CON-e-CO NIGHT AT SHELBY COUNTY
SPEEDWAY
BRINGS CROWD TO ITS FEET
HARLAN,
IA (June 9). After a couple of weeks off of racing,
courtesy of Mother Nature, the action at Shelby County
Speedway was back in full force! Over 1100 spectators
watched a field of 84 cars bump, spin, and grind their
way in an effort to reach victory lane. Even
intermission wasn’t restful – trike races were held with
Christian Stephens winning the boy division and Chloe
Miller winning the girl division. Thanks to our sponsor
for the evening races, CON-e-CO out of Blair, Nebraska
and Audubon, Iowa.
Black
Betty played over the speakers as the Sport Compacts
took to the track. The race went from green to checker
with car #37 of Vince Trometer taking the win. This was
his first night of racing at Shelby County Speedway,
with a car that had a for sale sign on the rear window.
Trometer joked in his victory speech that the price of
the car just went up.
A field
of 21 cars for the hobby feature took to the track, with
the song “Wild Thing” playing in the background. This
was apropos, as with the previous weeks of racing, this
class starts off fast and furious and continues this way
to the checker. Lap 1 saw four-wide racing in the
corners with battles going on for lead between Blaine
Petersen, Dale Towne, Tanner Powers, Mike Harris, and
Ken Hansen. With 7 laps left to go, Towne (#15) went
high and made a pass on the outside lane to become
leader. Once in the front, Towne was able to pull away
and have some cushion between him and the rest of the
pack. Powers and Hansen kept battling for 2nd place,
with Powers winning the battle crossing the finish line.
Doug Smith made his way towards the front of the pack
and finished in 5th place for the evening. Hansen and
Harris settled for 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
The
Sport Mods put on an almost opposite show to the
hobbies. Chad Dills, in the #11 car, was able to pull
away from the very start and turned it into a commanding
lead. Jay Brannon (#04j), Scott Plantz (#OH), and Justin
Bonney (#95) were battling for 2nd place. Dills was at
least ½ track ahead of everyone else, so the only hope
of catching him was to have a caution. With three laps
to go, Brannon spun coming out of turn 4 and stalled his
car. He lost his 2nd place position and had to restart
at the rear of the pack. Would someone be able to tame
the #11 car? Upon restart, Dills showed his car remained
stronger than the others, and pulled away to another
commanding lead to finish the race in 1st place. Ken
Layton (#03k) finished 2nd, and Brannon was able to move
forward through the pack and finish 3rd.
The
stock cars rolled onto the track to “Rock You Like a
Hurricane”. This class also lived up to the hype of the
intro music. Four wide racing started it off in turn 1
with #38 of Josh Filmer making a smooth move up the
center to take the lead. Brian Blessington (#92B), Chris
Ullrich (#01U), and Clay Christian (#7) raced hard and
three wide for second. The z06 car of Jesy Webb caused
the crowd to gasp as he went too high in turn 3 and rode
the bank before coming back on the track. Blessington
moved up to first place with 10 laps left to go;
however, he was competing with 6 other cars trying to
make a claim for the lead. With 7 cars trying to be in
the same spot, something had to give and the #35 of
Donovan Smith was pushed up into the wall on the front
straightaway setting off a shower of sparks. Josh Filmer
(#38) and Donovan Smith had to come into the pits with
flat tires after this exchange and the caution came out.
Chris Ullrich went into pit row at this caution and had
to be pushed back to his trailer ending his night early.
The restart had Blessington, Ryan Webb, Tim Bengard,
Clay Christian, and Trent Partridge jockeying for the
lead. Blessington was barely holding the lead with 4
laps to go. When the white flag was thrown, the cars
were racing three wide in the corners for the lead.
Blessington managed to hold onto his thin lead to win
the race. Bengard was 2nd followed by Webb, Dustin
Smith, and Partridge very, very closely behind.
The Late
Models followed next. Jeff Segebart, who spun out in the
heat race to relinquish his lead, started off strong and
was determined not to make the same mistake twice. He
lead from green to checker, as there were no cautions
thrown to give anyone else a chance to catch up. It was
an interesting night with the late models, as the cars
split into 2 distinct packs. The front pack, lead by the
5S of Segebart, had Vance Tonack (#1t), Dave Jorgensen
(#1), Fred Miller (#9F), and Barry Sorensen (#45). The
back pack had Don Beckstrom (#33), Mark Plowman (#9),
Phil Miller (#17M), Kyle Wahlery (#14), and Randy Faux
(#11). Nobody was really able to gain on anyone and most
of the laps went by as single-file racing. With three
laps left, Segebart started catching the back of the
pack for lap traffic, but he had such a commanding lead
that there wasn’t enough time even with the slower
traffic for anyone to catch Segebart. The last few laps
had Fast Freddy Miller and Barry, The Colt 45, Sorensen
battling for 4th and 5th, with F. Miller crossing the
finish line before Sorensen.
The
modified race finished off the evening with excitement
that had the crowd standing on their feet at the end
determined not to miss a moment. A caution came out
early with 16 laps to go with BJ Bruck (#91) in the lead
for restart followed by Dave Hulsebus (#1), Mike
Albertsen (#3), Craig Reetz (#1R), Rick Meents (#6C) and
Chad Preul (#2K). Reetz took advantage of the restart
and with a smooth move, became 2nd place behind Bruck.
With 13 laps to go, the #14 car of Matt Bonine skirted
along the front straightaway wall with a huge trail of
sparks in his wake, but was able to keep going through
turn 1 with no damage. Bruck and Reetz battled back and
forth for 1st place with Reetz catching up to Bruck on
the backstretch and Bruck pulling away on the front
stretch. With 8 laps left to go, Reetz was able to get
the lead and hold onto it. The next lap had James
Showers (#34) spinning into turn 1 bringing out the
caution flag. Now Reetz and Bruck were back together
again, with Preul waiting in the wings as well. The flag
was thrown and Reetz retained his lead, barely, and
raced hard with Bruck. The Z62 car of Dan McKeighan spun
in turns 1 and 2 bringing out the caution with 5 laps
left to go. The #91 car of Bruck was asked to stop in
turns 3 and 4 and a race official went to look under his
car. The crowd was wondering what the problem was, until
Bruck was allowed to resume. When he started down the
front stretch under caution, sparks were coming out of
the rear of his car. When the flag was thrown, sparks
were flying once again figuratively and literally as
Reetz and Bruck battled it out and the firework show
behind Bruck’s car was just getting bigger and bigger.
With the crowd on their feet, the officials threw the
black flag at Bruck. Because Bruck wouldn’t leave the
track, a caution was thrown but by this time, Bruck had
gone into the pits with a glow behind him. The fire team
met up with his car and everyone was safe. Now with only
green, white, checker to go, it looked like Reetz would
have shot at winning now that Bruck was off his tail.
But Chad Preul had different plans and battled Reetz for
1st, passing on the backstretch and taking the checker
for the evening. What was unique about this win is that
the #2K car is fueled with 99% ethanol. Since Preul
proved the fuel is competitive, maybe we’ll see more
cars running with ethanol next week.
Looking
for a present for Dad for Father’s Day? Celebrate a day
early and bring him to the races at Shelby County
Speedway! Racing takes place every Saturday, with gates
opening at 5 pm, hot laps at 6:30 pm, racing at 7:00 pm.
Mom’s did it for Mother’s Day – now it’s your turn Dad.
Intermission will be a Tug-Of-War of dads versus kids
with a twist you can’t miss!
Past Results
May 19th
May 12th
