On Saturday, I had planned to go racing somewhere since I felt a lot better but as the day moved along the weather was becoming unfavorable even though the Knoxville Raceway so how got their races in this weekend. Maybe I should have gone to Knoxville on Saturday but I stayed home.
Saturday Afternoon got a message from Sports Park Raceway Track Promoter Jason Vansickel asking me if there was any chance I could announce on Sunday Night. He knew I work in Vinton on Sunday so I immediately texted Mick Trier asked if he would be okay if I went and filled in at Sports Park Raceway. Mick Replied said that he was fine with going to Fort Dodge and announcing.
Sunday Night made the hour and half trip to the Sports Park Raceway in Fort Dodge, got things all hooked up and going before heading over to the pit side to watch drivers check in at the pit shack for the fourth night of racing, third week of weekly racing at the race track hit in a rock quarry. Seventy-Nine cars signed into race on the 1/2 mile race track including 20 IMCA Modifieds, 15 IMCA Stock Cars, 14 IMCA Sport Mods, 19 IMCA Hobby Stocks and 11 IMCA Sport Compacts.
One question going in was how much rain the race track got on Saturday, the answer was very little however the downtown got more rain. Another question was could drivers Shane DeMey (Modifeds), Reid Keller (Stock Cars) and Hunter Longnecker (Sport Mods) make it 3 for 3 on weekly racing? Answer is one of them did pretty sure you can figure out by the title of the Recap.
First feature of the night was the 10 lap IMCA Sport Compacts main event. Before a lap was completed Brad "Unicorn" Mayland spun on the back stretch bringing the caution out. After the complete restart, John Gill from Marshalltown grabbed the early race lead before Jade Lange stole the lead away on lap three. Lange lost the lead to Gill on lap five but they continued to battle it before it came a three car battle when RJ Esqueda entered his name in the battle. Gill held on to take the win ahead of Esqueda, who finished second ahead of Lange. Mayland finished fourth and Mick Evans was fifth.
Pickett Salvage IMCA Hobby Stocks 15 lap feature saw the caution come out when Danny Sassman Jr looped in front of the field in turn four coming to complete lap one. Drew Barglof and Jayden Glenn make contact with each other, that resulted in their bumpers get hooked. On the restart, Riley Crimmins jumped out front and led the first three laps before Jeff Fink worked his way up to grab the lead away on lap four. Fink cruised on to the easy win, finally getting over the hump at Sports Park Raceway in 2019 because he has finish second the previous two races. Last week's winner Bryce Sommerfeld finished in second. Eighth place starter Greg Sidles, Crimmins and Nineteenth place starter Rylan Boland rounded out the top five.
Scrap Processors IMCA Sport Mods 15 lap feature was up next and after having to remove a turtle from the race track, yes I said turtle, it was green flag racing. Matt Groll jumped out to the lead and looked comfortable until Hunter Longnecker worked his way from seventh to the lead on lap ten. The caution came out on lap 11 when a cone was knocked up on to the racing surface by Justin Patterson. The caution again came out on the restart for debris on the front stretch. Longnecker paced the field the remaining four laps to take his third win in a row. Tenth place starter Jake McBirnie chase down Longnecker but could not make the pass, finished second. Tim Judd finished third, Brandon Toftee was fourth and David Calmer was fifth.
Andy Jones led the first two laps of the Silgan Containers IMCA Stock Cars 18 lap feature. Jeff Deal wrestled the lead away on lap three just before the caution came out for Calvin Lange sitting on the back stretch. Deal lost the lead on the restart to Bill Crimmins. Crimmins went on to take the win ahead of Tyler Pickett, Deal, Jeff Lyon and twelveth place starter Joel Tigges.
Final feature of the night was the 20 lap IMCA Modifieds feature. Ryan Griffith started on the pole and jumped out to a sizeable lead until Ethan Dotson reeled him just before the halfway point. Griffith nearly lost the lead to Dotson on lap ten but the caution came out for Bryce Summers spinning in turn four. Griffith held off Dotson on the restart and looked to be heading on to the win. Dotson made the right move going in turn one just after the white flag and grabbed the lead from Griffith. Dotson went on to take the win ahead of Griffith, who led 19 1/4 laps. Jeff James, Kelly Shryock and Shane DeMey finished third through fifth respectively.
Sports Park Raceway will be back at next sunday night June 23rd when the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks and Points Leader, Fort Dodge's Myles Michehl make a visit. Also racing will be the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Sport Mods, IMCA Hobby Stocks and IMCA Sport Compacts. Gates Open at 4pm, Hot Laps at 6pm and Racing to Follow.
For more information about the Sports Park Raceway check out Sports Park Raceway on Facebook.
Thanks Jason Vansickel and the entire staff at Sports Park Raceway in Fort Dodge for asking me to come fill in behind the microphone last night, it was alot of fun. The hospitality is second to none when it comes to you all. I certainly plan to make a visit or two when Vinton is off, June 30th and July 7th most likely with camera to take some pictures and write another blog recap.
Sports Park Raceway
IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing Series
Sunday June 16th, 2019
IMCA Modified
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 175 Ethan Dotson (Bakersfield, CA) [5]; 2. 15X Ryan Griffith (Webster City) [1]; 3. 71 Jeff James (Stanton) [6]; 4. 3 Kelly Shryock (Fertile) [8]; 5. 15M Shane DeMey (Denison) [9]; 6. 44T Tanner Black (Otis, KS) [11]; 7. 41 Nate Hughes (Humboldt) [7]; 8. 2 Jerid Ratzke (Williams) [12]; 9. 8W Kenny Wyman Jr (Goodyear, AZ) [3]; 10. 3W Garrett Wilson (Carlisle) [18]; 11. 77X Austin Kuehl (Cave Creek, AZ) [4]; 12. 00 Tristan Vesterby (Webster City) [2]; 13. 9 Roger Nielson (Fairmont, MN) [16]; 14. 75 Christopher Elliott (Webster City) [17]; 15. 45 Jason Hickingbottom (Ogden) [15]; 16. 98M Mitch Madery (Kasson, MN) [10]; 17. 20X Chad Louk (Jefferson) [13]; 18. 88 Bryer McCoy (Webster City) [20]; 19. 78 Bryce Summers (Eagle Grove) [19]; 20. 29 Ben Wilson (Colo) [14]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. Griffith; 2. DeMey; 3. Kuehl; 4. James; 5. Louk; 6. Nielson; 7. Summers
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. Dotson; 2. Hughes; 3. Black; 4. Vesterby; 5. Wilson; 6. Elliott; 7. McCoy
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. Shryock; 2. Ratzke; 3. Wyman; 4. Madery; 5. Hickingbottom; 6. Wilson
Scrap Processors IMCA SportMods
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 93 Hunter Longnecker (Woodward) [7]; 2. 82 Jake McBirnie (Boone) [10]; 3. 31 Tim Judd (Wall Lake) [2]; 4. 85T Brandon Toftee (Otho) [5]; 5. 21D David Calmer (Manson) [4]; 6. 4 Jason Bass (Fort Dodge) [6]; 7. 511 Matt Groll (Fort Dodge) [1]; 8. 25 Justin Patterson (Fort Dodge) [3]; 9. 1JS Jon Strabley (Grand Junction) [9]; 10. 8JR Cole Bingham (Duncombe) [12]; 11. 40 George Gilliland (Lehigh) [11]; 12. 13 Lucas Jones (Mooresville, NC) [13]; 13. 52 LaDon Sams (Fort Dodge) [8]; DNS 98R Kendall Zuetlau (Fort Dodge)
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. McBirnie; 2. Calmer; 3. Bass; 4. Judd; 5. Sams; 6. Gilliland; 7. Jones
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. Patterson; 2. Longnecker; 3. Toftee; 4. Groll; 5. Strabley; 6; Bingham; 7. Zuetlau
Silgan Containers IMCA Stock Cars
A Feature (18 Laps): 1. 35 Bill Crimmins (Fort Dodge) [6]; 2. 5A Tyler Pickett (Boxholm) [7]; 3. 22D Jeff Deal (Fort Dodge) [3]; 4. 59 Jeff Lyon (Duncombe) [5]; 5. 82 Joel Tigges (Carroll) [12]; 6. 21 Andrew Borchardt (Plymouth) [15]; 7. 52 Nathan Ely (Webster City) [14]; 8. 38 Joe Schmit (Ventura) [9]; 9. 211 Jesse Ely (Webster City) [2]; 10. 18 Tyler Nelsen (Lohrville) [11]; 11. 19 Reid Keller (Webster City) [8]; 12. 7 Andy Jones (Webster City) [1]; 13. 47 Parker Slagle (Eagle Grove) [10]; 14. 43 Calvin Lange (Humboldt) [4]; DNS 8R Cory Roe (Webster City)
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. Crimmins; 2. Keller; 3. Lange; 4. Slagle; 5. Jesse Ely; 6. Nelsen; 7. Roe; 8. Borchardt
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. Deal; 2. Pickett; 3. Lyon; 4. Jones; 5. Schmit; 6. Tigges; 7. Nathan Ely
Pickett Salvage IMCA Hobby Stock
A Feature (15 Laps): 1. 01F Jeff Fink (Denison) [6]; 2. 50 Bryce Sommerfeld (Fort Dodge) [7]; 3. 86 Greg Sidles (Fairmont, MN) [8]; 4. 35 Riley Crimmins (Fort Dodge) [1]; 5. 18 Ryan Boland (Fort Dodge) [19]; 6. 21W Wade Gilliland (Callender) [5]; 7. 55G David Gilliland (Fort Dodge) [2]; 8. 37 Shane Butler (Scranton) [11]; 9. 31 Kevin Berger (Otho) [12]; 10. 14L Josh Lyon (Pomeroy) [16]; 11. 14 Joseph DeBoer (Fort Dodge) [4]; 12. 25T Tanner Redman (Webster City) [15]; 13. 10 John Ades (Rippey) [17]; 14. 22 Seth Butler (Scranton) [13]; 15. 72H Miciah Hidlebaugh (Adel) [9]; 16. 10X Danny Sassman Jr. (Fort Dodge) [3]; 17. 45 Drew Barglof (Sioux Rapids) [10]; 18. 11G Jayden Glenn (Stratford) [14]; 19. 11K William Klosterman (Ackley)
Heat 1 (6 Laps): 1. Sommerfeld; 2. Berger; 3. Sidles; 4. Sassman; 5. Seth Butler; 6. Lyon; 7. Boland
Heat 2 (6 Laps): 1. Shane Butler; 2. Hidlebaugh; 3. DeBoer; 4. Crimmins; 5. Glenn; 6. Ades
Heat 3 (6 Laps): 1. Fink; 2. Barglof; 3. Wade Gilliland; 4. David Gilliland; 5. Redman; 6. Klosterman
IMCA Sport Compacts
A Feature (10 Laps): 1. 02 John Gill (Marshalltown) [5]; 2. 16X RJ Esqueda (Madelia, MN) [9]; 3. 43 Jade Lange (Humboldt) [6]; 4. N07 Brad Mayland (Britt) [10]; 5. 99 Mick Evans (Fort Dodge) [7]; 6. 5 Oliver Monson (Clear Lake) [11]; 7. 230 Michael Heun (Manson) [4]; 8. 45 John Dahlsten (Pomeroy) [3]; 9. 3B Josh Dahlsten (Pomeroy); 10. 14 Tyler Deboer (Fort Dodge) [2]; DNS 31 Spencer Nelson (Rockwell)
Heat 1 (5 Laps): 1. Lange; 2. Mayland; 3. Deboer; 4. Heun; 5. Josh Dahlsten; 6. Monson
Heat 2 (5 Laps): 1. Esqueda; 2. Gill; 3. Evans; 4. John Dahlsten; DNS Nelson
