Sunday, July 5, 2009

Calvin Lange Scored First Career Stock Car Win At Algona

After plans to attend the MLRA show in Corning fell by the wayside, I quickly regrouped and headed the opposite direction and found myself at the Algona Raceway. Upon arrival around 5:30, there were already pickups and graders working feverishly on the track after Mother Nature reared her ugly head the night before and into Saturday morning. The driver's meeting was held at the normal time, after which all drivers came out to help pack the track in. After all was said and done, racing action had only been delayed for about forty minutes.

Due to track conditions, the order of events for the night was changed up a bit as the bmods were the first to run their feature event. After making the long tow from Cedar Rapids, Justin Zimmerman used his outside front row start to grab the early race lead. An early caution for a car stopped in turn two would also find three of the front runners involved as they spun to avoid making contact. All three were sent to the back as a result of being stopped when the yellow flag came out. Back up front, Zimmerman maintained his lead until he bobbled coming out of turn two that opened the door for Scott Cook. Cook would get by on the low side and continue to stay out front until the crossed the finish line for the apparent win. However, he would later be disqualified for apparently not going to the tech area after the races, handing the win over to Mike Carlson. Justin Zimmerman would be bumped up to second, Wayne Rentz third, Brandon Toftee fourth, and Troy Rink rounded out the top five. Toftee started twelfth as he made a rare appearance due to his regular track cancelling earlier in the day.

Sixteen IMCA stock cars hit the track next for their fifteen lap feature. Calvin Lange raced to the lead from his front row start, but he would have plenty of challenges from rookie Josh Hohensee throughout the race. Hohensee stayed close to Lange's rear bumper for most of the race and slid to the inside of Lange as the white flag was thrown. Lange would get the advantage coming out of turn two and down the backstretch, but his car pushed up the track entering turn three. What appeared to be a great window of opportunity for Hohensee, he was unable to take advantage as his car would not turn entering the corner, allowing Calvin Lange to stay out front for the win. Josh Hohensee would finish second, Roger Picray was third, Mike Jergens fourth, and Chad Palmer rounded out the top five. Lange's win would be his first career in the stock car class. Unofficially, David Smith and Chad Palmer should go into next week as co-point leaders in the IMCA stock car division.

All twelve IMCA modifieds on hand took the green flag for their finale of the night. Once again the outside front row was the place to be as Austin Wolf jumped out front in the early going. Wolf would separate himself from the rest of the pack seemingly every lap as he opened up a straight away lead by the time the checkered flag waved. Ryan Ruter started eighth, but he methodically picked cars off one at a time and would get by Gary Pesicka for second with two laps to go. Gary Pesicka was third, Jeff Nielsen fourth, and Josh Meyer rounded out the top five. Track point leader and IMCA national point leader Jeremy Mills had a tough night as he found himself struggling to find the handle on the heavy track. Mills would be the first car out of the race.

The two hornet features along with the cruiser feature would be run next. Nate Hughes held on to win the novice hornet feature while Zack Divis took home the hornet feature. The team of Dustin Smith and Kenny O'Leary took home the cruiser feature win.

The final event of the night would be the hobby stock feature. Micah Lavrenz started on the outside of the front row, but he lost the handle of his machine exiting turn one to bring out the early caution. Kyle Schmauss would assume that starting position, but he too would get crossed up on the restart in the same area and collected Adam Ricke and Aaron Benz. Ricke was the only one stopped when the yellow came out. Schmauss took advantage of the lucky break as he would assume the lead when the green flag waved and stayed out. Behind him, Tim Sidles got crossed up down the backstretch while running in second. He lost three positions and slid back into line in fifth. Chad Gentz and Randy Hadacek started to chase down the leader Schmauss. Schmauss' car appeared to be losing it's handle as the laps clicked off, and sure enough his car bobbled exiting turn two and scraped the outside guardrail down the back side of the track. Chad Gentz raced by to snare the top spot away while Schmauss tried to regain his composure. But the damage was done as Chad Gentz took home the win. Randy Hadacek would get by Kyle Schmauss on the final corner for second and third, respectively. Doug Wickman raced up to the fourth spot after starting sixteenth, and Tim Sidles rounded out the top five.

The races were done by 9:50, giving track officials ten minutes to do victory lane photos before the lights were turned out for the town's fireworks display that were being shot off from the infield of the racetrack. It was quite a display as it lasted for a good twenty-five minutes.

The track was obviously a heavy and tacky one after all the rain the area had received. While track officials and drivers packed it in before the races, it appeared from my seat as though the track wasn't very wide for some of the classes. The moisture also surfaced a few dips in the corners, but overall it was a pretty smooth track. Kudos to Joe Ringsdorf and crew for making the effort to get the races in!

- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!

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