Monday, April 27, 2009

Friday Nights Gambler A Bust At Speedway

Friday’s perfect weather turned south on Friday night as one-hundred and forty race teams and crews made there way to the speedway for week number three. Media night and the Kruse Family Reunion was scheduled and the Gambler race that was scheduled would all end early as the rains came ending the nights racing action after nine o’clock, with three features still yet to be run.
The evening would be rushed and hurried as the clouds and winds would move above the raceway before giving way to rain showers ending the night’s action. “There just is no way we could of continued with the rain that moved in,” say’s promoter Toby Kruse. “We new we were gambling on this one, but we kept going until the track took on to much rain for us to handle. We might have been able to work it in, but it would probably take over an hour to do it, so we will just start where we left off next Friday night. We are going to begin with a drivers meeting at 6:30 a short hot lap session will follow with racing starting around 7:00. This will be a great way to start the month of May because we will be giving the fans three extra feature events to start out the night.”
Even though the night was cut short, doesn’t mean the racing was any less exciting because the track was fast and wide once again on this night. All heat races were run off without a hitch, as drivers would jockey for position.
The first feature of the night that would be run would be the Mod Lite Dwarf Cars. With lightning building from the north, the action on the track was tipsy for three drivers. On lap one Joel Huggins flipped wildly in between turns three and four. Tim Hennigar would be the next driver, two laps later, would get up side down on the back straight a way. Then it was Ivan Guerra’s turn to take the wild ride as he flipped off of turn three. All three drivers walked away and were uninjured. While cars were getting upside down, Mike Morrill would keep his winning streak in tack as he would take the lead on lap two and cruise to his four feature of the year. “I don’t have any explanation for this winning streak, I am just going to enjoy it,” said Morrill in victory lane. “I always come out and give it 100%. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t so I’m just going to enjoy this, it’s a racers dream.” Morrill, co-track champion in 2008 finished ahead of co-track champion Andy Hennigar followed by Eric Hendrickson and Troy Hudson.
Kevin Sather would also keep his winning streak going, but it would take him until the white flag lap to put his car in the lead. Paul Nagle would take the lead on the opening lap then give way to Matt Lettow on lap three. Lettow appeared to be on his way to his first victory. Lap traffic and rain drops would give the break to Sather to charge into the lead coming off of turn two to take the lead then go on for the win. Behind Sather Luke Wanninger followed by Lettow and Brad Iverson.
Then, just as the Aarons I.M.C.A. Stock Cars pulled out on to the racetrack the rains picked up and it would eventually end the night’s action.The season will resume next Friday night with the three make up feature events. The evening will begin at 7:00 after a short hot laps session.

Friday April 24, 2009
“Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel” I.M.C.A. MODIFIED:
HEAT 1: Denny Rosenberg—Mike O’Lear—Adam Johnson
HEAT 2: Jay Schmidt—Brett Ladehoff—Scott Hogan
HEAT 3: Richie Gustin—Troy Cordes—Adam Larson
FEATURE: CANCELLED BECAUSE OF RAIN TO BE RUN MAY 1st

“Aarons” I.M.C.A. STOCK CAR:
HEAT 1: Brian Efkamp—Sean Johnson—Michael Jaennette
HEAT 2: Clay Deppe—Tracy Gienger—Dustin Smith
HEAT 3: Jeff Wollam—Trent Murphy—Don Vis
FEATURE: CANCELLED BECAUSE OF RAIN TO BE RUN MAY 1st

“Junction Bar & Grille” I.M.C.A HOBBY STOCK:
HEAT 1: Todd Reitzler—Dustin Elliott—Terry Shaffar
HEAT 2: Jennifer Hulin—Chad Koch—Eric Knutson
HEAT 3: Aaron Rudolph—Michael Murphy
FEATURE: CANCELLED BECAUSE OF RAIN TO BE RUN MAY 1st

“Big 8 Tyre Center” I.M.C.A SPORT MOD:
HEAT 1: Joel Rust—Matt Lettow—Bill Hildreth
HEAT 2: Kevin Sather—Jared Timmerman—Joel Bushore
HEAT 3: Fred Leytham—Shawn Simatovich—Paul Nagle
HEAT 4: Jamie Schirm—Brad Iverson—Jake Strayer
B-MAIN: Kyle Brown—Zach Rawlins—Nick Deleeuw—Ryan Ashton
FEATURE: Kevin Sather—Luke Wanninger—Matt Lettow—Brad Iverson—Scott Davis—Fred Leytham—Bill Hildreth—Jake Strayer—Kyle Brown—Tim Love—Josh Sherbon—Jeremy Embrey—Dave Schlicht—Jarred Timmerman—Zach Rawlins—Joel Rust—Neil Follett—Nick Deleeuw—Jamie Schirm—Paul Nagel—Shawn Simatovich—Shawn Hunter—Joel Bushore

“Mod Lite” DWARF CARS:
HEAT 1: Tim Hennigar—Troy Hudson—Joel Huggins
HEAT 2: Mike Morrill—Josh May—Johnny Mordock
FEATURE: Mike Morrill—Andy Hennigar—Eric Hendrickson—Troy Hudson—Johnny Mordock—Josh May—Mike Kennedy—Duane Coffman—James May—Dusty Masolini—Bryan Zehm—Travis Stensland—Mike Thomas—Joe Wood—Ivan Guerra—DJ Schmalzried—Joel Huggins—Tim Hennigar—Jason Whitehead—DJ Robinson

This Friday the Pits open at 5:15, Grandstands at 5:30, Drivers Meeting at 6:30, Hot Laps at 6:45, Racing to Follow around 7:00 when we start with the Stock Car Feature, then run the make-up modified feature and hobby stock features and then run the regular scheduled friday night program!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Weekend brought some repeat winners while some visit victory lane for the first time in 2009!

This Past Weekend I made it a 3 day racing weekend. my friday night was at the marshalltown speedway, saturday night at the boone speedway and benton county speedway in vinton on sunday even though the weather was not so promising i wasn't going to let the rain, rain on my parade and had some fun!
On Friday Night in marshalltown were promotor toby kruse put on another great night on a very fast and wide race track with around 150 cars in the pits!
“MESKWAKI BINGO CASINO HOTEL” I.M.C.A. MODIFIEDS:This feature at 4 cautions within the first 4 laps that tore up a lot of good cars in this race! the final 16 laps were raced with out a caution, Adam Larson led the entire 20 lap feature!
FEATURE: Adam Larson—Jon Snyder—Scott Simatovich—Ron Lauritzen—Joey Schaefer “Aarons” I.M.C.A. STOCK CAR: This feature was plagued by caution flags, there was 6 total cautions in the first 5 laps of the feature the final 13 laps went without a caution. Jeff Wollam led the first 4 laps, Dusty Vis and Dustin Smith battle for the lead after that in which dustin smith took for good and went on to the win! FEATURE: Dustin Smith—Michael Jaennette—Dusty Vis—Ryan Leeman—Damon Murty “Junction Bar & Grille” I.M.C.A HOBBY Only 3 caution flags flew through this feature and one set up a green-white-checkered finish! "Mean" Gene Nicklas led the first 4 laps, Eric Larson led lap 5 but Todd Reitzler took the lead on lap 6 and went on to the victory!
FEATURE: Todd Reitzler—Terry Shaffar—Eric Larson—Michael Murphy—Gene Nicklas
“Americas Best Value Inn” Hobby Stock King of the Hill—Dustin Elliott “Big 8 Tyre Center” I.M.C.A SPORT MOD: There was only 2 cautions in this one, the first on lap 3 and the 2nd one on lap 4, the final 14 laps without a caution. "Downtown" Kyle Brown led the first 9 laps, Kevin Sather led the final 9 laps to pick up his 3rd win in marshalltown in 2009! FEATURE: Kevin Sather—Kyle Brown—Scott Davis—Brad Iverson—Austin Lucas “Mod Lite” DWARF CARS: The Dwarf Cars feature was the only feature to not have any cautions as it was run green to checkered. DJ Schmalrzried led the first 3 laps and then Mike Morill took the lead on lap 4 to lead the final 11 laps to go on and get his 3rd win in marshalltown in 2009!
FEATURE: Mike Morrill—Tim Hennigar—Andy Hennigar—Joel Huggins—Johnny Mordock
On Saturday night, i headed to the boone speedway where there was a great night of racing and the racing action completed in less than 3 hours and they ran through the program without taking a farm break!
IMCA ModifiedJust like marshalltown a few good cars got tore up in the feature!
A-Main 01 - 1. Mike Molle, Glidden; 2. Rodney Scheuermann, Scranton; 3. Jake Durbin, Perry; 4. Todd Shute, Des Moines; 5. Ricky Stephan, South Sioux City, Neb.
IMCA Stock CarOnly 2 cautions but still a good feature!
A-Main 01 - 1. Wayne Gifford, Boone; 2. Donavon Smith, Lake City; 3. Dustin Smith, Lake City; 4. Brian Efkamp, Perry; 5. Bill Reetz, Carroll
IMCA Sport ModsThe simple words for this feature is a crash fest!
A-Main 01 - 1. Luke Wanninger, Jefferson; 2. Scott Davis, Boone; 3. Kevin Sather, Ankeny; 4. Paul Nagle, Nevada; 5. David Schlicht, Adel
IMCA Hobby StockThe first hobby feature when green to checkered. the 2nd feature had 2 cautions in the first 4 laps!
A-Main 01 -- 1. Beau Kaplan, Ankeny; 2. Richard Yaw II, Pleasant Hill; 3. Jason Stringer, Marshalltown; 4. Michael Murphy, Jefferson; 5. Aaron Rudolph, Scranton
A-Main 02 -- 1. Cody Gustoff, Scranton; 2. Pat Mather, Greenfield; 3. Brandon Ratcliff, Kamrar; 4. Alan Van Gorp, Carlisle; 5. Carl Knight, Des Moines
Dwarf Car2 cautions flew before 6 laps in the books but still a very fast and entertaining feature
A-Main 01 - 1. Mike Kennedy, Boone; 2. Ed Zehm, Ames; 3. Andy Hennigar, Ankeny; 4. Jeff Stensland, Nevada; 5. Randy Bryan, Gilbert
On sunday night, it was back to the benton county speedway for the 2nd straight week were it was a good night of racing. the entire show was run in less than 2.5 hours. the track was dry slick but had a wide racing service!
BCS Hobby Stock - Feature --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 2 1 19 Bill Bonnett Knoxville , Ia 39 3 14 16 Wes Stanek Jr. , Ia. 38 4 8 11 Al Sweerin , Ia. 37 5 5 47 Scott Pippert , Ia 36
This Feature had 5 total caution flags in the feature event!
BCS Sport Mod - Feature --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 5 1 Austin Kaplan Ankeny , Ia. 40 2 6 99 Jesse Sobbing Glenwood , Ia 39 3 8 00 Jim Buhlman , Ia. 38 4 9 3D Drew Fish Vinton , Ia 37 5 12 34 Jeremy Schafuelbuel
the only caution that came in the feature event was at the half way point in the feature!
BCS Modified - Feature --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 8 6 Donald Erger , Ia. 40 2 1 71 Troy Cordes3 16 12D Joe Doeckel Dysart , Ia 38 4 17 3C Max Corpason Marion , Ia 37 5 6 111 Buster Pate , Ia. 36
only 1 caution on lap 5 when the 13 Jim Schaefer stopped in turn 4
BCS Stock Car - Feature --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 4 56T Justin Temeyer2 5 31S Paul Shepard3 8 99D Damon Murty , Ia. 38 4 14 95.7 Rodney Grother , Ia. 37 5 9 21 Jason Deshaw , Ia 36
The only caution came out on lap 11!
BCS Sport Compact - Feature --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 6 00W Bill Whalen Jr Riverside , Ia 40 2 11 22 Nathan Chandler Norway , Ia 39 3 10 36DD Gary Peiffer , Ia. 38 4 7 45C Brad Chandler Vinton , Ia 37 5 12 54 Zach Holerud Clarence , Ia 36
this feature was run green to checkered!
BCS Cruiser - Feature --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finish Start Car Driver Hometown Race Points 1 3 9-11 Doug Steggall , Ia 36 2 5 51 Michael Kimm Cedar Rapids, Ia 35 3 1 22 Quintain Ember Van Horne, Ia 34 4 2 6H Dustin Chopstick , Ia. 33 5 4 23 Derek Albert Brandon , Ia 32 6 6 16 Miller Mcdonald Marion , Ia 31
this feature was run green to checkered as well!
3 great nights of racing and i had fun and looking forward to doing it again this weekend as well! so until next weeks blog which will have a little more on it, Have a great week and enjoy the races!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Season Openers took place this past weekend across the state of Iowa

Friday Night I made my racing venture to the marshalltown speedway were for the 2nd week in a row the pits would be full of race cars and the stands packed with people and the racing surface was the best it has been this early in the season! The Pits had a 170+ cars in the pits on friday night from Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri!

“Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel” I.M.C.A. MODIFIED:
HEAT 1: Jon Snyder
HEAT 2: Ryan Rueter
HEAT 3: Kyle Krampe
HEAT 4: Scott Hogan
B-MAIN 1: Troy Cordes

B-MAIN 2: Richie Gustin
FEATURE: Joey Schaefer—Ryan Ruter—Jon Snyder—Jimmy Gustin—Scott Simatovich

“Aarons” I.M.C.A. STOCK CAR:
HEAT 1: John Heinz

HEAT 2: Brian Efkamp
HEAT 3: Ryan Leeman
HEAT 4: Michael Jeanette
B-MAIN: Jeff Wollam

FEATURE: Trent Murphy—Steve Meyer—Dustin Smith—Shawn Hoskins—Michael Jeanette

“Junction Bar & Grille” I.M.C.A HOBBY STOCK:
HEAT 1: Chad Koch
HEAT 2: Terry Shaffar
HEAT 3: Gary Pfantz

HEAT 4: Devin Smith
B-Main: Todd Reitzler
FEATURE: Chad Koch—Devin Smith—Justin Lichty—Michael Murphy—Terry Shaffar


“Big 8 Tyre Center” I.M.C.A SPORT MOD:
HEAT 1: Paul Nagle
HEAT 2: Jeremy Embrey
HEAT 3: Kevin Sather
HEAT 4: Scott Davis

B-MAIN 1: Jake Strayer
B-MAIN 2: Geoff Olson

FEATURE: Kevin Sather—Luke Wanninger—Scott Davis—Joel Bushore—Jake Strayer

“Mod Lite” DWARF CARS:
HEAT 1: Andy Hennigar
HEAT 2: Tim Hennigar
HEAT 3: Johnny Mordock
FEATURE: Mike Morrill—Tim Hennigar—Andy Hennigar—Joel Huggins—Johnny Mordock—Mike Kennedy


Saturday I was going to head to boone but something came up in the family so couldn't go so then I made the decision to go to vinton on sunday night and what a night that was! great racing happen in vinton, a lot of improvements during the off season happen in vinton and they look great! Brought some familiar faces to victory lane in vinton!

IMCA Hobby Stocks
1. 19 Bill Bonnett, 2. 78 Matt Brown, 3. 76S Adam Streeter, 4. 64JR Jeremiah Wilson, 5. 47 Scott Pippert

IMCA Sport Mods
1. 1 Austin Kaplan, 2. 35 Kyle Bentley, 3. 6S Scott Kositzky, 4. 34 Jeremy Schaufenbuel, 5. 86 Rod McDonald

IMCA Modifieds
1. 33D Scott Hogan, 2. 17 Brian Krall, 3. 25 Shawn Fisher, 4. 18 Jerry Luloff, 5. F7 Patrick Flannagan

IMCA Stock Cars
1. 1o Rod Snellenberger, 2. 57 John Heinz, 3. JR3 Jason Hocken, 4. 7H Phil Holtz, 5. 8R Sean Johnson

IMCA Sport Compacts
1. 22 Nathan Chandler, 2. 36DD Gary Peiffer, 3. 03 Neil Nabholz, 4. 7 Tyler Becker, 5. 45C Brad Chandler
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Other Results:

Iowa State Fairgrounds Speedway
IMCA HOBBY STOCKS
1st feature- 1. Justin Mashke, 2. Shannon Anderson, 3. Kenny Loftus, 4. Steve Roberts, 5. Daniel Hilsabeck
2nd feature- 1. Rob Allison, 2. John Watson, 3. Ray Stock Jr, 4. Randy Anderson, 5. Bruce Wolfe
IMCA STOCK CARS
1. Mike Nichols, 2. Todd Inman, 3. Tim Bengard, 4. Steve Hill, 5. Steve Jackson
IMCA MODIFIEDS
1. Nate Caruth, 2. Todd Shute, 3. Chris Wilke, 4. Greg Cox, 5. Rex Parkison
IMCA SPORT MODS
1. Jesse Sobbing, 2. Austin Kaplan, 3. Shay Woods, 4. Troy Oliver, 5. Dalton Dingman
IMCA SPORT COMPACTS
1. David Archibald, 2. Mike Nehring, 3. Seth Parker
KARL CHEVROLET DIRT TRUCKS
1. Pat Fagen, 2. Brett Moyer, 3. Carl Moyer, 4. Brian Murray, 5. Bob Murray

Boone Speedway
IMCA MODIFIEDS
1. Cale Sponsler; 2. John Logue; 3. Rod Scheuermann; 4. Mike Molle; 5. Kelly Lyons
IMCA STOCK CARS
1. Dustin Smith; 2. Mike VanGenderen; 3. Donavon Smith; 4. Trent Murphy; 5. Rod Snellenberger
KARL CHEVROLET IMCA NORTHERN SPORTMODS
1. Jeremy Embry; 2. Matt Meinecke; 3. Geoff Olson; 4. David Schlicht; 5. Mike Pruitt

IMCA HOBBY STOCK
1st feature -1. Michael Murphy; 2. Pat Mather; 3. Brandon Pruitt; 4. Mike Leffler; 5. Tim Pesseck
2nd feature- 1. Dan Hilsabeck; 2. Devin Smith; 3. John Watson; 4. Joel Tiggss; 5. Carl Knight

DWARF CAR
1. Andy Henniger; 2. Matt Goodin; 3. Cory Dennis; 4. Tim Henniger; 5. Josh May


Hamilton County Speedway
IMCA SPORT COMPACTS
1. Gary Peiffer, 2. Tyler Pickett, 3. Jeremy Wheeler, 4. Justin Wacha, 5. Angie Webb
IMCA HOBBY STOCKS
1. Justin Ades, 2. Kevin Schamauss, 3. Roger Haupt jr, 4. Matt Ring, 5. Brandon Ratcliff
IMCA SPORT MODS
1. Austin Kaplan, 2. Matt Lettow, 3. Brandon Leeman, 4. Brett Meyer, 5. Josh Sherborn
STOCK CARS
1. Todd Foster, 2. Kurt Krauskopf, 3. Mark Ellott, 4. Scott Bloemke, 5. Jeremy Ades
IMCA MODIFIEDS
1. Matt Bonine, 2. Ryan Ruter, 3. Mark Elliott, 4. Julie McDermid-Wedelstadt, 5. Vern Jackson

Algona Raceway
IMCA MODIFIEDS
1. Jeremy Mills, 2. Eric Dailey, 3. Nate Caruth, 4.Ricky Stephan, 5. Jay Noteboom
IMCA STOCK CARS
1. Chad Palmer, 2. Kevin Opheim, 3. David Smith, 4. Austin Wolf, 5. Rick Mees
360 MODIFIEDS
1. Tad Reutzel, 2. Bruce Wickman, 3. Dan Hanselman, 4. Troy Gochanour, 5. Matt Hoeft
HOBBY STOCKS
1. Chad Gentz, 2. Randy Hadacek, 3. Josh Peters, 4. Dustin Larson, 5. Nick Meyer

34 Raceway
IMCA MODIFIEDS
1. Brandon Rothzen, 2. Josh Foster, 3. Rich Smith, 4. Dusty Kraklio, 5. Jeff Waterman
4-CYLINDERS
1. Dennis Schulte, 2. Wayne Nobel, 3. Rick Ray, 4. Travis Yakle, 5. Travis Dermint
DEERY BROTHERS SUMMER SERIES FOR IMCA LATE MODELS
1. Jason Frankel, 2. Mark Burgtorf, 3. Ray Guss Jr, 4. Jeff Aikey, 5. Robby Warner

I-35 Speedway
HOBBY STOCKS
1. Heath Tulp, 2. Chad Gentz, 3. Stac Schroeder, 4. Dustin Larson, 5. Robert Black
360 MODIFIEDS
1. Nate Chodur, 2. Dustin Brown, 3. Shane Swanson, 4. Matt Hoeft, 5. Dan Tenold
IMCA STOCK CARS
1. Larry Portis, 2. Kevin Opheim, 3. Luke Saathoff, 4. Mike Jergens, 5. Travis Hoeft
IMCA MODIFIEDS
1. Jeremy Mills, 2. JJ Wise, 3. Rob Rose, 4. Pat Graham, 5. TJ Stalker

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Racing season got under way in the state of Iowa this past weekend

Weekly racing began in 1964 at the current location of the Marshalltown Speedway, and after 45-years of continues racing, history was again made this past Friday evening. It was a week that Central Iowan’s would receive a wintry mix of rain, snow and high winds a challenge that promoter Toby Kruse has seen before. “It’s that time of year when you get what you get. We knew we had to keep the race track in good condition, we was able to accomplish that and with our new west side grandstands, we had an obligation to our race fans and visitors to our community to put on the best racing program that we could, and by golly I think we did just that.”
What he didn’t expect was the turnout that would await him. A standing room grandstand of race enthusiasts wanting to be present on this opening night event, and a pit area which held 205-race teams that made their way to compete, a new record of entries and a figure not even Kruse could of imagined. “Sure when you set out to take a business like this or any business you always have a goal. This was in the back of my mind but I never would of imagined that we could do this in our forth season.” And not only was the car count something that will be remembered for a long time, but a driver from Canada also was on hand to compete. “I met Davin Emmel a few weeks back and just asked him if he was interested in coming, he said sure, and here he showed up.” Also on hand were drivers from six different states, which included one driver from California. “This again is the reason everyone likes to race under the I.M.C.A. banner. You can race in any part of the country and when you come to a race like this you can be competitive, because everyone is racing the same type of rules. What a turn out and what a show we had tonight.”
It was a busy night of racing as 34-races were run though out the night with close side by side racing in almost every lap. Two drivers found their world turned upside down as Eric Vanlaten and Don Vis would go for wild rides but both drivers would walk away.
Through out all of the feature events yellow flags and lap traffic would make for very interesting racing conditions. The race track would stay near perfect the entire evening with three and four wide racing in every division. As the rubber was laid onto the track, it would become evident that the high line and the low line would play a part in the out come of the feature winners.
In the Meskwaki I.M.C.A. Modified feature luck would run out for one driver and another luck would play right into his hands. The twenty-five-lap feature started out with Chris Abelson taking the lead from his outside starting position. Abelson drove the first six laps with out missing a beat holding of two and three different drivers through out the early going. On lap seven his luck would run out when he slid high in turn two giving the lead to Nebraska’s Jordon Grabouski a lead that he would hold uncontested until the closing laps. With five laps to go Iowan Troy Cordes, who was running the low side of the track would close to the back bumper of Grabouski. The two would run into lap traffic and at one point Cordes was able to take the lead but Grabouski would charge back on the high side to regain the top spot. With two laps to go, the pair was side-by-side working there way in and out of the lap traffic. On the final lap Cordes would make one final low side attempt. The two would touch but Grabouski was not to be denied of the win. “I really don’t believe it, it could of gone either way. I just stayed in the gas, the car stuck and here I am in victory lane just shaking that was fun. When you come and race for Toby you know that track is going to be good, and he really did it tonight this is great”, concluded Grabouski in victory lane. Cordes would finish a close second followed by Jay Noteboom and Jimmy Gustin.
Sean Johnson would take the lead from the drop of the green flag in the Aarons I.M.C.A. Stock Car feature event. A quick yellow on lap three would bunch the field behind Johnson with Wisconsin’s John Heinz dropping low and taking the lead but Johnson stayed in hot pursuit and regained the top spot, the next lap. By lap five, last year’s track champion and the defending Frostbuster Champion would slip past Johnson and take the lead. Smith would hold off challenges by Marshalltown’s Ryan Gustin and Damon Murty until the checkered flag flew. Smith would pick up his second Frostbuster victory and was followed across the line by Murty, Gustin and Dusty Vis. Johnson would finish eighth.
New class sponsor Big 8 Tyre in the I.M.C.A. Sport Mod division would find one of the biggest car counts of the night. Six heat races and two B-mains would be needed to qualify the twenty-four-car field. Kevin Sather would start of front and lead the entire eighteen-lap event. Many yellow flags would slow the event but Sather would continue to find victory lane in posting this Frostbuster win. Defending track champion and Nation Champion Luke Wanninger would finish second followed by Nate Chodur Kyle Brown.
Devin Smith would follow his brother Dustin as a repeat winner in the Junction Sports Bar & Grill I.M.C.A. Hobby Stock Class. Smith would take the lead from pole sitter Terry Shaffar on lap three then cruise to victory in the fifteen-lap event. Following Smith across the finish line was Shaffar, Todd Reitzer and Brandon Pruitt.
Co-track Champions Andy Hennigar and Mike Morrill would start out just like they ended the 2008 season racing each other to the very end. Tim Hennigar would lead the first lap before Andy Hennigar would take the lead. Andy would then lead until lap twelve when Morrill would take the top spot. The pair would pull away from the rest of the field, racing each other to the very end. Morrill would pick up the victory followed by Andy and Tim with Ed Zehm finishing forth.

Notes Racing started at 7 and ended just after midnight with the pit area full of cars. 6 heats, 3 b-features for the modifieds, 6 heats and 2 b-features for the sport mods, 4 heats and a b-feature for both the stock cars and hobby stocks and 2 heats for the dwarfs set the a-feature fields!

Cautions in the features: 2 in the dwarf cars, 1 in the hobbys, 3 in the sport mods, 3 in the stock cars and 3 in the modifieds. Dwarf Car feature had 3 different leaders: Tim Hennigar, Andy Hennigar and Mike Morrill, Hobby Stocks was led from start to finish in the 15 lap feature by Devin Smith, Kevin Sather lead the entire 18 Sport Mod Feature, the Stock Cars had 3 feature leaders: Sean Johnson, Dustin Smith and Dusty Vis and the Modified Feature had 2 leaders Chris Abelson and Jordan Grabouski!
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Mean while the Iowa State Fairgrounds Speedway started its 2009 season on friday night as well with their track point opener. In the IMCA Modifieds its was Todd Shute taking the feature over co-worker Pat Graham and Greg Cox would finish 3rd in his new razor chassis! The IMCA Sport Mods were one by Kevin Fee and Austin Kaplan would finish in 2nd. Steve Jackson would take the IMCA Stock Car Feature with Tim Bengard and Todd Inman. In the IMCA Hobby Stocks, Feature #1 went to Kenny Hansen with Ray Stock Jr and Greg Hower and in Feature #2 it went to Shannon Anderson and he was followed by Alan Van Gorp and John Watson. The Karl Chevrolet was won by Mr. Karl Chevrolet himself Carl Moyer. The Sport Compacts also raced and was won by Dustin Poldberg.
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Logue becomes 30th driver to notch 100 career IMCA Modified wins

John Logue stole the show on a chilly, windy Saturday night at Boone Speedway, becoming the 30th driver in history to amass 100 career feature wins in the IMCA Modified division. While Adam Larson and Benji LaCrosse battled it out at the front of the Super Nationals Shakedown main event, Logue steadily worked his way into contention from several rows back in the starting grid. The front pair was often side-by-side in the 20-lap main event while Logue settled into third in the race’s late stages. Logue, like the others, preferred the low line through the turns, but Larson and LaCrosse were there. With just three laps to go, Logue drove to the high side, found a bite, and finally took the lead as the trio of cars came to the white flag. “Sure, I wanted the bottom,” Logue said afterward. “But it wasn’t there. I didn’t have any choice but to go up top.” It worked, and Logue joined an impressive list of drivers who have accomplished the milestone 100-win mark. The victory paid $1,000 and landed Logue on the ballot for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational. He finished ahead of LaCrosse, a late-charging Nate Caruth, Larson and Steve Glenn. Other winners at the inaugural special included Jeremy Embrey in the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods, Trent Murphy in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature and Michael Leffler in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock main event. Embrey had a relative easy time of it in posting the SportMod 18-lap victory as he was comfortably out front of Kevin Sather, Brett Moffitt, defending national champion Luke Wanninger and Brad Lautenbach at the finish. Murphy took the Stock Car feature ahead of Wayne Gifford, John Heinz, Michael Jeannette and Mike VanGenderen. Leffler won the Hobby Stock feature with another last-lap pass.
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34 Raceway kicked their 2009 Racing Season off with the 1st Annual Frostbuster. The Sebastian Sanblasting 305 Sprints were won by Bobby Mincer, Josh Foster took the IMCA Modified Feature, Jason Cook in the IMCA Stock Cars, Mean Dean Kratzer took the Hobby Stock and Travis Yakle took the 4-cylinders.
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The WDRL late Models started their 2009 racing season at the davenport speedway and Chad Simpson took the feature event and Ray Guss Jr won the Pro Modified feature event
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The United States Modified Touring Series headed south for the weekend. Thursday Nights show at LA Raceway in La Monte, MO was rained out. Then they headed off to West Siloam Speedway in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma for 2 shows where Jason Hughes would take both features, Kelly Shyrock finished 2nd on Friday while Terry Phillips finished 2nd on Saturday. then Mother Nature won the sunday night show at the Thunderhill Speedway in Mayetta, KS!
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Events getting taking by mother nature:

Algona Raceway Season Opener/Frostbuster, I-35 Speedway Season Opener, Tripleheader Frostbuster Weekend shows at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City and Benton County Speedway in Vinton and Spring Thaw/Razor Rumble at the Park at the Park Jefferson Speedway in Jefferson, SD (the spring thaw has been rescheduled for April 17 & 18)!
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Now on my view of my racing action i caught this weekend. The only night i caught racing action was friday night at the marshalltown speedway because I let Mother Nature convince me to not go to racing action on saturday night.

On Friday, I arrived at the track at 5 and walked around the pits and the pits were already full at that time and cars were still coming in. Hot laps started at 6, 15 minutes earlier than what was scheduled because of the car count, drivers meeting at 6:40 or so and racing started at 7. 205 cars filled the pit area a Marshalltown Speedway record, the racing action was awesome the track was wide and brought the fans on their seats for a great night of racing that wrapped up just after midnight!

Next week I will promise you more because my weekend will take me to Marshalltown on Friday, Webster City, Boone or Algona on Saturday and maybe Vinton on Sunday!

Hope to See you at the Races, don't forget to check out the trackside report podcast!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Racing in the Midwest has started.......the weekend ahead in dirt track racing in Iowa

Racing season in the midwest as finally got rolling with the imca modified spring nationals in beatrice, nebraska and the united states modified touring series stops in Humboldt, kansas!
First, The IMCA Modified Spring Nationals in Beatrice, Nebraska started with a practice on thursday march 19 for the modifieds, sport mods, hobby stocks, factory stocks and sport compacts to get ready for the wild weekend. Unlike last year the spring nationals would be able to race all 3 nights of racing in before any weather would take place. On Friday Night, it was a wild night and the lights went out forcing the rest of friday's show to be finished on saturday and then run the saturday program, on saturday they finished friday's program and ran the regularly schedule program and then on sunday they moved the start time up by 3 hours in order to get the show finished before mother nature would win and they were able to do that!
Friday's Features which were run on saturday because of the lights going out were won by Johnny "The Jet" Saathoff of Beatrice, Nebraska in the IMCA Modifieds and Tyler Frye of Belleville, Kansas picked up the IMCA Sport Mods. Saturday's Feature Winners were Ricky Alvarado of Delta, Colorado in the IMCA Modifieds, The IMCA Sport Mods was won by 2008 IMCA Sport Mod National Champion Luke Wanninger from Jefferson, Iowa while RJ Macku of Lincoln, Nebraska picked up the IMCA Hobby Stock Feature. On Sunday afternoon, "The Jet" Johnny Saathoff return back to victory lane, other winners on sunday was Andy Gregg of Lincoln, Nebraska in the IMCA Hobby Stocks, Alex Fink of Omaha, Nebraska won the IMCA Sport Compacts and "The Chelsea Charger" Damon Murty from Chelsea, Iowa won the Factory Stock feature!
The United States Modified Touring Series has had 5 events completed this year, 1 in the great plains region, 2 events in the Mo-Kan Region and 2 events in the Southern Series! Winners this year so far in the USMTS are Tommy Myer at Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Nebraska on March 6 (Great Plains Region), John Tesch and Steve Holzkamper at Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt, Kansas on March 14 and 15 respectively (Mo-Kan Region) and The 2 winners in the southern series are Michael Robertson and Johnny Bone Jr on March 20 and 21 respectively! a few nights have been lost of weather they include the 2nd night in McCool Junction, Nebraska on March 7 and March 13 in Caney, Kansas at the Caney valley Speedway while a couple of nights rescheduled from LaMonte, Missouri and Mayetta, Kansas!
The Eagle Raceway in Eagle, Nebraska was scheduled to have an IMCA Special called the Icebreaker challenge this past weekend but they decided to cancelled the event in the best interest of the town of eagle because of a severe thunderstorm that had rolled in to town earlier in the week. Mean while In Marshalltown, Iowa they had the annual Imagemaker motorsports car show at the marshall town center going on and then had a practice on sunday, the practice session went pretty well and the promotor toby kruse seemed happy by it, 93 cars were in the pits. the iowa state fairgrounds speedway also held a practice sesion on sunday and mick said it real well , the track was awsome for the first two hours got a little dry the last hour, 61 cars on hand!
Finally this weekend will bring some racing action in the state of Iowa with the first coming on Friday Night with the Season Opener at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Speedway in Des Moines and The First of 3 Nights of The Tripleheader Frostbuster at the Marshalltown Speedway. On Saturday Night, the season opener/frostbuster at the algona raceway, the 2nd of 3 nights of the tripleheader frostbuster at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City and the Supernational Shakedown at the Boone Speedway. On Sunday Night, Season Opener at the I-35 Speedway in Mason City and The 3rd and Final night of the tripleheader frostbuster weekend at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton! The Shows in Marshalltown, Boone, Webster City and Vinton will be Fast Shaft All-Star Invitational quailfers for the Modified features, IMCA Modifieds will pay $1000 to win, IMCA Sport Mods will pay $300 to win, IMCA Hobby Stocks will pay $250 to win, IMCA Stock Cars $500 to win in marshalltown, boone and vinton, Un-sanctioned Stock Cars $500 to win in Webster City! Dwarf Cars/Mod Lites will race for $200 to win on friday in marshalltown and hot lap on saturday night in boone and the IMCA Sport Compacts will race for $125 to win in Vinton and Webster city! Algona and Mason City will have there Weekly classes in competition!
The USMTS will make a sandwich weekend of racing events beginning on thursday night april 2nd at the LA Raceway in LaMonte, Missouri (a make-up event from last week), then friday and saturday nights april 3rd and 4th at the West Siloam Speedway in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma and on sunday april 5 at Thunderhill Speedway in Mayetta, Kansas (a make-up event from last week), all events will be part of the Mo-Kan Region and the West Siloam events will double up as a Southern Series event!

Also Racing this weekend is 34 Raceway in West Burlington, IA with the 1st Annual Frostbuster with 305 sprint cars, IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and 4-Cyclinders!
The Weather has already claimed one event for the weekend and that is The Spring Thaw at Park Jefferson Speedway, a little more on next weeks blog about this. Starting next week the blogs will be weekly and I will recap my weekend of racing, check out the trackside report podcast at
http://report.citrackside.com/ and feel free to checkout the rest of the website by going to http://www.citrackside.com/. keep checking the website bc the schedule page continues to be updated and i keep adding drivers photos to the drivers page: http://www.citrackside.com/Trackside_Report_Drivers.html
Until next time, lets get ready for racing!