ALGONA, Iowa — Tim Ward didn’t quite have the track figured out, but he figured that no one would catch him if he didn’t change what he was doing.
He was right about that, and $5,600 richer after the checkers waved Thursday night at Kossuth County Speedway’s Gene Schattschneider Memorial feature for Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds.
Ward swapped the lead with pole starter Zach Dockter on each on the first four circuits, then led to the end of the 25-lapper. Dockter stayed close right through the first 10 laps, then gave way to Joel Rust following a restart.
Rust ran second the rest of the way.
“It was fun racing with Zach, hats off to him for a good run,” Ward said of their lengthy side-by-side duel.
“The track changed on me a bit and I wasn’t sure where to run, so we struggled just a bit,” he added. “I wasn’t sure exactly where to run but figured it would be hard for Joel to get around me if I kept doing what I was doing. “
Jeremy Mills, Dockter and Ethan Braaksma rounded out the top five. Ward was already Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible.
Mike Albertsen won the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature and $1,000 while Alec Fett paced the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods and Brandon Nielsen topped the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks.
Albertsen, already eligible to qualify for the B & Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational, led all 20 laps of the caution-free Stock Car feature. Tenth starting Kelly Shryock raced his way back into second with five laps left and third went to Derek Green.
The Northern SportMod feature saw three lead changes and side-by-side racing throughout. Third place finisher Matt Looft had one of the best seats in the house to watch Fett and Jake Simpson tussle ahead of him
“I saw him (Simpson) and I heard him there,” said Fett, finally able to pull ahead and win by just under nine tenths of a second. “It was a pretty good race.”
The best finish of the night belonged to the Hobby Stocks, where Nielsen saw a two second advantage erased by a late caution, then beat Mike Smith to the stripe by .019 of a second, or less that the width of his bumper.
Smith had started 12th; Seth Butler ended in third.
And Brooke Osler continued her Kossuth County prowess, winning again in the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compacts.
The fourth and final stop of IMCA Speed Week takes four IMCA divisions to Hancock County Speedway at Britt for the Aug. 9-10 Night of 1,000 Stars.
All Speed Week race programs are broadcast by SPEED SPORT. TV affiliate IMCA.TV.
The finish:
Tim Ward, Joel Rust, Jeremy Mills, Zach Dockter, Ethan Braaksma, Dylan Thornton, Todd Stinehart, Izac Mallicoat, Cody Knecht, Nick Meyer, Garett Wilson, Travis Hagen, Bland Bohannon, John Burrow, Joe Chisholm, Dalton Magers, Cody Laney, Kelly Shryock, Jerry Flippo, Brandon Beckendorf, Kyler Jeffrey, Jason Bass, Eddie Belec, Kolton Osborn, Braxton Yeager, Bryson Yeager.