By Gary Jacob
Boone, IA -- By winning both his heat race and the first qualifying main event on Wednesday night, Watsonville Speedway regular Bobby Hogge IV from Prunedale will start Saturday night's prestigious IMCA Modified SuperNationals A Main event in Boone, Iowa from the pole position. The event draws over 400 cars from throughout the country and each of the three qualifying nights sees a total of 40 heat races. You have to win your heat race to be qualified to run in one of that night's two qualifying feature races. Only the top 4 drivers in each of the two qualifying features advance to the big 40 lap, 33 car A Main on Saturday night. After Hogge wheeled his Joe Carr chassis to his two big wins, he won a drawing with Boone champion Joe McBirnie for the pole position as McBirnie had won the other qualifying feature. Another Western US racer also made Saturday night's feature on Wednesday as Central Arizona Raceway star Karl Tipton won his heat and then ran second in his qualifying main event in his Pro Chassis to earn the right to lineup on the inside of row 3 on Saturday night. Arizona's Terry Belcher Jr also won a heat race Wednesday, but was 15th in his qualifying main and Bob Sikes from Eunice, New Mexico ran 12th in his qualifying main event after winning a heat race.
On Thursday night, three more Western US drivers won their heat races, but none were able to finish in the top 4 in their qualifying features as those 8 transfers will start in the first 8 rows of the middle column. The 40 lapper as Boone is started like the Indy 500 with 11 rows of 3 drivers each. Western Region point leader Jason Pike from Pahrump, Nevada came the closest with a 7th place finish in his qualifying main event in his Dirt Works Chassis. Phoenix's Darren Williams was right behind him in 8th and former regional champion Jim Perkins from Fort Mohave, AZ was 16th. The Thursday night action was delayed two hours by rain and finished up in the wee hours of the morning.