropping!
Enough with the weather report, the bottom line is that MVG always has both the fans and the drivers in mind as he orchestrates a racing program and I know that because he gives me the access to watch him in action. And on a night like last night, that access was truly appreciated.
Since I also used the term in my report from 81 Speedway I must do it here as well, the Show Killing Support Class of the night was the Outlaw Mini Mods. Van Genderen knew that the twenty-three entries could lead to mayhem on opening night with the mixture of very young drivers all the way up to racing veterans who have raced in other divisions over the years. Still he wanted to put them on the track as the first feature and I ribbed him that his decision may have had something to do with this being a school night and needing to get the kids home at a decent hour.
A seven car pileup in turn one on the initial start and then a hard rollover by Kaden Rice on the second try where the young driver thankfully climbed from the car uninjured were just the first of at least five stoppages and finally Lucas Daniels held off a late charge from Kamdyn Haggard to take the win. You can bet that if this class continues to race in this manner once the regular season opens here on Wednesday, April 20th, that they will drop down in the Class Order when it comes to feature time.
The Sport Mod feature more than made up for the slow start provided by the Mini Mods as they went twenty laps non-stop with plenty of two, three and even four wide action along the way. Hamilton, Missouri driver Jace Whitt started fourth and captured the lead on the opening lap and then showed the consistency that a multi-time winner would display as a talented field of drivers, including two former All Iowa Points champions, gave chase. With lapped traffic just ahead, the white flag waved and Whitt closed out the flag-to-flag run to then announce in victory lane that this was his first ever feature win. You would have never known it without his confession as he did it on a big stage here at the Frostbuster holding off defending AIP champion Logan Anderson who finished second. Minnesota charger Tim Bergerson would take the third spot while the 2020 AIP champion Brayton Carter raced his way from twelfth to fourth. Jake Sachau would fill out the top five just ahead of Saturday's winner at Boone, Taylor Kuehl.
The Stock Cars are always a treat to watch here at Stuart and tonight was no different with Johnathon Logue leading the first two laps before Damon Murty sailed by on the outside. As Damon opened up a big advantage his son Dallon worked his way up from ninth to second and as lapped traffic loomed ahead Dallon was closing the gap.
A caution for Scott Bailey's spin down the back stretch saved Damon from having to deal with heavy lapped traffic, but it also put Dallon right on his bumper and the race was on. Two more cautions on laps eighteen and nineteen slowed the action, but the final six laps would be run under green flag conditions and the Murtys racing side-by-side. Dallon inched ahead at the stripe to lead with two laps to go only to have Dad battle back and coming to the checkers it would be a photo finish, or better yet a winner determined by the transponders and it would go to Damon by .007 seconds over Dallon. Troy Jeorvetz was right behind them in third, Logue came home fourth and Buck Schafroth took fifth.
The Sport Compacts were up next for fifteen laps and they would go non-stop as well with Kaden Murray driving around Michael Hotze on lap three and then holding off Kolby Sabin to take the win. Mitchell Bunch moved from his fifth row start to take third at the checkers followed by Hotze and Tyler Fiebelkorn.
Twenty-five laps of IMCA Modified action was up next and back in 2020 Tom Berry Jr. dominated the racing here at Stuart. Frankly he sort of disappeared here in 2021, but on Sunday night Berry made it clear that he was back, baby, as he executed a nasty slide job on Arkansas driver Brint Hartwick to take the lead on lap thirteen and then drove away from the field. As Berry was taking the white flag Spencer Hartwick slowed to a stop on the front stretch causing a caution which would put Brint back on the bumper of Berry, but also it would put Cayden Carter to the outside of that first double row.
Berry would again pull away over the final two laps to complete his dominating performance while both Carter and Boone winner Tim Ward would drop Brint Hartwick back to fourth at the checkers. Young Drew Janssen from Pella continues to show improvement as he closed out the top five.
The Hobby Stocks would close out the night for twenty laps and after the third caution of the race on lap ten we decided to hit the road for home at 9:35. Dylan Nelson had started fourth and taken the lead on the opening lap, and he appeared to be in control of this one helping to make our decision. Checking the results today I see that Nelson did take the win over Luke Ramsey, Brandon Cox, Solomon Bennett and Skylar Pruitt.
A big thanks to Mike Van Genderen for his hospitality and again I invite anybody who might be new at being the Race Director at his or her track to come and watch this man in action for a night to see how it is done. Yes, you can call me a "Fan Boy" if you want, he definitely spoils us all when it comes to going to tracks that are not quite up to speed.
The regular season kicks off here at Stuart on Wednesday April 20th and make sure that you check the schedule and get here at least once in 2022.
Up on the schedule this week is three nights of MLRA Late Model action with Thursday night in Davenport, while Friday and Saturday the series will headline the annual Slocum 50 weekend at 34 Raceway. Bundle up and get ready for some great racing action!
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| Getting ready for the drivers' meeting at Stuart |
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