On Tuesday night I had the opportunity to visit the Clay County Speedway in Spencer, Iowa. The occasion was the Clay County Fair, obviously held much later than most county fairs in the mid west. This would be my first ever visit to the three eighths mile facility and would be the first of two nights of action at the track. Racing on this night would be Tri State Late Models, the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series, and IMCA Stock Cars. A top prize of $3,000 would be on the line for the late models and sprints, with stock cars chasing $1,000. "Tri State", in this area, would represent Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota!
We were greeted with a healthy and well balanced field of twenty six sprints and stock cars, edged out by twenty seven late models, good numbers for a mid week show. After choosing from the dozens of "fair food" choices, we settled into the massive covered grandstands, complete with stadium style seats, obviously installed since the 1931 erection of the facility. Sprint car heats were set up by three lap group qualifying, with Sapulpa, Oklahoma driver Blake Hahn turning the overall fastest lap at 14.087 seconds. They would then run three heat races with the top sixteen in passing points moving to the feature. Another six drivers would make the lineup through a twelve lap B main. Three heats for the stock cars and four plus a B main for the late models would set the stage for feature racing. Amazingly, all ten heats plus the sprint B were completed with no yellow flags to slow the action!
Intermission came ahead of the B mains, so with the preliminaries finished, all twenty six stock cars lined up for twenty laps. Three caution periods marred the opening laps, with early leader Jim Horejsi turning the lead over to Mike Albertsen about lap six (another track without a scoreboard!) Two more yellow flags about lap nine saw the field reset single file, with now second running Chance Hollatz moving in to challenge for the lead. Hollatz and Albertsen ran side by side for several laps before catching the back of the pack on lap seventeen. As they negotiated the slower cars down the backstretch, eleventh starting Elijah Zevenbergen found an opening, driving around the two leaders. Those three then ran in tight formation to the checkers, with Zevenbergen taking the win. Hollatz came home second, trailed by Albertsen, Horejsi, and hometown driver Cody Nielsen.
Sprints would be up next, with twenty five laps the distance for the twenty two starters. Tim Crawley sat on the outside pole and led Hahn through the lone caution on lap three. With the single file restart, the top three of Crawley, Hahn, and Wayne Johnson caught the back of the pack about lap ten. At that point, third starting Matt Covington joined the party, with the leaders running the faster top line around the banked oval. As the laps wound down, Crawley was able to stretch his lead, and with no more cautions, he cruised to the win. Hahn, Johnson, and Covington followed in that order, with Kyler Johnson rounding out the top five. Landon Britt topped the second five in front of Christopher Thram, Chris Martin, Jason Martin, and Riley Goodno.
Late models would round out the program, and although it was difficult to decipher the P.A. under the tin roof stands, we counted twenty five laps for the twenty three qualified cars plus provisional starter Brad Vogt. Outside row one starter Scott Ward took off at the green flag ahead of Corey Zeitner and Tyler McDonald. McDonald moved to the lead on lap two ahead of a spin by Lane Brenden. Back to racing, a pair of national stars were on the move. Row five starter Rodney Sanders charged to second, and a few laps later Blair Nothdurft joined the party in third. By now McDonald and Sanders had separation from Nothdurft and the rest, but soon the red flag was displayed as the #73 car of Dave Carlson made a sharp right hand turn off the banking at the end of the front stretch, getting upside down. He was uninjured, and after a bit of a delay, we were once again racing. McDonald remained in control, with the caution again waving just as the crossed flags were set to signal the halfway mark. On the restart, Nothdurft appeared to make contact with Sanders, and while Rodney carried on in second, Nothdurft began to fade back in the pack. With just four laps remaining, Sanders made his move, closing the gap and grabbing the lead one lap later out of turn four, with a bit of bumping between the front duo. With the white flag displayed, the flag man replaced it with a final yellow, setting up a green, white, checkers finish. This was only a temporary delay, as Sanders, the modified standout from Happy, Texas, picked up the win. McDonald held on to second, chased by Chad Olsen, Shane DeMay, and fifteenth starting Gary Brown Jr. Nothdurft took sixth, followed by Corey Zeitner, Nate Beyenhof, Trevor Anderson, and David McDonald. Anderson, the series points leader, had issues in his heat race, finishing in fifth, which put him twentieth in the starting lineup.
The program wrapped up sometime early in the 10:00 hour, with the large crowd filtering to the carnival midway as we headed for the gate. Thanks to the folks at Clay County for offering up an entertaining mid week show. I could certainly recommend a visit to this track, which runs a limited summer schedule, with a series of Monday night races. If only it weren't 380 miles from home!
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