Another great night of racing was on the card at the I-35 Speedway in Mason City for Sunday, May 17. Overcast skies with a few sprinkles mixed in made things a little on the cool side for the fans, but it also made for some good action on the track.
Novice hornets started off the feature events as eight cars were scheduled to battle it out on the big half mile. Blake Cole appeare to have the win under control until his car bobbled in on the final corner of the race, allowing Ken Winkowitsch to slip past on the bottom side to snare the checkers away.
The professional hornets started six cars in their main event that saw Patrick Barrett jump out to the early lead. Jesse Harang made a race out of it as the two made contact in turn four that sent Barrett's car fish-tailing. Barrett straightened his car out, but lost two spots in the process. Harang took home the hardware.
Seventeen hobby stocks graced the track next for their twelve lap finale. Scott Dobel used his pole to his advantage as he grabbed the lead on the start. That would be short-lived though as Jeremy Solberg grabbed the top spot on the next lap. Chad Gentz made it three lead changes in three laps as he snared the lead away from Solberg on the third circuit, but behind him Mick Meyers and Cory Gansen were making a strong run towards the front. Gentz would hold the lead until the final lap when lapped traffic played a vital role in the outcome of the finish. Gentz slid high to avoid the lapped car while Meyers went low, and it would be Meyers prevailing at the line by a fender with the lapped car in between! Gansen came home third, Stac Schroeder was fourth, and Heath Tulp rounded out the top five.
The 360 modifieds (bmods) were up next as twenty-one cars were set to take the green flag. John Warrington grabbed the command of the race early on from his outside front row starting spot as both Shane Swanson and Adam Ackerman were manuevering their way to the front after starting midpack. Swanson would drive his car to the outside of Warrington's machine to make what would be the winning pass. Warrington maintained his second spot, one of his best career finishes I'm sure. Dan Tenold, Nate Chodur, and Dustin Brown completed the top five.
A great field of ninteen IMCA stock cars were on hand as the "Class Too Tough To Tame" lived up to his nickname. Aaron Haggerty used his front row starting spot to take command early on. Luckily for him race cars don't have mirrors as he would have seen a dogfight brewing behind him for the next several positions. Ryan Hiscocks, Joe Willier, Bert McDaniel, and Kevin Opheim were all trying to track down Haggerty. Hiscocks was the first to mount a run on the outside of Haggerty, but the top side was not the place to be as Haggerty maintained his momentum to keep the top spot. Kevin Opheim moved his car to the low groove to get past Hiscocks for second and set his sights on the leader. His move would not stick either and Bert McDaniel got around him as he tried to chase down Haggerty. With just a few laps remaining, contact between Opheim and McDaniel resulted in McDaniel saving his car from spinning and thus giving ground to the leader. Haggerty went on to take home the win while Kevin Opheim snared the second spot. Jared Dirks narrowly edged out Bert McDaniel at the line for third and fourth, respectively, as Hiscocks finished fifth.
Just when you think you've seen it all, something else comes along that makes you think a little harder. Fourteen IMCA modifieds checked into the back gate and were set for their twenty lap finale. Rich Lewerke jumped out front early and began to slowly distance himself from the rest of the pack. Nate Caruth was making his move to the front as he found himself up to fourth on lap three after starting tenth. The field began to spread themselves out, but Terrance Prochaska was keeping pace with Lewerke and Caruth made his way to third. A caution flag waved after three cars got tangled up in turn four, setting up what would be an interesting restart. The lights were flashing indicating the race was about to be restarted, but the front two cars apparently thought the corner worker was signaling one more lap as they came to the frontstretch. Both Lewerke and Prochaska were slow, but third place car Caruth bolted to the outside at the drop of the green flag to take the lead into turn one. Lewerke was able to minimize the damage as he kept the second spot, but Prochaska wasn't so lucky as he lost about four positions if not more. Lewerke began to reel Caruth back in and got to the back bumper before his driveshalf spit out going into turn one, ending another great run for him. Caruth went on to take the checkers as Curt Badker came home second. TJ Stalker finished third, Rob Rose was fourth, and Terrance Prochaska got back up to fifth.
What a way to cap the night off. With the sprinkles here and there throughout the night, the program was run very efficiently as the races were done by 8:30. The track appeared to be in a little better shape then last week, but dry weather would definitely help.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Hobby Stocks
1. 6 Mick Meyers
2. 15 Chad Gentz
3. 6 Cory Gansen
4. 51 Stac Schroeder
5. 50 Heath Tulp
6. 20 Jeremy Solberg
7. 2 Wayne Landheer
8. 15J Travis Johnson
9. 83 Scott Dobel
10. 71 Terry Litwiler
11. 82x Kari George
12. 65 Gary Fransiscus
13. 18z Zac Smith
14. 37G Alex George
15. 82 Coby Bangusser
16. 32 Robert Black
17. 17 Matt Stading
360 modifieds (bmods)
1. 55 Shane Swanson
2. 64 John Warrington
3. 86 Dan Tenold
4. 88 Nate Chodur
5. 65D Dustin Brown
6. 2 Nick West
7. 5 Adam Ackerman
8. 7I Steve Inman
9. 81 Jared Boumeester
10. 32z Alex Zwanziger
11. 69 Kyle Germundson
12. 33 Zach Patterson
13. 90 George Nordman
14. 21R Tony Ranes
15. 4L Mike Ludemann
16. 3w Shawn Wilson
17. 04 Tim Marzen
18. 18J Mike Jaeger
19. 49 Nate Whitehurst
20. 88K Tracy Kleckner
21. 21H Matt Hoeft
IMCA Stock Cars
1. 62 Aaron Haggerty
2. 44K Kevin Opheim
3. 51 Jared Dirks
4. 81 Bert McDaniel
5. 7III Ryan Hiscocks
6. 37 Merlyn Hegland
7. 7I Andrew Inman
8. 21T Travis Prochaska
9. 21 Travis Hoeft
10. 37x Mike Jergens
11. 53 Wade Nall
12. K20 Kevin Paca
13. 7J John Campbell
14. 96 Joe Willier
15. 15 Brad Broers
16. 59 Larry Portis
17. 38 Cody Schmit
18. 32JR Laura Curry
19. 77 Kevin Hoeft
IMCA Modifieds
1. 7c Nate Caruth
2. 58 Curt Badker
3. 1 T.J. Stalker
4. 123 Rob Rose
5. 20 Terrance Prochaska
6. 25$ Shane Monson
7. 23w Robert Whalen
8. 111 Ty Mennenga
9. 97 Rich Lewerke
10. 45 Levi Nielsen
11. 18 Jake Durbin
12. 10 Jeremy Mills
13. 11x Alex Yohn
14. 47 Christian Wagler
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