Opening
night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa once again proved why this is
still considered one of the best weekly shows that you will find anywhere. Rain
pushed this year’s lid-lifter back to a very cool and breezy Thursday night,
but as usual there was a solid field of cars on hand in all three divisions.
The
IMCA Hobby Stock field showed thirty-two strong, but heat race attrition only
allowed a field of twenty-six to start the A-Main. Front row starters Nicky
Witt and Bobby Greene swapped the lead in the early going before the red flag
flew for a massive twelve-car pile-up in turn one. The fracas started when
three cars near the front of the pack hooked bumpers just past the flagstand
and when the three cars turned sideways entering turn one there was no place
for the rest of the field to go. Several cars sustained heavy damage and Dennis
Greenfield took a nasty looking rollover, but all drivers escaped with no
injuries. When the resumed Mark Steinke was able to make the pass on Greene
with two laps remaining to take his first feature win. Last year’s Hobby Stock
Rookie-of-the-Year Pat Rachels came home in the second spot followed by Greene,
Witt and Jaroed Sanders.
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| Ron VerBeek from the early 1990's |
The
Modifieds were up next and with a handful of rookies, plus some out-of-town
visitors, eighteen cars took the grid for the eighteen-lap feature. Wade
Francis took off like a rocket in his sleek black #7s and quickly built up a
nice lead. Two of the Midwest’s finest, John VanDenBerg and Brad Pinkerton,
call the Southern Iowa Speedway their home track and both are always a threat
to walk off with a feature win. On this night, though, they did not play well
together. While racing for fourth in the early going, the two barely avoided a high-speed
disaster after making contact on the frontstretch, but then further contact in
turn one saw VanDenBerg go for a spin and Pinkerton taking enough damage that
he was forced to the work area. Both drivers restarted at the rear and made
significant progress through the field. Back up front, Roger Baxter was closing
the gap on Francis and made the pass on lap thirteen for the lead. Baxter then
pulled away over the final five laps for his first victory. Francis had a
strong run go by the wayside when he retired with mechanical problems on lap
fifteen leaving the runner-up position to a hard charging VanDenBerg. Ken
Bryant ran a consistent race to take third followed by Pinkerton and Ron
VerBeek. Among the field of Modified rookies were Kris Walker and Brian Edel,
but it was Steve Blattler who had the best finish taking seventh. Tim Bengard
made the trip in from Exira only to be forced from the main event after a
mid-race scuffle caused damage to his #19B.
It
is an opening night tradition at Osky that the Stock Cars headline the event
with the Aaron Brown Classic. It was nice to have guest announcer Scott Watson,
a long-time friend of Brown in for the evening and when he gave us the front
row for the main event it was rookie Nate Wanders and Aaron’s father Jim Brown
starting up front. Brad Pinkerton started right behind Wanders and when the
green flag flew Pinkerton dropped to the inside and was able to beat both
Wanders and Brown into turn one. With his adrenaline still pulsing from the
just completed Modified main, Pinkerton pushed the throttle to the firewall and
was never challenged throughout the sixteen-lap affair. Stock Car rookie T.J.
Criss made a final lap pass on Jim Brown to finish second. Ross McCombs
finished fourth and Howard Gordon nipped Jefferson visitor Dave Baugh at the
line to complete the top five.
Despite
the cool conditions it was a great night of racing that started precisely on
time at 7:15 and concluded around 10:15. And that was including the fifteen to
twenty minute delay for the big Hobby Stock crash, plus a twenty-minute
intermission. Here’s hoping that when the 305 non-winged sprints join the
program after Memorial Day, the “planned” intermission is either minimized or
eliminated as there always seems to be an “unplanned” intermission or two that
occurs each race evening. (See “big Hobby Stock crash” above as an example)
Thanks to Bill McCroskey, Tony Bokhoven and the entire SIS staff for an
enjoyable evening.
The
weather has kind of given us a slow start to the racing season here in the
Midwest, but several tracks have already been able to get in at least three
shows. In the Late Models St. Louis area drivers Mark Oller and Mark Faust are
off to good starts as is last year’s UMP Rookie-of-the-Year Brian Shirley.
Denny Eckrich has been solid here in Iowa and Kenny Rumble already has at least
four top five finishes in Missouri. In the Modified ranks the veteran Mark
Noble has been near the front wherever he goes this spring and I found it
notable that he skipped a potential race weekend this past week to enjoy Easter
with his family. Mike Harrison has been the man to beat on the Illinois short
tracks around St. Louis while Eric Maggard has taken a liking to the
dirt-covered asphalt at both Bolivar and Lebanon. Scott Weber may just be the
best Modified racer that fans outside of St. Louis haven’t yet heard of, while
veteran John Seets remains a regular visitor to victory lane in his #360. And I
can’t leave out Iowa’s own Ron Barker who is virtually undefeated in the early
going of 2003.
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