VanderBeek, Carter, Kirkland and Reu Take Thursday Thunder Wins at Bloomfield

The way that this spring has been going drivers and fans need to take advantage of a dry night and go racing whether it is a weekday or the weekend. It was a beautiful night for racing on Thursday at the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway and with some good money on the line for both the IMCA Stock Cars and the IMCA Northern Sport Mods, there was a solid field of twenty drivers signed in for each, while the count was a bit light in both the Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. Even so, there was plenty of action in all four divisions in another well presented show that started on time with hot laps at 7:00 and the final checkered flag waved at 9:05. Perfect for a week night program!

The Sport Compacts would be the first of the four main events on the night with fourteen laps the distance and it would be Barry Taft racing out to the lead at the drop of the green. Brandon Reu had started right on Taft's back bumper and he would size him up over the first six laps trying to determine his best chance to get by the two-time former All Iowa Points champion in this division. On lap six Reu would try one line wider than the leader in turns one and two and that allowed him to pull even with Taft down the back stretch. The two long-time friends and competitors would then race side-by-side with no contact over the next two laps.

On lap eight Reu would finally clear Taft and then move back down into the preferred lane, but now Barry would check out that higher line and twice he was able to get to within a half car length from retaking the lead. Brandon would fight him off though and then begin to ease away as the laps clicked down and Kevin Eggelston's checkered flags waved. Matt Moore would get to the third spot late in the race, Cody Phillips recovered from a near spin early to race back up to fourth as Kyle Rysdam finished fifth.

The Stock Cars were up next and with two of the hottest drivers in the state right now, Dustin Griffiths and John Oliver Jr. drawing the ninth and twelfth starting positions respectively, I was looking forward to watching both of them battle their way to the front. However, as the field made their way to the track, Oliver was missing and was an apparent scratch after finishing second to Griffiths in the first heat race of the night. 

Tanner Allen, who had made the long tow down from Springville, would race out to a nice early lead as drivers jockeyed for position behind him. Zack VanderBeek, driving one of his own VanderBuilt Stock Cars that have hit the market here in 2024, had started eighth and quickly made his way up to third now racing behind pole-sitter Andrew Schroeder. It took several laps for Zack to work his way into second, but once he did VanderBeek would quickly reel in Allen and on lap eleven of twenty we had a new leader. There would be no catching "The Z-Man" from there as he would drive away to collect the $1,000 top prize in a convincing manner. Allen would hold off Schroeder for second. Cayden Carter worked his way up from tenth to fourth while veteran driver Dennis Elliott debuted a sharp black #29 Stock Car and filled out the top five. The strength of this field showed as Griffiths would finish eighth behind Derrick Agee and Corey Strothman.

A full field of twenty Sport Mods would go next for twenty laps and $750-to-win with pole-sitter Trent Brink quickly opening up a sizeable advantage. He knew he had to go though as he had four of the fastest in the Midwest now chasing him in Dylan Van Wyk, Brayton Carter, Maguire DeJong and Logan Anderson. Carter would soon move to second, but he would only erase about a car length a lap from Brink's lead until the caution waved for Charlie Rindom's spin into the infield at the end of the back stretch on lap eight.

"Speedy Bray" would waste no time on the restart driving low into turn one and then sliding up in front of Brink to take the point and Van Wyk, Anderson and DeJong would soon dispatch of Brink as well. Van Wyk was chasing the leader, but not making up any ground while Anderson and DeJong traded sliders in a fun race to watch for third. The white flag had been taken and Carter was working through turns three and four for what he thought would be the final time when Kyle Harwood spun in turn one creating the dirt track version of "overtime" looking for a green-white-checkers restart.

As Carter would go unchallenged over those two extra laps to take the victory, Anderson was able to muscle his way past Van Wyk for second while DeJong was right there in fourth. I felt bad for Ottumwa driver Kyle Boyd who had the fifth-place position all but locked up before the caution waved, but he got shuffled high in turns one and two on the restart and had to settle for ninth as Cody Agee filled out the top five.

With the early hour the nice sized crowd all stuck around to see how the seven evenly matched Hobby Stocks would play out and they were treated to an interesting race with a hectic finish. Even though the Sport Mods had just been racing around the top, pole-sitter Brad Graham went straight to the bottom on both ends and even while protecting that bottom line, he was fast. Heat race winner Derek Kirkland soon settled in behind Graham and he too would stick to the bottom waiting for Graham to make a mistake.

As the fourteen lap affair reached the midway point, Kirkland was now on the back bumper of Graham and even tapped it a few times as he tried to squeeze between the leader and the large implement tires marking the infield in the turns. Graham wasn't giving an inch though and as the laps wound down I was looking for Kirkland to eventually give a higher line a try.

He never did though and as the white flag waved Corey VanDerwilt had tracked down the leaders and was ready to pounce if anything should happen. Working through turn two on that final lap Kirkland was able to get his nose under Graham and they would race wheel to wheel down the back stretch. Both drivers wanted that inside line entering turn three, but there was only room for one so they were definitely trading paint as they drifted up the track in turn four. Coming to the straight away Graham would get a bit loose on the outside, while Kirkland was able to get back down in time to ward off VanDerwilt's late charge and take an exciting victory. Graham who had led for all but the final two turns of the race, was not pleased with how things had played out and after finishing third he chased down Kirkland on the cool down lap to express his opinion.

Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and the crowd was buzzing as they headed for the exits and Kirkland celebrated in victory lane. Keaton Gorden finished fourth while Kale Hemsley filled out the top five.

A big thanks to promoter Mike Van Genderen and his entire crew for another great program on a well prepared surface and to announcer Tony Paris for his mention of our work here on the Back Stretch and at Positively Racing. It was also good to visit briefly after the races with former drivers Mike Leffler and Todd Holman.

Next up for me, weather permitting of course, will be the co-sanctioned Malvern Bank 360's and the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders at the Stuart Speedway on Sunday night then, on Tuesday, we look forward to seeing the High Limits Sprint Car Series at the Davenport Speedway. Hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!