It has been a long time since I have been to the Stuart International Speedway, perhaps as many as eighteen years ago when we would have run an NKF Tour event there, but after what I saw on Wednesday night I can virtually guarantee you that it will be eighteen weeks or less before I return!
Mike VanGenderen purchased the facility this past Thanksgiving weekend and since it has been so long since I have seen the place I really can't tell you how much had to be done to it, but I can say that it looked exactly like a track that I would expect MVG to be in charge of. The place is clean, well organized and of course the track preparation was spectacular with plenty of racing room from bottom to top come feature time.
For a long, long time Stuart was a Sunday night track, but when the State Fairgrounds closed down they moved to Friday's in hope to capture some of that Des Moines crowd and drivers. After running the numbers though, and considering the current lineup of other tracks in the area the decision was made to move to Wednesday nights and it will be interesting to see if the mid-week show will catch on. The weather was very nice, especially when compared to last week's opener although the car counts stayed pretty consistent from week one to week two.
Last week there were eleven IMCA Modifieds on hand while this week there were ten, but four of them were drivers that were making their first appearance including Dan Menk who took advantage of the nice weather to make the 242 mile drive down from Franklin, Minnesota. David Brown would race to the early lead in the twenty lap main event with Josh Gilman looking like the man to beat. Gilman picked off Tony Hilgenberg for second on lap five and then quickly reeled in Brown to mount a challenge for the lead. Brown was smooth on the top, but Gilman had his car working both high and low taking the lead on lap nine. A late caution for John Davis who had stopped at the exit of turn two bunched the field back together for a restart, but there would be no catching Gilman who posted the win. Brown would hold on to second as one of those newcomers Shane Demey would edge out Scott Bash for third. Hilgenberg and Menk would go fifth and sixth.
Buck Schafroth rolled his Stock Car here last Wednesday night, but the one positive to take away from that is with the IMCA average points inverted lineup it would place him on the pole position for this week's twenty-lap headliner. Fellow front row starter Chris Pruitt would get the jump though and set the pace with Schafroth racing in his tire tracks waiting for a mistake. Buck would take a peek to the inside of Pruitt with about five laps to go only to lose a little ground to the leader, so he went right back to the top and appeared to be destined to finish in second. When Pruitt pushed a bit high in turns one and two though on lap eighteen the challenger saw his chance and when Pruitt again slipped high in turn three, Schafroth dove low and took the lead as the green flag was held high. Pruitt tried his best to recover over the final two laps, but knew that this one had slipped away as Schafroth turned his luck around from a week ago in a big way with the win. Brandon Pruitt came from his fifth row start to finish third, Anthony Goldsberry was impressive in fourth and after scratching from his heat race Ricky Thornton Jr. started fourteenth and finished fifth.
The fifteen lap Sport Compact feature had a a good battle for the lead with last week's winner Denny Berghahn Jr. making it two in a row. Tyler Fiebelkorn would lead the opening lap before Ryan Bryant who had made the long pull down from Mason City for the second week in a row took over the point. On lap four top contender Mitchell Bunch was spun in turn two and Colton Garside had no time to react as he was racing for position making hard contact with Bunch. Both drivers were not hurt, but both cars were eliminated.
Once back to racing Berghahn would go to work on the leader looking to the low side with Bryant able to fight him off with the momentum off the banking. Working lap nine Berghahn would try an even higher line in three and four and after Bryant squeezed him back down the front stretch again the challenger went high into turn one. Trying to take away that line, the leader went in a bit too hot and it would be Bryant who would smack the outside barrier causing enough damage that he would slow down the back stretch to bring out the caution.
John Gill would stay within a few car lengths following the restart to take the runner-up title to Berghahn's second win of the young season. Des Moines area drivers Kory Sabin, Nathan Castellano and Bruce Hower would complete the top five.
The Hobby Stock main event would have a bit of drama involving two brothers and the many-time IMCA National Champion Shannon Anderson. Chuck Madden would take the lead from the pole before the caution waved on lap two for a synchronized spin involving Dylan Nelson and current All Iowa Points leader Adam Ayers. Cautions on lap four and lap five would again tighten the field and by now the two fourth row starters Anderson and Corey Madden were now side by side behind the leader for the restart. Racing out of turn two with Chuck out front, Shannon trying to come through the middle and Corey racing off the bottom, contact between Corey Madden and Anderson then caused Shannon to hook the left rear of Chuck's car send him spinning across the nose of each of them and creating a caution. You can do one of those "You Make The Call" deals here with Craig Allendar's video at the 8:39 mark. Anderson then expressed his point of view to Corey Madden under caution before heading to the pit area.
With Chuck now sent to rear for causing the caution, Corey Madden assumed the lead and he would hold it the rest of the distance to pick up the win. He did express some remorse for the incident during his victory lane interview, but is obvious that the brothers from Avoca are ready to race the King of the Hobby Stocks hard here at Stuart. Brandon Cox nipped Nick Foster at the stripe to finish in second, Dylan Nelson made a nice run back up to fourth and John Watson came from twelfth to fill out the top five.
By the time that the IMCA Sport Mod feature came to the track the wind had picked up and the temperature seemed to have dropped ten degrees, but with eighteen cars set to go for eighteen laps I was not about ready to leave despite the fact that I was nearly three hours from home on a weeknight. Brett Vanderheiden would lead the way for the first two trips around the quarter-mile before Tyler Inman powered to the front. Fifth row starters Kody Havens and Brayton Carter were putting on the show though as they often went three-wide with others who had started ahead of them as they raced their way to the front.
A series of four cautions between lap eight and lap fifteen made it pretty tempting to leave, but with Havens and Carter now restarting right behind Inman with just three laps to go I was here to stay especially since Carter had been using the extreme high side to get to the front. Brayton would go up there again as Havens catfished around the bottom with Inman doing his best to ward off the charge. As the white flag waved Carter had lost some ground while Havens was still digging on the bottom and when the leader slipped a bit wide off turn two Havens made his move.
Driving hard to the inside in turn three Havens and Inman banged wheels and as they started to push up the track Inman got a bit sideways in four. That would give Havens the win, his second in a row here at Stuart, while Carter zipped around Inman at the checkers to drop him to third at the pay window. Chase Rudolf who started eighth would take the fourth spot while Colton Nelson was fifth. It was pretty thrilling way to close out the evening and give me some good adrenaline for that long drive home.
Next week there will be no Wednesday night racing at Stuart, but you will want to be there on Thursday night May 2nd as the MLRA Late Models will be on hand along with Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. I am planning to pick up Morgan in Des Moines on my way and then, if we are running early enough, we will head out to Adair to finally try some of that famous Zipp's Pizzaria pizza!
Hopefully the weather will cooperate not only with that plan, but with the coming race weekend as well. I will be watching a different type of racing on the blue oval at Drake on Friday and Saturday with plans to spend my Sunday night in Dubuque for the rescheduled Deery Brothers Summer Series event. Keep an eye on the radar and get out to a track near you!
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