After taking last weekend off from racing to move my son and his fiancee' from West Des Moines to Dallas I am excited to get three straights nights of action in the book starting on Wednesday with the return of racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. After opening their season on April 10th under less than ideal conditions, the track has gone through four weeks of no racing, one that was scheduled that way and three that were weathered out, so as announcer Jerry Mackey noted last night it seemed like a whole new season opener. And what a pleasant night it was, the first time this year that I did not have to put on a jacket before the final checkered flag and in fact I was wishing that I had worn shorts during the heat race action.
Consider it a blessing or a curse, dependent upon your point of view, this track has a dominant driver in each of its four divisions right now although on this night one of those was missing from the roster. Race fans will look upon this in many different ways. Obviously if you are a fan of one of those dominate drivers you are going to love your Wednesday nights as more often than not your hero is going to end up in victory lane. If you are a fan of another driver you are going to hate it, because on most nights you know that your best possible outcome will be to run second. And, for fans like me, while it is not an ideal scenario you still have the urge to be there every week to see if somebody is going to be able to step up and beat the star knowing that if that does not happen you are still going to be impressed with how this driver goes about his work each week to take the win.
As each feature race takes the green flag at Osky it almost feels like the theme music from Jaws should start playing as well knowing that one driver will soon be making his way to the front to devour the competition and on this night it would start with Curtis Van Der Wal in the Sport Mods. Lining up fifth on the starting grid for the sixteen lap main event, Van Der Wal quickly moved to second on the opening lap when the row two starters left the door open for him on the inside into turn one, the racing equivalent of needing a bigger boat. Two laps later early leader Jason Hall was eaten up by Van Der Wal who drove under him in turn four. From there it was race for second as Van Der Wal cruised to the win, his first of the season though as Austin Paul got out to a big enough early lead on that cold night in April that he was able to make it ashore before the checkered flag waved. Paul was not in attendance on this night.
Carter Vandenberg picked up the second spot on lap nine and he would chase Van Der Wal in for second. Logan Anderson had a top five finish in hand before he dropped out of the race on lap eleven and Hall was still in third when he popped a radiator hose with a lap and a half to go. That moved Blaine Webster into third at the checkers with Colton Livezy fourth and impressive rookie Dylan VanWyk completing the top five.
Cayden Carter is the shark of the Stock Cars and after starting fifth he would be in second by lap three. Just one lap later Carter would go around Scott Dickey on the high side of turn two to take the lead where he would then check out on the field for his second win of the season. The battle for second was entertaining as Dickey did his best to fight off Nathan Wood and Derrick Agee, but in the end it would be Agee and Wood in second and third as division rookie Jason McDaniel dropped Dickey to fifth in the final laps.
2018 track champion Brandon Housley started out this season with a win, but he was missing tonight and that made for quite an entertaining and, in the end, controversial ten lap feature for the Sport Compacts. Tanner Wilson, Brandon Allison and Trent Orwig were three wide exiting turn four on the opening lap, but when Wilson and Allison made contact that allowed Orwig to claim the lead. Allison would gather himself back up though and soon he was challenging Orwig for the lead pulling even with him as the crossed flags were shown to the leaders on lap five.
Orwig, who picked up the win on a half-mile in Webster City last Saturday night, was doing his best to protect the bottom against his challenger and was able to fight off Allison, but as the white flag waved Brandon took the gloves off and muscled his way back under Orwig down the front stretch and into turn one. Yes, there was some contact, but these were two drivers racing hard for the win on the final lap and going down the back stretch Allison edged ahead before they entered the final set of turns.
Orwig would swing high coming out of turn four and with Allison running the rail they were no longer door handle to door handle, literally, as they drag raced to the checkered flag and that would make this one a tougher call than had they been glued together like previous laps. As soon evidenced by their reaction to who pulled into victory lane, most of the fans in the stands felt that Allison had crossed the finish line first, but only one set of eyes matters and the scorekeeper had Orwig as the winner instead. Tanner Wilson would hold on for third, his best feature finish to date, while Billy Cain and James Haring filled out the top five.
Cue up the music again as the Hobby Stocks would close out the night for fourteen laps with Dustin Griffiths starting from the eighth position. Brok Hopwood would lead the opening lap as Griffiths charged to third and before lap two could be scored Cody Cleghorn and Jesse Williams would tangle on the back stretch. On the restart it would be Christian Huffman jumping to the front, but he could only hold off Griffiths for two laps before the 2014 All Iowa Points Hobby Stock Champion drove by for the lead. Derek Kirkland would get to second with two laps to go and while he was able to get to the rear bumper of the leader on the final lap he could not mount a challenge before Griffiths claimed another checkered flag. Kirkland would settle for second ahead of Clint Nelson, Huffman and Craig Brown while a new face to the speedway, Blake Henry would finish sixth after winning an entertaining three car battle in his heat race.
Even with rides for kids before hot laps and a candy dash before the features, the final checkered flag waved at 9:11 p.m. making it an easy choice to return next Wednesday to see if anybody can defeat the sharks. (Note: In this day and age of Political Correctness I am compelled to clarify that I am NOT suggesting that somebody actually kill "the sharks" by sticking an air canister in their mouths and then shooting it.....have a sense of humor y'all!)
Tonight the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will make 34 Raceway near Burlington a national stage in what should be a spectacular show and on Friday night we hope to finally start the 2019 season for the Sprint Invaders. Hope to see you out there on the Back Stretch!
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