It took until the final weekend of October, but the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, got back to racing with the annual Fall Nationals and despite the chilly weather a good field of cars provided the action for some bundled up race fans on Sunday afternoon.
The 18-lap Sport Mod main event was the first of six features on the day's schedule with David Wietholder pacing the field for the first two laps. Tony Johnson had started next to Wietholder on the front row and he made the pass for the lead on lap three, but the man on the move was Saturday's winner Curtis VanDerWal. Coming from the seventh starting spot VanDerWal steadily picked his way toward the front and on the tenth trip around the 3/8th-mile oval Curtis eased ahead of his fellow Oskaloosa resident Johnson for the lead. And from there VanDerWal pulled away to complete the weekend sweep with Johnson finishing well back in second. Brandon Dale survived some late race contact with northeast Iowa driver Eric Pollard to pick up the third spot with Bill Gibson fourth and Wietholder fifth. Jim Gillenwater had mechanical issues with his new car during the heat race, so he replaced Bobby Six in his old car, started 19th and raced his way up to fourth before slipping to sixth at the finish.
The Stock Cars were up next for 20-laps with Abe Huls using his pole position start to open up a sizable lead. A caution on lap twelve brought the field back to the leader, but again Huls began to pull away on the restart. Jason Cook had started in the sixth row and with five laps remaining he slipped by Michael Jeannette for second. Cook gradually cut into the lead of Huls, but he could get no closer than two car-lengths before the checkers waved and it was Huls who would celebrate today in victory lane. Cook, who won twice at Donnellson last week and also won here on Saturday, would have to settle for runner-up money today. Central Missouri driver Derrick Agee was solid in third, Jeannette finished in fourth and Beau Taylor filled out the top five.
The 20-lap Modified feature took to the track next with young Cayden Carter setting the early pace with Andrew Schroeder in hot pursuit. Josh Foster has been the man to beat this Fall in the Modified division and it only took him three laps to move from eighth to third and when the caution waved for Shotrod Reese on lap six, Foster lined up alongside Schroeder for the restart. When the green flag flew once again Foster made his move to the inside of turn one and by turn two he had the lead and would begin to pull away. Foster appeared to have the race well in hand, but with four laps to go a slowing Dakota Hayden cut down the track in front of Foster in turn three and the leader could not avoid contact. Foster spun his car to keep from making major contact and was able to stay in motion as the caution flag waved for Hayden. Foster would lead the field back to the green and while Schroeder was able to stay close he could not mount a challenge over the final four laps as Foster tallied his fourth win over the past two weeks. Schroeder and Carter would finish second and third, Steven DeLonjay came from the eighth row to finish fourth and Brandon Banks took the fifth spot. As hot as he has been, Josh Foster is probably tempted to look for the closest race to run next weekend to see if he can continue this streak.
Mike Hughes started from the pole of the 12-lap Hobby Stock main event and, while Dustin Griffiths was able to put some heat on him late, there was no stopping Hughes from completing a weekend sweep of the division. Griffiths started fifth and finished second, A.J. Johnson suffered a flat tire during his heat race so he started 16th and last on the field racing his way up to third at the checkers, Casey Greubel came from the fifth row to take fourth and Tim Pettibone passed Garrett Eilander on the final lap to finish fifth.
It was now dark and 38 degrees so I decided to head for home before the final two features, but before I pulled into my driveway our webmistress Sue McDaniel called to scold me for leaving early. Sue reported that the Outlaw Hobby Stock feature came down to the final lap and, just like last Sunday at Donnellson, Jake Wenig made a final turn pass of Brandon Symmonds to take the win. It is quite possible that this was the last ever appearance of the "Outlaw" Hobby class in this area as 34 Raceway in Burlington has dropped the division for 2013 and our own Danny Rosencrans reported earlier this week that the Quincy Raceways will drop the class as well.
Sue then said that the Sport Compact feature closed out the show in a wild fashion as Merv Chandler pass Austen Becerra coming to the line to take the win and that after the checkers Becerra "dumped him" in turn one causing Chandler to roll his car. I guess that I should have stuck it out to the finish!!
That will wrap up the season in this area, but there is still some racing to be found not too far down the road. Valley Speedway just east of Kansas City will close out its 2012 season next Saturday night November 3rd. On the other side of KC the Atchison County Raceway will run weekly right on through Thanksgiving weekend when they will have a Friday/Saturday doubleheader to close out the year. And down in Springfield, Missouri, the Springfield Raceway will run the rescheduled Larry Phillips Memorial on November 3rd before closing out the season with the annual "Turkey Classic" on November 17th. The "Turkey" will hopefully be my 55th and final race night of the 2012 season, perhaps I will see you there!
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