The Southern Iowa Speedway put race night number two in the books on a sunny, but windy Wednesday evening in Oskaloosa. Another respectable car count was on hand and the crowd was good with several groups of young people in attendance as both high school and college students were admitted free of charge for the evening. This was great to see and perhaps something that can be done more often here and at other tracks to hopefully expose the teens and young adults to the sport.
Sport Compacts were first up come feature time with Billy Cain leading the way on lap one. Brandon Housley was on the move quickly though from his fifth starting spot and he would take the point on the second circuit. Kyle Boyd who started sixth also charged to the front of the field and he would chase, but could not catch Housley who picked up the win in the ten lap affair. Boyd was second with his teammate Cody Phillips in third, pole-sitter Brandon Allison was fourth and Cain crossed the line for fifth just before his motor let go in a big cloud of smoke.
The sixteen lap Stock Car main event was the race of the night with Dustin Griffiths racing out to the early lead. Mike Hughes and Cayden Carter both started from the fifth row and by lap four Hughes was up to challenge for the lead. Hughes would take the lead on lap five only to have Griffith battle back and as they raced hard for the lead both Nathan Wood and Carter closed in to make it a four car battle. The four raced two-by-two nose-to-tail into turns three and four on lap nine, but with contact between those first two Hughes suffered a flat tire and dropped out of the race.
The scramble allowed Wood to steal the lead as Carter followed him to second and over the final seven lap Cayden would search for a line that would be faster than the new leader. After taking the white flag Carter went in a bit higher in turn one and appeared to have a run on Wood down the back stretch, but Nathan closed the door down low entering turn three and the defending All Iowa Points champion in the Stock Cars would earn his first win of 2018. Carter was a close second followed by Griffiths in third, Michael Petersen was right there in fourth and Derrick Agee completed the top five.
The Sport Mod feature got off to a scary start when Cory Van Zante got too high exiting turn two, clipped one the new implement tires on the outside and rolled his car hard. Fortunately the driver escaped injury, but it was the second incident of the night involving those new track tires as they also claimed Dan Banker's new Sport Mod during hot laps. Perhaps the need for these and how they "protect" the pit entrance road off the back stretch will be re-evaluated after these incidents.
Once under green Jason McDaniel opened up a big lead, half a straightaway over Brayton Carter and a full straightaway over Curtis Van Der Wal, but when Jarrett Vandenberg got upside down in turn three the red flag waved with seven laps remaining. On the restart Van Der Wal quickly moved to second and on the following lap he drove hard to the inside of McDaniel in turn one to take the lead and eventually another win. McDaniel and Carter were second and third, Blaine Webster finished fourth and Logan Anderson aboard the #53 car tonight was fifth.
Twenty-three Hobby Stock drivers signed in tonight and they would all be chasing Eric Stanton who took the lead on a lap one restart and never looked back on his way to victory. Griffiths made the podium in two classes tonight taking the runner-up honors in this one, Jamie Songer was third Aaron Martin was fourth and Mike Kincaid came from the eighth row to finish fifth.
Racing resumes in Oskaloosa next Wednesday night for Budweiser Memorial Night where fans and racers can donate any amount of money they want, from five dollars on up, to the purse in memory of anybody they choose. Should be another great Wednesday night for racing and we hope to see you there!
Next in the plans for me are the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour Sprint Cars at Lakeside Speedway on Thursday night, then on Friday I look forward to filling in on the microphone for the baseball Dad Tony Paris at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson.
1 comment:
the tire off of 2 will be gone next week said mike vg on driver radio after the 34z wreck
Post a Comment