5/24/2025
Boone Speedway
Laney and Avila take Anniversary checkers at Boone Speedway.
BOONE, IA (May 25, 2025) – Boone Speedway hosted its Cornbelt Clash, IMCA Sport Mod and IMCA Modified Anniversary races on Saturday night with no shortage of excitement. 159 of IMCA’s toughest racers from five classes checked in to do battle.
The first A-feature of the night kicked off with the IMCA Stars Mod Lite Cornbelt Clash. Altoona, Iowa’s Ben George jumped out to the early race lead from the outside front row starting spot. It was he and Jon Padilla who continued to race side by side for the lead. Eventually Padilla would get the better of George and this allowed Austin Gray to enter the picture. Gray who started in the sixth position would work feverishly as they diced through lapped traffic. Gray would get one last shot and making a pass but would come up just short allowing Padilla to take the checkers and the Cornbelt Clash win. Gray followed in second, Charlie Brown who had the quickest lap times on the track would work to third, Carson Hubbard, and George would round out the top five finishers.
Next to the track were the IMCA Sport Mods for their 20th Anniversary special event. Dusty Masolini claimed the top spot early on in the race. The defending track champion would then surrender the race lead to former Super Nationals Hobby Stock champion and Sport Mod Rookie, Mike Smith. Smith would continue to clip off laps up front as the race went on. In the meantime, Matt Avila picked off cars from the 12th starting position to catch the leading Smith. This is when things got interesting. Avila and Smith came together in turns three and four with Smith getting sideways and a quick caution to prevent further damage to the field came out. Since Smith continued on and the lap wasn’t completed, Smith re-inherited the lead. After the restart, Avila and Smith continued to battle, with now charging Cam Reimers. Avila would take the lead with two laps left and cruise to the Moffitt Ford Twin Checkers and the win. Smith, Reimers, Brayton Carter, and Masolini ended up in the top five.
The 46th Anniversary IMCA Modified $2000-to-win special lined up next. Cody Laney of Torrance, CA would take the green flag and the lead from Jeremy Mills. Laney would pick up where he left off after picking up the $2000 prize the night before in Marshalltown. Laney jumped right to the top of the track and rode the treacherous cushion to keep his number five machine out front. Mills would continue to follow suit with Jake McBirnie working his way to third from the 10th starting spot. Todd Shute raced from ninth to fourth and Izac Mallicoat raced from 13th to fifth.
IMCA stock cars came out to the track and it saw veteran racer Kevin Opheim work his way to the lead early on. Opheim ripped the lip of the speedway and had quite the advantage for a time. Lake City’s David Smith worked the bottom of the speedway and he slowly closed the gap and eventually caught the leader. The two seasoned racers swapped the lead several times with Opheim married to the top side and Smith hugging the tires on the inside. The two were side-by-side until the final lap when Opheim slipped up in turn two allowing Smith to gain a three car length advantage and race to the win. This would give Smith his 199th IMCA career win. Opheim finished second, Josh Daniels third, Michael Jannette fourth, and Devin Smith from 23rd to fifth.
IMCA Hobby Stocks finished up with the nightcap of the evening. Brandon Bombardo looked to have the race under control from the start. Bombardo lead most of the laps in the A main but “Topless” Joe Doran motored through the field and took the lead with six laps to go. He continued to stretch his lead and finally avoided catastrophe to make his first trip to Farley’s Tire Victory Lane. Bombardo would finish second, Will Smith raced from 10th to third, Skylar Pruitt and Eric Knutson rounded out the top five.
Racing continues this weekend with our Saturday Night Series weekly points racing. Our program switches to summer hours with Hot Laps at 6pm and Racing at 7pm. Continue to find more information at www.raceboone.com or find us on our social media pages.
Photo Credit: Motorsports Photography http://www.motorsportsphotography.net/
Article Credit: Coty Mallicoat
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