Two in a row for VanGenderen, Smith, McBirnie, Nourse and Dennis also visit victory lane

July 2, 2016

Boone Speedway saw a nice crowd on hand for their weekly show on Saturday night.  A good car count of 23-25 cars in each of the five divisions, provided some great racing action.  Mike VanGenderen matched his win from last week in the Modifieds, Donavon Smith returned to the winner’s circle in the Class too Tough to Tame, the IMCA Stock Cars, Jake McBirnie got his second feature in the SportMods as did Cory Dennis in the Mod Lites.  A first time winner came from the Hobby Stocks, as Korbin Nourse found his way to the checkers.

Cory Dennis led all 15 laps of the Mod Lite feature as he raced to victory.  He outran second place finisher Bryan Zehm, who had started tenth, third place went to Joe Glick, fourth to Joel Keenan, and Josh May started twelfth, and finished in fifth.  Dennis won for the second time of the 2016 season.

Last week’s winner, Daniel Tasler, led the troops in the opening laps of the 18-lap IMCA Northern SportMod main event. However, it didn’t take long for eighth place starter Jake McBirnie to run him down, and take command at lap six.  From there on, McBirnie kept hold of that top spot, all the way to the checkers and the win.   Jonathan Logue came from ninth starting spot to finish as the runner up.  Daniel Tasler finished third, Cory Pestotnik was fourth, and Andy Tiernan completed the top five.  The win was McBirnie’s second of the regular season.

The IMCA Hobby Stock 12-lap feature found a first time winner emerge.  Korbin Nourse grabbed the lead from the outside front row as soon as the

IMCA Hobby Stock driver Korbin Nourse grabbed the lead of the Saturday, July 2, 2016, feature event at Boone Speedway as soon as the green flag dropped and continued for the win.

green flag dropped, and threw off the challenges of any competitors on his way to victory.  Jordan Peters took second place, Dustin Graham third and Eric Stanton was a close fourth.  Solomon Bennett came from fifteenth to take a top five finish.  This was Korbin Nourse’s first ever win at the Boone Speedway.

It was an excellent 20-lap IMCA Modified feature with the winner determined at the finish line.  The early portion of the race was led by Bob Daniels.  Daniels was having his hands full holding back Josh Truman when a caution flew at lap eight.  When action got back underway, it was Mike VanGenderen, who had started twelfth, getting the jump on Truman, and taking over second place—his sights now set on leader Daniels.  Just past the halfway mark of the 20-lapper, VanGenderen surged past Daniels to take over the top spot, and Truman and eleventh place starter Jimmy Gustin also followed him to run second and third.  The final laps of the feature event was a constant battle between VanGenderen, Jimmy Gustin and Josh Truman.  Gustin slipped into second place with just a handful of laps remaining and continued to torment VanGenderen.  Gustin searched for a way around the leader, gave it a last second push as the two came out of corner four looking at the checkers, but was unable to make the pass.  VanGenderen took the win over Gustin, who had to settle for the runner up spot.  Truman held on for a third place finish, Tony Cox was fourth and John Logue came from starting fifteenth to finish fifth.  VanGenderen, who had also won last week, scored his fourth win this year at Boone.

The always exciting IMCA Stock Cars put on their usual entertaining 18-lap event.  Last week’s winner, Tyler Pickett, took the lead at lap four, and was no doubt, looking to match last week’s visit to victory lane.  Meanwhile, point leader Donavon Smith had begun his methodical march to the front, and slipped into second by lap eight.  Pickett held off Smith’s advances until lap twelve when Smith edged under him in turn two, to be scored the leader at lap twelve.  From there on, Smith kept the lead to the finish, scoring his fifth win of the regular season.  Josh Daniels finished second, third went to Jay Schmidt, who both got under fourth place Pickett when he pushed up the track on the final lap, and Ben Walding was fifth.

Monday, July 4 will be the Eve of Destruction at the Boone Speedway.  There will be trailer races, rollover contests, outhouse races, as well as IMCA SportMod’s racing for track points.  Fireworks will end the evenings activities.  The Eve of Destruction begins at 7:30 with grandstands opening at 5.  Then next Saturday night, July 9 will be another regular night of racing for all five divisions.  Hot laps are 6:45 and racing at 7:30.