Do you know that there are tracks in Indiana that I have not yet visited that would be a shorter drive than this trip to Spencer? Not sure why I included that tidbit of information, but just find it interesting that going diagonal across Iowa is longer than going to the second state over to the east. Anyway.....
The one change in this show from last year was that the Malvern Bank SLMR series would replace the Tri-State Late Model series so while last year's field of 27 featured around fifteen cars that I had not yet seen that season, Tuesday's roster of 18 Late Models only gave me my first glimpse of Luke Sathoff this year. The ASCS National Tour had a solid count of 31 cars in attendance while the IMCA Stock Cars were again strong with 26.
With SLMR on hand that meant that we had two classes to qualify so while hot laps kicked off at 7 p.m. as scheduled it would take until 7:55 to get everyone hot lapped and qualified, and the ASCS gives drivers three laps on the clock during their group qualifying sessions. In my opinion this put the track prep crew into "catch up" mode for the remainder of the night and, while they were efficient in what they did, they had to do it quite often in order to maintain a competitive racing surface and that resulted in a long night for a three division show.
The Stock Cars were up first and they didn't help make this an efficient show by any means with seven cautions through the first nine laps scored. The first stoppage was for the last place car who just parked at the top of turn two and then drove away as soon as the yellow light came on. That same driver was also the reason for the fifth caution of the event, with five laps scored, and the announcer appropriately said that "the JIG was up" for this driver who was sent to the pit area. It's a shame that the back of the field had so many issues because the racing up front was riveting when they had the chance. Jake Masters had started eleventh and he used the high line to charge all the way up to second when the caution flew after lap three and on the restart leader Mike Albertson tried to go to the top as well running Masters off the top the track going down the back stretch.
No problem, there were three cars tangled up in turn two anyway so Masters would again restart in second and this time they were three-wide for the lead exiting turn two. No need to follow that race down the back stretch though because another car had spun in turn two and on this, now a single-file restart, Masters would sail by Albertson to take the lead. He would then hold it the rest of the way in a race that was scheduled for twenty laps on MyRacePass, but was checkered flagged at lap fifteen. Alberston finished second, David Smith came from eighth to third, Jim Horejsi was fourth and Cody Nielsen completed the top five.
Another round of watering and packing would take place before the twenty-five lap Sprint Car main event would come to the track and after several laps to help roll in the new moisture, the twenty-two car field went three-wide to salute the large crowd in attendance. Former series champion Blake Hahn would start from the pole with National Sprint Car Hall of Fame member Terry McCarl to his outside and it would be McCarl that would take the lead. After the Stock Car "cautionfest" it was refreshing to have this one go green to checkers....almost.....and while McCarl drove away from the competition, there was definitely some good racing to watch mid-pack.
I was focused on Indiana visitor Zane DeVault who was impressive in winning his heat race, but due to a poor qualifying effort he had started from the twelfth position for the feature. By mid-race he was now racing both Brandon Anderson and Chris Martin for fourth and that three-car battle over a three lap distance was well worth the price of admission. After clearing those two, DeVault was not satisfied and he quickly tracked down Hahn who had been shuffled to third by Matt Covington. That was the race to watch as the leader McCarl had already taken the white flag, but as Hahn and DeVault came to the stripe the red light was needed as North Carolina's Lance Moss had stopped in turn four, his cockpit full of flames.
Moss scrambled out of his car before help could even arrive and rolled on the track trying to extinguish the flames that were flickering from his legs. Safety workers and other drivers jumped to action to put the fire out and the report from the scene was that Moss was talking with medical personnel. A check of Twitter/X tonight does not show any updates, so our hope is that the driver's fire suit did it's job and saved Lance Moss from serious injury.
With the leaders already taking the white, and the cleanup needed after the fire extinguishers were exhausted in turn four, the race was called complete with McCarl taking the win in front of long-time supporters Justice Brothers and DeBerg Concrete. Covington would be the runner up while DeVault had nipped Hahn at the line for third. Brandon Anderson would wrap up the top five.
More farming would take place before the Late Model feature, including the use of the Lely on the very top of turns one and two, well above the cushion. Billy Leighton joined front row starters Andrew Kosiski and Derrick Stewart to make it three-wide for the lead out of turn four on the opening lap with Stewart having the edge at the stripe before Kosiski took over on lap two.
A third-generation of the famous Kosiski family, Andrew started to put some distance on Stewart and the rest of the field until around lap ten when Derrick started to enter turns one and three on the cushion and then diamond off the bottom of turns two and four. By doing this he closing in by one car length a lap and he was bringing the low riding Tad Pospisil along with him. We were now setup for a three car battle for the lead when Jeff Segebart shucked his driveshaft right in front of the leaders and thankfully none of them suffered serious damage after making contact with it.
It was now just a few minutes before 11 p.m. and we had a long drive to our hotel in Fort Dodge ahead of us, and when I returned home today I did not circle the calendar for next September as I had done last year. But that doesn't mean that I won't consider the option again twelve months from now.
Night number one of the annual Knoxville Late Model Nationals is next on that calendar followed by a double-header weekend for the Sprint Invaders at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday September 22nd and then at 34 Raceway on Saturday September 23rd.
Hope to see you out there on the Back Stretch!
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