After a weekend of no racing, we were able to get back on track at a new to me venue, Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa. The occasion was night number two of the Your Life Iowa Fall Futurity, originally scheduled for the weekend prior featuring the Hoker Trucking SLMR east series championship. With inclement weather postponing the event, SLMR series officials elected to call it a season, and the headline Late Model class would now run under a rules package allowing SLMR, IMCA, and Wissota cars to compete. The purse on this Sunday night would pay $2,000 to the Late Model winner, while Modifieds, B Mods, Stock Cars, and Hobby Stocks would race for a $1,000 top prize, all under the USRA banner. The event was held in conjunction with Friday night racing in Mason City, and Hamilton County followed with Saturday and Sunday shows. Sunday racing was set to kick off at 4:30 P.M.
The half mile track has recently undergone some changes, with the reworked racing surface now measuring three eighths mile around the inside.
Although there was a threat of rain rolling in in a few short hours, eighty cars showed up to race before a sparse crowd on this chilly, breezy late Sunday afternoon. There would be no hot laps, and racing would kick off close to the advertised time. From that point, officials did an excellent job of moving the show along, and the final checkers waved at approximately 7:30 P.M, beating the rain and sending everyone home in a timely manner. The drivers did a credible job of trying to keep the show moving by attempting to restart their cars after a spin, and the flagman did an excellent job of giving them time to do so. And after an interview and photo op with the first feature winner, it was decided to hold off on victory lane festivities until the end of the night!
Eleven heat races and five feature events in three hours on a three eighths mile track, perfect for a work/school night!
With heat races complete and following a brief intermission, Late Models hit the track first, racing for twenty laps. Only Jenna Johnson, whose #7 seemed to give up on the final lap of her heat race, failed to take the green flag. Nebraska driver Tad Pospisil shot to the lead from outside row one, leading pole sitter Jason Hahne. Pospisil slowly increased his advantage until the lone caution came for debris just past the halfway mark. Davenport, Iowa racer Brian Harris had picked up wins on both Friday and Saturday night, but he would start this event from outside row four. He entered the top five on lap nine, then gained one more position as the caution came. Back under green, Pospisil continued to lead while Harris moved to fourth on lap sixteen, then third the following lap. As he moved in to battle with Hahne for second, Pospisil wheeled his #04 to a flag to flag win. Harris took runner up honors over Hahne. Darrel Defrance started and finished fourth followed by Shane DeMay in fifth. Minnesota veteran Lance Mathees led the second five in front of Curt Schroeder, Wisconsins' Gavin Tarras, South Dakota driver Ryan Engels, Rusty Patterson, and Michael Trulson. So five states were represented in the twelve car field!
Hobby Stocks had the largest car count at twenty one, and they also had the most difficulty completing their feature. There would be five yellow flags in the first ten laps before the final eight clicked off in non stop fashion. Sioux Falls, South Dakota pilot Dustin Gulbrandson would jump to the lead from the outside pole and survive all the restarts for a flag to flag win. Pole sitter Scott Dobel and fourth starting Chris Hovden had an entertaining battle for second, with Hovden eventually securing the position. Dylan Clinton advanced four spots to fourth after Friday and Saturday wins, while Bruce Sommerfeld came from tenth to complete the first five.
The race of the night came in the Modified division. Brandon Davis, Hayfield, Minnesota ( small town?) charged from the pole to open a big lead over fellow Minnesotan J.T. Wasmund. Former IMCA hot shoe Kyle Brown lined up in fifth and had moved to the runner up spot before a lap three caution sent him back to third. He then secured the runner up position following the Delaware restart. It now became a two car war between Davis and Brown. Lap after lap Brown would attempt the dive under Davis for the lead, but each time Davis would power out of the corner in first. Searching for his best line, Davis would sometimes switch up and move to the inside, sending Brown up the track in his pursuit. At about the half way mark of the twenty lapper, Davis had opened a bit of a lead, but slower traffic became a factor on lap fourteen, and it was edge of your seat racing as the duo sliced their way through heavy traffic. Davis would prevail in this tie breaker, Davis sweeping the weekend at Webster City while Brown took the win at Mason City. Veteran racer Ron Ver Beek quietly worked his way from row four to third in his oddly numbered(?) "R" machine, followed by Wasmund and Bakersfield, California driver Kyle Heckman. Iowa racing legend Kelly Shryock would come home in sixth.
All seventeen B Mods took the feature green for twenty laps of action. Minnesotas' Harley Dais topped lap one from position two ahead of the first caution. Back to racing, Joe Chisholm would drive around Doug McCollough for second. Just prior to a final caution with six in the books, hometown driver Ty Griffith would advance to second during a battle with Dais and Chisholm. Back under green, Griffith grabbed the lead and began to put distance on the field. St. Joseph, Missouri driver Shadren Turner was now the man on the move, charging all the way to second on lap twelve after starting in eighth. However there would be no catching Griffith, who cruised to a convincing win. Turner made it #56 in both first and second, while Saturday winner Chisholm settled for third. McCollough and Dais would round out the top five.
Stock Cars would put a wrap on the night. All but one of the seventeen signed in would do battle for twenty laps. Front row starters Austin Meiners and Nate Whitehurst would duel side by side as Meiners paced lap one while Whitehurst took the top spot on lap two. As the duo put distance on the pack, Meiners retook the lead one lap before half way. He then opened a sizable lead and was cruising towards the finish when the only caution came three laps from the end. On the restart hard charging Bill Crimmins powered to second after lining up in row four. But the Fort Dodge driver had nothing for Meiners, who picked up the final checkers of the season at the storied fairgrounds facility. Following Meiners in order it was Crimmins, Whitehurst, track promoter Todd Staley, who started in row seven, and Jesse Brown.
All in all it was a fun night of racing, and the timely show made the four hour trip home seem much shorter! Thanks to Todd and crew for the opportunity to add one more track and race night to a quickly passing 2023 season.
Despite a somewhat iffy forecast, we are making plans for a big racing weekend much closer to home, with a highly anticipated five division program featuring a return of Late Models Friday night at Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Mo. followed by an all time favorite, Shiverfest Saturday at Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. I hope you are making plans for these special events as well!
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