When Hollywood thinks of what a county fair in Iowa would be like for a movie shoot, the Davis County Fair in Bloomfield has to be the prototype. A midway bustling with kids young and old drinking lemon shakeups or trying to get an ice cream cone down before it melts away on a hot July night. The bingo numbers are being called out to players who have filled every seat available and the aroma of the fine food being served by the Cattleman’s Association and the Pork Producers is drifting through the air. And, for race fans like us, the crowning touch is the roar of racing engines in front of the grandstand making it the absolute perfect setting for a Thursday night of fun at the Fair.
With no weekly racing this year at Bloomfield I was amazed at how perfect the track conditions were for the five division program featuring the Casey’s General Stores USMTS Modifieds. Jim Lynch, Lonnie Taylor and everybody involved with pulling this show together deserve a hearty pat on the back for their efforts and it was good to see the bleachers nearly full of race fans to watch the action.
The featured event of the night was not one that will be remembered for the competition, but rather for the dominance exhibited by young Ryan Gustin. He and Ron VerBeek started the 35-lap Modified finale on the front row, but it was the winner from the previous night in Oskaloosa Zack VanderBeek who slipped past those two to take the lead on the opening lap. It didn’t take long for Gustin to find his groove though and he drove past VanderBeek again on the third circuit of the 3/8-mile oval. A caution on lap six bunched the field together and then two more cautions on restart attempts slowed the pace, but once back to green “The Reaper” was gone! Gustin’s lead grew noticeably lap after lap and by the time the checkers waved he was more than half a lap ahead of the runner-up VanderBeek. Terry Phillips who is celebrating his 25th year of racing looked good tonight in third. Kelly Shryock who came to Bloomfield with a perfect record of five wins in five appearances is now batting .833 after finishing fourth and Corey Dripps backed up last night’s runner-up finish with a fifth-place run here at Bloomfield. Rodney Sanders was sixth and Jason Krohn seventh, the final cars running on the lead lap.
While the Modified feature was a blowout, the two USRA Ironman Series events saw last-lap passes for the win. In the Stock Cars it looked as though Mike VanGenderen would make it two in a row after winning the night before in Oskaloosa as he paced the strong field from his pole position start until a caution waved with four laps remaining. With the double-file restart the action over these final four laps was beyond intense. (Yes, I will admit that in this case the double-file restart was awesome!) Justin Temeyer emerged from a three-wide battle to take the lead with numerous contenders scrambling for racing room behind him. Jeff Joldersma emerged from that pack and went to work on Temeyer pulling even with him as the white flag waved. The western Iowa driver Joldersma had his #66 hooked up on the bottom groove and he found the bite there over the final lap to ease ahead and take the victory. He then made one young man in the crowd very happy by handing over the beautiful trophy that will now likely sit proudly on his dresser here in Davis County. VanGenderen, who had been shuffled back to fifth as the lead pack took the white flag, clawed his way back to second nipping Temeyer by inches at the stripe. Shane Weller finished fourth and Tom Schmitt took fifth in this thriller.
That Stock Car feature came right after the B-Mod feature that saw Mark Mundell pass race-long leader Jared Timmerman on the final lap to take a popular victory. The early portion of the scheduled twenty-lapper was plagued with cautions that saw nearly half the field eliminated before three laps were completed and it was decided at that point that the race would be cut to fifteen laps. That was just enough for the veteran driver from nearby Ottumwa to work the bottom groove to perfection in the final two corners to edge Timmerman by half a car-length at the checkers. Ironman Challenge point leader Matt Lettow finished third, Carter VanDenBerg recovered from an early incident to take fourth and Mike Shelton had sheet metal flopping all over the place but still managed to bring his damaged ride in for fifth.
Dustin Griffiths continued his hot streak by going flag-to-flag to win the Hobby Stock feature over Derek Kirkland, Mike Hughes, Craig Brown and Jason McDaniel while Cassidy Kirkpatrick took the win in the Four Cylinder feature that was slowed by several cautions. Devin Still fought off the winner’s father Kevin Kirkpatrick to finish second, Larry Hopkins was fourth and Mike Fisher in the Arkansas Bow Hunters sponsored #191 was fifth.
It was nice to catch up a bit with Wayne Hale as I signed in at the pit gate. Wayne was always one of my favorite competitors when he raced in the Hobby Stock division a decade or so ago as he always seemed to have a smile on his face win, lose or draw. And I enjoyed sitting next to Kirksville area race fan Gary Lee who knows a heck of a lot more about what is going on with racing than I do these days. I’m still trying to convince him that a blog on PR.com would suit him well!
Needless to say I had a great time at the Davis County Fair and if you are in the area you can check it out tonight (Friday July 22nd) for more racing action with the Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invader 360 c.i. Sprints along with the 305 Sprinters.
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