Early Sunday morning I made the lengthy trek from southwest Missouri to southeast Iowa to attend the annual Shiverfest race held at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. Fellow and head positivelyracing.com personality Jeff Broeg would help promote this event along with Terri Hoenig and his wife. Shiverfest is typically billed as the last race in Iowa, but the month of October has been so crazy as far as weather goes, that you never know anymore. I drove through rain the first couple of hours during my trip, but eventually drove out of it the closer I got to the border.
Upon arrival at the track, the grounds had plenty of puddles in the driveways and grass. I walked over to the pit shack to sign in (thanks Jeff for the hospitality!!) and also saw Positivelyracing.com's webmaster Sue McDaniel. After a short conversation with her, I walked back to the car to get my layers of clothing and headed toward the grandstand. After finding a seat, I noticed the track appeared to be dry in turn three. That quickly changed after hot laps as the dirt was flying up from the low groove. After hot laps were completed, drivers who were participating in the trick-or-treating for the kids brought their cars out to the front stretch. Kids in costumes walked from car to car to collect candy, which allowed for me to catch up with racing friends in the stands.
All of the heat races were run in a relative efficient manner. The modifieds came out to run their bmain, which would transfer the top four cars to the feature. Tony Olson made his way to the pit area after being involved in a caution. For one reason or another, Olson attempted to come back out as the rest of the field hit the backstretch. The leader of the race had nowhere to go and made heavy contact with Olson, sending him into a tailspin. As officials were nearly completed with the cleanup, the rain made it's appearance at the track. Officials brought out the hobby stock bmain cars to help keep the track worked in, but Mother Nature was persistent and forced officials to cancel the rest of the event.
It was announced that fans should hold on to their ticket stubs as promoter Terry Hoenig will let fans use those next spring at the season opener and get $5 off that ticket. While the show was considered complete, I thought that was very generous of him to come up with that idea. The top twelve would equally share the prize money of all those positions while qualifiers 13-24 equally shared that prize money.
Despite the show being cancelled, the show had to be considered a success. The 60+ degree temperature allowed for fans to show up in the stands along with 140-some drivers in the pits. Money raised through sponsorships along with the 50/50 drawing helped raise over $1,800 for the Southeast Regional Dialysis Center to help with their battle against kidney disease.
While I am disappointed that the features were unable to be run, I'm already looking forward to next year's Shiverfest event. It's always a fun event, especially for the kids.
For more information on the Lee County Speedway, check out www.leecountyspeedway.com. I'd like to thank Jeff Broeg for his hospitality and his efforts to continually make Shiverfest a great race. Be sure to check out his blogs from the weekend and future races by checking out www.positivelyracing.com and clicking on "Back Stretch".
- Racing may be a hobby, but it's DEFINITELY addictive!!
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