Anderson, Dover, Albertson and Ulrich Best The Battle of the Blue Ribbon at Spencer

For the third time in the past four years I made my way to the greatest county fair in the world on Friday night as the Battle of the Blue Ribbon would be the grandstand headliner at the Clay County Fair in Spencer. Tri-State Late Models, MSTS 410 Sprint Cars, plus IMCA Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks would entertain a large crowd on a warmer than normal evening as we approach mid-September and, after having been at two shows with "mega-fields" most recently, it was kind of nice to get back to just two or four heat races and a feature in each division.

The Midwest Sprint Touring Series 410 Sprint Cars would be the headliner and I was a bit surprised that they did not surpass the twenty mark in car count, but the seventeen drivers on hand were nice a nice mix. The twenty-five lap feature would get off to a rough start though as two potential race winners Carson McCarl and Sam Henderson tangled in turn two ending their race before it really got started.

On the second try at a green flag eighteen-year-old Cole Vanderheiden would race out to a big lead in this his first night behind the wheel of a 410. The red flag would fly though on lap three when Corbin Erickson got upside down in turn three, but on the restart Vanderheiden would again drive away from the competition. The racing was tight for positions behind him and on lap twelve Scott Winters would do a 360 spin out of turn four as he was shuffled out of fourth, then just after recovering from that he would slow down the back straightaway to bring out the caution.

Again this would bring the field back to Vanderheiden and on this restart Jack Dover, who had started ninth, would take the second spot from Skylar Prochaska and now give chase to the leader. The caution would fly again for Winters when he slipped off the back stretch on lap seventeen and on this restart Dominic Dobesh would hook the cushion in turn two and get upside down.

After the cars were pushed off again, Dover pulled up alongside Vanderheiden under caution to let him know he was there as he himself was the blonde teenage phenom from suburban Omaha about twenty years ago and he was going to teach the lesson to this new one that to win one, you must first lose a few. With the green flag back on display Dover drove deep into turn one and executed the perfect slide job as Vanderheiden was not able to do the crossover and the new leader would drive away over the final laps to a convincing victory. Vanderheiden was impressive in second and hey, if you win your first race after making the step up, it makes it real hard to do any better than that going forward! Tasker Phillips started sixth and lost some ground early, only to find speed late and get to third, Christopher Thram started seventh and finished fourth while Prochaska completed the top five.

Working in a region where there were very few Late Model drivers a short time ago, the Tri-State Late Models Series has done a great job of building the car count and on this night there were twenty-six drivers on hand, several of whom that came from other divisions in recent years. Corey Zeitner would set the early pace from the pole position of the twenty-five lap feature on a track that had two distinct grooves right after the Sprint Car main. The cushion was fast, yet treacherous, and it was now at the top of the track making the low line an option as "the short way around". It was a tight three car battle early as Bill Leighton nosed ahead of Zeitner on lap two and then, on lap six, the driver in the lead trio that was running the bottom, Trevor Anderson would take the point. 

The first caution of the race would fly on lap ten when Alissa Palsrok spun in in turn one and another caution would slow the action on lap fifteen. Anderson would maintain the advantage on both restarts and was starting to pull away until Palsrok and Jay Norton tangled in turn three with six laps remaining.

On this restart Zeitner found some new speed on that high line and he would take the lead on lap twenty-one, but when he stumbled a bit on the cushion in turn two that would allow Anderson to get back to the front. As Corey tried to rally again on the following lap he would slip off the top of turn two giving up a few positions before recovering. The final caution would wave with just two laps to go when Dustin Larson would get shuffled out of a battle for a top five position and go nose first into the outside barriers on the front stretch and Jeffrey Larson appeared to identify Justin Zeitner as the culprit as he pulled alongside of him under caution.

On the final restart Leighton tried to get the cushion to propel him to the front, but Anderson was too good on the bottom and finished of the victory with Leighton close behind. Justin Zeitner started seventh and finished third while Corey Zeitner edged out Jeffrey Larson for fourth. Series point leader J.T. Wasmund finished sixth and I want to call out the remainder of the top ten as well since all of them advanced at least four positions. Former Stock Car ace Elijah Zevenbergen started twenty-fifth and finished seventh, Keith Schenkel came from twelfth to eighth, Shane DeMey fought a miss all night but rallied from twenty-sixth to ninth and Benjamin Chukuske was tenth after starting fourteenth.

The IMCA Stock Cars were the first of the four features and they would go twenty laps with just two cautions. Randy Brands would charge from the outside of row two to take the early lead only to yield to the fifth starting Mike Albertson after a lap six restart. Kelly Shryock was picking his way to the front after starting seventh and by the mid-race point he would move to second setting up a showdown between two of the top three drivers in the National Points race.

Albertson was not interested in doing battle though as he maintained about a five car length distance over Shryock as the laps clicked off and he would take the win over the current point leader. Thursday night's winner here, Jake Masters could not crack the top five for the opportunity to redraw from his heat race, so he had to rally from eleventh to finish third, Brands faded to fourth and Jason Fisher filled out the top five.

The Hobby Stocks would close out the evening for sixteen laps with some tight racing up front early on. Fourth starting John Briggs would lead the first five laps before a hard charging Dayton Ulrich came from eighth to the front on lap six. On the next circuit Bryant Johnson would catch some big air as he barrel rolled in turn one and thankfully he would crawl out of the wreckage uninjured.

Once back to green Ulrich would set a quick pace while Briggs and Brandon Nielsen battled for second behind him and that would be how they would assume the podium with Ulrich scoring the win. Pole-sitter Nick Schilling would come home fourth while Corbin White took fifth after Steven Taylor spun to the infield in turn four coming to the white flag. IMCA National Points contender Cory Probst had an off night as he started ninth and finished sixth.

The show got off to a bit of a late start due to a few sprinkles and an unexpected cloud cover during final track prep, but then ran off in fine fashion with the final checkers waving just before 11 p.m. After an overnight stay in Spencer I am ready to get back close to home after putting on more than 750 miles the last two days. My destination for tonight will be one of my favorite tracks, the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway for night number two of their Fall Special featuring Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. Perhaps I'll see you there!