Devin Smith, Fett, Toppenberg win first of season at Boone

Back on the track in 2022, Jason Toppenberg won his first IMCA STARS Mod Lite feature of the season Saturday at Boone Speedway. (Photo by Bruce Badgley, Motorsports Photography)

By Joyce Eisele 

BOONE, Iowa (July 9, 2022) – Nick Roberts returned to victory lane when he snagged the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified win Saturday evening at Boone Speedway.

Devin Smith got his first local win of the season in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and Alec Fett won the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod main event. Mike Smith repeated in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks and Jason Toppenberg got a first win in the IMCA STARS Mod Lite division.  

The STARS Mod Lites ran their 15-lap feature flag to flag. Early leader was Joel Huggins before Toppenberg snatched the top spot away on lap three. The two swapped the lead back and forth for several laps until Toppenberg was able to finally establish the top spot for good and then went home to take the flying checkers and the win.

Huggins held down the runner-up spot and following a distance behind in third was Randy Bryan. Joe Glick and Jeff Stensland rounded out the top five. Toppenberg just returned to racing this season after several years hiatus.

Fett started on the pole of the 18-lap feature for the IMCA Northern SportMods and led all laps on his way to victory. Sixth place starter Cam Reimers dogged Fett for much of the race but in the end had to settle for a distant second. Jake Sachau started eighth and finished a close third. Rocky Caudle and Cory Pestotnik completed the top five. This was Fett’s first win at the track this year.

Earlier in the evening, the Northern SportMods ran a King of the Hill competition. The top eight were locked in from their track points standing, and the other eight qualified through the earlier heats.

The King of the Hill was sponsored by Wausau Homes of Huxley, and Matt Beerbower. It paid $1,000 to win, with a nice payout for the top eight.  Going home with the crown was Sachau who beat out Izac Mallicoat, Dusty Lynch and Dusty Masolini in the final round.

The IMCA Modified 20-lap feature came next. Matthew Meinecke held the upper hand in the early going with Ronn Lauritzen giving chase. A caution at lap 10 bunched the field for the restart. That’s when mover and shaker Roberts saw his opportunity as he shot from third and into the lead before lap 11 was scored.

There was hot and heavy battling going on behind leader Roberts, but it was Mike VanGenderen taking the runner-up position, as he held off Matthew Meinecke in third, Ronn Lauritzen finished fourth and Jimmy Gustin was fifth.

There was lots of great racing action in the 20-lap IMCA Stock Cars, aptly called The Class Too Tough To Tame.

Fourth place starter Mike VanGenderen grabbed the lead away from Cody Doolittle on lap two, only to have 10th place starter Devin Smith come out of nowhere and take over the very next lap. Then Michael Jaennette, who started 11th, threw his hat into the ring as well, as did Austin Meiners and 16th place starter David Smith.

It was a great battle between all the top runners and then VanGenderen was suddenly out of the running as he pulled into the infield. The other top dogs were still battling hard but no one could catch Devin Smith.  He held on to the top spot and took the double checkers to secure his first win of the year at the track.  Jaennette took second, David Smith was third, Austin Meiners took fourth and Josh Daniels finished fifth.

The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks saw Mike Smith put yet another notch in his belt, winning the 15-lap feature. Smith started 10th and ran down leader Seth Butler just before the halfway mark of the race.  On lap eight, Smith was leading. He was then gone, pulling away to take another easy victory.

Butler trailed a distant runner up, Curt Reed was third, John Watson, last week’s winner was fourth, and Chad Rigby came from 18th to finish fifth. This was Smith’s fifth regular season win, also having won the Frostbuster special.