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Deery Series checkers give Cooney his career third Super Nationals crown

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 7) – Todd Cooney’s fortunes turned around again Thursday night, at a race track that hasn’t always treated him well. Cooney led all 50 laps of the Deery Brothers Summer Series main event at Boone Speedway, earning $3,110 along with his career third IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s Late Model championship. “Tonight was unbelievable. We had a yellow with about 20 to go and I looked up at the leader board and thought I had a shot,” said Cooney, also the winner of 2006 and 2008 crowns. “The first (championship) is still the best because I’d never run well at Boone. That was a dream come true. The second and third ones were sweet, too.” Cooney had been in the hunt at Boone two years ago before dropping out with mechanical issues with a dozen laps to go. Jeff Aikey then prevailed in an epic battle with Justin Kay and Richie Gustin. Gustin was in the running again this year after winning his ‘B’ feature and starting 14th. He [Read More]

Friday Schedule of Events

DRIVERS MEETING – 1 pm TRACK PREP FIRST RACE – 2 pm MODIFIED ALL-STAR HOT LAPS 8 – MODIFIED HEATS (8 laps) TRACK PREP 10 – MODIFIED HEATS (8 laps) TRACK PREP (Thursday Modified Top 8 Qualifiers to Fan Zone) 10 – MODIFIED HEATS (8 laps) TRACK PREP(Thursday Stock Car Top 8 Qualifiers to Fan Zone) 12 – MODIFIED ROC HEATS (6 laps) TRACK PREP (Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational drivers to Fan Zone) 10 – STOCK CAR HEATS (8 laps) TRACK PREP (Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational Autograph Session in Fan Zone) 10 – STOCK CAR HEATS (8 laps) TRACK PREP 5 – STOCK CAR ROC HEATS (8 laps) TRACK PREP MODIFIED ALL STAR INVITATIONAL “A” (30 laps) TRACK PREP 2 – STOCK CAR B’s (8 laps) STOCK CAR “A1” (25 laps) STOCK CAR “A2” (25 laps) TRACK PREP 2 – STOCK CAR B’s (8 laps) MODIFIED “A1” (25 laps) MODIFIED “A2” (25 laps) 7 – MODIFIED B’s (8 laps)

Weekly tracks represented

Drivers who support their weekly track(s) are well represented in starting fields for both Hobby Stock and Northern SportMod main events. The same goes for Wednesday night qualifiers for both the Modified and Stock Car main events. Hobby Stock drivers had a combined 759 starts, the Northern SportMod drivers 749. Totals for first-night Modified and Stock Car qualifiers were 202 and 205, respectively. “The weekly racer has always been and will always been the focus of this organization,” IMCA President Brett Root said. “It’s appropriate that they are recognized at our biggest event.” * Mike Nichols is just as good at winning at Rochambeau as he is at parking his Stock Car in victory lane. Nichols prevailed in the second rock, paper, scissors session to earn the pole start in Saturday’s main event. Lining up second through eighth on the inside row will be Cayden Carter, Dustin Larson, Travis Barker, Donavon Smith, Justin Temeyer, Damon Murty and Brandon Czarapata.

Eric Tomlinson

Eric Tomlinson will look to regain the momentum be brought from Texas to Super Nationals when Modified qualifying resumes tonight. The Waco hotshoe capped off his run to the Heart O’ Texas track title with the win on championship night at his hometown track. “We let a good race get away (on Wednesday) when we pulled off after half a lap after starting outside front row,” he said. “But we have more chances.” Tomlinson won three times at HO’T, racing with the likes of long-time friend Kevin Green and former national champion William Gould, and topped three of his four starts at Cotton Bowl Speedway. He’s raced a Modified since 2009 and won a “B” feature in his first visit to Boone last year. “I like the atmosphere and the people here. This is truly a racing vacation,” he said. “Ideally, we want to win Super Nationals. We don’t go anywhere to run second, but making the show here is an impressive feat in its own.”

Ashley Schaaf

Ashley Schaaf made her Modified debut at Super Nationals in 2015. She’s been learning and getting faster ever since. From Lincoln, Neb., and a Beatrice Speedway regular, Schaaf is doubling as driver and crew until her father Dennis gets to Boone on Friday. “Super Nationals has been a good learning experience for me. There are no slow cars here. It’s awesome to race with them,” said Schaaf. “My idols are now my rivals. Hopefully I’ll be able to run up front with them some day.” She lists grandfather Dennis Schaaf (who also raced in the no. 95), Jimmy Gustin, Mark Noble and Kelly Shryock among her favorite drivers. Schaaf has battled handling issues over 30-odd starts in her 2009 TRE Chassis this season. When she’s at the track by herself – Schaaf, incidentally, travels to weekly shows and specials in Nebraska and adjoining states with an open trailer – she’ll ask fellow drivers for advice or make a call home or to a friend in North Carolina who is crew chief for a Late Model [Read More]

Nick Meyer

To borrow from the intro to Wide World of Sports, Nick Meyer’s season has ranged from the agony of two wrecked race cars to the thrill of qualifying for the Super Nationals Modified main event. In just his 16th night in the car he bought midway through the year, Meyer ran second to veteran Ricky Stephan in Wednesday’s first qualifying feature at Boone Speedway. “We met and exceeded all our goals and it was only he first day of qualifying,” said the Whittemore driver, now hoping to raise the bar again for the big show on Saturday. “I never expected to qualify into the ‘A’ feature, especially on the first night.” “The way this car sets up, it does what we always tried to get the SportMod to do,” he added. “I feel more confident driving this car than I ever did driving a SportMod.” Meyer cut a swath through his Northern SportMod competition but two wrecks over the course of just four days forced him to decide between buying another SportMod or making the [Read More]

Deery Series headlines Thursday Super Nationals schedule

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 7) – Cayden Carter looks to make history on Thursday, night four of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s, while Jeff Aikey looks to add to his legacy. The Deery Brothers Summer Series headlines the program at Boone Speedway this evening. Already qualified for Modified and Stock Car main events, Carter looks to qualify for a third championship event by making the Late Model grid. Aikey, meanwhile, aims to run his record string of Late Model championships to five and career total to seven. Qualifying continues for both Modifieds and Stock Cars, with the top four finishers in each of two features for the two divisions advancing to the middle row of their respective Saturday championship events.

Chris Abelson

Modified qualifiers go to familiar foes Stephan, Abelson

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 6) – Ricky Stephan didn’t think anything could top it when he got his career 100th IMCA Modified feature win this summer. Now he’s not so sure. The veteran from South Sioux City, Neb., won the first Modified qualifying feature Wednesday at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s, outrunning Whittemore rookie Nick Meyer in lapped traffic late in a fast-paced contest at Boone Speedway. He’ll square off with familiar foe Chris Abelson, winner of the evening’s second qualifier, in a friendly game of Rochambeau to determine who starts of the pole in the Saturday night main event. “I was thinking that my 100th win was the pinnacle of my career. This might top it,” said Stephan, who started racing at Super Nationals in the 1980s. “I was breathing pretty hard – I couldn’t believe I was leading. I didn’t want to lose it because of the lapped cars.” “This win was probably like getting all the right numbers for Powerball,” he added during a brief lull in post-race tech. [Read More]

Carter, Nichols collect Stock Car qualifying checkers

BOONE, Iowa (Sept. 6) – Cayden Carter and Mike Nichols will both look to add to already impressive lists of accomplishments on championship night at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. Both were winners of qualifying features Wednesday at Boone Speedway. Carter, from Oskaloosa, later ran fourth in his Modified qualifier and will start two main events on Saturday while a Super Nationals crown would be the final jewel in the crown for Nichols, from Harlan and a six-time national champion and the division leader with 450-plus career victories. They’ll square off in a game of Rochambeau on Thursday to decide which starts on the pole. “This is what we’ve worked for for the past two weeks,” said Carter, who will make his bid to start a third main event at the same Super Nationals when the Deery Brothers Summer Series for Late Models comes to town on Thursday. “We were pretty confident we could get both cars in. We just didn’t know if we could do it on the same night.” [Read More]