5/13/2023
Boone Speedway
First Career wins at Boone Speedway for Burke, Fye, and Cooney
The Boone Speedway avoided the bad weather rumbling around the state of Iowa on Saturday and the show went on as scheduled. Three drivers would get their first ever wins.....Chris Burke in the IMCA Northern SportMods, Aron Fye in the IMCA Hobby Stocks, and Shawn Cooney in the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks. Other winners on the night were Ronn Lauritzen in the IMCA Modified division, Jay Schmidt in the IMCA Stock Cars, and Josh May in the IMCA STARS Mod Lites. It was the duo of Sean Allen and Max Allen taking the trophy home in the Two-Person Cruisers.
Feature racing kicked off with the 20 lap A Main for the IMCA STARS Mod Lites.
Josh May captured his first feature win at the track this season as he led all but the first two laps of the contest. Randy Bryan kept on his tail for much of the race, but had to settle for the runner up position. Riley Clem, the Bakersfield, California driver who is spending his summer in Iowa, came from tenth starting spot, to finish in third place. Austin Gray was fourth, and Ben George took fifth.
Summer Anderson and Chris Burke led the field of 24 IMCA Friesen Performance Northern SportMods to the green, with Anderson jumping to the point. Her night was short lived however, as she suddenly broke on the backstretch on lap two, ending her run. This put Chris Burke to the lead, as Hunter Longnecker tucked in behind and put on a relentless challenge. Much of the rest of the race was a near side-by-side challenge as Burke kept his momentum up top, and Longnecker looked for a way under him. Burke never gave up his advantage though, and would successfully hold off the challenge and see the checkers for the first ever time in his career. Longnecker had to be content with second place, third went to eighth place starter Thomas Behle, fourth was Cam Reimers who recovered well after then leader Anderson broke right in front of him, and Dusty Masolini completed the top five. The race went flag to flag.
The IMCA Friesen Performance Modifieds ran their 20 lap A Main next and this one too, would go caution free.
Ronn Lauritzen, in his Sonic the Hedgehog wrapped hot rod, started on the pole of the race, and would never relinquish that top spot on his way to the flying checkers. There was a lot of good racing going on behind him though, with Jimmy Gustin getting the runner up spot after battling past third place Doug Smith, Russ Dickerson in fourth, and Brandon Leeman in fifth.
"The Class too Tough to Tame", the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars ran a 20 lap A main next.
Jay Schmidt kept it up top the entire 20 laps... sometimes a quite hairy spot being so close to jumping the "curb", and found Victory Lane. Several drivers threw challenges at him, but to no avail as he sailed home to capture the win. Austin Bouzek, Trenton, Missouri took second, just getting by Scott Davis in the closing lap, who was third. Fourth went to Jeff Mueller, and Kyle Everts started eleventh, and finished in fifth.
The Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks made their first appearance for 2023 at the Speedway, running an 18 lap feature event.
Brandon Toftee held the upper hand through the first five laps, holding off Shawn Cooney. Cooney then took command the following lap and would hold that top spot the remainder of the race to score his first ever feature win. Brandon Cox would take the number two spot, Toftee took third, and Jared Myers, and point leader, Jeff Johnson completed the top five.
The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks also made it one for the books. Another driver, Aron Fye, got that first ever win under his belt in the 15 lap feature contest.
Aron Fye led the 24 car field to green, and would never look back as he went on to the victory. Andrew Burg took second place ahead of third place finisher, Brian Ashburn. Seth Janssen was fourth, and tenth place starter John Watson, was fifth. Quite ironically, Aron Fye matched his brother Danny Fye's first ever win from last week in the Northern SportMod division.
Next Saturday night, May 20, the Boone Speedway will be in action once again. Pits open at 3:30, Gates at 4:30, Hot laps 5, and racing a 6.
Photo Credit: Motorsports Photography
Article Credit: Joyce Eisele
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