If you were listening to the weather forecasters, those who actually do it for a living and more so those who just like to act like they do, you would have thought that you were going to freeze to death if you went to the races at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday night. Yes, it was a bit cooler than normal for here in mid-May, but with the wind fading away and a temperature in the upper fifties it was a near perfect night for dirt track racing and promoter Mike VanGenderen once again had that dirt track in prime condition for three and even four-wide racing action.
The IMCA Late Models were back for the second week in a row and after only drawing seven cars last week the field bumped up to eleven tonight with all eleven being solid performers. Todd Cooney and Tommy Elston shared the front row for the twenty-lap feature race and it was Elston who would take the lead through the opening set of corners. Cooney charged back on the outside though and swept past Elston off of turn four to officially lead lap one and the chase was on. Spencer Diercks who earlier in the night had made a thrilling late race charge to win the second heat smacked the guardrail in turn one while running fourth on lap nine and for the restart Colby Springsteen would line up next to Elson just behind the leader. The winner of last week's feature, Springsteen would take over second and the go to work on Cooney pulling even with the veteran out of Des Moines as they raced down the back stretch on lap twelve. Cooney stayed smooth on the top line of turns three and four though to maintain the lead. Three laps later when Springsteen would hesitate for just a moment as the leaders cleared the lapped car of Curtis Glover, that was all that Cooney would need to open up a bit of a cushion and take the win. Springsteen was close behind in second, Nick Marolf came from tenth to finish third, and Elston wound up fourth just ahead of Kevin Kile.
Todd Shute earned his third straight IMCA Modified victory at the speedway and once again it came after a duel with hometown driver Cayden Carter. A.J. Johnson, a rookie in the division for 2014, would lead the first two laps and with Shute challenging on the low side, Carter went to the cushion and made the third to first move coming off of turn four on lap three. Shute soon moved into second and kept the heat on Carter until lap nine when he executed the perfect slide job in turn four driving in deep on the bottom and then sliding up the track to shut the door on Carter. There was no catching the 2008 All Iowa Points Modified champion from there as he cruised the final six laps to victory. Carter, who will graduate from Oskaloosa High School this weekend was again the runner-up with Andrew Schroeder, A.J. Johnson and first-time visitor Kurt Kile completing the top five. In hopes of building the car count in the Modified division promoter Mike VanGenderen announced that tenth-place money will be bumped to $110 beginning next Wednesday night.
Overall it was a pretty good night for "Team Jimmy" as Jimmy Carter's three racing grandsons finished second (Cayden Carter), first and second on the night. Those other two grandsons swept the top two positions in the IMCA Sport Mod feature as Carter VanDenBerg passed Jenae Gustin on lap three and then cruised to victory in the 16-lap event. Young Brayton Carter improves each week bolstered by the confidence of a pair of feature wins at the West Liberty Raceway recently as he passed last week's winner here Curtis VanDerWal on a late restart to finish second. Jason McDaniel took third from VanDerWal on the final lap while Gustin held on to take the fifth spot.
Defending All Iowa Points Stock Car champion Damon Murty started from the pole of the 18-lap main event and looked as though he would cruise to an easy victory while the rest of the field slugged it out behind him. As Murty drove away drivers went four-wide for third on lap five and then went three-wide for second on lap ten. When the caution waved for an incident involving last week's winner Corey Stout on lap fourteen though, Murty's lead was wiped out and he had Zack Vanderbeek and Justin Temeyer lined up right behind him for the restart. When Murty went to the high line in turn one that blocked off Temeyer, but left the door wide open for the low riding "Z-Man" and Vanderbeek took full advantage. The new leader then pulled away over the final four laps as Zack Vanderbeek scored yet another Stock Car feature win at the Southern Iowa Speedway ahead of Murty. Temeyer, who was on his way back from picking up this car in Hays, Kansas, made the most of his stop off in Osky by finishing in the third position while Cayden Carter and and Kris Walker were fourth and fifth. Carter had started fifteenth after his Roger Kelderman owned #10cc was disqualified for an illegal center link following his heat race. Heat race winner Jason Minnehan was also dinged for the same violation.
Apparently a new regular at the track, Brandon Cox of Earlham gets faster each week and would lead the Hobby Stock main early before the red flag waved after Gina Greubel rolled her car in turn one. Gina climbed out uninjured and on the restart Mike Hughes wasted no time as he was in the lead by the time he reached the waving green from Ryan Bergeson. Dustin Griffiths would follow Hughes into second and by lap ten Griffiths was mounting a challenge that saw him pull nearly even with Hughes on two occasions. The caution waved again for an Aaron Osweiler spin with three laps to go and Hughes again got a great restart to put a cushion between himself and Griffiths for the final laps. Nick Ulin would take the third position, Craig Brown was fourth and Cox slipped back to fifth at the checkers.
Bill Whalen Jr. once again dominated the Sport Compact division that grew to a nine-car count tonight although only eight were able to compete. Trent Orwing, Larry Hopkins, Matt Moore and John Whalen filled out the top five.
It was a cool night for racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway and I am not referring to the temperature. It is hard to think of anywhere else that I would rather be on a Wednesday night. I hope that you come and check the place out soon!
Very proud of my niece Maeve Broeg who will deliver the valedictorian speech at the Williamsburg High School graduation ceremony this Sunday afternoon and then afterward I might have to take in some Sunday night action at either the Benton County Speedway in Vinton or the Quad City Speedway in East Moline. Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
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