Kellogg’s Brown qualifies for ‘Big Dance’

This past weekend was the Boone Speedway IMCA Super Nationals where 808 cars made the trek from 24 different states.

The Modifieds highlight the event Wednesday through Saturday, but the Sport Mods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks also have qualifying races throughout the six-day event. An estimated crowd of 12,000 packed the house for the Saturday finale.

The only driver from Jasper County that qualified for one of the “Big Dance” features on Saturday was 19-year-old Sport Mod driver Kyle Brown of Kellogg. It was his first time in three tries to make the show, which is quite an accomplishment with only 27 spots available in the Big Dance and 164 cars in that division.

Brown’s journey began with qualifying Thursday night where he finished fourth in his heat race and 20th in the A-Main. He started 20th and climbed his way up to eighth until he was caught up in someone else’s wreck and was scored 20th to end his night.

The Brown team thrashed on the car all day Friday thinking their chances were slim to have a competitive car for the Friday night qualifying, but Brown found his car had actually improved and was able to win his heat race and finish fourth in the A-Main. That qualified him for the 12th starting position in the Big Dance on Saturday. It was quite the anniversary present for his parents, David and Kathy, who celebrated their 22nd anniversary Saturday.

Once the 25-lap Sport Mod Dance went green, Brown was able to move forward. With this being the biggest race of the year, it appeared to make some drivers a little too aggressive as they found themselves spinning out, wrecking and towed back to their pit. But Brown kept his cool and patiently worked his way up to fifth.

Just as Brown was in a rhythm on the bottom side of the track, a yellow came out on lap 14. Brown was forced to restart on the outside on the double file restart and as they roared into turn 1, Kyle was sandwiched between two cars, with the car on the outside driving over the right front of his Modified. The radiator, hood, rods and wheel were all destroyed.