Friday, July 24, 2009

Lengthy Night @ Hamilton County Thursday Night Thunder

A packed house was in attendance for the "Thursday Night Thunder" fair race at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City July 23rd. Seven classes of cars were on hand with several travelers making their way to the speedway in hopes of collecting $1,000 top prizes in five of the seven classes. Nearly 170 race teams packed the pit areas as the grass outside of turns one and two were used to park hobby stocks and sport compacts.

After the intermission, eight IMCA sport compacts took to the track for their feature in which Justin Wacha raced to the early lead. After a caution flag slowed the pace, David Moorman took the top spot away and continued on to take the win. Justin Wacha was second, Cory Flanigan third, Dustin Haggard fourth, and Angie Webb rounded out the top five.

Thirty-eight IMCA hobby stocks were narrowed down to a starting field of twenty-three as one competitor failed to make the call. Up front it would be T.J. Mortenson grabbing the lead with southern Iowa driver Nathan Wood right there on his inside rear quarter panel. By the completion of lap two, hotshoe Andy Boeckman had made his way to eleventh after transfering out of the bmain and started eighteenth. As Mortenson and Wood were side by side entering turn one, Andy Jones powered his machine to the outside of both front runners and took the top spot away down the backstretch on lap seven. Andy Boeckman continued his march to the front, but he made contact with Justin Ades on the front stretch that resulted in Justin's car rolling a couple times. Ades got out of the car on his own and was able to walk away.

With four laps to go, Boeckman snuck under Brandon Ratcliff to move into fourth place just before Devin Smith spun to the inside of turn two to bring out another caution. That restart proved to be unlucky for the race leader Andy Jones as his left rear wheel came off in turn two, ending his great run. That put Mortenson back to the point with Wood in toe, but Boeckman was able to get by Wood towards the end of the race before all heck broke lose on the last lap.

Boeckman and Wood made contact just before entering turn three and a caution came out, but the flagman waved the yellow and checkers together. Everybody around me thought the yellow was for those two cars, but I was later told by a track official that it was for debris. So the top five that crossed the line the lap before would have been T.J. Mortenson, Andy Boeckman, Nathan Wood, Kevin Schmauss, and Brandon Ratcliff. However, it was later announced that Mortenson and Boeckman were disqualifed after failing post-race tech, giving the win to Nathan Wood. So the official top five ended up being Wood, Schmauss, Brandon Ratcliff, Doug McCollough, and Craig Graham.

Twenty-six of the scheduled 28 stock cars were up next for their finale of the evening. Randy Biederman took the point from outside the front row. Tory Reicks tried to duck low on Biederman but couldn't make it stick. A few laps later Biederman's night would come to an early end as his motor went up in smoke while Reicks and Jeremy Ades made contact and shuffled both of them a few spots back. That handed the lead over to Mike Wiemann, but Mitchell Griffith had other ideas as he dove to the inside of Wiemann to snare the lead away. At the same time Damon Murty jumped up to third spot after starting ninth. Murty tried to get under Wiemann, but didn't have enough momentum to complete the pass and wound up losing his spot to Jason Wagoner. Mitchell Griffith began to put distance between himself and the rest of the pack as Wagoner looked under Wiemann. Murty saw the top side open up and powered his car by Wagoner and Wiemann to take over second. Mitchell Griffith took home the top prize with Damon Murty second, Jason Wagoner third, Mike Wiemann fourth, and Jason Minnehan fifth.

Thirty-three IMCA sportmods were narrowed down to a field of 24 starters that saw Bob Sutherland use the top side to grab the lead at the drop of the green flag. After an early caution, Bill Hoover got around Bill Hildreth on the low groove to move into second place while Matt Lettow would get by Hildreth on lap five for third. When the caution came out again, Kevin Sather had advanced from thirteenth up sixth, but his night ended earlier then expected as he pulled in with mechanical problems. As Lettow went to the inside of Sutherland, he grabbed the top spot away on lap nine. Sutherland powered back to the lead, but Scott Davis went a groove higher and passed both cars to take the point. Scott Davis would go on to take the win. Sutherland crossed the line in second, but was later disqualified in post-race tech. That moved Greg Simmons up to second, Matt Lettow third, Wisconsin driver Troy Jerovetz fourth, and Bill Hoover in fifth.

After witnessing poor IMCA modified car counts at the track this year, it was nice to see twenty-seven cars on hand Thursday night. Matt Bonine grabbed the lead after starting on the pole before a string of five cautions were thrown. The fifth one was for Bonine as Jimmy Gustin got under him exiting turn two and Bonine lost the handle on his ride. Gustin would take over as race leader with John Logue right behind him, until he slipped up and allowed Scott Olson and Adam Larson to scoot by. Most of the modifieds were running the top side of the track by this point, which worked in Jimmy Gustin's favor as he crossed the line first for the trophy. Scott Olson was second, Adam Larson third, John Logue fourth, and Justin Sackett squeezed by Tyler Vandekamp at the line for fifth.

Up next would be the Midwest 305 sprint car feature. Thirteen cars were on hand with Casey Friedrichsen assuming command from the start. He opened up a big lead before a caution bunched the field back up. Tasker Phillips was running second most of the race before he exited to the pits late in the race. Casey Friedrichsen would not give up the top spot all race as he took home the feature win. Bob Hildreth was second, Marty Stephenson third, Ryan Voss fourth, and Larry Cook rounded out the top five.

The finale of the night would be the IMCA late models. The feature got underway just after the 1:00am clock time with twenty-four cars set to do battle. Ryan Griffith used his pole position to grab the lead at the start. Following two cautions, Craig Jacobs slipped by Todd Cooney on the low side to grab the fifth spot away. The next caution would see third-place runner Charlie McKenna lose the handle in turn four. McKenna did a great job to somehow avoid getting hit by the rest of the pack and continued from the back of the field. With seven laps to go Al Johnson got a run on Ryan Griffith and took the lead away using the bottom groove exiting turn four.

Jeremy Grady, making his first IMCA appearance this season, got by Darrel DeFrance to move into sixth before another caution appeared. Riley Larson took advantage and got by Ryan Griffith for the runner up spot with five laps to go. Grady would have similar success on the bottom groove as he passed Todd Cooney on the next circuit. Up front Al Johnson was able to hold off the field as he took home the big money. Riley Larson came home second, Craig Jacobs got by Ryan Griffith at the line for third and fourth, respectively, while Jeremy Grady rounded out the top five.

Speaking of Grady, it was nice to see him make his return to IMCA late model racing. It sounds like he plans to finish the season running IMCA, so I'm sure you'll be able to catch him at Des Moines on Friday nights and Webster City on Saturday nights along with a few Deery Brothers series races mixed in.

The final checkered flag waved at 1:41am. Definitely a lengthy show with a lot of cars. The packed stands had filtered out before the final races of the night, but it was good to see so many people in attendance. I'm sure most of them will be back for Saturday night's races as it will be Kid's Night at the races. Car rides and I'm sure a nickel and candy toss will probably be provided for the kids. Also Saturday night will be the induction ceremony for the Hamilton County Speedway Racing Association Hall of Fame.

For complete results, check out the track website at http://www.hamiltoncountyspeedway.com

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

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