By Greg Grabianowski
ALGONA, Iowa (June 24) – For the first five weeks at Kossuth County Speedway, a handful of drivers have dominated the six weekly divisions. That all changed as six different drivers found victory lane for the first time this summer at the track on Thursday, June 24.
The main attraction of the night was the $1,000 to win Wyffels Hybrid sponsored Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod special as Gerald Curry and Alex Smith brought the 17-car field to the flag stand.
Curry jumped out front early and kept his no. 32 rig out front with Austin Schrage lurking two to three car lengths behind but seemingly could get no closer.
Every time Schrage inched a little tighter, Curry increased his lead the next lap and went onto to claim the first place prize money in the biggest win of his racing career.
Schrage held on the runner-up slot as Alec Fett was third, Matt Looft was fourth and Smith rounded out the five cars. Izac Mallicoat earned an extra $200 as the hard charger.
The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock feature provided probably the most exciting finale of the evening as a pair of Algona drivers provided the nice crowd with an entertaining battle for 12 laps.
Doug Wickman raced out front off the green flag start but the caution flag made an early appearance on the second lap. After the race got back going, James Burns wrestled the lead away from Wickman and the two went door-to-door for most of the race.
With two to go, Wickman slid past Burns for the lead. Although Burns tried both high and low, he could not get past Wickman as he earned his first feature of the season at the track.
Burns finished second followed by Josh Sidles, Carter Koop and Chris Krug.
Donavon Smith has won almost every race you can in a race car, from the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s to enduro races, but believe it or not, had never found victory lane in Algona until Thursday night,
Ryan Watnem started up front and was the early leader as the yellow flag came out on lap five as Calvin Lange had a flat tire. Watnem and Smith went door-to-door for five laps before Smith eased ahead with four laps remaining.
Once Smith got out front, he was not going to give up the lead and finally got the monkey off his back of winning a feature in Algona as he stated in the winner’s circle that it was in double digits in his career at the track how many times he was the runner-up in a feature.
Watnem came home in second place as McCain Jennings had another good run in his No. 517 rig for third. Kelly Shryock finished in fourth place and Cody Nielsen rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Modified feature saw Nick Meyer move out front and pull away for the win. Polesitter Zach Dockter was the early leader before Meyer took over the top spot and built a full straightaway lead for the victory.
Dockter ended up in second as Shryock took third with T.J. Wyman fourth and Ben Schultze fifth.
Kaytee DeVries has dominated the Mach-1 Sport Compacts all season long, winning the first five races, but Jake Benischek put an end to that streak.
Jaedon Erickson jumped out to the initial lead and led until the halfway point of the race before Benischek became the new leader. The Durant driver would not give up the top spot as used the laps as a tune-up for the upcoming Bumblebee Nationals on July 8.
Erickson finished as the runner-up in the race with DeVries placing third followed by Lucas Parsons and Cade Lehr.
