On Monday, Labor Day, our motley crew made our way to Boone, Iowa Speedway for night one of the 44th IMCA Super Nationals. Late Models would be the featured class in their only competition of the week long extravaganza. A portion of the qualifying races for Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks would add to the long day and night of racing.
But first, the rains came. Pretty much all day Sunday, so they say. Much of the racing for that "preliminary" day was cancelled. But it was "Big Dance" day for the Mod Lites, so their Sunday 25 lap qualifier, 30 lap feature, and 12 lap Race of Champions would be folded into the already chock full Monday itinerary.
And then more rain came to the already saturated grounds on Monday morning, pushing things back by more than an hour. So after a very satisfying meal at Hickory Park in Ames, we arrived to : 437 individual cars in competition, plus approximately another 100 Stock Cars hot lapping only, 69 total races (we made it through 62 of them!), 7 "track farming sessions" (if you have never witnessed one, imagine 9 big John Deere tractors, one water truck, and a handful of pack vehicles doing a 10 minute total track rework followed by 5 minutes of hot lapping), 11 plus hours at the track, not to mention so much mud that we would be parking across the highway, a roughly 15 minute stroll from the ticket gate. Oh, and then there were a few DQ's thrown in, as well!
Now none of this should be seen as a knock on the track or its' operations - this is simply Boone Super Nationals! Something over 1100 race teams would be in competition in what has unofficially become an eight day extravaganza plus the Saturday night "Prelude." Any time spent at the track during this time is really not for the casual fan, this is hard core stuff! Close racing, warm tempers, crashes leading to upside down race cars all packed into for us 11 plus hours of action, and we hit the go button with 2 plus hours still to go!
Covering all the racing blow by blow would be a fools' errand, so I will attempt to hit some of the highlights.
Murfreesboro, Tn. driver Jaedon McDowell topped Kansas City, Mo. ace Dillon Raffurty to win the Mod Lite 25 lap qualifier, but from there on it was the Raffurty show. He would top Bryce Voman, Chaz Baca, Jon Padilla, and McDowell to capture the Big Dance trophy, then come back later to win the Race of Champions over Padilla, Bryan Zehm, Texas driver Scott Jordon, and Josh May in the race involving points champions from eleven represented IMCA sanctioned tracks.
Sprinkled throughout were 20 heat races each for the 181 entered IMCA Sport Mods, and 189 IMCA Hobby Stocks, as well as B Mains and Race of Champion qualifiers for each of those divisions. Both of those classes also raced a pair of Feature qualifiers for the Saturday Big Dance finale, only one of which hit the track before our departure.
That 25 lap Sport Mod event saw Iowa racers Mike Smith on top, chased by Brett Thomas, Hunter Longnecker and Minnesota driver Brayden Ahlers with those four locking into the Saturday finals.
As mentioned earlier, the IMCA Late Models ran a complete program as this was their only night on the card. A solid field of 37 turned out, split into 4 heats, with the top 3 moving on to the 50 lap $3,000 to win Big Dance feature. Curtis Glover and Andy Nezworski were victorious from row three of their 8 lappers, while Jesse Sobbing and Beau Johnson picked up wins from row two. A pair of 12 lap B Mains added a dozen more to the feature field, with outside row one starters Tommy Elston and Logan Veloz claiming wins. The 50 lap feature got off to a rough start on the opening lap when Gregg Hamman spun in turn one and as the field slowed, Robbie Thome made contact with the back of Nezworski, apparently locking them together. As a result all three would restart at the tail. Glover had redrawn the pole position and he then shot to the lead ahead of his row one mate Zach Zeitner and third starting Darin Weisinger Jr. As that trio pulled away from the pack, Weisinger moved to second on lap two, then slipped around Glover the next time around. Glover would retake the top spot on lap four as he ran high on the one third mile track and Weisinger worked down low. Row seven starter Elston, who is locked in a tight battle with Zeitner for the national points title, quickly advanced to sixth before stalling out. About lap eight Zeitner cleared Weisinger Jr. for second while Beau Johnson joined the leaders in a four car breakaway. The leaders soon found themselves in heavy lapped traffic, and when Zeitner dove low to try and slide past Glover, Johnson charged to second. With just a dozen laps remaining, a second yellow flag came as Bobby Hansen and Kale Kosiski got together. Zeitner reclaimed second on the Delaware restart, and as he battled with Johnson Glover stretched his lead a bit. Just when it looked as though we would stay green to the checkers, a final caution came with two to go for Drew Baker. That would be only a temporary delay for Glover, who picked up the prestigious win. Zeitner would hold second over Johnson, Weisinger Jr., and Shane Demey. Veloz gained eight positions to run sixth, besting Sobbing, Elston, Kole Nordquist, and Cooper Tilley.
Announcers Ryan Clark and Jerry VanSickel had already invoked Patsy Clines' " After Midnight," so we began the journey home, where I arrived just shy of 4:30 A.M.! It was great catching up with friends I get to see often as well as those only once or twice a year, and we are already discussing the 2027 edition of this marathon event!
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