After letting one slip away the night before, South Dakota driver Jon Tesch was flawless on Wednesday night leading all forty laps to win the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) main event at the Marshalltown Speedway. It was the first ever appearance for the group at the high-banked quarter-mile after being rained out in their scheduled debut here in 2008.
A field of forty-two Modifieds filled the pits at Marshalltown and it was the same two drivers up front at the end of the night that were deciding the outcome the night before in Oskaloosa. The main event got off to a rough start as second row starters, and potential contenders, Tommy Myer and Ryan Dolan made contact coming out of turn four to complete the first lap. The field went scrambling behind them with several other cars sustaining damage. Both Myer and Dolan were towed away to the pits while the third row of Rodney Sanders and Scott Drake were also eliminated. Pole-starter Kelly Shryock had the jump on that first start, but on the restart it was fellow front row man Jon Tesch who picked up the lead. Shryock, the many time USMTS National Champion, picked up the chase in second until the fourth circuit when he went too high in turn two and slipped over the banking. Shryock recovered, but lost seven positions due to the miscue.
This put Oklahoma driver Jason Hughes back in the role that he played the night before in chasing Tesch. While the field raced three and sometimes four wide behind them, Tesch and Hughes would pull away making it obvious that the race would be decided between the two of them. With the laps winding down Tesch developed a bit of a push in turn four giving Hughes the opportunity to get a wheel under him, but on this night there were no mistakes by Tesch as he held on for victory. Zack VanderBeek came from the outside of row eight to finish in the third position with young Ryan Gustin thrilling his hometown fans by taking fourth after starting in row seven. Shryock had worked his way back into the top five only to be passed on the final lap by Corey Dripps who had started next to VanderBeek as the third, fourth and fifth place finishers showed just how racy this track was by feature time.
In support class action David Atcher made his first appearance at the Speedway in 2009 and went flag-to-flag to win the Stock Car main event. It was the first victory for Atcher here since 2005. Tom Schmitt made quite a run at Atcher over the final two laps, but came up just short in second with Curt Hook, Mike VanGenderen and Clayton Deppe next in line. Thirty-four Sport Mods/B-Modifieds from all over the state were on hand tonight and when the checkers flew it was a very familiar face in victory lane. Kevin Sather has won every feature race in 2009 at Marshalltown in this division thus far, so when he drew a front row starting spot for the main event it was a pretty good bet that the win would be his. Kyle Brown stayed close though and was even able to pull alongside in the corners on a few occasions before settling for second. Luke Wanninger edged out Scott Davis for the third spot while A.J. Johnson made the most of his first Marshalltown appearance by coming from row ten to take fifth. And in the Hobby Stock portion of the card Todd Reitzler shook off an early challenge from Nathan Wood and then cruised to victory. The race saw three attempts at a green-white-checkers restart and on the final one Kenny Hansen was able slip by Wood out of turn four to steal the runner-up position. Chad Koch finished fourth with Dustin Elliott fifth.
M-Town Notes.....Kenny Wallace and Kenny Schrader were on hand again tonight and both of them raced their way into the feature with Wallace finishing ninth and Schrader twelfth. Unlike the night before at Osky, both NASCAR veterans were brought out to the frontstretch during the evening to be interviewed by announcer Denny Grabenbauer and both were very entertaining. I have had the pleasure on several occasions to interview these two characters and I have learned to ask them a basic question and then just let them roll and that is exactly what Denny did. In a pre-race interview Wallace had the capacity crowd whooping and hollering and then did a pretty good Ric Flair championship belt strut, something that he probably saw a few times this past week when the professional wrestling icon was part of the marketing campaign for the Sprint Cup All-Star event at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Schrader's interview was at intermission after he had finished second to Mike O'Lear in the third heat race. When asked if he would know his way to the Aaron's Victory Lane at the Marshalltown Speedway Schrader's response was "yea, and when I get there I won't be doing no backflips or anything like that. I'll just sit on the tire and drink a Bud Light". We'll look forward to seeing Schrader compete with the World of Outlaw Late Models at 34 Raceway this Saturday night May 23rd.....Geoff Olson had a top five run go by the wayside in the SportMod feature when he popped a driveshaft with just a few laps to go.....The warm and windy conditions dried out the track quickly tonight and in the second SportMod heat six of the eight starters spun out at least once during the race. But, with the spin-your-in rule in effect, they all kept racing making for an interesting eight laps. By feature time though the track had taken rubber and drivers could run well from top to bottom. In fact as the Stock Car field came out of turn four to complete the first lap they were five-wide!....For the second straight night USMTS rookie contender Tim Shields of Kansas City drew the pole of the first heat race. Last night at Osky he didn't make it to staging in time and had to then start at the rear. He was on time tonight.....There are some things that I just never thought I would hear such as "the Tampa Bay Rays, American League champions" or "Brett Favre stays retired" (guess I still haven't heard that one for sure yet), but I really never thought that I would hear "and now here's your lineup for the IMCA USRA Hobby Stock main event". Maybe now Favre will stay retired.....I always know that when I go to see a Toby Kruse promoted show, or a USMTS-run event by Todd Staley and his family, I am going to see a well-presented program. The combination of the two was a sure thing and it lived up to expectations.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Hughes Spoils Tesch's Night; Wood Wins Two at Osky
One slight miscue by Jon Tesch made all the difference in the outcome of the thirty lap feature for the USMTS Modifieds as Jason Hughes picked up the $2,000 top prize on a beautiful Tuesday night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Nathan Wood will remember it as a great night as well as he topped the field in two of the support divisions while Tyler Groenendyk won his first career feature in the B-Modifieds.
Tesch started the Modified main outside of young Ryan Gustin on row one and jumped to the lead at the drop of the green. The Watertown South Dakota speedster then opened up nearly a straightaway advantage as Jason Hughes moved by Gustin for the second position. A mid-race caution wiped away that lead and on the restart Hughes made a bid for the point using the low groove in turns one and two. Tesch was able to brush off that challenge and put a few car lengths between himself and Hughes looking as if he would be hard to beat in the final ten laps. As the leader approach some backmarkers with seven laps remaining, he got just a bit too high in turn two and made enough contact with the guardrail that it knocked down about a foot of his spoiler on the right rear. It was hard to tell if it was the damage to Tesch's car or the adrenaline rush that Hughes experienced seeing it happen just ahead of him, perhaps a combination of both, but the five car length difference between the two disappeared almost immediately.
Tesch and Hughes put on a great show over the next three laps as they ran side-by-side often, even while putting a couple of cars a lap down and with just three laps remaining Hughes put himself into the lead for good. Tesch tried one last time to regain the advantage using a different line through the corners, but he had to settle for second as Hughes pulled away over the final two laps. Ryan Gustin held off the persistent challenges of Brad Pinkerton to finish in the third spot while Zack VanderBeek completed the top five. VanderBeek moved quickly from his row six starting spot up to sixth in the early laps only to see his advancement slow from there. Al Hejna came from thirteenth to finish sixth and Dean Mahlsedt, who started next to VanderBeek in row six, came home seventh.
Leroy Groenendyk started from the pole position of the fifteen-lap B-Modified feature with his son Tyler right behind him in row two. The kid blew by his father off of turn two on the the first lap and never looked back taking his first career feature win by a full straightaway with Leroy holding on for second. Rookie driver Drew Lawson held his ground to finish in the third spot followed by Cory Brown and Andrew Schroeder. Of the top five only Brown started outside of it in seventh. A.J. Johnson won the first heat race of the night, but then appeared to not make weight afterwards as he started twentieth in the feature. A rookie in the division for 2009 Johnson was on the move and up to tenth before breaking the left front tie rod causing him to fade to 16th at the finish. (Note: The race story the following day stated that Leroy Groenendyk had been disqualified in post-race tech)
Front row starters Nathan Wood and Kyle Harwood swapped the lead a couple of times over the course of the fifteen-lap Stock Car feature with Wood regaining the lead on lap nine. From there Harwood's teammate Brian Mitrisin picked up the challenge and gave Wood all that he wanted over the final six laps only to come up short as Nathan Wood earned the victory. Zack Vanderbeek, who last week had wins in both the Modifieds and the Stock Cars here, would follow it up this week with a still impressive "top five" double as he finished in the third spot. Zack was forced to start ninth on the grid after dropping from his heat race with a flat right rear tire. Matt Greiner finished fourth with Harwood completing the top five.
After a quick victory lane interview with Tony Paris, Wood climbed aboard his Hobby Stock ride and started next to Pete Hutzell on the front row. Tony Teninty challenged Wood in the early laps and late in the race both Bobby Greene and Chris Hovden were within striking distance, but there was no stopping Wood from taking his second win in a fifteen minute time span. Greene, the winner of last Thursday's season opener, started tenth and finished second while Hovden who already has three wins this season up in the northeast corner of the state finished in third. Kris Walker and Dale Porter filled out the top five.
It must be noted that the three support class features raced for a total of forty-five green flag laps with just one caution, that coming on lap two of the Hobby Stock feature. Car counts were solid in three of the four divisions with 41 Modifieds, 20 Hobby Stocks, 20 B-Mods and 13 Stock Cars. The Stock Cars included a couple of drivers from out of the area as Kurt Krauskopf came down from Decorah and Jeff Zehr pulled in from Manson.
The USMTS Modifieds move to the Marshalltown Speedway tonight (Wednesday May 20th) and I believe that four of the five http://www.positivelyracing.com/ bloggers will be there to cover it. And Ryan Clark will have news from the Deery Brothers event from Allison "In Staging" so take some time to explore our site!
Tesch started the Modified main outside of young Ryan Gustin on row one and jumped to the lead at the drop of the green. The Watertown South Dakota speedster then opened up nearly a straightaway advantage as Jason Hughes moved by Gustin for the second position. A mid-race caution wiped away that lead and on the restart Hughes made a bid for the point using the low groove in turns one and two. Tesch was able to brush off that challenge and put a few car lengths between himself and Hughes looking as if he would be hard to beat in the final ten laps. As the leader approach some backmarkers with seven laps remaining, he got just a bit too high in turn two and made enough contact with the guardrail that it knocked down about a foot of his spoiler on the right rear. It was hard to tell if it was the damage to Tesch's car or the adrenaline rush that Hughes experienced seeing it happen just ahead of him, perhaps a combination of both, but the five car length difference between the two disappeared almost immediately.
Tesch and Hughes put on a great show over the next three laps as they ran side-by-side often, even while putting a couple of cars a lap down and with just three laps remaining Hughes put himself into the lead for good. Tesch tried one last time to regain the advantage using a different line through the corners, but he had to settle for second as Hughes pulled away over the final two laps. Ryan Gustin held off the persistent challenges of Brad Pinkerton to finish in the third spot while Zack VanderBeek completed the top five. VanderBeek moved quickly from his row six starting spot up to sixth in the early laps only to see his advancement slow from there. Al Hejna came from thirteenth to finish sixth and Dean Mahlsedt, who started next to VanderBeek in row six, came home seventh.
Leroy Groenendyk started from the pole position of the fifteen-lap B-Modified feature with his son Tyler right behind him in row two. The kid blew by his father off of turn two on the the first lap and never looked back taking his first career feature win by a full straightaway with Leroy holding on for second. Rookie driver Drew Lawson held his ground to finish in the third spot followed by Cory Brown and Andrew Schroeder. Of the top five only Brown started outside of it in seventh. A.J. Johnson won the first heat race of the night, but then appeared to not make weight afterwards as he started twentieth in the feature. A rookie in the division for 2009 Johnson was on the move and up to tenth before breaking the left front tie rod causing him to fade to 16th at the finish. (Note: The race story the following day stated that Leroy Groenendyk had been disqualified in post-race tech)
Front row starters Nathan Wood and Kyle Harwood swapped the lead a couple of times over the course of the fifteen-lap Stock Car feature with Wood regaining the lead on lap nine. From there Harwood's teammate Brian Mitrisin picked up the challenge and gave Wood all that he wanted over the final six laps only to come up short as Nathan Wood earned the victory. Zack Vanderbeek, who last week had wins in both the Modifieds and the Stock Cars here, would follow it up this week with a still impressive "top five" double as he finished in the third spot. Zack was forced to start ninth on the grid after dropping from his heat race with a flat right rear tire. Matt Greiner finished fourth with Harwood completing the top five.
After a quick victory lane interview with Tony Paris, Wood climbed aboard his Hobby Stock ride and started next to Pete Hutzell on the front row. Tony Teninty challenged Wood in the early laps and late in the race both Bobby Greene and Chris Hovden were within striking distance, but there was no stopping Wood from taking his second win in a fifteen minute time span. Greene, the winner of last Thursday's season opener, started tenth and finished second while Hovden who already has three wins this season up in the northeast corner of the state finished in third. Kris Walker and Dale Porter filled out the top five.
It must be noted that the three support class features raced for a total of forty-five green flag laps with just one caution, that coming on lap two of the Hobby Stock feature. Car counts were solid in three of the four divisions with 41 Modifieds, 20 Hobby Stocks, 20 B-Mods and 13 Stock Cars. The Stock Cars included a couple of drivers from out of the area as Kurt Krauskopf came down from Decorah and Jeff Zehr pulled in from Manson.
The USMTS Modifieds move to the Marshalltown Speedway tonight (Wednesday May 20th) and I believe that four of the five http://www.positivelyracing.com/ bloggers will be there to cover it. And Ryan Clark will have news from the Deery Brothers event from Allison "In Staging" so take some time to explore our site!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Kyle Busch Dominates at Iowa Speedway
The past two years when the Iowa Speedway contracted a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver to compete in the Camping World Series East vs. West event, that driver came to Newton the day after winning the All Star race at the Lowe's Motor Speedway. First it was Kevin Harvick and then Kasey Kahne, so with Kyle Busch on the roster for this weekend it seemed like a pretty good chance that string would continue. Well, it didn't as Tony Stewart captured the one million dollar top prize at Lowe's on Saturday night so Kyle came to town and did what neither Harvick or Kahne were able to do. Win the race at Iowa Speedway.
Rain just before the scheduled start time was about the only thing that slowed Kyle Busch on this day.
Busch started his day off in Iowa in fine fashion setting a new track record for this division with a speed of 135.484 mph in his Toyota of Des Moines sponsored ride putting him on the pole next to California driver David Mayhew who also went below the previous track record during qualifying. A pesky light rain just before driver introductions delayed the start of the race for about an hour and when the green flag flew Busch and Mayhew left the rest of the 37-car field far behind. A caution on lap seventy brought most of the field down pit road while Claremont, California, driver Chris Johnson remained on the speedway to inherit the lead. Having qualified 34th on the starting grid at a speed that was over seven miles per hour slower than Busch it was pretty much expected that Johnson's time at the front would be short-lived. That was not the case though as he quickly opened up a ten car length advantage when the race went back to green.
Busch was around the twelfth spot on the restart and he seemed to pick off a car a lap and when he made it up to the second spot it took him several laps to reel in the leader. One lap past the halfway mark, lap 101, Johnson slid up the race track off of turn two allowing Busch to make a run at him down the backstretch to regain the lead. Johnson pitted a lap later under green and lost a couple of laps to the field and would no longer be a factor, but he was certainly impressive for the nearly thirty laps that he ran out front. As Busch pulled away from the pack the battle for second heated up as four cars, including local standout Brett Moffitt, bunched together nose-to-tail in traffic on lap 145. A sixteen-year-old sophomore in high school from Grimes, Moffitt moved by Jason Bowles to take the third spot during that battle and was giving Brian Ickler quite a challenge for second when the caution came out on lap 177 with Ryan Truex riding along the wall in turns one and two.
There would be just sixteen laps remaining for the restart and although nobody had shown that they could mount a serious challenge on Busch, both Mayhew and Ickler had proven that they could keep pace with him. With the return of the green Ickler made a bold move to the inside of Busch coming out of turn two putting his nose under the Cup star, but Busch was able to fight off the challenge down the back straightaway to maintain the advantage. There would be no chance for Ickler to think about the lead over the final laps as Mayhew pulled to his inside and the two raced wheel to wheel for all but the final two laps as Ickler prevailed in the battle to be the runner-up to Kyle Busch. Moffitt was fourth on that final restart only to have Paulie Harraka go by him with seven laps remaining and Jeffrey Earnhardt, the son of Kerry Earnhardt and grandson of Dale, passed him two laps later. Earnhardt nipped Harraka by a nose at the checkers to finish in the fourth spot while Moffitt brought his Karl Chevrolet sponsored ride in fourth sixth. Idaho driver Brett Thompson finsihed in the seventh spot followed by Jesus Hernandez, Bowles and Johnny Borneman.
Sixteen-year-old Brett Moffitt and nineteen-year-old Jeffrey Earnhardt chat before introductions. Both drivers would end up finishing in the top six.
There is no doubt that "Rowdy" Busch would have preferred to continue the tradition of winning the big money in Charlotte the night before, but it was also obvious from his victory celebration on the front straightaway that he was very happy to start a new tradition of the Cup star taking the win here at the Iowa Speedway.
Jimmie Johnson's younger brother Jarit is greeted by Richard Petty during pre-race ceremonies. Johnson was running ninth with twenty-seven laps remaining when he pitted with a smoking racecar.
Newton Notes and Observations......Our day started off with a brief press conference featuring Richard Petty who was making his first trip ever to the Iowa Speedway. The King was very entertaining to listen to as he spoke of how racing has changed so much from his first Cup championship in 1964 and noted that while the youth movement of today is impressive, these kids have likely been racing something since the age of five. Back in his day you had to be twenty-one or so just to scrape together enough junk to get out there to compete. Petty also stated that the drivers of today must not only be talented behind the wheel, but they also must be able to be good public speakers and represent their sponsors in the right manner. Forty or fifty years ago he likened some of the best drivers as somebody that you would let out of a cage, have them drive the race and then make sure that you put them back in the cage.
My favorite part of the King's press conference though came when Kirk Elliott from http://www.racinboys.com/ asked him to comment on the recent ground breaking for the Victory Junction camp in Kansas City. It was very obvious that Richard and the entire Petty family and organization take great pride in the camp and what it has meant to the lives of the kids who attend. I thought I could hear his voice waiver a couple of times as he described with passion the activities that the children with special needs participate in and the confidence that it gives to these kids when they return to their everyday world.....My partner here at PR.com, Barry Johnson works in the media relations department at the Speedway and he was a bit down on himself after the event. Seems that as he was delivering the winner's trophy to victory lane it came apart on him. Kyle Busch though made light of the situation and stated that he would fix it himself as loves collecting trophies. After the winner's press conference the Speedway staff offered to have the trophy fixed and shipped to Busch and Kyle once again said "no problem, I can fix this!"
.....My father-in-law Bob Shores joined me today and one of his friends Leon Emmons added to our enjoyment as he showed us around some of the places that we would have never seen without him. Leon's business Mr. Executive is a long time sponsor of Des Moines IMCA Stock Car star Steve Jackson......Due to commitments at other races, tickets to college football games, family events, etc., etc., I had yet to make it out to the Iowa Speedway until today. Several people have told me what a fantastic facility this is, but their glowing accounts still did not do this place justice. This facility is first class from top to bottom for the drivers, their crews, the media and most importantly for the fans. An extensive lineup of food and drink options and at very affordable prices just add to the great sight lines that the grandstand area provides and the configuration of the track offers up the two main things that race fans are looking for; speed and competition. Yes, I am and always will be a dyed in the wool dirt track fan, but as a race fan and as a native Iowan I felt a great sense of pride now knowing that we have this gem right here in our midst. Those of you who have been there already know this, and for those of you who perhaps like me, just haven't put forth the effort to check this place out yet, please do so. You won't be disappointed! Click on their website right now at http://www.iowaspeedway.com/ to purchase your tickets. I look forward to returning soon.
Rain just before the scheduled start time was about the only thing that slowed Kyle Busch on this day.Busch started his day off in Iowa in fine fashion setting a new track record for this division with a speed of 135.484 mph in his Toyota of Des Moines sponsored ride putting him on the pole next to California driver David Mayhew who also went below the previous track record during qualifying. A pesky light rain just before driver introductions delayed the start of the race for about an hour and when the green flag flew Busch and Mayhew left the rest of the 37-car field far behind. A caution on lap seventy brought most of the field down pit road while Claremont, California, driver Chris Johnson remained on the speedway to inherit the lead. Having qualified 34th on the starting grid at a speed that was over seven miles per hour slower than Busch it was pretty much expected that Johnson's time at the front would be short-lived. That was not the case though as he quickly opened up a ten car length advantage when the race went back to green.
Busch was around the twelfth spot on the restart and he seemed to pick off a car a lap and when he made it up to the second spot it took him several laps to reel in the leader. One lap past the halfway mark, lap 101, Johnson slid up the race track off of turn two allowing Busch to make a run at him down the backstretch to regain the lead. Johnson pitted a lap later under green and lost a couple of laps to the field and would no longer be a factor, but he was certainly impressive for the nearly thirty laps that he ran out front. As Busch pulled away from the pack the battle for second heated up as four cars, including local standout Brett Moffitt, bunched together nose-to-tail in traffic on lap 145. A sixteen-year-old sophomore in high school from Grimes, Moffitt moved by Jason Bowles to take the third spot during that battle and was giving Brian Ickler quite a challenge for second when the caution came out on lap 177 with Ryan Truex riding along the wall in turns one and two.
There would be just sixteen laps remaining for the restart and although nobody had shown that they could mount a serious challenge on Busch, both Mayhew and Ickler had proven that they could keep pace with him. With the return of the green Ickler made a bold move to the inside of Busch coming out of turn two putting his nose under the Cup star, but Busch was able to fight off the challenge down the back straightaway to maintain the advantage. There would be no chance for Ickler to think about the lead over the final laps as Mayhew pulled to his inside and the two raced wheel to wheel for all but the final two laps as Ickler prevailed in the battle to be the runner-up to Kyle Busch. Moffitt was fourth on that final restart only to have Paulie Harraka go by him with seven laps remaining and Jeffrey Earnhardt, the son of Kerry Earnhardt and grandson of Dale, passed him two laps later. Earnhardt nipped Harraka by a nose at the checkers to finish in the fourth spot while Moffitt brought his Karl Chevrolet sponsored ride in fourth sixth. Idaho driver Brett Thompson finsihed in the seventh spot followed by Jesus Hernandez, Bowles and Johnny Borneman.
Sixteen-year-old Brett Moffitt and nineteen-year-old Jeffrey Earnhardt chat before introductions. Both drivers would end up finishing in the top six.There is no doubt that "Rowdy" Busch would have preferred to continue the tradition of winning the big money in Charlotte the night before, but it was also obvious from his victory celebration on the front straightaway that he was very happy to start a new tradition of the Cup star taking the win here at the Iowa Speedway.
Jimmie Johnson's younger brother Jarit is greeted by Richard Petty during pre-race ceremonies. Johnson was running ninth with twenty-seven laps remaining when he pitted with a smoking racecar.Newton Notes and Observations......Our day started off with a brief press conference featuring Richard Petty who was making his first trip ever to the Iowa Speedway. The King was very entertaining to listen to as he spoke of how racing has changed so much from his first Cup championship in 1964 and noted that while the youth movement of today is impressive, these kids have likely been racing something since the age of five. Back in his day you had to be twenty-one or so just to scrape together enough junk to get out there to compete. Petty also stated that the drivers of today must not only be talented behind the wheel, but they also must be able to be good public speakers and represent their sponsors in the right manner. Forty or fifty years ago he likened some of the best drivers as somebody that you would let out of a cage, have them drive the race and then make sure that you put them back in the cage.
My favorite part of the King's press conference though came when Kirk Elliott from http://www.racinboys.com/ asked him to comment on the recent ground breaking for the Victory Junction camp in Kansas City. It was very obvious that Richard and the entire Petty family and organization take great pride in the camp and what it has meant to the lives of the kids who attend. I thought I could hear his voice waiver a couple of times as he described with passion the activities that the children with special needs participate in and the confidence that it gives to these kids when they return to their everyday world.....My partner here at PR.com, Barry Johnson works in the media relations department at the Speedway and he was a bit down on himself after the event. Seems that as he was delivering the winner's trophy to victory lane it came apart on him. Kyle Busch though made light of the situation and stated that he would fix it himself as loves collecting trophies. After the winner's press conference the Speedway staff offered to have the trophy fixed and shipped to Busch and Kyle once again said "no problem, I can fix this!".....My father-in-law Bob Shores joined me today and one of his friends Leon Emmons added to our enjoyment as he showed us around some of the places that we would have never seen without him. Leon's business Mr. Executive is a long time sponsor of Des Moines IMCA Stock Car star Steve Jackson......Due to commitments at other races, tickets to college football games, family events, etc., etc., I had yet to make it out to the Iowa Speedway until today. Several people have told me what a fantastic facility this is, but their glowing accounts still did not do this place justice. This facility is first class from top to bottom for the drivers, their crews, the media and most importantly for the fans. An extensive lineup of food and drink options and at very affordable prices just add to the great sight lines that the grandstand area provides and the configuration of the track offers up the two main things that race fans are looking for; speed and competition. Yes, I am and always will be a dyed in the wool dirt track fan, but as a race fan and as a native Iowan I felt a great sense of pride now knowing that we have this gem right here in our midst. Those of you who have been there already know this, and for those of you who perhaps like me, just haven't put forth the effort to check this place out yet, please do so. You won't be disappointed! Click on their website right now at http://www.iowaspeedway.com/ to purchase your tickets. I look forward to returning soon.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A "Cool" Night at West Liberty
After having everything within a four four drive of me washed out on Friday, and with Saturday greeting us with strong northwest winds and much cooler temperatures, I made the decision to head on up the road to the West Liberty Raceway for my Saturday night destination. This is where I spent most every Saturday night back in the 1970's and into the early 80's, and I just don't get there much anymore even though it is less than an hour from my home base. Knowing that the covered grandstands faced east providing a nice block to the wind I figured that the weather would be less of a factor there than some of my other choices tonight, plus I just had to go back to hear my old friend Jerry Mackey on the microphone. Jerry and his wife Marnee have returned to Iowa after being in California the past several years and it is great to have him paired up with the always entertaining Mike Becker at the SPI tracks. And yes, I would have written the same nice things about the two of you even if you hadn't given the website such a great plug!!
Hats off to Keith Simmons and his entire crew for even being able to race tonight as the track picked up over three inches of rain over the past three days. Their efforts definitely paid off for the fans who braved the chilly conditions tonight as drivers were able to run from top to bottom on the big half-mile with only a couple bumps developing from the over abundance of moisture.
On to the racing, the first main event of the night was the B-Modified feature where Jarrett Franzen moved quickly from his third row starting spot to grab the lead on lap one. By lap five Franzen had plenty of company as Zach Less oved to the lowside and Jason Speers went to the top to make it a three-wide race for the lead in turn three. Less emreged with the lead off turn four and never looked back over the final ten laps as he picked up the feature win. Speers and Franzen were second and third followed by Mark Winkel and Nick Hixson. Hixson looked as though he might challenge for the lead mid-race only to fall off the pace over the final five circuits.
Stock Cars were up next and it was pole starter Jamie Figg leading the first three laps before yielding to David Brandies. From the way he ran the rest of the race I was surprised to hear Brandies state that this was his first win here in the Stock Car division after seven years of trying as he outran many time winner Greg Gill over the final ten laps. Scotty Pratt, who failed to answer the bell for his heat race earlier in the evening, started from the rear of the sixteen-car field and made a nice run up to third whil Brad Tyler and Figg completed the top five.
The "Flyer" field was stacked with talent as four of the top six drivers in the All Iowa Four Cylinder Points were on hand and the whole field really got around the half-mile in high speed fashion. Jordan Walker was the lap one leader, but young Tyler Kelly, who started seventh went flying by on lap number two. Brad and Nathan Chandler tried to keep pace, but that would be the best they could do as Kelly rolled to his second win of the season at West Liberty. Brad prevailed over Nathan for second as the two went side-by-side on the final lap with Jarrod McMichael, Jeff Miller and Jeremy Campbell next in line. Tyler Kelly and his father Tim actually live on the same lane as my brother Kurtis does in the Williamsburg suburb of Parnell and the Kelly's had a little extra help, if needed, in the pits tonight as 2008 All Iowa Points champion Brannon Bechen was on hand after being rained out at Maquoketa.
The Modifieds featured the highest car count of the night with twenty-one and nearly all of them were capable of grabbing the trophy in their twenty-lap feature. Todd Hansen was able to hold off the challenges of Steve Stewart for the first two laps before Stewart snared the lead on lap three. A caution flag one lap later slowed the field and on the restart Ryan Dolan went storming past to grab the lead. Bruce Hanford followed him through into second and looked like he might have something for the new leader, but Dolan shook him off and then drove away to the win in the Jamison Racing #7. Hanford held off a late charge from Steve Boley who had his best night since returning to the Modified division finishing third. Former All Iowa Points champion Mark Schulte passed Stewart late to take fourth while Brad Diercks and Larry Herring came home sixth and seventh. During the lap four caution Diercks ducked into the pit area and returned just in time to restart from 19th and Herring, who had spun out on the final lap of his heat race, started the race on the outside of row ten. And yes, I did confirm that Larry still has "Kurt's Used Caskets" as one of the "sponsors" on his #96.
Eighteen NASCAR Late Models took the green in the evening's finale and it looked like Matt "Bones" Bodman might just be the man to beat. After all he had walked away from a strong field in the first heat race of the night and he was starting the feature from the pole position. Bodman started strong leading the race from the drop of the green with Denny Eckrich in hot pursuit. On lap number four Denny made the pass for the lead only to have the caution flag come out before the entire lap was scored. Following the restart, again Eckrich made the pass of Bodman only to again have to give it back when a second caution flag waved. Finally on lap seven Denny made the pass that would stick as he then went unchallenged the remainder of the distance to pick up the win. Chad Simpson started in row number nine and gradually made his way to the front to claim the runner-up title with Dave Eckrich and Andy Eckrich next in line. Kevin Kile slipped past Bodman on the final lap to finish fifth. Kurt Kile was supposed to start from the outside of turn one, but when he was forced to scratch his #77 he climbed aboard Dakota Hayden's #12 and was passing some cars before he slowed with a wisp of smoke.
The racing action got underway right at the advertised starting time of 7 p.m. and was completed by 9:50. My theory on the weather and the covered grandstand played out perfectly as I never did have to add any layers to my t-shirt and hooded sweatshirt, but man was it cold as I left the grandstands and headed for the car! Two special events that we will be adding to our Calendar at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ are coming up at the Farley Speedway as Simmons Promotions will host two "Tornado Tuesdays" featuring $10,000-to-win Late Models and $1,000-to-win Modifieds. Mark those dates of Tuesday June 16th and Tuesday July 7th and we'll hope to see you there!
Hats off to Keith Simmons and his entire crew for even being able to race tonight as the track picked up over three inches of rain over the past three days. Their efforts definitely paid off for the fans who braved the chilly conditions tonight as drivers were able to run from top to bottom on the big half-mile with only a couple bumps developing from the over abundance of moisture.
On to the racing, the first main event of the night was the B-Modified feature where Jarrett Franzen moved quickly from his third row starting spot to grab the lead on lap one. By lap five Franzen had plenty of company as Zach Less oved to the lowside and Jason Speers went to the top to make it a three-wide race for the lead in turn three. Less emreged with the lead off turn four and never looked back over the final ten laps as he picked up the feature win. Speers and Franzen were second and third followed by Mark Winkel and Nick Hixson. Hixson looked as though he might challenge for the lead mid-race only to fall off the pace over the final five circuits.
Stock Cars were up next and it was pole starter Jamie Figg leading the first three laps before yielding to David Brandies. From the way he ran the rest of the race I was surprised to hear Brandies state that this was his first win here in the Stock Car division after seven years of trying as he outran many time winner Greg Gill over the final ten laps. Scotty Pratt, who failed to answer the bell for his heat race earlier in the evening, started from the rear of the sixteen-car field and made a nice run up to third whil Brad Tyler and Figg completed the top five.
The "Flyer" field was stacked with talent as four of the top six drivers in the All Iowa Four Cylinder Points were on hand and the whole field really got around the half-mile in high speed fashion. Jordan Walker was the lap one leader, but young Tyler Kelly, who started seventh went flying by on lap number two. Brad and Nathan Chandler tried to keep pace, but that would be the best they could do as Kelly rolled to his second win of the season at West Liberty. Brad prevailed over Nathan for second as the two went side-by-side on the final lap with Jarrod McMichael, Jeff Miller and Jeremy Campbell next in line. Tyler Kelly and his father Tim actually live on the same lane as my brother Kurtis does in the Williamsburg suburb of Parnell and the Kelly's had a little extra help, if needed, in the pits tonight as 2008 All Iowa Points champion Brannon Bechen was on hand after being rained out at Maquoketa.
The Modifieds featured the highest car count of the night with twenty-one and nearly all of them were capable of grabbing the trophy in their twenty-lap feature. Todd Hansen was able to hold off the challenges of Steve Stewart for the first two laps before Stewart snared the lead on lap three. A caution flag one lap later slowed the field and on the restart Ryan Dolan went storming past to grab the lead. Bruce Hanford followed him through into second and looked like he might have something for the new leader, but Dolan shook him off and then drove away to the win in the Jamison Racing #7. Hanford held off a late charge from Steve Boley who had his best night since returning to the Modified division finishing third. Former All Iowa Points champion Mark Schulte passed Stewart late to take fourth while Brad Diercks and Larry Herring came home sixth and seventh. During the lap four caution Diercks ducked into the pit area and returned just in time to restart from 19th and Herring, who had spun out on the final lap of his heat race, started the race on the outside of row ten. And yes, I did confirm that Larry still has "Kurt's Used Caskets" as one of the "sponsors" on his #96.
Eighteen NASCAR Late Models took the green in the evening's finale and it looked like Matt "Bones" Bodman might just be the man to beat. After all he had walked away from a strong field in the first heat race of the night and he was starting the feature from the pole position. Bodman started strong leading the race from the drop of the green with Denny Eckrich in hot pursuit. On lap number four Denny made the pass for the lead only to have the caution flag come out before the entire lap was scored. Following the restart, again Eckrich made the pass of Bodman only to again have to give it back when a second caution flag waved. Finally on lap seven Denny made the pass that would stick as he then went unchallenged the remainder of the distance to pick up the win. Chad Simpson started in row number nine and gradually made his way to the front to claim the runner-up title with Dave Eckrich and Andy Eckrich next in line. Kevin Kile slipped past Bodman on the final lap to finish fifth. Kurt Kile was supposed to start from the outside of turn one, but when he was forced to scratch his #77 he climbed aboard Dakota Hayden's #12 and was passing some cars before he slowed with a wisp of smoke.
The racing action got underway right at the advertised starting time of 7 p.m. and was completed by 9:50. My theory on the weather and the covered grandstand played out perfectly as I never did have to add any layers to my t-shirt and hooded sweatshirt, but man was it cold as I left the grandstands and headed for the car! Two special events that we will be adding to our Calendar at http://www.positivelyracing.com/ are coming up at the Farley Speedway as Simmons Promotions will host two "Tornado Tuesdays" featuring $10,000-to-win Late Models and $1,000-to-win Modifieds. Mark those dates of Tuesday June 16th and Tuesday July 7th and we'll hope to see you there!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
VanderBeek Doubles Up at Osky Opener
I wish I would have started counting a couple of years ago just how many times that Zack VanderBeek wins both the Stock Car and the Modified features on the same night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. I'm pretty sure that I have been there to witness it at least three times now and I only make it up to Osky four a five times a season. Apparently Zack has accomplished this feat enough now that it doesn't even really get much of a response like I'm sure that it did the first time that it happened. On this night it almost seemed like a double feature win was expected.
Delayed one night by rain, the 2009 season opener at the fast half-mile featured a nice field of cars in the four divisions and a solid crowd for a Thursday night. The B-Mod division had the highest car count with nineteen and their feature was up first with Kevin Fee and Jason McDaniel starting on the front row. McDaniel, the 2008 track champion and USRA National Champion in the Hobby Stocks, put his new B-Mod ride out front and looked like he just might run away from the rest of the field. On lap seven though, the race changed quickly as the right front tire went down on McDaniel's ride going into turn one causing him to slide off the track, bounce off the guardrail and sit precariously in the middle of the racing groove. Luckily everybody was able to miss him and on the restart the lead was handed over to Andrew Schroeder. That did not last long though as Schroeder slowed with mechanical problems two laps later giving the lead back to the original pole-sitter Kevin Fee. Josh Modde, who has also jumped from the Hobby Stock ranks into the B-Mods, stayed close but could not mount a challenge and settled for second as Fee closed out the opening night victory. Cayden Carter finished in the third spot, but was later disqualified in the tech area as he did not have a working rev limiter box. This moved Tyler Groenendyk to third and Mike Shelton to fourth in the final rundown.
VanderBeek drew the pole for the Stock Car main and from the drop of the green there was no doubt who was going to win this one. The race for second was intense though as Matt Greiner and Mike VanGenderen swapped the spot back and forth several times over the fifteen-lap distance with VanGenderen taking the runner-up spot at the checkers. Greiner was third with Brian Mitrisin and Nathan Wood next in line.
Rookie driver Dan Dyer paced the first lap of the Hobby Stock main before Dale Porter took control. Two years ago Porter was unstoppable in the area winning sixteen features in the four cylinder division and for the next eight laps it looked like he was ready to start adding Hobby Stock trophies to his mantle, but Bobby Greene had a different plan. Starting from the inside of row four Greene gradually made his way to the front and with four laps remaining he completed the pass for the lead. Porter fought back and was able to stick his nose back under the new leader a lap later, but Greene pulled away over the final three laps for the win. Porter held on for second ahead of a fast closing T.J. Henderson who started the race from row five. Andy Coleman and Kris Walker completed the top five.
The USRA Modifieds closed out the evening with their lightning quick twenty-lap finale. Brad Pinkerton started from the pole and rocketed to the lead only to have second row starter Zack VanderBeek right on his tail. On lap five "the Z-man" slid by Pinkerton on the inside to take the lead and he opened up a straightaway advantage before the caution flag appeared with just four laps remaining. Despite the fact that the field was bunched up two-wide behind him, nobody had anything for VanderBeek as he pulled away for his second feature win of the night. On that late restart drivers raced three-wide into turn one for the second spot as Pinkerton fought back Richie Gustin and Scott Dickey over the final laps to finish second and Missouri's David Holder passed Steve Stewart late to round out the top five.
Osky Notes.....Promoter Todd Staley and his crew are well known for their ability to run off an efficient race program and tonight, along with full cooperation from the sixty-eight drivers on hand, they outdid themselves. Racing started right on time at 7:30, the heat races were completed at 8:10 and, even with about a fifteen minute intermission, the final checkers waved at 9:27. Now if that doesn't bring you back for another weeknight show here, I don't know what will.....Bobby Greene executed a perfect backflip (Carl Edwards style) in victory lane after his Hobby Stock win, but then told track announcer Tony Paris that he was getting too old for that.....Speaking of Mr. Paris, he did a great job as usual entertaining and informing the crowd as you always now who every driver is and what their hometown is when Tony is on the mic. Plus we want to thank him for giving PositivelyRacing.com a nice plug......The pit gate for the speedway has been moved from its traditional position outside of turn two to a new location just outside of turn four and for one driver the change has doubled the distance of his tow for each and every race night. Corey Stout lives right across the street from the race track just outside of turn one, so he now must tow his Stock Car twice as far to get into the pits. Good thing for Corey that the price of gas is traditionally low in Oskaloosa!.....For a rookie Hobby Stock driver I was impressed with Dan Dyer who kept his cool while running at the front of the feature early on. Dyer was racing in the third spot late in the race only to spin out in turn two. He kept the car fired up and recovered to finish in the tenth spot. Look for him to start posting some top five finishes very soon.....Nathan Wood, who was also competing in the Stock Car division tonight, showed up in staging for the first Hobby Stock heat race only to find that it had already completed a lap under green so he was sent back to the pits. This put him in the seventeenth starting position for the Hobby Stock main event and after just three laps he had advanced to the seventh spot. His charge to the front ended there though as he shucked the driveshaft heading into turn one on lap number four......Race night will be on Tuesday night (May 19th) next week at Oskaloosa as the USMTS Modifieds, including NASCAR drivers Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace, will be in action along with the Stock Cars, B-Mods and Hobby Stocks.
Delayed one night by rain, the 2009 season opener at the fast half-mile featured a nice field of cars in the four divisions and a solid crowd for a Thursday night. The B-Mod division had the highest car count with nineteen and their feature was up first with Kevin Fee and Jason McDaniel starting on the front row. McDaniel, the 2008 track champion and USRA National Champion in the Hobby Stocks, put his new B-Mod ride out front and looked like he just might run away from the rest of the field. On lap seven though, the race changed quickly as the right front tire went down on McDaniel's ride going into turn one causing him to slide off the track, bounce off the guardrail and sit precariously in the middle of the racing groove. Luckily everybody was able to miss him and on the restart the lead was handed over to Andrew Schroeder. That did not last long though as Schroeder slowed with mechanical problems two laps later giving the lead back to the original pole-sitter Kevin Fee. Josh Modde, who has also jumped from the Hobby Stock ranks into the B-Mods, stayed close but could not mount a challenge and settled for second as Fee closed out the opening night victory. Cayden Carter finished in the third spot, but was later disqualified in the tech area as he did not have a working rev limiter box. This moved Tyler Groenendyk to third and Mike Shelton to fourth in the final rundown.
VanderBeek drew the pole for the Stock Car main and from the drop of the green there was no doubt who was going to win this one. The race for second was intense though as Matt Greiner and Mike VanGenderen swapped the spot back and forth several times over the fifteen-lap distance with VanGenderen taking the runner-up spot at the checkers. Greiner was third with Brian Mitrisin and Nathan Wood next in line.
Rookie driver Dan Dyer paced the first lap of the Hobby Stock main before Dale Porter took control. Two years ago Porter was unstoppable in the area winning sixteen features in the four cylinder division and for the next eight laps it looked like he was ready to start adding Hobby Stock trophies to his mantle, but Bobby Greene had a different plan. Starting from the inside of row four Greene gradually made his way to the front and with four laps remaining he completed the pass for the lead. Porter fought back and was able to stick his nose back under the new leader a lap later, but Greene pulled away over the final three laps for the win. Porter held on for second ahead of a fast closing T.J. Henderson who started the race from row five. Andy Coleman and Kris Walker completed the top five.
The USRA Modifieds closed out the evening with their lightning quick twenty-lap finale. Brad Pinkerton started from the pole and rocketed to the lead only to have second row starter Zack VanderBeek right on his tail. On lap five "the Z-man" slid by Pinkerton on the inside to take the lead and he opened up a straightaway advantage before the caution flag appeared with just four laps remaining. Despite the fact that the field was bunched up two-wide behind him, nobody had anything for VanderBeek as he pulled away for his second feature win of the night. On that late restart drivers raced three-wide into turn one for the second spot as Pinkerton fought back Richie Gustin and Scott Dickey over the final laps to finish second and Missouri's David Holder passed Steve Stewart late to round out the top five.
Osky Notes.....Promoter Todd Staley and his crew are well known for their ability to run off an efficient race program and tonight, along with full cooperation from the sixty-eight drivers on hand, they outdid themselves. Racing started right on time at 7:30, the heat races were completed at 8:10 and, even with about a fifteen minute intermission, the final checkers waved at 9:27. Now if that doesn't bring you back for another weeknight show here, I don't know what will.....Bobby Greene executed a perfect backflip (Carl Edwards style) in victory lane after his Hobby Stock win, but then told track announcer Tony Paris that he was getting too old for that.....Speaking of Mr. Paris, he did a great job as usual entertaining and informing the crowd as you always now who every driver is and what their hometown is when Tony is on the mic. Plus we want to thank him for giving PositivelyRacing.com a nice plug......The pit gate for the speedway has been moved from its traditional position outside of turn two to a new location just outside of turn four and for one driver the change has doubled the distance of his tow for each and every race night. Corey Stout lives right across the street from the race track just outside of turn one, so he now must tow his Stock Car twice as far to get into the pits. Good thing for Corey that the price of gas is traditionally low in Oskaloosa!.....For a rookie Hobby Stock driver I was impressed with Dan Dyer who kept his cool while running at the front of the feature early on. Dyer was racing in the third spot late in the race only to spin out in turn two. He kept the car fired up and recovered to finish in the tenth spot. Look for him to start posting some top five finishes very soon.....Nathan Wood, who was also competing in the Stock Car division tonight, showed up in staging for the first Hobby Stock heat race only to find that it had already completed a lap under green so he was sent back to the pits. This put him in the seventeenth starting position for the Hobby Stock main event and after just three laps he had advanced to the seventh spot. His charge to the front ended there though as he shucked the driveshaft heading into turn one on lap number four......Race night will be on Tuesday night (May 19th) next week at Oskaloosa as the USMTS Modifieds, including NASCAR drivers Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace, will be in action along with the Stock Cars, B-Mods and Hobby Stocks.
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