Bloomfield, IA (Thursday, July 19, 2018) - The middle to late part of July is full of county fairs in the state of Iowa. In which three Sprint Invaders races on the schedule are held at these county fairs. And Thursday, July 19th was on exception, as the Invaders made a stop at the Davis County Fair in Bloomfield, Iowa.
As I was leaving home and heading to the west, my weather AP on my phone went off to tell me that most of Iowa was just put under a tornado watch. The closer I got to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa the darker the skies were getting. I then sent a message to somebody who I knew was already at Bloomfield to see what the weather was like. The response I got, followed by a photo, showed partly skies and no rain yet. Then as I drove thru Bonaparte, Iowa my weather AP on my phone went off again. This time to tell me I was in an area that was under a tornado warning. I then thought to myself that I was making the 2 hour drive for nothing.
But another check with my contact in Bloomfield still said and showed the skies were partly cloudy. So I continued on towards the fairgrounds. As I arrived the skies started to darken to the northeast. Then just before hot laps a brief shower moved over the grounds. Which caused a brief delay in the starting time, as the crew had to do some repacking.
Twenty-six, the most of any event held so far in 2018, Sprint Cars signed in for the night. They would draw for their starting spot in one of the three heat races. The heat race winners, along with the next 13 in passing points going directly into the A Feature. The remaining 10 cars were scheduled to run a B-Main, with the top 4 transferring into the back of the A Feature. But before the B-Main was run, the Shake-Up Dash would come to the track to set the first three rows of the A Feature. Mason Dainel of Springville, California would go onto to win the Shake-Up Dash, and then drew a number 5 to start 5th in the A Feature.
In that Shake-Up Dash Brayden Gaylord hit the turn 1 guardrail hard and almost got upside down to bring out the red. He would climb from his heavily damaged car okay, but unfortunately was forced to scratch from the A Feature. With Gaylord's scratch and the scratch with motor problems by Dominic Scelzi from Fresno, Calfornia, who was driving Scott Bonar's #50 for the night and was one of the cars who qualified thru passing points from the heat races, would mean that instead of 4 coming out of the B-Main it would now be 6. The 10 cars scheduled to run the B-Main was pushed out onto the track next. But when Kelly Graham, Ryan Jamison, Dave Keperling, and Rob Weuve all scratched from mechanical troubles, this would leave 6 cars on the track. Since 6 was what was being transferred into the A Feature, the decision was made to scratch the -Main and add the 6 cars on the track to the back of the A-Feature.
With all the qualifying complete it was time to bring the 16 lap Stock Car feature to the track, with $1,000 awaiting the winner. Abe Huls and Tom Bowling Jr. would draw the front row for the event. Huls took advantage of his drawing spot to grab the lead on lap 1 over Bowling Jr. and Dustin Griffiths. Just as Huls started to pull away from the battle for second behind him, the first and only caution of the race appeared on lap 7. Garrett Alexander would slow to a stop in turn 3 to bring out the yellow. On the restart Bowling Jr. would look under Huls for the top spot, but Huls would hang on to keep the lead. The move by Bowling Jr. would allow Griffiths to use the top of the track to take the runner up spot from Bowling Jr. Brett Lowry and Mike Hughes, who started 8th, would join the battle for second, which allowed Huls to pull away again. Huls would go on to lead all 16 laps to claim the win and the $1,000 top prize. Griffiths held on for 2nd, Lowry was 3rd, Bowling Jr. was 4th, with Hughes coming home in 5th.
Complete Stock Car results - A-Feature: 1. Abe Huls, Carthage, IL; 2. Dustin Griffiths, Hedrick, IA; 3. Brett Lowry, Ottumwa, IA; 4. Tom Bowling Jr., Danville, IA; 5. Mike Hughes, What Cheer, IA; 6. Howard Gordon, Oskaloosa, IA; 7. Nathan Wood, Sigourney, IA; 8. Jason See, Albia, IA; 9. Cody McClure, Bloomfield, IA; 10. Kevin Koontz, Memphis, MO; 11. Garrett Alexander, Lucas, IA; 12. Spenscer Hopwood, Ottumwa, IA; 13. Jason Cook, Mt. Pleasant, IA
The 25 lap Sprint Invaders feature was the final event of the night, with Jon Agan and Randy Martin leading the field to green. Agan used his staring spot to his advantage, as he jumped out into the lead on lap 1 over Martin and Cody Wehrle. The fast pace that Agan was setting would put him into lapped traffic on lap 4. Despite the heavy lapped traffic there looked like would slow Agan down. That was until lap 15, when he went to lap the 9th place car of Sawyer Phillips. Phillips would go over easy in turn 3 and brought out the red. He would climb from his car okay. On the restart Agan moved back out front, with Martin and Jarrod Schneiderman following. Once again Agan was setting such a fast pace, that on lap 20 he entered lapped traffic. But that wasn't enough to allow Martin to close in on him, as Agan cruised to an easy win. Martin was 2nd, Mason Daniel was 3rd, Schneiderman was 4th, with Jamie Ball rounding out the top 5.
Notes from Bloomfield: Howard Gordon started the Stock Car feature in 10th and would finish 6th....Jason See was scheduled to start 7th, but had to go to the rear after being pushed out of staging. He would climb up to an 8th place finish....Cody McClure finished 9th after starting in 12th......Sammy Walsh started the Sprint Invaders feature in 10th and would finish 7th....John Schulz came from 12th to finish in 8th....Ayrton Gennetten came from 20th to finish in 11th to earn the hard charger....Justin Buchholz finished 13th after starting in 18th....Harold Pohren started 17th and finished 14th.
Waking up Friday morning and checking out social media, I seen several videos and photos of the some of the damage caused by the storms that rolled thru the State of Iowa on Thursday night. Marshalltown, Pella and surrounding cities experienced tornado's and suffered most from the storms. The Lee County fairgrounds in Donnellson, Iowa had fencing, signs, tree limbs and a couple of power poles snapped at the facilities, which forced them to cancel their weekly racing program on Friday night. Here is hoping those effected by the storms can get things cleaned up and put back together real soon!!!
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