(Scroll to the bottom for a Wednesday recap)
With one final shot at qualifying for Saturday's Super Nationals features, a pair of local drivers locked up starting spots for their respective main events this weekend.
IMCA SportMod driver Danny Dvorak, who also made it to Monday's qualifying feature, but failed to make it into the weekend finale, qualified in a big way on Tuesday night. Dvorak, who started inside the second row of the 30-car last chance feature qualifier, made his way to the front at the drop of the green and never looked back. He survived numerous caution periods to lead the 20-lapper in its entirety to lock up the outside front row starting spot of Saturday's Sportmod feature.
Dvorak, who appeared to be fighting a push following a couple of mid-race restarts, collected himself in the last half of the race to drive to the win ahead of Tad Reutzel of Burt.
A number of other area drivers made Tuesday's last chance feature, including Kyle Bentley, who was piloting the #24R of Kevin Robinson. Starting toward the back of the pack, Bentley dodged a number of cautions and snuck up into 10th in an event that took the top 10 to Saturday. Bentley was freight-trained on the low side late. He did cross the line in 13th, pending post-race inspection.
Rob McDonald also made a good run to come home 14th. Jurt Moeding ran 26th after running in the middle of the pack throughout much of the race before getting caught up in a mid-race caution. Kurt Hogan finished 27th.
Eric Flander of Barnes City, and who made a couple of appearances at Independence this summer driving the 12E, drove to a second place finish in the other qualifier. He will start in the middle of the second row on Saturday night. flander led much of that qualifier before being passed late by Scott Davis.
In only his second full year in the IMCA Hobby Stock division, Russel Damme Jr. of Waterloo earned his first ever start in the Super Nationals feature. Damme, who won his qualifying heat going away, started the 20-lap qualifying feature outside of row two. He was part of a three-car breakaway early before the caution flag waved to slow the race midway through. On the restart, Damme ducked back into fifth, but made his way back into the top three periodically throughout the event. In the end, Damme crept back to fourth to earn his first Super Nationals feature start. He will start outside of row four on Saturday's finale.
Although I left early on Monday (the late hours and cold weather just hit me harder than they used to), the entire show was run to completion by 11:10 p.m. on Tuesday. That's much better than the rumored 4:20 a.m. finish from Monday night/Tuesday morning!
Thanks to track announcer Johnnie Tharp and his Super Nationals partner Blake Anderson for giving me the opportunity to spend quite a bit of the evening behind the microphone. I had never called any action at Boone before, but it was fun to see things from that perspective. I may return to the booth more this week, depending how much Johnnie elects to save his voice... and depending on how much schoolboy Blake needs to study for his classes at UNI!
Tonight, qualifying starts for the Modifieds and Stock Cars. Looking at the cars that have already arrived for thoser divisions, you can rest assured that this year will be as competitive as ever. It's time tio head back to the track for Day 3... see you there!
NOTE: Typos may be more common in my Super Nationals reports than the normal blog entries. Time's a wastin' and there are deep fat fried Oreos waiting for me at the track!
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The blog site I use to update my positivelyracing.com blog is down today, so it won't let me add a new blog, however it will let me edit existing ones. Ya got me, but what happened Wednesday night follows below...
While Super Nationals is halfway over according to the calendar, the excitement is just beginning for many as the Modifieds and Stock Cars started qualifying on Wednesday night in Boone.
Justin Temeyer got out of the gate early, taking an early heat win in the Stock Cars.He started the 24-car Stock Car main inside of row two for an event that sent 10 cars to Saturday night. Temeyer jockeyed from the fourth through seventh spots throughout much of the event before finishing his run in sixth, qualifying him for Saturday night.
Northeast Iowa competitor Lynn Panos, who primarily runs open shows until late August arrives on the calendar, came from a deep starting spot to collect his invitation for Saturday with a seventh place run. Another driver I've seen quite a few times this season, Jeff Mueller of New London, also snuck into Saturday by finishing eighth. Mueller ran much of the 20-lap qualifier from the back of the pack after being involved in an early yellow. He raced through traffic and dodged the yellow flag throughout the remainder of the event to make it to Saturday.
Damon Murty was in the wrong place a couple different times throughout the race as he suffered heavy damage from a pair of caution periods, resulting in his 20th place finish. Steve Meyer, who was running in a qualifying spot in the waning laps, made contact with Jeremy Christians as the field was coming off turn four to take the checkers. Neither of those drivers was able to close the deal, stalling on the high side of turn four. They're among the group who will try again tonight to get qualified.
In all, 16 heats were run for the 170 Stock Cars in attendance. The heat winners only, along with the winners of eight B features transferred to the night's qualifier.
By my count, 261 Modifieds were scheduled to take part in 20 heats for that division with the winners only qualifying for the night's qualifying feature.
Troy Cordes opened the night by winning the first heat in the division after coming from a fourth row starting spot. Local Jerry Luloff also made a good run, blowing away the field to earn a spot in the night's qualifier. Johnathan Thimmesch held off a hard-charging Jimmy Gustin to pick up a heat win to round out area qualifiers on the night.
In the 25-lap qualifying feature for the Mods, patience was definitely a virtue - unfortunately, that wasn't a characteristic too many possessed on this night. Multiple cautions slowed the event which resulted in quite a bit of cosmetic damage (at the very least) on a number of the rides. Perhaps the most disappointed was Luloff, who started 22nd in the 30-car field (and was one of few to display much patience) and made it into the top 10 midway through the event.
Luloff worked the low side on a late restart and made his way into fifth by the time the final yellow flag waved with only four laps to go. As only the top eight transferred to Saturday's big show, it appeared Luloff was on his way. Unfortunately for him, cars gor crossed up in front of him shortly after racing resumed. He got stuck behind the spinners and had to settle for 14th.
Cordes left the event early when, by no fault of his own, he was caught up in a caution, apparently destroying his radiator in the process. Thimmesch served as a pinball midway through the race wheile he was trying to work himself into a qualifying spot. He eventually finished 21st.
That's it from Wednesday. The Stocks and Mods will regroup, redraw and try it all over again tonight (weather permitting) in a complete, new show.
Thanks again to Johnnie and Blake updtairs for inviting me to call a few races. It appears as though I'll be back tonight and tomorrow to call some more action. Hope to see everyone there!
NOTE: Webmistress Sue, no more deep fried Oreos for me on Wednesday. I may actually resort to fruit and vegetables today before I send my system into total shutdown!
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