It was the tale of two tracks this week at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa for the two nights of racing during the Southern Iowa Fair. When I arrived a half hour before hot laps on Tuesday night it was so wet that I had to be careful walking across it and by the end of the night a heavy cushion had developed making the high line the place to be. On Wednesday night in preparation for the return of the United States Modified Touring Series the track had dry spots on it as I made my way into the infield and I knew that this was not a good sign for later in the evening.
Cars were kicking up dust during hot laps, especially the high powered Modifieds who have not been in competition here since 2011, but even with the dry slick conditions the heat race action in all four divisions was pretty good as drivers used several lines through the corners that became shiny and black almost all the way up to the guardrails on both ends.
The Hobby Stock feature was first and despite the fact that this division had averaged nearly twenty cars a week this season and had seventeen on hand the night before, only seven signed in tonight as apparently the other guys failed to check the pay scale for the evening. Tuesday's winner and track champion Dustin Griffiths drew the pole position for the twelve-lap race and even though Eric Stanton was able to chase him down in the heat race and pass him for the win, he was not able to repeat that come feature time as Griffiths went the distance for the win. Stanton was second followed by Brok Hopwood, Christian Huffman, Aaron Martin, Clint Nelson and Bobby Greene who returned to action for the first time this season driving Riley Meinders' car #13m.
The B-Mods were up next for eighteen laps with Minnesota driver Ben Moudry going from the outside of row one to the lead at the drop of the green. Fellow Ironman series regular Dan Hovden applied the pressure on Moudry and appeared to have him passed exiting turn two on lap three before the caution flag waved for debris on the race track. This put Moudry back to the point for the restart and he would not be challenged the rest of the way in taking the win. Former track regular Andrew Schroeder was able to slip by Hovden late in the race to finish second, while Tuesday's winner and runner-up Brayton Carter and Blaine Webster were fourth and fifth at the checkers.
In retrospect it should be no surprise that the Stock Cars provided the best racing of the night as the nineteen car field was solid from top to bottom, they were still racing two and three wide on the hard slick surface and it would end up being the battle of two racing promoters. Derrick Agee would start alongside Todd Staley on the front row and after racing door to door throughout the opening lap it would be Agee nosing ahead at the stripe. Nathan Wood was on the move quickly from his sixth starting position using the low line to move to second and when the caution waved for Cayden Carter's spin on lap three he was ready to challenge on the restart.
Wood would drive under Agee to take the lead on lap four before the caution waved again two laps later for an incident involving Scott Dickey, Carter and a couple of other cars trying to avoid contact. On this restart Staley would battle his way back into second and then try to keep pace with the leader Wood. Northeast Iowa visitors Kevin Donlan and Lynn Panos joined in and you had a four car breakaway from the field as they primarily ran nose to tail in a line that was midway up the track.
With four laps remaining Staley broke ranks and tried the bottom in turns one and two pulling even with Wood as they raced down the back stretch and the President of the USMTS and USRA was able to make it stick again in three and four to take the lead away from the gentleman who headed up the promotional group here at Oskaloosa in 2018. It looked for a moment like Wood might be able to battle back, but then Staley eased away a bit for the win. What a run it has been for the longtime flagman/track official who later became the owner of his own series and then the leader of his own sanctioning body before even trying his hand at driving a race car. He has been dabbling with it now for nine years and last Saturday night he picked up his first win ever, then followed it up on Tuesday with another victory before making it three in a row tonight. Nine years, no wins. Five nights, three wins.
After celebrating his own track championship last night Wood would be tonight's runner-up holding off Donlan and Panos while Agee fought off several challengers to complete the top five.
The thirty lap Modified feature would wrap up the night and after watching the Stock Cars use a couple of different lines in their feature I still had hope for a good finale. That went away though on lap two when the entire field settled into single-file formation around the rubbered up and locked down low line with Rodney Sanders leading the way. The Scott brothers Stormy and Johnny made nice moves on lap one to get to second and third after starting fourth and fifth respectively, but even they could not put any pressure on the leader after that. Any chance of having lapped traffic come into play went away on lap seventeen when the fifth place car of Jake O'Neill slowed on the back stretch, likely with a right rear tire down as he soon returned for the restart.
Caution waved again on lap twenty-one when Adam Kates slowed with a flat and in the final nine laps several drivers suffered the same fate including Carter VanDenberg, Zack VanderBeek Cayden Carter and the fourth place car of Darron Fuqua, but instead of stopping the race each found their way off the track as this one came to a close with Sanders picking up his 83rd career USMTS win. Stormy Scott and Johnny Scott were second and third while Terry Phillips and Lucas Schott completed the top five.
Dirt track preparation is an inexact science with so many variables that come into play and sometimes it just does not work out for the best. Here's hoping that the race fans who pretty much filled the stands here Wednesday night realize this and will be back to support the USMTS when they come back to town again. And hopefully it will not take another seven years for that to happen!
Keeping an eye on the weather for this Thursday night's action as I will be headed to the Davis County Fair in Bloomfield for the Sprint Invaders event that will also feature the Stock Cars racing in memory of Bob Weaklen. Another event to keep your eye on for tonight is the annual Dynamic Drivelines Dirt Duel for the IMCA Modifieds and Sport Mods at the Knoxville Raceway. Hopefully Mother Nature will hold off the rain until after 11 p.m. so that both can take place!
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