Over one hundred race cars filled the pit area on a cool, but bearable evening as the 2020 edition of the Musco Lightning Fall Challenge got underway at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Friday night. With five divisions in action and one of them, the non-wing Sprint Cars only sporting seven, the car counts in the remaining four divisions made for full feature fields in each.
The Sprint Car feature would be first up after an intermission that saw one of my favorites Dan Dickey officially inducted into the Southern Iowa Speedway Hall of Fame along with a presentation of the point fund money to the drivers who raced here on Wednesday nights throughout the season. Jonathan Hughes would line up sixth on the starting grid and there seemed to be little doubt that he would continue his string of perfection. Ben Woods raced out to the early lead as Hughes picked his way through the field and soon after he moved to second the caution would wave for Tyler Graves who had spun in turn two.
Hughes would cruise past Woods in turns three and four after the restart and the final laps were a parade around the bottom as Hughes would once again celebrate in victory lane. Woods actually had beat him to the checkers once earlier this season, but was disqualified for a rules infraction under the hood and on this night he would finish second ahead of Kelly Graham, Doug Sylvester and Chuck Alexander.
Twenty-three Sport Compacts would answer the bell for their ten lap feature race with Bob "Gabby" Hayes drawing the pole position on his first night back in a race car after nineteen years. He was quickly swallowed up after the green flag waved though with third starting Clayton Webster racing to the lead and eighth starting Matt Moore going quickly to second. Those two would set a blistering pace while a three car battle went on behind them for third and on lap six of the ten lap distance one of those in battle, Dustin Grout from Creston, slowed and pulled to the infield with a flat tire.
Moore continued to stalk Webster and when the white flag waved he charged to the inside of the leader in turns one and two. It was a drag race down the backstretch that would see Moore ease ahead going into turn three and he would complete the pass to score the feature win. Just ahead of the two leaders as they were taking the checkers, Hayes was bouncing off the guardrail in turn one so the rest of the field finished under caution with Chuck Fullenkamp taking third after starting twelfth, Seth Meinders was fourth and Lewie Winkelman came from the fifth row to finish fifth.
The fourteen lap Hobby Stock feature was up next with four of the fastest, Brad Stephens, Luke Ramsey, Rick Van Dusseldorp and Dustin Griffiths drawing the first four starting spots. Ramsey, the visitor from the southwest Iowa town of Bedford, would race out to the lead with Griffiths right on his tail and applying the pressure lap after lap. Each time Griffith would get a nose under the leader Ramsey would fight him off and the battle raged on until lap ten when the red flag flew as Keaton Gordon stopped in turn four with a pretty good fire going on under the hood of his #77.
Griffiths would choose the high line for the Delaware double file restart and as the green flag waved Stephens would pinch him high allowing both Clint Nelson and Van Dusseldorp to race by the pair entering turn one. All eyes were on Stephens and Griffiths as they were now in a dogfight with each other as they also tried to get back to the front and now it was Nelson who had pulled even with Ramsey as they raced through turns one and two with two laps remaining.
Before that battle could be decided though the caution would wave for Braden Richards who had coasted to a halt and Ramsey would again bring the field to green for the final two laps. Van Dusseldorp would get the edge on Nelson after the green flag waved, but he could not mount a challenge on Ramsey who would hold on to take the win in his first ever appearance at Osky. Van Dusseldorp would take the runner-up spot with Nelson warding off Griffiths for third while Stephens completed the top five.
Twenty-one Sport Mods would roll to the track next for sixteen laps of feature action with USMTS regular Zack VanderBeek going from the pole position in one of the cars that he had built for car owner Matt DeJong. This one appeared to be setup for the IMCA rule package while the other #30m in the field looked like it was racing under the USRA B-Mod rules and, with DeJong's son Maguire still sidelined after an elective surgery, Cayden Carter would start it from the eleventh position. VanderBeek would race out to a quick lead while the outside front row starter Derek Roney had the deck lid of his car come off and it appeared to float over the guardrail in turn three, but the caution waved after lap one for debris.
Once back to green another lap was scored before Brant Murray spun in turn one and then one more lap went in the books before Tyler Heckart spun in turn two collecting Jeremy Gustaf and Jason Bass. On this restart Carter VandenBerg who had charged from seventh to second tried to squeeze under the leader entering turn one, but contact would cut down the right front tire on the challenger and the caution would wave again as VandenBerg slowed down the backstretch. Finally we would get some consecutive laps in, but only four of them before Shaun Slaughter executed a clean 360 degree spin exiting turn four only to have the caution wave anyway as one of the infield track tires in turn four had been kicked out into the low groove.
The frustration was becoming evident with the chilled crowd as the field circled the half-mile prior to another restart and finally this one would stay green as Tim Plummer pulled even with the leader on lap eight. VanderBeek would ward off that challenge and two laps later Carter would drop Plummer to third setting up a potential battle between the two DeJong cars. But while Cayden was able to stay close, he was never able to put a nose under Zack who would go on to take the win in his first night ever racing a Sport Mod. Plummer would finish in the third spot ahead of Curtis Van Der Wal who raced from tenth to fourth and northeast Iowa visitor Troy Hovey filled out the top five.
A sixteen lap feature for the Stock Cars would close out the evening with twenty-one cars taking the green as pole-sitter Dustin Griffiths established himself as the early leader. A four car pileup at the back of the field halted the action on the second lap and once back to green Griffiths maintained control leading the field the fast way around on the cushion. Cayden Carter was one driver making the bottom work though as he was bringing Roger Kelderman's #10cc to the front after starting twelfth and, following a lap seven caution for Cody Agee, Carter was now ready to challenge.
Griffiths would hold him off for three laps before Cayden surged to the front and started to pull away. One last caution for Donnie Pearson's spin in turn two would bunch the field with three laps remaining and on the restart Griffiths would make a run at getting his lead back. With two to go Dustin would get under Cayden entering turn one, but Carter would maintain the lead off the high side of turn four coming to the white flag. The leader would then block the bottom going into turn one for the final time and when Griffiths charged too hard trying to get a run off the cushion in turn three that allowed Todd Reitzler to take the second spot at the checkers as Carter scored the win. Nathan Wood would finish in the fourth spot with the ninth starting Derrick Agree completing the top five.
The final checkers waved around 11:30 and you can look for another full infield tonight as the American Iron Racing Series (AIRS) cars will join the card for night number two of the Musco Lighting Fall Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway.
I had hoped to catch the 2020 finale for the MLRA Late Model series at the Randolph Count Raceway in Moberly on Sunday night, but the weather is going to have to completely defy the current forecast for that to happen, so more likely my next night of action will come next Friday at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis for the opening night of the Calvin Meyer Memorial. This season is winding down quickly so bundle up and get out to the Fall special of your choice!
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