I was eight days in to what I thought would be a twenty-three day absence from racing when my schedule for Wednesday just happened to land me in Oskaloosa for the next to last night of regular season racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Watching a shield of rain cover western Iowa all day, I am sure that I wasn't the only one that kept a wary eye on the radar all afternoon and that was likely what kept some of the IMCA National points contenders from making the long haul on a Wednesday night. But a dry wind out of the east kept the rain away and it was a beautiful night for racing even though I knew that I needed to honor a self-imposed ten o'clock curfew due to an early meeting on Thursday.
The car counts at Osky have been volatile during the second half of the season and on this night while there were solid fields of seventeen Sport Mods and sixteen Stock Cars, the twelve car Hobby Stock field was out of the norm and the Modified count continued to dwindle down to seven. The class that has struggled with car counts since its introduction to the big half-mile, the Sport Compacts would see six cars line up for the first feature of the night with All Iowa Points leader Austen Becerra recovering from mechanical issues in his heat race to quickly take the lead from his third row start.
On lap four of the ten lap event, the lead pack was in turn two when a gasp from the crowd drew my attention to turn four where I caught the last rollover of the car driven by Jon Menuis. With sparks flying as the car settled to the ground, it was a scary looking wreck and there was immediate concern when the track worker in turn four frantically waved for the Fire and Rescue crew to get to the scene as soon as possible. Sources have told me that the driver's belts had become loose and that his helmet came off during the rollover. As of 4 p.m. on Thursday I have not been able to confirm anything on the condition of the driver, and I hope that you will join me in keeping him in your thoughts and prayers.
Once back to racing Becerra held off a final lap challenge from Bill Whalen Jr. to take the win, reported by announcer Tony Paris as being his 33rd feature win of the season. Austen, you are a fine young driver, hope to see you taking another division by storm in 2015! John Whalen and Matt Moore were third and fourth.
The 16-lap Sport Mod feature was out next and this one was a good one throughout as Charlie Weber paced the field for the opening laps. Coming from his eighth starting spot Jason McDaniel moved quickly to the front and drove by Weber on the outside coming down the front stretch on lap three. A caution on the following lap allowed McDaniel's fellow fourth row starter Curtis VanDerWal to move to second and he was not content to be tonight's runner-up. Entering the turns on both ends of the speedway VanDerWal was able to pull even by diving to the inside, but McDaniel maintained momentum off the top and was able to re-establish himself as the leader once again on the straightaways. On lap ten VanDerWal had his best run yet into turn three and when McDaniel was barely able to clear his challenger once again at the flag stand, the leader then decided that he needed to protect that lower line entering turn one.
VanDerWal was already committed to that same bottom line and with McDaniel now there Curtis slid the car sideways to avoid contact and he almost had it saved before he got in the slick stuff down low and spun it around the opposite direction. The caution waved and VanDerWal went to the rear while track point leader Brett Lowry now picked up the challenge. McDaniel looked like a sure winner though until coming to the white flag when he jumped the cushion in turn four and gave Lowry one last chance. Once again though the "Mighty Mouse" protected that bottom line, this time in turns three and four on the final lap and Jason McDaniel held on to win over Brett Lowry, Ryan Fullenkamp, Cory VanZante and Brayton Carter. VanDerWal redeemed himself nicely by charging back up to sixth at the checkers.
Fifteen laps of Hobby Stock action was up next and it was Mike Kincaid who opened up a solid lead while the rest of the field jockeyed for position behind him. Kincaid was till looking strong until he exited turn four on lap eight and slowed suddenly with an overheating engine. This handed the lead over to Mike Hughes who then held off Danny Thrasher for the second half of the race to take the apparent victory. However, Hughes failed the post-race tech inspection and the win was then awarded to Thrasher. Brad Stephens, Craig Brown and Dustin Griffiths crossed the line in a tightly bunched three-wide formation with Stephens then being credited with second. Nick Ulin collected fifth-place money.
A check of the time told me that if the fourteen lap Modified feature went flag-to-flag I should be okay, but I would then have to miss the Stock Car feature......and when you come to Osky, the last thing that you want to miss, trust me, is the Stock Car feature!
Cayden Carter took off like a rocket at the drop of the green and appeared to have the race well in hand before the caution waved mid-race and my own curfew had arrived. As I climbed in my car I could hear Tony Paris making the call as Andrew Schroeder now applied the pressure and a review of the results today tells the story as Schroeder made the pass for the win. Carter, Scott Dickey, Jerry Pilcher, Tyler Groenendyk and A.J. Johnson completed the six-car starting field.
And, just as I suspected, the Stock Car feature was a thriller with Cayden Carter passing Todd Reitzler on the final lap to take the win. Hopefully I will have no early morning meeting scheduled for the next day when the Southern Iowa Speedway closes out its regular season on Wednesday September 17th. Season Championship night will use the regular average points inverted starting procedure as weekly shows so don't be surprised if there are some long distance travelers there that night looking for one final shot at National and Regional points. Perhaps you should mark it on your calendar and join us there.
Dick and Joyce, it just isn't the same without you two there! Good thing I had Jack and Kevin, and later on Gary Lee there to keep me company!
Next race for me will be the Yankee Dirt Classic in Farley, hope to see you there!
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