Dirt Tour's Best Chase Hometown Boy In Oskaloosa

The Arnold Motor Supply Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds rolled into Oskaloosa on a hot, sultry Wednesday evening for their annual appearance during the Southern Iowa Fair and while the car count may have been down, the quality of drivers in the field was exceptional. The heat likely played a role in the season low HDT count of twenty-one, plus you have to also consider the fact the only five or six Modified drivers have supported the weekly show here in 2017 so there was not that base of "home track" drivers that the Tour can usually count on and in fact only two of those signed in last night. And one of them kept the $1,000 winner's purse in Oskaloosa.

Fresh off of a successful run on the Dakota Tour, Brookfield, Missouri's Hunter Marriott drew the pole position for the twenty-five lap main event and given his dominating performance in tonight's third heat race he had to be considered the favorite. Marriott lived up to expectations quickly racing away from the field and building up more than a straightaway lead through the first ten laps. Hometown driver Cayden Carter started sixth and worked his way past Kyle Brown into second around lap ten and what started out as a gradual reduction of the gap between himself and the leader soon saw the lead shrinking considerably until Carter was within striking distance of Marriott on lap fifteen.

Marriott fought off the first challenge from Carter and on the following lap as the leader raced high to get around the lapped car of Dan Brockert, Carter charged into turn one low only to have Brockert get sideways right in front of him. As Brockert completed the full spin in turn two be backed into the implement tire marking the infield which caused his car to lift up and roll over onto its top necessitating a red flag stoppage of the race.

During the red Marriott drove to his trailer with a broken left rear brake line that he had struggled with for several laps perhaps explaining how fast his lead had melted away in the Iowa heat.

"The Gasman" Cayden Carter doing just that at Osky - Barry Johnson

Carter would assume the point for the restart with Brown and Ricky Thornton Jr. lined up behind him in double wide formation. Thornton had driven Todd Cooney's #30 up from a fifth row start and he now appeared to have the best shot at challenging the new leader, but when the green flag waved Cayden Carter quickly proved that there would be no challenge as he pulled away over the final nine laps to take the win. Thornton would finish in the second spot with Joel Rust in third. Current Tour point leader Kelly Shryock had muscled past Kyle Brown for fourth with five laps to go, but when Shryock smacked the guardrail in turn one with three laps remaining he gave the position back to Brown as Shryock settled for fifth.

Cayden Carter celebrates his hometown victory - Barry Johnson photo

The Hawkeye Dirt Tour continues tonight at the Knoxville Raceway and it will be interesting to see if, and how much the car count grows from tonight. Last year after scheduled events at Des Moines and Oskaloosa were rained out on the two nights before it, the Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel at Knoxville drew 44 Modifieds and 52 Sport Mods. It was very hot last year as well, so we will see if the once a year opportunity for drivers in these two classes to race at the legendary speedway is still a draw. I sure do hope that it is!

Support class action at Osky stayed predictable in two of the divisions although both Shannon Anderson and Curtis Van Der Wal definitely had to put on a show in order to park in their traditional spot, victory lane, at the end of their respective features.

Anderson would start the 14-lap Hobby Stock feature from the inside of the fifth row although it would only take him three laps to get to second. On lap four his father Jeff would cause the only caution of the race when his car stopped against the rail on the front stretch and required a tow back to the pits with front end damage. Early leader Christian Huffman was no match for Anderson who took the lead in turn one on the restart and he then went the rest of the distance unchallenged for his eleventh win in eleven starts here in 2017. North Iowa driver Chanse Hollatz, who is currently ranked as the second most successful Hobby Stock driver in the state, chased him in for second for the second night in a row, Mike Kincaid was third, Steve Allen fourth and Huffman completed the top five.

Curtis Van Der Wal started fifth in the ten car Sport Mod field that went fourteen laps non-stop. Carter VandenBerg established a quick pace matched only by his cousin Brayton Carter as well as Van Der Wal and the lead trio gave the large crowd a thrill mid-race. Brayton had been making a run at VandenBerg diving low into the turns and while he was able to pull even it would be VandenBerg who would maintain the lead down the straights as Van Der Wal raced close behind. On lap eight with the leader VandenBerg going to the cushion in turn three and the challenger Carter racing to the bottom, Van Der Wal split the difference and was somehow able to make it stick to drive right through the middle of the two cousins and take the lead coming off of turn four. It has become obvious that the Osky crowd has a split opinion now of Curtis Van Der Wal, but even the boo birds had to applaud that move as he then pulled away over the closing laps to take the win. Brayton Carter would take the runner-up position with Carter VandenBerg third, Dan Drury finished in fourth and Tony Johnson was fifth.

The Stock Car count doubled from the night before, but the fourteen lap feature was essentially a replay from Tuesday of Dustin Griffiths hugging the bottom and Nathan Wood waiting for a mistake. Griffiths, a former All Iowa Points Hobby Stock champion, is too good of a driver to make one though and he would lead the distance to take his second win in two nights. Wood took one look to the outside in the final set of turns, but could not make a run as he finished second and maintained his current lead in the All Iowa Points for Stock Cars, as Mike Hughes, Derrick Agee and Danny Thrasher rounded out the top five.

The Sport Compact main event had some similarities to Tuesday's action as well with Levi Heath taking the early lead and then fighting off a mid-race challenge for a couple of laps before yielding the point on this night to Ryan Havel. Unfortunately though for Heath he would then retire to the pits with mechanical issues as Havel closed out the victory with the rest of the top five being Bill Whalen Jr., John Gill, Nathan Moody and Dalton Winkleman.

I want to thank Cedar Rapids Gazette scribe Jeremiah Davis for the info on Hunter Marriott's issues and also my colleague Barry Johnson who gave me the report from the claim area after the Sport Mod feature where a brief scuffle broke out after Colton Livezy filed a claim on Curtis Van Der Wal's engine. The claim was disallowed due to the fact that Livezy does not have perfect attendance at the track in 2017, an IMCA rule and, according to Barry, Van Der Wal still offered to let them use the motor if they still wanted to, but.....well, you know, the heat of July often causes tempers to flare.

The other thing that can flare up at this time of the year is the speculation of what might happen in the future for a track that is struggling with car counts although I must say that, other than Tuesday's fair race, the crowd here has remained solid. And while I am just a "lowly blogger" I think that I have a good suggestion for 2018, but it is only to share with anybody who might be involved with the operation next year. So in other words, I am just like everybody else who has an opinion on how to make it better!

The bottom line though is that I love my weekly Wednesday night option and I never want to see it go away!

Make sure that you also check out The 4dFan Report and One Fan's Travels for additional coverage of this week's racing and Paul Vetter, it was great to see you again my friend. Hopefully one day I can come to California and catch some shows with you in your home state!