As noted from Tuesday's Notebook my two favorite drivers from my youth, Mel Morris and Curt Hansen were inducted into the track's Hall of Fame and it was a thrill for me to meet with Mel's family and to talk with Curt and his wife Alice as well as his son Bobby and his bride Lisa. It was also great to see Alice, Bobby and Lisa wearing the Iris City Sports Collectible Series t-shirts that our company printed back in the early 1990's. Designed by Dusty and Clay Kemp these were shirts that we had started to produce for our heroes from the past when race shirts were much simpler. If I recall correctly we had worked with Ed Sanger, Roger Dolan, Ken Walton and Curt Hansen before Dusty and Clay were given the opportunity to move on to bigger and better things with Arizona Sport Shirts. The shirts were short printed, I believe only five dozen for each driver and I hope that they all still look as nice as these do!I don't want to slight the third inductee of the night by any means. Jeff Haines was a star in both the Stock Cars and the Modifieds at Oskaloosa before he made the unusual transition to a winged Sprint Car where he also had success at Knoxville and other tracks in the area. Every bit as important as his racing career was to this honor, Jeff and his family business Haines Auto Supply has, and continues to support the Southern Iowa Speedway through its sponsorship.
Congratulations to Jeff Haines, Curt Hansen and Mel Morris, for all an honor that is well deserved. And a tip of the hat to Jerry Mackey who did a fantastic job of introducing each of them.
There was a full night of racing as well in what now is again a five division program as a late afternoon announcement on the track's Facebook page stated that the non-wing Sprint Cars would be added starting tonight. The nine cars in attendance appear to be the base drivers in the new Iowa Sprint League and this will be a great opportunity for them to get more seat time and perfect the art of passing at speed in the weeks to come. Logan Alexander went from the outside of row two to the point entering turn one on the opening lap and then paced the ten lap distance to score the win. Doug Sylvester chased him in for second, Dillon Alexander was third, late arrival Frank Rogers finished fourth and Chuck Alexander came back to take fifth after spinning in turn one on lap five while running second.
When Lewie Winkelman started to race a Four Cylinder late last year he would request to start at the rear and, frankly he was slow. But with each new race night he was getting a little faster and the next thing you know he was running mid-pack. The past couple of weeks though Lewie had really picked up the pace and when he charged to the front of the field on the opening lap after starting fourth I wondered just how long it would last. Trent Orwig was poised to take second away from Tyler Haring and with several wins to his credit it would just be a few laps before Orwig was out front.
That was not how this was going to play out however as while Winkleman started to pull away, Haring was also showing his best speed of the season fighting off several challenges from Orwig for second. As the laps clicked away it was now clear that the son of former Stock Car driver Roy Winkleman was going to win his first career feature. Congratulations Lewie! Haring was just as impressive in second with Orwig in third. The fastest car on the track though was Billy Cain, the winner of the heat race earlier in the night by a big margin. Starting from the pole for the feature, Cain did not come up to speed and was far behind the rest of the field once he got it going rallying back to take fourth at the checkers. Brandon Allison was fifth.
With Austen Becerra arriving late after towing from Carthage, Illinois, the car count in the Sport Mods hit twenty and it was a talented field that lined up for sixteen laps of action on the fast and tacky surface. Star rookie Dylan VanWyk would lead it from the pole as Logan Anderson made his way up from sixth to second. The leaders were already in traffic mid-race and after scoring lap nine the lapped car of Tommy Lathrop got sideways exiting turn two. The fourth-place car of Curtis Van Der Wal had no place to go and when he nosed into Lathrop's driver's side it turn Tommy up and over on the back stretch. Thankfully the veteran driver from Ottumwa was not injured and it was a hungry bunch of drivers lined up two by two behind VanWyk for the restart.
Austin Paul won here on a cold and windy opening night and has not been back again until this evening, but after starting ninth he would now put the heat on the leader. Using the low line entering turn three Paul was able to drive by VanWyk for the lead on lap thirteen and he would pull away over the closing laps to take the win. VanWyk held on to the second spot, Logan Anderson was able to get back to third on the final lap after losing that spot to Van Der Wal who finished fourth and Colton Livezy completed the top five.
Dustin Griffiths dropped front row starters Scott Shull and Christian Huffman behind him on the opening lap and then held off a challenge from Mike Hughes to take another win in the Hobby Stock division. Huffman took the third spot, Brad Stephens came from the fourth row to finish fourth and Shull held on for fifth.
Thirteen Stock Cars would close out the evening with Nathan Wood leading the way early and Cayden Carter stalking him all the way. Carter first tried to get under Wood, but after Nathan closed the door Cayden went to the top in turn four to take the lead on lap four and he was gone from there. Wood did his best to keep the Orange Crush in his sights while finishing second as Scott Dickey was a distant third on Middlekoop Seeds and Dickey Transport night at the races. Dustin Griffths finished in the fourth spot while Donovan Nunnikhoven looked good in his return to Oskaloosa finishing in fifth.
There will be no racing here next Wednesday night with the next action at Osky coming on July 10th.
Tonight we will load up the car and head north to the Benton County Speedway in Vinton where the Deery Brothers Summer Series for IMCA Late Models will be in action during the County Fair. Hope to see you there!
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