Thursday, April 17, 2014

McCarl Wings It, Shute Scores On A Windy Night In Oskaloosa

The Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders blew into town Wednesday night for their first ever appearance at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. And, with the south wind gusting over thirty miles an hour during the afternoon, the drivers and fans who made their way into the track from points south of the speedway literally blew into town!

Qualifying action for the 360 cubic inch winged sprint cars got off to a bad start as two of the night's pre-race favorites Ian Madsen and C.J. Houseman tangled on the front stretch as the green flag waved over the first of three heat races. Madsen nosed into the outside guardrail causing significant front end damage on the Nehring Construction #18 while Houseman veered toward the infield where contact with the guardrail caused him to tumble one time. Both drivers climbed from their cars unhurt and an unhappy Houseman charged toward Madsen, but was stopped by officials and security officers before he reached the other driver. Damage to Houseman's car was too much to overcome this evening while Madsen's team was able to make repairs in time for the feature.

Jonathan Cornell had been the driver to beat on the night running away with both his heat and the Budweiser Shake Up Dash where afterwards he drew the fourth starting spot for the twenty-lap main event. Pole-sitter Carson McCarl breezed to the early lead as Cornell quickly moved to second to take up the chase. McCarl caught the back of the pack quickly and as he hesitated behind a backmarker, Cornell took advantage to now top the list as the scorer recorded lap number eight around the fast half-mile. A few laps later the leaders were out of traffic and with Cornell riding the cushion McCarl went searching and found some rubber in the middle groove allowing him to erase the full straightaway advantage enjoyed by Cornell in just a couple laps.

The youngest racing McCarl charged past Cornell in turn two with just four laps remaining, but the driver from Sedalia, Missouri, learns well as he got off the cushion and then using lapped traffic once again Cornell regained the lead on the following lap. As Cornell raced away to the checkers McCarl now found himself defending the runner-up position against a fast closing Jon Agan and the two drivers crossed the finish line nearly wheel-to-wheel with McCarl holding the advantage by a nose wing. Matt Moro was not far behind them in fourth while Jarrod Schneiderman was scored in the fifth position.

In the post race tech inspection though Cornell was disqualified for a wing infraction handing the win over to Carson McCarl, his first career victory with the Sprint Invaders as he gets faster each night out in the Mastell Brothers #27. Defending Invaders champion Russ Hall continued his early season roller coaster ride with the series as he pulled off of the race track with just two laps to go while running fourth. Cornell's disqualification moved Mike Houseman Jr. into the top five while Ian Madsen took home sixth-place money after starting fourteenth. For a complete rundown including full results from my partner Bill Wright, click here and and further down in the Hoseheads forum thread you will also see pictures of the likely infraction on Cornell's wing. The conspiracy theorists are already stating that he was disqualified for something that didn't make him any faster, but on a windy night around a big half-mile, how do you know? To make his night even worse Cornell and his team's trip back to Sedalia was delayed significantly by a highway accident on their route that backed up traffic for some time.

With the originally scheduled event for tomorrow at the Independence Motor Speedway being postponed to Friday May 30th, the Sprint Invaders will now take more than a month off before returning to action on Sunday May 25th at 34 Raceway in Burlington.

Tonight was also the first night of track points racing for four of the five IMCA weekly racing series classes running under a draw/re-draw format. Brett Lowry dominated a surprisingly short field of eleven Sport Mods as he went flag-to-flag for the victory. Hometown driver Logan Anderson continues to improve as he ran second and, speaking of improvement, Cory VanZante is quickly becoming a contender as he passed defending All Iowa Points champion Carter VanDenBerg late to finish third. Jason McDaniel completed the top five. The Sport Mods will race for $750-to-win next week so expect that car count to swell a bit.

The 16-lap Hobby Stock main event definitely had more action up front as Bill Bonnett, Aaron Osweiler and Dustin Griffiths ran three-wide for the lead before caution settled the pack on lap three. Bonnett assumed the lead on the restart only to have Griffiths sweep around him exiting turn four on lap six. Mike Hughes now wanted a piece of the action and he cleared Bonnett for second and set his sights on the leader Griffith. With six laps remaining Hughes moved under Griffths exiting turn four and the two contenders traded a couple of solid bumps as they raced down the front stretch with Hughes taking over the lead in turn one. As he slid up the track Griffiths gave him a nice pop in the back bumper, but there would be no catching Hughes now as he raced on to victory. Bonnett would get around a frustrated Griffiths for the second spot while Danny Thrasher and Jamie Songer completed the top five.

The IMCA Stock Car headliner would be a battle between the two orange cars owned by Roger Kelderman with Cayden Carter and Zack VanderBeek on board. Running the middle groove Carter would lead the first twelve laps as "The Z-Man" applied the pressure down on the bottom and in the end it would be VanderBeek who would prevail for the win. Damon Murty had raced his way up to third and was doing everything he could to catch Kelderman's Komets when he uncharacteristically spun in turn one with just a few laps remaining. Brad Pinkerton tried to mount a challenge on the lead duo following the restart, but he would have to settle for third at the checkers as Nathan Wood and Donovan Nunnikhoven rounded out the top five.

The twenty-lap Modified feature would close out the evening and it was obvious from the drop of the green who the fastest car was on this night. Todd Shute started the race in the seventh position and was on his way to the front immediately as Cayden Carter claimed the early lead. Shute had one close call on his march to the front as he and Scott Dickey made some contact entering turn one and our colleague Ryan Clark had a great line for that brushup that you must ask him about if you see him sometime. The contact resulted in some rear fender damage for Shute, but it stayed off the tires and on lap seven he drove past Carter for the lead. It was just a matter of making laps from there as Shute cruised to the convincing win ahead of Carter, Jesse Sobbing, Luke Wanninger and Dickey.

Kudos to promoter Mike VanGenderen and his entire staff as the five division show, including Sprint Cars, wrapped up well before ten o'clock! As mentioned above the Sport Mods will headline the action on April 23rd and then on Wednesday April 30th the IMCA Late Model division will join the action at the Southern Iowa Speedway for four consecutive weeks.

Next up for me will be a weekend full of Late Model action as on Friday night the MARS/Corn Belt Clash Late Models will attack the big half-mile at the Davenport Speedway. Then, on Saturday night, it is the event that I have had circled on the calendar since the details were announced as the Annual Slocum 50 honoring the memory of one the finest young men that I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know in the sport, Brent Slocum, will boast a $10,555 top prize for the MARS, CBC and ALMS co-sanctioned event at 34 Raceway in Burlington. If even half of the drivers who have indicated that they will be on hand show up it will be a fantastic show and it looks like Brent has worked some magic in the weather department as well as the forecast now is calling for sunny skies and a temperature around seventy. Then on Sunday night the ALMS Late Models will be at the Quincy Raceway and if I can convince a couple of Easter Day dinner participants to come along with me then I will be there as well. Perhaps I will see you somewhere this weekend on the Back Stretch!

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