When we left Mt. Pleasant late Friday afternoon the sun was shining, the winds were calm and the temperature was in the low 70's. Just over two hours later as we made our way into the Marshalltown Speedway the winds were howling out of the north northwest and the temperature was dropping, but thankfully the sun was still shining and because of that promoter Toby Kruse was finally able to kickoff the 2018 season at the quarter-mile highbanks.
With that stiff wind blowing right into the grandstand it was a tough night to watch dirt track racing, but as usual the action at Marshalltown made it worth the effort, especially in the 20-lap $1,000-to-win IMCA Modified main event. Forty-three drivers had signed in, not a slouch among them, and it was an accomplishment just to make show proven by the fact that the first non-transfer in the two B-Mains were Jeff Aikey and Kyle Brown.
Joel Rust would race off to a sizable early lead as drivers raced three and four wide behind him with slide jobs going on in nearly every set of turns. Tim Ward soon cleared himself into second and Hunter Marriott made his way into third, but by now Rust had more than a straightway on Ward with Marriott several car lengths behind him. The racing remained intense behind them though and on lap fourteen while battling for seventh Tyler Droste and Ricky Thornton Jr. made contact coming off turn four with Thornton also slapping the wall. His car suffered enough damage that it would not turn as he entered turn one and he went over the top of the race track. Lap fifteen was scored before the caution waved as Thornton then slowly drove down the back stretch.
With no caution Rust would have cruised to the win, but now he had Ward and Marriott lined up right behind him and ready to challenge with just five laps remaining. Marriott moved to second and was able to put a nose under the leader in the corners with Rust holding steady running the higher line and using the momentum off the turns to maintain the lead. With two to go though the leader went into turn three a little lower, so Marriott went high and then shot off of turn four to pull even with Rust on the low side. As those two ran lap nineteen wheel-to-wheel, just behind them Tyler Droste had charged into the mix throwing a big slider at Ward so on the final lap the top two, Rust and Marriott were side-by-side and right behind them Droste and Ward were wheel to wheel. The nice crowd on hand risked losing their warm blankets to get to their feet for this one as the four drivers crossed the finish line in tight fashion with Rust nosing out Marriott for the win and Droste nipping Ward for third. And just behind them California driver Ethan Dotson was taking fifth.
The first three features of the night all had a driver that would have been considered the pre-race favorite find victory lane. In the Sport Mods it took Jared VanDeest four laps to work his way past Travis Storjohann, but once he did "The Beast" went unchallenged to take the win. Brayton Carter started tenth and finished in second. Austin Luellen apparently had an issue in tech following his heat race as he had to come back and transfer from the B-Main to start in the twenty-second position. Using a lap three restart to his advantage Luellen then picked his way toward the front to finish in the third position with Dusty Masolini fourth and Sam Wieben from the seventh row to fifth.
It took four tries to get the Hobby Stock feature started and on that fourth try Shannon Anderson moved from fourth to first on the opening lap. Worthington, Minnesota driver Keeran Sampson first challenged Anderson, then after a lap seven restart Justin Wacha was able to pull even in the corners but could not take the lead. Following a lap ten caution Eric Stanton moved to second and while he was able to keep pace with Anderson running the same line around the track, when he tried to challenge down low Stanton would lose ground so he settled in for second as Anderson secured the win. Gene Nicklas lined up eleventh on the original starting grid and finished third, Wacha was fourth and Sampson completed the top five.
After the delays in the Hobby Stock main event it was a blessing to have the Stock Cars go twenty laps non-stop with Jay Schmidt the early leader. He was being stalked by Damon Murty though and on lap nine Murty powered by for the lead in turn two. As Murty pulled away to chalk up another win at Motown the battle for second was interesting as Schmidt rode the top side while Jeff Mueller catfished down low. In the end it would be Mueller prevailing for second with Schmidt in third as Paul Shepard and Tyler Pickett filled out the top five.
The Late Models were set to close out the evening and on lap two Joe Zrostlik got a bit loose exiting turn two and when he over corrected on the back stretch contact with another car caused the back half of the eleven car field to pile up at full speed. Todd Cooney went over the top of the track, hit a dirt mound and rolled his car while his teammate Curtis Glover caught the nose of another car and put his Late Model upside down as well. We waited to confirm that all drivers were okay, but with the clock nearing eleven and it being likely that only six or seven cars would restart we decided to pack up and hit the road for home. A check of the results this morning show that Darrel DeFrance went flag-to-flag to score the win at his hometown track, Chad Holladay was second followed by Rob Toland, Curt Schroeder and Luke Pestka.
If you are a fan of slide jobs, and tell me who isn't, you will be a fan of the Marshalltown Speedway and it was fun to introduce my Positively Racing colleague Danny Rosencrans to the highbanks for his first visit. It was also good to see our resident Super Fan Ed Reichert in attendance and as always it was a treat to have seat next to Dick and Joyce Eisele. Don't forget that you can always get the reports from Marshalltown as well as Boone and Oskaloosa at their 4dFan Report on Positively Racing. And as I link each of their blogs this morning it looks like I have the first post up, but check back soon for their coverage of night one of the Highbanks Hustle.
That is likely all of the racing for me this weekend as tonight I am going to see the ACM Vocal Group of the Year Old Dominion at Carver Hawkeye and on Saturday it will be the blue oval for me with the Drake Relays. Sunday will likely be a day of Spring cleanup around the house, but hopefully you have one, two or even three shows in your plans this weekend so have fun out there on the Back Stretch!
Friday, April 27, 2018
Thursday, April 26, 2018
Familiar Faces In Victory Lane At Osky's Opener
If the Southern Iowa Speedway had one of those "Pick 'Em" contests where fans had to guess the four feature winners as they passed through the ticket gate there would have been several winners splitting the pot on Wednesday night as drivers who have won many times before here at the Speedway celebrated opening night wins. The weather was near perfect for a late April opener and a solid field of sixty-one cars in four divisions were in action. And, if you ever wondered if going to a race on a Wednesday night is a good idea or not with work or school the next day, keep in mind that this show was scored and in the books at 9:12 p.m. and that included a delay for a red flag incident.
The Sport Compacts were up first come feature time with Bill Whalen Jr. and Nathan Moody bringing the twelve car field to green. Coming down the front stretch Moody got crossed up, made hard contact with the third starting Brandon Housley and then rolled his car one and a half times just before the flagstand. All drivers were okay and while there was no serious damage in the melee it did eliminate Moody, Housley, Ryan Havel and Bryan Clausson for the evening. On the second try at a start Whalen, who ranks second on the all-time list for Four Cylinders in the All Iowa Points, raced out the the lead with Jason Breuklander in hot pursuit. Meanwhile behind them Cody Phillips was making his way toward the front after starting eighth, but when he got to third at the mid-point of the ten lap race he was a full straightaway behind the leaders.
Whalen kept Breuklander a couple of car lengths back, but Phillips was closing quickly and as the leader crossed the stripe on lap eight the right front tire blew out on Breuklander's car nearly sending him into the turn one guardrail. The caution waved and while it looked like we would have a two lap shootout between Whalen and Phillips that went to the wayside when Phillips pulled into the infield during the caution. Jimmy Haring did keep Whalen within his sights over the final laps but there would be no denying the veteran from doing his traditional "Happy Feet" dance in victory lane on opening night. Jimmy Haring was second followed by Tyler Haring with Kyle Boyd and Billy Cain completing the top five.
The Stock Cars had a first lap skirmish of their own as four cars tangled on the back stretch including Mike Harward, Danny Thrasher, Carl Yaw and Howard Gordon Jr. who has returned to racing after taking the past few years off. On the second start Nathan Wood grabbed the lead from the front row and paced the tightly bunched field for the first five laps. Cayden Carter was on the move from sixth and he went from third to first on laps five and six driving under Wood coming off of turn four. Nathan tried to return the favor down the back stretch, but Carter fought him off and then gradually opened up a big lead. The caution waved with two laps remaining when Derrick Agee tried to squeeze back under Ricky Thornton Jr. in turn four with contact turning Agee around and knocking down the left year tire on Thornton's car. The two drivers were racing for third and Thornton had just used the lapped car of Harward to his advantage in turns one and two to take the position away from Agee.
Wood tried to stay with Carter on the restart, but there would be no stopping "The Gasman" who drove away to victory. It should be noted that Cayden helped his cause earlier in the night using the outside line to pass two drivers in the final lap of his heat race just to put himself into the final redraw position. Wood finished second, Mike Hughes came from eleventh to third, Brett Lowry was fourth and Dustin Griffiths finished fifth.
Sixteen laps was the distance for the Sport Mod feature and Curtis Van Der Wal remains the man to beat in this division at his hometown track. Jason Hall was impressive leading the opening laps until Jason McDaniel slipped by him on lap four. Van Der Wal who started sixth followed McDaniel into second and chased the leader for several laps sizing him up for a challenge. On lap nine Curtis powered to the high side in turn one and drove around McDaniel for the lead and while Jason was able to keep pace for a few laps he soon lost touch as Van Der Wal cruised to another convincing victory. McDaniel finished second ahead of Brayton Carter who came from seventh. Cory Van Zante took the fourth position while young Blaine Webster was fifth.
The twenty car field of Hobby Stocks would close out the evening with fifteen laps of action with the front row of Mike Kincaid and Aaron Martin running lap one side-by-side. Kincaid had the edge at the stripe on lap one, but it would be Martin taking the lead from there. The caution waved on lap six when Derek Kirkland reportedly had the steering wheel come off his car before he was able to stop in turn three and on the restart Dustin Griffiths would power to the lead. With the track no longer being IMCA sanctioned the 2014 All Iowa Points Hobby Stock champion can now bring both cars to the track and he would go on to take the win after starting from the fourth row. Scottie Shull proved that not only does a he drive a "car show worthy" Hobby Stock, it is fast as well as he moved from tenth to second. Early All Iowa Points leader Eric Stanton charged from eleventh to third, Martin held on for fourth and Brandon Cox completed the top five.
In some other notes from opening night it was great to see a nice crowd fill in by race time with the first green flag actually waving five minutes before the advertised starting time of 7:30.......I counted fifty-two brightly painted sponsor signs in the infield along the front stretch and both drivers and fans need to take notice of those as they are the primary reason why there is still racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in 2018. Support those who support the sport!......What a thrill it had to be for third-generation driver Michael Brown as he held off a stout field of drivers to win the second Stock Car heat of the night. Brown has shown slow, but steady improvement the past two years and this win had to be a big boost to his confidence......Rookie driver Jarrett Vandenberg, a high school student from Oskaloosa, showed some good speed on opening night and once he figures out a consistent entry point to the turns the "Young Gun" will be a force to be reckoned with in the Sport Mod division. Jarrett finished ninth on opening night.
Racing returns to the Southern Iowa Speedway next Wednesday night May 2nd when all college students with their school ID will be admitted to the grandstands for free, a perfect way to take a break from studying for finals and have some fun. And let's just say that you don't have to be a college kid to have some fun on Wednesdays in Oskaloosa!
Tonight I plan on making the trip up to Marshalltown for night one of their Highbanks Hustle doubleheader. Hope to see you there!
The Sport Compacts were up first come feature time with Bill Whalen Jr. and Nathan Moody bringing the twelve car field to green. Coming down the front stretch Moody got crossed up, made hard contact with the third starting Brandon Housley and then rolled his car one and a half times just before the flagstand. All drivers were okay and while there was no serious damage in the melee it did eliminate Moody, Housley, Ryan Havel and Bryan Clausson for the evening. On the second try at a start Whalen, who ranks second on the all-time list for Four Cylinders in the All Iowa Points, raced out the the lead with Jason Breuklander in hot pursuit. Meanwhile behind them Cody Phillips was making his way toward the front after starting eighth, but when he got to third at the mid-point of the ten lap race he was a full straightaway behind the leaders.
Whalen kept Breuklander a couple of car lengths back, but Phillips was closing quickly and as the leader crossed the stripe on lap eight the right front tire blew out on Breuklander's car nearly sending him into the turn one guardrail. The caution waved and while it looked like we would have a two lap shootout between Whalen and Phillips that went to the wayside when Phillips pulled into the infield during the caution. Jimmy Haring did keep Whalen within his sights over the final laps but there would be no denying the veteran from doing his traditional "Happy Feet" dance in victory lane on opening night. Jimmy Haring was second followed by Tyler Haring with Kyle Boyd and Billy Cain completing the top five.
The Stock Cars had a first lap skirmish of their own as four cars tangled on the back stretch including Mike Harward, Danny Thrasher, Carl Yaw and Howard Gordon Jr. who has returned to racing after taking the past few years off. On the second start Nathan Wood grabbed the lead from the front row and paced the tightly bunched field for the first five laps. Cayden Carter was on the move from sixth and he went from third to first on laps five and six driving under Wood coming off of turn four. Nathan tried to return the favor down the back stretch, but Carter fought him off and then gradually opened up a big lead. The caution waved with two laps remaining when Derrick Agee tried to squeeze back under Ricky Thornton Jr. in turn four with contact turning Agee around and knocking down the left year tire on Thornton's car. The two drivers were racing for third and Thornton had just used the lapped car of Harward to his advantage in turns one and two to take the position away from Agee.
Wood tried to stay with Carter on the restart, but there would be no stopping "The Gasman" who drove away to victory. It should be noted that Cayden helped his cause earlier in the night using the outside line to pass two drivers in the final lap of his heat race just to put himself into the final redraw position. Wood finished second, Mike Hughes came from eleventh to third, Brett Lowry was fourth and Dustin Griffiths finished fifth.
Sixteen laps was the distance for the Sport Mod feature and Curtis Van Der Wal remains the man to beat in this division at his hometown track. Jason Hall was impressive leading the opening laps until Jason McDaniel slipped by him on lap four. Van Der Wal who started sixth followed McDaniel into second and chased the leader for several laps sizing him up for a challenge. On lap nine Curtis powered to the high side in turn one and drove around McDaniel for the lead and while Jason was able to keep pace for a few laps he soon lost touch as Van Der Wal cruised to another convincing victory. McDaniel finished second ahead of Brayton Carter who came from seventh. Cory Van Zante took the fourth position while young Blaine Webster was fifth.
The twenty car field of Hobby Stocks would close out the evening with fifteen laps of action with the front row of Mike Kincaid and Aaron Martin running lap one side-by-side. Kincaid had the edge at the stripe on lap one, but it would be Martin taking the lead from there. The caution waved on lap six when Derek Kirkland reportedly had the steering wheel come off his car before he was able to stop in turn three and on the restart Dustin Griffiths would power to the lead. With the track no longer being IMCA sanctioned the 2014 All Iowa Points Hobby Stock champion can now bring both cars to the track and he would go on to take the win after starting from the fourth row. Scottie Shull proved that not only does a he drive a "car show worthy" Hobby Stock, it is fast as well as he moved from tenth to second. Early All Iowa Points leader Eric Stanton charged from eleventh to third, Martin held on for fourth and Brandon Cox completed the top five.
In some other notes from opening night it was great to see a nice crowd fill in by race time with the first green flag actually waving five minutes before the advertised starting time of 7:30.......I counted fifty-two brightly painted sponsor signs in the infield along the front stretch and both drivers and fans need to take notice of those as they are the primary reason why there is still racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in 2018. Support those who support the sport!......What a thrill it had to be for third-generation driver Michael Brown as he held off a stout field of drivers to win the second Stock Car heat of the night. Brown has shown slow, but steady improvement the past two years and this win had to be a big boost to his confidence......Rookie driver Jarrett Vandenberg, a high school student from Oskaloosa, showed some good speed on opening night and once he figures out a consistent entry point to the turns the "Young Gun" will be a force to be reckoned with in the Sport Mod division. Jarrett finished ninth on opening night.
Racing returns to the Southern Iowa Speedway next Wednesday night May 2nd when all college students with their school ID will be admitted to the grandstands for free, a perfect way to take a break from studying for finals and have some fun. And let's just say that you don't have to be a college kid to have some fun on Wednesdays in Oskaloosa!
Tonight I plan on making the trip up to Marshalltown for night one of their Highbanks Hustle doubleheader. Hope to see you there!
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Wednesday Notebook: April 25, 2018
Well here it is race fans, opening night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa! This was a track that first looked like it might only have three race nights in 2018, but after a push from the 2017 All Iowa Points Stock Car champion Nathan Wood, a ten race schedule (one of those was lost to weather last week) on Wednesday nights was put together with the Fair Board in charge and with Mike Van Genderen continuing to serve as Race Director. Kudos to Wood for getting involved. I am sure that he has discovered just how difficult it is to pull all of this together and hopefully he will still get to race his Stock Car at his "home" race track.
It will be interesting to see how the drivers and fans will support the speedway, as after nearly losing it I would think that they would come out in full force. Because if they don't......well, I think we all know what happens then. As I noted here in August of 2017 the Modified division sealed its fate last year and will not be in the card this season and it would appear that some of that purse money has been spread out through the four remaining divisions; Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. The track will run unsanctioned this year and while that means that we will no longer have drivers dropping in to chase regional and national points, it does mean that any driver who just wants to come out and race on a random Wednesday night can do so knowing that they have the same chance of starting up front as the track regulars do in the draw/redraw format. I will admit that as a fan I prefer IMCA's average point invert system, but with one little twist at Osky where last week's winner will start no better than the highest number in the redraw that should keep things interesting.
In case you didn't notice the Grandstand Admission has dropped to $8 for adults, $5 for Veterans and U.S. Military and $3 for children ages six to fifteen. Yes I am excited for tonight, and for the next eight Wednesday nights because there just are not that many tracks that race weekly on a weeknight in the entire country let alone within an hour or two from home. And, as my social calendar seems to get busier each year on the weekends, it is the one night where I pretty much know that I can join my racing friends and family each week. Hope to see you in the stands tonight at Osky!
That ever growing social calendar made it where I was unable to attend the annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway Saturday night, the first time that I have missed the event in the ten years that it has been running. To make it even more difficult I actually had to drive past the track late in the afternoon on Saturday and again around ten o'clock that night. Believe me, I let out a sad sigh that at first wasn't well received on the way to the wedding, but even Christine knew that I was missing something that meant a lot to me to attend an event that also meant a lot to the two of us. Seeing the full pit area and the overflow of the parking lot by the large crowd in attendance is proof that the Slocum 50 is here for years to come while our friends will only have one special wedding night. I was where I needed to be.
On Sunday my 28-year-old son Morgan and I made the five and a half hour trip to Haubstadt, Indiana, for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car show. Actually it was a couple of hours longer for him as he now lives in West Des Moines, but since he had Monday off from work he convinced me that we needed to make the trip. I have only been to Tri-State Speedway twice before and have loved it both times, so he did not have to do much convincing and with the weather forecast showing a chance of rain moving in around midnight, we decided to go ahead and make the trip despite how ominous the morning radar looked.
Forty-three drivers had signed in when we arrived at 3:30 including Kyle Larson in Tony Stewart's #14 and Christopher Bell in Chase Briscoe's #5 and while the skies were overcast and the radar showed some green over top of us, we only felt a random sprinkle here and there. When the call went out for drivers to warm their motors just before five o'clock we went ahead and bought our tickets and staked out our seats in the front stretch grandstands excited for what was to come. However, just as Jacob Allen was pushed to the track to start his sprinter the sprinkles started to fall harder and the push trucks were sent back out to pack rather than to start more Sprint Cars.
The sprinkles persisted as a large crowd waited and with no breaks seen on the radar after about an hour and a half the decision was made to postpone the show to another date. Fortunately we had anticipated the decision and had already driven out of the crowded parking lot when it came down so we had a nice head start for the long drive back to Mount Pleasant. Yes, it was disappointing to go all that way and not see any racing, but the fourteen hours that I had with my son one on one was priceless. As a parent you get so used to having them around as they are growing up, but when they are off and on their own you realize just how much you miss having them there. It was a spectacular Sunday as far as I was concerned.
The make up date announced yesterday is for Mother's Day, Sunday May 13th and there is no way that we will be able to make the trip. So if anybody is looking for a couple of discounted general admission rain checks for the World of Outlaws at Haubstadt just let me know! Leave a comment here, or on the Positively Racing Facebook page and we can work out the details.
It was good to get some racing in around the area this weekend and, from what I have been able to gather, it looks like there were good crowds in attendance. The big grandstands were rocking at the Davenport Speedway on Friday night with a full field of MLRA Late Models on hand. Our drive by of the Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway showed a packed house and the Local Vizion video from the Benton County Speedway showed a big crowd at Vinton Sunday night where the Hobby Stocks closed out the evening with a thriller between Shannon Anderson and Nathan Ballard. At the Frostbuster ten days earlier Eric Stanton and David Rieks traded way more paint and afterward shook hands with each other. On Sunday night, after winning the race Anderson gave an interview that was more reminiscent of WWE, so I guess that we will have to see if he comes back to Vinton again in 2018. Did you notice that it was still daylight when the show ended? Just another reason why I love Vinton.
It was good to see 29 Late Models signed in for the Deery Brothers Summer Series opener at Tipton on Saturday night. That race seemed to be overshadowed a bit by having the two big MLRA races in the area, but it is a solid start for one of the longest running regional Late Model series in the country. Next up is a doubleheader weekend May 5th and 6th at the Maquoketa Speedway on Saturday night and the Quad City Speedway on Sunday. I am hoping to be able to make Sunday's show on the quarter-mile high banks that flagman Doug Haack refers to as the Knuckle Bowl.
Looks like a few northern drivers decided to escape their still snow covered region and venture south for some racing this past weekend. Shawano Wisconsin's Brekken Kleinschmidt had his IMCA Modified at both Davenport and Tipton. Tim Warner who made the long trip down from Malone, Wisconsin, to Donnellson last October to race at Shiverfest returned on Friday night where he finished third in the Sport Mod main event at the Lee County Speedway. I didn't see where he raced, if he raced on Saturday night but on Sunday Warner closed out his weekend with a fifth-place finish in Vinton. The longest pull though went to Curt Myers as the Cameron, Wisconsin, driver finished fourth in the Modified feature at the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on Friday night. With several tracks up north having to push back their openers due to melting snow don't be surprised if you see some more traveling this coming weekend.
That busy social schedule will keep me away from the tracks on Friday and Saturday this weekend so I am looking to get my racing fix during the week with tonight's opener at Oskaloosa followed by Thursday night's event at the Marshalltown Speedway. Then hopefully a Sunday night show can be worked in as well. Get out and support the track of your choice this week and we will see you on the Back Stretch.
It will be interesting to see how the drivers and fans will support the speedway, as after nearly losing it I would think that they would come out in full force. Because if they don't......well, I think we all know what happens then. As I noted here in August of 2017 the Modified division sealed its fate last year and will not be in the card this season and it would appear that some of that purse money has been spread out through the four remaining divisions; Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. The track will run unsanctioned this year and while that means that we will no longer have drivers dropping in to chase regional and national points, it does mean that any driver who just wants to come out and race on a random Wednesday night can do so knowing that they have the same chance of starting up front as the track regulars do in the draw/redraw format. I will admit that as a fan I prefer IMCA's average point invert system, but with one little twist at Osky where last week's winner will start no better than the highest number in the redraw that should keep things interesting.
In case you didn't notice the Grandstand Admission has dropped to $8 for adults, $5 for Veterans and U.S. Military and $3 for children ages six to fifteen. Yes I am excited for tonight, and for the next eight Wednesday nights because there just are not that many tracks that race weekly on a weeknight in the entire country let alone within an hour or two from home. And, as my social calendar seems to get busier each year on the weekends, it is the one night where I pretty much know that I can join my racing friends and family each week. Hope to see you in the stands tonight at Osky!
That ever growing social calendar made it where I was unable to attend the annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway Saturday night, the first time that I have missed the event in the ten years that it has been running. To make it even more difficult I actually had to drive past the track late in the afternoon on Saturday and again around ten o'clock that night. Believe me, I let out a sad sigh that at first wasn't well received on the way to the wedding, but even Christine knew that I was missing something that meant a lot to me to attend an event that also meant a lot to the two of us. Seeing the full pit area and the overflow of the parking lot by the large crowd in attendance is proof that the Slocum 50 is here for years to come while our friends will only have one special wedding night. I was where I needed to be.
On Sunday my 28-year-old son Morgan and I made the five and a half hour trip to Haubstadt, Indiana, for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car show. Actually it was a couple of hours longer for him as he now lives in West Des Moines, but since he had Monday off from work he convinced me that we needed to make the trip. I have only been to Tri-State Speedway twice before and have loved it both times, so he did not have to do much convincing and with the weather forecast showing a chance of rain moving in around midnight, we decided to go ahead and make the trip despite how ominous the morning radar looked.
Forty-three drivers had signed in when we arrived at 3:30 including Kyle Larson in Tony Stewart's #14 and Christopher Bell in Chase Briscoe's #5 and while the skies were overcast and the radar showed some green over top of us, we only felt a random sprinkle here and there. When the call went out for drivers to warm their motors just before five o'clock we went ahead and bought our tickets and staked out our seats in the front stretch grandstands excited for what was to come. However, just as Jacob Allen was pushed to the track to start his sprinter the sprinkles started to fall harder and the push trucks were sent back out to pack rather than to start more Sprint Cars.
The sprinkles persisted as a large crowd waited and with no breaks seen on the radar after about an hour and a half the decision was made to postpone the show to another date. Fortunately we had anticipated the decision and had already driven out of the crowded parking lot when it came down so we had a nice head start for the long drive back to Mount Pleasant. Yes, it was disappointing to go all that way and not see any racing, but the fourteen hours that I had with my son one on one was priceless. As a parent you get so used to having them around as they are growing up, but when they are off and on their own you realize just how much you miss having them there. It was a spectacular Sunday as far as I was concerned.
The make up date announced yesterday is for Mother's Day, Sunday May 13th and there is no way that we will be able to make the trip. So if anybody is looking for a couple of discounted general admission rain checks for the World of Outlaws at Haubstadt just let me know! Leave a comment here, or on the Positively Racing Facebook page and we can work out the details.
It was good to get some racing in around the area this weekend and, from what I have been able to gather, it looks like there were good crowds in attendance. The big grandstands were rocking at the Davenport Speedway on Friday night with a full field of MLRA Late Models on hand. Our drive by of the Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway showed a packed house and the Local Vizion video from the Benton County Speedway showed a big crowd at Vinton Sunday night where the Hobby Stocks closed out the evening with a thriller between Shannon Anderson and Nathan Ballard. At the Frostbuster ten days earlier Eric Stanton and David Rieks traded way more paint and afterward shook hands with each other. On Sunday night, after winning the race Anderson gave an interview that was more reminiscent of WWE, so I guess that we will have to see if he comes back to Vinton again in 2018. Did you notice that it was still daylight when the show ended? Just another reason why I love Vinton.
It was good to see 29 Late Models signed in for the Deery Brothers Summer Series opener at Tipton on Saturday night. That race seemed to be overshadowed a bit by having the two big MLRA races in the area, but it is a solid start for one of the longest running regional Late Model series in the country. Next up is a doubleheader weekend May 5th and 6th at the Maquoketa Speedway on Saturday night and the Quad City Speedway on Sunday. I am hoping to be able to make Sunday's show on the quarter-mile high banks that flagman Doug Haack refers to as the Knuckle Bowl.
Looks like a few northern drivers decided to escape their still snow covered region and venture south for some racing this past weekend. Shawano Wisconsin's Brekken Kleinschmidt had his IMCA Modified at both Davenport and Tipton. Tim Warner who made the long trip down from Malone, Wisconsin, to Donnellson last October to race at Shiverfest returned on Friday night where he finished third in the Sport Mod main event at the Lee County Speedway. I didn't see where he raced, if he raced on Saturday night but on Sunday Warner closed out his weekend with a fifth-place finish in Vinton. The longest pull though went to Curt Myers as the Cameron, Wisconsin, driver finished fourth in the Modified feature at the Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on Friday night. With several tracks up north having to push back their openers due to melting snow don't be surprised if you see some more traveling this coming weekend.
That busy social schedule will keep me away from the tracks on Friday and Saturday this weekend so I am looking to get my racing fix during the week with tonight's opener at Oskaloosa followed by Thursday night's event at the Marshalltown Speedway. Then hopefully a Sunday night show can be worked in as well. Get out and support the track of your choice this week and we will see you on the Back Stretch.
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Simpson Scores MLRA Win On The Big Track at Davenport
The last two times that I have watched Chris Simpson win MLRA features he did not have to pass a single car for position the entire night. Why you might ask? Because both of those events used the "time trial and then start the fast guys in front format". But on Friday night, on the historic half-mile at the Davenport Speedway with the passing points format in play, Chris Simpson earned his front row starting position for the 30-lap main event with a thrilling run in his heat race that generated more of a crowd reaction than either of the two previous victories that I had witnessed.
A stout field of thirty-five Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models signed in on an evening that would normally be considered on the cool side, but by comparison it was balmy as several race fans showed up in shorts and were carrying no coats. It wasn't that warm though, trust me. With the passing points format drivers drew for their starting position in one of four heat races and Simpson drew the seventh starting spot in heat two, a race that was stacked with competition including his brother Chad. Rob Toland jumped out to a big early lead in the eight lap race as the Simpsons quickly worked their way toward the front. With four laps remaining Chris moved to second with Chad chasing in third, but they had a lot of ground to make up on Toland. That gap closed quickly and with two to go both drivers were within striking distance. Toland hugged his low line and despite a bit of a push in turns one and two he was able to maintain the lead to the white flag. Through turns one and two Toland was again able to hold back the challenge, but when that push happened again between turns three and four he left the door open and the crowd went nuts as both Chris and Chad slipped by in the final turn to take the win.
Note to the MLRA, you don't get that kind of a crowd reaction using the Start Me In Front, I'm Fast format.
Rightfully so the run from seventh to first earned the pole position for the main event and while Chris got a nice jump at the start it would be Brian Shirley who would lead the field off turn two and all the way back around for what appeared to be lap one, but with Jesse Stovall stopping against the wall at the exit of turn four the caution waved and it was determined that the lap was not scored. With an original restart this time Chris Simpson would lead the field from the drop of the green with Shirley in hot pursuit.
As the leaders approached traffic for the first time Simpson found the car of Mason Oberkramer in his low line and it looked like Shirley might have an opportunity on the high side exiting turn four on lap eight only to have the caution wave when Frank Heckenast Jr. spun in turn four. On the restart Chad Simpson dropped Shirley back to third and while they could keep Chris in their sights they could not mount a challenge. At this time the race was for second and on lap twenty-two it looked like something broke on Chad's car as he entered turn one and drove straight into the outside wall for the final caution of the race.
Again Shirley would stay close to Chris over the final eight laps, but there would be no challenge as Chris captured the $5,000 winner's check in flag-to-flag fashion. Shirley would finish second ahead of Tyler Bruening who used the cushion to run up from twelfth to third. Tony Jackson Jr. was steady in fourth, Payton Looney came from the ninth row to pass Jason Feger in the closing laps for fifth. Feger had a big run as well getting as high as fourth after starting nineteenth before finishing sixth ahead of B-Main winner Jordan Yaggy. Rich Bell came from 21st to eighth, J.C. Wyman from 22nd to ninth and Heckenast recovered from his spin to complete the top ten.
Some attrition did assist those big advancements, the most noteworthy being Will Vaught who was on the move in fifth before he dropped from the race at lap fifteen. Vaught had started eleventh.
The support class counts showed how the Davenport Speedway drivers feel about racing on the half-mile as usually they are double this on Friday nights. Just seven Street Stocks signed in with six starting the feature, but you only need to two to have a good race and that was the case as Jesse Owen and Jeff Struck Jr. went at it. Owen was the pole-sitter and paced the field from the start until Struck moved from sixth to second. Struck would nose into the lead on lap eight only to have Owen battle back to score the lead again on lap nine. Struck would strike again though on the following lap driving under Owen down the back stretch and the defending track champion would lead the final three laps for the win. Owen was second followed by heat race winner Jeremy Gustaf in third with Jeffrey Peterson and Donnie Louck next in line.
Fourteen IMCA Modifieds including Brekken Kleinschmidt who had escaped the frozen tundra of Shawano, Wisconsin, for the night took the green flag for twenty laps of feature racing with Eric Barnes leading the first half of the race. Jeff Larson and Justin Kay were now up to challenge and when both Barnes and Larson left the bottom open exiting turn four Kay moved from third to first on lap eleven. There would be no catching Justin from there as he would take the win after starting the race from the ninth position. Barnes would hold on for second with Rob Toland coming from the back to finish third. Toland actually started the race from fourth, but he stopped in turn two on the first try at a start and had to restart from the rear. Freeport, Illinois, drivers Larson and Kenny Kostenbader completed the top five.
The Northern Sport Mods would close out the evening with a twelve lap main event that featured three of the best in the Midwest. All Iowa Points champions Tony Olson and Tyler Soppe as well the Illinois Points champion in the division Dustin Schram were all in the field with Olson passing Chance Huston on lap two to take the lead. A caution on lap five for Andrew Burk and then a red flag for a fire under the hood of Brandon Setser's car slowed the race and in the final laps it would be Keith Blum who applied the pressure on Olson. Tony would fight him off though and take the win with Blum, Schram, Soppe and Randy Lamer completing the top five.
The night's racing action ran off in tight fashion with the final checkered flag flying just before 9:30. In fact I was able to catch some laps of the Modified feature at the CJ Raceway on my way home! A big thanks to promoter Bob Wagener for the hospitality and as always it was good to visit with officials Ken Reimers, Mike McGuire and Bret Sievertsen. Looks like I need to step up my game a bit as when Carrie Rouse greeted me at the pit gate I saw that she had been given flowers by ace photographers Dennis Krieger and John Vass. Then again I will never be able to top those two when it comes to a touch of class.
Racing returns to the quarter-mile for the regular season opener at the Davenport Speedway next Friday night and the MLRA Late Models return on Friday May 4th, with competition that night on the short track.
The MLRA now moves to 34 Raceway tonight for the tenth running of the Slocum 50 and it will the first time that I will miss that event as I have a wedding to attend. Hopefully you will be there in my place!
A stout field of thirty-five Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models signed in on an evening that would normally be considered on the cool side, but by comparison it was balmy as several race fans showed up in shorts and were carrying no coats. It wasn't that warm though, trust me. With the passing points format drivers drew for their starting position in one of four heat races and Simpson drew the seventh starting spot in heat two, a race that was stacked with competition including his brother Chad. Rob Toland jumped out to a big early lead in the eight lap race as the Simpsons quickly worked their way toward the front. With four laps remaining Chris moved to second with Chad chasing in third, but they had a lot of ground to make up on Toland. That gap closed quickly and with two to go both drivers were within striking distance. Toland hugged his low line and despite a bit of a push in turns one and two he was able to maintain the lead to the white flag. Through turns one and two Toland was again able to hold back the challenge, but when that push happened again between turns three and four he left the door open and the crowd went nuts as both Chris and Chad slipped by in the final turn to take the win.
Note to the MLRA, you don't get that kind of a crowd reaction using the Start Me In Front, I'm Fast format.
Rightfully so the run from seventh to first earned the pole position for the main event and while Chris got a nice jump at the start it would be Brian Shirley who would lead the field off turn two and all the way back around for what appeared to be lap one, but with Jesse Stovall stopping against the wall at the exit of turn four the caution waved and it was determined that the lap was not scored. With an original restart this time Chris Simpson would lead the field from the drop of the green with Shirley in hot pursuit.
As the leaders approached traffic for the first time Simpson found the car of Mason Oberkramer in his low line and it looked like Shirley might have an opportunity on the high side exiting turn four on lap eight only to have the caution wave when Frank Heckenast Jr. spun in turn four. On the restart Chad Simpson dropped Shirley back to third and while they could keep Chris in their sights they could not mount a challenge. At this time the race was for second and on lap twenty-two it looked like something broke on Chad's car as he entered turn one and drove straight into the outside wall for the final caution of the race.
Again Shirley would stay close to Chris over the final eight laps, but there would be no challenge as Chris captured the $5,000 winner's check in flag-to-flag fashion. Shirley would finish second ahead of Tyler Bruening who used the cushion to run up from twelfth to third. Tony Jackson Jr. was steady in fourth, Payton Looney came from the ninth row to pass Jason Feger in the closing laps for fifth. Feger had a big run as well getting as high as fourth after starting nineteenth before finishing sixth ahead of B-Main winner Jordan Yaggy. Rich Bell came from 21st to eighth, J.C. Wyman from 22nd to ninth and Heckenast recovered from his spin to complete the top ten.
Some attrition did assist those big advancements, the most noteworthy being Will Vaught who was on the move in fifth before he dropped from the race at lap fifteen. Vaught had started eleventh.
The support class counts showed how the Davenport Speedway drivers feel about racing on the half-mile as usually they are double this on Friday nights. Just seven Street Stocks signed in with six starting the feature, but you only need to two to have a good race and that was the case as Jesse Owen and Jeff Struck Jr. went at it. Owen was the pole-sitter and paced the field from the start until Struck moved from sixth to second. Struck would nose into the lead on lap eight only to have Owen battle back to score the lead again on lap nine. Struck would strike again though on the following lap driving under Owen down the back stretch and the defending track champion would lead the final three laps for the win. Owen was second followed by heat race winner Jeremy Gustaf in third with Jeffrey Peterson and Donnie Louck next in line.
Fourteen IMCA Modifieds including Brekken Kleinschmidt who had escaped the frozen tundra of Shawano, Wisconsin, for the night took the green flag for twenty laps of feature racing with Eric Barnes leading the first half of the race. Jeff Larson and Justin Kay were now up to challenge and when both Barnes and Larson left the bottom open exiting turn four Kay moved from third to first on lap eleven. There would be no catching Justin from there as he would take the win after starting the race from the ninth position. Barnes would hold on for second with Rob Toland coming from the back to finish third. Toland actually started the race from fourth, but he stopped in turn two on the first try at a start and had to restart from the rear. Freeport, Illinois, drivers Larson and Kenny Kostenbader completed the top five.
The Northern Sport Mods would close out the evening with a twelve lap main event that featured three of the best in the Midwest. All Iowa Points champions Tony Olson and Tyler Soppe as well the Illinois Points champion in the division Dustin Schram were all in the field with Olson passing Chance Huston on lap two to take the lead. A caution on lap five for Andrew Burk and then a red flag for a fire under the hood of Brandon Setser's car slowed the race and in the final laps it would be Keith Blum who applied the pressure on Olson. Tony would fight him off though and take the win with Blum, Schram, Soppe and Randy Lamer completing the top five.
The night's racing action ran off in tight fashion with the final checkered flag flying just before 9:30. In fact I was able to catch some laps of the Modified feature at the CJ Raceway on my way home! A big thanks to promoter Bob Wagener for the hospitality and as always it was good to visit with officials Ken Reimers, Mike McGuire and Bret Sievertsen. Looks like I need to step up my game a bit as when Carrie Rouse greeted me at the pit gate I saw that she had been given flowers by ace photographers Dennis Krieger and John Vass. Then again I will never be able to top those two when it comes to a touch of class.
Racing returns to the quarter-mile for the regular season opener at the Davenport Speedway next Friday night and the MLRA Late Models return on Friday May 4th, with competition that night on the short track.
The MLRA now moves to 34 Raceway tonight for the tenth running of the Slocum 50 and it will the first time that I will miss that event as I have a wedding to attend. Hopefully you will be there in my place!
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Tuesday Notebook: April 17, 2018
The unprecedented April weather has prompted a couple of promoters to make some unprecedented moves as did you know that you can go racing tonight? That's right, depending upon your location and what time you are reading this you might still be able to road trip to Brownstown, Illinois, tonight as the Fayette County Speedway is going to run a Tuesday night program of Late Models, Modifieds, B-Mods, Street Stocks and Hornets. Hot laps are at 6:30 with racing to follow. If I wasn't still fending off the effects of a Spring cold I would be making the trip.
Another unusual addition to the calendar comes this Thursday at the Marshalltown Speedway. After having his World Nationals moved from March to September for the second year in a row and then having his Frostbuster wiped out two straight weeks, promoter Toby Kruse has announced that he will race both Thursday and Friday this week with the Twin Highbanks Hustle. Of course that is now in jeopardy as yet another April snow storm threatens the area for Wednesday with the weather gurus wavering on just where and how much snow, ice or rain will fall.
That nasty weather forecast has already canceled the opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday night. The track will try again on Wednesday April 25th.
We were thankful to get the two Frostbuster races in last Wednesday at Donnellson and Thursday at Vinton since the weekend weather went downhill quickly as predicted. There was a large contingent of northern race fans on hand for those two races and it was entertaining watching them check forecasts for different areas to see if they should continue their race trip or head back home where some were expecting, and received more than twenty inches of snow.
Yes, there was some racing held at dirt tracks in our region over the weekend, but you can bet that the conditions were less than ideal at each. The I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska, had their Bugeater Bash on Friday night where Jamie Ball topped a field of fifteen Nebraska 360 Sprints. There were 47 NCRA Modifieds in the pits at 81 Speedway in Wichita Friday night with Tanner Mulens taking the win and Salina Speedway in Kansas also raced with their regular season opener on Friday night.
The Humboldt Speedway in Kansas held their tenth night of racing already for the 2018 season having only been rained out once on April 6th. One of the surprise entrants at Humboldt on Friday was Modified driver Travis Peery from Williston, North Dakota. Peery had made the trip down for the IMCA Frostbusters where he finished 14th at Donnellson and failed to make the show in Vinton, so rather than driving through a blizzard to go back home he headed south where he was fifth in a field of nine NASCAR Modifieds at Humboldt. Then on Saturday Peery made the tow back into Missouri as the Springfield Raceway braved the elements and he again finished fifth in the USRA Modified main event.
Other tracks that raced down in that direction this weekend included the Red Dirt Raceway, Creek County Speedway, Thunderbird Raceway and the Salina Highbanks Speedway in Oklahoma while in Arkansas both the Crawford County Speedway and the Diamond Park Speedway raced. Of course at DPS it was another "secret race" where you can see pictures, but can find no actual results.
It is the same story at Paducah International Raceway in Kentucky where photos on the Facebook page show a solid crowd on hand for the grand re-opening of the speedway, but as of yet there is no listing of results to be found. They have a beautiful new website with both a 2018 Schedule and a Results tab, but as of yet clicking on either yields no additional information. Hopefully they can get that straightened out soon. They did however announce this week that for this Friday's show any driver that pulls more than 75 miles to race with them will be admitted free. Then on Friday April 27th the track will host the ASCS National Sprint Car Series. Hopefully somebody will tip off Scott Traylor with the Racin' Boys who continues to promo the event as being held at the Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway, because if that is where he goes all he will be watching is cars and trucks using the new interchange.
Ahead of the cold front a couple of tracks in Indiana were able to race on Friday night with the Daugherty Speedway in Chase drawing a solid field of seventeen UMP Pro Late Models with Chad Stapleton taking the win and at the Bloomington Speedway Kyle Cummins won the Sprint Car feature, Kentucky's Tyler Nicely topped the UMP Mods and Ethan Barrow was the best of a full field of 305 Race Saver Sprint Cars. It also appears that Route 44 Speedway in Liberty raced on Friday night, but for now at least it joins a growing list of events in the region as one of those "secret races."
Come on promoters, make sure that your Race Results are being communicated properly either on your website or Facebook page (preferably both!) and don't just assume that the service you were using last year (SpeedNet Direct for example) is still functioning properly. I have never understood why a promoter who uses every method possible to tell you about a race coming up will then totally drop the ball when it comes to then letting people know what happened. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but when somebody does that it tells me that "what happened" wasn't worth talking about so it makes me not really care much about the fact that you are now telling me what is going to happen this week.
The cancellation of the opener at Oskaloosa tomorrow night will hopefully allow me to put this cold bug to rest, because I would have been sitting out there in the cold and wind anyway had they tried to run. If I feel better on Thursday and if they still race at Marshalltown, then I might just make the trip and on Friday night I plan to catch the MLRA Late Models on the historic half-mile at the Davenport Speedway.
On Saturday night the tenth annual Slocum 50 will be held at 34 Raceway near Burlington and it will be the first time in those ten years that I will not have the microphone in my hand for at least part of the night as I have a friend's wedding to attend. I will miss it very much as not only will it be a great night of racing, but it is also a night to celebrate the "racing family" in memory of Brent Slocum. I know that both Brian Neal and Danny Rosencrans will give you all the details in the days to follow at Positively Racing. Hopefully I can come right back on Sunday night and catch an event at one of the tracks in the area.
The weather guy promised that tomorrow will be the last snow of the season with temperatures rising steadily over the next ten days. Let's hope that he is right this time and that all of you can get out to the tracks that you choose to support! See you on the Back Stretch.
Another unusual addition to the calendar comes this Thursday at the Marshalltown Speedway. After having his World Nationals moved from March to September for the second year in a row and then having his Frostbuster wiped out two straight weeks, promoter Toby Kruse has announced that he will race both Thursday and Friday this week with the Twin Highbanks Hustle. Of course that is now in jeopardy as yet another April snow storm threatens the area for Wednesday with the weather gurus wavering on just where and how much snow, ice or rain will fall.
That nasty weather forecast has already canceled the opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday night. The track will try again on Wednesday April 25th.
We were thankful to get the two Frostbuster races in last Wednesday at Donnellson and Thursday at Vinton since the weekend weather went downhill quickly as predicted. There was a large contingent of northern race fans on hand for those two races and it was entertaining watching them check forecasts for different areas to see if they should continue their race trip or head back home where some were expecting, and received more than twenty inches of snow.
Yes, there was some racing held at dirt tracks in our region over the weekend, but you can bet that the conditions were less than ideal at each. The I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska, had their Bugeater Bash on Friday night where Jamie Ball topped a field of fifteen Nebraska 360 Sprints. There were 47 NCRA Modifieds in the pits at 81 Speedway in Wichita Friday night with Tanner Mulens taking the win and Salina Speedway in Kansas also raced with their regular season opener on Friday night.
The Humboldt Speedway in Kansas held their tenth night of racing already for the 2018 season having only been rained out once on April 6th. One of the surprise entrants at Humboldt on Friday was Modified driver Travis Peery from Williston, North Dakota. Peery had made the trip down for the IMCA Frostbusters where he finished 14th at Donnellson and failed to make the show in Vinton, so rather than driving through a blizzard to go back home he headed south where he was fifth in a field of nine NASCAR Modifieds at Humboldt. Then on Saturday Peery made the tow back into Missouri as the Springfield Raceway braved the elements and he again finished fifth in the USRA Modified main event.
Other tracks that raced down in that direction this weekend included the Red Dirt Raceway, Creek County Speedway, Thunderbird Raceway and the Salina Highbanks Speedway in Oklahoma while in Arkansas both the Crawford County Speedway and the Diamond Park Speedway raced. Of course at DPS it was another "secret race" where you can see pictures, but can find no actual results.
It is the same story at Paducah International Raceway in Kentucky where photos on the Facebook page show a solid crowd on hand for the grand re-opening of the speedway, but as of yet there is no listing of results to be found. They have a beautiful new website with both a 2018 Schedule and a Results tab, but as of yet clicking on either yields no additional information. Hopefully they can get that straightened out soon. They did however announce this week that for this Friday's show any driver that pulls more than 75 miles to race with them will be admitted free. Then on Friday April 27th the track will host the ASCS National Sprint Car Series. Hopefully somebody will tip off Scott Traylor with the Racin' Boys who continues to promo the event as being held at the Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway, because if that is where he goes all he will be watching is cars and trucks using the new interchange.
Ahead of the cold front a couple of tracks in Indiana were able to race on Friday night with the Daugherty Speedway in Chase drawing a solid field of seventeen UMP Pro Late Models with Chad Stapleton taking the win and at the Bloomington Speedway Kyle Cummins won the Sprint Car feature, Kentucky's Tyler Nicely topped the UMP Mods and Ethan Barrow was the best of a full field of 305 Race Saver Sprint Cars. It also appears that Route 44 Speedway in Liberty raced on Friday night, but for now at least it joins a growing list of events in the region as one of those "secret races."
Come on promoters, make sure that your Race Results are being communicated properly either on your website or Facebook page (preferably both!) and don't just assume that the service you were using last year (SpeedNet Direct for example) is still functioning properly. I have never understood why a promoter who uses every method possible to tell you about a race coming up will then totally drop the ball when it comes to then letting people know what happened. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but when somebody does that it tells me that "what happened" wasn't worth talking about so it makes me not really care much about the fact that you are now telling me what is going to happen this week.
The cancellation of the opener at Oskaloosa tomorrow night will hopefully allow me to put this cold bug to rest, because I would have been sitting out there in the cold and wind anyway had they tried to run. If I feel better on Thursday and if they still race at Marshalltown, then I might just make the trip and on Friday night I plan to catch the MLRA Late Models on the historic half-mile at the Davenport Speedway.
On Saturday night the tenth annual Slocum 50 will be held at 34 Raceway near Burlington and it will be the first time in those ten years that I will not have the microphone in my hand for at least part of the night as I have a friend's wedding to attend. I will miss it very much as not only will it be a great night of racing, but it is also a night to celebrate the "racing family" in memory of Brent Slocum. I know that both Brian Neal and Danny Rosencrans will give you all the details in the days to follow at Positively Racing. Hopefully I can come right back on Sunday night and catch an event at one of the tracks in the area.
The weather guy promised that tomorrow will be the last snow of the season with temperatures rising steadily over the next ten days. Let's hope that he is right this time and that all of you can get out to the tracks that you choose to support! See you on the Back Stretch.
Friday, April 13, 2018
Carter Nips Marriott; Murty, Schaefer and Stanton Are Winners at Vinton's IMCA Frostbuster
I know that I have used this story line before and if I ever find it in the archives I will link it here, but you should never get up and leave until the final checkered flag waves at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton. That was the case again on Thursday when the second night of the IMCA Frostbuster mini series rolled in to town with a full field on hand to compete on a race track that was prepared about as damn close to perfect as you would ever see. And this is in an area where there was still snow in the ditches as I drove into town! Don Burkey and his track prep crew along with promoter Mick Trier, race director Mike Van Genderen and the entire BCS Team should be recognized for their efforts and while I usually give a tip of the hat to these folks when summing up a "Back Stretch", they all deserve lead paragraph recognition for this one.
The Modified feature topped off the night with twenty-four cars lined up for twenty-five laps of racing and there was plenty of action in turns one and two on the opening lap. Third starting Tyler Droste drove hard to the bottom in turn one and then slid up the track in turn two leading for a split second before the front row of Cory Wray and Kyle Brown zipped back around him. Wray the pole-sitter was actually fourth for a split second, but would come back to lead the field on lap number one. The caution would then wave as Droste went over the top of turn two putting one of the pre-race favorites to the back of the pack.
On the restart Hunter Marriott made his move to the front with Cayden Carter and Kyle Brown in hot pursuit. Both challengers appeared to have the speed to challenge the leader, but they were wrapped up in their own battle racing side-by-side much of the time before the caution waved again on lap ten for a Dan Menk spin in turn two. One lap after the restart Droste's frustrating night came to an end when he shelled the driveshaft out of his Modified and just one more lap would be scored before Nate Hughes spun in turn two.
The race looked the same going back to green, although Richie Gustin was now sticking his nose into the mix battling Brown and Carter for second and after a few laps Marriott had opened up a bit of a lead over Carter who was now established in second, and Gustin who was still chasing in third. With the laps winding down the lapped traffic was minimal and Marriott appeared to be in control with at least five car-lengths on Carter and that prompted some of the crowd to start scurrying out of the stands. I'll even admit that I was gathering my belongings and getting ready to make a quick exit, but as the white flag waved there was Carter driving to the inside of Marriott heading into turn one. The two young stars raced wheel-to-wheel through one and two and it was Carter with the bite down the back stretch to take the lead and soon the win in another thriller at Vinton. Gustin finished third, but I was later told that he had been disqualified for "an illegal box" so that moved Brown up to third at the pay window while Joel Rust would be credited with fourth.
Damon Murty drew the pole position for the twenty-lap Stock Car feature and as the winningest driver ever at Vinton that pretty much sealed the deal. Damon had to work for it though as Kody Scholpp quickly moved to second and was applying the pressure on the leader only to have something go awry in the motor on lap fourteen. It was a rough two nights for the young Canadian as he ended up on his side during a multi-car pileup the night before in Donnellson. A caution with five laps remaining gave Todd Reitzler a shot at repeating his performance the night before where he passed Murty late for the win, but that would not happen here as the "Chelsea Charger" soon celebrated in a victory lane that, at this rate, may someday be named after him. Reitzler was second, Brian Mahlstedt finished third but failed tech inspection with carburetor issues allowing Steve Meyer and Jay Schmidt to claim third and fourth.
The twenty-lap Sport Mod headliner had a tough time getting started with five cautions waving in the first three scored laps of racing. Once underway though the fans were treated to great high/low battle for the lead between Arie Schouten and Jonathan Logue. Shouten riding the cushion would lead those first three laps before the low side favored Logue who nosed ahead on lap four. Schouten came back to lead lap five before Logue was back in front again the next lap and then Schouten went back out front on lap seven. On the next lap Schouten entered turn one a little too high though and slipped over the top of the banking handing the lead back over to Logue and dropping him back to fifth in the process.
Now it looked like this would be Logue's race even though he had Joey Schaefer in hot pursuit and as the white flag waved Logue suddenly slowed and pulled to the high side. At first it looked like he had mistaken the white for the checkers as he drove around the high side at half throttle for the final lap, then just past the checkers he spun into the infield. The scent of rear end grease filled the air but after getting out to look Logue told an official that the steering had broke, but regardless it was Schaefer who took the win ahead of Tyler Soppe, Sam Wieben, Joe Docekal and Ethan Braaksma. It was another big run for Soppe, the defending IMCA National Champion, as he started the race from fifteenth.
The Hobby Stock main event was a good one as well featuring some good ol' fashioned bumpin' and bangin' between the leaders as they battled for the victory. Bradley Graham would lead until lap six, but Eric Stanton was on the charge after starting eleventh and he would take the point from there. Bryce Sommerfeld was racing hard in third when he spun on lap nine and at the same time the motor let go on Jeremy Purdy's car leaving a streak of oil all the way from the end of the Back Stretch through the top side of turn four. The clean up process took quite some time, the only break in the action during the night, and once back to green David Rieks came a calling on the leader. Rieks squeezed under Stanton in turn four to take the lead with five laps to go, but Stanton fought back and the two traded plenty of paint and made the sparks fly as they wrestled for the win. Stanton would pull back out front on lap twelve and while Rieks was right on his bumper the final three laps he raced him clean as Stanton took the win. For me at least it was great to see two drivers fight this hard for the win but not wreck each other, something that is usually not the case in the so-called higher levels of our sport.
Justin Wacha finished in the third spot, Graham was fourth and Matt Pohlman rounded out the top five.
The Micro Mods were on the card as well with a solid car count that included a couple of the best Mod Lite drivers from central Iowa. I assumed that the Mod Lites would dominate, but man oh man was I wrong. These little Micro Mods flat out fly around this tacky quarter-mile and Waukon's Chad Dugan made a final lap pass to take the win. Dallon Murty rallied to finish second as race long leader Derek Knutsen settled for third.
Announcers Jeff Kropf and Ryan Clark kept the crowd informed and entertained throughout the night and a big thanks to Ryan for the Positively Racing mention.
Tonight's Frostbuster at the Marshalltown Speedway has been canceled, but Toby Kruse will come back next week with two nights of racing dubbed the Twin Highbanks Hustle with racing on both Thursday and Friday April 19th and 20th.
The Deery Brothers Summer Series opener at the Davenport Speedway for tonight has been canceled and a makeup date is being considered.
The regular season opener at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for tonight has been canceled.
As of now the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at the Jacksonville Speedway is still on. Road trip?
The Modified feature topped off the night with twenty-four cars lined up for twenty-five laps of racing and there was plenty of action in turns one and two on the opening lap. Third starting Tyler Droste drove hard to the bottom in turn one and then slid up the track in turn two leading for a split second before the front row of Cory Wray and Kyle Brown zipped back around him. Wray the pole-sitter was actually fourth for a split second, but would come back to lead the field on lap number one. The caution would then wave as Droste went over the top of turn two putting one of the pre-race favorites to the back of the pack.
On the restart Hunter Marriott made his move to the front with Cayden Carter and Kyle Brown in hot pursuit. Both challengers appeared to have the speed to challenge the leader, but they were wrapped up in their own battle racing side-by-side much of the time before the caution waved again on lap ten for a Dan Menk spin in turn two. One lap after the restart Droste's frustrating night came to an end when he shelled the driveshaft out of his Modified and just one more lap would be scored before Nate Hughes spun in turn two.
The race looked the same going back to green, although Richie Gustin was now sticking his nose into the mix battling Brown and Carter for second and after a few laps Marriott had opened up a bit of a lead over Carter who was now established in second, and Gustin who was still chasing in third. With the laps winding down the lapped traffic was minimal and Marriott appeared to be in control with at least five car-lengths on Carter and that prompted some of the crowd to start scurrying out of the stands. I'll even admit that I was gathering my belongings and getting ready to make a quick exit, but as the white flag waved there was Carter driving to the inside of Marriott heading into turn one. The two young stars raced wheel-to-wheel through one and two and it was Carter with the bite down the back stretch to take the lead and soon the win in another thriller at Vinton. Gustin finished third, but I was later told that he had been disqualified for "an illegal box" so that moved Brown up to third at the pay window while Joel Rust would be credited with fourth.
Damon Murty drew the pole position for the twenty-lap Stock Car feature and as the winningest driver ever at Vinton that pretty much sealed the deal. Damon had to work for it though as Kody Scholpp quickly moved to second and was applying the pressure on the leader only to have something go awry in the motor on lap fourteen. It was a rough two nights for the young Canadian as he ended up on his side during a multi-car pileup the night before in Donnellson. A caution with five laps remaining gave Todd Reitzler a shot at repeating his performance the night before where he passed Murty late for the win, but that would not happen here as the "Chelsea Charger" soon celebrated in a victory lane that, at this rate, may someday be named after him. Reitzler was second, Brian Mahlstedt finished third but failed tech inspection with carburetor issues allowing Steve Meyer and Jay Schmidt to claim third and fourth.
The twenty-lap Sport Mod headliner had a tough time getting started with five cautions waving in the first three scored laps of racing. Once underway though the fans were treated to great high/low battle for the lead between Arie Schouten and Jonathan Logue. Shouten riding the cushion would lead those first three laps before the low side favored Logue who nosed ahead on lap four. Schouten came back to lead lap five before Logue was back in front again the next lap and then Schouten went back out front on lap seven. On the next lap Schouten entered turn one a little too high though and slipped over the top of the banking handing the lead back over to Logue and dropping him back to fifth in the process.
Now it looked like this would be Logue's race even though he had Joey Schaefer in hot pursuit and as the white flag waved Logue suddenly slowed and pulled to the high side. At first it looked like he had mistaken the white for the checkers as he drove around the high side at half throttle for the final lap, then just past the checkers he spun into the infield. The scent of rear end grease filled the air but after getting out to look Logue told an official that the steering had broke, but regardless it was Schaefer who took the win ahead of Tyler Soppe, Sam Wieben, Joe Docekal and Ethan Braaksma. It was another big run for Soppe, the defending IMCA National Champion, as he started the race from fifteenth.
The Hobby Stock main event was a good one as well featuring some good ol' fashioned bumpin' and bangin' between the leaders as they battled for the victory. Bradley Graham would lead until lap six, but Eric Stanton was on the charge after starting eleventh and he would take the point from there. Bryce Sommerfeld was racing hard in third when he spun on lap nine and at the same time the motor let go on Jeremy Purdy's car leaving a streak of oil all the way from the end of the Back Stretch through the top side of turn four. The clean up process took quite some time, the only break in the action during the night, and once back to green David Rieks came a calling on the leader. Rieks squeezed under Stanton in turn four to take the lead with five laps to go, but Stanton fought back and the two traded plenty of paint and made the sparks fly as they wrestled for the win. Stanton would pull back out front on lap twelve and while Rieks was right on his bumper the final three laps he raced him clean as Stanton took the win. For me at least it was great to see two drivers fight this hard for the win but not wreck each other, something that is usually not the case in the so-called higher levels of our sport.
Justin Wacha finished in the third spot, Graham was fourth and Matt Pohlman rounded out the top five.
The Micro Mods were on the card as well with a solid car count that included a couple of the best Mod Lite drivers from central Iowa. I assumed that the Mod Lites would dominate, but man oh man was I wrong. These little Micro Mods flat out fly around this tacky quarter-mile and Waukon's Chad Dugan made a final lap pass to take the win. Dallon Murty rallied to finish second as race long leader Derek Knutsen settled for third.
Announcers Jeff Kropf and Ryan Clark kept the crowd informed and entertained throughout the night and a big thanks to Ryan for the Positively Racing mention.
Tonight's Frostbuster at the Marshalltown Speedway has been canceled, but Toby Kruse will come back next week with two nights of racing dubbed the Twin Highbanks Hustle with racing on both Thursday and Friday April 19th and 20th.
The Deery Brothers Summer Series opener at the Davenport Speedway for tonight has been canceled and a makeup date is being considered.
The regular season opener at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for tonight has been canceled.
As of now the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at the Jacksonville Speedway is still on. Road trip?
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Shryock, Howes and Anderson Dominate, Reitzler and Taft Win Close Ones at Lee County's Frostbuster
After a one week delay the four night swing for the IMCA Frostbusters kicked off on a nice Wednesday night at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa. Actually the weather was really nice compared to what the area has experienced recently as on Monday morning nearly an inch of snow covered the southeast Iowa facility. On this night though the temperatures stayed in the sixties with the sun even making one dazzling appearance emerging from the overcast skies just before setting on the horizon.
One hundred and twenty-three cars signed in for the five division show, perhaps down a bit due to the rescheduling and the less than desirable forecast for this Friday and Saturday, but solid nonetheless and there was a nice mix of locals and travelers on hand including a couple of Sport Mod drivers all the way from Sidney, Montana, in Kyle and Phillip Keller. Californian Ethan Dotson was here with his Modified, but we have seen him setup shop here in the Midwest before as the Mod field also had drivers from Kansas, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
At the end of the night though they would all be chasing the northern Iowa veteran Kelly Shryock who took the lead during a wild sequence on lap five of the Modified main event. Pole-sitter Shawn Ritter had set the pace for the opening laps before Chad Holladay charged underneath him going into turn one. As Holladay completed the slider in turn two, both he and Ritter lost momentum and that allowed Shryock to drive under both of them to take the lead just before the first caution of the race waved for a Joel Rust spin. A caution for debris one lap later only delayed the inevitable as on the next restart Shryock pulled away and cruised to a comfortable victory. Hunter Marriott made a nice run up to second after starting in the sixth row, but he could never get close enough to challenge the leader. Cayden Carter started seventh and finished third, Jeff Aikey was fourth and Holladay completed the top five.
The twenty lap IMCA Stock Car feature was a dandy, but it sure didn't start out that way. As the twenty-three car field was coming to green the outside second row car of Abe Huls got turned sideways at the flag stand and the scramble was on. When all was said and done nine cars were strewn across the front stretch with one of them, driven by Canadian Kody Scholpp, turned over onto its side with a brief fire breaking out in the engine area. All drivers were okay and while most of the cars involved were able to restart it was a disappointing end of the night for Scholpp who was impressive in winning his heat race on his first visit to LCS.
Damon Murty would secure the lead from his front row starting position while behind him the battle was fierce for the remaining top five positions. Following a lap thirteen caution for a track tire that had been punted onto the speedway in turn two, Murty now faced a challenge from Todd Reitzler. Finding a grip on the bottom of turns three and four Reitzler was able to take the lead by a nose at the line for lap fourteen, but Murty was not about to give in. With three laps remaining Murty was able to use that same line to squeeze under Reitzler as the two crossed the stripe in a virtual dead heat, but Todd was able to use the high side in turns one and two to regain the lead. Damon gave it one last shot on the final lap coming up a few car-lengths short as Reitzler scored the victory. John Oliver Jr. was close behind in third followed by Tom Bowling Jr. and pole starter Jason See.
Young Austin Howes is already having a memorable season after towing his Sport Mod to Arizona for some winter racing action where he came away the point champion and now he has kicked off his Midwest season in style as well with a Frostbuster victory. One of the drivers that he raced against in Arizona, Arie Schouten would lead the opening laps until caution waved for a three car spin in turn two on lap five. Following the restart Howes would go to work on Schouten and on lap eight Austin was able to sweep around the outside of turn four to take the lead. Schouten would battle back though to take the lead back on lap ten only to have Howes return the favor a lap later. From there the driver from Memphis, Missouri, would pull away for the victory. Jake McBirnie started tenth and had himself within striking distance over the final laps before finishing second, Austen Becerra came from twelfth to third, Tyler Soppe had an amazing run coming from fourteenth to fourth and what made it "amazing" was that he ran the second half of the race with his left front wheel flopping in the wind. If the race would have had another caution, Soppe would have had to head for the pits. In his first ever appearance at Donnellson Schouten who is from Blair, Nebraska, finished fifth.
It only took three laps for Shannon Anderson to come from the sixth starting spot to take the lead from Eric Knutson in the Hobby Stock feature and he would go unchallenged from there to take the win. The race was stopped only once when the right front wheel came off of Nathan Ballard's car and, as far as I can recall, this might have been Anderson's first ever appearance at Donnellson. Eric Stanton started from the fifth row and raced his way up to second, Leah Wroten took third, Knutson would finish fourth and David Rieks was fifth.
The fourteen lap Sport Compact feature had some interesting twists and turns to it with Barry Taft leading the opening laps. When Oliver Monson slowed on the back stretch that sent Jason Ash for a spin and the caution would wave on lap three. On the restart Josh Barnes would put the challenge on Taft and he would take that lead away on lap five. Barnes seemed to be on his way to victory when with just four laps remaining his right front wheel broke off exiting turn four. This would put Taft back out front for the restart with Ryan Havel now to challenge from second, but Havel's car lost power two laps later to bring out one last caution. Jake Benischek would drive under Taft on the restart and he would lead the field to the white flag, but Taft went elbows up in turns one and two to pull off a nifty high to low move to take back the lead down the back stretch and secure the win. Benischek was the runner-up, Darin Weisinger Jr. had a nice run up from eleventh to third, William Michel came from the fifth row to take fourth and Brandon Reu completed the top five.
The field was stout tonight with the defending All Iowa Points champion present in all five divisions with three of them, Shryock, Anderson and Taft taking feature wins. Nathan Wood and Tyler Soppe were the other two.
After having new dirt added to turns one and two about four weeks ago, and then with a couple of snowfalls since then the track rutted out pretty good in the middle of those turns much to the chagrin of promoter Mike Van Genderen who had spent most of the night after Tuesday's practice trying to get it packed in. Those who are familiar with the Lee County Speedway know that a rough track is the exception rather than the rule and you can bet that many hours of work will go in to getting it smoothed out as soon as possible.
The show started close to 7:30 as advertised and wrapped up just before eleven o'clock allowing me to get plenty of sleep so that I can make the trip to Vinton tonight for round two of the Frostbusters at the Benton County Speedway. Hope to see you there!
One hundred and twenty-three cars signed in for the five division show, perhaps down a bit due to the rescheduling and the less than desirable forecast for this Friday and Saturday, but solid nonetheless and there was a nice mix of locals and travelers on hand including a couple of Sport Mod drivers all the way from Sidney, Montana, in Kyle and Phillip Keller. Californian Ethan Dotson was here with his Modified, but we have seen him setup shop here in the Midwest before as the Mod field also had drivers from Kansas, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
At the end of the night though they would all be chasing the northern Iowa veteran Kelly Shryock who took the lead during a wild sequence on lap five of the Modified main event. Pole-sitter Shawn Ritter had set the pace for the opening laps before Chad Holladay charged underneath him going into turn one. As Holladay completed the slider in turn two, both he and Ritter lost momentum and that allowed Shryock to drive under both of them to take the lead just before the first caution of the race waved for a Joel Rust spin. A caution for debris one lap later only delayed the inevitable as on the next restart Shryock pulled away and cruised to a comfortable victory. Hunter Marriott made a nice run up to second after starting in the sixth row, but he could never get close enough to challenge the leader. Cayden Carter started seventh and finished third, Jeff Aikey was fourth and Holladay completed the top five.
The twenty lap IMCA Stock Car feature was a dandy, but it sure didn't start out that way. As the twenty-three car field was coming to green the outside second row car of Abe Huls got turned sideways at the flag stand and the scramble was on. When all was said and done nine cars were strewn across the front stretch with one of them, driven by Canadian Kody Scholpp, turned over onto its side with a brief fire breaking out in the engine area. All drivers were okay and while most of the cars involved were able to restart it was a disappointing end of the night for Scholpp who was impressive in winning his heat race on his first visit to LCS.
Damon Murty would secure the lead from his front row starting position while behind him the battle was fierce for the remaining top five positions. Following a lap thirteen caution for a track tire that had been punted onto the speedway in turn two, Murty now faced a challenge from Todd Reitzler. Finding a grip on the bottom of turns three and four Reitzler was able to take the lead by a nose at the line for lap fourteen, but Murty was not about to give in. With three laps remaining Murty was able to use that same line to squeeze under Reitzler as the two crossed the stripe in a virtual dead heat, but Todd was able to use the high side in turns one and two to regain the lead. Damon gave it one last shot on the final lap coming up a few car-lengths short as Reitzler scored the victory. John Oliver Jr. was close behind in third followed by Tom Bowling Jr. and pole starter Jason See.
Young Austin Howes is already having a memorable season after towing his Sport Mod to Arizona for some winter racing action where he came away the point champion and now he has kicked off his Midwest season in style as well with a Frostbuster victory. One of the drivers that he raced against in Arizona, Arie Schouten would lead the opening laps until caution waved for a three car spin in turn two on lap five. Following the restart Howes would go to work on Schouten and on lap eight Austin was able to sweep around the outside of turn four to take the lead. Schouten would battle back though to take the lead back on lap ten only to have Howes return the favor a lap later. From there the driver from Memphis, Missouri, would pull away for the victory. Jake McBirnie started tenth and had himself within striking distance over the final laps before finishing second, Austen Becerra came from twelfth to third, Tyler Soppe had an amazing run coming from fourteenth to fourth and what made it "amazing" was that he ran the second half of the race with his left front wheel flopping in the wind. If the race would have had another caution, Soppe would have had to head for the pits. In his first ever appearance at Donnellson Schouten who is from Blair, Nebraska, finished fifth.
It only took three laps for Shannon Anderson to come from the sixth starting spot to take the lead from Eric Knutson in the Hobby Stock feature and he would go unchallenged from there to take the win. The race was stopped only once when the right front wheel came off of Nathan Ballard's car and, as far as I can recall, this might have been Anderson's first ever appearance at Donnellson. Eric Stanton started from the fifth row and raced his way up to second, Leah Wroten took third, Knutson would finish fourth and David Rieks was fifth.
The fourteen lap Sport Compact feature had some interesting twists and turns to it with Barry Taft leading the opening laps. When Oliver Monson slowed on the back stretch that sent Jason Ash for a spin and the caution would wave on lap three. On the restart Josh Barnes would put the challenge on Taft and he would take that lead away on lap five. Barnes seemed to be on his way to victory when with just four laps remaining his right front wheel broke off exiting turn four. This would put Taft back out front for the restart with Ryan Havel now to challenge from second, but Havel's car lost power two laps later to bring out one last caution. Jake Benischek would drive under Taft on the restart and he would lead the field to the white flag, but Taft went elbows up in turns one and two to pull off a nifty high to low move to take back the lead down the back stretch and secure the win. Benischek was the runner-up, Darin Weisinger Jr. had a nice run up from eleventh to third, William Michel came from the fifth row to take fourth and Brandon Reu completed the top five.
The field was stout tonight with the defending All Iowa Points champion present in all five divisions with three of them, Shryock, Anderson and Taft taking feature wins. Nathan Wood and Tyler Soppe were the other two.
After having new dirt added to turns one and two about four weeks ago, and then with a couple of snowfalls since then the track rutted out pretty good in the middle of those turns much to the chagrin of promoter Mike Van Genderen who had spent most of the night after Tuesday's practice trying to get it packed in. Those who are familiar with the Lee County Speedway know that a rough track is the exception rather than the rule and you can bet that many hours of work will go in to getting it smoothed out as soon as possible.
The show started close to 7:30 as advertised and wrapped up just before eleven o'clock allowing me to get plenty of sleep so that I can make the trip to Vinton tonight for round two of the Frostbusters at the Benton County Speedway. Hope to see you there!
Monday, April 9, 2018
The One That I Missed!
Late last week in How Brave Are You? I gave you those tracks that at the time were still going to try to hold their races despite the terrible weather forecast for the weekend. Eventually all of those tracks canceled making it look like a clean sweep for Mother Nature in the states that we track with our Specials schedule at Positively Racing. Turns out though that I missed a track as the Diamond Park Speedway in Nashville, Arkansas, did go ahead and race on Saturday. Or at least I think they did as there have been no results and no follow up comments to their last post on Facebook stating "Come on to DPS we are racing."
In my defense though DPS is one of those tracks that I have been unable to get a Schedule or Results from despite the fact that they have a Facebook page and a website. The home page of the track website tells you that the 2018 Racing Season begins on March 24th and asks you to "please share", but when I click on the Schedule link I see nothing. Please let me know if you see something different! And I get the same look on the Results page as well. Yes, I can see the victory lane photos from March 24th on the Facebook page, but there are no names given and I can click on a Smugmug link that will give me all kinds of race night pictures. Apparently though nobody can take the time to make a post that that actually gives the results.
In this day and age there is no excuse for running "Secret Races".
I still haven't been able to find the results from opening night March 31st at the Peoria Speedway either. Once again I can see feature winner pictures as well as a Smugmug link to 126 pictures from the night on Facebook, but no results. When I asked about it through a Facebook message the response was that the Results could be found on their website. Yes, they do have a Results tab on the track website, but as of this writing if you click it you will be taken to the track's Speed Net Direct page with results from September 30th of last season.
I am guessing that they just don't realize that Speed Net, a service that I believe to be on its way out, is just not up to date because if you go directly to Speed Net Direct and look at their "Most Recent Results" you will find that they come from March 17th at the Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina. That little exercise did reveal a tidbit of information that you might be interested in as the winner of the 19 car Limited Late Model feature that night was Pat Rachels. Pat is a second generation driver, the son of Terry Rachels and Mary Drake, and he went to high school in Knoxville, Iowa. Pat did a little dirt track racing around here, but with an education at Clemson University he now pounds the pavement in the southeast with a little bit of help with some friends from back home as you can see from this picture that I blatantly stole from his Facebook page.
Anyway, here's hoping that Peoria gets things straightened out with Speed Net, or moves to someone else so that we can see the results from the quick little quarter mile during the 2018 season.
On Sunday afternoon I went to the Memorial gathering for Conrad Olson who passed away on March 17th at the age of 80. One of the owners of the Olson Brothers Custom Shop, Conrad and his family were a fixture for many, many years at 34 Raceway in Burlington and the love and respect for him and his family showed as a large crowd gathered to pay their respects. It was a like a family reunion for the 34 Raceway family, old and new with one former driver telling me "I'll bet that 90% of the people in here owe him money because he never charged you what he should have for all that he did." Another veteran driver looked around the crowded room and said, "this is incredible. I sure hope that when I go that this many people remember me in this way." Rest in Peace Conrad,
We have snow on the ground here in southeast Iowa on this Monday morning, but with a temperature that is to push above 50 on Tuesday and jump to near 70 on Wednesday the opener of the IMCA Frostbusters at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson is on as scheduled. The practice night along with the King of the Hill races for Tuesday may be a bit iffy though, but keep an eye on the track's Facebook page where they do a great job of keeping you updated on what's happening.
My plan is to bust out of this late winter with three nights of racing this week, Wednesday night at Donnellson and Thursday night in Vinton for the Frostbusters and then Friday night in Davenport with the Rebel 5K opener for the Deery Brothers Summer Series. Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
In my defense though DPS is one of those tracks that I have been unable to get a Schedule or Results from despite the fact that they have a Facebook page and a website. The home page of the track website tells you that the 2018 Racing Season begins on March 24th and asks you to "please share", but when I click on the Schedule link I see nothing. Please let me know if you see something different! And I get the same look on the Results page as well. Yes, I can see the victory lane photos from March 24th on the Facebook page, but there are no names given and I can click on a Smugmug link that will give me all kinds of race night pictures. Apparently though nobody can take the time to make a post that that actually gives the results.
In this day and age there is no excuse for running "Secret Races".
I still haven't been able to find the results from opening night March 31st at the Peoria Speedway either. Once again I can see feature winner pictures as well as a Smugmug link to 126 pictures from the night on Facebook, but no results. When I asked about it through a Facebook message the response was that the Results could be found on their website. Yes, they do have a Results tab on the track website, but as of this writing if you click it you will be taken to the track's Speed Net Direct page with results from September 30th of last season.
I am guessing that they just don't realize that Speed Net, a service that I believe to be on its way out, is just not up to date because if you go directly to Speed Net Direct and look at their "Most Recent Results" you will find that they come from March 17th at the Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina. That little exercise did reveal a tidbit of information that you might be interested in as the winner of the 19 car Limited Late Model feature that night was Pat Rachels. Pat is a second generation driver, the son of Terry Rachels and Mary Drake, and he went to high school in Knoxville, Iowa. Pat did a little dirt track racing around here, but with an education at Clemson University he now pounds the pavement in the southeast with a little bit of help with some friends from back home as you can see from this picture that I blatantly stole from his Facebook page.Anyway, here's hoping that Peoria gets things straightened out with Speed Net, or moves to someone else so that we can see the results from the quick little quarter mile during the 2018 season.
On Sunday afternoon I went to the Memorial gathering for Conrad Olson who passed away on March 17th at the age of 80. One of the owners of the Olson Brothers Custom Shop, Conrad and his family were a fixture for many, many years at 34 Raceway in Burlington and the love and respect for him and his family showed as a large crowd gathered to pay their respects. It was a like a family reunion for the 34 Raceway family, old and new with one former driver telling me "I'll bet that 90% of the people in here owe him money because he never charged you what he should have for all that he did." Another veteran driver looked around the crowded room and said, "this is incredible. I sure hope that when I go that this many people remember me in this way." Rest in Peace Conrad,
We have snow on the ground here in southeast Iowa on this Monday morning, but with a temperature that is to push above 50 on Tuesday and jump to near 70 on Wednesday the opener of the IMCA Frostbusters at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson is on as scheduled. The practice night along with the King of the Hill races for Tuesday may be a bit iffy though, but keep an eye on the track's Facebook page where they do a great job of keeping you updated on what's happening.
My plan is to bust out of this late winter with three nights of racing this week, Wednesday night at Donnellson and Thursday night in Vinton for the Frostbusters and then Friday night in Davenport with the Rebel 5K opener for the Deery Brothers Summer Series. Hope to see you on the Back Stretch!
Thursday, April 5, 2018
How Brave Are You?
Still want to go racing this weekend? As of 10 a.m. on Thursday here are the tracks in our coverage area who have not canceled for this weekend. (Afternoon update: Looks like I should have waited until 2 p.m. to write this! Removed from the original list now are Brownstown, Peoria, Highland and Ardmore. Please note that this will be the final update. Check with the track before venturing out and hey, let's be careful out there)
Friday Night
North Central Arkansas Speedway, Yellville AR
Texarkana 67 Speedway, Texarkana AR
Saturday Night
Creek County Speedway, Sapulpa OK
Lawton Speedway, Lawton OK
Oklahoma Sports Park, Ada OK
Tri-State Speedway, Pocola OK
Crawford County Speedway, Van Buren AR
Richmond Raceway, Richmond KY
I-35 Speedway, Winston MO
Dodge City Raceway Park, Dodge City KS
Sunday Night
Springfield Raceway, Springfield MO (moved from Saturday)
Quincy Raceways, Quincy IL
Believe me, it was easier giving you this list rather than a list of those who have canceled or postponed events for the weekend as winter continues to wreak havoc on the Midwest. And keep in mind that the list above shows only those tracks who have not yet canceled, so make sure that you check in with them specifically before before you make a road trip.
The extended forecast into next week does show some warmer temperatures, but a chance of rain looks to dampen several days. Hey, at least it is rain rather than snow but this outlook might just end up pushing out the IMCA Frostbusters yet another week. Stay tuned.
Kyle Ealy recently had a great summary of the West Liberty Spring Championships from 1977 through 1986 in his Midwest Racing Archives so in that same spirit of nostalgia here are the All Iowa Points from 1977. And, keep in mind that back then we used a 20-point scale. Good memories....
Here's hoping that we can go racing again soon!
Friday Night
North Central Arkansas Speedway, Yellville AR
Texarkana 67 Speedway, Texarkana AR
Saturday Night
Creek County Speedway, Sapulpa OK
Lawton Speedway, Lawton OK
Oklahoma Sports Park, Ada OK
Tri-State Speedway, Pocola OK
Crawford County Speedway, Van Buren AR
Richmond Raceway, Richmond KY
I-35 Speedway, Winston MO
Dodge City Raceway Park, Dodge City KS
Sunday Night
Springfield Raceway, Springfield MO (moved from Saturday)
Quincy Raceways, Quincy IL
Believe me, it was easier giving you this list rather than a list of those who have canceled or postponed events for the weekend as winter continues to wreak havoc on the Midwest. And keep in mind that the list above shows only those tracks who have not yet canceled, so make sure that you check in with them specifically before before you make a road trip.
The extended forecast into next week does show some warmer temperatures, but a chance of rain looks to dampen several days. Hey, at least it is rain rather than snow but this outlook might just end up pushing out the IMCA Frostbusters yet another week. Stay tuned.
Kyle Ealy recently had a great summary of the West Liberty Spring Championships from 1977 through 1986 in his Midwest Racing Archives so in that same spirit of nostalgia here are the All Iowa Points from 1977. And, keep in mind that back then we used a 20-point scale. Good memories....
Here's hoping that we can go racing again soon!
| All Iowa Points | Late Models | |||
| Pos | Driver | Hometown | 1977 | |
| 1 | . | Curt Hansen | Dike | 1256 |
| 2 | . | Ed Sanger | Waterloo | 961 |
| 3 | . | Stan Stover | Reinbeck | 794 |
| 4 | . | Bob Shryock | Estherville | 773 |
| 5 | . | Bill Rice | Des Moines | 706 |
| 6 | . | Don Hoffman | Des Moines | 705 |
| 7 | . | Gary Crawford | Independence | 672 |
| 8 | . | Duane Steffe | East Moline IL | 651 |
| 9 | . | Red Dralle | Evansdale | 601 |
| 10 | . | Dan Nesteby | Waterloo | 588 |
| 11 | . | Mike Niffeneggar | Kalona | 579 |
| 12 | . | Darrell Dake | Cedar Rapids | 573 |
| 13 | . | Tom Hearst | Wilton | 569 |
| 14 | . | Tom Bartholomew | Waterloo | 549 |
| 15 | . | Steve Keppler | Marion | 541 |
| 16 | . | Ron Weedon | Pleasant Valley | 529 |
| 17 | . | Fred Horn | Marion | 524 |
| 18 | . | Joe Merryfield | Des Moines | 520 |
| 19 | . | Ray Guss Sr. | Milan IL | 508 |
| 20 | . | Roger Dolan | Lisbon | 506 |
| 21 | . | Ken Walton | Viola | 495 |
| 22 | . | Ron Jackson | Burlington | 466 |
| 23 | . | Jim Burbridge | Delhi | 420 |
| 24 | . | Bob Kosiski | Omaha NE | 418 |
| 25 | . | Dick Schiltz | Waterloo | 411 |
| 26 | . | Bill Zwanziger | Waterloo | 402 |
| 27 | . | Joe Schaefer | Waterloo | 395 |
| 28 | . | Denny Osborn | Cedar Falls | 366 |
| 29 | . | Jim Gerber | Long Grove | 364 |
| 30 | . | Em Fretheim | Decorah | 358 |
| 31 | . | Dean McGee | Knoxville IL | 353 |
| 32 | . | Joel Rasmussen | Ames | 346 |
| 33 | . | John Connolly | Delhi | 321 |
| 34 | . | Ken Farrell | New Hampton | 311 |
| 35 | . | Ron Tilley | Omaha NE | 302 |
| 36 | . | Dwaine Hanson | Lakefield MN | 296 |
| 37 | . | Karl Sanger | Waterloo | 285 |
| 38 | . | Jerry Holtkamp | Williams | 280 |
| 39 | . | Randy Sterner | Blair NE | 276 |
| 40 | . | Verlin Eaker | Mechanicsville | 272 |
| 41 | . | Kent Tucker | Aurora NE | 266 |
| 42 | . | Dave Chase | Council Bluffs | 261 |
| 43 | . | Bill Martin | Council Bluffs | 260 |
| 44 | . | Bill Christman | Bronson | 256 |
| 45 | . | Gary Webb | Davenport | 253 |
| 46 | . | Jack Mitchell | Cedar Falls | 244 |
| 47 | . | Tom Fitzpatrick | Gilbertville | 237 |
| 48 | . | Arnie Braland | Boone | 236 |
| 49 | . | Dave Bjorge | Austin MN | 232 |
| 50 | . | Jerry Wancewicz | Omaha NE | 232 |
| 51 | . | Bob Schulte | Delhi | 218 |
| 52 | . | Dave Bentley | Fairbank | 208 |
| 53 | . | Joe Kosiski | Omaha NE | 206 |
| 54 | . | Ted Zieman | Mason City | 204 |
| 55 | . | Lem Blankenship | Keokuk | 202 |
| 56 | . | Glen Martin | Independence | 201 |
| 57 | . | Glen Woodard | Des Moines | 198 |
| 58 | . | Rollie Frink | Davenport | 195 |
| 59 | . | Roger Klingfus | Waterloo | 194 |
| 60 | . | Paul Zdan | Omaha NE | 190 |
| 61 | . | Bill Barthelmes | Troy Mills | 189 |
| 62 | . | George Brazil | Albuquerque NM | 183 |
| 63 | . | Bill Davis | Des Moines | 182 |
| 64 | . | Ed Mellecker | Iowa City | 180 |
| 65 | . | Bill Beckman | Lisbon | 177 |
| 66 | . | Johnny Babb | Ottumwa | 176 |
| 67 | . | Darrell Sells | Waverly | 170 |
| 68 | . | Bob Hill | Randall | 167 |
| 69 | . | Jim Strube | Peoria IL | 165 |
| 70 | . | Johnny Moss | Iowa City | 159 |
| 71 | . | Bob Weber | Burt | 156 |
| 72 | . | Fred Knapp | Des Moines | 156 |
| 73 | . | Bob Hilmer | Dysart | 153 |
| 74 | . | Bill Wrich | Norfolk NE | 150 |
| 75 | . | Don Styskal | David City NE | 147 |
| 76 | . | Denny Sherrill | Hartford SD | 138 |
| 77 | . | Jerry Cunningham | Omaha NE | 138 |
| 78 | . | Doc Mayner | Winthrop | 127 |
| 79 | . | Bill Kirk | Salix | 126 |
| 80 | . | Russ Derr | Keokuk | 125 |
| 81 | . | Dan Dickey | Packwood | 123 |
| 82 | . | Wally Nissen | Omaha NE | 123 |
| 83 | . | John Korenberg Jr. | Hartley | 119 |
| 84 | . | Rick Merryfield | Des Moines | 119 |
| 85 | . | Roger Bruggeman | Dubuque | 119 |
| 86 | . | Larry Embrey | Granger | 118 |
| 87 | . | Don Bohlander | Glasford IL | 117 |
| 88 | . | Lynn Idler | Ionia | 115 |
| 89 | . | Don Doeblin | Council Bluffs | 112 |
| 90 | . | Steve Fraise | Montrose | 110 |
| 91 | . | Craig Spetman | Omaha NE | 105 |
| 92 | . | Keith Leithoff | Omaha NE | 105 |
| 93 | . | Larry Rummelhart | Riverside | 104 |
| 94 | . | Bob McCall | Ottumwa | 101 |
| 95 | . | John Richardson | Perry | 95 |
| 96 | . | Al Druesedow | Omaha NE | 93 |
| 97 | . | Bill Sheffield | Neola | 92 |
| 98 | . | Steve Lance | Cuba IL | 90 |
| 99 | . | Ken Braasch | Omaha NE | 89 |
| 100 | . | Jim Brown | Ottumwa | 81 |
| 101 | . | Ken Peterson | Northrup MN | 81 |
| 102 | . | Lynn Rysavy | Grafton | 78 |
| 103 | . | Dave Farren | Des Moines | 77 |
| 104 | . | Curt Houge | Ames | 73 |
| 105 | . | Len Woodard | Des Moines | 70 |
| 106 | . | Ernie Speth | Davenport | 68 |
| 107 | . | Rocky Hodges | Des Moines | 68 |
| 108 | . | Norm Meinart | Dixon IL | 66 |
| 109 | . | Bob Stogdell | Silvis IL | 65 |
| 110 | . | Bland Robinson | Des Moines | 63 |
| 111 | . | Dave Birkhofer | Muscatine | 63 |
| 112 | . | Ron Hemsted | Lone Tree | 59 |
| 113 | . | Roger Tapper | Webster City | 58 |
| 114 | . | Bill Lameier | Freeport IL | 57 |
| 115 | . | Bill Schwader | Bettendorf | 56 |
| 116 | . | Bob Jaeger | Dubuque | 56 |
| 117 | . | Bruce Sommerfeld | Fort Dodge | 54 |
| 118 | . | Jerry Pilcher | Ottumwa | 53 |
| 119 | . | Mark Mosier | Washington | 53 |
| 120 | . | Duane Erret | Harlan | 51 |
| 121 | . | Greg Robinson | Cresco | 51 |
| 122 | . | John Engelkens | Morrison IL | 51 |
| 123 | . | Randy Rosenboom | Rock Rapids | 51 |
| 124 | . | Al Terrell | Peoria IL | 50 |
| 125 | . | Don VanderVoort | 50 | |
| 126 | . | Norm Weimers | Manson | 50 |
| 127 | . | Ramo Stott | Keokuk | 50 |
| 128 | . | Jim Thruman | Freeport IL | 49 |
| 129 | . | Bob Hesse | Waterloo | 48 |
| 130 | . | Jim Leverington | Freeport IL | 48 |
| 131 | . | Lyle Gehn | Port Byron IL | 48 |
| 132 | . | Chuck Anderson | LeGrand | 45 |
| 133 | . | Dave Plum | Waterloo | 44 |
| 134 | . | Pokey West | West Chester | 40 |
| 135 | . | Duane Manchester | Omaha NE | 38 |
| 136 | . | Clayton Peterson | Grand Island NE | 37 |
| 137 | . | Jim Hollenbeck | Burlington | 37 |
| 138 | . | Johnny Coonce | Peoria IL | 37 |
| 139 | . | Jim Decker | Winthrop | 36 |
| 140 | . | Jim White | Cresco | 36 |
| 141 | . | John Knaus | Rockford IL | 36 |
| 142 | . | Bob Hadfield | 35 | |
| 143 | . | Dave Knott | Wabasso MN | 35 |
| 144 | . | Dick Lewis | Agency | 35 |
| 145 | . | Hershel Roberts | East Moline IL | 35 |
| 146 | . | John Miller | Keokuk | 35 |
| 147 | . | Rod Mitchell | Mankato MN | 35 |
| 148 | . | Dave Trower | New Hampton | 34 |
| 149 | . | Duane VanDeest | Grundy Center | 34 |
| 150 | . | Tom Greenlee | Freeport IL | 34 |
| 151 | . | Whitey Harris | Villa Park IL | 34 |
| 152 | . | Bob Fitzsimmons | Omaha NE | 33 |
| 153 | . | Larry Jenkins | Wilton | 33 |
| 154 | . | Larry Wasserfort | Waterloo | 33 |
| 155 | . | Ron Prymek | Iowa City | 33 |
| 156 | . | Tim Eliason | Duluth MN | 32 |
| 157 | . | Frank Jorgenson | Carroll | 31 |
| 158 | . | Denny Rosenberg | Grimes | 30 |
| 159 | . | Rex Nun | Lincoln NE | 28 |
| 160 | . | Dick Elliott | Mount Ayr | 27 |
| 161 | . | John Oswalt | Kansas City MO | 26 |
| 162 | . | Lefty Robinson | Des Moines | 22 |
| 163 | . | Dick Oldham | Des Moines | 21 |
| 164 | . | Tim McDonough | Cedar Rapids | 21 |
| 165 | . | Gerry Reeder | Peoria IL | 20 |
| 166 | . | Larry Pipes | Kirksville MO | 20 |
| All Iowa Points | Sprint Cars | |||
| Pos | Driver | Hometown | 1977 | |
| 1 | . | Doug Wolfgang | Sioux Falls SD | 520 |
| 2 | . | Lloyd Beckman | Lincoln NE | 280 |
| 3 | . | Butch Bahr | Grand Island NE | 270 |
| 4 | . | Jim Riggins | Lincoln NE | 160 |
| 5 | . | Ralph Blackett | Des Moines | 154 |
| 6 | . | Bobby Marshall | Dallas TX | 140 |
| 7 | . | Lonnie Jensen | Lincoln NE | 134 |
| 8 | . | Lenard McCarl | Des Moines | 120 |
| 9 | . | Dave Engebretson | Sioux Falls SD | 118 |
| 10 | . | Randy Smith | Mount Ayr | 103 |
| 11 | . | Don Maxwell | Lincoln NE | 100 |
| 12 | . | Jimmy Sills | Sacramento CA | 93 |
| 13 | . | Bob Williams | Kansas City MO | 80 |
| 14 | . | Stacy Redmond | Mason City | 78 |
| 15 | . | Sammy Swindell | Memphis TN | 70 |
| 16 | . | Gary Scott | Holts Summit MO | 67 |
| 17 | . | Steve Hainline | Bonaparte | 65 |
| 18 | . | Sonny Smyser | Lancaster MO | 61 |
| 19 | . | Bill Utz | Sedalia MO | 60 |
| 20 | . | Cliff Woodward | Kearney MO | 60 |
| 21 | . | Bill Mellenberndt | Sioux Falls SD | 57 |
| 22 | . | Leland McSpadden | Tempe AZ | 56 |
| 23 | . | Mackie Heimbaugh | Des Moines | 56 |
| 24 | . | Ron Milton | Jacksonville IL | 54 |
| 25 | . | Roger Rager | Lincoln NE | 53 |
| 26 | . | Ron Shuman | Mesa AZ | 53 |
| 27 | . | Mike Pinckney | Des Moines | 52 |
| 28 | . | Gary Dunkle | Lincoln NE | 50 |
| 29 | . | Gary Johnson | Colfax | 49 |
| 30 | . | Jack McCorkell | Redwood Falls MN | 49 |
| 31 | . | Ralph Parkinson | Gladstone MO | 49 |
| 32 | . | Mike Shaw | Northridge CA | 44 |
| 33 | . | John Stevenson | St. Paul MN | 41 |
| 34 | . | Rick Ferkel | Findlay OH | 41 |
| 35 | . | Jerry Blundy | Dahinda IL | 38 |
| 36 | . | Dick Forbrook | Morgan MN | 35 |
| 37 | . | Rich Brahmer | Wisner NE | 35 |
| 38 | . | Ken Weld | Kansas City MO | 34 |
| 39 | . | Jerry Potter | Kansas City MO | 33 |
| 40 | . | Lee James | Northridge CA | 32 |
| 41 | . | Jon Johnson | Independence | 30 |
| 42 | . | Tom Corbin | Carrollton MO | 30 |
| 43 | . | Vic Chudy | Plattsmouth NE | 26 |
| 44 | . | Roger Larson | Sioux Falls SD | 25 |
| 45 | . | David Dwyer | Columbia MO | 23 |
| 46 | . | Mike Thomas | Des Moines | 23 |
| 47 | . | Steve Lewis | Kansas City MO | 22 |
| 48 | . | Bill Robison | Topeka KS | 21 |
| 49 | . | Gene Gennetten | Glenwood MO | 20 |
| All Iowa Points | Sportsman | |||
| Pos | Driver | Hometown | 1977 | |
| 1 | . | Steve Becker | Atkins | 665 |
| 2 | . | Mark Liebfried | Rickardsville | 575 |
| 3 | . | Jerry Pilcher | Ottumwa | 471 |
| 4 | . | Dave Farren | Des Moines | 449 |
| 5 | . | Gene Ehlers | Independence | 442 |
| 6 | . | Joe Churchill | Peosta | 437 |
| 7 | . | Bob Jaeger | Dubuque | 432 |
| 8 | . | Denny Banks | Washington | 415 |
| 9 | . | Denny Ansel | Dubuque | 413 |
| 10 | . | Rocky Hodges | Des Moines | 393 |
| 11 | . | Kenny Fenn | Washington | 385 |
| 12 | . | Larry Schmidt | New Hampton | 379 |
| 13 | . | Carl Severson | Dubuque | 370 |
| 14 | . | Ron Boyse | Kalona | 353 |
| 15 | . | Rick Merryfield | Des Moines | 343 |
| 16 | . | Steve Lawson | Ames | 343 |
| 17 | . | John Reed | Woolstock | 310 |
| 18 | . | Bill Davis | Des Moines | 304 |
| 19 | . | Tom Moore | Waterloo | 280 |
| 20 | . | Dan Beaver | Tracy | 269 |
| 21 | . | Bob Thompson | Des Moines | 268 |
| 22 | . | Bill Breuer | Wapello | 259 |
| 23 | . | Steve Coe | Ames | 252 |
| 24 | . | Gary Tigges | Durango | 242 |
| 25 | . | Gary Henderson | Independence | 237 |
| 26 | . | Darwin Thompson | Osage | 227 |
| 27 | . | John Weers | Readlyn | 223 |
| 28 | . | Greg Kastli | Waterloo | 212 |
| 29 | . | Glenn Woodard | Des Moines | 211 |
| 30 | . | Larry Schulte | Cedar Rapids | 211 |
| 31 | . | Al Uhrhammer | Radcliffe | 202 |
| 32 | . | Jim Stodola | Shellsburg | 201 |
| 33 | . | George Leibfried | Dubuque | 200 |
| 34 | . | Duane Van Deest | Grundy Center | 198 |
| 35 | . | Bob Brenner | Waterloo | 197 |
| 36 | . | Lynn Idler | Ionia | 197 |
| 37 | . | L.B. O'Brien | Muscatine | 194 |
| 38 | . | Roger Bucholz | Cedar Falls | 186 |
| 39 | . | Dave Wheeler | Davenport | 185 |
| 40 | . | Tom Beddow | Chester | 178 |
| 41 | . | Mike Carlberg | Iowa Falls | 171 |
| 42 | . | Dave Allison | Des Moines | 170 |
| 43 | . | Steve Auringer | Waterloo | 166 |
| 44 | . | Chuck Lukemyres | Tipton | 164 |
| 45 | . | Gary Kerres | Edgington IL | 164 |
| 46 | . | Mike Krall | Waterloo | 161 |
| 47 | . | Kay Pierce | Hamilton IL | 159 |
| 48 | . | Denny Rosenberg | Grimes | 157 |
| 49 | . | Wayne Larson | Ames | 156 |
| 50 | . | Larry Hanna | Batavia | 154 |
| 51 | . | Johnny Johnson | Morning Sun | 151 |
| 52 | . | Mike Wheeler | Davenport | 146 |
| 53 | . | Duane Bentley | Fairbank | 144 |
| 54 | . | Jim Anderson | Des Moines | 135 |
| 55 | . | Keith Conroy | Jefferson | 133 |
| 56 | . | Randy Mason | Spring Grove MN | 133 |
| 57 | . | Tony Stewart | Washington | 132 |
| 58 | . | Joe Gascoigne | Omaha NE | 131 |
| 59 | . | Dennis Schaff | Omaha NE | 130 |
| 60 | . | Terry Foote | Stanton | 127 |
| 61 | . | Howard Claude | Woolstock | 126 |
| 62 | . | Ron Pallister | Wapello | 126 |
| 63 | . | Bob Toland | Moline IL | 117 |
| 64 | . | Bob Cave Sr. | Omaha NE | 116 |
| 65 | . | Don Marshall | Omaha NE | 116 |
| 66 | . | Duane Manchester | Des Moines | 114 |
| 67 | . | Howard Koziol | Omaha NE | 114 |
| 68 | . | Billy Geil | Stuart | 113 |
| 69 | . | Fuzzy Liddell | Waterloo | 112 |
| 70 | . | Charlie Milligan | Keokuk | 111 |
| 71 | . | Karl Gray | Carter Lake | 111 |
| 72 | . | Darrell Walker | Wapello | 110 |
| 73 | . | Tim Swope | Waterloo | 109 |
| 74 | . | Billy Moyer | Des Moines | 108 |
| 75 | . | Tom Ferris | 108 | |
| 76 | . | Gary Duggan | Hiawatha | 107 |
| 77 | . | Dan Lake | Washburn | 104 |
| 78 | . | Ron Stout | Cedar Rapids | 104 |
| 79 | . | Dave Merfeld | Dubuque | 103 |
| 80 | . | John Ward | Bernard | 103 |
| 81 | . | Smokey Campbell | Austin MN | 103 |
| 82 | . | Larry Embrey | Granger | 101 |
| 83 | . | Tom Erickson | Decorah | 97 |
| 84 | . | Chuck Anderson | LeGrand | 96 |
| 85 | . | Dave Venenga | Grundy Center | 91 |
| 86 | . | Mike Inman | Keokuk | 91 |
| 87 | . | Denny Bermel | Muscatine | 88 |
| 88 | . | Jim Patterson | Cedar Falls | 88 |
| 89 | . | Russ Paulson | DeWitt | 88 |
| 90 | . | Jeff Tedore | Cedar Falls | 87 |
| 91 | . | Duke Jackson | Clinton | 86 |
| 92 | . | Jim Riedl | Dubuque | 86 |
| 93 | . | Jim Buhman | Bettendorf | 83 |
| 94 | . | Eugene McBride | Ottumwa | 80 |
| 95 | . | Larry Hiatt | New Market | 78 |
| 96 | . | Terry Holliman | Hamburg | 78 |
| 97 | . | Larry Larson | Keokuk | 77 |
| 98 | . | Les Zapotsney | Cresco | 76 |
| 99 | . | Wayne French | Muscatine | 74 |
| 100 | . | Chuck Martelle | Dubuque | 73 |
| 101 | . | Mel Sorenson | Elk Horn NE | 73 |
| 102 | . | Bob Lewerke | Britt | 72 |
| 103 | . | Rex Hill | Kanawha | 72 |
| 104 | . | Denny Stewart | Davenport | 70 |
| 105 | . | Ed Pilcher | Bloomfield | 70 |
| 106 | . | Jim Dorothy | Keosaqua | 69 |
| 107 | . | Jim Buhlman | Waterloo | 67 |
| 108 | . | Phil Bivens | Nebraska City NE | 67 |
| 109 | . | Wayne Hesse | Waterloo | 67 |
| 110 | . | Jerry Brumley | Iowa City | 66 |
| 111 | . | Marion Sherman | Tracy | 66 |
| 112 | . | Rick Benson | Galesburg IL | 66 |
| 113 | . | Larry Armstrong | Moline IL | 57 |
| 114 | . | Mike Guttormson | Austin MN | 57 |
| 115 | . | Dave Monsrud | 56 | |
| 116 | . | Dusty Whitehead | Clarinda | 56 |
| 117 | . | Ken Reiser | Dorchester | 55 |
| 118 | . | Mike Geltz | Cedar Falls | 55 |
| 119 | . | Rick Payne | Davenport | 55 |
| 120 | . | Tom Hovey | Decorah | 55 |
| 121 | . | Don Lemly | 54 | |
| 122 | . | John Grube | Cresco | 54 |
| 123 | . | Charlie Brockert | Muscatine | 53 |
| 124 | . | Dan Ludwig | Keokuk | 53 |
| 125 | . | Joe Riter | Keokuk | 53 |
| 126 | . | Rick Wendling | Hazelton | 53 |
| 127 | . | Bob Helm | Rochester | 52 |
| 128 | . | Howard Sheets | Fremont NE | 52 |
| 129 | . | Larry Carr | Corning | 52 |
| 130 | . | Randy Nordheim | 52 | |
| 131 | . | Alvin Rodas | Farmersburg | 51 |
| 132 | . | Bernie Frieden | Walford | 51 |
| 133 | . | Bob Herring | 51 | |
| 134 | . | Darrell Bennett | Bloomfield | 51 |
| 135 | . | George Koontz | Memphis MO | 51 |
| 136 | . | Lyle Gehn | Port Byron IL | 51 |
| 137 | . | Earl Schultz | 50 | |
| 138 | . | Ray Kinnetz | Webster City | 49 |
| 139 | . | Ron Binning | Grand River | 48 |
| 140 | . | Tom Essary | Eldon | 48 |
| 141 | . | Del McDowell | Ames | 45 |
| 142 | . | Leo Franklin | Keosaqua | 44 |
| 143 | . | Lloyd Henderson | Dallas Center | 44 |
| 144 | . | Rex Carter | Des Moines | 41 |
| 145 | . | Dave Moffit | Austin MN | 40 |
| 146 | . | Dutch VanWyngran | Hollandale MN | 40 |
| 147 | . | Jerry Cunningham | Omaha NE | 40 |
| 148 | . | Ron Hoden Jr. | 40 | |
| 149 | . | Dan Bruggeman | 39 | |
| 150 | . | George Tangeman | 38 | |
| 151 | . | Terry Skalberg | Red Oak | 38 |
| 152 | . | Dave Meile | Baileyville IL | 37 |
| 153 | . | Don Wytaske | 37 | |
| 154 | . | Jeff Sillman | Greenwood NE | 37 |
| 155 | . | Jim Gerber | Long Grove | 37 |
| 156 | . | Mike Benjamin | Keokuk | 37 |
| 157 | . | Paul Lanphier | Oskaloosa | 37 |
| 158 | . | Bernie Juliar | Hudson | 36 |
| 159 | . | Fred VanCannon | Boone | 36 |
| 160 | . | Jerry Parker | Omaha NE | 36 |
| 161 | . | John Engelkens | Morrison IL | 36 |
| 162 | . | Sonny Findling | Kirksville MO | 36 |
| 163 | . | Steve Quinnell | Spring Grove MN | 36 |
| 164 | . | Terry Buresh | Bellevue NE | 36 |
| 165 | . | Truman McDowell | Fort Madison | 36 |
| 166 | . | Bob Kinsella | Dubuque | 35 |
| 167 | . | Chuck Moore | Waterloo | 35 |
| 168 | . | Don Nesteby | Decorah | 35 |
| 169 | . | Don Whitman | 35 | |
| 170 | . | Jerry Campbell | Des Moines | 35 |
| 171 | . | John Troxel | Belle Plaine | 35 |
| 172 | . | Roger Fiscus | Irwin | 35 |
| 173 | . | Scott Franzen | 35 | |
| 174 | . | Bernie Kofron | Forest City | 34 |
| 175 | . | Bill Metcalf | Selma | 34 |
| 176 | . | Carl Albee | Jefferson | 34 |
| 177 | . | Leonard Woodard | Des Moines | 34 |
| 178 | . | Stan Archer | Clarinda | 34 |
| 179 | . | Craig Haupt | Sumner | 33 |
| 180 | . | Donnie Hoffman | Ottumwa | 33 |
| 181 | . | Jack Dunn | Keokuk | 33 |
| 182 | . | Larry Catlett | Cedar Rapids | 33 |
| 183 | . | Larry Palmer | Waterloo | 33 |
| 184 | . | Walt Carney | West Branch | 33 |
| 185 | . | Francis James | Stanton | 32 |
| 186 | . | Fred Knapp | Des Moines | 32 |
| 187 | . | Steve Myers | Des Moines | 32 |
| 188 | . | Dickie Chapman | Dubuque | 31 |
| 189 | . | John Duwa | Independence | 31 |
| 190 | . | John Keller | Keosaqua | 31 |
| 191 | . | Bill Carter | Des Moines | 28 |
| 192 | . | Rick Dennis | Des Moines | 28 |
| 193 | . | Ken Paulding | Des Moines | 22 |
| 194 | . | Al Dilley | Crescent | 20 |
| 195 | . | Bob Bechtell | Waukon | 20 |
| 196 | . | Bob Hansen | Greenwood NE | 20 |
| 197 | . | Butch Hastie | Omaha NE | 20 |
| 198 | . | Jim Whisler | Kansas City MO | 20 |
| 199 | . | John Nordstrom | 20 | |
| 200 | . | Ken Scott | 20 | |
| 201 | . | Leonard Huff | Kansas City MO | 20 |
| 202 | . | Red Dralle | Evansdale | 20 |
| 203 | . | Steve Hodges | Des Moines | 20 |
| 204 | . | Stroker Benson | Galesburg IL | 20 |
| 205 | . | Tom Rock | Atalissa | 20 |
| All Iowa Points | Street Stocks | |||
| Pos | Driver | Hometown | 1977 | |
| 1 | . | Lee DeVries | Hollandale MN | 435 |
| 2 | . | Ron Nesteby | Dubuque | 414 |
| 3 | . | Tim Nesteby | Dubuque | 410 |
| 4 | . | Whiskers McDermott | Cascade | 364 |
| 5 | . | Kim DeVries | Fairmont MN | 335 |
| 6 | . | Roger Patterson | Cedar Falls | 304 |
| 7 | . | Randy Mills | Dubuque | 297 |
| 8 | . | Scott Braun | Cedar Falls | 291 |
| 9 | . | Bob Fisher | Vinton | 275 |
| 10 | . | Arvid Borchers | Marshalltown | 271 |
| 11 | . | Roger Fisher | Vinton | 264 |
| 12 | . | Duane White | Vinton | 260 |
| 13 | . | Gus Hughes | Monticello | 235 |
| 14 | . | John Miller | West Union | 197 |
| 15 | . | Darrell DeFrance | Marshalltown | 196 |
| 16 | . | Frank Sick | Harlan | 180 |
| 17 | . | John Durbin | Silvis IL | 180 |
| 18 | . | Steve Hodges | Des Moines | 177 |
| 19 | . | Mike Fredericks | Ankeny | 173 |
| 20 | . | Victor Schmitt | West Union | 173 |
| 21 | . | Dennis Dugan | Colesburg | 170 |
| 22 | . | Mike Sathoff | Fairmont MN | 167 |
| 23 | . | Rick Gladson | Des Moines | 167 |
| 24 | . | Jay Iben | Monticello | 158 |
| 25 | . | Joe Jandro | 152 | |
| 26 | . | Dave Gerner | Garber | 151 |
| 27 | . | Tom Howland | Riceville | 148 |
| 28 | . | Gary Kaune | Waterloo | 147 |
| 29 | . | Larry Neilson | Freeborn MN | 141 |
| 30 | . | Bob Slegh | 139 | |
| 31 | . | Gordy Handeland | Austin MN | 135 |
| 32 | . | Dan Rabbass | Omaha NE | 134 |
| 33 | . | Dean Schlangen | Cresco | 130 |
| 34 | . | Don Rogers | Moline IL | 130 |
| 35 | . | Rich Bennett | Des Moines | 130 |
| 36 | . | Dave Dresser | Ames | 125 |
| 37 | . | Dave Swarts | Cedar Falls | 124 |
| 38 | . | Earl Pruitt | Marshalltown | 117 |
| 39 | . | Reed Stevenson | Cresco | 113 |
| 40 | . | Bob Seaton | 111 | |
| 41 | . | George Spence | Moline IL | 109 |
| 42 | . | Kenny Riche | Menlo | 107 |
| 43 | . | Don Sorenson | Harlan | 105 |
| 44 | . | Larry Opperman | Marshalltown | 97 |
| 45 | . | Ed Claeys | Moline IL | 96 |
| 46 | . | Keith Knox | Clermont | 94 |
| 47 | . | Pat Curry | Fairmont MN | 93 |
| 48 | . | Rick See | Independence | 93 |
| 49 | . | Ron Mayer | Riceville | 93 |
| 50 | . | Gary Ekvall | Marshalltown | 91 |
| 51 | . | Roger Kroon | 91 | |
| 52 | . | Dan Heller | Irwin | 88 |
| 53 | . | Steve Spahr | Monticello | 88 |
| 54 | . | Mike Manson | Manchester | 85 |
| 55 | . | Dennis Wroe | Evansdale | 84 |
| 56 | . | Carl Janssen | Altoona | 77 |
| 57 | . | Dan Lucas | Cherokee | 77 |
| 58 | . | L.Z. Coleman | Mt. Pleasant | 77 |
| 59 | . | Paul Streif | West Union | 77 |
| 60 | . | Keith Weber | Hazel Green WI | 75 |
| 61 | . | Keith Sedam | Moline IL | 73 |
| 62 | . | Ray Reicks | Marshalltown | 73 |
| 63 | . | Bill Vroman | Reynolds IL | 72 |
| 64 | . | Bob Drum | Maquoketa | 71 |
| 65 | . | Jim Clenny | Moline IL | 71 |
| 66 | . | Kevin Vorwald | West Union | 71 |
| 67 | . | Ron O'Brien | Cedar Rapids | 71 |
| 68 | . | Al Thoms | Fairmont MN | 70 |
| 69 | . | Randy Bernatz | Waukon | 70 |
| 70 | . | Denny Moore | Dows | 69 |
| 71 | . | Mike Hixson | Coal Valley IL | 69 |
| 72 | . | Clarence Tucker | 68 | |
| 73 | . | Steve Sorenson | Austin MN | 60 |
| 74 | . | Bill Swanson | 59 | |
| 75 | . | Boyd Brown | Boone | 58 |
| 76 | . | Laverne Lehman | Waterloo | 57 |
| 77 | . | Kenny King | Cleghorn | 56 |
| 78 | . | Bruce Cerwinske | Ionia | 55 |
| 79 | . | Ron Cochran | Marshalltown | 55 |
| 80 | . | Tom Bull | Rock Island IL | 55 |
| 81 | . | Dave Baughman | 54 | |
| 82 | . | George Vasey | Hartford | 54 |
| 83 | . | Jack Evans | Keokuk | 54 |
| 84 | . | Jerry Ulray | Marshalltown | 54 |
| 85 | . | Bill Pendry | Galesburg IL | 53 |
| 86 | . | Greg Hunter | Independence | 53 |
| 87 | . | Laverne Hawn | Grundy Center | 53 |
| 88 | . | Tom Vaunt | Fort Dodge | 53 |
| 89 | . | Denny Fields | Maquoketa | 52 |
| 90 | . | Jim Christianson | Waterville | 52 |
| 91 | . | John VanWilgen | Hollandale MN | 52 |
| 92 | . | Bill Schlitter | 51 | |
| 93 | . | Dan Lafeber | Portsmouth | 50 |
| 94 | . | Ed Haage | Keokuk | 50 |
| 95 | . | Pat Duffy | 50 | |
| 96 | . | Ron Barten | Green Island | 50 |
| 97 | . | Jerry Oelrich | Fayette | 47 |
| 98 | . | Ken Mills | Dubuque | 47 |
| 99 | . | Dennis Pittman | Jefferson | 45 |
| 100 | . | Carl Albee | Grand Junction | 40 |
| 101 | . | Frank Weaver | 40 | |
| 102 | . | Rick Phillips | 40 | |
| 103 | . | Larry DeFrance | Albion | 39 |
| 104 | . | Ron Godwin | Redfield | 39 |
| 105 | . | Gene Abernathey | Brandon | 38 |
| 106 | . | Harold Buenting | Fort Dodge | 38 |
| 107 | . | Mel Odegaard | Grimes | 38 |
| 108 | . | Terry Crosser | Marshalltown | 38 |
| 109 | . | Keith Heinzel | Maquoketa | 37 |
| 110 | . | Ron Brown | Villisca | 37 |
| 111 | . | Russ Gladson | Des Moines | 37 |
| 112 | . | Carl Peterson | Dunnell MN | 36 |
| 113 | . | Curt Meyer | Truman MN | 36 |
| 114 | . | Gene Harrington | 36 | |
| 115 | . | J.W. Cannon | 36 | |
| 116 | . | Jerry Thurston | East Dubuque IL | 36 |
| 117 | . | Lee Thomas | Moline IL | 36 |
| 118 | . | Lynn Dirks | Alta | 36 |
| 119 | . | Randy Goben | Knoxville IL | 36 |
| 120 | . | Don Bahl | Asbury | 35 |
| 121 | . | Ed Blink | 35 | |
| 122 | . | Leland Bushong | Colona IL | 35 |
| 123 | . | Terry Wood | Nashua | 35 |
| 124 | . | Tom Froh | Harlan | 35 |
| 125 | . | Bob Rider | Vinton | 34 |
| 126 | . | Del Bohle | Sumner | 34 |
| 127 | . | Duane Burkey | Vinton | 34 |
| 128 | . | Jerry Pohl | Des Moines | 34 |
| 129 | . | Mike Stoneking | 34 | |
| 130 | . | Bill Bown | Marshalltown | 33 |
| 131 | . | Darrel Mossman | Decorah | 33 |
| 132 | . | Harlan Heins | Luana | 33 |
| 133 | . | Jim Oliver | 33 | |
| 134 | . | Larry Frederickson | Sabula | 33 |
| 135 | . | Roger Sanders | Preemption IL | 33 |
| 136 | . | Ted Swartslander | Des Moines | 33 |
| 137 | . | Tom Fitzgerald | 33 | |
| 138 | . | Al Visser | LaPorte City | 32 |
| 139 | . | Bob Gage | West Union | 32 |
| 140 | . | Bill Tharp | Vinton | 20 |
| 141 | . | Bob Lindquist | Quimby | 20 |
| 142 | . | Daryl Bradley | Keokuk | 20 |
| 143 | . | Dennis Stewart | Marshalltown | 20 |
| 144 | . | Don Dickey | Moline IL | 20 |
| 145 | . | Doug Anderson | Ankeny | 20 |
| 146 | . | Gary Reinhart | Moline IL | 20 |
| 147 | . | Pat Mullen | 20 |
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