With a perfect weather forecast for September 13th and the lure of three of my favorite divisions on the card, my Positively Racing colleague and friend Danny Rosencrans and I made the five hour drive up to the annual Clay County Fair in Spencer Tuesday for what turned out to be a fantastic night of racing. I have always wondered why this county fair would be held nearly a month after the Iowa State Fair each year and after a walk through the midway along with a review of the many food options, let's just say that what they have here is pretty darn close to what goes on in Des Moines in August.
Plus they still have AUTO RACING at the Clay County Fair with a huge crowd taking it all in from comfortable seats in a big and beautiful covered grandstand!
After choosing a spectacular Rueben sandwich for dinner, I settled into watch a perfectly distributed field of 80 cars with 27 IMCA Stock Cars, 26 Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour Sprint Cars and 27 Tri-State Late Model Series competitors. Heat race action clicked off without a caution and the intermission prior to two B-Mains and three features gave me plenty of time to slip back out to "fair food row" to get an order of Lava Brownies. So much for the diet......
The Stock Cars would be up first with twenty laps for a $1,000 winner's check and it would be Jim Horejsi taking the early lead. That streak of no cautions came to a screeching halt as three yellows would be needed in the first three laps scored and once back to racing it would be Mike Albertsen making the pass on Horejsi to take the point on lap five.
Two more cautions on lap nine would again bunch the field with seventh starting Chanse Hollatz now in contention. With Albertsen working the low line and Hollatz up high the top two would cross the stripe in a virtual dead heat on laps eleven and twelve with Hollatz finally nosing ahead on lap thirteen. Still, as Hollatz went to the top in turn one and then drove low to exit turn two Albertsen would hold the lead down the back stretch only to have Chanse take it back on the front straightaway.
Just after lap fifteen went in the books, Hollatz would shut the door low entering turn one but as the lead duo raced down the back stretch both drivers had to get on the binders briefly for a lapped car that changed lanes. This would allow the third place car of Elijah Zevebergen to quickly close the gap and with his momentum still at full song, Zevenbergen would steal the lead around the outside of turns three and four.
Hollatz would try to get back to the front over the final four circuits but there would be no catching Zevenbergen who would score the win. Albertsen would settle for third followed by Horejsi and Brandon Nielsen.
Prior to the Sprint Cars coming to the track for their twenty-five lap headliner the water truck made some quick laps to spread some moisture on the upper two-thirds of the surface and then the "lay lay" roughed up the cushion in turns one and two. Once the race went green that is where outside front row starter Tim Crawley went, to the top, and it would be a high speed chase from there. Fourth starting Blake Hahn would be the primary challenger and when Crawley reached the first car at the back of the field running the high line, hometown driver Clayton Christensen, he made one failed attempt to slide him coming to the crossed flags in turn four and then settled in behind him.
With Crawley trying to stick his nose under Christensen while still running the high line, Hahn was banging the cushion as hard as he could looking for an opening to take the lead and with six laps to go he was able to pull even with the leader exiting turn two. Crawley's natural line though would take him up the track squeezing Hahn over the top of the racing surface and Blake had to scramble to get back onto the track without giving up a position to pole-sitter Wayne Johnson.
With that near miss behind him, Crawley would finally get past the lapped car with five laps remaining and that would all but seal the deal as the legendary driver from Arkansas picked up the victory not many days after his announcement that this would be his final year of racing. Hahn seemed to be a bit dejected in second while Johnson stated "I wish they would have just left the race track alone" during his podium interview. Third-starting Matt Covington finished fourth while sixth starting Kyler Johnson was fifth.
The Late Models would close out the evening with twenty-five laps for $3,000-to-win with Scott Ward leading the way on lap one before yielding to the fourth starting Tyler McDonald. Just as he did in his heat race, Rodney Sanders made a big early move coming from fifth to second, but he did not appear to have anything for McDonald through the first half of the race.
The red flag flew on lap twelve when David Carlson sailed off the top of the entrance to turn one, landed hard and then rolled onto his top. Thankfully he emerged from the battered car uninjured.
On the restart Chad Olson and Shane Demey joined the mix with Sanders holding them off as McDonald again opened up a lead. As the laps clicked away though, Sanders came charging back and with just three laps remaining he was able to muscle under the leader exiting turn four. That would be the winning move as Sanders took the Late Model out of storage and put it into victory lane. I was impressed with McDonald who without one small mistake would have taken the win while Olson and Demey finished third and fourth. Keep in mind that this is Shane's first year in a Late Model after some very successful IMCA Modified seasons. Gary Brown Jr. rallied from fifteenth to complete the top five.
Next up for me will be the annual Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals with opening night action on Thursday. Hope to see you there!
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