Drivers battling for IMCA National Championships were on full display at the
Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday night as five of the six
divisions included drivers who are currently ranked in the top seven of the
standings for their respective class. And in the Modifieds the top two ranked
drivers each made long tows to be in competition.
The Sport Compacts were first and Bill Whalen Jr. who is currently ranked
second nationally edged out Merv Chandler who is ranked sixth. However, with just three cars in attendance the results probably did not help much.
Twelve cars took the green for the Hobby Stock feature and the front row of
Aaron Osweiler and Travis Bunnell did a nice job of holding off the competition
early on. First Bill Bonnett and then Mike Hughes shuffled Bunnell back from
second to fourth and they then went to work on Osweiler who held his ground for
three laps despite the dual challenge. When Bonnett’s bid on the top side was
blocked off, Hughes made his move to the inside and went from third to first on
the eighth lap. On the following lap Dustin Griffiths went for a spin exiting
turn four and in the scramble Bunnell ended up slamming the guardrail hard and
nearly getting upside down as his car pinwheeled and spewed fluids all over the
track. It was a tough ending for a driver who was having one of the stronger
runs that I have seen out of him before. Under the red flag the leader Hughes
had to have an oil fire extinguished under his hood and on the restart you could
see the smoke trailing from his car as he took the green. Danny Thrasher applied
some additional heat for a couple of laps before Hughes pulled away to take the
win and once again, in victory lane, the fire extinguishers were needed in the
engine compartment of his #11. Thrasher was the runner-up, Bonnett was third,
Osweiler was impressive in fourth and Justin Hook took fifth.
Hook had already stuffed a one hundred dollar bill in his driver’s suit as he
was the winner of an interesting race that involved the top heat race finishers
in all classes but the Sport Compact division. The start was handicapped based
upon lap times during the heat race and it was the Hobby Stock driver who
prevailed as the two Late Models were closing quick at the checkers.
The Sport Mods were up next with A.J. Johnson racing out to an early
advantage in the 16-lap feature event. On lap five the race for third turned
ugly when Tony Johnson spun Brett Lowry in turn three and while the yellow waved
Lowry stayed in motion, so the caution was attributed to Johnson who was sent to
the rear. Carter VanDenBerg who currently ranks seventh in the IMCA National
Points Standings used the restart to move into a position to challenge A.J.
Johnson and at the mid-race mark VanDenBerg made the pass for the lead. Curtis
VanDerWal was chasing VanDenBerg to the front and with four laps to go he made
the move on Johnson for second entering turn one. I couldn’t tell if Curtis got
a bit sideways first or not, but a bit if contact between the two sent VanDerWal
toward the infield and in a classy move he kept the car going to stay green
while losing several positions. It was all VanDenBerg from there as he picked up
the hometown win ahead of A.J. Johnson, Lowry, Logan Anderson and Eric
Flander.
The Stock Cars had given us the “that race was worth the trip” moment earlier
in the night during the first heat race that was won by Jason Cook in a
thrilling three-wide move around the outside. However, before feature time, Cook
would discover engine problems and would just take a lap at the back of the pack
before calling it a night. Brad Pinkerton would lead this one from the outside
front row building up a solid lead early until Zack Vanderbeek cleared the pack
and moved into second. “The Z-Man” would steadily cut into that gap as the laps
wound down and as the white flag waved he pulled even with Pinkerton coming down
the front chute. Vanderbeek was able to make the move stick on the inside of
turns one and two to secure the lead and score the win on the final lap beating
Pinkerton by a couple of car lengths. Damon Murty who is currently fourth in
National points slowed dramatically coming to the checkers and was at a virtual
crawl as he crossed the line with an overheated motor. Murty was scored third
ahead of Todd Reitzler and western Iowa visitor Bill Osbahr.
On the way to the track tonight I thought that I might see a showdown between
the two drivers atop the Late Model National points standings, but apparently
with the two wins that he scored at Dubuque on Sunday night Justin Kay did not
need to come to Oskaloosa in order to overtake point leader Todd Cooney. Darrel
DeFrance started from the front row and while Cooney made one good run on him
following a lap thirteen restart there would be no stopping the veteran from
scoring the flag-to-flag win in this twenty-lap feature. Nick Marolf made a late
charge that came up about a foot short at the checkers as Cooney finished second
while Spencer Diercks and Paul Glendenning both recovered from spins to finish
fourth and fifth respectively.
The Modifieds would close out the evening and while Jesse Sobbing is no
stranger to the nearly four hour tow to Osky from his Glenwood, Iowa, home you
have to appreciate the commitment from current National points leader William
Gould who lives just seven miles north of the Texas border in Calera, Oklahoma.
Gould wanted to see how he would match up against the driver who is chasing him
in the standings, Sobbing, and Wednesday’s show was that first opportunity of
the week. On the opening lap of this 20-lap finale some contact in turn three
left Sobbing with a flat tire that he changed after causing the caution in turn
one. On the restart Andrew Schroeder would lead for another lap before yielding
to Tyler Groenendyk, but there would be no stopping Colt Mather who had his
Skyrocket hooked up and hauling tonight taking over the lead on lap four and
then dominating the remainder of the race for the win. Gould got a quick look at
Sobbing as he flew past him early and Sobbing was putting the pressure on
Groenendyk for second at the checkers. Cayden Carter would finish in the fourth
spot and another western Iowa visitor Nick Deal would take fifth. Gould was
steady on his first race on a half-mile in some time as he finished in eight
after starting twelfth. In victory lane Mather was asked how he liked running
the crate motor and he quickly responded “I hate it.”
The track will take the next couple of weeks off before returning with two
more weeks of weekly Wednesday night points racing on September 11th
and 18th. After that the season will come to a close in fine fashion
with the annual running of the Musco Fall Challenge on Friday and Saturday
October 4th and 5th.
No racing for me this weekend as my wife takes priority after twelve race
nights in the first twenty-one days of August. Next week I look forward to
catching up with Todd Staley and the USMTS crew as they pull into Tipton on
Thursday night August 29th, then on Friday it will be back down to 34
Raceway near Burlington for the USAC Sprint Cars. See you on the Back
Stretch!
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