Sobbing Scores Again at Southern Iowa Speedway

Maybe I am biased through my tracking of the All Iowa Points, but it has been several years since a driver has been so dominant in his division that he has to be considered the man to beat no matter what track he pulls into and that is the level that Jesse Sobbing has now achieved. A champion of those state point standings each of the past four years, three in the Limited Modifieds and last year in the Modifieds, and once again on top of the list through the first two months of 2014, Sobbing again displayed that dominance as he walked away with the IMCA Modified feature win for the second week in a row at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday night.

If Sobbing goes on to win the 2014 All Iowa Points championship he would join Ed Sanger, Gary Webb, Ron Barker and Terry McCarl as the only drivers to win five or more straight championships and that is pretty solid company!

With the track struggling to maintain the minimum car count of ten in order to be credited with full IMCA track and national points, Sobbing has brought along his backup car the past two weeks with western Iowa driver Travis Hatcher climbing aboard last night. That brought the number to eight and then in a move that I am surprised that IMCA would allow, two drivers who do not run in the Sport Mod division on a regular basis Corey Stout and Zack Vanderbeek, started the Modified feature in the Sport Mod cars of Jason McDaniel and Brett Lowry to "officially" bring the car count up to ten. Stout pulled off the track after a couple of laps while Vanderbeek surprisingly kept pace with the back of the field before he pulled in after a mid-race caution. Hopefully with the return of track regulars Todd Shute and Brandon Banks, plus the appearance of other drivers who want to have some Wednesday night fun this is something that we will not have to see going forward.

Scott Dickey powered to the lead in the opening laps of the Modified feature with Sobbing, who had started fourth in hot pursuit. Dickey was able to hold off the challenges of the Glenwood, Iowa, driver until lap four when Sobbing completed the pass for the lead and a caution on lap nine for a spin by the third-place car of Andrew Schroeder bunched the field for a restart. Hatcher was running a solid fourth before the caution and on the restart he moved to second ahead of Dickey. And while announcer Tony Paris did his best to hype the potential showdown between the two teammates I knew that I had a better chance of winning the Powerball drawing that was coming up in an hour than seeing Travis Hatcher make a pass of Sobbing before the checkers waved. Schroeder fought his way back up to third at the finish, Dickey was fourth and Casey Greubel completed the top five.

You can always count on the Stock Cars to put on a good show at Oskaloosa and tonight was no exception as local driver Donnie Pearson opened the race as the leader. Nathan Wood had a right rear tire blow as he entered turn three on the third lap and that turned him hard right and head on into the guardrail bringing out the caution. On the restart the 2013 All Iowa Points Stock Car champion Damon Murty took the lead from Pearson and proceeded to open up a large lead on the field before Pearson spun in turn two on lap eleven. On the restart Kelderman's Komets kame to life as Cayden Carter (it would be so much cooler right now if it was Kayden Karter) moved from fifth to second on the restart and Zack Vanderbeek now ran third, both closing in on Murty. Carter wasted no time going to the front as he passed Murty for the lead on lap thirteen and then cruised the final five laps to victory. Vanderbeek moved past Murty as well making it a one-two sweep for the Roger Kelderman owned orange Stock Cars as Corey Stout and Donovan Nunnikhoven completed the top five.

"Kelderman's Komets" aka Cayden Carter (10cc) and Zack Vanderbeek (33Z) - Photo used with permission from David Hill

A brief, but intense shower literally popped up during intermission so after about a twenty minute delay to get the track packed in the Hobby Stocks raced their feature on a completely new surface. Mike Hughes was the only driver to try the bottom of turns one and two on the opening lap and it stuck for him as Hughes quickly moved from the inside of the fourth row up to a challenging position to leader Brad Stephens. Not afraid to give a little nudge and to trade a bit of paint, Hughes worked his way past Stephens on lap five and looked to have the race well in hand until the caution waved with just two laps remaining. On the restart Craig Brown pulled even with Hughes entering turn three and the large crowd cheered enthusiastically, but when Brown got loose coming out of turn four Hughes retained the lead as the white flag waved. Brown tried to recover to make one last challenge on the final lap, but he was still five car-lengths back as Hughes entered the final set of turns and then disaster struck for the leader. Entering turn four and up on the cushion, the right rear tire blew out on the #11 of Hughes and he slowed dramatically allowing Brown and the rest of the field to pass him by and take the checkers. Craig Brown was the winner, Brad Stephens finished second, Nick Ulin was third, Kevin Fee took fourth and Jared Stephens would finish in the fifth spot.

Bill Whalen Jr. won the four car Sport Compact main event and the finale for the evening was the IMCA Sport Mod feature that would pay $750 to the winner. Despite the extra money on the line only thirteen cars were on hand with just one, Joey Schaefer, that I would consider to be a non-track regular. Curtis VanDerWal started sixth and was on a mission tonight as he passed Carter VanDenBerg early and then drove away to victory. VanDenBerg would have to fight off his cousin Brayton Carter to regain second while Brett Lowry finished in third ahead of "Speedy Bray" and Jason McDaniel.

Don't forget that the MLRA Late Models will be at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa On Thursday night June 12th, a date that I definitely have marked on my calendar!