A record number of cars in the SportMod division and some uncharacteristically careless driving in the Late Models highlighted the first day of racing during the IMCA Super Nationals at Boone Speedway.
The action was as intense as it always is at Boone, with 67 events scheduled for the evening (between pesky rain showers and the occasional delay), and a number of locals from the Independence area made successful trips to central Iowa. As I stated in my entry on Sunday night, results and race reviews will be available anywhere and everywhere over the coming week, so I plan to use my time at Boone to primarily focus on our local drivers at Independence Motor Speedway (and a few others I've gotten to know over the season). Although this is a brief overview of opening night, I plan to offer a bit more over the coming week.
LATE MODEL
Cars: 43
Qualifiers: 24
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening was seeing Jill George of Cedar Falls behind the wheel of the #60 Wallybilt normally driven by Evansdale's Dean Wagner. Out of the gate in the first heat, George destroyed the field, pulling away to an impressive heat race win. She then drew 10 for the 50-lap Deery Series/Super Nationals headliner. Other locals who qualified through their heats included Terry Neal, Jon Passick, Jeremiah Hurst and Bobby Hansen.
A number of drivers also made it out of the B features and into the A as provisionals. They included Rick Dralle, Jason Rauen, Tysus Pattee, Joel Callahan and Jeff Aikey.
In the feature, George made a nice run on the high side and as was as far up as fourth before a mid-race caution slowed her progress and left her struggling with the high groove once racing resumed. By night's end, however, George made a nice recovery to race to a top-10 finish, coming home ninth. George, who has hit a lot of open shows this summer and has strayed away from IMCA contests, had her eyes wide open in the pits immediately following the race. She laughed and said, "Maybe I like these IMCA shows!" Awesome run for Jill driving a car in which she has spent very limited time.
Aikey, who finished second in his B to get into the field, say way back on the starting grid. After contact early with one of his competitors, Aikey made a couple of trips to the pits, but was able to stay on the lead lap throughout the numberous cautions. He raced through the pack and came home second to Ray Guss Jr.
Independence track champion Tyler Bruening, who also had problems early, came from a last place restart early and finished fourth. I was confused, however, during a late caution when Bruening and Passick got together in turns three and four to bring out the yellow. While it appeared both were stopped, only Passick was sent to the rear and Bruening, who was running 10th at the time, got his spot back. He certainly took advantage of his good fortune.
Pattee also proved it was a fight of the strongest survivors as he started at the back of the 24-car field and made a nive run to finish 10th.
I left my notebook in the car, but there had to be no fewer than 12 caution flags throughout the feature, which took exactly 63 minutes to complete. While many of the fans in attendance may not call Late Models their "favorites" (and I'm sure they'll use tonight's feature as a testament to those thoughts), the racing was great when the green flag was out.
There were two scary rollovers in the division. Sam Halstead flipped into turn one early in his heat race while Jason Rauen went over in turns one and two while running the high side in the feature. Both drivers were uninjured, although their cars (especially Halstead's) appeared to be in pretty bad shape.
SPORTMOD
Cars: 173
Qualifiers: One 30-car qualifying feature
A total of 173 names were on the results for the IMCA SportMods on opening night, a record dnumber at Boone. While those drivers were divided into 20 heats, that's where I get confused. Perhaps I left too early (midnight was late enough for me for night number one), but it was announced that only the winners of each of the 20 heats would qualify for the opening night feature. Alas, based on the results, 30 names are listed. I'm under the assumption that the winners of the 10 B-features were also given qualifying spots at the tail of the night's feature
Here's what I do know based on my observations before letting the cold defeat me Monday night...
Danny Dvorak won his qualifier although he crossed the finish line in second. Gatlin Leytham, who took the checkers first, was docked two positions for jumping the start. Dvorak redrew 18 and didn't make it intot he required top-10 in the feature to qualify for Saturday's show.
Kurt Moeding won his heat race after holding off the race-long pressure from Mark Rose. Moeding, too, was unable to nab a qualifying spot through the feature, however. He drew the number "8" pill, but finished 22nd. Austin Kaplan led most of his heat race, however a late pass by Brett Meyer dropped Kaplan into second place and the B feature. He won the B feature, started at the back of the A and worked into a ninth place finish to qualify for Saturday's main event. Austin Lucas won his heat race and turned that into a qualifying spot, as well, finishing eighth in the night's feature to qualify for Saturday.
Ken Kositsky, a Vinton regular, won his heat in dominating fashion, but failed to nab a qualifying spot in the A, coming home 20th.
Tyler Droste led much of his heat race qualifier, but came up short, finishing second. He, along with many others, will make another attempt tonight to make it to Saturday. Kurt Hogan, Chris Luloff, Jum Buhlman, Ray Lundry, Lucas Lundry, Kyle Olson, Mike Hogencamp and Leah Cabalka were among other locals competing tonight. I probably forgot a few others, but those are the names that jump out at this time. They'll all be back in action tonight to try to get qualified for Saturday.
HOBBY STOCK
Cars: 134
Qualifiers: Two 24-car qualifying features
Josh Irvine was the lone local driver to make it to Saturday's Hobby Stock feature. Irvine drove to a third place finish in his heat, won the B and finished eighth in the first qualifier to make it to Saturday's finale.
Eric Stanton, who started the season racing in Vinton on Sunday nights, also made it in, driving to a fifth place finish in the same feature as Irvine.
Many other locals were on-hand, including Vince Buchholz, August Bach, Jim Ball, Wes Stanek Jr., Matt Brown, Vinton points leader Scott Pippert, In fact, Brown made it to a qualifying feature, but was unable to muster more than an 18th place finish.
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