Friday, September 7, 2012

IMCA Supernationals Day 4 Notebook

Thursday marked the fourth day and night of the the Speedway Motors IMCA Supernationals at the Boone Speedway.  On the slate last night would be qualifying for IMCA stock cars and IMCA modifieds along with Race of Champions qualifying events for the modifieds.

The night was moving along smoothly as very few caution flags waved during the heat races for both divisions.  The IMCA stock car feature took to the track with rookie Nyle Godwin and defending Supernationals champion Sean Johnson pacing the field of thirty cars to the green for twenty-five laps.

Johnson roared to the early advantage while outside second row starter Jared Dirks followed closely to second.  The battle for third shaped up between Perry Misner and Chad Palmer.  Misner would hold down that spot as the front two cars began to break away from the pack.  Gary Bass worked his way by both Misner and Palmer to slide into the third slot before the yellow flag was displayed on lap nine. 

On the ensuing restart Dirks would push up in turn one and make contact with Bass, forcing him to break his momentum and lose a few positions.  Johnson again would open up a comfortable lead up front while Dirks and Palmer duked it out for second.  The top running cars all used the top side as the laps wound down and Palmer began to reel in Johnson.  Once he got to the leader's rear bumper he was unable to do anything about it as Sean Johnson crossed the finish line first.  However, it was later announced Johnson was disqualified for an illegal carb.  That meant that Chad Palmer was awarded the victory with Jared Dirks finishing second, Shawn Wagner third, Dustin Larson fourth, Brandon Czarapata fifth, Lynn Panos sixth, Justin Temeyer seventh, and Shay Curtin completed the top eight qualifiers for Saturday. 

Once again thirty IMCA modifieds would take the green flag for their qualifying main event scheduled for twenty-five laps.  Kyle Strickler, the reigning Harris Clash winner, and Cale Sponsler, a former Boone Speedway track champion, set the pace at the front of the field.  Strickler would get the upper hand at the drop of the green flag, but the pace would quickly slow on lap two.  On the restart Ricky Alvarado used the outside line to power by Sponsler for second.  The top side appeared to be the place to be as Danny Charles and Jay Noteboom also advanced positions.  Two more yellow flags waved on lap six, but when the green came back out Noteboom rocketed to the outside to pick off Charles and Sponsler for fourth and third, respectively. 

Yet another caution slowed the action on lap ten, and Noteboom went back to work on the restart as he powered by Alvarado for second while Dylan Smith used the same line to get by Sponsler.  Two more yellow flags would be thrown prior to the halfway point in the race.  Finally the time limit had expired and the drivers would warned that the next flag would end the race, yellow or checkers.  As it turns out it would be the yellow flag as I believe it was thrown again with roughly ten laps remaining.  Strickler was able to fend off the challenges from Noteboom to take the win.  Noteboom finished second, Jeff Tayler was third, Dylan Smith fourth, Ricky Alvarado fifth, Cale Sponsler sixth, Zane DeVilbiss seventh, and Michael Reichart rounded out the qualifiers for Saturday's main event.

As mentioned earlier the modifieds had qualifying races for the Race of Champions race for Saturday.  Those qualifying for that event include Jake Durbin, Kevin Stoa, Mark Elliott, Jesse Richter, Michael Smith, Jeremy Frenier, Brad Pounds, Jordan Grabouski, Johnny Saathoff, Dylan Smith, Jeremy Mills, and Todd Shute.

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