Wednesday Notebook; April 24, 2024

A couple of quick thoughts on this beautiful Wednesday where my readers in Iowa should be thinking about attending the races tonight at either the Stuart Speedway or the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. If I didn't have another obligation you can bet that I would be at one of those tracks tonight, especially given the stormy forecast for the weekend ahead!

I was watching the High Limit Sprint Cars on FloRacing last night and it was great to see a standing room only crowd at the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas. Affectionately known as "The Ditch" the track seems to have a mixture of the "new" and the "old". Drone shots showed what looked like some very nice high rise bleachers that were completely full of race fans, I will count those as the "new", while the track's catch fencing seemed to be rather primitive as proven by a section of it being rolled up and landing on the track with Tim Crawley's flip and the fact that it offered up little, if any resistance when Brian Bell left the ballpark. I guess the good thing about the fencing though was that it was quickly repaired by just rolling out some more and fastening it to the existing structures.

During the repair process I couldn't help to think that Kasey Kahne was looking at it as if to wonder what, if anything that fence would be able to hold in.

As usual when I try to watch live dirt racing on TV, I fell asleep shortly after the restart and woke up just in time for Corey Day to celebrate in victory lane. But before that something really caught my attention. During that red flag period it was announced that all restarts for the rest of the night would be single file and that was met by a pretty generous chorus of boos from the patient crowd. Usually the High Limit Series has complete double file restarts during the feature race using the "choose cone", or whatever the current sponsor of it has it dubbed, where just before the restart the drivers approach the cone single file and then "choose" which line they will restart in by driving below it or above it. This was one of "new" features that the series introduced last season, however it has been a method that has been used on the paved short tracks for many years now.

Often on the paved tracks, the favored line will distinctly be the bottom so you will often see both the leader and the second place driver choose the inside for the restart. The third place driver then has to make a quick decision to either stay low and start behind the top two cars, or move to the outside and start next to the leader knowing that he or she may have a hard time getting back into the favored groove before losing positions beyond third. It adds a whole new level of intrigue to restarts, and keeps the field bunched together for more action, which is the reason why most tracks and organizations choose to have double-file restarts, right?

So why did the High Limit officials make this call to abandon the choose cone at Riverside? It didn't look like the track had locked down so early in the feature and, even if it had, isn't that the reason why you have the "choose cone" in the first place? Perhaps after a pair of fence ripping crashes in the first couple of laps they felt like it was unsafe to put cars two wide for a restart? If that is the case, that doesn't bode well for a return to "The Ditch" despite what looked like a huge success from a promotional standpoint.

The second item that caught my eye today was on Facebook where the Spoon River Speedway was promoting its season opener for this coming Friday night with a photo showing the purse structure for each of the five divisions. For those of you who do not know this yet, the track that is south of Canton, Illinois, has a new promoter for 2024 and he has posted some mind blowing payoffs for a weekly show: $2,000-to-win and $250-to-start for Super Late Models, $1,500-to-win and $150-to-start for UMP Modifieds, $1,000-to-win and $100-to-start for Crate Late Models, $600-to-win and $125-to-start for E-Mods and $300-to-win and $75-to-start for Hornets. With a full field of 20 cars in each class the total payout will be $29,750 which is unheard of for a weekly purse unless you are at Knoxville and if I didn't have my Class of '81 Golf Trip this week, I would be there this Friday. Instead I will try to make the trip next week on May 3rd to check it out.

Anyway, in the comments, a Crate Late Model racer stated, "We will be there if we can run both Late Model classes with our Pro Late Model". Sorry, but that just struck me as a bit demanding and presumptuous. Yes, I have seen tracks where the car count in the Super Late Models are so small that they go ahead and allow the Crate cars to race with them. In fact, there is a track in Texas that has been doing that every Saturday night so far in 2024. Perhaps that is where this driver came up with that notion, but with that purse does he really think that the car count will be short in the Supers? Staying with his same way of thinking, shouldn't the E-Mods demand to be allowed to use their same car and race with the UMP Modifieds. Why shouldn't they get to collect two purse checks after only paying for one pit pass as well?

Ah, you have to love social media where some really smart people can say some really dumb stuff.

That's all for today, I do hope that I can get a race in this Sunday night on my way home from our golf weekend. I am aiming for either the MARS Late Model race at the East Moline Speedway or the season opener at the Adams County IL Speedway in Quincy. Perhaps I will see you there!

Spectacular Opening Night At Vinton

After a couple of days of bitterly cold weather for April, the temperature was on the rise. The wind was still brisk, but it was out of the right direction for the fans in the stands. The track that had taken on quite a bit of rain over the past week held up nicely throughout the evening. And with the one good reason for starting a few minutes late, haulers still backed up at the pit gate resulting in a solid count of 109 race cars with the numbers spread fairly evenly across the six divisions, the one last ingredient that was needed for a spectacular opening night at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton was some exciting racing action and the drivers delivered in fine fashion!

This would also be the 2024 opener for the PRO Late Model Tour, now in its second season under the leadership of Brandon Davis, and with five of the eighteen events on the schedule here in Vinton you could say that this is the "home track" for the series. We were here last year when the Tour made its debut with only ten cars on hand and we were a bit skeptical about its future, however interest grew as the year went on and that momentum continues as on this nigh a stout field of twenty-two drivers were on hand looking for the $1,250 top prize.

National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Jeff Aikey would draw the pole for the twenty-five lap main event and he would slide up in front of Nick Marolf in turns one and two to take the point. Third starting Dylan Thornton would soon move to second and the chase was on with the up and coming Late Model rookie pursuing the wily veteran. A pair of spins by T.J. Fortmann would slow the field on laps seven and eight and once back to green Thornton would start to show his nose under Aikey, especially in turns one and two.

The young native Californian would eventually pull even with the leader only to have Aikey use the momentum off the high line to regain the advantage going down the back stretch before the caution waved again when Bobby Hansen's #9 went up in smoke with nine laps remaining. Despite his efforts showing promise down low, Thornton chose to start from the outside of the first double row for the restart and that would allow J.D. Auringer to now race him side-by-side for second as Aikey started to pull away. The caution would fly again with just one more lap in the books when Lance Mish and Zach Less tangled in turn two and on this realignment Thornton made the right call by taking the inside position.

Parts of the nose piece off of the #20 of Less would negate the first restart, but once back to green Thornton would go right back to pressuring the leader, now pulling even in turns one and two and nearly staying that way heading down the back stretch, gaining a bit more ground with each lap. On the twenty-first circuit the two were even entering turn three and after driving in deep, Thornton would slide up in front of Aikey to take the lead as the always enthusiastic crowd at Vinton went nuts.

The lap was completed before Sam Halstead's spin in turn four brought out one final caution and Aikey quickly pulled alongside Thornton to express his feelings about the pass for the lead. As the field was reset for the final four laps, Aikey picked the high side and he would slip to fourth in turns one and two as both Auringer and Andy Eckrich would get by him. Auringer would then stay within striking distance, but there would be no stopping Thornton who would park the Brenda Kay owned #38T in victory lane for the second night in a row after also winning in Independence on Saturday. Aikey would get by Eckrich on the final lap to salvage third while Nick Marolf would complete the top five. 

Dylan Thonton's #38T in preparation for the night ahead

The PRO Late Model feature was preceded by a couple of appetizers featuring the Sport Compacts and the Sport Mods for twelve and fifteen laps respectively. Pole-sitter Jake Anderson would set the early pace in the feature for the four cylinders and by hugging the bottom he was able to ward off Lukas Rick for the first four laps. However, as soon as he opened the door just a bit, Rick came charging through and despite hearing his motor stumble on several occasions going down the front stretch, Lukas would drive on to victory. Anderson would hold off Cristian Grady for second, Spencer Roggentien would move from tenth to fourth as Stephen Randall finished off the top five.

After his wife made the suggestion just before noon that they should load up the car and make the trip from Muscatine to Vinton, Shane Paris made that a great decision as he went flag-to-flag for the feature win with the IMCA Northern Sport Mods. In an event that was slowed by just two cautions, the race to watch was for second as the Olson cousins duked it out with Tony prevailing over Kyle in the final lap. Brady Hilmer finished fourth while Rayce Mullen was fifth.

Twenty laps of IMCA Stock Car action would then follow the Late Models and this was a good one throughout. Gage Neal had started to the outside of Dustin Griffiths and it would be Neal who would get the early advantage and then glue it down to the bottom as that quickly became the preferred line for most of the eighteen car field. Griffiths would stalk the leader until lap twelve when he was able to squeeze under Neal for the point. Meanwhile, behind them a pair of drivers who had started from eighth and ninth respectively were searching for another line higher up the banking and that allowed John Oliver Jr. and Kaden Reynolds to make their way toward the front.

A caution for Tonia Stevens' spin in turn two would set up a five lap dash to the finish with Griffiths appearing to still be in control of the race on the first lap after the restart. However, as he exited turn two on lap seventeen the driver who had made the long tow in from Ottumwa suddenly slowed and made the left hand turn into the infield handing the lead over to Oliver. Kyle Olson, who had started tenth, was now in the mix as well as he was riding the cushion and with Reynolds challenging to his inside, Oliver had the dilemma of which lane to run in to try to get to the checkers first. Something in the middle had been working for him throughout the race anyway, so that is where he stayed and after the white flag waved Reynolds was able to find the bite that he needed off the bottom of turn two to take the lead and the win on the final lap. And once again, the Sunday night crowd was buzzing at the Bullring! Oliver would hold off Olson for second, Jay Schmidt finished fourth as Neal wrapped up the top five.

It would be hard to top those two last two features, but the IMCA Modifieds were up to the task in their twenty lap headliner with Troy Cordes holding the early lead. Dallon Murty was on the move though coming from sixth and he would use the cushion on both ends of the speedway to sail past Cordes on lap five. At the tail end of the field on that lap Jeff Aikey had slowed suddenly on the front stretch with mechanical issues sending both Stephen Streeter and Jeff Sampson scrambling to avoid heavy contact. For Streeter, his best option was grinding up against the front stretch wall and his car would then require the hook with damage on the right front.

Sampson's spin in turn four would pull a caution mid-race and then one final caution would wave with five laps remaining when Chris Snyder clobbered the infield tire in turn one. On this restart Tim Ward would pick up on his challenge to Murty's lead while behind them drivers would fan out five-wide going down the back stretch in the battle for third, fourth, fifth and sixth! Ward would pull even with the leader on the back stretch three times over those final laps, but Dallon's high side momentum off of turn four would allow him to maintain the lead and take the victory in another thriller. Ward, who had started from eighth, would be a close second with Cordes in third while Modified rookie Ben Chapman made an impressive run coming from fifteenth to fourth after missing his heat race earlier in the evening. Patrick Flannagan would finish where he started in fifth.

The sun was just starting to set as the Hobby Stocks came to the quarter-mile oval for the final feature of the night and for those who made an early exit, you missed a good one as this fifteen lapper would come down to two drivers who, combined, had already captured nine feature wins on this young season. Pole-sitter Joren Fisher would lead the opening circuit before being overtaken by the driver who had started sixth, Bradly Graham. Cautions on lap two and lap five would keep the field bunched and also allowed the ninth starting Nathan Ballard to methodically work his way toward the front.

Once back to green the final ten laps would click off quickly with Graham stretching out his advantage as Ballard had to work to get by Justin Wacha for second. By the time that he was there Ballard was nearly a full straightaway back from the lead and when James Pilkington spun in turn four with three laps remaining it looked like that lead would be wiped out by a caution.

Pilkington kept his car going though and rejoined the race just ahead of the final car on the lead lap, Michael Cheney. As the white flag waved Graham was patient working his way past Cheney in turns one and two allowing Ballard to close the gap and then, when entering turn three, the leader followed Pilkington to the cushion and had to check up to get below him and that was all that Ballard needed to go charging by on the inside to score the unlikely victory, already his seventh at four different tracks in 2024. Graham had to be a bit disgruntled as the runner-up as Wacha finished just behind him in third. Fisher slipped to fourth while Corey VanDerwilt filled out the top five.

Nathan Ballard (29) leads Joren Fisher (52) and Bradly Graham (2G) in heat race action

I was in no hurry to head for the exit, so I didn't check the time right away but I would guess that the final checkers had waved around 8:15. Very impressive considering that the scheduled start to hot laps at 4:30 had been delayed by about fifteen minutes due to the backup at the pit gate and they made up most of that lost time by not splitting the field up for hot laps where drivers were given just a green, white and checkers. I have been to tracks lately that would have taken the twenty-two car field of Late Models and split them up into three hot lap sessions. But not here at Vinton where promoters Rick and Corey Dripps know that an efficient, well presented program is the key to their success on Sunday nights.

As always we thank that father and son duo along with their entire staff for the hospitality and their efforts. And my good friend Ryan Clark sets the standard for what a great announcer is for a weekly race track. His connection with his hometown crowd (yes, he does now live in Des Moines, but he grew up here in Vinton) and his history of this great little bullring pulls you in and makes you feel like this is your Sunday night home as well, even if you do have to drive 102 miles to be there.

I am already looking forward to making that trip again in two weeks when the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders will join the Sunday night program in Vinton on May 5th. Before that, some non-racing activities will fill my schedule with my next projected event being the MARS Late Model show at the East Moline Speedway on Sunday April 28th.

It is warming up and it is time to go racing, get out to the track of your choice soon and bring a friend!

Wednesday Notebook: April 17, 2024

After spending most of last week out of state for my first business travel since February of 2020, I am finally caught up enough to pull out the Notebook for this entry on the Back Stretch. 

With my flight landing at the Quad Cities airport just before 6 p.m. on Friday, I hustled over to the Davenport Speedway for the season opener and the promotional debut of Jeff Struck Jr. It was what I would call an "unofficial" visit since I had set a personal curfew of 9:45 to make sure that I could stay awake for the drive home. Had the whole show been completed, yes I would have written a recap and when the first of six feature races came to the track shortly after eight o'clock I thought that we had a chance. However, that was quickly erased when the Street Stocks had six cautions in the first eight laps.

The car count in that division was bolstered by some long distance travelers that I assume were there in support of Struck who has raced in this division for the past several years and who has even found some success when he towed east to compete in some higher paying specials. Indiana visitors Kyle Anderson and Braiden Keller were involved in two of those early cautions with Keller's coming after he slipped off the back stretch after leading the first three laps.

The final seven laps would run under the green and it would be a slider by Nick Slepak on Nick Hixson on that final restart that would decide the race. Slepak, who had made the 140 mile tow in from Coal City, Illinois, would celebrate the win over Landen Chrestensen while another traveler, Kraig Hughes from Ottawa, Illinois, would finish in third.

After winning Thursday's show at Marshalltown, Nathan Ballard kept his early season hot streak intact here at Davenport passing Daniel Wauters on lap four to win the Hobby Stock main event. This division is new to Davenport for 2024 having replaced the IMCA Stock Cars on the weekly card and the opening night count was solid with sixteen on hand. This would be Ballard's sixth win already in 2024 after taking two each at Memphis and Bloomfield prior to last weekend's success.

Logan Veloz drew the front row for the Sport Mod feature and he would lead a race flag-to-flag that was slowed by just two cautions despite there being twenty-nine cars on the track! North Dakota visitor Robby Rosselli started twelfth and finished in fourth.

Only seven Sport Compacts had signed in so they would run a feature only on this night and I could hear them buzz to life as I climbed into my car just a couple of minutes before my self-imposed curfew. A couple of things that caught my eye as I reviewed the results the next morning was the fact that Mitch Morris had completed a clean sweep winning both his heat race and the main event in his first night racing an IMCA Late Model. And it was good to see that Ben Chapman was able to work his way forward from a ninth row starting spot to finish fifth in the IMCA Modified feature. It is rare today to see drivers who are enjoying a good deal of success in the Sport Mods or B-Mod class that take the step up to the Modifieds or Late Models. It will not surprise me to to see Ben in victory lane in his new division soon!

When I saw Jeff Terhune the following night he told me that additional cautions had pushed the final checkers to nearly an hour after my departure and, given the need for several pieces of bubble gum and some loud music to get me home safely, I am glad that I left when I did. All in all it had to be a good first night for Struck though as a very nice crowd was on hand and the pits were full of more than 120 race cars.

On Saturday night the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders kicked off their 2024 season at 34 Raceway west of Burlington and other than a stiff wind blowing in from over turn three, it was a pretty nice mid-April evening for racing. The car count was phenomenal with 35 drivers in attendance and when there are even names that my announcing partner Bill Wright doesn't even recognize, well then that's a treat! As I usually do with the Invader shows, I left the Notebook in the car in lieu of the clipboard that we keep all of the sponsors for both the series and the drivers on, so for the story and full results of Paul Nienhiser's victory, click here.

The Invaders have made a big change in their lineup procedure as for the first time in more than twenty-years the Dash will no longer be the "Shake Up" where the winner draws one of six pills to determine his or her starting position for the feature. As it has been for the past few seasons, the Dash is still made up of the heat race winners plus the top three in passing points (or four if there were four heats contested as there was this past Saturday) and in the recent past they would then lineup with the highest amount of passing points starting from the pole. That has changed now where the qualified drivers will now draw for the starting lineup in the Dash, so there is still a level of luck involved.

Nienhiser had drawn a seventh starting spot in his heat race where he raced his way up to second and he then drew the #1 pill for the Dash that he easily won to earn the pole for the twenty-five lap A-Main. Defending series champion Ryan Bunton made one good charge to the inside of turns one and two on an early restart, but after that Paul would use that line for the rest of the night to drive Scott Bonar's Midland Performance #50 to victory lane.

Surprise entrant Sterling Cling finished in second. The Arizona native was a two-time winner in 2023 racing without the wing in Indiana, but appears to be focusing on winged racing this season after getting an early start with Speedweeks in Florida. Hopefully we will see him again with the Invaders this season. Miles Paulus finished third in his #98. The Missouri driver has raced with the Invaders before, but as a hired hand, so after this strong start perhaps we will see more of him as well. The name that Bill W didn't recognize was Aaron Rixmann from Coulterville, Illinois. A search on the name shows that the high school senior is also a talented baseball pitcher for nearby Pinckneyville, so hopefully the scheduling conflicts will be few through the remainder of the spring season so that Rixmann can perhaps make a Rookie-of-the-Year run after making the show and finishing 19th. 

Other names that this announcer didn't expect included Wisconsin drivers TJ.Haddy and Eric Wilke as well as South Dakota visitors Clint and Cole Garner and Kaleb Johnson. Among the Sprint Invader stalwarts, young Colton Fisher is now driving for veteran car owner Jimmy Davies in the black #99 and while they were disappointed with a 15th-place finish in the opener, look for that combo to be challenging for wins as the season goes on. The next event for the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders will be a May 5th stop at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton.

Other winners at 34 from Saturday included Brian Tipps in the Mini Haulers, Josh Barnes in the Sport Compacts and Spencer Diercks in the IMCA Modifieds.

I watched the High Limit Sprint Car event from the Red Dirt Speedway in Meeker, Oklahoma, last night and the racing was fantastic with young Corey Day taking the victory after passing series point leader Tyler Courtney. This is a small facility just east of Oklahoma City and before the growth of live streaming, this facility would not have had the capacity to host an event of this magnitude. However, with sponsorship and the revenue produced online, it gave the place the opportunity to show just what kind of action that it has to offer each and every race night. There are a lot of tracks out there who, up until this era, just didn't have the seating capacity to host a national event, but would be a great place to shine if given the opportunity. What track would you feel fits that description?

One of the most anticipated debuts in a Sprint Car will come on Wednesday May 1st, when Jake Neuman's team will have a car wrapped with a #B5 for Late Model champion Brandon Sheppard. Talk about going all in, B-Shepp will be racing against the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars in that debut, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Pretty cool that he is doing it, and just remember as you look as his results, remember he is racing against some of the best in the business!

We are having some typical up and down April weather this week here in southeast Iowa with warm air clashing with incoming cooler air on Tuesday to spawn a couple of tornadoes not far from my home in Mount Pleasant. Thankfully no injuries have been reported , but several people are cleaning up from the damages and that was cited as one of the reasons why this weekend's Slocum 50 has been postponed at 34 Raceway. While Friday's Prelude has been canceled, the new date for the Slocum 50 will be announced once the track and the MLRA can find one that works for all. This Thursday's MLRA event at the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton has been moved to Thursday September 12th.

I had been planning on being at 34, but with the change hopefully I can make it down to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson on Friday night for the opener of their Spring Hooray doubleheader and then on Sunday night I will be looking to make the trip up to Vinton for the season opener at the Benton County Speedway.

Hope to see you on the Back Stretch! 

Braaksma, Bouzek, Inman, Graham and Murray Highlight Stuart's Frostbuster

With all of my other options for the weekend falling by the wayside due to the persistent rain, wind and cold here in Eastern Iowa, it only confirmed my planned trip to the Stuart Speedway on Thursday night to catch the opener of what now will be an IMCA Frostbuster tripleheader. At my age it can be hard to commit to a nearly three hour drive one way to watch a race on a night where I will have to return home and be ready for work first thing in the morning, but numerous trips to Stuart over the past few years have proven that I can do just that.

Barring any unusual circumstances you can always count on the following at Stuart:

- A well prepped racing surface that is ready for hot laps at the scheduled time

- A well organized and professionally presented program where the next race pulls on to the track as the race before it exits.

- Very few cautions caused by solo spins due to the "one and done" rule, and few if any cautions caused by a driver with a flat tire or with mechanical issues because the Race Director will safely talk that driver into the infield so that the race can stay green

- A track that remains multi-grooved throughout the night with timely "tickles" from the water truck and the Lely

Even with that three hour drive home I am usually in bed before one o'clock and it is worth forfeiting that two hours of sleep that I would normally get in order to enjoy a great night of racing! And once again promoter Mike Van Genderen delivered with an entertaining show featuring drivers from thirteen states and one Canadian province that found me back at home at 12:56 a.m. meaning that the checkered flag dropped on the Modified feature just past ten o'clock.

As I have said before, I will always prefer a "draw/redraw" show over qualifying and starting "straight up" anytime, however there is always the possibility that the fast cars will draw up front and that was the case tonight as all five feature winners came from the front row. So while there wasn't much action in regard to lead changes, there was definitely plenty of two and three wide racing for position going on behind the leader.

It started with the Sport Compacts where Beatrice, Nebraska, driver Kaden Murray steadily opened up a lead after the green flag waved. His advantage was a full straightaway by the time that Jake Paysen made his way up to second on lap eight and while he had made that charge from the tenth starting spot, Paysen was only able to trim a car length or two off of Murray's lead over the final six laps. Bryan Vannausdle would finish third in the non-stop race with Blain Petersen fourth and late arrival Anthony Clark was fifth after starting fourteenth.

Once again the Sport Mod field was stacked as most of the top drivers from the past few seasons have elected to stay in the division setting up a roster of "who's who" in these early season events. One name that you might not have on that list would be Tyler Inman, even though he has enjoyed some success in the recent past. However, pair him up with former All Iowa Points champion Carter VandenBerg as a car owner and you have a very stout combination as we witnessed here on Thursday night.

Starting from the front row Inman raced out to a lead that would be challenged early by Alec Fett who had quickly moved to second after starting fifth. Fett would pull even with Inman on a couple of occasions before a caution waved on lap four when Pete Stodgell's car went up in a cloud of smoke entering turn one. I don't ever remember so much fluid coming out of a race car before as there was literally a puddle that the cars were splashing through on the inside groove as the field tried to roll it back in under caution. In fact MVG had to bring out the Lely to tear up the surface a bit to finally get it to roll back in and after several laps under caution we were finally back to racing.

With Fett's preferred line now altered, Inman opened up a lead as the battles behind him raged on. Cam Reimers, Hunter Longnecker and later Taylor Kuehl and Brayton Carter all challenged Fett for his runner-up spot and that allowed Inman to get away before a pair of cautions on laps thirteen and fourteen.

Even with the field back on his rear bumper, Inman would take advantage of the torrid race for the remainder of the top five over the final six laps to drive on to the victory. Carter, the first cousin of the winning car owner, would get to second at the checkers in another impressive run from twelfth while Reimers finished where he had started in third. Fett would slip to fourth at the checkers while the talented young lady from Arizona, Taylor Kuehl would complete the top five.

Austin Bouzek would blast to the lead from the pole position in the twenty-lap headliner for the Stock Cars and he would build the advantage to nearly a straightaway before Austin Meiners worked his way into second. With traffic starting to come into play, Meiners was closing in on the leader until the challenger slowed on the back stretch on lap eight before limping his way to the pit exit in turn four. 

Caution would wave with five laps remaining when Todd Van Eaton and Mike Albertson tangled in turn three and on the restart Buck Schafroth tried to keep pace with the speedy Missourian. There would be no catching Bouzek though as Austin secured the flag-to-flag victory. Schafroth fought off Bryan Snell who battled his way back to third after nearly going out of the park exiting turn two mid-race. Dustin Reeh advanced from twelfth to fourth and Travis Hatcher finished fifth while missing the passenger side body work showing just how physical this race was mid-pack.

An ace on the figure eight tracks, Bradly Graham is becoming a force on the ovals now as he scored a convincing win in the sixteen lap Hobby Stock main event. After a caution on the initial start there was only one stoppage on lap four that slowed the event where Graham was never seriously challenged. John Watson started on the pole and finished second as Kansas traveler Cody Williams made it to third after starting ninth. Solomon Bennett and Eric Stanton filled out the top five.

The Modified feature was essentially over about an hour before it had started when red hot Ethan Braaksma drew the pole position for the twenty-two lap headliner up in the scoring tower. Ethan has been on a tear sweeping the two-day specials at both Memphis, Missouri, and at Bloomfield the past two weekends and that win streak would be pushed to five in a row with another dominating run here tonight. It is also the third straight Back Stretch entry where his surname started the title! 

Ethan Braaksma from last Friday night's butt kickin' at Bloomfield - Barry Johnson photo

It was a crazy race behind Braaksma though with several caution flags shaping the story. The first caution waved for debris on lap six and then the wheels came off from there. On the first restart, Todd Shute who had made quick progress after starting the race from twelfth, clipped the infield track tire in turn one and spun sending him to the rear of the eighteen car field. On the next restart California transplant Trevor Fitz tangled with hometown racer Scott Bash in turn three and on the third restart the second place car of Dylan Thornton spun at the entrance of turn one and was fortunate that the rest of the field was able to take evasive action.

Finally we would get back to green flag racing with Dallon Murty now up to second after starting next to Shute in the sixth row. He still could not get to Braaksma though before the caution waved for Carson Reinig's spin on lap twelve. One more lap would go in the books before North Carolina visitor Griffin Taylor spun in turn four and just one more lap would be completed before Bash was sideways in turn one.

By now both Thornton and Shute were right back in the mix and while Braaksma was no match, the battle for second between Murty, Thornton, Shute and Jerry Flippo was well worth the trip with slide jobs and crossovers being thrown out on both ends of the speedway. One last caution would wave for Brian Eppert's spin with two laps remaining and again Braaksma would drive away from the battle behind him to take the win. Thornton would prevail for second with Murty in third followed by Flippo and Shute,

It was another enjoyable night of racing in Stuart and I am truly thankful for the warm hospitality of MVG and his staff as I was able to enjoy the evening with IMCA's Jim Stannard and Ryan Clark. Also, when you make your way to Stuart this season don't even think about eating beforehand as the Zipp's Pizzaria food truck will be on hand with a wide variety of tasty selections to choose from. Two slices of the Zipper and a Strawberry Banana Smoothie was my choice on this night.

With all of the events near me already canceled for the weekend due to wet grounds, I will focus on the Final Four in both the Men's and Women's brackets and perhaps pull up some streaming races as well. Then next week I hope to catch Jeff Struck's promotional debut at the Davenport Speedway on Friday before the season opener for the Sprint Invaders at 34 Raceway west of Burlington on Saturday.

Go Hawks! 

B.S. Notes - There were four All Iowa Points Champions in action tonight: Dallon Murty (Stock Car 2020-22), Brayton Carter (Limited Modified 2020 & 2023), Todd Shute (Modified 2008), Eric Stanton (Hobby Stock 2019) plus the winning car owner in the Sport Mods, Carter VandenNerg who was the Limited Modified AIP champ in 2013.

Braaksma and Ballard Stay Hot As IMCA Returns To Bloomfield

Night one of the Southern Iowa Frost Out would be the first IMCA sanctioned event at the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway since 2005 and with 102 cars in five divisions on hand for Friday's show, you would have to consider it to be a great success. As is typical with an early or late season sanctioned event, the roster included drivers from throughout the region knowing that they were running under the standard set of rules and two drivers would score their third straight victory after sweeping their respective divisions last weekend in Memphis, Missouri.

Nathan Ballard would walk away with an easy win in his Hobby Stock heat race, but when he drew the twelfth starting spot for the sixteen lap main event, the driver from Marengo would have his work cut out for him if he wanted to repeat last week's success. Briar Kriegel would start from the pole and he would gradually build his lead as the field battled behind him. Ballard did not make up much ground in the early laps as he searched for racing room with drivers going two and three wide in front of him.

The caution would wave on lap four when Andy Peck spun in turn two and on the restart Ballard went to work. Kriegel was again stretching his lead and it was up to about a half straightaway when Ballard made his way past Peyton Stephens for second on lap nine and that lead vanished quickly as Ballard stormed to the front just one circuit later.

One final caution waved with three laps remaining when Keaton Gordon spun out of a three car battle for fourth on the front stretch bringing the field back to Ballard for the restart, but there would be nobody who could keep up with Nathan's pace as he pulled away again for the win. Kriegel fought off Stephens for second, Bradly Graham finished fourth and Corey VanDerwilt came from the fifth row to finish in fifth. 

Nathan Ballard (29) gets by Peyton Stephens - Barry Johnson photo

The twenty lap IMCA Modified feature was the final event of the night, but it moves to second in this storyline as Ethan Braaksma dominated to win his third straight race. Tim Ward and Jason Bass started from the front row only to have Bass end up against the turn three wall before the first lap could be scored. This allowed the fourth starting Braaksma to slide up to the front row for the restart and he would take full advantage racing out to the lead at the drop of the green.

Cayden Carter who was driving Maguire DeJong's #30m would soon get to second and he was able to keep Braaksma in his sights through the first half of the race, but as the laps clicked away Ethan pulled away to earn another victory in dominating fashion as Carter finished second in the non-stop race. Chris Zogg recovered from a turn one stumble on the restart that dropped him to near the back of the now thirteen car field to race all the way up to third at the checkers. Ward slipped to fourth as Kurt Kile rounded out the top five.

The twenty lap Stock Car feature was the best race of the night as the three-eighths mile oval served up three and even four wide action at times. Young Rowdee Van Genderen would set the early pace with a ton of talent breathing down his back bumper. Dustin Griffiths would pull even with the leader on the inside only to have Van Genderen ward him off while riding the momentum off the cushion before the caution waved on lap four when Andrew Schroeder slowed with a broken right front suspension.

On the restart Rowdee switched lines now running the bottom on both ends so Griffiths went to the top and on lap seven he was able take the lead exiting turn four. Van Genderen was still stout on the bottom though and as he tried to take back the lead he also had to deal with the challenges of Todd Reitzler, John Oliver Jr. and Presley Harrington. As the field scored lap nine, contact between Van Genderen and Reitzler on the front stretch turned Rowdee to the right nose first into the wall and thankfully he did not get upside down at the fastest point of the track. Reitzler was called for rough driving although he may have just ran out of room in the tight battle and rather than restarting at the rear, he chose to call it a night.

Once back to racing Jason McDaniel got shuffled out of a tight pack as the field scored lap ten and he too turned hard right into the outside wall in nearly the same spot collecting Luke Ramsey who deliberately spun to avoid making harder contact with McDaniel. John Oliver Jr. would now restart in second and as the green flag waved he found a tremendous bite off the bottom of turn four to take the lead away from Griffiths before they even passed the flagstand. Michael Jaennette would soon get to second and now you had the drivers who had split the wins at Memphis last weekend looking to see who would take the rubber match here at Bloomfield.

A final caution would wave for Elaine Deppe's spin on lap fifteen and the final five laps would entertain the nice sized crowd. Working the outside line Jaennette would be even with Oliver as they raced down the back stretch for the final time, but it would be Oliver who would take it a bit deeper into turn three and then drift up the track just a bit in turn four to close the door on his challenger and take the win at the checkers. Griffiths had the best seat in the house to watch that battle as he was close behind in third, David Brandies came from the fourth row to finish fourth while Harrington, who made the long pull from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the second weekend in a row, finished in fifth. 

John Oliver Jr. (05) holds off Michael Jaennette - Barry Johnson photo

Brayton Carter went flag-to-flag after starting from the front row to win the eighteen lap Sport Mod headliner, but there was plenty of action to watch behind him as the battles for positions two on back were intense. Following a lap six caution southwest Iowa visitor Hunter Poston was restarting from fourth and took contact sending him for a spin on the front stretch and the rest of the field scrambled to avoid contact. Three more cautions would keep the field tightly bunched and during that final stoppage with just two laps remaining another top five contender, Brandon Dale, retired to the infield with a flat tire.

Maguire DeJong who had started twelfth was now up to second and while he could keep pace with the leader over the final two laps, he could not mount a challenge as Carter cruised to victory. Cam Reimers finished third, Colton Livezy was fourth and Sioux City visitor Willy Kirk took fifth after starting tenth. Poston was impressive racing his way back up to seventh at the checkers.

The Sport Compacts kicked off the evening as the first of five features with a pretty darn good three car battle for the win involving James Haring, Matt Moore and Brandon Reu in a non-stop fourteen lap affair. Haring and Moore had separated themselves from the field after starting second and fourth respectively while Reu was picking his way to the front after starting eighth. Lapped traffic would play a big role in this one as with five laps remaining Haring and Moore would split the lapped car of Jerry Glass at the end of the back stretch. Both would then get loose in turn three and as they recovered that allowed Reu to erase the approximate ten car length advantage that they once had on him.

Haring would maintain the lead as the lap was scored, but it was now a three car battle as Reu moved to second on lap ten and then with two laps remaining he would take the lead. As the white flag waved Haring would slow with mechanical issues leaving him with a thirteenth place showing in the final rundown as Reu scored the win over Moore. Luke Fraise prevailed in another good three car battle for position as he finished third ahead of Caleb Giese and Shenandoah's Zander Steiner. 

The three car race for the lead with James Haring (2H), Matt Moore (2M) and Brandon Reu - Barry Johnson photo

As lightning flashed to both the east and to the west of the track, the final checkers waved at 10:10 p.m. and I left happy knowing that the future of racing is bright here at one of my favorite tracks through the efforts of the Davis County Fairboard and promoter Mike Van Genderen. IMCA is excited to be back in this area that has seen it's four tracks of Oskaloosa, Eldon, Memphis and Bloomfield race unsanctioned for the past several seasons and it will be interesting to see if the others follow suit over the next few years. With other plans for this Easter weekend I will not be back for night number two at Bloomfield, so I hope that you might consider being there to take my place and I will look forward to additional trips in that direction as the 2024 racing season continues.

My racing plans for next week include an IMCA Frostbuster event either at Independence on Wednesday night or at Stuart on Thursday, then on Friday and Saturday I look forward to the IRA and MOWA 410 Sprint Car showdown at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. Then perhaps back to the final Frostbuster in Vinton on Sunday night. Yes, the 2024 season is ready to roll full steam ahead and I hope to see you at the track soon!

B.S. Notes - There were four All Iowa Points Champions in action tonight: John Oliver Jr. (Stock Car 2018), Dustin Griffiths (Hobby Stock 2014), Brayton Carter (Limited Modified 2020 & 2023) and Barry Taft (Four Cylinder 2017-18), plus South Dakota's Limited Modified state champion from 2022 and 2023 in Willy Kirk..