BOONE, Iowa – Cody Laney and Ricky Thornton Jr. topped the first two modified qualifiers during a soggy evening of racing Thursday at Boone Speedway during the 38th IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
The top-four finishers from each 25-lap feature earned guaranteed starting positions in Saturday’s championship feature at the third-mile dirt track. The races held Thursday were originally scheduled for Wednesday, but were postponed due to poor weather conditions.
In the first qualifier, Jesse Skalicky took the lead on the opening lap from polesitter Randy Havlik. The first caution waved after four laps and during the caution period Havlik retired to the pits, the victim of a flat tire.
On the restart Skalicky held the point over Trent Loverude, Mitchell Hunt and Laney. Loverude soon challenged Skalicky, taking the lead with 18 laps left. The caution would then wave for a multi-car pileup in turn one.
Loverude led the field back to the green flag, followed closely by new runner-up Laney. With 12 laps left Loverude ran up the track in turn one, opening the door for Laney to dive under him and take the lead for the first time.
A caution with 10 laps left brought the field back to Laney, but during the restart he wasted no time gapping Loverude in second. Another caution with four laps left gave Loverude another shot at Laney, but Laney held serve and pulled away to win the qualifier and earn a spot in Saturday’s finale.
Loverude, Hunt and Steven Bowers Jr. also earned starting positions in Saturday’s championship feature in the first qualifier. However, Hunt was later disqualified, promoting Matthew Meinecke into the top-four and a place in Saturday’s finale.
The second modified qualifier started with Corey Lagroon taking the lead in the opening corner from polesitter Chris Abelson. They would fight for the lead for the first few laps before Kevin Ramey saw an opportunity to sneak by both of them in turn four to take the lead with 22 laps left.
Moments later the caution flag would wave for an incident in turn three. At that point Thornton, who had started 12th, was already up third.
Racing resumed and Ramey pulled out into the lead as Thornton battled Abelson for second. After several laps of trying Thornton was able to get past Abelson for second with 16 laps left. One lap later a multi-car incident at the exit of turn four brought the caution flag back out.
Racing resumed and Ramey blasted out into the lead, but only briefly as Thornton gave chase. Two laps later coming out of turn for Ramey ran high, allowing Thornton to breeze past him into the race lead.
Behind Thornton the battle was on for the fourth and final transfer spot between Abelson and Jesse Sobbing. Coming out of turn two with 10 laps left the pair made contact, sending both cars spinning to bring out the caution flag.
That incident moved Justin O’Brien into the final transfer spot behind Thornton, Ramey and William Gould.
When the green flag waved again Thornton quickly pulled clear of the field, but behind him the battle for the other transfer positions waged on. Ramey would suddenly start to struggle, allowing both Gould and O’Brien to get by him with eight laps left.
Ramey appeared in position to claim the final transfer spot, but with two laps left he lost enough momentum to allow 29th-place starter Clay Hale to bypass him.
Thornton easily drove to the victory, with Gould, O’Brien and Hale joining him in Saturday’s modified championship feature. However, Gould was disqualified in post-race technical inspection, promoting James Goodson up to fourth and a place in Saturday’s feature.
The finishes:
First Qualifier: Cody Laney, Trent Loverude, Steven Bowers Jr., Matthew Meinecke, Zachary Madrid, Scott Drake, Chad Ten Napel, Clay Money, Jesse Skalicky, Mike Petersilie, Kollin Hibdon, Chris Elliott, Zane DeVilbiss, Todd Shute, Matt Guillaume, Mark Schafman, John Parmeley, Tony Hardisty, John McCaul, Darin Roepke, Mike Albertsen, Regan Tafoya, Albert Wolfgram, Tim Czarneski, Jay Matthias, Jimmy Gustin, A.J. Ward, Ethan Braaksma, Randy Havlik, Mitchell Hunt (DQ).
Second Qualifier: Ricky Thornton Jr., Justin O’Brien, Clay Hale, James Goodson, Kevin Ramey, Collen Winebarger, Ricky Stephan, Dan Roedl, Clint Wendel, R.J. Merchant, Kelsie Foley, Russ Dickerson, Jesse Sobbing, Chris Abelson, Tanner Black, Jeff Feaster, Tony Hilgenberg, Jeremy Mills, Josh Munsen, Corey Lagroon, Matt Bonine, Cayden Carter, Paul Stone, Mike Van Genderen, Robert Avery, Daniel Fellows, Trever Sloan, Michael Thing, Tim Ward, William Gould (DQ).
All six nights of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s on Sept. 7-12 will be broadcast live via SPEED SPORT TV affiliate IMCA.TV. Check out all of our coverage of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals on our coverage index page!