By Bob Coney
JEFFERSON, S.D. (July 17) – Raceway Park hosted a fast and action-packed night of IMCA racing action Sunday, with five divisions of cars taking to the track.
In the KISS 107.1 FM IMCA Sport Compact division, Ramsey Meyer continued his dominance at the top of the field, extending his division point lead with his second straight win. Meyer took the lead coming out of the second turn on the fifth lap of the feature and never saw the rear of another car again. Luke Jackson took the runner-up spot followed by Don Tank and Tracy Raml.
The CarQuest IMCA Hobby Stock feature belonged to Craig Clift from the drop of the green flag. Clift found a gap in the group of traffic in front of him exiting the second turn on the opening lap and took control before they came back around to complete that opening lap.
A late caution flew to bring out a green, white, checkered finish and negate the huge lead Clift had built up to that point. In the final run to the checkered flag, it was Clift followed by Tony Fetterman, Dave Riley and Matt Baker.
Rusty Montagne closed in slightly in one of the track’s closest point chases, taking the MOPAR IMCA Northern SportMod main event.
Montagne took the lead with six laps remaining and held off the field through three green, white, checkered finish attempts. His win brought him within seven points of division point leader Karl Brewer, who finished second followed by Darin Roepke and Kirk Beatty.
Chris Mills extended his lead atop the Casey’s General Stores IMCA Stock Car division, taking control of the lead with a handful of laps remaining from early pacesetter Mel Elsberry and holding on to the checkers. Behind Mills and Elsberry, Todd Gereau and Aaron Cain rounded out the top four.
The final race of the night was the Total Motors IMCA Modified feature. Dan Loggins jumped out to the early lead and paced the field until colliding with Chris Abelson as Abelson attempted an outside pass out of the fourth turn.
Abelson then brought out a caution with a flat tire and did not return from the pit area, while Loggins restarted at the rear of the field. This left the lead to Jason Schneiders who held off the field over the final laps to take the feature victory.
Behind Schneiders, point leader Ricky Stephan took second followed by Sean Barragan and last week’s winner Jim Cole.