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!
