By Joyce Eisele
BOONE, Iowa (June 22, 2024) – Dylan Thornton was a first-time winner this season Saturday at Boone Speedway, while Austin Bouzek, Eric Knutson and Cam Reimers and Travis Stensland all returned to victory lane at Iowa’s Action Track.
Features kicked off with 15 laps of Stealth Racing IMCA STARS Mod Lite racing.
Randy Bryan, in the Austin Gray machine, led the field for lap one and then a caution flew. When the race returned to green, it was Cory Sonner taking over the top spot with Stensland soon in tow. The two battled it out for several laps before Stensland took over at the flag stand when lap nine went into the books.
From there on out, it was all Stensland’s race. He pulled away to a healthy lead in the closing laps to take his third win of the season. Sonner finished a distant second. It was a close one for third and fourth, with 17th place starter Josh May winning out over Charlie Brown.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods went 18 laps for their main event and it was a thriller at the finish line.
Early leader was Zander Keeland, but at lap four it was Dusty Lynch in the lead with Dusty Masolini charging hard behind him. Things got shook up a bit when two cautions flew close together, one at lap nine, and one at lap 10.
When the race returned to green Lynch was still holding down the lead, but now it was Hunter Longnecker breathing down his neck and Masolini third. Those three raced closely for several laps with Masolini taking the top spot on lap 14, then on lap 17 Longnecker was the leader.
A caution flew, sending the race into overtime with a green, white, checkered finish.
Reimers had just made the pass into second for the restart of the final run to the checkers and as the race went green, Longnecker was holding Reimers off … until that final dash to the checkers as Reimers crossed the timing line 15 thousandths of a second ahead of Longnecker to take the win. Masolini was third. Reimers took back to back wins and scored his fourth feature win of the year.
The Friesen Performance IMCA Modified 20-lap feature saw Greg Elliott the early leader but by lap four, eighth place starter Thornton made a slider work to his advantage out of turn four and took command.
From there on out it was all Thornton at the helm as he raced home to secure his first local feature win of the year. A caution at lap 17 bunched the field and took away Thornton’s healthy lead but it was no issue as he held off 10th place starter Jeremy Mills the final circuits to see the checkers first. Third went to Ronn Lauritzen.
The IMCA Sunoco Stock Car 20-lap feature came to the track next.
Jason Vansickel led lap one, but before lap two was in the books, he was sent spinning when contact was made by second place runner Chad Everts. That would warrant Everts a “bad dog, no biscuit” black flag, sending him to the pits, while sending Vansickel to re-start at the rear.
Nick Roberts inherited the lead, which he held to the next yellow at lap nine. When racing action picked back up, Bouzek, the driver out of Trenton, Mo., and who had been ripping the lip, was soon in second spot and targeting the leader.
A slider didn’t work for Bouzek at lap 13 but a lap later, he had established the lead and then went home to take the flying checkers and the win. Roberts took the runner-up spot while Johnathon Logue came from 11th starting to finish in third.
The nightcap of the evening was 15 laps of IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock racing.
Andrew Burg survived being in the middle of Eric Knutson and Aron Fye to take the lead on lap two, but two laps later, it was Knutson in front. Then all eyes were on Mike Smith as he skillfully made his way to the front and chased down leader Knutson.
It was a spirited final few laps as the two front runners pulled away from the rest of the field. Smith made a last-corner ditch effort with an unsuccessful slider out of turn four, with Knutson holding off the charge to take the win. Smith had to be content with the runner-up spot on this night. Following a distant third was 10th place starter John Watson.
Boone Speedway held one of the most unique races during the evening with the running of the Hawkeye Challenge. he race pitted six different classes against each other as they ran the track at the same time. Tyler Thompson would be the overall winner in that contest, wheeling his 305 winged sprint car.
Saturday night, June 29 will be another night of IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing. Pits open at 4:30 p.m. and the grandstands at 5:30 p.m. with hot laps at 6 p.m. and racing at 7 p.m.
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