Shawn and Jami Ritter with Shawn's Hay Grinding made their night at the Southern Iowa Speedway extra special by adding money to the purse for all five divisions and that, along with some better weather than what we he had last Wednesday night, brought in several new drivers for the second night of racing in Oskaloosa.
For the second week in a row the Sport Compacts would have the highest car count bolstered by two of the top Four Cylinder drivers in the Midwest who made the long pull over from southeast Nebraska. They would end up chasing the rookie sensation though as Daniel Fellows lined up sixth for the 12-lap main event and he would take the lead exiting turn four on lap one. One of the travelers, Denny Berghahn Jr. started right behind Fellows and followed him to the front to pick up the chase while the other Nebraskan Dillon Richards steadily raced his way up from eleventh to third.
A caution on lap four bunched the field up for a restart, but again Fellows and Berghahn pulled away as Richards dealt with a challenge from Barry Taft. As the white flag waved Berghahn was able to take a peek to the inside of the leader in turn two, but Fellows did not flinch as he scored his second win in a row here and his fourth straight overall in this his rookie season after having raced dirt bikes for the past few years. Berghahn was the runner-up while Taft took advantage of a late stumble by Richards to finish third leaving Dillon in fourth. Cody Van Dusen, the current All Iowa Points leader in the division, was slated to start in sixth, but tagged the field instead and still raced his way up to fifth.
The Stock Cars once again gave the Southern Iowa Speedway fans a thrill with some tight racing as the field of thirteen all clamored for the bottom line during the second feature of the night, Louis Lynch would pace the opening lap before third-starting Nathan Wood drove under him on lap two. Running his left front tire over the now buried corner markers, Wood did not leave any room for someone to get under him and when both Mike Hughes and Derrick Agee lined up behind him mid-race it was a throwback to last week when Dustin Griffiths was trying to protect his lead from these two.
The caution waved on lap eleven when Damon Murty slowed and then stopped at the end of the front stretch rather than pulling to the infield and he then fired it back up and did a donut before driving to the pit area apparently frustrated with something. The double wide restart would then shake things up as Agee would be parked to the outside getting shuffled back to fifth with Todd Reitzler and Griffiths now joining the battle.
With Wood still guarding the bottom Hughes took a look one line higher and that was all that Reitzler needed as he muscled under Hughes to take the second spot. When Griffiths also tried to get under Hughes, contact between the two would cut down the right front tire on Griffiths car and when he slowed it produced the final caution of the race with two laps remaining. On the restart the leader knew where he needed to stay and while he did leave a bit of an opening entering turn one on the final lap, he was too strong to allow Reitzler to make a move and Nathan Wood would return to victory lane in Oskaloosa. Reitzler would finish second as Agee battled back to third, Hughes would come in fourth while division rookie Danny Thrasher edged out Jason Minnehan for fifth.
If there was any concern that the remaining three features would be a parade around the bottom of the big half-mile that was quickly erased during the 16-lap Sport Mod main event. Outside pole-sitter Colton Livezey would race out to the early advantage with Carter VanDenBerg in hot pursuit. As the battle for the lead developed on lap four, the defending track champion Curtis Van Der Wal slid sideways to the infield in turn four while racing in third, but he recovered quickly only losing two positions in the process. VanDenBerg would take the point from Livezy on lap five and as he started to open up a lead it was obvious that Van Der Wal was now on a mission as he clicked off positions one by one until he was in second on lap nine.
The lead was still a half straightaway at that point, but by using the high line through turns three and four Van Der Wal quickly cut it down to a couple of car lengths and he would pull even with VanDenBerg exiting turn four on lap thirteen. Carter was able to ward off this challenge by using his low line in turns one and two, but when Curtis again went to the cushion in three and four he would fly by CVDB putting CVDW into the lead with two laps remaining. VanDenBerg made one last bid in turn one, but then Van Der Wal was gone as he pulled off the near-spin-to-win feat in the non-stop event. Livezy would hold down the third spot, Logan Anderson was fourth and last week's winner Jason McDaniel filled out the top five.
A sixth-place finish in the season opener landed Kelly Shryock on the front row for tonight's twenty-lap IMCA Modified feature race and when you have Kelly Shryock on the front row the chances are that the race will be for second. Current All Iowa Points leader Hunter Marriott would work his way into second with three laps remaining and would then show the leader his nose in the closing laps, but again this is Kelly Shryock, one of the best Modified drivers ever and he would add another win to his total on this night. Marriott would be the runner-up for the second week in a row here as Todd Shute also repeated his finish from last week in third. The winner of the season opener Colt Mather would be fourth this week while Cayden Carter edged out Forest City's Jesse Hoeft for fifth.
The Hobby Stocks would again close out the evening and this could be the beginning of a banner season here for Shannon Anderson. The multi-time IMCA Hobby Stock National Champion drove through the field with ease after starting eighth taking the lead from Mike Kincaid on lap four just before the red flag waved when Saif Grafke got sideways in turn two before rolling his car over onto its side. Anderson was gone on the restart cruising to his second straight win here at Osky as Kincaid would hold down the second spot. Brad Stephens recovered from an opening lap spin down the back stretch to race back up to third at the checkers while Bill Bonnett and Aaron Martin completed the top five.
A big thank you to the Ritters for stepping up their sponsorship and, as always, to Mike Van Genderen and his crew for presenting an efficient five division program in just over two and a half hours. The Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders will join the program here at the Southern Iowa Speedway next Wednesday night May 10th.
Late Model drivers Billy Moyer, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Rodney Sanders were also on hand to get in some hot laps before they head down to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for tonight's big MLRA show that is always a treat at the racy D-shaped 3/8th-mile. Not only will the Late Models be racing for a $3,000 top prize, but all four support classed have added money as well with the Modifieds, Stock Cars and Sport Mods looking for $1,000-to-win and the Sport Compacts racing for $300-to-win. The forecast is for dry, but cool conditions tonight so bring an extra jacket and let's go racing!
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