View From the Stands: Boone Super Nationals aren’t about money

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BOONE — Last week was my first time to see the Boone IMCA Super Nationals. I grew up watching open-wheel Sprint cars and I have often felt out of place this summer at times, as I am still learning the ropes of IMCA racing. So at Boone this past Saturday night when I bumped into Indiana’s Dave Argabright from SPEED TV and author of several books featuring Sprint car driver biographies, it was great to bounce things off each other about the event taking place before us since we were both rookies. One thing Argabright and I agreed on was that the Boone Super Nationals is all about prestige. The Knoxville Nationals, Indianapolis 500, and Daytona 500 have prestige. But those events also have a lot of money up for grabs. The winner’s share for Boone by divisions is $2,008 for Modifieds, $1,000 for Stock Cars, $600 for Hobby Stock and $500 for Sport Mods. However, if you win, you also lose your engine. IMCA claims the top four engines of the Stock Car and Modified features and then puts those engines up for auction immediately following the completion of the victory lane ceremonies. If your engine is claimed you receive $500 from IMCA, but the engine is worth several thousand dollars and the winner goes home without an engine unless he bids high enough to win it back. The money from the auction is then split equally among the rest of feature drivers who were outside of the top four. Imagine investing that much into a car all season, win the biggest race of the year, and go home with a trophy and a check that comes nowhere near what you had to sacrifice to win that trophy. Without a doubt, this event is about the trophy and the prestige. As for the racing on the track, it was very competitive. The winners in three of the four divisions were previous winners. Andy Boeckman of Lake View won the Hobby Stock championship for the fourth time. Brian Irvine of Oelwein won the Stock Car championship for the second time. Kevin Stoa, formerly from Kasson, Minn., but now residing in Salisbury, N.C., won the Modified championship for the second time as well. Stoa started 18th in the championship feature and clawed his way to the front near the end of the 40-lap race. The Sport Mod championship had plenty of fireworks. Kevin Sather and Luke Wanninger have dominated the Sport Mod division all year in Central Iowa, with Wanninger edging out Sather by one point for the Marshalltown track championship. The two rivals waged an epic battle at Boone, exchanging the lead on a few occasions. After taking the white flag Sather had a slim lead, but Wanninger had a good run off of Turn 2 and appeared to have the lead by a half car-length heading into Turn 3. Sather appeared to cut Wanninger off into the corner and they made contact, sending Wanninger into three barrel rolls. Sather was black flagged for rough driving. Security was required in the pit area, needless to say. Inheriting the lead and the win was Harvey Vande Weerd of Alton. A record 825 cars from 23 states and Canada were in the pits for the 26th annual Super Nationals. That total included 305 Modifieds, 176 Stock Cars, 139 Sport Mods, 139 Hobby Stocks, 47 Late Models and 19 Sprint Cars. The highest finishing driver from the Jasper County area was Newton’s Mike VanGenderen, who came home with a 10th-place finish in the Stock Car division on Saturday.