Two of the new regulars with the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders battled it out over the final five laps of the main event at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday and when the checkers waved it was Jamie Ball in victory lane for the first time ever with the series. Scott Dickey, Zack VanderBeek, Jason McDaniel, Dustin Griffiths and John Whalen also posted victories on a busy night in front of a solid crowd that ignored the predicted showers and thunderstorms that were in the area, but never made it to the track.
The roster of twenty-five sprint cars was trimmed to a twenty-car lineup for the twenty-lap main event that saw Tony Shilling vault out to a big early lead. By lap five though Shilling had caught the back of the pack and that allowed Jamie Ball to close the gap quickly. As the leaders negotiated a pair of lapped cars in turn four a lap later Ball grazed the back bumper of Shilling turning him sideways at the start of the front straightaway. Somehow Shilling was able to keep the car under power and three cars missed him as he recovered and rejoined the race in fifth.
A lap thirteen caution for a stalled Donnie Steward allowed Nate Van Haaften to make a run at the leader although Van Haaften had to also deal with the third-place car of Terry McCarl. The race was slowed again two laps later when the series champions from the past two years, Russ Hall and Jon Agan tangled and wound up against the fence in turn one. Dakota Hendrickson could not get his car off the cushion in time to avoid the pair joining the accident a few seconds later and fortunately all three drivers escaped injury. Hall had started twelfth and Agan from sixteenth so both drivers were on the move as they were racing each other for fifth at the time of the accident.
With five laps remaining and an open track ahead of them it was now a battle between Ball and Van Haaften as McCarl was not able to mount a challenge to the lead duo. With Ball riding the cushion Van Haaften raced low and was able to pull even in the turns each of the first three laps only to have Ball use his momentum off the top to lead again down the straightaways. With the white flag waving Ball was able to put some distance on his challenger and he continued his mistake-free run to capture his first Sprint Invader victory and the $1,500 top prize. Van Haaften was solid in second, McCarl came from ninth to third, Joe Beaver was fourth and Tony Shilling had to settle for fifth.
Two more Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invader events are on the schedule for this month with Sunday night May 24th at 34 Raceway in Burlington and Friday May 29th at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson.
All five weekly divisions were in action as well at Oskaloosa and John Whalen kicked off the evening with his second straight win in the Sport Compacts over a small, but competitive five-car field. Chuck Fullenkamp made his first appearance of the season here and was a very close second ahead of Bill Whalen Jr., Trent Orwig and Curt Myers.
Let's face it, there was no way that the Stock Cars were going to be able to top last week's three-wide photo finish for the win, but they did their best to live up to that at least for the first half of the eighteen-lap event. Local driver Donnie Pearson would lead a pack that was lined up tightly on his back bumper with first Brad Pinkerton trying to make a move and then Zack VanderBeek. After a few laps with no success "The Z-Man" was able to power by Pearson using the inside of turn four to take the lead on lap ten and while Pearson did his best to try to hold off the other challengers VanderBeek pulled away to take a convincing win. Brad Pinkerton and Todd Reitzler were battling for second on the final lap and contact between the two coming off of turn four allowed Mike Hughes to make a late run. Pinkerton nosed out Hughes to finish second while Reitzler recovered in time to finish in fourth ahead of Cayden Carter.
After having motor issues the week before, Jason McDaniel took full advantage of what last week's DNF did to his point average on this night. McDaniel dominated his heat race and then did the same at feature time leading flag to flag from his front row start for the IMCA Sport Mod win. By the time that Brayton Carter and Curtis Van Der Wal picked their way forward from a fourth and fifth row start respectively McDaniel had well over a straightaway lead as Van Der Wal took second and Carter finished in third. Rookie driver Trent Brink was impressive starting from the pole and finishing in fourth while Brett Lowry took advantage of a slip up by Austin Paul in the final turn to take fifth.
The IMCA Hobby Stock feature saw plenty of action as Aaron Martin paced the pack for the first two trips around the "Mahaska Monster". Bobby Greene who is rejuvenated in his second week behind the wheel of a new car took the lead from Martin on lap three, but there was no holding back Dustin Griffiths who was on the charge from the tenth starting position. Griffith's would take the lead on lap five and there would be no catching the defending All Iowa Points champion from there as he picked up the feature win. Greene had his best showing in some time in second, Danny Thrasher slipped by Martin late for third while Dale Porter moved from fourteenth to fifth at the checkers. Mike Kincaid and Jared Stephens were racing for sixth on the final lap, but they ended up sitting near the turn four guardrail together as the checkered flag waved.
When you give Scott Dickey a fast and tacky racing surface it is usually bad news for the rest of the IMCA Modified competitors and that was the case tonight as Dickey followed up a dominating performance in the heat race with a flag to flag run in the main event. Tyler Groenendyk definitely made it interesting over the final laps though as he was able to stick a nose under Dickey a few times, but the second generation driver from Packwood was up to the challenge and secured the win. Cayden Carter followed Groenendyk in for third, Carter VanDenBerg was fourth and Andrew Schroeder filled out the top five. Afterwards I wanted to ask the winner's father Dan Dickey what was more enjoyable, watching his son win a feature race or kayaking, but I already knew the answer.
Racing got over a little later than usual as fans need to remember that Sprint Cars don't just leave the staging area and take the green in one lap like what they are used to seeing with the other five classes here, but even with the added division I was still home just before midnight following my hour and ten minute drive.
So we beat Mother Nature on night one of this five night swing, here's hoping that we can do it again tonight (Thursday) as the MLRA Late Models return to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. This was one of the best shows that I saw in 2014 so I hope that I might see you there on the Back Stretch!
Thursday 3 p.m. update: Not only is tonight's MLRA Late Model race at Donnellson cancelled, but so is the entire three-day swing that was to include Davenport and Memphis. Guess I will have to start looking to my backup plans for the next two days......
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