Glenn and Baumli share IMCA Mod victories at I-35 Speedway
Winston, MO - May 04, 2008
By: Chet Querry
I-35 Speedway PR
PHOTO: J J Baumli in victory circle after winning second of two IMCA Modified features run Saturday night at I-35 Speedway-CREDIT: I-35 Speedway
Over 95 cars signed for week two of the races at I-35 Speedway. After the rains caused the postponement of the modified A feature last week, the night started off with high flying excitement as the makeup feature was ran first.
22 cars started the makeup A feature as all drivers returned who qualified last week. Cory Wray had the lead for several laps while Terry VanTrump challenged him. But Steven Glenn has started the 2008 season off just as he did the 2007 season as one of the guys to beat every week. Glenn moved up from his seventh starting spot to battle for the lead early. Wray had problem and would later head to the pits. When Glenn got the lead he never looked back. VanTrump held on for second. PJ Conger has also done his homework over the off season and is making himself known as a front running. Conger finished third in the makeup feature. Mike Tanner and Truman Asher both started inside the top eight and rounded out the top five. Rick Spriggs won the hard charger award in the makeup feature by gaining 12 spots from 20th to eighth.
During week one the fans voted for the best looking car in each class in their opinion. Those trophies were presented after the makeup feature. #3 Robbie Davis won the Hornet class, Grand National was Brad Dibben, IMCA SportMod was #22H Clay Hale, IMCA Stock Car was #20x Thomas Roberts and #99 7 Jason Estes won the Modified class.
The second week of features started off with the Hornet class. Early in the race the winner of the best looking car rolled on the backstretch. Davis was alright but out for the night. James Reed took control from the drop of the green flag. Steve Hacker stayed close enough to challenge a few times but couldn’t get his car to stick coming out of the corners. Reed went on to pick up his first win of the season. Hacker, who has been the most dominate car in this class for the last few years finished second. Justin Marrant, last weeks feature winner, fell back to fifth on the first lap but managed to work his way back up to the third spot by the end of the race. Jason Eagleson finished fourth with Jason Marrant rounding out the top 5. Steve Hacker was the only car to gain more than one spot in the feature. Hacker moved up two spots from fourth to second to win the hard charger award.
Next up was the IMCA Stock Car feature. This class has proven in the first two weeks of the season that it is arguably the most competitive class at I-35 this year. Russell Walter started on the pole but after leading early spun in front of the entire field and had to go to the back of the pack. That gave the lead to Josh Steele who held onto the lead for another hand full of laps. Behind Steele was some of the best door to door action with Brad Whitney, Dale Eaton, Jason Anderson and Gene Stigall all trying to find a place to pass. In the mean time Thomas Roberts was moving to the front and bringing Mike Nichols right behind him. The closer they got to the front the better they looked. As they moved into the top five Whitney started moving to the high line to get around Steele. Roberts and Nichols got up to battle Steele for second just after Whitney took the lead. A yellow flag came out late and with only three laps to go Whitney had the lead, Roberts second and Nichols third. For two laps after they went to green they stayed in the same position. Going into the first corner after the white flag, Roberts stuck his car on the cushion up high as Whitney had been running the middle. Nichols saw the bottom line open and jumped to the inside. They ran three wide down the backstretch and into third corner. As they rounded the fourth corner there was contact between Whitney and Roberts. That gave Nichols a clean run to the checkered. Whitney held on for second. The contact shot Roberts high and Steele moved around him to finish third. Roberts held onto fourth and Anderson finished fifth. Nichols and Whitney both moved up nine spots but because Nichols finished ahead of Whitney, Nichols wins the hard charger award.
The IMCA SportMod class ran a B feature with nine scheduled cars and the top two moving to the A feature. Ed Schwope III and Royce Stanley finished in the top two spots. The A feature started with Jeremy Pittsenbarger taking the lead quickly. Joey Schwope was running in the top three when the rearend locked up going into the first corner. Jon Boller Jr started in ninth and picked cars off one by one. Stanley started dead last, 22nd, and started marching through the field. Along with Brandon Bouzek, who started 17th and Randy Grimmett, who started in the 13th spot. Scotty Grenier moved up to third early but spun. Pittsenbarger lead about half the race but also spun and had to go the rear of the field. At this point Boller took the lead and stretched it out in the last couple laps, to a comfortable win.. Stanley had moved up to second where he finished. Jeremiah Asher won last week , but spent much of the feature trying to get through traffic. Asher was closing on the top two but ran out of time and finished third. Bouzek started toward the back, got tangled in a spin and had to restart at the back a second time but still managed to finish in fourth. Grimmett had moved up the entire feature and cracked the top five with a fifth place finish. Stanley was easily the hard charger by starting dead last and gaining 20 spots to finish second.
The Grand National feature was hard on cars. Strangely enough it was pretty much mechanical problems for most of them. First, Chad Clancey broke in the hot laps. Then the feature started and Mike Taylor had problems. Mike Johnson Jr then has some damage on his car. Mike Jones started the feature with transmission problems but stays out long enough to finish fifth. Jeff Dixon was driving his Stock Car that isn’t IMCA legal in the Grand National class. Dixon was running third when he had problems and headed to the pits finishing fourth. That left Jamie Custer to finish third. Travis Walker won opening night but lost touch with the leader when he got sideways in the fourth corner and finished second. Jimmy Winkler made a dominating showing as he won the feature by over a straight away. Winkler also won the hard charger award by moving from third to first.
The Modified feature was nothing less than the excitement that had been happening all night. Last years point champion, Yancy Shepard, won the B feature with Colby Dixon second. That put them in the final two spots for the feature. JJ Baumli quickly moved into the lead after a couple laps. Darren Shaw and Jim Cameron battled for second. John Crews got turned around in corner two. That collected Jason Estes and Mike Tanner. Glenn moved up to battle Cameron and Baumli but was sent to the pits on a yellow flag because of the passenger side door sticking out. After a few laps under green the leaders got into lapped traffic and Baumli went to the high side. Shaw capitalized on that move and took the lead only to spin on the next lap. With Baumli back in front, Cameron battled into second. Shepard marched to the front quickly also. Baumli only got a couple challenges from Cameron after that as he went on to get his first win of the season. Cameron held on to finish second with Shepard third. Rick Spriggs ran third much of the race but finished fourth. Terry VanTrump had a good night as he finished in the top five in both A features for the A Modified class. Shepard won the hard charger award as he started 21st and finished third.
The second night of the season saw more cars in the pits, more people in the stands and much more excitement on the track. The season will only get better as it goes on.
“Dirt Trackin’ At Its Best” at I-35 Speedway every Saturday night all summer long.
Results:
IMCA MODIFIED Makeup Feature
#26 s Steven Glenn
#58 Terry VanTrump
#19 PJ Conger
#20 Mike Tanner
#73 Truman Asher
#10 Johnny McGinnis
#99 Jason Estes
#81 Rick Spriggs
#92 Jim Peeler
#96c Jim Cameron
#46 JJ Baumli
#12c John Crews
#75 Dave Bouzek
#12A Jeremiah Saling
#61 Rick Carver
#69N Cory Wray
#91 Ed Schwope Jr
#11 Darren Shaw
#1w Todd Wilson
#25V Pat Neely
#09Jr Jeff Assel
#22y Yancy Shepard
HORNET
#15 James Reed
#87 Steve Hacker
#71 Justin Marrant
#74 Jason Eagleson
#C4 Jason Marrant
#01R Tyler Russell
#15d Denton Wray
#2L Lee Costner
#3 Robbie Davis
IMCA STOCK CAR
#63B Mike Nichols
#x9 Brad Whitney
#94J Josh Steele
#20x Thomas Roberts
#714 Jason Anderson
#63E Dale Eaton
#63 Tim Eaton
#86 Gary Foxworthy
#94 Rick Steele
#11T Bennie Turner
#75 Tracy Summers
#12 Russell Walter
#20 Gene Stigall
#97 Travis Taylor
#86c Jake Cameron
IMCA SPORTMOD
#20x Jon Boller
#57s Royce Stanley
#37 Jeremiah Asher
#75 Brandon Bouzek
#44G Randy Grimmett
#22 H Clay Hale
#96 James Mott
#66 Chris Wright
#25 Scotty Grenier
#56 Kim Keith
#33 Jason Billups
#32P Jeremy Pittsenbarger
#3x Tony Manley
#59 Mike Youngs
#11c Courtney Burnett
#57 Joe Holaday
#12 Jeff Stotts
#89J Joey Schwope
#43 Cody Graham
#91 Ed Schwope III
#70 David Willey
GRAND NATIONAL
#16 Jimmy Winkler
#71 Travis Walker
#8 Jamie Custer
#88 Jeff Dixon
#5 Mike Jones
#97 Mike Johnson Jr
#11T Mike Taylor
IMCA MODIFIED
#46 JJ Baumli
#96c Jim Cameron
#22Y Yancy Shepard
#81 Rick Spriggs
#58 Terry VanTrump
#20 Mike Tanner
#10 Johnny McGinnis
#11s Steve Starmer
#09Jr Jeff Assel
#12c John Crews
#73 Truman Asher
#21D Colby Dixon
#19 PJ Conger
#75 Dave Bouzek
#40 Aaron Sauter
#25V Pat Neely
#1w Todd Wilson
#11 Darren Shaw
#12A Jeremiah Saling
#26s Steven Glenn
#92 Jim Peeler
#99 7 Jason Estes
