Virginia Gay Hospital is going to the races, more specifically the 2020 IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals Fueled by Casey's, September 7-12 in Boone, Iowa

IMCA holds sanctioned events in 36 states and one Canadian province and awards $650,000 in point fund monies to their drivers. The business was originally started in Vinton by Keith Knaack and partners around 1976. It was later sold to Kathy Root in 1996 and is currently owned by Kathy's son, Brett.

The theme for this year's race is 'Healthcare Heroes." The Virginia Gay x-ray department will be featured on Brandon Tharp's car, which was on display in the clinic parking lot on Thursday morning.

Each year there is a competition for the best design. Tharp's car won in the competition 2 years ago, so here's hoping that Virginia Gay Hospital will bring a win for Tharp this year!

Racing in the B21 car, Brandon Tharp will be going to Boone on Labor Day weekend to compete against more than 100 other racers, in an attempt to qualify for the race the following weekend. Tharp will compete for two days to try to lock into a position for the race.

During the events of the week, there is a "Best of Show" contest. The first year he competed the theme was "Home Town Pride." The car featured the Benton County and Independence speedway on each side which won the best of show.

The second year that Tharp competed, the theme was "Superheroes." Shadoe Vogt and Tharp came up with a bit of a twist on their own heroes. They used the faces of the announcers for the Super Nationals and made them into Batman and Robin and also used the owner of IMCA as the Joker.

Their theme lost that year to a car with a military theme, as Tharp said, the real-life superheroes. Tharp said that even though they lost that year, it's still a running joke a year later.

This year, in light of everything that has happened with COVID-19, Vogt thought it would be appropriate to feature those at Virginia Gay Hospital for all of the work that they do.

With only one car, there wasn't room to thank all of the doctors, nurses, police, construction workers, truckers and fast food workers so they had to narrow it down.

"Every single person during these times had a purpose. Without these people getting up every day to perform their jobs, the country would not be running the way it does. Even though we can't fit everyone on the car, to showcase them at Boone, we'd still like to say, "Thank you," from the B21 crew," said Tharp.


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DD September 3, 2020, 4:16 pm Looks great! Best of luck to the whole B21 crew, for Best of show and also qualifying for next weekend!
MS September 8, 2020, 12:17 pm Good luck and thank-you for the recognition