Sometimes it just isn't a great night of racing and that was the case on Monday as the Independence Motor Speedway was finally able to get a show in after three straight rainouts of their regular Saturday night program. This would be the first of four "Monday Madness" events on the schedule here for 2023 and, as anticipated, it drew in a strong field of cars with 118 of them spread fairly equally across the five divisions with the Hobby Stocks and the Modifieds leading the way with 28 and 27 signed in respectively.
Around an inch of rain had fallen on Sunday and it was obvious that the first step in track prep was to blade off the muddy top creating an inside berm of dirt that will be returned to the surface for future use. That, along with the fact that it was soupy in the infield and the track tires seemed to be a bit farther out than usual, made it more difficult for drivers that had spun to escape and keep the race under green. Plus the dirt over the top of the banking all around the track was still wet making it hard for drivers to navigate their way back onto the racing surface if they had slipped off the top.
The track itself was in pretty darn good racing condition with drivers able to run high, low and in between throughout the night so when starter Wes White was able to let his green flag wave, there was some good racing to be enjoyed. But on this night, that damn yellow flag had to be displayed way too often. Perhaps it is because drivers are just too anxious right now after sitting out several events canceled due to weather throughout the region? Maybe it was the bigger money on the line with $1,000 going to the winner in the Stock Car, Modified and Sport Mod divisions? Whatever the reasons, it was perhaps the most cautions that I have ever seen at an event that was using the "one and done" rule during heat races and B-Mains.
Oh yes, the B-Mains, the one penalty flag that I will throw on the track itself as I have stated many, many, many, many times here in the past that two B-Mains are NOT NEEDED with a field of cars less than thirty-six. Look through the Back Stretch archives for the good reasons why as I don't feel the need to go into detail again. On this night all eight starters came to the track in each of the two Hobby Stock B's where the top six in each would advance. Alternatives would have been to transfer six out of the three heats and then have one ten car B-Main to get your final six starters. Or, keep the twelve that transferred from the three heats and have one sixteen car B-Main with twelve cars transferring. The two B's in the Modifieds was even more annoying as only six of the eight scheduled starters came to the track in the first one, so all six would make the transfer and then with only seven cars starting the second B-Main, only one car was eliminated.
The "yellow fever" did not subside come feature time either, although the Sport Mod twenty-lapper was only interrupted twice. Former All Iowa Points Champion and current AIP leader Brayton Carter drew the pole position and was never seriously challenged on the way to his seventh feature win on the young season. Kyle Olson gave up the runner-up spot to Sam Wieben briefly following the second restart, but he was able to come back to finish second. Wieben finished where he started in third and Tony Olson nipped Ben Chapman in a photo finish for fourth.
The Stock Cars had a tough night with five cautions in the first eleven laps and then one last solo spin on lap fourteen by a second time offender. Cole Mather would go the distance to win from the pole although Kaden Reynolds did apply some pressure after one of the several restarts. Local favorite Tom Schmitt started the race from the fourth row and was able to pass Reynolds late for second, Ty Hill made the long tow in from Winterset to finish fourth and Taylor Kuehl finished off a solid evening of pulling double duty as she finished fifth after starting eleventh. The Arizona native had just finished seventh in the Sport Mod feature before quickly changing over to her Stock Car.
The Hobby Stocks would be up next for fifteen laps with Briar Kriegel setting the early pace before Calvin Dhondt drove under him to take the point on lap four. The caution would wave two laps later and, while I may be wrong, I believe it was for a car that had spun to the infield in turn two on the opening lap and was then trying to maintain some forward motion in the rain soaked infield, finally ending up just a bit too close to the back stretch six laps later. Another caution would fly on lap eight and one more yellow came out as the leader was taking the white flag to set up a green-white-checkers ending.
Bradly Graham had raced his way up from sixth to second, but he would not be able to make a run for the win as Dhondt cruised to the checkers. Quinton Miller drew the sixth row for the feature after winning his heat race and he was impressive coming to third. Kriegel would slip to fourth and Billy Rhoades would fill out the top five at the checkers.
By now the ten o'clock hour was upon us, but I decided to stay to see if the Modifieds and Compacts could close out the show on a high note. The twenty-three Modifieds took the green (Jeff Aikey had blown his motor as he won his heat race, another reason why two B-Mains were not needed) and then when one car mid-pack got crossed up exiting turn two the accordion effect sent three of the back starters for a spin.
On the second try at a start all hell broke loose in turn four with eight cars involved, including Russ Hesse who would barrel roll a couple of times at the top of turn four. With all drivers okay, as they turned Hesse's car back on to all fours a glance of my watched showed me that it was now 10:10 and the two wreckers seemed to be focused on a tangle of four cars at the bottom of turn four. They must have been hooked together real good as after fifteen minutes of radio silence and just one of the cars removed from the mess, I decided that my one hour and forty-five minute drive home was to now begin.
Hopefully they were able to get the track cleared soon and that the green flag stayed out for the remainder of the night as Spencer Diercks would take the Modified win from his front row start. Also, I must note that the Sport Compacts ran off their two heat races earlier in the night without incident and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they went green to checkers in their main event as well. Mason City driver Devin Jones was the winner after starting from the pole position.
I have been around this sport long enough to know that you are going to have nights like this and I also know that with two of my favorite promoters at the helm, and a couple of my long-time friends helping them out, better nights are ahead and they get another chance at it this coming Saturday at Independence. I love the "Monday Madness" concept and the full pit area was exactly what I expected, so I definitely have plans to return to Indee for the next Monday Madness scheduled for June 19th!
My next event will be this Friday night, May 12th as the Stock Car Crown Summer Series, based out of eastern Nebraska, makes the trip east to the Davenport Speedway for a $2,000-to-win show where it will be interesting to see just who all makes the journey. Along with that you will get Davenport's usually strong weekly show of IMCA Late Models, Modifieds, Sport Mods and Four Cylinders. Then on Sunday night I would like to get to Vinton for the debut of the Pro Late Model Tour, but it is Mother's Day so I am going to have to play that one right to make it happen.
Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!
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