One hundred and thirty cars packed the pits on the first of two nights of racing during the Fall Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Friday night including five drivers who made the long trip in from the Green Bay area. The temperatures were cool and the racing was hot with Oskaloosa's Curtis VanDerWal taking the spotlight as he looked to make it five $1,000 wins in a row in the Sport Mod division.
When front row starters Logan Anderson and Dakota Simmons pushed up the track in turn one it allowed the third starting Tony Dunker to drive by and take the lead on the opening lap of the 22-lap Sport Mod feature. A caution following the first lap slowed the field for a moment and once back to green Dunker built up a nice advantage as drivers shuffled for position behind him. Robert Gould's second spin on lap nine brought the field back to Dunker and the race was red-flagged a lap later when a five-car pileup in turn two saw the Cossel Racing #15 driven tonight by Jim Gillenwater get upside down.
On the restart Dunker had company in both Curtis VanDerWal and Jenae Gustin and two laps later VanDerWal would take the point of this three-car battle. The caution waved again on lap fourteen when the fourth place car of Joey Gower slowed suddenly in turn four and just before the restart the third-running Gustin pulled her car to the infield with mechanical issues. The 2014 track champion at Donnellson, Dunker tried to keep pace with VanDerWal, but there would be no catching the driver who has now won five straight big money shows at Memphis, Oskaloosa and now Donnellson. Dunker settled for second, Brett Lowry came from tenth to third, Carter Vandenberg moved from thirteenth to fourth and Brandon Dale completed the top five.
Dustin Griffiths was the class of the Hobby Stock field as he passed Brandon Symmonds on the second lap and cruised to a convincing victory. Justin Wacha passed both Derek Hodges and Brandon Symmonds in turn four coming to the white flag to finish in the second spot. Contact from Hodges sent Symmonds sideways in turn four on the final lap and while Hodges crossed the line in third he was penalized back to fifth at the pay window behind Dale Porter and Brandon Symmonds.
Dean Kratzer returned to action this weekend and paced the Stock Car feature for the first six laps before Todd Reitzler took over the top spot. Jeff Mueller driving the Dane Fenton #3 car seemed to be enjoying his return to the Stock Car division as he hounded Reitzler for several laps, but as the race wore on Reitzler was able to pull away to take the $1,000 top prize. Mueller who has raced a Modified the past two seasons after much success with all four fenders finished in second, John Oliver Jr. came from the fourth row to take third, Kratzer was solid in fourth and Shane Paris took fifth.
Cody Thompson was looking to follow up on his sweep in Oskaloosa last weekend with another win tonight in the 26-car Sport Compact field and he looked to have the race well in hand early on. When two cars got sideways in front of him on lap seven, Austen Becerra spun to avoid and caused a caution and on the restart Kimberly Abbott made a strong move coming from fourth to second. Abbott was then ready to challenge Thompson, but before that battle developed Thompson slowed and pulled off the speedway. Kimberly took over from there and pulled away to score her first feature win at Donnellson. As she climbed out of the car in victory lane announcer Dan Workman asked her how she felt and she replied "I feel like I can throw up, this is freakin' awesome!" Michael Grossman turned in another solid run second after starting in row four, Trent Orwig was third, Travis DeMint took fourth and Brandon Lambert held down fifth.
The Modified division drew the biggest car count of the night, thirty-six, including the five drivers from the Green Bay area Lance Arneson, Mike Joski, Mark Joski, Brad Lautenbach and Tyler Hackett. All five travelers made the show with Arneson racing into the top five early, but it would be drivers who are very familiar with the Lee County Speedway who would prevail. Bill Roberts Jr. would lead the opening lap before blowing a motor in turn two on the second circuit. Jimmy Gustin would assume the lead on the restart, but Michael Long was coming fast after starting in the fourth row and he blew by Gustin around the outside of turn four on lap four. Debris with seven laps remaining drew a caution, but it still looked like Long's race until the caution waved again for a Kyle Brown spin with just two laps remaining.
Cayden Cater had started thirteenth and was now up to second for the green-white-checkered restart and "The Gasman" was able to find the bite that he needed down low to get past Long and take the $1,000 top prize. A two-time winner at Memphis two weeks ago, Long would have to settle for second tonight just ahead of Scott Hogan and, unofficially, I had Joel Rust nipping Carter Vandenberg at the line for fourth.
It was another great night of racing on a track that could not have been prepped any better by Dave Sapp, Mike VanGenderen and the entire LCS crew. The Fall Extravaganza closes out tonight with another full program in all five divisions.
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