On a night billed as the Nationals Hangover to provide race fans in the Upper Midwest a chance to catch 410 sprint cars on the Knoxville Raceway off week, it was a veteran modified driver who stole the show. Jay Noteboom notched all time win number 74 at Park Jefferson Speedway. In doing so, Noteboom passed Late Model Hall of Fame Driver Joe Kosiski to become the speedways all time feature winner. With tears in his eyes, Noteboom accepted the checkers and trophy from flagman Nate Peterson. It was not an easy battle in the Artworks Graphics IMCA Modified special, as Mr. Excitement Chris Abelson was first to move to the lead with racing all over the track during the A Main. Toward the late stages, Abelson drifted high off the track and gave up the lead. Noteboom saw his chance an pounced, and held off the challenges of Bob Moore to take the historic win. Abelson was third. Heat race wins went to Jefferson's Todd Boulware and Chris Mills.
In what was billed as the feature event, the Woods Roofing/Nice Bats 410 Sprint Car open show at Park Jefferson was dominated by the Casey's Sponsored 2KS driven by Austin McCarl. McCarl joins his father Terry as one of only 5 drivers to have notched 410 feature wins at Park Jefferson. McCarl was fast all night, setting quick time, and roared to the lead in the feature. At the start, a massive crash saw Carson McCarl and Matt Juhl get together and bottleneck at the top of turn 1. The crash saw both with damaged cars. On the restart, it was all Austin McCarl for the remainder of the 25 laps as he ran away from the field and hid. Dad Terry took home second and Jackson, Minnesota's Skylar Prochaska was third with IMCA Sprint Champ Colin Smith fourth and strong running Jorden Martens in fifth. The dash was won by Austin McCarl and Terry McCarl and Juhl won heats.
The season point championship was on the line for the IMCA Sprint cars and it did not disapoint. With Colin Smith sitting with a 1 point advantage over Elliot Amdahl and 2 points over Dusty Ballenger, the cars set to work on the 20 lap A Main. Ryan Voss of Spirit Lake got the jump on the field and held the point the entire race. However, it was positions 2-4 where all the action was. The three point leaders ripped and roared around Park Jefferson's black oval, swapping spots every lap from laps 5-20. Ballenger would dive low, Amdahl high and Smith middle, and then swapping the spots back and forth in each corner. When it was done, Voss took the win, and Smith the 2018 track championship courtesy of his second place finish.
Park Jefferson returns to action next Saturday for the highly anticipated River City Rumble featuring the USMTS plus MSTS Sprints vs Nebraska 360 Sprint Car shootout. The USRA will also present the Iron Man events for Stock Cars paying $1,000 to win and $600 to win B Mods. For more information go to www.parkjeff.com.
(photo credit Jeff Bylsma)
IMCA Artworks Graphics A Modifieds
A Feature 1: 1. 7N-Jay Noteboom, [4]; 2. 48-Bob Moore, [2]; 3. 1X-Chris Abelson, [5]; 4. 23-Jim Thies, [1]; 5. 44X-Jason Schneiders, [18]; 6. 25-Ricky Stephan, [11]; 7. 02JR-Chris Mills, [7]; 8. 15M-Shane DeMey, [9]; 9. 9-Andy Eickhoff, [16]; 10. 96R-Steve Reynolds, [13]; 11. M80-Jim Mathieson, [14]; 12. 27-Daniel Loggins, [17]; 13. 88-Sean Barragan, [12]; 14. 35-Jeff Berens, [10]; 15. (DNF) 14-Todd Boulware, [8]; 16. (DNF) X-Chris Moore, [3]; 17. (DNF) 67-Ron Beckstrom, [15]; 18. (DNF) 13J-Jacob Anson, [6]
Heat 1: 1. 14-Todd Boulware, [2]; 2. 13J-Jacob Anson, [6]; 3. 35-Jeff Berens, [1]; 4. 15M-Shane DeMey, [8]; 5. 7N-Jay Noteboom, [7]; 6. 25-Ricky Stephan, [3]; 7. 96R-Steve Reynolds, [4]; 8. 67-Ron Beckstrom, [5]; 9. 27-Daniel Loggins, [9]
Heat 2: 1. 02JR-Chris Mills, [2]; 2. 23-Jim Thies, [7]; 3. X-Chris Moore, [1]; 4. 1X-Chris Abelson, [8]; 5. 48-Bob Moore, [9]; 6. 88-Sean Barragan, [6]; 7. M80-Jim Mathieson, [4]; 8. 9-Andy Eickhoff, [5]; 9. 44X-Jason Schneiders, [3]
410 Sprint Cars
A Feature 1: 1. 2KS-Austin McCarl, [1]; 2. 24-Terry McCarl, [2]; 3. 35-Skylar Prochaska, [6]; 4. 05-Colin Smith, [5]; 5. 13JM-Jordan Martens, [7]; 6. 10J-Justin Jacobsma, [10]; 7. 97-Alan Gilbertson, [9]; 8. 75-Tommy Barber, [8]; 9. 17A-Brandon Ikenberry, [11]; 10. 7-Carson McCarl, [3]; 11. 09-Matt Juhl, [4]
Dash 1: 1. 2KS-Austin McCarl, [2]; 2. 24-Terry McCarl, [4]; 3. 7-Carson McCarl, [3]; 4. 09-Matt Juhl, [1]; 5. 05-Colin Smith, [6]; 6. 35-Skylar Prochaska, [5]
Heat 1: 1. 24-Terry McCarl, [2]; 2. 2KS-Austin McCarl, [4]; 3. 13JM-Jordan Martens, [5]; 4. 7-Carson McCarl, [3]; 5. 05-Colin Smith, [1]; (DNS) 17A-Brandon Ikenberry,
Heat 2: 1. 09-Matt Juhl, [4]; 2. 35-Skylar Prochaska, [3]; 3. 75-Tommy Barber, [2]; 4. 97-Alan Gilbertson, [5]; 5. 10J-Justin Jacobsma, [1]
IMCA Sprint Cars
A Feature 1: 1. 1S-Ryan Voss, [2]; 2. 05-Colin Smith, [4]; 3. 51A-Elliot Amdahl, [3]; 4. 2D-Dusty Ballenger, [8]; 5. 7L-Jesse Lindberg, [7]; 6. 33-Trevor Smith, [1]; 7. 17V-Casey Abbas, [9]; 8. 00-Gregg Bolte, [5]; 9. 84-Matt Fredericksen, [11]; 10. 43MB-J.D. Hommes, [12]; 11. 84X-Loren Reuter, [6]; 12. (DNF) 3Z-Matt Zeibarth, [14]; 13. (DNF) 19-Dustin Reeh, [10]; 14. (DNF) 7J-Jim Lindberg, [13]
Heat 1: 1. 05-Colin Smith, [2]; 2. 1S-Ryan Voss, [1]; 3. 2D-Dusty Ballenger, [3]; 4. 33-Trevor Smith, [7]; 5. 19-Dustin Reeh, [4]; 6. 84-Matt Fredericksen, [5]; 7. 7J-Jim Lindberg, [6]
Heat 2: 1. 51A-Elliot Amdahl, [1]; 2. 17V-Casey Abbas, [3]; 3. 7L-Jesse Lindberg, [4]; 4. 00-Gregg Bolte, [5]; 5. 84X-Loren Reuter, [2]; 6. 43MB-J.D. Hommes, [6]; 7. 3Z-Matt Zeibarth, [7]