It seems that no matter where I go the one division that nearly always provides some of the best racing of the night is the Stock Cars and, at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, the Stock Car class is well known for being the class that usually takes center stage. On Wednesday night, with a thrilling three-car battle for the lead throughout most of the eighteen-lap main event, the Stock Cars definitely built upon that reputation.
Corey Stout, who is literally based across the street from turn one, started from the pole position and would take the lead at the drop of the green with third-starting Todd Reitzler in hot pursuit. Brad Pinkerton would work his way into the third spot a few laps later and had a great view of the race developing in front of him as Reitzler took several looks on the low side of the leader. Stout was stout though and fought off each challenge until lap fourteen when Reitzler went a little too deep into turn one and clipped Stout's left rear fender. To his credit Reitzler took evasive action to keep from spinning the leader that sent himself up the track and Pinkerton took advantage of the scramble to dive to the inside and pull even with the leader as he made his recovery as well. Stout and Pinkerton would run the next three laps essentially side-by-side and as they raced off of turn four toward the white flag, Reitzler made it three-wide moving to the inside line down the front stretch. With Pinkerton and Stout already running the bottom two grooves there was not going to be enough room for Reiztler down there going into turn one and as Reitzler tried squeeze in he made contact with Pinkerton that sent him a bit sideways and into Stout.
All three drivers were able to maintain control as the crowd roared their approval and Stout was able to put a few car-lengths on his challengers as he exited turn two. There would be no catching him now as Corey Stout picked up the feature win with Pinkerton and Reitzler not far behind at the checkers. Nathan Wood was within striking distance to improve positions had any of the top three not recovered from their final lap contact and Donovan Nunnikhoven followed Wood in for fifth. After the race Pinkerton climbed out of his car quickly in the tech area to have a few words with Reitzler, but all remained calm and you can bet that the racing in this division will be just as intense once again next Wednesday night.
Restarts played a big role in three of the other feature races on this unseasonably warm and windy night. Brayton Carter was leading the first two laps of the IMCA Sport Mod main event when Ryan Fullenkamp slapped the turn two guardrail and left behind some of his sheet metal on the racing surface. On the restart Curtis VanDerWal drove under Carter in turn one to take the lead and it looked like the defending track champion would run away from the field from there. Jason McDaniel did not want to see that happen though and he was gradually making up ground on VanDerWal when the caution waved for a spinning Colton Livezy with just three laps remaining. McDaniel would now line up directly behind the leader, but when Brayton Carter put the challenge on McDaniel for second after the restart that was all that VanDerWal would need to seal the deal and take the win at his hometown race track. Carter had second until the final turns when McDaniel got past him once again to secure the runner-up finish. Brett Lowry came from the fifth row to finish fourth while Fullenkamp took fifth despite some spoiler damage on the right rear.
The father and son duo of Brad and Jared Stephens would line up on the front row of the fifteen-lap Hobby Stock feature with Brad the Dad jumping out to a solid advantage. His lead would grow as the field shuffled behind him with drivers in the top five racing three-wide down the back stretch on two separate occasions. Stephens looked like he would have this one well in hand until the caution waved with four laps remaining for Justin Hook who had issues in turn three. On the restart Dustin Griffths powered past Stephens for the lead and Danny Thasher followed him into second and things went from bad to worse for Stephens when contact between Craig Brown and Mike Hughes soon involved the former leader as well. All three cars suffered at least one flat tire and all were done for the night as the caution waved. Thrasher would make a couple of runs on Griffith over the final laps, but there was no stopping the current All Iowa Points leader Griffiths from collecting his fifth feature win of the young season. Thrasher was second, Nick Ulin edged out Bill Bonnett by a bumper to take third while Travis Bunnell filled out the top five.
All ten of the Modified drivers in attendance tonight were capable of winning so it was no surprise that the battle up front was a good one in the twenty-lap main event. Andrew Schroeder would set the early pace fighting off the challenges of Jesse Sobbing until lap eight when Sobbing slowed suddenly going down the back stretch. When he stopped in turn three the caution flag waved and on the restart Cayden Carter swept to the outside of both Schroeder and Todd Shute to take the lead in turn one. A caution for Casey Greubel's spin in turn two three laps later saw Shute make his move on the restart and for laps twelve and thirteen you would have needed a camera to determine the race leader at the stripe as Shute raced down low and Carter used the higher line. Shute established himself as the leader with six laps remaining and while Carter appeared to be faster in turns three and four, Shute enjoyed the advantage in one and two and the 2008 All Iowa Points Modified Champion went on to score his second win here in 2014. Carter was a strong second, Jacob Murray finished third, Schroeder wound up fourth and Adam Larsen completed the top five.
The first and last of the night's six main events both saw seven cars settle into their racing positions early with little change the rest of the way. Bill Whalen Jr. won the season opener for the Sport Compacts ahead of Trent Orwig, Matt Moore, Nicholas Van Hemert and Matt Beal and in the first appearance of the year by the IMCA Late Models it was all Colby Springsteen as he went on a twelve and a half mile cruise for the win. Nick Marolf finished second, Todd Cooney was third and Jeremy Grady passed Darrel DeFrance on the final set of turns to take the fourth spot.
As always Mike VanGenderen and the entire crew presented a very efficient six-division weeknight program with final checkered flag waving just before ten o'clock. And of course I had this little tune in mind when I came up with today's title.
Next up for me will be the appearance of the MLRA Late Models at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa this Saturday night as the Back Stretch will be on the Darkside. Perhaps I will see you there!
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