BOONE, Iowa (July 30) – It was Christmas in July Saturday at Boone Speedway and the drivers getting the wins were as happy as the youngsters were getting to see Santa.
Xtreme Motor Sports IMCA Modified driver Al Wolfgram and Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMod driver Jake McBirnie made it back-to-back wins.
Andrew Burg made a return visit to the Speedway pay off by capturing his first local IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock win and Nebraskan Kyle Vanover made his first visit to the track pay off, taking home the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car hardware.
Last week, Wolfgram won his first career race in the Modified division. On Saturday, Wolfgram found himself right back in the winner’s circle at Boone. In fact, he made it look easy, leading all but the first lap on his march to the win in the 20-lap feature.
Wolfgram stretched his lead, happy to let a distant pack of four cars sort it out for positions two through five. Russ Dickerson made a last-second pass out of turn four to take the runner-up spot, just getting around third-place finisher Tony Cox. Mike Van Genderen started 10th and placed fourth and Jimmy Gustin finished fifth. The race went flag-to-flag.
It was 18-laps of Northern SportMod racing which provided the fans with some exciting, close racing up front. Cory Pestotnik led the first three circuits but Andy Tiernan took over the top spot at lap four.
When a yellow flew at lap 13, McBirnie had taken command with Tiernan, Johnathon Logue and Pestotnik in hot pursuit. When the race went green, McBirnie held the lead and in the final few laps, he pulled away to score the comfortable win, his second in as many weeks.
Logue finished as the runner-up, Tiernan was third, Randy Roberts was fourth and Pestotnik rounded out the top five. This was McBirnie’s fifth win of the season, plus also scoring the preseason Frostbuster special.
The 18-lap Stock Car main saw Bryan Snell motor off to the lead from his pole starting spot, holding Don Vis at bay. Meanwhile, moving quickly to the front were Vanover and Donavon Smith.
Vanover gained the upper hand at lap 10 and just two laps later, with a fierce battle ensuing between Snell, Smith, and Vis, Snell found himself slipping off and over the top of corners three and four, bringing out the red flag. Snell was OK but his night was ended.
When things resumed, Vanover maintained his lead the rest of the way to the checkers. Finishing a close second was Smith, third went to Robert Stofer, Trent Murphy came from tenth starting to finish fourth and Wayne Gifford, last week’s winner, finished in fifth.
Another new face visited Boone Speedway’s victory lane in the Hobby Stock division. Andrew Burg started pole position, and held that spot to the finish. Solomon Bennett took second, over Shaun Wirtz in third, fourth was Matt McDonald and Eric Stanton rounded out the top five.