With cloudy skies including a spot of drizzle from time to time and a forecast calling for a 90% of rain on Friday night, and a 100% chance of precipitation with a potential for severe storms on Saturday, I did not expect to see much more than the locals when I pulled into the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Friday. This is the Musco Lighting Fall Challenge though, an event that has been an annual destination for more than thirty years and despite the slim chances of getting any racing in there was still a solid field of cars on hand with some coming from as far as Minnesota and South Dakota. No monster car counts here, but just enough to provide a solid Friday night crowd with plenty of racing action before they were able to head for home, or to the south end of the fairgrounds to their camper by 10:30 p.m.
The Sport Compacts would be the first of five feature races on the big half-mile and with sixteen in the field they were the only division to have less than twenty sign in. Brandon Housley would take the lead from the pole position and would go the distance to take the win. However, it was later announced that his car was found to have an illegal camshaft handing the win over to Chuck Fullenkamp. Brandon Allison has purchased the former #04 car from Trent Orwig and he would be credited with the second spot with Jeffrey DeLonjay third and Cody Phillips fourth. DeLonjay apparently had some issues in tech himself after the heat race as after finishing third there he came out for the feature lined up in sixteenth. Barry Taft who came into the night just thirteen points back from Nate Coopman in the All Iowa Points chase was running second when he suddenly slowed and pulled to the infield with two laps remaining. Depending upon the weather Taft could still have as many as seven race nights left in his area to score more points. Follow Up: Apparently DeLonjay had issues in tech again after the feature as he was disqualified from it as well. This moved Phillips to third while Jimmy Haring and Kyle Boyd made up the official top five.
A strong field of twenty-seven Sport Mods were up next with a former track regular Aaron Osweiler setting a fast early pace. Caution waved on lap three when Cory Van Zante and Logan Anderson tangled in turn four. On the restart track champion Curtis Van Der Wal would apply the pressure to the leader and Osweiler would hang tough thwarting the first challenge and then moving down the track to take away Van Der Wal's preferred line. Curtis then went to the top and the two would run a couple of laps nearly side-by-side until Van Der Wal completed the pass on lap eight. The caution would fly again just after that when Keith Gogel suffered a flat tire and following the restart Van Der Wal pulled away to take yet another convincing victory here at his hometown speedway. Brayton Carter would take the second spot away from Osweiler who was impressive in third, Tyler Inman came from row five to finish fourth and after having problems earlier in the night Carter Vandenberg rallied from eighteenth to fifth.
A large and diverse field of Stock Cars were up next for twenty laps and, as they always seem to do here at Osky, the division provided some of the best action all night through the three qualifying heats and the twenty lap A-Main. On the opening lap Dustin Griffiths, Paul Shepard and Todd Inman raced three-wide down the back straightaway with Inman coming from the outside of row two to hold the lead on lap one. The racing for position was intense as Inman pulled away, but on lap nine the leader suddenly slowed on the back stretch to bring out a caution as his night came to a disappointing end. Todd Reitzler had worked his way up from the fourth row and he would assume the lead on the restart with Griffiths and Nathan Wood in hot pursuit. Ryan Gustin was behind the wheel of John Hunnell's #62 for the night and he had come from thirteenth to fourth before making a challenge for position on Wood. The two banged doors a couple of times and when debris slowed the race again on lap fourteen the two let each other know how they felt about things under caution.
The caution had to come out again a lap later when the hood flew off of Gustin's car and on this restart Wood moved to second and tried to reel in the leader. There would be no catching Reitzler on this night though as the driver from Grinnell soon celebrated in victory lane. Wood has all but wrapped up his first All Iowa Points title with the runner-up finish, Griffiths makes you forget that he is completing his first full season in a Stock Car when running third, Keith Knop came over from western Iowa to run fourth and Johnny Spaw finished in fifth. Gustin faded to seventh at the checkers while his father Rick, also behind the wheel of a Hunnell owned car for the evening, was fourteenth.
The Modifieds were up next and it would be Dakota Simmons taking the early lead in the twenty lap event. After running in the Sport Mod class for a few seasons Simmons moved to the Modifieds in 2017 and has shown steady improvement, but on this night he proved that he was now feature winner fast actually pulling away from the stout field over the first seven laps. A caution for Scott Dickey would then erase that lead and on the restart Cayden Carter would go to work on the leader. Simmons would fight off the challenge for a lap before Carter would complete the pass on lap nine. A Gordon Head spin would slow the race on lap eleven and when something broke in the suspension of Bruce Hanford's car he would stop in turn two on lap thirteen.
These cautions were a big help to Richie Gustin who had started the race from tenth, but after an early skirmish with Brandon Banks, Gustin had dropped back even farther in the field and now with seven laps remaining he would restart fifth. Simmons would see his night come to a disappointing end with just five laps remaining when he pulled to the infield while running fourth and Gustin was now into second with his sights set on Carter. Richie's first run at the lead with three laps remaining came up short, but on lap eighteen he drove deep into turn three and slid up in front of Carter to claim the top spot. It was all over from there as the driver who is enjoying an amazing Fall schedule scored yet another four figure victory in impressive fashion. Carter would come home second, Nick Marolf drove Derrick Stewart's car #43 in for third, Jarrett Brown was fourth and Andrew Schroeder completed the top five.
The fifteen-lap Hobby Stock feature would close out the evening with western Iowa's Jason Fusselman leading early. He would pull off the back stretch on lap five though to cause a caution and on the restart Aaron Martin assumed the lead. Mike Hughes had a solid season going in the Stock Car division, but made the switch back to the Hobby Stocks here on season championship night and he continues to enjoy the change as he drove under Martin in turn three with three laps remaining to take the lead and the win. Martin would take the second spot, veteran driver Bill Bonnett was third and the battle for fourth got heated coming to the checkers when Christian Huffman and Jeff Anderson smacked the guardrail right at the flagstand. I believe that Huffman crossed the line first but he definitely got the worst of it as his mangled car was towed to the tech area while Anderson was able to drive away.
The Musco Lighting Fall Challenge is scheduled to go again tonight (Saturday), but a look at the radar right now puts that into serious doubt. Check with the track to see if and when the second night of action will take place.
I already had planned to take the night off and my Sunday plans will be formed after we see how things shake out with today's weather. If there are races to be held in the region make sure that you get out and attend as the season is closing out soon! Warren and I will be hanging out on the Back Stretch, so look us up!
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