Once again I find myself a little behind schedule in regards to writing my blog. I got home late Thursday night (Friday morning) and opted to hold off writing my blog from the Fall Jamboree at the Deer Creek Speedway. Then I ventured down to the Marshalltown Speedway Friday night for the first night of the Havoc on the Highbanks. So here it is at 1:20am late Friday night and I'm gonna write both recaps.
103 USMTS modifieds along with 41 Wissota Midwest modifieds were on hand for opening night of the 13th Annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree held at the Deer Creek Speedway just north of Spring Valley, Minnesota. Four heats of the midwest mods were run first before eight USMTS heats hit the track. Two b-mains for the Wissota cars and five last chance races for USMTS would round out the qualifying events and set the stage for the features. Dustin Scott would take home top honors in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature. I have to apologize as I'm not familiar with driver names in this division, although I did take notes with car numbers. It was a good race for second on back with the 07 and 16 mixing it up. Kylie Kath started deep in the field after transferring out of a b-main to finish fourth.
Thirty-one USMTS cars were then ready to duke it out for the $3,000 top prize. Terry Phillips and Johnny Scott sat on the front row when the green flag came out for the thirty-lap finale. Phillips would get the edge on the start while Scott followed in second. After starting seventh, Brad Waits wasted no time in slicing his way forward as he quickly advanced to third in just two laps. Two laps later he passed Johnny Scott on the inside to slide into the runner up spot. Meanwhile USMTS national points leader Ryan Gustin was also making his way through traffic. After starting thirteenth, he worked his way up to sixth by lap five. On lap eight Waits took command of the race when he passed Phillips on the inside. Rodney Sanders worked his way under Scott for the third spot while Gustin worked the top side to get by Steve Wetstein for fifth. Scott, Gustin, and Jason Cummins were racing fiercely for the third position before the caution waved with three laps to go. Terry Phillips made contact with Josh Angst, who was about to go a lap down, and spun him around. Phillips was sent to the tail as it was decided it was rough driving, but Phillips exited the track before the restart. Not even the yellow flag could slow down Brad Waits as he picked up another impressive win in limited seat time in the modified. Rodney Sanders finished second, Johnny Scott was third, Ryan Gustin was fourth, and Jason Cummins rounded out the top five.
By virtue of his fourth place run, coupled with Kelly Shryock's bad luck in taking a provisional and finishing deeper in the pack, Ryan Gustin merely will be crowned the 2011 USMTS national champion. Shryock sits second with Jason Hughes behind him. Hughes struggled Thursday night as well.
Friday night I made the trip back to the Marshalltown Speedway for the first night of the Havoc on the Highbanks in conjunction with the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA modifieds. A great field of cars were on hand in all divisions as I believe I heard 158 total cars packed in the pits.
Mod-lites were first up for their feature event as sixteen cars were ready to rumble. Bryan Zehm took control from the start while the rest of the pack mixed it up. Josh May was on the moved and quickly worked his way to briefly take the lead, but while under caution he would exit the track as smoke bellowed from the left rear of his machine. Zehm would resume with the lead followed by Tim Hennigar and Joel Huggins next in line. Zehm would distance himself on his way to victory lane ahead of Tim Hennigar, Colby Oberembt, Joel Huggins, and James May.
IMCA hobby stocks were up next. All but one car was able to make the call for the feature and Scott Pippert would lead the first lap prior to the caution being waved on lap two. On the restart Devin Smith split the first full row on the double file restart from his fifth-place restart position to grab the lead. Smith would open up a straight away lead as the field battled it out behind him. A late restart would put Kevin Fee on Smith's rear bumper, allowing him to keep pace momentarily. But Smith would go on to pick up his 39th IMCA victory of the season. Kevin Fee finished second, Scott Pippert was third, Brandon Britton was fourth, and Austin Luellen rounded out the top five.
Next up would be the IMCA sportmods. I believe I heard 41 were on hand, and the front row would consist of Tyler Droste and Jared VanDeest. However it would be Cayden Carter snagging the top spot after he took his third-place starting machine to the outside and built up momentum from the cushion. Former national champion Austin Kaplan used the same line to get by Droste for second prior to the caution flag waving on lap three. Jenae Gustin would take advantage on the restart as she took her machine from seventh to fifth after passing Carter VanDenBerg. Four more yellow flags would wave throughout the race, but nobody was able to keep pace with Cayden Carter as he picked up his 28th win of the season. Austin Kaplan finished second, Doug Smith had a great run to finish third after starting 23rd, Jenae Gustin was fourth, and Tyler Droste rounded out the top five.
Perhaps the most exciting race of the night was about to begin as the IMCA stock cars hit the track. The front row would find Brian Irvine and Damon Murty in the catbird seats, and they put on a heck of a show for the fans! Murty ran the high side to set the early pace, but Irvine kept digging on the inside line around the tires to track him down. Murty changed lanes going into turn one and made contact with Irvine's car, but both were able to continue on without any significant damage. Irvine would diamond turns one and two to sneak under Murty exiting turn two to take the top spot away. That turned out to be the winning pass as the race went green to checkered and Irvine picked up the win. Murty settled for second, Donavon Smith was third, Jay Schmidt finished fourth, and Steve Meyer completed the top five.
The stage was now set for the thirty-lap finale for the JR Motorsports Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA modifieds. Scott Hogan and Richie Gustin had the luck of the draw on their sides as they sat on the front row. Hogan would push in turn four coming to complete the first lap, allowing Richie Gustin to take the lead. Todd Hansen would settle into second prior to the caution flag waving on lap two. On the restart both Jon Snyder and Luke Wanninger bolted to the bottom side of the speedway and picked off a couple cars each with Snyder advancing to second and Wanninger to fourth, respectively. Wanninger would later sneak by Jeff Waterman for third before Hansen spun his machine in turn two. Darin Duffy would also get collected and have to restart at the tail of the field.
Joe Docekal made a great move to the inside on the restart to pick up the fourth position after restarting sixth. Yet another caution waved on lap nineteen when Jimmy Gustin lost a motor and was unable to exit the track completely. Vern Jackson found the inside line to his liking on the restart as he picked off Adam Larson and Docekal to move into the fourth position. Meanwhile Wanninger was fading as Jackson and Ronn Lauritzen both got by to pick up positions. With three laps remaining Snyder would bring out the caution as a radiator hose broke exiting turn four. With Jackson and Lauritzen lined up behind Richie Gustin, the three raced three-wide exiting turn two after the restart. Lauritzen would edge out Gustin at the line and exiting turn two the next lap by, but Gustin was able to find some bite on the top side of turn four to regain the lead at the white flag before fending them off for the win. Lauritzen finished second, Jackson was third, Darin Duffy rebounded nice to finish fourth, and Jacob Murray rounded out the top five. Milo Veloz started twenty-second on the grid and finished sixth.
The racing was exciting in all divisions! The only bad thing was the number of caution flags throughout the night. Kudos to the staff for keeping the action moving as quickly as they could.
Saturday I'm heading back up to the Deer Creek Speedway for the final night of the Fall Jamboree. Then Sunday I'm going to make the journey over to the Quad City Raceway in East Moline to take in the IMCA Deery Brothers late model series final event. Be sure to get out and support this fine sport of ours before the season comes to an end!!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Yankee / Tiny Lund Weekend
Even though my race schedule has been limited this year, I've still managed to do quite a bit of traveling throughout the course of the season. Part of that "crazy" side of me showed up this past weekend in my racing adventures!
Last Friday I headed east on Highway 20 to the Farley Speedway and night #3 of the 34th Annual Yankee Dirt Track Classic. On the slate was the qualifying for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA modifieds, the Deery Brothers IMCA late model series, and the open late models. I believe 27 modifieds, 47 Deery Brothers late models, and 28 open late models were in attendance.
The Hawkeye Dirt Tour modifieds ran three heat races with the top five I believe securing a spot for Saturday night's feature. Richie Gustin would win the first heat, Josh Foster the second heat, and Mark Schulte snared the third heat. Ryan Dolan, the series point leader, was not in attendance. I heard in the pits afterwards that his car owner had sold the car and he didn't have another one ready to go.
The Deery Brothers late models ran five heats along with two b-main events. The top two in each heat qualified while the top four in each of the two b-mains advanced to Saturday's main event. Heat winners were Andy Eckrich, Jeff Guengerich, Denny Eckrich, Tyler Bruening, and Terry Neal. B-main winners were Joel Callahan and Ray Guss Jr.
The open late models saw four heat races. I remember them running two b-mains, but unsure as to how many they took via passing points. Andy Eckrich won the first heat, heat two went to Justin Kay, Dave Eckrich won heat three, and heat four went to Denny Eckrich.
Following all the heats and b-mains, the Deery Brothers late models ran a "feature" that involved the past IMCA national champions and the past Deery Brothers series champions to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the IMCA late models. Twelve starters made the call as Jeff Aikey opted not to race it and Todd Cooney was not in attendance. Layne Meyer was there, but not racing.
Terry Neal used his outside front row starting spot to beat Mark Burgtorf to turn one and secure the early lead. Jay Johnson would settle into the third position while Terry Schlipman passed Jeremy Grady for the fourth position. Schlipman was driving Justin Reed's 1st car while Grady was behind the wheel of T.J. Criss's 12J machine. The top four would get strung out as they worked the top side of the speedway with the only car making significant moves being Ray Guss Jr. Guss Jr started last of the twelve-car starting field, but he worked his way up to sixth after passing Jeff French on lap eight of the twenty-lap sprint. Guss Jr would only advance one more position as he finished fifth, but the win would go to Terry Neal.
1. 28c Terry Neal
2. 7B Mark Burgtorf
3. 93 Jay Johnson
4. 1st Terry Schlipman
5. 58 Ray Guss Jr
6. 12J Jeremy Grady
7. 99D Darrel DeFrance
8. 1 Jeff French
9. 14 Boone McLaughlin
10. 45 Curt Martin
11. 37 Mike Smith (driving Clint Wendel's car)
12. 72 Denny Osborn (assume he was driving the 60 car of Dean Wagoner, but had different body panels on for Osborn)
It was fun catching up with Jeremy Grady after the races. Once a weekly competitor at both Des Moines and Webster City as well as a former Deery Series champion, he has been away from the sport for a few years. In fact, he told me he had only been to two races since his last stint behind the wheel. I think after this past weekend the fire still burns deep inside him and hopefully things will work out to where he can make a return to the sport!
After returning home in the wee hours in the morning Saturday, I was back up and ready again for another night of racing. This time, I opted to travel in the opposite direction and headed to the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa. It would be the championship night of the two-day Tiny Lund Memorial. Five classes would run last chance races along with their feature events Saturday night while also having to deal with Mother Nature. A steady mist throughout the beginning of the last chance races would plague the track conditions, and officials decided to stop the action and get out the farm equipment to work in the track. The decision turned out to be a good one as the track was lightning fast the rest of the night and the skies would cooperate as well.
Feature action would get started with the IMCA hobby stocks. With Shannon Anderson starting on the outside front row, I fully expected him to run away with the feature win. However, that would not be the case. Dustin Griffiths would keep pace with Anderson in the early going before losing the second position around the halfway point to Andy Boeckman, who won one of the last chance races. Boeckman, who started fourteenth, caught Anderson but was unable to find a way around the former Supernationals and National champion. A caution came out as they entered lapped traffic, yet Boeckman still was unable to seriously challenge for the lead as Shannon Anderson took home the win. Andy Boeckman was second, Dustin Griffiths was third, Blain Peterson fourth, and fifth went to Dusty Van Horn.
Up next would be the IMCA sportmod feature event. A spin in the early going forced early contenders to the tail as Doug Smith and Dylan Book got caught up in the wreckage. After starting ninth, Jesse Sobbing worked the top side of the speedway and took the lead. From there he ran away from the competition as he won by nearly a straight away ahead of youngster Tyler Droste. Jared Hansen was third, Doug Smith rebounded to fourth, and Randy Archer completed the top five.
IMCA stock cars were next to hit the track. A lot of position swapping would go on throughout this race as drivers jockeyed for track position. Keith Knop took the lead from his outside front row start while the guys behind him engaged in battle. While most guys preferred the top side, Donavon Smith and Brian Blessington tried to work their machines on the inside line. It worked out well for Smith as he finished second behind Knop for the win. Chris Ullrich finished third, Clay Christian was fourth, and Blessington rounded out the top five.
The IMCA late models kept the pattern going in their feature event. Outside front row starter Jason Hahne jumped out to the early lead and built up nearly a straight away advantage over the competition. Todd Cooney would make his way to second and begin to chase down Hahne, but several caution flags would break his momentum as Hahne opened up some room on every restart. Hahne would go on to pick up the big payday ahead of Todd Cooney, Al Zeitner, Barry Sorensen, and Corey Zeitner.
The finale of the evening would be the IMCA modifieds as they embarked on the $5,000 to win feature. Pole sitter Luke Wanninger wasted no time in taking the lead while outside front row starter J.J. Wise struggled with the handling on his machine. Despite several caution laps, Wanninger was able to maintain a good lead while the field behind him swapped positions. Former national champion Dylan Smith from Nebraska ran the low line the entire race and made it pay off with a second place finish after starting seventeenth. Bob Zoubek finished third ahead of Wisconsin drivers Brian Mullen and Benji LaCrosse.
It was a good night of racing considering the way things started off with the persistent mist. Kudos to the track crew for their hard work as I had doubts whether they'd get it in or not.
This upcoming weekend is FULL of race specials. As of the time I'm writing this, my schedule will consist of the following:
Thursday - Deer Creek (MN) for the USMTS Fall Jamboree
Friday - Marshalltown for the Havoc on the Highbanks (Hawkeye Dirt Tour)
Saturday - Fort Dodge for the Bruce Sommerfeld Memorial
Sunday - East Moline for the IMCA Deery Brothers late model finale
I guess you could say my "crazy" traveling tour is getting started back up again. Be sure to get out and support a track near you this weekend!!
Last Friday I headed east on Highway 20 to the Farley Speedway and night #3 of the 34th Annual Yankee Dirt Track Classic. On the slate was the qualifying for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA modifieds, the Deery Brothers IMCA late model series, and the open late models. I believe 27 modifieds, 47 Deery Brothers late models, and 28 open late models were in attendance.
The Hawkeye Dirt Tour modifieds ran three heat races with the top five I believe securing a spot for Saturday night's feature. Richie Gustin would win the first heat, Josh Foster the second heat, and Mark Schulte snared the third heat. Ryan Dolan, the series point leader, was not in attendance. I heard in the pits afterwards that his car owner had sold the car and he didn't have another one ready to go.
The Deery Brothers late models ran five heats along with two b-main events. The top two in each heat qualified while the top four in each of the two b-mains advanced to Saturday's main event. Heat winners were Andy Eckrich, Jeff Guengerich, Denny Eckrich, Tyler Bruening, and Terry Neal. B-main winners were Joel Callahan and Ray Guss Jr.
The open late models saw four heat races. I remember them running two b-mains, but unsure as to how many they took via passing points. Andy Eckrich won the first heat, heat two went to Justin Kay, Dave Eckrich won heat three, and heat four went to Denny Eckrich.
Following all the heats and b-mains, the Deery Brothers late models ran a "feature" that involved the past IMCA national champions and the past Deery Brothers series champions to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the IMCA late models. Twelve starters made the call as Jeff Aikey opted not to race it and Todd Cooney was not in attendance. Layne Meyer was there, but not racing.
Terry Neal used his outside front row starting spot to beat Mark Burgtorf to turn one and secure the early lead. Jay Johnson would settle into the third position while Terry Schlipman passed Jeremy Grady for the fourth position. Schlipman was driving Justin Reed's 1st car while Grady was behind the wheel of T.J. Criss's 12J machine. The top four would get strung out as they worked the top side of the speedway with the only car making significant moves being Ray Guss Jr. Guss Jr started last of the twelve-car starting field, but he worked his way up to sixth after passing Jeff French on lap eight of the twenty-lap sprint. Guss Jr would only advance one more position as he finished fifth, but the win would go to Terry Neal.
1. 28c Terry Neal
2. 7B Mark Burgtorf
3. 93 Jay Johnson
4. 1st Terry Schlipman
5. 58 Ray Guss Jr
6. 12J Jeremy Grady
7. 99D Darrel DeFrance
8. 1 Jeff French
9. 14 Boone McLaughlin
10. 45 Curt Martin
11. 37 Mike Smith (driving Clint Wendel's car)
12. 72 Denny Osborn (assume he was driving the 60 car of Dean Wagoner, but had different body panels on for Osborn)
It was fun catching up with Jeremy Grady after the races. Once a weekly competitor at both Des Moines and Webster City as well as a former Deery Series champion, he has been away from the sport for a few years. In fact, he told me he had only been to two races since his last stint behind the wheel. I think after this past weekend the fire still burns deep inside him and hopefully things will work out to where he can make a return to the sport!
After returning home in the wee hours in the morning Saturday, I was back up and ready again for another night of racing. This time, I opted to travel in the opposite direction and headed to the Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa. It would be the championship night of the two-day Tiny Lund Memorial. Five classes would run last chance races along with their feature events Saturday night while also having to deal with Mother Nature. A steady mist throughout the beginning of the last chance races would plague the track conditions, and officials decided to stop the action and get out the farm equipment to work in the track. The decision turned out to be a good one as the track was lightning fast the rest of the night and the skies would cooperate as well.
Feature action would get started with the IMCA hobby stocks. With Shannon Anderson starting on the outside front row, I fully expected him to run away with the feature win. However, that would not be the case. Dustin Griffiths would keep pace with Anderson in the early going before losing the second position around the halfway point to Andy Boeckman, who won one of the last chance races. Boeckman, who started fourteenth, caught Anderson but was unable to find a way around the former Supernationals and National champion. A caution came out as they entered lapped traffic, yet Boeckman still was unable to seriously challenge for the lead as Shannon Anderson took home the win. Andy Boeckman was second, Dustin Griffiths was third, Blain Peterson fourth, and fifth went to Dusty Van Horn.
Up next would be the IMCA sportmod feature event. A spin in the early going forced early contenders to the tail as Doug Smith and Dylan Book got caught up in the wreckage. After starting ninth, Jesse Sobbing worked the top side of the speedway and took the lead. From there he ran away from the competition as he won by nearly a straight away ahead of youngster Tyler Droste. Jared Hansen was third, Doug Smith rebounded to fourth, and Randy Archer completed the top five.
IMCA stock cars were next to hit the track. A lot of position swapping would go on throughout this race as drivers jockeyed for track position. Keith Knop took the lead from his outside front row start while the guys behind him engaged in battle. While most guys preferred the top side, Donavon Smith and Brian Blessington tried to work their machines on the inside line. It worked out well for Smith as he finished second behind Knop for the win. Chris Ullrich finished third, Clay Christian was fourth, and Blessington rounded out the top five.
The IMCA late models kept the pattern going in their feature event. Outside front row starter Jason Hahne jumped out to the early lead and built up nearly a straight away advantage over the competition. Todd Cooney would make his way to second and begin to chase down Hahne, but several caution flags would break his momentum as Hahne opened up some room on every restart. Hahne would go on to pick up the big payday ahead of Todd Cooney, Al Zeitner, Barry Sorensen, and Corey Zeitner.
The finale of the evening would be the IMCA modifieds as they embarked on the $5,000 to win feature. Pole sitter Luke Wanninger wasted no time in taking the lead while outside front row starter J.J. Wise struggled with the handling on his machine. Despite several caution laps, Wanninger was able to maintain a good lead while the field behind him swapped positions. Former national champion Dylan Smith from Nebraska ran the low line the entire race and made it pay off with a second place finish after starting seventeenth. Bob Zoubek finished third ahead of Wisconsin drivers Brian Mullen and Benji LaCrosse.
It was a good night of racing considering the way things started off with the persistent mist. Kudos to the track crew for their hard work as I had doubts whether they'd get it in or not.
This upcoming weekend is FULL of race specials. As of the time I'm writing this, my schedule will consist of the following:
Thursday - Deer Creek (MN) for the USMTS Fall Jamboree
Friday - Marshalltown for the Havoc on the Highbanks (Hawkeye Dirt Tour)
Saturday - Fort Dodge for the Bruce Sommerfeld Memorial
Sunday - East Moline for the IMCA Deery Brothers late model finale
I guess you could say my "crazy" traveling tour is getting started back up again. Be sure to get out and support a track near you this weekend!!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Thoughts on IMCA Supernationals
I realize this is quite a bit late, but I thought I'd give my thoughts on the IMCA Supernationals held at the Boone Speedway last week. Over the past several years I've tried to make it as many nights as I could for the six-day "racing vacation", but this year I opted to only go the final three nights. I will be the first to tell ya I felt out of the loop of what had happened earlier in the week, but that was my own fault as I made it a point NOT to look at results or to even see who had shown up.
In the three days I was there I enjoyed a lot of good racing action. Obviously the highlight of my three days there was the Saturday main event for the IMCA sportmods as Scott Davis narrowly beat Jesse Sobbing to earn the crown. Youngsters Tyler Droste and Cayden Carter were hounding Davis throughout the race and appeared ready to take the lead, but a late caution set up a restart that had Carter on the inside of the first full row and Sobbing on the outside. Sobbing found some traction and put Carter in his dust before focusing on the leader. Davis and Sobbing both ran a clean race and had the crowd on its feet as they crossed the finish line!
Earlier in the evening on Saturday the Race of Champions races were run for each of the divisions. While not getting to see many of the qualifying events for these races, I noticed something rather unique as the starting grid made their way to the track. Webster City track champions qualified for the IMCA hobby stock, sportmod, and modified Race of Champions (the stock cars are not IMCA at Webster City). Brad Ratcliff finished ninth in the hobby stock ROC, Joel Rust was third in the sportmod ROC, and Richie Gustin finished fifth in the modified ROC. The Boone Speedway also had all of its track champions qualify for the Race of Champions races (Michael Murphy, Donovan Smith, Scott Davis, and Russ Dickerson).
Of course you know by now that Richie Gustin pulled off the win in the IMCA modifieds at the IMCA Supernationals. He started on the pole and led every lap en route to capturing the richest grand prize in event history to date. Gustin was challenged by older brother Jimmy at one point before Jimmy's car slowed and exited the track. From that point on Richie Gustin had to fend off challenges from Mike VanGenderen and Darin Duffy for the victory.
While it's always nice to see the amount of racing in one night at the IMCA Supernationals, it can tend to get a bit lengthy as the night goes on. One issue many fans noticed was the time spent realigning cars under caution. Hopefully they can get the bugs worked out in the raceceiver and transponder department to where the show can move along a bit smoother.
One major change I noticed this year was the addition of an announcer. Chet Christner from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was on hand to help out with the announcing along with Ryan Clark and Johnny Tharp. I'm not a big fan of Tharp, but Clark and Christner were fun to listen to. I realize it's not ever going to be the same as when Denny Grabenbauer and Toby Kruse were on the mic, but it seems the information about the drivers has taken a backseat to a comedy show of jokes. I guess as a fan I have the opportunity to go meet the drivers and find out first-hand a few tidbits, so that along with the lack of time between races can justify the means.
Congratulations to all the Supernationals Champions that were crowned throughout the week. And thanks to all the drivers for putting on the best show they could for all the fans that showed up. With the state the economy is in, Supernationals boasted its biggest total car count thus far.
As the season winds down the calendar is filled with special events. Be sure to get out and support the sport as much as you can before the doors close on the tracks for the 2011 season!
In the three days I was there I enjoyed a lot of good racing action. Obviously the highlight of my three days there was the Saturday main event for the IMCA sportmods as Scott Davis narrowly beat Jesse Sobbing to earn the crown. Youngsters Tyler Droste and Cayden Carter were hounding Davis throughout the race and appeared ready to take the lead, but a late caution set up a restart that had Carter on the inside of the first full row and Sobbing on the outside. Sobbing found some traction and put Carter in his dust before focusing on the leader. Davis and Sobbing both ran a clean race and had the crowd on its feet as they crossed the finish line!
Earlier in the evening on Saturday the Race of Champions races were run for each of the divisions. While not getting to see many of the qualifying events for these races, I noticed something rather unique as the starting grid made their way to the track. Webster City track champions qualified for the IMCA hobby stock, sportmod, and modified Race of Champions (the stock cars are not IMCA at Webster City). Brad Ratcliff finished ninth in the hobby stock ROC, Joel Rust was third in the sportmod ROC, and Richie Gustin finished fifth in the modified ROC. The Boone Speedway also had all of its track champions qualify for the Race of Champions races (Michael Murphy, Donovan Smith, Scott Davis, and Russ Dickerson).
Of course you know by now that Richie Gustin pulled off the win in the IMCA modifieds at the IMCA Supernationals. He started on the pole and led every lap en route to capturing the richest grand prize in event history to date. Gustin was challenged by older brother Jimmy at one point before Jimmy's car slowed and exited the track. From that point on Richie Gustin had to fend off challenges from Mike VanGenderen and Darin Duffy for the victory.
While it's always nice to see the amount of racing in one night at the IMCA Supernationals, it can tend to get a bit lengthy as the night goes on. One issue many fans noticed was the time spent realigning cars under caution. Hopefully they can get the bugs worked out in the raceceiver and transponder department to where the show can move along a bit smoother.
One major change I noticed this year was the addition of an announcer. Chet Christner from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was on hand to help out with the announcing along with Ryan Clark and Johnny Tharp. I'm not a big fan of Tharp, but Clark and Christner were fun to listen to. I realize it's not ever going to be the same as when Denny Grabenbauer and Toby Kruse were on the mic, but it seems the information about the drivers has taken a backseat to a comedy show of jokes. I guess as a fan I have the opportunity to go meet the drivers and find out first-hand a few tidbits, so that along with the lack of time between races can justify the means.
Congratulations to all the Supernationals Champions that were crowned throughout the week. And thanks to all the drivers for putting on the best show they could for all the fans that showed up. With the state the economy is in, Supernationals boasted its biggest total car count thus far.
As the season winds down the calendar is filled with special events. Be sure to get out and support the sport as much as you can before the doors close on the tracks for the 2011 season!
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