7/4/2025
Boone Speedway
McBirnie Takes Home $1000 on Eve of Destruction Friday Night.
Independence Day kicked off the first of two days in the Boone Speedway Eve of Destruction program on July 4th. A non-traditional Friday night program for Boone Speedway saw action packed racing and an even more packed grandstand.
We had three IMCA classes with 92 cars checked in. IMCA Sport Mods were first to take the track for their A main event. Lake City, IA’s Mike Smith, a rookie in the IMCA Sport Mod division, got to the early race lead from the front row. Smith, the Hawkeye Challenge overall champion, has been in his new car for just six events and has been up front every night. It looked like Smith had the field covered as he continued to click off the laps. Problems late in the race for Smith sent him to the pits while leading the event. This gave defending Super Nationals Champion Jake Sachau the lead and Sachau was not challenged for the rest of the feature, taking home the Moffitt Ford twin checkers. Sachau was followed to the line by Willy Kirk, Gage Hilgenberg, Ryan King, and Randy Havlik.
Next up were the IMCA Stock Cars, and Jake McBirnie of Boone continued where he left off from the week before. McBirnie, who doubled up on feature wins the previous week, got around Jimmy Gustin on the top side and started to check out on the rest of the field. McBirnie would feel a bit of pressure as Gustin reeled in the leader in the final two circuits but couldn’t quite make it past. McBirnie and Gustin would go one-two followed by Kevin Opheim, Michael Jaennette, and Sheldon Oberle from Indiana.
The final IMCA race of the evening would be your IMCA Hobby Stocks. “Topless” Joe Doran would take off from the pin and lead from the drop of the green flag. The race continued on but was plagued by caution flags throughout. Finally, with five laps to go the race director would make all restarts remaining single-file. Joe Wollenhaupt from Neola, IA would drive around Doran and take over the top spot. New Prauge, Minnesota’s Brandon Bombardo would fall into the second spot. Wollenhaupt would secure his first career victory in an IMCA Hobby Stock on EoD night in front of a capacity crowd. Bombardo finished second, Ben Newhouse, Will Smith, and Brad Jones rounded out the top five.
Not only were there IMCA classes but also a pit bike buddy race. The buddy race has two riders that switch each lap they go around the track, having a lot of chaos created at the start/finsh line. Boone’s own Al Wolfgram, a former IMCA Modified winner at Boone, and his Son Ace, an outlaw mini mod competitor, were able to dominate the pit bike race and take home $200.
Along with the pitter race, we had a huge fireworks display thanks to the City of Boone, a roll over contest with the winner taking home $500, and the Leap of Death to cap off the night. As for our Saturday night program, Mother Nature had other plans and we were washed out after hot laps.
Racing continues this weekend with our Saturday Night Series weekly points racing. Our program continues on summer hours with Hot Laps at 6pm and Racing at 7pm. We will have our trailer race that was rained out from Saturday as well as a Hobby Stock King of the Hill thanks to Pickett Salvage. Continue to find more information at www.raceboone.com or find us on our social media pages.
Article Credit: Coty Mallicoat
