Iowa’s Mason City Motor Speedway returned this year with a new promoter, a longer schedule, and a shorter, yet wider racetrack to improve the experience for both the racer and the fan.
Mason City lay dormant most of last season, hosting just one event to protect its status as a continuously operating race facility. New promoter Todd Staley, who also leads the United States Racing Association (USRA) and the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS), poured months of work into the facility in 2019. Part of that effort included shrinking the large 1/2-mile oval by creating a 1/3-mile track within it.
“The track is not as small as it looks, and it races nicely,” Staley said. “It’s 80 feet wide and the SLMR cars went four-wide at times during their feature.”
The Hoker Trucking Super Late Models East Series (part of the SLMR) held its first race at the newly retooled track last weekend. It seemed to suit race winner Justin Kay (pictured) just fine.
“The track was smooth as it can be, with no holes anywhere,” said Kay, 31, of Wheatland, Iowa. “It was a good little track that felt really wide from behind the wheel.”
The four-time IMCA national late model champion (2013, ’14, ’15, ’17) raced at Iowa’s Independence Motor Speedway the night before, finishing third on that ¼-mile oval.
“We kept the standard setup the same from the night before because we didn’t know what to expect at Mason City,” Kay said. “We didn’t have to make much of an adjustment.”
Staley said he received positive feedback from fans who enjoyed the speeds and competition on the new 1/3-mile oval.
“We’ve improved late model times from 21-second laps on the old track to 14-second laps on the new track,” said Staley. “We’re going to work on the new track to make it better and better.”
Kay looks forward to returning to Mason City Motor Speedway again.
“I like nice little places like that — they fit my style,” Kay said. “I can’t wait to go back and race there again.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
