On Thursday night, June 11th, I made the lengthy trip up to the Sioux Speedway in Sioux Center, Iowa. The four and a half hour trip each way resulted in a pretty good turn out of cars for the "9:1 Nationals", highlighted by bmods and hobbies stocks. Stock cars would also be on the card.
Upon arrival I noticed a new building on the fairgrounds. I went to the facility's last race back in September, so this building is new since then. It is a big improvement for the ticket booth as well as concession stand for the track. I'm sure it will be used for other things as the building is good sized.
A field of thirty-one hobby stocks were narrowed down to twenty-four for the feature that saw Andy Boeckman jump out to the lead early on from his outside front row start. Rusty Montagne followed suit right behind Boeckman, keeping pace with the leader. A few laps into the race, third place driver Kyle Robinson jumped the cushion in turn three that allowed both Chad Krug and Justin Nehring to slip by.
Robinson's luck would get worse as he got high again coming out of turn four and smacked the tires outside of turn four, thrusting his car to the inside and would eventually start to roll. Cars behind him had nowhere to go, including Merle Bass and Josh Peters. Bass would come to a stop next to Robinson's car. Robinson's impact with the tires was so forceful that the entire rearend of his car came out and was sitting next to the car. Fortunately all drivers walked away.
After the lengthy red flag was removed and the caution came back out, Rusty Montagne's car would not refire and would be pushed to the pits. He would later get it refired just before the restart, but had to tag the tail. This put Chad Krug on Boeckman's rear bumper, but Boeckman had no problems holding him at bay the rest of the race on his way to the checkers. Justin Nehring got by Krug on the last lap to take second and third, respectively. Justin Luinenburg and Paul Wenzlaff rounded out the top five.
Next up would be the thirteen car stock car feature. The tires in turn four would get another visit as three cars were involved in another violent accident on the first lap. Troy Woelber, Derrick Barglof, and Mike Jergens found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time as both Barglof's and Jergens' cars wound up rolling down the front stretch. Jergens' car appeared to take the heaviest impact, but fortunately all drivers again walked away.
When the green flag came back out, Tom McKenzie took command from the pole. He would receive constant pressure from Jeff Larson and Elijah Zevenbergen the rest of the race. But McKenzie was able to hold them off as he took the win by about three car lengths at the finish. Larson was second, Zevenbergen third, Curt Van Beek fourth, and Chris Palsrock rounded out the top five.
The final event of the night would be the bmods. Youngster Tyler Olson set the pace early from his outside front row start, but Jake Simpson quickly closed the gap to reach his rear bumper. Simpson tried to make a move several times, but Olson was able to keep his car out front until just passed the half way mark when his car slid up the banking in turn three. Simpson didn't hesitate and darted to the inside to grab the lead. Simpson slowly pulled away to take home the final checkers of the night. Olson finished second, Tim Wilcox was third, Mark Vanden Top fourth, and Harvey Vande Weerd rounded out the top five. Vande Weerd appeared to have won heat race number three, but apparently was a little light at the scales and had to start shotgun on the field.
It was good to see a good car count for last night's show. I attended two nights of racing last year at Sioux Speedway and the car count wasn't as good. Unfortunately there were a lot of torn up cars. I'm just glad that all drivers came out okay and no injuries were reported. One thing I didn't like was the fact that apparently the announcers weren't given lineups for the heat races. They tried to give out driver names after seeing cars on the track, and some of the time had trouble seeing the numbers. Hopefully next time the scorers or other track officials can get them the lineups so they don't have to rely on their eyes to see who's out there as they come out on the track.
The lengthy trip home was a bit difficult at times, but I finally made it home right about 3:30am. I didn't have enough energy to write my blog when I got home like I normally do. Sioux Speedway's next race will be July 15th during the Sioux County Youth Fair. Be sure to get out and support the track if you're from that area.
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!
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