With sunny skies and warmer than normal temperatures a whopping field of 178 cars in five divisions filled the pit area at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, Friday for night number one of the annual Fall Nationals and the Jerry Barickman Memorial. It was a full night of fast paced action on one of the widest tracks you will find and while two drivers dominated their feature races, the other three main events had action up front racing for the checkers.
With fifty-eight drivers signing in, including many of the best in the Midwest, six heat races and three B-Mains were needed to trim the field of Sport Mods to twenty-four for their twenty lap feature, but with Curtis Van Der Wal drawing the front row the writing was on the wall. Even with Adam Birck and his ten feature wins this season starting from the pole, there was no staying with Van Der Wal as he drive away at the drop of the green. A caution on lap four when Kevin Goben and Casey Lancaster tangled on the back stretch would bring the field back to the leader, but once back to racing Van Der Wal would again pull away.
The caution would fly again mid-race when Blaine Webster slowed on the front stretch and on this restart Logan Anderson would try to keep pace with the leader, but he was never able to mount a challenge as Van Der Wal posted the dominating win over a stout field that included six of the top eleven drivers in the current All Iowa Points. Anderson was second with Colton Livezy third, Brayton Carter came from the fifth row to finish fourth and the ol' veteran Jim Gillenwater is back at it in style charging from the eighth row to complete the top five.
A full field of Sport Compacts would be up next for fourteen laps with Chris Vannausdle and Josh Barnes making up a strong front row, but it would be the third starting Jake Benischek who would be the first back to the stripe to lead lap one. A red flag was needed on lap six when Mark Williams rolled his car off the back stretch and following the restart the chase resumed with Barnes trying to keep pace with Benischek. The challenge would suddenly end with just two laps remaining though when the right front tire went flat on the Darkside Tint & Graphics #13B and Barnes would retire to the pit area under caution.
With the green, white, checkers restart the field was scrambling for positions and when the fourth and fifth place cars of Trent Orwig and Isaiah Penton tangled in turn two, Penton spun sideways and then tipped over onto his top bring out a second red flag in the event. Once back to racing the side-by-side battle for second between Vannausdle and Kimberly Abbott allowed Benischek to pull away for the win. Vannausdale who made the long pull over from southwest Iowa nipped the former All Iowa Points champion Abbott by a bumper for second with Chuck Fullenkamp fourth ahead of another western Iowa traveler Colten Point.
It was another impressive roster of drivers assembled for the twenty-lap main event in the Stock Cars and they delivered, as usual, with plenty of two and three wide racing on the well prepared surface. The caution would wave as the first lap was being scored when John Oliver Jr. was shuffled out of the pack and sent for a spin exiting turn four. This would send the defending All Iowa Points champion to the rear of the field giving fans who wanted to watch a charge to the front something to see.
Jeff Mueller would lead the race from the pole and he would have two challenges as not only did he have Cayden Carter trying to drive under him, Mueller also had the right side of his hood come up and bend over in front of him obstructing his view. The battle for the lead was a good one with Mueller uncharacteristically up high and Carter digging on the bottom they would run the straightaways side by side for several laps with Mueller still holding the edge at the line until lap ten.
When he finally cleared Mueller for the lead Carter would go up to that high line allowing Mueller to go back to where you normally find him, cat fishing the bottom and we would go back to side by side racing for the lead. At his first opportunity to do so, Carter went back to the bottom to stop the charge before the caution waved with six laps remaining as Derrick Agee stopped in turn four. Under the caution Mueller would have track officials remove his hood and on the restart we had a new player in the game, Johnny Spaw.
The veteran from Cedar Rapids had started the race from tenth and was now restarting from third on the outside of the first double row and with the leaders convinced that the bottom was the place to be, Spaw went to the outside and took the lead from Carter on lap sixteen. One last caution would wave two laps later when Brett Lowry spun in turn two and under this caution Mueller would hustle to the infield to get some water applied to his overheating engine. This would allow John Oliver Jr. to restart alongside Carter behind Spaw and the crowd was treated to two thrilling laps of action with three cars battling for the win that would be secured by Spaw just ahead of Carter and Oliver. Nathan Wood started eighth and finished fourth while Jason See came from the fifth row to complete the top five.
An interesting mix of fifteen Hobby Stocks would roll off next for fourteen laps with the rookie from central Iowa Miciah Hidelbaugh taking the early lead. The red flag would be needed early when a fire started under the hood of Jadyn Stephens' car and then on lap four the caution waved when two of the pre-race favorites Quinton Miller and Dustin Griffiths tangled with both drivers going to the rear for the restart. Hidelbaugh would continue to lead until lap six when Kaden Reynolds, who is in his first full year in a Hobby Stock after winning a couple of races in the autumn of 2018, drove under him to take the lead.
As Miller and Griffiths were trying to make their way back to the front they locked up in a three way battle with Jake Benischek and when the double duty driver gave Miller a nice little shove entering turn three on lap eleven it would send Miller for a spin that would produce the final caution of the race with three laps remaining. Nobody would have anything for Reynolds over those final laps as the young driver from Cedar Rapids posted the win ahead of Hidelbaugh and Derek Kirkland. Benischek would hold down the fourth spot and Griffiths would limp across the line in fifth with a flat right rear tire after tagging the guardrail exiting turn two on the final lap.
The Modifieds would close out the evening with twenty-four of the forty two entries earning their right to race for twenty-two laps. Pole-sitter Logan Anderson would lead the opening lap, but there would be nobody that could stay with Michael Long tonight as he started fourth and sailed around Anderson on lap two. Cayden Carter would move to second soon after that and try to keep Long in his sights as the leaders had a half a lap on the field by the mid-race point. Not even lapped traffic would allow Carter to close the gap as Long was dominant in the flag-to-flag victory leaving Carter with his second runner-up finish of the night. Kory Meyer started outside of Anderson on the front row and ran a nice race to finish third, hometown favorite Austin Howes moved from row four to fourth at the checkers and Kurt Kile was impressive moving from the eleventh starting spot up to fifth in the non-stop event.
With drivers still checking in at the scheduled start time racing got underway a bit late, but with the huge field and a few red flags sprinkled in the final checkers still waved just past the stroke of midnight. They are calling for a thin line of showers to move through the area early this afternoon, but after that look for another full field of cars to be ready again for action tonight with hot laps scheduled for 6 p.m. in northeast Missouri.
Hope to see you there!
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