Despite the fact that half the field was involved in a first lap melee that eliminated a couple of top contenders, once again the IMCA Stock Cars provided the best race of the night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday.
Outside front row starter Donnie Pearson got into turn one a little too hard on the opening lap and spun collecting six cars in the process and eliminating both Nathan Wood and current point leader Cayden Carter from the event. Once back to green it was Jason See who was setting the pace, but he soon had company in Todd Reitzler and current national point leader Damon Murty who appeared to have taken the lead from See on lap six. When the caution waved for a Brad Pinkerton spin on that lap, See would bring the field back to green for the restart and that is when the action really heated up.
Reitzler would make a bold move going from third to first on lap eight with a bit of contact dropping See back a few more positions. This allowed Mike Hughes to join the hunt and we now had a thrilling three-car battle for the lead featuring Reiztler, Murty and Hughes. Murty would nose ahead at the line on lap nine and two laps later Reitzler made another big move in turn four to take the lead away from Murty. It was only briefly though as when his momentum carried him too high off of four both Murty and Hughes would get by Reitzler. This now gave Hughes the opening that he was looking for and he powered by Murty with five laps remaining and when Reiztler kept the pressure on Murty for second that allowed Hughes to ease away just a bit before taking the checkered flag for his first feature win here this season. Murty held on for the second spot with Reitzler in third, See held down the fourth position and Kris Walker was fifth.
The IMCA Sport Mod feature had an issue on lap one as well when Austin Paul's car billowed smoke in one and two to pull the caution and there was a long break as the track crew surveyed the surface looking for parts. When the green flag waved again Charlie Weber would lead the opening lap, but there would be no denying Logan Anderson on this night. The young hometown driver blew by Weber on lap two and then went the rest of the distance to score a convincing victory by more than a half a lap over Weber. Brayton Carter came from twelfth to finish third ahead of Jason McDaniel while point leader Curtis Van Der Wal virtually assured himself of the track title with one more night remaining by running fifth.
Essentially the same scenario played out in the 15-lap Hobby Stock feature as Jared Stephens would lead the opening lap only to yield to Danny Thrasher on lap two. Thrasher had started sixth and while birthday boy Travis Bunnell was able to keep him in his sights through a pair of cautions, he could not mount a challenge as Thrasher scored the win. Bunnell celebrated in second, Brad Stephens came from the back of the 13-car field to finish third ahead of Dustin Griffiths and Steve Allen.
Eleven IMCA Modifieds checked in and two of them were from the west coast. Add in the fact that Ryan Fullenkamp now calls St. Louis home and one could say that, despite the short field, there were four states represented. Andrew Schroeder would lead the opening lap before Fullenkamp spun in turn one on the second circuit and collected Adam Larson. Larson would be eliminated while Fullenkamp would make repairs in the work area and return.
Schroeder would try to run off on the restart, but Colt Mather had other ideas and he would go to work on the leader. As the leaders were coming to score lap seven Mather would show his nose on the bottom of turns three and four. To counter Schroeder then went to the bottom to block in turn one, so Mather then charged to the top line and drove around Schroeder in turn two to take the advantage. This race was all but in the books until Fullenkamp spun again in turn one after taking the white flag to necessitate a green-white-checkers restart. As Mather again pulled away to take the win, Cayden Carter seized the opportunity to take second away from Schroeder while Tyler Groenendyk and Carter VanDenBerg completed the top five. Local favorite Ron VerBeek returned to action in the Franz #29 and finished sixth while Tom Berry of Medford, Oregon was seventh in what sounded like a six cylinder. The other long distance traveler, Chris Sieweke of Santa Rosa, California, did not finish.
Josh Barnes has made the two and a half hour trip up from Keokuk twice this year and both have resulted in Sport Compact feature wins as he passed Bill Whalen Jr. on lap two of the ten lap affair. Whalen aboard his brother John's #77 for the evening finished in the second spot ahead of Ryan Havel, Trent Orwig and Curt Myers.
The track will now go idle for four weeks before coming back with Season Championship night on Wednesday September 23rd where the lineups will be set just as they are weekly by the average point invert system. Traditionally this draws in some out of town drivers who are in contention for National or State points, or are rookie-of-the year contenders so make sure to mark it on your calendar. Besides, where else are you going to be able to enjoy a night of racing on a Wednesday in late September?!
Many, many tracks will be holding their season championship events this weekend so get on out and support your favorite. Then we will move on to the "specials" season and for a look at what is coming up make sure that you visit the Calendar page at Positively Racing. One disclaimer though, I haven't added anything new that might have been scheduled, or rescheduled in the last couple of months, and there are always some events that pop up on a track's schedule at the start of the year that somehow "disappear" as the year goes on. So always check ahead to make sure that everything is still running.
See you on the Back Stretch!
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