Life for me has been a whirlwind for the past week, but with Morgan home and anxious to get some good ol’ Iowa racing in before he heads back down to Tulsa for the summer he has chauffeured me to two good nights of racing that I would have otherwise passed up due to exhaustion. My busy schedule continues today, but I wanted to log a quick report now and perhaps follow up with more detail later.
Tuesday night we headed to Vinton for the opener of the 2012 Hawkeye Dirt Tour for the IMCA Modifieds and the birthplace of the division delivered in fine fashion. The 38-car field was stacked from the top of the draw sheet to the bottom and literally every driver that qualified for the 24-car feature field was capable of taking the win. The quarter-mile oval was prepped to perfection and Morgan commented how nice it was to be back at a track with good black soil.
Quincy, Illinois, driver Jeff Waterman will go down in the stat book as leading each and every lap from his pole position start, but he definitely did not go unchallenged on his way to victory. Richie Gustin tried to squeeze under Waterman on two occasions, but did not succeed and once J.D. Auringer worked his way into second late in the race he was able to put a nose under Waterman on the final lap. There is something magic about the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Jeff Waterman as his only two feature wins anywhere during the past three seasons have been on the tour against the best that the division has to offer in Cresco in 2010 and now at Vinton during the 2012 opener. Auringer finished second after starting ninth, Richie Gustin took third holding off a hard charging Mitch Morris who had started in the tenth row and Mark Schulte came from twelfth to fifth. Obviously there was plenty of passing to watch during this one! One driver who was really on the move was Jay Noteboom who had come from 15th up to fifth, but on lap seventeen drove it too hard into turn three and went over the top of the banking. He flew back up and onto the track in Joie Chitwood style and recovered to finish what had to be a disappointing 12th for the northwest Iowa star.
Support class action was also entertaining as Scott Pippert continued to dominate here going flag-to-flag to win the Hobby Stock main event. Current All Iowa Points leader John Watson made a rare visit to Vinton and finished in the second spot. Veteran Merv Chandler, another All Iowa Points leader, cruised to victory in the Sport Compact main event and a 17-car field of IMCA Sport Mods gave us a nice preview of what was to follow with some good racing of their own. Carter VanDenBerg was the early leader and was being chased by Jim Gillenwater who was making his first appearance in Vinton after pulling up from Keokuk. The veteran driver was getting faster with each lap as he figured out the racy quarter-mile and he drove by VanDenBerg on lap six for the lead. There was no touching Gillenwater as he cruised the remaining laps to victory in his first visit. Racer Hulin, who is now the lucky guy married to a beautiful young lady from racing family, had a good night on the track as well moving from tenth to second at the checkers while Scott Davis and Carter VanDenBerg took third and fourth when Austin Kaplan slowed suddenly in turn four on the final lap. He coasted across the line in fifth.
A big thanks to Mick Trier, Dana Benning and Ryan Clark’s lovely mother who has little or no gray hair for their hospitality and kudos to the entire crew for putting on a perfect Tuesday night show.
I went to Des Moines and back for business on Wednesday, chased some e-mails, changed clothes and Morgan had me headed right back toward Oskaloosa by 5:30 for more racing on a perfect spring evening weather-wise. Not only do I enjoy the treat of regular Wednesday night racing at Osky, but I also love to opportunity to sit with fellow Positively Racing bloggers Dick and Joyce Eisele.
Some more new cars took advantage of the “first time driver at Osky $10 pit pass” deal and we also wondered where some of the regulars had been. The Sport Mods were down to 19 tonight and it is becoming a situation where it is “let’s see if anybody can beat Jesse Sobbing tonight.” I did not get to see more than one or two of Sobbing’s amazing 55 wins in 2011, but after watching him here the past few weeks I can see how he did it. It has been a long time since I have ever seen anyone be so consistently fast night after night and the only way that he can be beat is if the race goes green-to-checkers and somebody else who is fast starts up front. That was the case a few weeks ago when Jason McDaniel took the win and, on this night, it was Bryon Weyer who had built up enough of an advantage to survive the run being made by Sobbing from the fifth row. Bill Gibson is fast, but not even he could fight off Sobbing and if the race would have been two laps longer Weyer would have had his hands full. Kudos to young Brayton Carter who finished in the fourth spot making grandpa Jimmy proud and Tony Johnson had a nice run in fifth.
The Sport Compact field swelled to eight this week , but there was no stopping Bill Whalen Jr. who ran away for the win. Merv Chandler faded early and then raced his back up to second at the finish ahead of Kassidy Kirkpatrick, Cody Thompson and Kevin Kirkpatrick. If we can get the Compacts up over ten with an inverted start they should be a great new addition to the SIS program.
Only nine of the eleven IMCA Modifieds on hand were able to start the feature, but what a race it was as Mark Widmar had both Cayden Cater and Brandon Banks breathing down his neck. With three laps remaining Carter drove deep into turn three, got a bit sideways and slid up in front of Widmar who could not avoid contact and both drivers went for a spin. Jacob Murray, making his first appearance here in 2012, assumed the lead on the restart on outran Banks to checkers with Shane Weller and the Streeters, Jeff and Stephen rounding out the top five.
Another driver making his season debut won the Stock Car feature as Colt Mather picked his way up from eleventh to squeeze past Kyle Harwood in the final laps for the win. Nathan Wood made a big move late to pass three cars at once for the runner-up honors while Harwood settled for third. (Note: A couple of hours after writing this I learned that more stud girdles were found at Osky, so Mather was disqualified and Nathan Wood was the official winner)
The IMCA Hobby Stock field at Osky continues to be stocked with talent and it was Donovan Nunnikhoven who prevailed tonight for his second win of the season. Craig Brown finished second, John Watson passed Kevin Fee on the final lap for third and Bill Bonnett was fifth. Shannon Anderson restarted from the back after a flat tire on lap four and raced his way back up to seventh at the checkers.
If you haven’t been to Oskaloosa yet this year, make it a point to come on out for some entertaining Wednesday night action!
District track tonight and then who knows where we’ll end up this weekend. Support the track of your choice!
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