With all of the rain over the past several days the Southern Iowa Speedway needed a day of sunshine and wind to have a chance to get in its third weekly show of the season on Wednesday and for once the weather cooperated. In fact ol' Mother Nature did such a good job that she dried out the big half-mile a little too much leading to some ride the hub racing rather than the wide multi-grooved surface that we are used to seeing at Oskaloosa.
The Sport Compacts were up first come feature time and after last week's photo finish where he heard boos in victory lane from fans who disagreed with the final result, it looked like Trent Orwig was on a mission to get back there and hear some cheers. Brandon Allison would lead the opening lap, but when he slipped wide out of turn two the second trip around Orwig took the point after starting fifth. One of the hottest Four Cylinder drivers in the area so far in 2019, Jacob Houston made the trip up from Burlington for the first time this year and he moved to second looking to apply the pressure on Orwig.
But Allison was not about to give in and he would get back to second at the mid-race point dropping Houston to third and wanting to turn the tables on Orwig. As the lead trio was coming to the white flag, Allison was right on Orwig's tail but when he took a shot in the rear end from Houston in turn four that allowed the leader to get away a bit and go unchallenged over the final lap to take the win. This time as Trent climbed out of the car in victory lane he received a nice round of applause for his victory ahead of Allison and Houston. Billy Cain and Nathan Moody rounded out the top five.
For the third race night in a row the Stock Car count was at nine, even with the return of Howard Gordon Jr. who missed last week and the first appearance of the year from Brett Lowery who started from the front row outside of Dustin Griffiths for the sixteen lap main event. Third starting Nathan Wood would get his nose under those two going into turn one though and they would go three-wide through the first set of turns and down the back stretch. Wood would get the advantage in the preferred low line and he would be the leader as the first lap was scored.
It didn't take long for Cayden Carter to get to second after he started from fifth and the young driver then showed his patience as he waited for Wood to make a mistake and come off the bottom. When Nathan got into turns one and two just a bit too high on lap twelve Cayden was ready to pounce and he drove under Wood in turn two to take the lead. There would be no keeping up with Roger Kelderman's Orange Krush #10cc from there as Carter stayed perfect on the year here with his third feature win. The defending track champion Wood was the runner-up, Dustin Griffiths finished third as Michael Brown and Jason McDaniel completed the score sheet on lap sixteen.
The Sport Mods were interesting tonight from a couple of standpoints. First was the roster as once again opening night winner Austin Paul was not in attendance and neither was last week's winner and multi-time track champion Curtis Van Der Wal. Brayton Carter who went to Stuart and won last Wednesday night had his car here tonight, but with brother Cayden behind the wheel instead while young rookie Dylan VanWyk who was fourth here last week and then won his first career feature at Memphis on Friday night was also missing. I am guessing that there was something going on at the Oskaloosa High School that they couldn't, or didn't want to miss?
A new face at the speedway, Jason Bass from Fort Dodge would race out to the lead from his pole position in the sixteen lap main event and after wining his heat race in dominating fashion, it looked like Bass would cruise to a win in this one as well. With the racing groove on the bottom lapped traffic would really come into play and Bass had no problem slipping by his first challenge while that first lapper did create some havoc for the second spot.
When Carter Vandenberg tried to squeeze under the lapped car exiting turn four, contact between the two allowed Cayden Carter to drive by on the outside and move to second still several car lengths behind Bass and with the laps winding down. Tommy Lathrop would be the next car ahead of the leader and when Bass saw the waving green indicating just two laps remaining he tucked in behind Lathrop entering turn one rather than taking the risk of trying the next groove up. This allowed Carter and Vandenberg to close quickly and as the white flag waved the fours cars were nose to tail.
Carter would be the first to break out of line going one groove up into turn one and when Bass tried to get up there as well that opened the bottom for Vandenberg. Lathrop was now a big part of this race and he did as he should by holding his line, but with Bass trapped right behind him he soon found himself in third instead of the lead heading down the back stretch and into turn three. Now it was a battle between the two cousins and with Vandenberg on the bottom he made sure that Cayden was not going to beat him as Vandenberg won the drag race to the stripe. Bass was impressive, but a bit too conservative at the end to land him in third, Blaine Webster finished fourth and Cory Van Zante was fifth.
The Hobby Stocks would close out the evening with fourteen laps of caution free racing and that was just what Derek Kirkland was hoping for after starting from the front row. Kirkland had chased in Dustin Griffiths the first two weeks of the season and tonight, by the time that Griffiths emerged from a tight three car battle with Dylan Nelson and Brad Stephens to take second on lap five, Kirkland had built up nearly a full straightaway lead.
Griffiths was able to close the gap a bit over the final nine laps, but it was still a comfortable lead for Kirkland as he took the checkers. Stephens finished third in his first appearance of the season, Nelson was fourth and Christian Huffman filled out the top five.
Racing action wrapped up at 9:14 p.m. allowing me to drive back home to southeast Iowa where I was greeted by even more rain, lightning and thunder. That additional rain, along with the forecast for more both tonight and tomorrow will force the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson to cancel the Sprint Invaders program for Friday night and will now send this good uncle to a dance recital instead.
Here's hoping that the forecasts are wrong and that you can get out to a track of your choice this Memorial Day weekend!
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