On the second night of points racing at an IMCA sanctioned track you will often see drivers who had problems on the first night come back to score convincing wins after starting up front due to their low point total from the week before. That was the case in three of the five regular divisions at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday night.
Jason McDaniel started on the pole position of the IMCA Sport Mod main event and took off like a rocket at the drop of the green. A caution on lap two when Jason Hall tagged the turn one guardrail brought the field back to McDaniel, but on the restart he again left everybody in the distance. The racing action was intense about a half lap behind the leader though as last week's winner Jesse Sobbing was picking his way through the field after starting in row six. On lap seven Sobbing, along with Eric Flander, Carter VanDenBerg and Bill Gibson raced four-wide for the third position with Sobbing emerging from that pack. As McDaniel cruised on to victory, Sobbing chased down Brett Lowery and passed him with a couple of laps remaining to finish in the runner-up position. Lowery held on for third with Gibson and VanDenBerg completing the top five.
IMCA Stock Cars were up next with Kyle Harwood starting from the pole position after having issues on opening night of the regular season. Just like McDaniel in the race before this one, Harwood ran out to a big lead as fellow front row starter Leroy Groenendyk could not maintain the pace. The race to watch was for third as first six, and then seven cars did battle for the position with Nathan Wood finally moving to the front of that pack with five laps remaining. Harwood was well out in front as he headed for the victory while Wood chased down and passed Groenendyk late for second. Matt Greiner and Corey Stout were also able to get around Groenendyk in the final laps to take third and fourth respectively.
The Hobby Stock feature did not see a runaway as Danny Thrasher paced a tight pack back to the line for lap one. With cars running three and four wide on the second circuit it was the sixth-starting Donovan Nunnikhoven who flew around the top side of turn four to take the lead on lap two. Nunnikhoven was able to put some distance on the field over the next five laps until two-time Osky winner this season Shannon Anderson slipped by Bill Bonnett for the second spot. Anderson was closing the gap on the leader, but not enough to catch him before the checkers flew for Nunnikhoven with Anderson having to settle for second on this night. John Watson and Dustin Griffiths split the lapped car of Gina Greubel coming to the checkers and from my angle it looked as though Watson finished third by half a car length with Eric Stanton close behind Griffiths in fifth.
A short field of eight IMCA Modifieds saw Richie Gustin and Andrew Schroeder start from the front row with Schroeder riding the heavy cushion to the early lead. Gustin, Shane Weller, Scott Dickey and Cayden Carter maintained the high speed pace being set by Schroeder, but with six laps remaining the driver's side body panel on the leader's car peeled up and was apparently enough of a distraction to slow his pace as Gustin drove past him with four to go and then Weller moved into second a lap later. With just two laps remaining Schroeder called it a night and pulled to the infield as Gustin held off Weller to take the win. Carter would finish in the third spot while the final car still in action, Jeff Connor took fourth. Schroeder would be credited with fifth.
SIS Notes......Car counts were solid in three classes with 27 Sport Mods, 16 Stock Cars and 18 Hobby Stocks. Hopefully the Modified count will pick up as the season continues......The Sport Compacts had five cars on hand tonight with Larry Hopkins passing Bill Whalen Jr, with three laps remaining to take the win......The caution on lap two of the Sport Mod main event was the only caution to wave in all five feature races.......The Iowa Sportsman Series was on hand as well tonight and they ran a 25-lap and 20-lap segment within the regular program. Even with the twenty minutes that those segments took to run the regular program was completed at 9:37 p.m......The ten-car Sportsman field then closed the night with another 30-lap segment as Gene Tish dominated for the win.....Pro-Line Buildings of New Sharon was the race night sponsor and they provided free popcorn throughout the evening......Promoter Mike VanGenderen worked diligently on the track surface all afternoon and then, during hot laps, he used the Blue Bunny One Gallon Precision Watering System to take care of a couple of dry spots heading into turn one......A big thanks to Mike and his crew for the hospitality and for the well-run weeknight program!
For full results and more comments to come on tonight's action visit the 4d Fan Report.
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