Early Schedules Create Conversation

If you visit our Calendar page at Positively Racing you will see that we still have several special events yet to run in our region to close out the 2015 season. However, with the early release of three different schedules I am already compiling the schedule for 2016 and each of these three early schedules are causing some conversation in both the Sprint Car and Late Model fan base, plus one major Modified show is likely effected.

As it heads into its second season Tod Quiring's National Sprint League is smack dab in the middle of a couple of major showdowns in the world of winged sprint car racing. Other than the fact that the 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas, announced this week that the "Air Capital Shootout" will be the first event for the inaugural National Sprint League 360 National Tour on the final weekend in March, we are still waiting on additional dates, both national and regional, as the NSL squares off with the ASCS in the battle for 360 supremacy. Meanwhile, in the 410 ranks, it is now clear to see that the NSL is standing tall with the Knoxville Raceway as the historic oval now faces an upstart challenge for Saturday night sprint cars and their fans from the Badlands Motor Speedway, formerly known as Husets Speedway, in Brandon, South Dakota.

The unusual release this week of a partial schedule that had more than twenty events listed, but at just two tracks Knoxville and Jackson, made more sense once I looked up the Badlands website for the first time. With Quiring now a principal at the facility, the Jackson Speedway in south central Minnesota will now race weekly on Friday nights with Sprint Cars only, 410's and 360's, while they will continue to run a Saturday night show consisting of five IMCA sanctioned divisions. Those Friday night races will now run in tandem with Knoxville's Saturday night program with the incentive being that drivers who run at all of the NSL shows will be racing for more money each night than will the drivers who do not race the entire series.

That incentive has created quite a buzz on the Hoseheads forum board with one argument being that it is not fair for drivers who only have the budget to race at either Knoxville or Jackson and not both although it is quickly defended by pointing out that, without the incentive, drivers are racing for the some money at Knoxville as they did in 2015. As I typed in the NSL schedule I wondered why the NSL would not make an appearance there until May 21st, knowing that Knoxville usually kicks off its season the final weekend in April, but then would be there nearly every regular season race night after that including the August 27th season championship event. That question was answered as soon as I popped open the Badlands schedule showing their Sprint Car opener on, you guessed it, Saturday night May 21st.

It should be noted that, like Jackson, Badlands will be racing two nights weekly with 305 Sprints and Street Stocks joining the 410's on Saturday nights while the weekly Sunday show will feature 360's, Micro Sprints and Hobby Stocks. So essentially adding two more nights of weekly racing in a region that we noted as possibly having too much going on already with weekly shows on every night but Monday.

Anyway, the question I now have is this. What other tracks will be included on the NSL schedule? Will we get to have them back to 34 Raceway in Burlington in early April, the track that did such a great job with the League's inaugural event this season? This year we knew that Saturday nights were off limits from late April through August so as to not compete with Knoxville and so the NSL had Friday night stops scheduled at Eagle, Jacksonville, Moberly, Park Jefferson, I-80 and Fairmont, but in 2016 those Friday dates will be reserved for Jackson from mid-May through Labor Day. Essentially the "National" Sprint League is now a two-track point fund with some early and late season shows at other venues to be added.

Earlier the League indicated that it would have over 150 regional events scheduled for the 360's by December 10th so that drivers can then meet then membership deadline of December 15th so look for plenty of press releases over the next eight weeks from PR pro Bill Wright.

While the already released Sprint Car schedules definitely have an air of calculated planning behind them, the one national touring Late Model schedule that has already been announced will create a scramble for some traditional September events here in Iowa. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has switched the order of the two events that have traditionally followed the World 100 giving the Knoxville Raceway the earlier date that they wanted to hopefully lock in better weather in mid-September for the Late Model Nationals and to give the Brownstown Speedway in Indiana the chance to have the fans in that region to take a weekend off and reload their wallets before heading out to another major Late Model event since the south central Indiana track is only a couple of hours from Eldora. No spite, not a calculated move to damage another track, just a national series doing what they felt best for two of their premier shows. They did not consider what else was going on in the region, nor should they have.

What this does now is to put the Knoxville Late Model Nationals on the traditional weekend used by both the Farley Speedway for the Yankee Dirt Classic and the Marshalltown Speedway for the Modified World Nationals. The dilemma for the Yankee is more clear cut as I believe nine Late Model drivers raced at both events on separate weekends this year and even more importantly it is the Dirt Late Model fans that would be in high demand if the two were running head to head. For Marshalltown, it might not be a problem and promoter Toby Kruse may stick with the same weekend thinking that it won't have much of an effect on his fan base with the Late Model show running just an hour south of his Modified headliner. However, by this time last year the 2015 schedule for the Marshalltown Speedway had been released, so perhaps his options are still being weighed.

Yes, it will be an interesting off season compiling the new schedules as they are being released and what I have for 2016 so far can be seen below.

Update: About five hours after this entry of the Back Stretch was posted, a spokesman for Simmons Promotions Kevin Feller posted this message on the iowastockcars.com forum board. "With Knoxville Raceway moving there Late Model Nationals race to the date the Yankee has had for 38 years, SPI has decided to move to a new date so fans will be able to attend both events.The 39th Annual Yankee Dirt Track Classic will be Wednesday,August 31,2016 thru Saturday,September 3,2016.The Liberty 100 at West Liberty Raceway will be now on Friday and Saturday ,September 23rd and 24th. More news on these events and 2016 race schedule will be posted in the future."

At this point it looks like I will be taking the coming weekend off from racing as my son and his wife return home from Texas for the weekend, although if they end up with other plans on Saturday night you might just catch me in Memphis, Missouri. Next week I look forward to Shiverfest at the Lee County Speedway on Saturday and then perhaps another scenic drive to Wisconsin for the "Falloween 100" at the Dells Raceway Park on Sunday.

And finally, in case you didn't notice, we have welcomed Ed Reichert to our Positively Racing family of writers so make sure that you check into One Fan's Travels often!

Special Events Calendar
* Schedules subject to change without notice. PositivelyRacing.com is not responsible for the accuracy of this schedule.
Day	Date	Track	Location	Event
Friday	April 29	Tri-City Speedway	Pontoon Beach IL	Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Saturday	April 30	Macon Speedway	Macon IL	Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Friday	May 13	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Friday	May 20	Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway	Oshkosh WI	Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Friday	May 20	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	May 21	LaSalle Speedway	LaSalle IL	Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Saturday	May 21	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	May 21	Badlands Motor Speedway	Brandon SD	$100,000 Silver Shootout
Friday	May 27	Lucas Oil Speedway	Wheatland MO	Show Me 100 - Lucas Oil Late Model Series
Friday	May 27	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	May 28	Lucas Oil Speedway	Wheatland MO	Show Me 100 - Lucas Oil Late Model Series
Saturday	May 28	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Friday	June 3	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	June 4	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Friday	June 17	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	June 18	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Friday	June 24	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	World of Outlaws and NSL Sprint Cars
Saturday	June 25	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Friday	July 1	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	July 2	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	July 2	Badlands Motor Speedway	Brandon SD	World of Outlaws Sprint Cars
Sunday	July 3	Badlands Motor Speedway	Brandon SD	World of Outlaws Sprint Cars
Friday	July 8	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	July 9	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Friday	July 15	Tri-City Speedway	Pontoon Beach IL	Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Saturday	July 16	Lucas Oil Speedway	Wheatland MO	Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Friday	July 22	I-80 Speedway	Greenwood NE	Silver Dollar Nationals
Friday	July 22	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	July 23	I-80 Speedway	Greenwood NE	Silver Dollar Nationals
Saturday	July 23	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Friday	July 29	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	July 30	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Wednesday	August 10	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's
Thursday	August 11	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's
Friday	August 12	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's
Saturday	August 13	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	56th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's
Friday	August 19	Badlands Motor Speedway	Brandon SD	Gold Cup: Winged 410 Qualifying Night
Saturday	August 20	Badlands Motor Speedway	Brandon SD	Gold Cup: Non-Winged 410 Qualifying Night
Sunday	August 21	Badlands Motor Speedway	Brandon SD	Gold Cup Championships
Saturday	August 27	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	National Sprint League 410's
Thursday	September 1	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	Jackson Nationals - National Sprint League 410's
Friday	September 2	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	Jackson Nationals - National Sprint League 410's
Saturday	September 3	Jackson Speedway	Jackson MN	Jackson Nationals - National Sprint League 410's
Thursday	September 15	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals
Friday	September 16	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals
Saturday	September 17	Knoxville Raceway	Knoxville IA	Lucas Oil Knoxville Late Model Nationals
Saturday	September 17	Badlands Motor Speedway	Brandon SD	National Cheaters Day Competition

Fourth 'Fest Feature For Fredrickson

Taking the lead from Ty Majeski on the final restart, Dan Fredrickson of Lakeville, Minnesota, captured his fourth win in the Oktoberfest 200 at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in front of a huge sun baked crowd on Sunday. The event was also the final race of the 2015 schedule for the ARCA Midwest Tour and while he faded to third at the checkers, Majeski still had a reason to celebrate by capturing the series title.



Johnny Sauter receives some pre-race advice from his children

Twenty-eight cars would line up for the 200-lap event on the paved 5/8th-mile oval with Florida's Dalton Zehr and Griffin McGrath from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, starting from the front row. While at the back of the grid you would find the third fastest qualifier on Saturday Johnny Sauter who had accepted the challenge to start from the rear for the chance to win an additional $5,000 if he could then win the race.

With Zehr setting the early pace, Sauter would quickly pick up nine positions in the first ten laps. And, by lap twenty as Zehr led Jim Sauter Jr., McGrath and Ty Majeski, Johnny Sauter had already cracked the top ten. Sauter Jr. would then slip by Zehr the following lap to become the race leader. McGrath was looking strong in third until lap thirty-five when an obvious miss in the motor caused him to slow and eventually pull to the pits six laps later and that would leave just fourteen cars on the lead lap before the competition yellow waved on lap fifty.

With all drivers required to pit at least once during the event, only the second place car of Zehr and the sixth-place car of Dan Fredrickson would make that stop among the leaders during this first caution as Johnny Sauter had already made his way up to fourth. Fredrickson who started 19th picked up the pace once he was passed by Sauter on lap ten and had followed him toward the front during the first quarter of the event.

Jim Sauter Jr. again set a quick pace that the now second-place car of Majeski would match and on lap 81 the young driver from Seymour, Wisconsin, would put a nose under the leader. Sauter Jr. would fight off that bid and then again six laps later when Majeski pulled even with him on the high side going down the front straightaway. Not far behind the lead duo, Johnny Sauter's amazing run to the front began to fade a bit as Jacob Goede passed him for third on lap 88 and Goede was not satisfied with that as he quickly reeled in Majeski to challenge for second as the race hit the midway mark.

Walcott, Iowa's Caleb Adrian spun off of turn two on lap 106 bringing the caution out and this time around all of the leaders pitted except for Dalton Zehr who would reclaim the point for the restart. Zehr would learn quickly that this was not his best strategy as he got loose coming to the green and dropped all the way to fifth as Majeski assumed the lead for the first time with Goede and Sauter Jr. giving chase while Johnny Sauter picked his way back into contention passing Natalie Decker. When Johnny would slip by Goede for second on lap 128 it looked like the bonus money might go his way even though his shadow Dan Fredrickson would soon follow him into third.

Zehr's fade continued as he went a lap down to Majeski on lap 138 and six laps later the Florida driver would spin down the back stretch to produce the caution that would have otherwise waved around lap 150 for one more round of optional pit stops. None of the top ten chose to pit and it would be Majeski leading Johnny Sauter, Fredrickson, Goede, Decker and Travis Sauter back to green with 44 laps remaining. Fredrickson would take second away from Johnny Sauter two laps later and he would then ride about four car lengths back from the leader for the next twenty-five laps.

As the laps wound down and with lapped traffic looming ahead Fredrickson closed in on Majeski and began to apply some pressure as the lead duo now had a full straightaway over the third-place car of Sauter. With the scoreboard set to click to just ten laps remaining Johnny Sauter slowed going down the back stretch and made the left hand turn into the infield now making the battle between Travis Sauter and Natalie Decker the race for third. As they exited turn four contact sent Travis for a spin and the caution waved one last time for what would be a ten lap sprint for all the marbles.

Both Decker and Travis Sauter were sent to the back of the nine remaining lead lap cars and it would be Majeski bringing the field back single file for the green flag. However, in what he would later describe as a vapor lock causing his car to stutter for a split second when he hit the throttle, Majeski would be passed by both Fredrickson and Goede heading into turn one. As the two Minnesota drivers raced away, Goede tried to make a run at the leader over the closing laps to no avail as Dan Fredrickson would collect his fourth Oktoberfest crown. Second would go to the 2015 Elko Speedway champion Goede while Majeski would celebrate a series championship in third. Nick Murgic drove a steady race to finish in the fourth position while the same could be said for Skylar Holzhausen in fifth. Tim Sauter qualified out of the Last Chance race, started 22nd and finished in sixth ahead of Natalie Decker, Chris Weinkauf and Travis Sauter while Caleb Adrian completed the top ten one lap down to the leader.

In other action on this warm Sunday afternoon eighteen Big 8 Series Late Model drivers were invited to participate in the JMcK 63, a tribute to John McKarns with the event to be run in three 21-lap segments and the overall winner to be determined by points from the finish in each of those segments. The opening segment was lined up by a pill draw and with Ty Majeski drawing the pole this looked like it would be a race for second until Michael Beamish squeezed past Majeski for the lead mid-race. Majeski would fight back though and pass Beamish on the outside to take the checkers in segment one as Beamish nipped Rick Schumann Jr. at the line for second and Chris Merrick finished fourth after starting tenth. Also thirteen-year-old Brody Willett of Alburnett, Iowa, whom we have seen running on the dirt this year in a Micro Mod, started fifteenth and finished eighth.

With a 13-car invert for the starting lineup of the second segment the 2015 Big 8 Series Rookie-of-the-Year, Cole Anderson, fought off a late charge from Majeski to take the win as John Baumeister Jr., Jeremy Miller and Chris Merrick completed the top five. The third segment would see the top twelve in points inverted for the start and that would land Willett on the pole although the youngster faded quickly on the start. Mike Ostdiek appeared to have the race well in hand until a late caution brought the field back to him with Ryan Kamish and Majeski now poised to challenge on the restart.

Kamish would take the point away from Ostdiek with Majeski soon settling into second and even though the overall points title was now well in hand, Majeski wanted more. As the white flag waved Majeski made a run to drive to the outside of Kamish and it would be a drag race off of turn four to the checkers with Majeski taking the win by a matter of inches at the line. Ostdiek would hold down the third spot with Miller and Merrick in fourth and fifth allowing Merrick and Kamish to place second and third in the overall payoff.

An interesting mix of twenty-three Vintage Cars definitely brought back some nostalgia, but these guys weren't just putting on an exhibition as they were racing for real! It was announced prior to the event that Rex Rossier would have a $320 bounty on him and you could see why as he easily worked his way through the field passing his brother Royce for the lead. A late caution though bunched the field together and 71-year-old Woody Pool made the move around Rossier with a couple of laps remaining to take the win and the extra cash.

While I made it here for a Thursday night qualifier eight years ago, this was my first Oktoberfest finale in thirteen years and it is good to see that nothing has changed......well except for the climate, at least on this day! When you approach the fairgrounds you have to be amazed at the number of campers and it was no surprise to me that the first open parking spot that I found was at least a good half-mile away from the speedway. Half the fans are wearing racing shirts while the rest are in Green Bay Packers jerseys, okay so maybe there were a couple of Vikings fans in the crowd as well, but you get the picture, and the smell of burgers and bratwursts fills the air. I was disappointed to learn that the pork chop sandwiches had sold out the night before showing just how big of a crowd had been here throughout the four day run, but I still made sure to get my bowl of Queen's Apples topped with hot caramel sauce and whipped cream. I will say that it was very odd to be at Oktoberfest wearing shorts and a t-shirt as the temperatures soared into the mid-80's without a cloud in the sky, but what a perfect day it was to close out "one great racing weekend" in western Wisconsin.

The drive up and back was beautiful as well riding along highway 52 and the Mississippi River between Prairie Du Chien and La Crosse, but the leaves weren't quite in full color yet likely due to the warmer than normal weather that we have been experiencing lately. Maybe I will catch them in their full glory in two weeks when I plan to make a similar trip to the Dells Motor Speedway on October 25th for the Falloween 100. Perhaps you should check it out as well!

Pits Overflow at Donnellson's Fall Extravaganza

In the small southeast Iowa community of Donnellson a siren wails each and every night at six o'clock and when it sounded on Friday I was chatting with a couple of drivers as they prepared their Stock Cars for the opening night of the 4th Annual Fall Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway. "There aren't as many cars here as I thought there would be," said one of the drivers and as I pointed out to him that you already had Matt Richards here all the way from Lincoln, Nebraska, and three Modifieds from northeast Wisconsin my response was, "just wait until the locals arrive." And arrive they did over the next hour as the car count in the five divisions swelled to an impressive total of 151 with the two Modified classes leading the way with 39 cars each!

As you can always count on with a Mike Van Genderen promoted show, the racing started right on time at 7:30 and with darn near perfect track conditions the 19 heat races and six B-Mains ran off in quick fashion and the first of five features, the Sport Mods rolled to the track just past 9:30.

And that's when things got a little dicey.

Well actually the first eight laps of the 20-lap event went pretty well as pole-sitter Curtis Van Der Wal tried to run off and hide from his most recent nemesis Logan Anderson, but when Ethan Baarksma spun in turn four the caution flag that starter Kevin Eggleston had pretty much been able to keep in the bag all evening made its first appearance. Anderson would make a run at the leader on the restart only to see the yellow wave again two laps later when Kip Siems stopped on the Back Stretch. The battle for the lead on this restart really heated up on a chilly evening as Jim Gillenwater joined the mix. Driving the car formerly piloted by Bobby Six, Gillenwater made it three-wide with Van Der Wal and Anderson down the back straightaway and while Van Der Wal was able to ride the cushion back to the front off of turn four it was now Gillenwater running in the second spot.

The caution waved again after just two more laps of action though when Robert Gould spun in turn two and the field was bunched up in double-wide fashion for another restart. This one did not go well.

Anderson slid high off of turn two and as he tried to recover his left front was clipped by the car of Jeremiah Hurst. The contact veered Anderson's car hard right where he then made blunt contact with the back stretch wall bouncing straight back and into the direct path of the on rushing field and in that split second I am sure that I was not the only witness to feel his stomach churn knowing what was soon to happen. Tyler Soppe t-boned Anderson at full speed and as Soppe's car rose up into the air the cars of Colton Livezy, Louis Lynch and Gould also made severe impact leaving a tangled mess of mangled Modifieds right at the pit entrance.

The safety crews and track workers rushed to the scene without hesitation and it was with great relief when we all saw Anderson scramble out of his car under his own power. Livezy, Lynch and Gould also climbed out and while Soppe was put into the ambulance on a stretcher thankfully it was for observation only as he stayed at the track suffering "bumps and bruises" that are likely more painful today than they were during the rush of adrenaline following this frightening incident.

Some tracks only have one or maybe two wreckers ready to work on race night, but the Lee County Speedway has more and even with plenty of help it took at least twenty minutes to clear the track of damaged cars with Soppe's needing two wreckers to be dropped off in the infield.

With everyone now relieved and recovered, the race went back to green and again Gillenwater applied the pressure on the leader challenging Van Der Wal on the inside line. The two ran in close formation for the next four laps before Van Der Wal was able to pull away to take yet another $1,000 victory. Gillenwater was the runner-up with twelfth starting Brandon Dale finishing third. Tony Dunker finished in the fourth spot while Boone's Jake McBirnie was fifth.

The Sport Compacts were up next for 15-laps and for a division that normally runs its features flag-to-flag, this one would have four stoppages as well. Jake Benischeck grabbed the lead from the pole before Renny McCarty and Darin Weisinger Jr. spun in turn four on lap two. Brandon Reu and Josh Barnes would battle for second behind Benischek as the race went green for six more laps before a Bryerson Tharp spin in turn two and then it would be Luke Benischek drawing a caution with just two laps remaining.

On the restart Jerrod Nichols dumped Eric Stogdell coming to the green causing Stogdell's car to roll on its side and the race went red for a moment. Once back to action Reu made one last run at Benischek but he could not keep the driver from Durant out of victory lane on this night. Shaun Slaughter charged up from the seventh row to finish third with Barnes in fourth and Chuck Fullenkamp in fifth.

The first four starters in the Stock Car main event, Nathan Wood, Jeff Mueller, Cayden Carter and David Brandies put on quite a show in the opening laps of their main event with Mueller holding the lead at the stripe. Cautions for Dean Kratzer on lap eight and for Chad Krogmeier on lap twelve slowed the action and while Mueller would go flag-to-flag for the victory he was constantly challenged by David Brandies who would take the checkers in second. Wood would hold down the third spot with Mike Hughes coming from twelfth to fourth and Zack VanderBeek completed the top five. After being penalized for jumping the start of his heat race, VanderBeek made the show out of the B-Main and started the feature from the eleventh row.

It was now past eleven o'clock and knowing that I had a long weekend ahead of me I decided that if the trend continued with the Hobby Stocks I would need to leave before the show was over and with two cautions in the early laps I had to make that tough decision. Checking the results today I see that teammates Dustin Griffiths and Dale Porter finished one-two in that main event with Dane Blozovich, Justin Wacha and Justin Lichty completing the top five and in the Modified finale it was Kyle Brown scorning the win ahead of Cayden Carter, Bruce Hanford, Michael Long and Richie Gustin.

The weather on Saturday is going to be absolutely perfect for racing and you already know that there will be a full field of cars at the Lee County Speedway. So when the six o'clock whistle blows tonight as that first set of hot laps takes the green, make sure that you are there and ready to enjoy some great racing action!

Why Don't You Slide?

You may have noticed that the Back Stretch was only on hand to cover the first night of the 29th Annual Musco Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa last weekend. On Saturday Christine and I drove to Chicago where we boarded a plane and flew to Boston where I was to work booth duty for my real job at the Direct Marketing Association's Annual Conference while she had a long list of sightseeing options for the next three days.

I am fortunate to work for a great company, Innovairre, that is the world's leader in helping non profits raise money for each of their causes, plus we produce some very unique packages for commercial clients as well so even though standing at an exhibition hall booth for three days might not sound like too much fun, the time actually flies by while talking to customers and prospective customers about how we can improve their Direct Mail and multi-channel marketing efforts. An added treat this year was a concert for the conference attendees by the Goo Goo Dolls and I was amazed by just how many songs of theirs I have liked over the years. I know that I have at least one of their CD's tucked away downstairs and a trip to the iTunes store is up next so that I can have a full disc of favorites for a couple of racing road trips that I have planned before the season ends.

Sounds like the racing in Osky was good on Saturday night as well with no real surprises in victory lane and promoter Mike Van Genderen's five straight weeks of Fall specials hits the midway point this weekend with the Fall Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday and Saturday night.

Kudos to the Darkside, Ryan Duhme and Tim Current, for establishing the Fall Bash at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa as a new "must-see" Fall event by using some unique promotional moves. First off there was some big money on the line, but then with wise use of both Facebook and well placed ads on iowastockcars.com the word of that big money was spread far and wide. Plus the "team" concept of having Modified and Sport Mod drivers pair up with some extra bonus money on the line was ingenious and the car counts were huge. Congratulations Darkside!

There was plenty of other racing going on at All Iowa Points paying tracks during the first weekend of October.

Tim Kaeding and Bryan Clauson each scored wins as the FVP National Sprint League closed out its inaugural season with two nights of action at the I-80 Speedway in eastern Nebraska where ironically Wayne Johnson also won the 360 Sprint portion of the show. Recall that Johnson was the winner of the NSL's inaugural race at 34 Raceway back in April.

Soon to be two-time All Iowa Points Modified champion Chris Abelson won the Fall special at the Crawford County Speedway in Denison. Mike Harris scored the Stock Car win while Logan Scott won the Sport Mods, with Kevin Bruck and Corey Stapleton also taking wins on the night in the Hobby Stocks and the Sport Compacts.

More than 30 Late Models converged on the Park Jefferson Speedway where Kyle Berck was the winner ahead of Tad Pospisil and R.C. Whitwell, and in Cresco Brandon Hare and Kyle Falck were the headliners as the USRA Iron Man Series ran on a nice Fall evening at the Howard County Fairgrounds.

And, as we mentioned here a few entries back, the Blackbird Bend Casino in Onawa, Iowa, reopened its speedway this past Friday night with 116 cars in attendance and it was Sioux City's Jimmy Cole taking the win in the headline Modified division. Full results for Blackbird Bend's return to action can be found here.

Down in Missouri the top two drivers in the current Missouri Points as tabulated here on the Back Stretch finished one-two at Valley Speedway's "King of Kansas City" special event Saturday night with Mount Ayr, Iowa's Dennis Elliott edging out Terry Schultz for the top prize. Schultz still leads the state points though with at least five more events in the Show Me state still a possibility before the season ends five days before Thanksgiving in Springfield.

"Racer X" Jon Reynolds Jr. was the Super Late Model winner at the 50th Annual National Short Track Championships at the Rockford Speedway on Sunday while Michael Bilderback was the Big 8 Late Model feature winner on Saturday night. The Back Stretch checking out pavement racing results? You'll see why in a moment.....

So while last weekend was quite busy in this neck of the woods, other than the two-day show in Donnellson the schedule is comparably light for this coming weekend that again looks pretty good for racing from a weather standpoint. I-80 Speedway is back in action with the Cornhusker Classic all weekend, the MLRA Late Models run a doubleheader at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Missouri, the Shaheen Super Weekend featuring Sprints and Midgets will run both Friday and Saturday night at Jacksonville (one of those "schedules subject to change" situations from what is on the Positively Racing calendar), I-35 Speedway in Winston, Missouri, has a big dollar USRA Modified show on Saturday and the Nobles County Speedway in Worthington, Minnesota will run its Fall Classic on Saturday and Sunday.

My plans are to be at Donnellson on Friday night and, since I have another commitment on Saturday, I am planning on getting up early and making the trip north to the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway for Sunday's finale of the Oktoberfest Race Weekend featuring the Big 8 Late Model Series and the ARCA Midwest Tour. It has been several years since I was last at Oktoberfest, an event that I used to take in regularly before our area dirt tracks figured out that racing in October wasn't such a bad idea, and I have been excited to return! Perhaps you will see me on the Back Stretch?

One more Goo Goo Dolls song for the road.....

Hughes Doubles Up At Musco Fall Challenge Opener

The 29th Annual Musco Fall Challenge got underway at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Friday night and hometown driver Mike Hughes won 40% of the feature races on the night. Yep, that's right, Hughes scored two feature wins as nearly 130 cars signed in for the event's five primary divisions.

The Sport Mod division drew the largest car count at 33 and their feature would be the first to hit the speedway with Tim Plummer and Logan Anderson starting from the front row. Anderson, who picked up the $1,000 win in Memphis Missouri last weekend, sprinted out to the lead with Plummer chasing as the rest of the field lost ground on the lead duo while jockeying for position. Anderson encountered traffic before the mid-race mark of the 18-lap distance and he quickly put five cars between himself and Plummer. On lap ten as Plummer tried to pass a pack of five lappers he would go too low in turn two and clip the track tire sending him for a spin and ending his evening with front end damage on his #66.

The caution would not only wipe out a huge lead for Anderson, but it would also place track champion Curtis Van Der Wal on the first double row for the restart as he had worked his way up from tenth to third behind Jason McDaniel. Anderson would fight off the initial challenge from Van Der Wal, but the champ would keep him close and as traffic came into play again, the final two laps saw an amazing duel between the two hometown drivers. Swapping slide jobs it would be Van Der Wal holding the lead at the white flag and when he found Greg Strohman running his lower line through one and two that would give Anderson the opportunity to get a run down the Back Stretch.

Van Der Wal would pass Strohman on the outside before entering turn three and Anderson would dive to the bottom to blow by the lapped car and slide up in front of Van Der Wal. There was contact, but both drivers held their ground and when Van Der Wal turned back under Anderson off of turn four it was a drag race to the finish with Van Der Wal taking the win by a car length over Anderson. McDaniel would spend the whole race in third, Brayton Carter came from eleventh to fourth and Glenn Gladson Jr. started next to the winner in row five and finished fifth.

With that thriller in the books the division that normally provides the most action here, the Stock Cars were up next and with two top contenders drawing the front row this one would start out similar to the race before it. Mike Hughes would lead Zack VanderBeek while track champion Cayden Carter would work his way up from the ninth starting spot. VanderBeek would be able to draw even with Hughes on both lap six and lap twelve of the 22-lap event, but Hughes would use the high line momentum to ward him off both times. Carter would make it a three-car battle over the final six laps as he would test the bottom trying to pass his teammate VanderBeek for second and that would allow Hughes to ease on in to the checkers for his first $1,000 victory of the night. VanderBeek and Carter would place and show in this one while northwest Iowa's Elijah Zevenbergen came from twelfth to fourth. John Oliver Jr. prevailed in a spirited battle with Blaine Dopler as the two southeast Iowa racers raced for fifth.

Fifteen Sport Compacts were up next and to say that they had a hard time getting started would be an understatement. On the first attempt the fourth starting car of William Michel went sideways coming off of turn four and nearly went upside down after climbing atop the hood of Josh Barnes' car. On the second attempt Shaun Slaughter, who enjoyed a three-win week last week, smacked the turn one guardrail hard ending his night early on the hook. Then the third attempt definitely was not a charm as John Girdley, Kenneth Stogdell and Ryan Walker piled up into the turn three guardrail. Stogdell got out of his car after being checked over and was later transferred to the local hospital for observation.

With the field now whittled down the race was shortened to ten laps with Brandon Lambert leading the first two before Ryan Havel swept by on lap three. With Havel pulling away the battle for second was a good one with drivers going three wide down the Back Stretch with two laps remaining. Havel would drive away with the win as Barnes and his damaged racer took the battle for second over Bill Whalen Jr. and Lambert. Darin Smith recovered from the early incidents to make it back up to fifth at the checkers.

After drawing only seven cars for the Season Championship nine days ago it was great to see a solid field of twenty-seven Modifieds on hand tonight and the 22-lap main event was a good one. Carter VanDenBerg would lead the opening lap before a caution waved on lap two for a Nick Nevins spin. On the restart VanDenBerg was under attack from both high and low as both Richie Gustin and Andrew Schroeder would drive by with Gustin now assuming the lead. Eighth starting Kyle Brown and ninth starting Cayden Carter would join the battle and the top five would then run in a tight pack giving the chilled Friday night crowd as thrill. While Gustin would maintain the lead each of the four challengers would at one point or another find themselves in second over the next twelve laps. With five laps remaining Carter would find the bite that he needed on the bottom to drive by Gustin for the lead and, even though Cayden was the 2015 Modified track champion this would be his first Modified feature win of the season here with a $1,000 check waiting for him at the pay window. Brown would take the second spot as Gustin slipped to third while VanDenBerg and Schroeder would complete the top five.

The 16-lap Hobby Stock main event would close out the evening and Mike Hughes had to be feeling good about his chances as he once again drew the front row for the main event. Hughes would pull out to a comfortable lead as Nathan Ballard tried to fight off the challenges from several drivers for the second spot. A spin by Clint Nelson with four laps remaining would bring the field back to Hughes for the restart, but nobody could make a run at Hughes who walked off with his second $1,000 check of the night. Ballard who does most of his racing on quarter-mile tracks was impressive running second on the monster half-mile with Dustin Griffiths finishing third. Nick Ulin held down the fourth position while All Iowa Points champion Shannon Anderson was fifth.

Osky's Fall Challenge will close out with another full show tonight (Saturday) and while I wish that I could be there, business travel will take me another direction.

It will be another nice Fall evening for racing here in the upper Midwest so get on out and attend a special event of your choice.