A cool windy night sent the dust flying Friday at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, but that did not slow "the Z-Man" one bit as Zack VanderBeek pulled away to easily win both the Modified and the Stock Car features to open the annual Memphis Fall Nationals. Curtis VanDerWal, Mike Hughes and Trent Orwig also visited victory lane as Southern Iowa Speedway regulars dominated just south of the border.
Kelly Shryock raced out to a big early lead in the 22-lap Modified headliner, but after young Jake Griffin drove around NASCAR vet Ken Schrader for second that lead vanished quickly. Griffin appeared to have Shryock set up for a challenge off the cushion on lap nine when the caution waved as Schrader and Michael Long tangled in turn two sending Long for a spin. Griffin chose the high side for the double file restart behind Shryock leaving the bottom to Zack VanderBeek who had moved to third after starting in row five. VanderBeek seized the opportunity and drove under Shryock in turn one to take the lead off the restart and then drove away as Griffin and Shryock tried to maintain the pace.
The caution waved again with five laps remaining as the third-running Shryock slowed with a flat right front tire and the leader was brought back to the filed for the restart. Contact on that restart within the first double row allowed Cayden Carter to move from fourth to second and that contact caused Griffin to fade and eventually retire from the event a few laps later. Carter tried to work his low groove magic that saw him come from the back to the front in his heat race earlier, but there would be no catching VanderBeek as he eased in for the victory. Carter would go second, Schrader held off Bruce Hanford for third and Carter VanDenBerg had another solid run in Jacob Murray's "Six Pack" lookalike #49J as he came from fourteenth to fifth. Jeff Waterman was sixth and young Ben Kates started last on the twenty-four car grid and finished seventh.
VanderBeek's task was not as difficult in the Stock Car main event as he drew the pole position for the twenty-lap race that closed out the evening and he was never seriously challenged throughout. With some extra money added from Jason See Racing it was a beautiful Nutz Graphics designed $1,000 check waiting for Zack in victory lane as he finished ahead of Nathan Wood, John Oliver Jr., Derrick Agee and Michael Petersen.
The first feature of the night, the 20-lap Sport Mod main event, may have been the best as Brayton Carter outran fellow front row starter Brandon Dale for the lead at the drop of the green. Dale spun in turn two on lap two and one lap after the restart the eleventh-starting Curtis VanDerWal moved into the second spot. With that big early move and following his weekend sweep here three weeks ago I assumed that VanDerWal would make quick work of Carter, but "Speedy Bray" was in a zone and maintained the lead as the lead duo put nearly a half a lap between themselves and the battle for third.
With three laps remaining and while working through traffic VanDerWal was able to mount a challenge pulling to the inside line in both sets of turns. Carter was able to use his momentum off the top side to fight back that challenge for two laps and when the white flag waved VanDerWal drove even deeper into turn one and for the first time he had Carter cleared exiting turn two. As Carter again tried to use that high side momentum going down the back stretch VanDerWal came up the track nearing turn three and contact between the two broke the left front on Carter's #01.
VanDerWal used the final lap pass to score his third straight win here in Memphis and the lead duo had such a big advantage over the rest of the field that Carter was still able to nurse his broken mount in for second. Jared VanDeest, Logan Anderson and Jenae Gustin came across the stripe in tight formation for third, fourth and fifth.
Tim Dawson who won the Friday night show here three weeks ago paced the first four laps of the Hobby Stock headliner, but on Mike Hughes powered by on a restart and ran away with the 16-lap victory. Dawson held off Dustin Griffiths to take the runner-up spot, Clayton Crump finished fourth and Nick Ulin was fifth.
It took four attempts to finally get the Sport Compact feature underway and oddly enough that fourth start was the only one where the driver starting on the inside of the fourth row, Trent Orwig, didn't have the lead entering turn one. On that fourth try it was Matt Moore who was out front for the first left turn and he would lead the first lap before Orwig moved to the front. Moore fought back into the lead briefly on lap four only to have Orwig come back the following lap to take the lead and the eventual victory. Kimberly Abbott kept the pressure on Orwig late, but had to settle for second, John Whalen nipped Moore at the line for third and Travis DeMint filled out the top five.
The Memphis Fall Nationals close out tonight at the Scotland County Speedway and without the stiff wind you can expect that the track conditions will be improved over Friday night. And, in my opinion, promoter Mike VanGenderen did everything that he could to try to keep the dust down by applying water to the crumbs above the groove several times during the night. Even with the wind blown dust there were still at least two racing grooves and this was far from "follow the leader racing". Perhaps we were all a bit spoiled by what we were treated to here three weeks ago when there was not three inches of rain earlier in the week, temperatures were in the seventies and, most importantly, there was not a sustained twenty mile per hour wind.
I am still hoping to head north to the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa Sunday afternoon for the Darkside Fall Bash. Get on out and enjoy some racing before the season comes to an end!
No comments:
Post a Comment