Curtis Van Der Wal is enjoying one of those dream seasons where not a even a motor claim can slow him down and keep him out of victory lane nearly every Wednesday night at his hometown track, the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. And it is not easy competition that he is dealing with here at the fast half-mile where last night Van Der Wal captured his seventh IMCA Sport Mod win in eleven nights of action here in 2015. Oh yeah, and in those other four nights he has finished second three times and in the season opening Frostbuster event he was a "disappointing" third. Yes, this has already been a season to remember for the #1V and his team, and it is only half over!
As usual Van Der Wal lined up tenth in the 18-car starting field for the 16-lap Dave Lowry Memorial for the Sport Mods and he went to work on making his way to the front as Colton Livezy established a quick early pace. Pole-sitter Leroy Groenendyk spun in turn two on lap six collecting Trent Brink and that would bring the field back to Livezy for the restart with Van Der Wal lining up in the fourth position. Logan Anderson was able to power under Livezy for the lead on lap seven, but he was no match for Van Der Wal whose car resembled a slot car pinned to the bottom line of the race track.
Curtis would take the lead from Anderson on lap eight and start to pull away only to have another caution wave two laps later when Danny Brau spun in turn two. The ensuing restart was entertaining as, while Van Der Wal and Anderson pulled away, the battle for third went four-wide in turn two. The final six laps would see Van Der Wal stretch his lead to win for the fifth time in the last six nights here at Osky while Anderson took the runner-up money. Cory Van Zante prevailed in the race for third ahead of Livezy and division rookie Aaron Osweiler.
The car count was smaller than usual (12), but the action was as intense as ever in the Stock Car division as drivers raced four-wide for the lead on lap three and then three-wide on the following circuit before Derrick Agee established himself as the leader. Cayden Carter was on the move from his fifth row start though and on lap seven he and Agee crossed the stripe side-by-side before Carter took over on lap eight. The young driver from Oskaloosa then pulled away over the final ten laps to score yet another win for himself and car owner Roger Kelderman who said in victory lane that this nine year-old Stock Car is for sale as he has plans of going Late Model racing in 2016. Agee finished second, Nathan Wood took third despite suffering mechanical issues late, Daniel Hilsabeck was fourth and Mike Hughes filled out the top five.
Things got a little chippy up front during the early stages of the 18-lap IMCA Modified feature. Scott Dickey started from the pole and that usually equals a runaway, but visiting driver Nick Deal from Walnut quickly moved to second after starting fifth and provided a challenge for the lead. As Deal charged to the inside of Dickey into turn one on lap three there was contact and when Dickey defended his home turf in turn two there was contact once again as Dickey was able to maintain his lead down the back stretch. When Tony Messamaker spun in turn two on lap seven, Deal pulled alongside Dickey under caution and the two did their best to communicate with each other using hand gestures before lining up for the restart.
On the restart Deal again charged to the inside and Dickey again held his line sending Deal into a spin and everybody else into a scramble. Deal was able to complete the spin and keep moving while both Jerry Pilcher and Cayden Carter ended up in the guardrail and Deal was sent to the back for his involvement in the incident. With only eight cars restarting and as quick as he had come to the front earlier I was looking for another charge from the young western Iowa driver, but after a few laps of riding around at the back he decided to call it a night and pull to the infield. There would be no catching Dickey as he scored the win ahead of Colt Mather, Andrew Schroeder, Carter VanDenBerg and Brandon Banks. Look for the Modified car count to triple next week when the Hawkeye Dirt Tour headlines the races at the Southern Iowa Fair.
Jared Stephens paced a tightly bunched field of Hobby Stocks for the first three laps of their 15-lap main event before yielding to Aaron Martin on lap four. Danny Thrasher moved in to challenge Martin for the lead on lap six with Martin doing his best to protect the preferred line around the bottom. After watching those two just in front of him for two laps Dustin Griffths decided to try the high line in turns three and four and it worked to perfection as he quickly went from third to first and eventually to victory. Thrasher did find his way past Martin to finish second, Nick Ulin came from fourteenth to fourth and Travis Bunnell would come from the sixth row to finish in fifth.
Nine Sport Compacts kicked off the night's feature action with an entertaining event that saw John Girdley lead the opening lap before Bill Whalen Jr. slipped by on the next circuit. Girdley stayed in tight formation with Whalen and Ryan Walker soon closed in to make it a three car draft. Coming to the white flag Girdley went low to challenge Whalen and that allowed Walker to fill the gap right behind the leader. Contact in turn one between Girdley and Walker must have flattened a tire on Girdley's car as he slowed and drifted up to the guardrail in turn two where he stopped. Since he was well beyond where the checkers would soon fly, and since we now have Raceceivers and drivers can be alerted that there is a car parked on the high side of turn two so they should slow down a bit after taking the checkers, the race stayed green and Whalen was able to hold off Walker for the win.
In the "old days" (actually not that long ago), the flagman would have likely thrown the caution for this situation necessitating a green-white-checkered restart in a race that should have been completed in the same manner that this one was. Obviously I used to HATE those instances to be making such a point of it here!
Anyway, "Happy Feet" did his his dance in victory lane and all is well in four cylinder land. Walker who made the long trip over from Wilton finished second, John Whalen was third, Eric Stogdell who made an even longer trip from the Illinois side of the Quad Cities was fourth and Trent Orwig finished fifth.
I mentioned the Southern Iowa Fair earlier, so just a reminder that the Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modifieds will headline the show at Oskaloosa next Wednesday night.
In the meantime I have two other county fairs to visit in the next two nights as tonight (Thursday) it will be the Scotland County Fair races in Memphis, Missouri, and then on Friday night the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders will make their annual trip to the Cedar County Fair in Tipton where Sport Mods will also be in action for $1,000-to-win. Perhaps I'll see you there!
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