5/3/2025
Boone Speedway
McBirnie Wins a Shootout; Brown, Harris, Gustin, and Knutson Claim Car Wars at Boone
May 4, 2025 (BOONE, IA) – Racing action roared to life on Saturday night at ‘Iowa’s Action Track’ Boone Speedway for Car Wars on May third, just one day before May the Fourth for the annual Star Wars themed hardware. Five IMCA classes took to the track for the Saturday Night Series and was nothing short of exciting with 146 cars in attendance.
Things kicked off with the Carquest Tire and Auto IMCA Mod Lite division. Nevada, Iowa’s Charlie Brown led from the drop of the green flag and cruised to his second consecutive win. Bryan Zehm and Tracen Glick would race side by side for several laps, batting for the runner up spot with Zehm taking second, Glick third, Austin Gray, and Dillion Bush rounded out the top five. Cory Sonner would go plus nine spots to take home sixth.
Next up saw the Elmquist Towing IMCA Sport Mods take the track. Daniel Harris out of Excelsior Springs, Missouri would lead the charge off the front row in his Precision Performance hot rod. Harris would lead several laps but not before Boone’s own Dustin Lynch and Cory Pestotnik would make a bid for the lead. Lynch would get past Petstotnik and eventually take the lead away from Harris. Once there, Lynch would let Harris back by with Harris moving up into the preferred line and set sail to the Moffitt Ford Twin Checkers. Harris and Lynch were followed by Taylor Kuehl and Cory Pestotnik in the top four, however post race tech inspection would see a DQ on the 62 of Pestotnik for a shock infraction, moving Randy Havlik to the top four.
Following the Sport Mod class would be the D&E Outside Services IMCA Modifieds, which would put on quite the shootout. From the start of the race Milton, Florida’s Owen Barnhill and Grimes’ Cory Sauerman would exchange the lead several times, however being covered in lap traffic allowed the next few ground-pounders to close the chase. After several back and forth sliders in lapped traffic, Sauerman would retain the lead and try to find clean air around the topside of the track. In the meanwhile, Jake McBirnie of Boone, IA would make a charge from the 5th starting spot. He would rip the lip around the speedway closing the gap in traffic on Sauerman. On lap 14 Sauerman experienced heartbreak after having an engine expire on the 17 machine ending his night. Following this, McBirnie would inherit the lead and would even have a slight misstep in turn one relinquishing the lead back to Barnhill but not before making another successful slide job attempt and cruising to the Car Wars win.
“We have had a fast hot rod here every night, it just seems like I have been making too many mistakes early on this season. It feels really good to get that monkey off our back. The track was really good, it was a wild race,” said McBirnie in the post race.
Following McBirnie and Barnhill were the next group of cars racing under a blanket from 3rd on back. Jeremy Mills would finish third, Todd Shute fourth, Jimmy Gustin fifth, and Izac Mallicoat sixth all jockeying for position until the final checkers.
Following the barn burner of a Modified event were the Boone Moose Lodge 104 IMCA Stock Cars. Jimmy Gustin, the influence behind the Car Wars night, would lead from the drop of the green flag. An early caution would bunch the field back up giving Austin Meiners a shot at Gustin, but Gustin would cruise to the Moffitt Ford checkers. Gustin, a self proclaimed ‘Star Wars Nerd’ would be elated in victory lane. Meiners would follow Gustin in second for the whole 20 lap main event. Buck Schafroth would go a plus five moving up to third followed by Bob Daniels and Jerry Gifford rounding out the top five.
The nightcap event would be the Pickett Salvage IMCA Hobby Stocks. At the unfurl of the green flag, ‘Topless’ Joe Doran of Greene County fame, would take the early lead only to be brought back by an early caution. After the full restart Seth Janssen of Ogden would take the early race lead from the pin. Janssen and Doran would battle back and forth for the lead with Doran eventually taking the lead in his 21x. Doran seemed to be on a Sunday stroll out front when a late race caution put a hard charging Eric Knutson in the cat-bird seat with only a pair of laps left. It proved to be just what the Slater, Iowa native needed as he made a charge past Doran on the restart while Doran had a slight bobble in turn four allowing Knutson, Braden Gifford, and Wayne Gifford both to advance position. Knutson would pick up his first win of 2025 moving up 9 positions, Gifford and Gifford would be second and third, with Doran fourth, and Cory Vanderwilt coming home in the fifth spot.
Racing action continues at Boone Speedway on Saturday May 10th. D&E Outside Services will be putting up some money for the IMCA Modifieds in bracket style King of the Hill event with $1000 going to the KoH winner. Hot Laps will be at 5:00pm with Racing at 6:00pm. The event will be live streaming on IMCA.tv. For more information on Boone Speedway visit us online at www.raceboone.com and check out our Facebook page for upcoming events and updates.
Photo Credit: Icon Images - https://janeburd.smugmug.com/
Article Credit: Coty Mallicoat
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