"I figured that we had a one percent chance of racing," Stuart Speedway owner/promoter Mike Van Genderen said to Malvern Bank SLMR series founder Joe Kosiski Wednesday night as the twenty-four car feature field saluted a large turnout of fans before the green flag waved for thirty-five laps of action. Soaking rains from tropical depression Cristobal stayed just east of Stuart during the day on Tuesday and then the storms from a passing cold front somehow missed the small town about a half hour west of Des Moines overnight on Tuesday and into Wednesday. So what had been a forecast of more than four inches of rain turned out to be just a few sprinkles and the Stuart Speedway was the only one of four events originally scheduled in Iowa for Wednesday that was able to run. And, once the wind subsided by feature time, it was a perfect night for racing.
In my story for Saturday's USAC show at 34 Raceway I talked about how the format promoted racing all throughout the night. I must give the same credit to the SLMR series, especially now that fans in the eastern part of the state will be more exposed to it beginning next weekend. Time trials are run off quickly with four cars on the track at one time each getting two laps on the clock, with the best lap counting. From there, and this is very important, they set the heat race lineups with six cars inverted in each of the heats and a passing points system the transfers the top sixteen cars from the heats to the A-Main. With thirty nine cars on hand last night, two B-Mains were then run with the top two finishers from each locking themselves in and, since this was both an East and a West Series event, four provisional starters were added to complete the twenty-four car starting field.
So why is this such a good format? Well here's a preview, the fastest qualifier started from sixth in heat one and advanced to fourth. This earned him the fourth starting position in the A-Main where he then worked his way to the front to win the "race". Note that I have quotations around the word race, because in other prominent Super Late Model series here is how the format would have worked. The fastest qualifier would start from the pole of the first heat where he would likely win without having to pass anybody and he would then start on the pole of the feature where, if he would go on to win, it would have likely been in a flag-to-flag fashion, or in other words a "chase". In both formats, the fastest qualifier won, but do you as a fan see the difference?
I am Race Fan, not a chase fan.
Jake Neal driving Glenn Robey's "8-Ball" and Charlie McKenna would bring the field to green, but before a full lap could be scored the caution waved when Dave Eckrich and Ben Scahller tangled in turn four. On the second try McKenna vaulted to the lead pounding the cushion on both ends and opening up a nice advantage over the first five laps before Joel Callahan slowed on the front stretch. Once back to green McKenna again pulled away from the pack as both Justin Kay and Tad Pospisil worked their way to the front.
The high line held an advantage for the leader, but as he started to work lapped traffic both Kay and Pospisil quickly closed the gap and behind them Bill Leighton Jr. was on the move after starting thirteenth. On lap twenty-one Kay would drive under McKenna to take the lead and the crowd was on the edge of their seats as the top four raced in a tight formation down the back stretch with traffic still in play. Pospisil made his move in turns three and four to steal the lead from Kay, and Leighton made a nifty move going from fourth to second as lap twenty-two was scored.
It was clear now that the low line was the place to be as McKenna continued to fade on the top and soon the entire field was circling the quarter-mile at a high rate of speed in pretty much the same line. Pospisil showed his patience by settling in behind the lapped cars rather than trying to get around them and when he made one slight mistake late in the race, getting a bit wide exiting turn four, Leighton took a look but could not get alongside the leader before entering turn one. And that is how this one would end with the fourth starting, fastest qualifier of the night, Tad Pospisil rising to the top to take the checkers. Leighton was the hard charger advancing eleven spots to finish second, Kay held on for third ahead of defending SLMR champion Kyle Berck in fourth. Jason Hahne started tenth and finished fifth, Jeff Aikey was sixth, Jeff Tharp advanced five positions to finish in seventh, McKenna dropped to eighth at the checkers, last year's winner here at Stuart Jason O'Brien was ninth and Darrel DeFrance filled out the top ten.
The Malvern Bank SLMR East and West Series moves to the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City tonight for a special Thursday night event and the West Series wraps up a three-night swing at the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska on Friday night. Next week the Hoker Trucking East Series will be at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction on Friday June 19th and on Saturday the East Series continues at 34 Raceway in Burlington. On Sunday June 21st the three race swing for the Hoker Trucking East Series wraps up in East Moline at the Bullring at Rock Island County Fairgrounds.
Four of the track's six weekly divisions were also in action Wednesday night with the Outlaw Mini Mods being the first main event of the evening. Cody Housby was scheduled to start from the pole position, but he elected to go from the rear putting Kamdyn Haggard in charge of starting the race. After two failed chances to deliver a clean start, Haggard was sent to the rear of the lineup and it would be Luke Daniels who would finally lead the field to green. Haggard would spin to cause a caution on lap two and another caution on lap eight would slow the field, but nobody was going to challenge Luke Daniels over the final four laps as he scored the win. The Prehn's, Tanner and Matt finished second and third, Haggard recovered to take fourth and Lukas Schroeder used the high line to gain three positions over the final two laps to finish in fifth.
The IMCA Sport Mod division at Stuart has provided some of the best racing that I have seen anywhere over the past two years and this night was no exception. An accordion effect caution in turn four slowed the field on lap two and on the restart Brayton Carter used the low line to go from fourth to second and put the heat on leader Matt Webb. With Webb circling the top and Carter digging down low the leader of the next several laps was hard to tell unless you were sitting right at the line as it was that close lap after lap, but Webb's momentum off the top side would score him as the leader until lap nine.
This time Carter came out of turn two with more than a car length's advantage and he was poised to finally take the point only to have the caution wave when Maguire DeJong spun in turn four while racing in fifth. The restart would put Webb back out front and he would lead lap ten only to have Carter nip him by a nose on lap eleven. Webb's high line would prevail to lead laps twelve and thirteen, but with four laps remaining Carter was able to take the lead for good and he would go on to post the entertaining victory. Webb was a solid runner-up with Dusty Masolini taking third. Tyler Inman came from eighth to fourth and Cam Reimers was fifth after starting from the fifth row.
The IMCA Stock Car feature followed the Late Models and after a quick manicure by Van Genderen the surface was back to two and three wide action with Shawn Ritter leading the first of twenty laps. Coming to score lap two though, the second place car of Brad Derry got into Ritter exiting turn four causing the leader to spin and both drivers were sent to the rear for the restart. That would hand the lead over to seven-time National Champion Mike Nichols and as he opened up a lead the battle for second mid-race was spectacular going four-wide at one point between Josh Daniels, Damon Murty, Todd VanEaton and Buck Schafroth.
Murty would finally clear that group and would set his sights on Nichols who now had nearly a full straightaway lead with less than ten laps remaining. The leader was running low and, of course, Murty was using the cushion and the gap closed quickly with Murty, the four-time All Iowa Points Champion, ready to pounce. Just as he was about to take the lead the caution waved with three laps remaining when Jason Hall spun in turn four and, while under caution, somebody gave the signal to Nichols that he needed to move up to the high line.
As the green flag waved again, Nichols went straight to the cushion in turn one while Murty tried the middle and the final three laps were an intriguing game of cat and mouse between two of the best Stock Car drivers ever. On the final lap Murty had a run off the top of turn two and was poised to throw a slider, but Nichols went low into turn three to block it off and he would hold on to win this thriller by a car length at the checkers. Murty would have to settle for second as VanEaton, Daniels and Schafroth had their own entertaining battle over the final three laps to finish in that order.
A star-studded field of Modifieds would close out the evening for twenty laps and when John Davis had trouble bringing the field to a start, he would drop to the rear moving Ricky Thornton Jr. to the pole position. And, well, you can probably write the rest of this paragraph from there.
One caution slowed the race when Ronnie Hults and Jaxon Saathoff tangled on lap eight and on the restart Tom Berry Jr. made a nifty move to go from fourth to second. But not even he could mount a challenge on Thornton as this one was a "chase" to the checkers with Thornton taking the convincing win. Berry ended up starting the race from the inside of the fourth row and finished second, Todd Shute moved from fifth to third, Josh Gilman finished where he started in fourth and Matthew Meinecke completed the top five.
It was another full and fantastic night of racing at Stuart with the final checkers waving at 10:12 p.m. and the track now looks ahead to next Tuesday night June 16th when Todd & Janet Staley will bring the United States Modified Touring Series to town for the first time ever. The USRA Ironman Series for B-Mods and Stock Cars will also be in action along with the Hobby Stocks. Wednesday night racing returns the following week, June 24th with the Jake Durbin Memorial at the Stuart Speedway.
I will take tonight off to catch up on some sleep and then on Friday I hope to be at the Pepsi Lee County Speedway in Donnellson where it will be $1,000-to-win for the IMCA Late Models as the first qualifier for the "Drive for Five" promotion. Then, after a social engagement on Saturday, I look forward to making a long awaited return trip to Moberly, Missouri, where the Sprint Invaders will headline the show at the Randolph County Raceway on Sunday evening.
Get out and support the track of your choice and please come back to join us on the Back Stretch often.
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