Kyle Larson sailed around early leader Cory Eliason on lap thirteen and then pulled away for his sixth straight victory with the Ollie's Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions on Friday night at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. With the win Larson not only collected the $5,000 prize from the night's purse, but he also earned another $1,000 from Kevin Rudeen, the car owner of the runner-up who offered the extra money as a "bounty" for any driver who could beat Larson.
And, since nobody did, that extra cash would go to "Yung Money".
Eliason and Austin McCarl would bring the field to green for the thirty-lap headliner with Eliason snagging the point while the fourth starting Larson settled in behind McCarl. The race was red flagged on lap three when Trey Starks got upside down after smacking the concrete in turn three and once back to green three more laps were clicked off before the caution waved for an ABS incident involving Zeb Wise.
Wise had slowed at the back of the field and, as All Stars announcer Blake Anderson described it, had "all but stopped" on the high side of turn three before getting back on the throttle. The caution had been called though and on this restart Larson would drive around the outside of McCarl in turn two to take over second. Lrason would then reel in Eliason and when he tried that same high line on lap eleven, Eliason drifted up the track in turn two causing Larson to stab the brakes in order to prevent contact.
Once he had his momentum built back up Larson again went to the cushion in turn two and this time he would clear Eliason to take the lead much to the delight of the good sized crowd on hand. Eliason came back at the leader on the following lap, pulling even with Larson in turn one only to have Kyle shrug it off and then drive away for the convincing win. Eliason was a straightaway back at the checkers in second, Tucker Klaasmeyer had one of his best nights yet with a wing on top passing McCarl in the final ten laps to finish third and Gio Scelzi would complete the top five. Just behind him, hometown favorite Josh Schneiderman closed out an impressive run finishing in sixth.
The weekly 305 division would close out the night for twenty laps with Dave Getchell taking the point after a slow paced, ragged start. Following an early caution it would be the Haulin' Hemp Farmer Andy Huston taking the lead on lap three while the driver on the move was Cody Wehrle who had come from ninth up to second on lap five. The caution waved two laps later when Damian Getchell spun in turn four and on the restart you had an interesting scenario where Wehrle, who drives the Grant Motorsports #27 in the 305 class, was now restarting right behind Huston who is his championship winning car owner (2018 Sprint Invaders) in the 360 division.
Wehrle showed no mercy though as he drove around Huston for the lead on lap twelve and, following one more caution when Daniel Bergquist got into the wall on lap fifteen, Wehrle would drive away for his fourth win of the season at 34 Raceway. Huston was a strong second followed Dan Keltner who charged from eleventh to third. Early contender Jeff Wilke finished fourth and Nathan Murders was fifth.
Next up at 34 Raceway will be the annual High Five for Kids night on Saturday August 8th while the All Stars go to the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night, then on to Brandon, South Dakota, for the grand reopening of the Husets Speedway this Sunday.
Friday, July 31, 2020
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Sheppard Scores Another Outlaw Thriller at Davenport
When they were here in May racing in front of empty grandstands, the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models had a photo finish with Brandon Sheppard edging out Ricky Thornton Jr. in a race that had to be determined by the click of a transponder. When the Outlaws returned to the Davenport Speedway on Tuesday night, this time racing in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd the finish was clear, but it came after a wonderful fifty laps of action that saw six lead changes on a racing surface that was used high, low and everywhere in between.
Every other row of the large Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds grandstand was marked off and there was still some room for you to leave some space in the rows that were not, but it was as big of a crowd that I have seen here in sometime as twenty-nine World of Outlaws Late Models and twenty-four IMCA Sport Mods signed in for action on a perfect night for racing on the wide quarter-mile oval.
The fifteen lap Sport Mod feature would be run first with Kevin Rasdon going for a spin in turn one on the first try at a start, and when the green flag waved again it would be pole-sitter Jarrett Franzen setting the pace. Matt Fulton would pick up the chase on the leader both hugging the bottom while back in the pack both Ben Chapman and Shane Paris were using the high line to make their way to the front after starting sixth and eight respectively.
That high line looked really fast early as Chapman was quickly up to third and Paris was fifth behind Ryan Walker, but then it seemed to level off a bit as Franzen and Fulton continued to lead the field. In fact Chapman had given up on the top and was now in line on the bottom when the caution waved with four laps remaining when Terry Stevens spun in turn four. On the restart as I watched to see if Chapman would go back to the top into turn one, I missed what happened to Paris as he along with Jared Waterman, Chance Huston and Paul Howard were piled up just shy of the flagstand with Kyle Eller also experiencing heavy damage.
Once back to green Chapman gave the middle line one more effort before getting back in line on the bottom as Franzen would lead every lap to take the win ahead of Fulton and Chapman. Walker would finish in the fourth sport and Dustin Schram would take fifth after starting from the seventh row.
Perhaps noting that the bottom was a little too dominant during the Sport Mod feature, promoter Ricky Kay took a few minutes to groom the top line around the speedway prior to the fifty-lap finale for the Late Models and the result was a race track that saw drivers change lanes multiple times throughout the race.
Cade Dillard and Chad Simpson, back in his own car #25, would bring the field to green with Simpson vaulting off of that newly refurbished cushion to take the lead. In fact most of the front runners would go to the top during the opening laps until Dillard showed that a shorter way around might be the way to go as he drove under Simpson in turn four to take the point on lap six. Second row starters Brandon Sheppard and Jimmy Owens would soon drop Simpson to fourth and the chase was on.
Dillard was back up on the cushion as he started to work traffic and Sheppard was on the bottom closing before taking the lead for the first time on lap nineteen. Caution would wave two laps later when Scott Bloomquist slowed on the front stretch with a flat left rear tire and on the restart Rich Bell would spin in turn one to draw the second yellow. After one more lap was scored the final caution of the race would wave for debris and now the crowd would settle in for twenty-eight laps of fun to decide this one.
With Sheppard and Owens riding the top, Dillard started to dig around the bottom and after about ten laps it became evident that the Louisiana native was making up ground on the leader. Enough so that Sheppard's stick man directed him to go to the bottom on lap thirty-five in an effort to block off Dillard's progress, but there was Owens up on the topside looking like he would then sweep by them both exiting turn four.
Sheppard would go back to the cushion entering turn one just ahead of Owens and as the trio came out of turn four to score lap thirty-six it would be Dillard jumping to the top of the scoreboard that was obviously tied into the automated scoring system. Thank goodness that it was because let's just say that it would have been hard to determine just who the leader was over the next several laps as Dillard would hold the advantage exiting turn four while Sheppard's momentum off the top would bring him back to even at the stripe.
Sheppard would lead lap thirty-eight, Dillard would go back to the top of the board on lap thirty-nine and one lap later when Sheppard made contact with the lapped car of Jason Rauen in turn two that allowed Dillard to get away a bit. Just ahead of him though Dillard would soon have to deal with the slower car of Daniel Hilsabeck who was running one line higher than the leader, but as Dillard squeezed under the lapper, both Sheppard and Owens were able to erase the gap with Brandon taking the lead with just four laps remaining.
Dillard tried to get back that low groove magic over those final laps, but he would come up short as Sheppard picked up his second win of the season here in Davenport. Dillard earned himself a lot of new fans with his second place run while Owens was right there in third. Jimmy Mars started twelfth and finished in the fourth position, Chris Simpson was fifth ahead of Jeremiah Hurst who started twenty-third on the grid after there was nobody eligible for a provisional start. Bobby Pierce was seventh, Darrel Lanigan eighth, Dennis Erb Jr. finished ninth and Chase Junghans would round out the top ten.
Kudos to the Outlaws and to Kay's Davenport Speedway team for putting on a spectacular mid-week program where I was on my way home by 9:30 and I am now counting the days until I return here on Friday August 14th when the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series will be on the quarter-mile in Davenport.
Before then though my attention now turns to Sprint Cars for two weeks like it usually does around this time of year, but in a little bit of a different fashion though due to the cancellation of the 410 Nationals at Knoxville. On Thursday night I will make the trip up to Dubuque where the Sprint Invader 360's will be back in action at the annual Dubuque County Fair and I will then get my 410 fix with the All Star Circuit of Champions on Friday night at 34 Raceway and on Saturday at Knoxville. Then the following week I hope to make at least two of the three nights of the annual 360 Nationals at Knoxville.
Stay safe, wear a mask when you can't properly social distance and I hope to see you at the track soon!
Every other row of the large Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds grandstand was marked off and there was still some room for you to leave some space in the rows that were not, but it was as big of a crowd that I have seen here in sometime as twenty-nine World of Outlaws Late Models and twenty-four IMCA Sport Mods signed in for action on a perfect night for racing on the wide quarter-mile oval.
The fifteen lap Sport Mod feature would be run first with Kevin Rasdon going for a spin in turn one on the first try at a start, and when the green flag waved again it would be pole-sitter Jarrett Franzen setting the pace. Matt Fulton would pick up the chase on the leader both hugging the bottom while back in the pack both Ben Chapman and Shane Paris were using the high line to make their way to the front after starting sixth and eight respectively.
That high line looked really fast early as Chapman was quickly up to third and Paris was fifth behind Ryan Walker, but then it seemed to level off a bit as Franzen and Fulton continued to lead the field. In fact Chapman had given up on the top and was now in line on the bottom when the caution waved with four laps remaining when Terry Stevens spun in turn four. On the restart as I watched to see if Chapman would go back to the top into turn one, I missed what happened to Paris as he along with Jared Waterman, Chance Huston and Paul Howard were piled up just shy of the flagstand with Kyle Eller also experiencing heavy damage.
Once back to green Chapman gave the middle line one more effort before getting back in line on the bottom as Franzen would lead every lap to take the win ahead of Fulton and Chapman. Walker would finish in the fourth sport and Dustin Schram would take fifth after starting from the seventh row.
Perhaps noting that the bottom was a little too dominant during the Sport Mod feature, promoter Ricky Kay took a few minutes to groom the top line around the speedway prior to the fifty-lap finale for the Late Models and the result was a race track that saw drivers change lanes multiple times throughout the race.
Cade Dillard and Chad Simpson, back in his own car #25, would bring the field to green with Simpson vaulting off of that newly refurbished cushion to take the lead. In fact most of the front runners would go to the top during the opening laps until Dillard showed that a shorter way around might be the way to go as he drove under Simpson in turn four to take the point on lap six. Second row starters Brandon Sheppard and Jimmy Owens would soon drop Simpson to fourth and the chase was on.
Dillard was back up on the cushion as he started to work traffic and Sheppard was on the bottom closing before taking the lead for the first time on lap nineteen. Caution would wave two laps later when Scott Bloomquist slowed on the front stretch with a flat left rear tire and on the restart Rich Bell would spin in turn one to draw the second yellow. After one more lap was scored the final caution of the race would wave for debris and now the crowd would settle in for twenty-eight laps of fun to decide this one.
With Sheppard and Owens riding the top, Dillard started to dig around the bottom and after about ten laps it became evident that the Louisiana native was making up ground on the leader. Enough so that Sheppard's stick man directed him to go to the bottom on lap thirty-five in an effort to block off Dillard's progress, but there was Owens up on the topside looking like he would then sweep by them both exiting turn four.
Sheppard would go back to the cushion entering turn one just ahead of Owens and as the trio came out of turn four to score lap thirty-six it would be Dillard jumping to the top of the scoreboard that was obviously tied into the automated scoring system. Thank goodness that it was because let's just say that it would have been hard to determine just who the leader was over the next several laps as Dillard would hold the advantage exiting turn four while Sheppard's momentum off the top would bring him back to even at the stripe.
Sheppard would lead lap thirty-eight, Dillard would go back to the top of the board on lap thirty-nine and one lap later when Sheppard made contact with the lapped car of Jason Rauen in turn two that allowed Dillard to get away a bit. Just ahead of him though Dillard would soon have to deal with the slower car of Daniel Hilsabeck who was running one line higher than the leader, but as Dillard squeezed under the lapper, both Sheppard and Owens were able to erase the gap with Brandon taking the lead with just four laps remaining.
Dillard tried to get back that low groove magic over those final laps, but he would come up short as Sheppard picked up his second win of the season here in Davenport. Dillard earned himself a lot of new fans with his second place run while Owens was right there in third. Jimmy Mars started twelfth and finished in the fourth position, Chris Simpson was fifth ahead of Jeremiah Hurst who started twenty-third on the grid after there was nobody eligible for a provisional start. Bobby Pierce was seventh, Darrel Lanigan eighth, Dennis Erb Jr. finished ninth and Chase Junghans would round out the top ten.
Kudos to the Outlaws and to Kay's Davenport Speedway team for putting on a spectacular mid-week program where I was on my way home by 9:30 and I am now counting the days until I return here on Friday August 14th when the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series will be on the quarter-mile in Davenport.
Before then though my attention now turns to Sprint Cars for two weeks like it usually does around this time of year, but in a little bit of a different fashion though due to the cancellation of the 410 Nationals at Knoxville. On Thursday night I will make the trip up to Dubuque where the Sprint Invader 360's will be back in action at the annual Dubuque County Fair and I will then get my 410 fix with the All Star Circuit of Champions on Friday night at 34 Raceway and on Saturday at Knoxville. Then the following week I hope to make at least two of the three nights of the annual 360 Nationals at Knoxville.
Stay safe, wear a mask when you can't properly social distance and I hope to see you at the track soon!
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Carter and Anderson Take Big Money at West Liberty's Mod Time 2K
Two drivers who cut their teeth racing on the big half-mile in Oskaloosa transferred those talents eighty-eight miles to the east on Saturday night where promoter Bob Wagener and DRT TRAK Racing, Inc. hosted the Mod Time 2K at the West Liberty Raceway. The event paying $2,000-to-win for the Modifieds and $1,000 for the Sport Mods had twice been rescheduled due to COVID-19 restrictions and on this hot, sultry night with three other tracks within 86 miles racing for points it proved to be a tough pull for cars as while a good field of twenty Sport Mods signed in, there were just thirteen Modifieds in the pits.
The two pre-race favorites landed on the front row of the fifteen lap Sport Mod main event in Logan Anderson and Brayton Carter. Anderson had already posted two wins this week at Oskaloosa on Tuesday night and Columbus Junction on Friday, plus he was the runner-up at Osky's Caleb Hammond Memorial on Wednesday. After finishing third during Tuesday's show at Oskaloosa, Carter was a winner at Stuart on Wednesday and at Marshalltown on Friday so it was pretty much a given that the winner would come from the front row and it would be Anderson setting the pace as the top two drove away from the field.
The caution waved on lap seven when Justin Schroeder slowed to a halt in turn two and on the restart Dan Brockert looked like he might make it a three car race for the win as he had come from eleventh to fourth, Once back to racing Anderson and Carter again pulled away from the pack and this time Brayton was hanging closer to the leader. After looking strong for a lap or two after the restart, Brockert started to fade and with just two laps remaining while running sixth his car belched a big plume of smoke entering turn one to end his night.
The race stayed green as Brockert limped to the infield and while Carter took a couple of peeks to the outside of Anderson he could not mount a challenge as it would be the driver from Eddyville who would score his third win of the week. Carter was a close second, Tim Plummer came from eighth to finish third, Ryan Walker was fourth and Matt Fulton filled out the top five.
The thirty lap Modified feature would follow with Jarrett Brown going from the pole position and charging out to a comfortable early lead. Denny Eckrich soon moved to second and began to cut into that lead while Cayden Carter was quickly coming to the front after starting ninth. As lap ten was scored Eckrich was closing in on Brown and Carter was catching them both and on lap thirteen they were nose to tail crossing the stripe. Eckrich made his move to the inside of Brown in turns three and four to take the lead on lap fourteen with Carter right in his tire tracks and on the following lap it would be Carter making the same move to drive past Eckrich and take the lead.
Denny would fight back with a big run down the back stretch driving to the inside of Carter entering turn three, but with the lapped car of Kyle Madden in that low line Eckrich had to back off allowing Carter to then pull away.
The only caution of the race came with seven laps remaining when Kurt Kile stopped in turn three and on the restart Spencer Diercks would takeover the second spot and he was able to keep pace with the leader. Running a slightly higher line Diercks would make several attempts at the lead, but Carter was able to maintain the advantage and score the win. Diercks put on a good show in second, Brown prevailed over Eckrich in a good race for third and Dakota Simmons finished fifth.
There was $500 on the line for the Stock Cars as they battled for twelve laps and they would race three-wide into turn three on the opening lap for the lead with Johnny Spaw down low, Brock Haines in the middle and Stan O'Brien up top. O'Brien would be at the top of the score sheet on lap one, but Spaw would then power under him in turn one to take the lead.
Haines would coast to a halt in turn two on lap four to bring out a caution and on the restart David Brandies would take up the chase for the lead. Any hopes of another classic Spaw vs. Brandies showdown at West Liberty would go by the wayside though as Spaw drove away for a convincing win. Brandies fought off O'Brien for second while Jared Miller and Matt Picray completed the top five.
The Nostalgic Stock Car Racing Club brought in a nice field of vintage Late Models, several of them bringing back memories of nights gone by here at the track that I spent most of my pre-teen race nights at with my parents and grandparents. Kurt Zimmerman driving a Fred Horn replica started up front and built up a fill straightaway lead before Ray Guss Jr. driving the Keith Simmons owned #38 moved to second after starting twelfth. Guss was able to steadily close the gap and as the white flag waved he was within striking distance. Zimmerman bobbled just a bit on the cushion in turn three on the final lap giving Guss an opening on the bottom and it was a drag race to the checkers with Zimmerman taking the win. Ben Hamburg finished third, Mark Claeys was fourth and Tom Honts driving a replica of one of my all-time favorite cars of Dave Birkhofer, the orange #25 finished fifth.
A six car field of 4-Stocks would close out the evening with Cody Staley coming from the fourth starting spot to take the lead on lap one and he would then cruise to the win. Brad Havel and Cody Van Dusen waged a good race for second that would see Van Dusen prevail while fourth and fifth went to Cody Montgomery and Alex Pace.
The track was perfect and the show was runoff in fine fashion with the final checkers waving shortly after 9 p.m. There are two more nights of action scheduled for the West Liberty Raceway this season with Mid-Summer Madness coming on Saturday August 8th and then on August 22nd the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series will headline the action at the historic half-mile.
I now look forward to a busy week of racing with the World of Outlaws Late Models at Davenport on Tuesday, the Sprint Invaders at the Dubuque County Fair on Thursday followed by two nights of action with the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway on Friday night and at the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night.
We will turn the calendar page to August next Saturday so the racing season is starting to wind down. Get out there and support the tracks of your choice as often as possible!
The two pre-race favorites landed on the front row of the fifteen lap Sport Mod main event in Logan Anderson and Brayton Carter. Anderson had already posted two wins this week at Oskaloosa on Tuesday night and Columbus Junction on Friday, plus he was the runner-up at Osky's Caleb Hammond Memorial on Wednesday. After finishing third during Tuesday's show at Oskaloosa, Carter was a winner at Stuart on Wednesday and at Marshalltown on Friday so it was pretty much a given that the winner would come from the front row and it would be Anderson setting the pace as the top two drove away from the field.
The caution waved on lap seven when Justin Schroeder slowed to a halt in turn two and on the restart Dan Brockert looked like he might make it a three car race for the win as he had come from eleventh to fourth, Once back to racing Anderson and Carter again pulled away from the pack and this time Brayton was hanging closer to the leader. After looking strong for a lap or two after the restart, Brockert started to fade and with just two laps remaining while running sixth his car belched a big plume of smoke entering turn one to end his night.
The race stayed green as Brockert limped to the infield and while Carter took a couple of peeks to the outside of Anderson he could not mount a challenge as it would be the driver from Eddyville who would score his third win of the week. Carter was a close second, Tim Plummer came from eighth to finish third, Ryan Walker was fourth and Matt Fulton filled out the top five.
The thirty lap Modified feature would follow with Jarrett Brown going from the pole position and charging out to a comfortable early lead. Denny Eckrich soon moved to second and began to cut into that lead while Cayden Carter was quickly coming to the front after starting ninth. As lap ten was scored Eckrich was closing in on Brown and Carter was catching them both and on lap thirteen they were nose to tail crossing the stripe. Eckrich made his move to the inside of Brown in turns three and four to take the lead on lap fourteen with Carter right in his tire tracks and on the following lap it would be Carter making the same move to drive past Eckrich and take the lead.
Denny would fight back with a big run down the back stretch driving to the inside of Carter entering turn three, but with the lapped car of Kyle Madden in that low line Eckrich had to back off allowing Carter to then pull away.
The only caution of the race came with seven laps remaining when Kurt Kile stopped in turn three and on the restart Spencer Diercks would takeover the second spot and he was able to keep pace with the leader. Running a slightly higher line Diercks would make several attempts at the lead, but Carter was able to maintain the advantage and score the win. Diercks put on a good show in second, Brown prevailed over Eckrich in a good race for third and Dakota Simmons finished fifth.
There was $500 on the line for the Stock Cars as they battled for twelve laps and they would race three-wide into turn three on the opening lap for the lead with Johnny Spaw down low, Brock Haines in the middle and Stan O'Brien up top. O'Brien would be at the top of the score sheet on lap one, but Spaw would then power under him in turn one to take the lead.
Haines would coast to a halt in turn two on lap four to bring out a caution and on the restart David Brandies would take up the chase for the lead. Any hopes of another classic Spaw vs. Brandies showdown at West Liberty would go by the wayside though as Spaw drove away for a convincing win. Brandies fought off O'Brien for second while Jared Miller and Matt Picray completed the top five.
The Nostalgic Stock Car Racing Club brought in a nice field of vintage Late Models, several of them bringing back memories of nights gone by here at the track that I spent most of my pre-teen race nights at with my parents and grandparents. Kurt Zimmerman driving a Fred Horn replica started up front and built up a fill straightaway lead before Ray Guss Jr. driving the Keith Simmons owned #38 moved to second after starting twelfth. Guss was able to steadily close the gap and as the white flag waved he was within striking distance. Zimmerman bobbled just a bit on the cushion in turn three on the final lap giving Guss an opening on the bottom and it was a drag race to the checkers with Zimmerman taking the win. Ben Hamburg finished third, Mark Claeys was fourth and Tom Honts driving a replica of one of my all-time favorite cars of Dave Birkhofer, the orange #25 finished fifth.
A six car field of 4-Stocks would close out the evening with Cody Staley coming from the fourth starting spot to take the lead on lap one and he would then cruise to the win. Brad Havel and Cody Van Dusen waged a good race for second that would see Van Dusen prevail while fourth and fifth went to Cody Montgomery and Alex Pace.
The track was perfect and the show was runoff in fine fashion with the final checkers waving shortly after 9 p.m. There are two more nights of action scheduled for the West Liberty Raceway this season with Mid-Summer Madness coming on Saturday August 8th and then on August 22nd the Hoker Trucking SLMR East Series will headline the action at the historic half-mile.
I now look forward to a busy week of racing with the World of Outlaws Late Models at Davenport on Tuesday, the Sprint Invaders at the Dubuque County Fair on Thursday followed by two nights of action with the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars at 34 Raceway on Friday night and at the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday night.
We will turn the calendar page to August next Saturday so the racing season is starting to wind down. Get out there and support the tracks of your choice as often as possible!
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Carter's Double Now Gives Him Three Caleb Hammond Memorial Feature Wins
Just as he did in the inaugural event last year, Cayden Carter walked away from the field to take the Modified feature win in the second annual Caleb Hammond Memorial race at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa Wednesday. After a brief celebration in victory lane Carter then climbed into Roger Kelderman's Stock Car and closed out the evening with his third feature win over the two years of this event honoring the young man who loved racing so much during his abbreviated time here on earth.
Six divisions were in action on a beautiful night for racing and a large crowd gathered to watch during the annual Southern Iowa Fair. The Sprint Car feature would be up first with a $350 bounty on the head of Jonathan Hughes who has been perfect thus far here in 2020. Drawing the outside of the front row for the ten lap feature it looked like Hughes would be a shoe in for another victory, but third starting Ben Woods had other ideas. With pole-sitter Garrett Alexander and Hughes charging into turn one on the start, Woods stayed glued to the bottom and would exit turn two as the race leader down the back stretch with Hughes falling to third.
Alexander would spin in turn two after the first lap was scored and on the restart Hughes pulled even with Woods entering turn one, but the bottom line proved better as Woods maintained the lead. Hughes kept pace, but could not mount a challenge until Alexander again spun, this time exiting turn four with just two laps remaining. On this restart Hughes would actually get ahead of Woods as they raced into turn one, but he could not get low enough to shut the door so Woods again crept around the bottom to maintain his lead. On the final lap Hughes finally gave the high line a try in turns three and four to get a big run down the front stretch, but he could not overtake Woods before the checkers waved. Mike Mayberry finished third, Doug Sylvester was fourth and Tyler Graves rounded out the top five. However, after seeing the story from the track this morning we now know that Woods was disqualified for a rules infraction with his engine so the win streak continues for Hughes.
The Sport Compacts were up next for ten laps with Nathan Chandler grabbing the point on lap one while drivers raced three-wide just behind him for second. Billy Cain moved to the point on the second lap as the battle up front was a tight one and on lap four Ryan Bryant proved that the high side was plenty fast as he charged to the front after starting sixth. A mid-race caution slowed the field and on the restart Bryant, the current All Iowa Points leader who made the pull down from Mason City pulled away to take the $500 feature win. William Michel was impressive coming from seventh to second in one of his rare trips west from Columbus Junction, newcomer Robbie Wilson who won on Tuesday night in a two car race was a strong third as Chandler and Cain wrapped up the top five.
Brad Stephens would pace the field through the first six laps of the fourteen lap Hobby Stock headliner before the caution waved for debris on the front stretch. On the restart Nathan Ballard and Dustin Griffiths made it a three-wide battle for the front with Griffiths emerging from the middle to take the point before another caution was needed for Rick Goldsberry who was turned for a spin going down the back stretch.
On the restart Stephens would make another run for the lead only to have Griffiths ward him off and then it was Ballard who moved to second to keep the heat on the leader. Nobody was going to catch the former All Iowa Points champ in this one though as Dustin would take the win over Ballard and Stephens. Blake Henry was in contention the entire distance finishing fourth as Aaron Martin took fifth.
The sport Mods were up next for sixteen laps with Carter Vandenberg and Maguire DeJong bringing the field to green from the front row. DeJong went to the cushion to take the lead, but in turns three and four the fifth starting Logan Anderson was already there to mount a challenge on the inside. DeJong maintained the lead down the front stretch and through turns one and two, but again Anderson drove deep into turn three in an effort to take the lead. The fifteen-year-old DeJong did not flinch though and again fought off the bid by Anderson. That would be as close as anyone would get as DeJong then drove away from the field to win by more than a straightaway in the non-stop race. Anderson would finish in second ahead of Curtis Van Der Wal, Vandenberg would come home fourth with Colton Livezy next in line.
Ten of the eleven Modifieds on hand for the special event would take the green for twenty laps and this one was essentially over when Cayden Carter pulled the number one out of the redraw bag. Brandon Banks tried to keep up with the hometown hot shoe, but by lap five the lead was a full straightaway and as the checkers waved over Carter, Banks was midway down the back stretch on his way to a runner-up finish. Austin Paul, Jarrett Brown and Sam Wieben all finished where they started in third, fourth and fifth.
After taking pictures with his Modified in victory lane, Carter then climbed into his Stock Car ride to start tenth in the sixteen lap finale for the evening with pole-sitter Jason See setting the early pace. Derrick Agee was on the move after starting sixth and was there to challenge See driving under him for the lead on lap five. That low line may have been Agee's undoing though as after the caution waved on lap eight, Agee pulled to the pit area apparently suffering from damage after hitting one of the infield track tires. See would resume the race as the leader, but Carter was on the charge and he would drive under See with two laps remaining to take the lead and the eventual victory. See would be the runner-up ahead of a solid third place run by Jason McDaniel. Johnny Spaw started twelfth and raced his way up to fourth at the checkers while Howard Gordon Jr. finished fifth after getting as high as second in the early going.
A twenty minute delay due to a power failure on the east end of the track was part of the reason for an eleven o'clock finish to the show and the final Wednesday night event of 2020 here will be next week where it will also be the rescheduled Hall of Fame induction. Terry McCarl's Osky Challenges will take place on Sunday and Monday, August 9th and 10th, and then the Southern Iowa Speedway will close out the season with the annual Musco Fall Challenge October 16th and 17th.
A big thank you to announcer Jerry Mackey for promoting our Positively Racing website and kudos to him for cutting short an interview that was headed in the wrong direction.
With another hot and humid weekend in the forecast I may sit it out until Tuesday when the World of Outlaws Late Models take to the quarter-mile oval at the Davenport Speedway. Then on Thursday night I look forward to making the trip up to Dubuque where the Sprint Invaders will again headline a night of racing during the annual Dubuque County Fair. Following that I hope to get two nights of the All Star Circuit of Champions swing through the Midwest with Friday's show at 34 Raceway west of Burlington and then Saturday night at Knoxville.
Stay safe, be healthy and I hope to see you somewhere on the Back Stretch.
Six divisions were in action on a beautiful night for racing and a large crowd gathered to watch during the annual Southern Iowa Fair. The Sprint Car feature would be up first with a $350 bounty on the head of Jonathan Hughes who has been perfect thus far here in 2020. Drawing the outside of the front row for the ten lap feature it looked like Hughes would be a shoe in for another victory, but third starting Ben Woods had other ideas. With pole-sitter Garrett Alexander and Hughes charging into turn one on the start, Woods stayed glued to the bottom and would exit turn two as the race leader down the back stretch with Hughes falling to third.
Alexander would spin in turn two after the first lap was scored and on the restart Hughes pulled even with Woods entering turn one, but the bottom line proved better as Woods maintained the lead. Hughes kept pace, but could not mount a challenge until Alexander again spun, this time exiting turn four with just two laps remaining. On this restart Hughes would actually get ahead of Woods as they raced into turn one, but he could not get low enough to shut the door so Woods again crept around the bottom to maintain his lead. On the final lap Hughes finally gave the high line a try in turns three and four to get a big run down the front stretch, but he could not overtake Woods before the checkers waved. Mike Mayberry finished third, Doug Sylvester was fourth and Tyler Graves rounded out the top five. However, after seeing the story from the track this morning we now know that Woods was disqualified for a rules infraction with his engine so the win streak continues for Hughes.
The Sport Compacts were up next for ten laps with Nathan Chandler grabbing the point on lap one while drivers raced three-wide just behind him for second. Billy Cain moved to the point on the second lap as the battle up front was a tight one and on lap four Ryan Bryant proved that the high side was plenty fast as he charged to the front after starting sixth. A mid-race caution slowed the field and on the restart Bryant, the current All Iowa Points leader who made the pull down from Mason City pulled away to take the $500 feature win. William Michel was impressive coming from seventh to second in one of his rare trips west from Columbus Junction, newcomer Robbie Wilson who won on Tuesday night in a two car race was a strong third as Chandler and Cain wrapped up the top five.
Brad Stephens would pace the field through the first six laps of the fourteen lap Hobby Stock headliner before the caution waved for debris on the front stretch. On the restart Nathan Ballard and Dustin Griffiths made it a three-wide battle for the front with Griffiths emerging from the middle to take the point before another caution was needed for Rick Goldsberry who was turned for a spin going down the back stretch.
On the restart Stephens would make another run for the lead only to have Griffiths ward him off and then it was Ballard who moved to second to keep the heat on the leader. Nobody was going to catch the former All Iowa Points champ in this one though as Dustin would take the win over Ballard and Stephens. Blake Henry was in contention the entire distance finishing fourth as Aaron Martin took fifth.
The sport Mods were up next for sixteen laps with Carter Vandenberg and Maguire DeJong bringing the field to green from the front row. DeJong went to the cushion to take the lead, but in turns three and four the fifth starting Logan Anderson was already there to mount a challenge on the inside. DeJong maintained the lead down the front stretch and through turns one and two, but again Anderson drove deep into turn three in an effort to take the lead. The fifteen-year-old DeJong did not flinch though and again fought off the bid by Anderson. That would be as close as anyone would get as DeJong then drove away from the field to win by more than a straightaway in the non-stop race. Anderson would finish in second ahead of Curtis Van Der Wal, Vandenberg would come home fourth with Colton Livezy next in line.
Ten of the eleven Modifieds on hand for the special event would take the green for twenty laps and this one was essentially over when Cayden Carter pulled the number one out of the redraw bag. Brandon Banks tried to keep up with the hometown hot shoe, but by lap five the lead was a full straightaway and as the checkers waved over Carter, Banks was midway down the back stretch on his way to a runner-up finish. Austin Paul, Jarrett Brown and Sam Wieben all finished where they started in third, fourth and fifth.
After taking pictures with his Modified in victory lane, Carter then climbed into his Stock Car ride to start tenth in the sixteen lap finale for the evening with pole-sitter Jason See setting the early pace. Derrick Agee was on the move after starting sixth and was there to challenge See driving under him for the lead on lap five. That low line may have been Agee's undoing though as after the caution waved on lap eight, Agee pulled to the pit area apparently suffering from damage after hitting one of the infield track tires. See would resume the race as the leader, but Carter was on the charge and he would drive under See with two laps remaining to take the lead and the eventual victory. See would be the runner-up ahead of a solid third place run by Jason McDaniel. Johnny Spaw started twelfth and raced his way up to fourth at the checkers while Howard Gordon Jr. finished fifth after getting as high as second in the early going.
A twenty minute delay due to a power failure on the east end of the track was part of the reason for an eleven o'clock finish to the show and the final Wednesday night event of 2020 here will be next week where it will also be the rescheduled Hall of Fame induction. Terry McCarl's Osky Challenges will take place on Sunday and Monday, August 9th and 10th, and then the Southern Iowa Speedway will close out the season with the annual Musco Fall Challenge October 16th and 17th.
A big thank you to announcer Jerry Mackey for promoting our Positively Racing website and kudos to him for cutting short an interview that was headed in the wrong direction.
With another hot and humid weekend in the forecast I may sit it out until Tuesday when the World of Outlaws Late Models take to the quarter-mile oval at the Davenport Speedway. Then on Thursday night I look forward to making the trip up to Dubuque where the Sprint Invaders will again headline a night of racing during the annual Dubuque County Fair. Following that I hope to get two nights of the All Star Circuit of Champions swing through the Midwest with Friday's show at 34 Raceway west of Burlington and then Saturday night at Knoxville.
Stay safe, be healthy and I hope to see you somewhere on the Back Stretch.
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Bad Luck for Ramirez Leads To Victory For Marriott
Dereck Ramirez had the field covered Tuesday night as the United States Modified Touring Series returned to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, but when the mechanical gremlins caught up with him ten laps from the checkers Hunter Marriott was there to take advantage of the situation.
Marriott and Ramirez would start the twenty-five lap finale from the front row with Ramirez riding the cushion through turns one and two to take the point on the opening lap. The Woodward, Oklahoma native would then stretch his lead out with Marriott, current series point leader Rodney Sanders and Tanner Mullens in desperate pursuit. Further back Adam Kates was running in the fifth position when his motor let go on lap seven and one lap later the caution waved when Cayden Carter slowed in turns three and four, likely from damage suffered after hitting an inside track tire in turn two.
On the restart Ramirez again pulled away from the competition as the leading rookie-of-the-year candidate Tyler Davis eased by Mullens for third. Ramirez had nearly half a straightaway lead as he crossed the stripe for lap fifteen, but he slowed dramatically as he passed under flagman Ryne Staley who quickly displayed the caution for the fallen leader.
With Marriott now assuming the point, Sanders made a strong bid in turns one and two on the restart, but Hunter was up to the challenge and he too would pull away to take the win in front of a solid Southern Iowa Fair crowd. Sanders would chase him home for second while Mullens would make a nifty move around the outside of Davis late to finish in the third spot. Jason Hughes was fifth, Casey Skyberg sixth, Wisconsin's Calvin Iverson finished seventh, Joe Duvall was eighth and Wyoming's Chris Clark was the final car on the track at the checkers in ninth.
The road warriors of the USMTS now head for the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska for the this week's Silver Dollar Nationals and then next week, a new crown jewel event will take place in north central Iowa with Mod Mania at the Mason City Motor Speedway on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday July 28th, 29th and 30th.
The fifteen lap B-Mod main event had trouble getting started. On the first try the eighth starting Dylan Van Wyk got two wheels up on the guardrail in turn one and rode it quite a ways before coming back down on all fours, but the damage was too much for him to continue. On the second try at a start the leaders were four-wide entering turn one and contact sent pole-sitter Tony Johnson for spin in two sending the field back for a third try at getting things started.
On this one the crowd would gasp and then go silent for more than twenty minutes as veteran driver Steve Ruepke would clip the final uke tire that separates the road entering the pits from the outside of turn two sending his car high into the air where it would then roll hard several times before settling upside down midway down the back stretch. A fire then erupted in the engine compartment and thankfully safety crews were quick on the scene to put it out. A second ambulance soon arrived and after several minutes the crowd was given the good news that Ruepke was conscious and responding to emergency personnel as he was transported to the local hospital.
The original field of twelve was now down to nine for a fourth try at getting this one underway and it would be Carter Vandenberg setting the pace with his cousin Brayton Carter in hot pursuit. Vandenberg would ward off all challenges from "Speedy Bray" until lap seven when Brant Murray spun in turn three and on the restart Logan Anderson picked up the challenge for the lead. Anderson would find the bite that he needed on the bottom of turn four to take the lead on lap eight and he would then drive away to a convincing victory over Vandenberg and Carter. Colton Livezy finished in the fourth spot with Maguire DeJong in fifth.
The surprise entry of the night was young Dillon McCowan who made the long tow up from Urbana, Missouri, and was the only USRA B-Mod to venture in to race the local Sport Mods. McCowan has been on a tear this year already winning eight features in his home state where he currently leads our Missouri Points overcoming the recent dominance of drivers such as Kris Jackson and Ryan Gillmore. On this night he lined up fourth for the main event and on the first two starts he would have the lead exiting turn two before the caution waved. The problem though was that he was moving to the outside and starting to pass outside front row starter Troy Oliver before the wave of the green so on the third try at a start officials penalized him a row. Once the race finally got underway McCowan slipped to seventh, but then came forward to take fifth away from DeJong before he slowed with two laps remaining and pulled to the infield. Keep your eye on this kid, he is going to be a good one.
The eight car field of Stock Cars raced in tight formation for much of their fifteen lap main event with Cody Agee leading early. Derrick Agee was on the move after starting seventh and both he and Dustin Griffiths would make it a nifty three car battle for the lead on lap six. Griffith would emerge from the middle of the three-wide formation exiting turn four to take the lead as Derrick moved to second and there was no stopping the charge from the rear of the field as Derrick Agee took the top spot two laps later. He would then go on to score his fourth win of the season here at Osky with Griffiths not far behind in second. It was a photo finish for third with Cody Agee getting the nod over a hard charging Nathan Wood who was back in action after destroying his car a few weeks ago. Wood's new ride is one that he picked up from Ted Greiner that had been sitting in a shed for the past couple of years. Donnie Pearson filled out the top five.
With more racing set to come at the Southern Iowa Speedway tonight, many drivers in the Sport Compact and Hobby Stock divisions chose to only race once this week as only two and four cars signed in respectively on Tuesday. In the Sport Compacts Robbie Wilson passed Billy Cain mid-race to win the two car rumble and in the Hobby Stocks. Dustin Griffiths went flag to flag to take the win over fourth starting Aaron Martin with Jadyn Stevens third and Rick Van Dusseldorp fourth.
I now look forward to returning to the Southern Iowa Speedway tonight for the 2nd Annual Caleb Hammond Memorial with six divisions in action as we race in memory of the young race fan, check that, the young racer who lost his valiant fight against cancer two years ago. Hope to see you there!
Marriott and Ramirez would start the twenty-five lap finale from the front row with Ramirez riding the cushion through turns one and two to take the point on the opening lap. The Woodward, Oklahoma native would then stretch his lead out with Marriott, current series point leader Rodney Sanders and Tanner Mullens in desperate pursuit. Further back Adam Kates was running in the fifth position when his motor let go on lap seven and one lap later the caution waved when Cayden Carter slowed in turns three and four, likely from damage suffered after hitting an inside track tire in turn two.
On the restart Ramirez again pulled away from the competition as the leading rookie-of-the-year candidate Tyler Davis eased by Mullens for third. Ramirez had nearly half a straightaway lead as he crossed the stripe for lap fifteen, but he slowed dramatically as he passed under flagman Ryne Staley who quickly displayed the caution for the fallen leader.
With Marriott now assuming the point, Sanders made a strong bid in turns one and two on the restart, but Hunter was up to the challenge and he too would pull away to take the win in front of a solid Southern Iowa Fair crowd. Sanders would chase him home for second while Mullens would make a nifty move around the outside of Davis late to finish in the third spot. Jason Hughes was fifth, Casey Skyberg sixth, Wisconsin's Calvin Iverson finished seventh, Joe Duvall was eighth and Wyoming's Chris Clark was the final car on the track at the checkers in ninth.
The road warriors of the USMTS now head for the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska for the this week's Silver Dollar Nationals and then next week, a new crown jewel event will take place in north central Iowa with Mod Mania at the Mason City Motor Speedway on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday July 28th, 29th and 30th.
The fifteen lap B-Mod main event had trouble getting started. On the first try the eighth starting Dylan Van Wyk got two wheels up on the guardrail in turn one and rode it quite a ways before coming back down on all fours, but the damage was too much for him to continue. On the second try at a start the leaders were four-wide entering turn one and contact sent pole-sitter Tony Johnson for spin in two sending the field back for a third try at getting things started.
On this one the crowd would gasp and then go silent for more than twenty minutes as veteran driver Steve Ruepke would clip the final uke tire that separates the road entering the pits from the outside of turn two sending his car high into the air where it would then roll hard several times before settling upside down midway down the back stretch. A fire then erupted in the engine compartment and thankfully safety crews were quick on the scene to put it out. A second ambulance soon arrived and after several minutes the crowd was given the good news that Ruepke was conscious and responding to emergency personnel as he was transported to the local hospital.
The original field of twelve was now down to nine for a fourth try at getting this one underway and it would be Carter Vandenberg setting the pace with his cousin Brayton Carter in hot pursuit. Vandenberg would ward off all challenges from "Speedy Bray" until lap seven when Brant Murray spun in turn three and on the restart Logan Anderson picked up the challenge for the lead. Anderson would find the bite that he needed on the bottom of turn four to take the lead on lap eight and he would then drive away to a convincing victory over Vandenberg and Carter. Colton Livezy finished in the fourth spot with Maguire DeJong in fifth.
The surprise entry of the night was young Dillon McCowan who made the long tow up from Urbana, Missouri, and was the only USRA B-Mod to venture in to race the local Sport Mods. McCowan has been on a tear this year already winning eight features in his home state where he currently leads our Missouri Points overcoming the recent dominance of drivers such as Kris Jackson and Ryan Gillmore. On this night he lined up fourth for the main event and on the first two starts he would have the lead exiting turn two before the caution waved. The problem though was that he was moving to the outside and starting to pass outside front row starter Troy Oliver before the wave of the green so on the third try at a start officials penalized him a row. Once the race finally got underway McCowan slipped to seventh, but then came forward to take fifth away from DeJong before he slowed with two laps remaining and pulled to the infield. Keep your eye on this kid, he is going to be a good one.
The eight car field of Stock Cars raced in tight formation for much of their fifteen lap main event with Cody Agee leading early. Derrick Agee was on the move after starting seventh and both he and Dustin Griffiths would make it a nifty three car battle for the lead on lap six. Griffith would emerge from the middle of the three-wide formation exiting turn four to take the lead as Derrick moved to second and there was no stopping the charge from the rear of the field as Derrick Agee took the top spot two laps later. He would then go on to score his fourth win of the season here at Osky with Griffiths not far behind in second. It was a photo finish for third with Cody Agee getting the nod over a hard charging Nathan Wood who was back in action after destroying his car a few weeks ago. Wood's new ride is one that he picked up from Ted Greiner that had been sitting in a shed for the past couple of years. Donnie Pearson filled out the top five.
With more racing set to come at the Southern Iowa Speedway tonight, many drivers in the Sport Compact and Hobby Stock divisions chose to only race once this week as only two and four cars signed in respectively on Tuesday. In the Sport Compacts Robbie Wilson passed Billy Cain mid-race to win the two car rumble and in the Hobby Stocks. Dustin Griffiths went flag to flag to take the win over fourth starting Aaron Martin with Jadyn Stevens third and Rick Van Dusseldorp fourth.
I now look forward to returning to the Southern Iowa Speedway tonight for the 2nd Annual Caleb Hammond Memorial with six divisions in action as we race in memory of the young race fan, check that, the young racer who lost his valiant fight against cancer two years ago. Hope to see you there!
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Third To First On The Final Lap, Abreu Electrifies Knoxville
I have seen a lot of good races over the years, but it takes something amazing to send shivers down my spine and that happened on the final lap of the 410 Sprint Car feature Saturday night at the Knoxville Raceway. In a twenty-lap race that had been very common for the first fifteen, the final five circuits around the legendary half-mile, including the banzai charge into turn three by one of the sport's most popular drivers made it a night to remember, especially given the situation that we are all living through right now.
The race actually got off to a rough start when eighth starting Trey Starks got crossed up on the cushion in turn one and then slid sideways down the track entering turn two. Several cars were able to slip by him, but leading 410 rookie-of-the-year contender Ryan Giles could not quite squeeze his car to the bottom and contact put Giles up and over and severely damaged the front axle of Starks' car and sending both to the trailer prior to the restart.
Front row starters Lynton Jeffery and Terry McCarl had Brian Brown in between them entering turn one on the opening lap and it would be McCarl taking the lead down the back stretch with Jeffery holding on to second. The caution would fly after the leaders clicked off lap two when Hunter Scheurenburg slowed on the back stretch a victim of an apparent engine failure and on the restart it would take two more laps before Brown sailed around the outside of Jeffery to take second.
The next ten laps did not yield much to write about, supported by the fact that the highlight package (to be linked later in the article so that you read about it first!) skipped ahead as well, but when McCarl had to leave the cushion to deal with lapped traffic that allowed Brown to close in. On lap seventeen Brown threw a slider entering turn three, but the veteran McCarl executed the crossover move to perfection and the two would race side-by-side down the front stretch with T-Mac still holding the lead by a nose at the line.
With McCarl now sliding to the top in turn two, Brown aimed for the bottom at the exit and he would drive to the lead down the back stretch. With this great battle going on in front of him, Rico Abreu had found a bite on the bottom and was closing quickly to soon make it a a three car classic for the lead. Brown would lead with two to go, but a slight bobble off the cushion in four allowed both McCarl and Abreu to close in on him entering turn one.
They would exit turn two three wide with Brown on the cushion, McCarl a car-length back in the middle and Abreu another car-length back digging around the bottom and with the lapped car of Mike Ayers just ahead of them, Rico would have to drift to the cushion entering turn three and at that point it looked like he would be out of it. Wrong!
That big run off the cushion of turn four as the white flag waved allowed Abreu to again power around the bottom to pass McCarl for second and, as Brown again made the slightest of slip off the cushion in turn two Rico had a big run on him going down the back stretch. Now this was a drag race to get to the bottom of turn three and as Brown started to move down the track, Abreu did not lift and not only would he take the lead into the corner, but he would keep his car stuck to the bottom long enough to not allow Brown to cross him over and the crowd went wild as Rico took the win. Brown would finish second with McCarl not far behind in third while Austin McCarl and Matt Juhl completed the top five.
Okay, so now you can watch the highlight package and I will admit that I used it to fine tune my description. After all, it is hard to take good notes when you are trembling with excitement! And believe me, that drag race into turn three looked much more dramatic from Section I Row 34 than it does here proving once again that it is always better to be there in person whenever possible.
Knowing that there would be a huge field of 360's brought me to Knoxville in the first place this night as it would be night two of a Midwest Power Series doubleheader with the Jackson Motorplex, plus a point race for the Nebraska 360 Sprints. And after having raced just down the road in Osborn, Missouri, the night before several of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series drivers would be in attendance as well. The combination brought out a stout field of forty-six that was whittled down to twenty-four for the twenty lap main event with four-time ASCS champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. and defending Knoxville track champion Carson McCarl starting from the front row.
Hafertepe would have the edge at the drop of the green and he would pace the field for the first eight laps until Friday night's winner at Jackson, Justin Henderson powered by him on the inside of turn three. Hafertepe would stay close over the second half of the race that went non-stop, but he could never mount a challenge as Henderson won for the second night in a row and with a clean sweep bonus from GRP Motorsports the result was a sweet $9,000 weekend for the second generation driver from Tea, South Dakota. Hafertepe, who won at Osborn on Friday, would have to settle for the runner-up honors on this night as McCarl closed in on current point leader Jamie Ball with a third-place run. Brian Brown finished fourth and Clint Garner was fifth.
When I was here a few weeks ago Devin Kline told everybody in victory lane that it would be his one and only appearance for the season. Car owner Matt Allen had other ideas though and this was the night that the second Allen Racing Team Car would be ready to go with Kline again behind the wheel and he would earn the outside front row starting spot for the fifteen lap Pro Series feature. Veteran driver Chris Walraven would beat him to the point though and lead the first seven circuits, but when Walraven guess wrong on where the slower car of Jaslyn Jones was going to go entering turn one, Kline took advantage.
The caution waved with three laps remaining when Chase Young spun in turn three and on the restart Kline drove away as an entertaining three car battle for second played out behind him. The victory would make Kline the all-time winningest driver in the 305/Pro Sprint Series while Brandon Worthington moved from fifth to second over the final three laps. Devin Wignall picked up the third spot late dropping Walraven to fourth at the checkers while Mike Mayberry filled out the top five.
With the show pushed back an extra four due to the heat the final checkered flag still waved just past eleven o'clock on a very well presented show with no intermission. The late trip home though has me wondering about my original plan to head north to the Benton County Speedway tonight for my first trip to Vinton in 2020, so I may let the weather and the prospect of a nap make that decision as the day goes on. I really sound old now, don't I?
In the days ahead I look forward to two straight nights of racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa as on Tuesday night the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) will attack the big half-mile and then on Wednesday night there is a bunch of extra money on the line for the second annual Caleb Hammond Memorial.
Hope to see you there!
The race actually got off to a rough start when eighth starting Trey Starks got crossed up on the cushion in turn one and then slid sideways down the track entering turn two. Several cars were able to slip by him, but leading 410 rookie-of-the-year contender Ryan Giles could not quite squeeze his car to the bottom and contact put Giles up and over and severely damaged the front axle of Starks' car and sending both to the trailer prior to the restart.
Front row starters Lynton Jeffery and Terry McCarl had Brian Brown in between them entering turn one on the opening lap and it would be McCarl taking the lead down the back stretch with Jeffery holding on to second. The caution would fly after the leaders clicked off lap two when Hunter Scheurenburg slowed on the back stretch a victim of an apparent engine failure and on the restart it would take two more laps before Brown sailed around the outside of Jeffery to take second.
The next ten laps did not yield much to write about, supported by the fact that the highlight package (to be linked later in the article so that you read about it first!) skipped ahead as well, but when McCarl had to leave the cushion to deal with lapped traffic that allowed Brown to close in. On lap seventeen Brown threw a slider entering turn three, but the veteran McCarl executed the crossover move to perfection and the two would race side-by-side down the front stretch with T-Mac still holding the lead by a nose at the line.
With McCarl now sliding to the top in turn two, Brown aimed for the bottom at the exit and he would drive to the lead down the back stretch. With this great battle going on in front of him, Rico Abreu had found a bite on the bottom and was closing quickly to soon make it a a three car classic for the lead. Brown would lead with two to go, but a slight bobble off the cushion in four allowed both McCarl and Abreu to close in on him entering turn one.
They would exit turn two three wide with Brown on the cushion, McCarl a car-length back in the middle and Abreu another car-length back digging around the bottom and with the lapped car of Mike Ayers just ahead of them, Rico would have to drift to the cushion entering turn three and at that point it looked like he would be out of it. Wrong!
That big run off the cushion of turn four as the white flag waved allowed Abreu to again power around the bottom to pass McCarl for second and, as Brown again made the slightest of slip off the cushion in turn two Rico had a big run on him going down the back stretch. Now this was a drag race to get to the bottom of turn three and as Brown started to move down the track, Abreu did not lift and not only would he take the lead into the corner, but he would keep his car stuck to the bottom long enough to not allow Brown to cross him over and the crowd went wild as Rico took the win. Brown would finish second with McCarl not far behind in third while Austin McCarl and Matt Juhl completed the top five.
Okay, so now you can watch the highlight package and I will admit that I used it to fine tune my description. After all, it is hard to take good notes when you are trembling with excitement! And believe me, that drag race into turn three looked much more dramatic from Section I Row 34 than it does here proving once again that it is always better to be there in person whenever possible.
Knowing that there would be a huge field of 360's brought me to Knoxville in the first place this night as it would be night two of a Midwest Power Series doubleheader with the Jackson Motorplex, plus a point race for the Nebraska 360 Sprints. And after having raced just down the road in Osborn, Missouri, the night before several of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series drivers would be in attendance as well. The combination brought out a stout field of forty-six that was whittled down to twenty-four for the twenty lap main event with four-time ASCS champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. and defending Knoxville track champion Carson McCarl starting from the front row.
Hafertepe would have the edge at the drop of the green and he would pace the field for the first eight laps until Friday night's winner at Jackson, Justin Henderson powered by him on the inside of turn three. Hafertepe would stay close over the second half of the race that went non-stop, but he could never mount a challenge as Henderson won for the second night in a row and with a clean sweep bonus from GRP Motorsports the result was a sweet $9,000 weekend for the second generation driver from Tea, South Dakota. Hafertepe, who won at Osborn on Friday, would have to settle for the runner-up honors on this night as McCarl closed in on current point leader Jamie Ball with a third-place run. Brian Brown finished fourth and Clint Garner was fifth.
When I was here a few weeks ago Devin Kline told everybody in victory lane that it would be his one and only appearance for the season. Car owner Matt Allen had other ideas though and this was the night that the second Allen Racing Team Car would be ready to go with Kline again behind the wheel and he would earn the outside front row starting spot for the fifteen lap Pro Series feature. Veteran driver Chris Walraven would beat him to the point though and lead the first seven circuits, but when Walraven guess wrong on where the slower car of Jaslyn Jones was going to go entering turn one, Kline took advantage.
The caution waved with three laps remaining when Chase Young spun in turn three and on the restart Kline drove away as an entertaining three car battle for second played out behind him. The victory would make Kline the all-time winningest driver in the 305/Pro Sprint Series while Brandon Worthington moved from fifth to second over the final three laps. Devin Wignall picked up the third spot late dropping Walraven to fourth at the checkers while Mike Mayberry filled out the top five.
With the show pushed back an extra four due to the heat the final checkered flag still waved just past eleven o'clock on a very well presented show with no intermission. The late trip home though has me wondering about my original plan to head north to the Benton County Speedway tonight for my first trip to Vinton in 2020, so I may let the weather and the prospect of a nap make that decision as the day goes on. I really sound old now, don't I?
In the days ahead I look forward to two straight nights of racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa as on Tuesday night the United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) will attack the big half-mile and then on Wednesday night there is a bunch of extra money on the line for the second annual Caleb Hammond Memorial.
Hope to see you there!
Saturday, July 4, 2020
12th Annual Slocum 50 Falls To Pierce
Even though the virus delayed the 12th Annual Slocum 50 by eleven weeks it still had the same festive atmosphere with many friends and fans of the late Brent Slocum coming together to enjoy a night of racing in his memory. They have their favorites, you can hear them cheer over the roar of the engine as drivers such as Brian Shirley, Brian Birkhofer, Shannon Babb and Bobby Pierce take to the track during qualifying, and they respect the others. But if not for some late race bad luck, all of the favorites would have been shut out and it would have been interesting to see how the reception would have been for a driver that some would not have been familiar with.
Thirty-five Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models attempted to qualify for the fifty lap $10,555-to-win headliner with twenty-six of them on the starting grid with two of those favorites, Birkhofer and Babb in the front row. Shannon would use the momentum off the cushion to take the lead down the back stretch and Brian would soon lose the second spot to Tony Jackson Jr. who was digging around the bottom of the 3/8th-mile oval. Jackson would then continue that charge driving to the inside of Babb in turn four to take the lead as lap number four went into the books.
Jackson then started to pull away before the caution waved on lap eight when Chad Holladay spun in turn four and on the restart T.J. Jr. again pulled away from the competition putting a full straightaway between himself and Babb. Pierce had now dropped Birkhofer to fourth and he was closing in on Babb, especially when Shannon could not find away around the lapped car of Tony Toste for several laps.
Pierce would take the second spot from Babb on lap thirty and it would even take him three laps to finally get around Toste and now, with just seventeen laps remaining, Bobby had a daunting task in front of him as Jackson was still way out front. That started to change three laps later though as the leader closed in on a pack of eight cars and the crowd was cheering him on as Pierce steadily cut into the gap. On lap forty-one, when one of that pack of eight Brian Shirley slowed down the front stretch the caution waved as he continued around the inside of turn one and the fans went nuts as now Pierce, Babb and Birkhofer would line up directly behind Jackson with just nine laps to go.
On the restart Babb again found the speed up high to take back the second spot and as he tried to keep pace with Jackson, he jumped the cushion in turn three allowing Pierce to get back around him. That also allowed Jackson to get away once again and this one looked like it was his to win. But as he exited turn four on lap forty-six, Jackson's car suddenly slowed and drifted to the right as Pierce sped by and the caution waved as Jackson's once dominant mount now limped around the track.
The crowd gave Jackson a big round of applause as his car was pushed back to the pits and hopefully if any of those fans didn't know who Tony Jackson Jr. was before this performance, they will know him now as the driver that would have won on this night if not for his bad luck at the end.
This one would now be decided by the fan favorites and many of them were on their feet over the final four laps as Babb again tried to get a run around the top to get around Pierce. Shannon was there and had the run coming to the white, but he had to jab the brakes when Pierce closed the door and both drivers raced each other clean into turn one. Pierce maintained the lead down the back stretch and Babb could not mount the same kind of run out of turn four as Bobby scored his fourth Slocum 50 win much to the joy of the large crowd. Babb and Birkhofer joined him on the front stretch for a star-studded victory lane while Jeremiah Hurst and Chris Simpson filled out the top five. Simpson had started eleventh. Johnny Scott finished sixth, Mike Spatola was seventh, current MLRA point leader Chad Simpson was eighth, Hurst's teammate Garrett Alberson finished ninth and B-Main transfer Tim Manville was tenth.
The MLRA continues a three race weekend tonight at the 300 Raceway in Farley and then on Sunday the series makes its debut at the Bullring at the Rock Island County Fairgrounds in East Moline.
Features for the IMCA Stock Cars and the 305 Sprint Cars framed the Late Model feature and, well let's just say that the Stock Cars struggled. Seven cautions over the first eight laps of racing made for a lot of frustration and rather than give you a blow-by-blow description of each incident, let's just move on to protect the innocent, I will say though that the first incident involved contact between between Matt Picray and Abe Huls with Huls having to go to the back of the sixteen car field for the restart. By the time that we were restarting again with four laps in the books Huls was up to third and would join Chad Krogmeier, Jeremy Pundt and David Brandies for a great battle for the lead once the race was able to put some consecutive laps in.
Krogmeier was the leader for the first four laps. Pundt took the point on lap five and Brandies sailed around the outside of Pundt in turn four to take the lead mid-race. One more caution waved for debris on lap fifteen and the drivers were told they would now either race to the checkers, or the next caution whichever came first. Jason Cook now joined the lead group and while the drivers shuffled for position behind him, Brandies would hold the lead to the checkers to take the win. Cook made his way into second, Pundt finished third, Huls fourth and Krogmeier was fifth. Pre-race favorite John Oliver Jr. who won his heat race earlier in the night was scheduled to start outside of the front row for the feature, but did not make the call.
Most of the crowd stayed in place for the twenty-lap Sprint Car feature that closed out the night with Nathan Murders leading the way on the opening lap. Cody Wehrle is driving the Grant Racing #27 this year and he put it out front on lap two and had built up a nice lead before caution waved on lap seven when Wyatt Wilkerson executed a 360 degree spin in turn three. When the green flag returned Wehrle again pulled away from the field and on lap eleven after contact between Matt Krieger and Devon Rouse, two more cars became involved and while all of them continued on, three of them Rouse, Krieger and Blaine Jamison slowed with damage or a flat tire causing the caution to wave.
Once back to green it was all Wehrle as he drove away to the convincing victory over front row starters Murders and Dan Keltner. Dugan Thye finished fourth on the race track, but he would be scored fifth in the final rundown as officials ruled that he had passed Nick Guernsey before the green flag waved on the final restart.
A nice fireworks display closed out the evening and while the show was a little late to get started due to some extra moisture on the speedway, that proved to be well worth it as I don't think that I saw a speck of dust all night long. And that, my friends, is how you make for a fan friendly dirt track environment! A big thanks to Brad Stevens, Jessi Mynatt and all of the 34 Raceway team for putting on another fantastic show to honor Brent Slocum.
I will take tonight off for the Fourth to enjoy some fireworks with my beautiful bride and then on Sunday night it will be back down to the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly for the Sprint Invaders who will be battling for a $2,000 winner's check.
Be safe and stay healthy!
Thirty-five Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models attempted to qualify for the fifty lap $10,555-to-win headliner with twenty-six of them on the starting grid with two of those favorites, Birkhofer and Babb in the front row. Shannon would use the momentum off the cushion to take the lead down the back stretch and Brian would soon lose the second spot to Tony Jackson Jr. who was digging around the bottom of the 3/8th-mile oval. Jackson would then continue that charge driving to the inside of Babb in turn four to take the lead as lap number four went into the books.
Jackson then started to pull away before the caution waved on lap eight when Chad Holladay spun in turn four and on the restart T.J. Jr. again pulled away from the competition putting a full straightaway between himself and Babb. Pierce had now dropped Birkhofer to fourth and he was closing in on Babb, especially when Shannon could not find away around the lapped car of Tony Toste for several laps.
Pierce would take the second spot from Babb on lap thirty and it would even take him three laps to finally get around Toste and now, with just seventeen laps remaining, Bobby had a daunting task in front of him as Jackson was still way out front. That started to change three laps later though as the leader closed in on a pack of eight cars and the crowd was cheering him on as Pierce steadily cut into the gap. On lap forty-one, when one of that pack of eight Brian Shirley slowed down the front stretch the caution waved as he continued around the inside of turn one and the fans went nuts as now Pierce, Babb and Birkhofer would line up directly behind Jackson with just nine laps to go.
On the restart Babb again found the speed up high to take back the second spot and as he tried to keep pace with Jackson, he jumped the cushion in turn three allowing Pierce to get back around him. That also allowed Jackson to get away once again and this one looked like it was his to win. But as he exited turn four on lap forty-six, Jackson's car suddenly slowed and drifted to the right as Pierce sped by and the caution waved as Jackson's once dominant mount now limped around the track.
The crowd gave Jackson a big round of applause as his car was pushed back to the pits and hopefully if any of those fans didn't know who Tony Jackson Jr. was before this performance, they will know him now as the driver that would have won on this night if not for his bad luck at the end.
This one would now be decided by the fan favorites and many of them were on their feet over the final four laps as Babb again tried to get a run around the top to get around Pierce. Shannon was there and had the run coming to the white, but he had to jab the brakes when Pierce closed the door and both drivers raced each other clean into turn one. Pierce maintained the lead down the back stretch and Babb could not mount the same kind of run out of turn four as Bobby scored his fourth Slocum 50 win much to the joy of the large crowd. Babb and Birkhofer joined him on the front stretch for a star-studded victory lane while Jeremiah Hurst and Chris Simpson filled out the top five. Simpson had started eleventh. Johnny Scott finished sixth, Mike Spatola was seventh, current MLRA point leader Chad Simpson was eighth, Hurst's teammate Garrett Alberson finished ninth and B-Main transfer Tim Manville was tenth.
The MLRA continues a three race weekend tonight at the 300 Raceway in Farley and then on Sunday the series makes its debut at the Bullring at the Rock Island County Fairgrounds in East Moline.
Features for the IMCA Stock Cars and the 305 Sprint Cars framed the Late Model feature and, well let's just say that the Stock Cars struggled. Seven cautions over the first eight laps of racing made for a lot of frustration and rather than give you a blow-by-blow description of each incident, let's just move on to protect the innocent, I will say though that the first incident involved contact between between Matt Picray and Abe Huls with Huls having to go to the back of the sixteen car field for the restart. By the time that we were restarting again with four laps in the books Huls was up to third and would join Chad Krogmeier, Jeremy Pundt and David Brandies for a great battle for the lead once the race was able to put some consecutive laps in.
Krogmeier was the leader for the first four laps. Pundt took the point on lap five and Brandies sailed around the outside of Pundt in turn four to take the lead mid-race. One more caution waved for debris on lap fifteen and the drivers were told they would now either race to the checkers, or the next caution whichever came first. Jason Cook now joined the lead group and while the drivers shuffled for position behind him, Brandies would hold the lead to the checkers to take the win. Cook made his way into second, Pundt finished third, Huls fourth and Krogmeier was fifth. Pre-race favorite John Oliver Jr. who won his heat race earlier in the night was scheduled to start outside of the front row for the feature, but did not make the call.
Most of the crowd stayed in place for the twenty-lap Sprint Car feature that closed out the night with Nathan Murders leading the way on the opening lap. Cody Wehrle is driving the Grant Racing #27 this year and he put it out front on lap two and had built up a nice lead before caution waved on lap seven when Wyatt Wilkerson executed a 360 degree spin in turn three. When the green flag returned Wehrle again pulled away from the field and on lap eleven after contact between Matt Krieger and Devon Rouse, two more cars became involved and while all of them continued on, three of them Rouse, Krieger and Blaine Jamison slowed with damage or a flat tire causing the caution to wave.
Once back to green it was all Wehrle as he drove away to the convincing victory over front row starters Murders and Dan Keltner. Dugan Thye finished fourth on the race track, but he would be scored fifth in the final rundown as officials ruled that he had passed Nick Guernsey before the green flag waved on the final restart.
A nice fireworks display closed out the evening and while the show was a little late to get started due to some extra moisture on the speedway, that proved to be well worth it as I don't think that I saw a speck of dust all night long. And that, my friends, is how you make for a fan friendly dirt track environment! A big thanks to Brad Stevens, Jessi Mynatt and all of the 34 Raceway team for putting on another fantastic show to honor Brent Slocum.
I will take tonight off for the Fourth to enjoy some fireworks with my beautiful bride and then on Sunday night it will be back down to the Randolph County Raceway in Moberly for the Sprint Invaders who will be battling for a $2,000 winner's check.
Be safe and stay healthy!
Friday, July 3, 2020
Shute Shines In An Epic Ron Little Memorial At Stuart Speedway
After securing over $8,000 in additional donations and sponsorship from businesses and individuals that would go straight into an already impressive purse, Stuart Speedway owner/promoter Mike Van Genderen knew that he would have to be prepared for a big night. Perhaps the biggest night ever for the racy little quarter-mile and its signature event, the 21st Annual Ron Little Memorial remembering the popular IMCA Modified driver from nearby Adel who was a fixture at the speedway for so many years.
Van Genderen had already hosted some big events this season that drew over 130 cars requiring the use of an overflow pit area and having race fans search for every inch of available space to park their own cars to watch. But he knew that this night could be epic, especially after seeing the car counts at the first few races of the Midwest Madness Tour presented by Western Iowa Racing Results and so he prepared to meet the demand. He doubled an already expanded order for his concession stand, he worked with local government to shut down the road that runs to the west and the north of the race track to use to park haulers if needed and, most importantly, he worked out an agreement with the neighboring land owner to use a large field to the east of the facility to handle spectator parking in case it was needed.
With 170 race cars signing in to do battle in the six classes, race car haulers had to use the usual spectator parking area so that field was required for the large contingent of fans that showed up to watch another great night of racing at a track that had a pit area built to hold sixty to eighty cars. Thank goodness that MVG came prepared!
All of the qualifying races had wrapped up just past 9:30 p.m. and the Outlaw Mini Mod feature would be first up for a scheduled fourteen lap event. Pole-sitter Kamdyn Haggard would race out to the early lead giving way to Matt Prehn on lap three just before Cody Housby slowed on the back stretch for a caution. On the restart Logan Brown zipped into second and with Minnesota's Nathan Kilwine on the charge after starting eighth we had ourselves a dandy three car battle with Prehn and Brown hugging the bottom and Kilwine working a higher line. That top line would prevail for Kilwine as he would lead lap nine, but the caution would wave soon after when a back marker would spin in turn two.
On the restart Luke Daniels would got turned around exiting turn four leaving Matthew Grobe no place to go and after making hard contact Grobe's car would rollover on the front stretch. Both drivers climbed from their cars uninjured, but Grobe will have to see just how much of his Mini Mod is salvageable once he returns to Austin, Minnesota. With the long red, the race was cut to twelve laps and while Brown was able to get to second on the restart he was not able to mount a challenge to Kilwine who secured the victory. Prehn finished in third, Dan Kline was fourth and Chase Daniels filled out the top five.
The Sport Compacts were up next for fourteen laps with Cody Pierce leading the first one before yielding to the current IMCA National points leader Tyler Fiebelkorn on lap two. Rusty Gyles would spin in turn one on lap four for the only caution of the race and after the restart young Kolby Sabin would challenge for the lead. Fiebelkorn would try to pin him low, but Sabin would not yield and on lap six he would take the lead and then drive away to victory. Fiebelkorn would take the runner-up spot ahead of Bryan Vannausdle who started in tenth. Hunter Patrick finished fourth and Mark Smith came from a sixth row start to complete the top five.
A stout field of 38 IMCA Stock Cars had been whittled down to twenty-four who would race for a possible $1,905 to win (random donations, keep in mind) in this thirty lap affair with pole-sitter Jake Masters getting out to a big early lead. Behind him the action was phenomenal as I counted them five wide exiting turn two on two occasions and some of the usual suspects such as Elijah Zevenbergen and the Murtys, Damon and Dallon, were making their way to the front. Although the driver that got to second riding the high line, Dusty Van Horn from Atlantic, might have been an unknown to many of the fans at Stuart. With this one staying green Masters was still in firm control holding a full straightaway lead, but when Midwest Madness Tour provisional starter Brenton Palmer spun in turn one on lap sixteen that advantage was erased.
Masters had been running the bottom exclusively and on the restart Van Horn sailed around him on the top to take the lead, so rather than stubbornly sticking with the bottom line Jake moved up to the cushion as well to put the pressure on the new leader. With that cushion now getting right up to the universal barriers around turns one and two, Van Horn went in a bit too high on lap twenty-two and when he made a bit of contact with the barriers that was the mistake that Masters was looking for as he slipped under Van Horn to regain the lead. Meanwhile, just behind the them, the Murtys had just left the drive thru at White Castle and the sliders were coming out bringing the huge crowd to the edge of their seats. Still, as the white flag waved, Masters had this one in hand only to have Buck Schafroth coast to a stop in turn three requiring what would be a thrilling green-white-checkered restart.
Dallon Marty would dive low into turn one and slide up in front of Masters in two, but the veteran from Graettinger calmly executed the crossover move to maintain the lead down the back straightaway. Dallon looked to repeat the move in three and four, but when he did not have Masters cleared he raced him clean and lost the momentum to challenge on the final lap. That would allow Masters to take the win with Dallon Murty second, but behind them the finish was wild as Damon Murty tried to slide up in front of Van Horn in turn four. Contact between the two allowed Zevenbergen to charge underneath both of them and as the trio came to the line in tight formation, contact launched the front end of Zevenbergen's car high into the air. Van Horn had the edge by inches for third over Zevenbergen with Damon Murty a few feet further back in fifth.
The crowd was still abuzz about that finish as the Hobby Stocks made their way to the speedway and just after the opening lap was scored Kevin Bruck drove up and over the wall in turn two disappearing from view down the embankment. Within just a minute though, as if he knew the route already, Bruck drove back up to the track entrance in turn one and was ready to restart the race with announcer Tony Paris getting the crowd to give him a standing ovation that was louder than any of the parade laps on this night.
As we have seen so often at Stuart over the last two years, this race would be a battle of the low line versus the high line with early leader Brandon Cox working the bottom before yielding to challenger Chuck Madden Jr. who was running the top. In this race though Cox would stick with his favored line and with five laps remaining he would go back to the front and after working lapped traffic like a pro in those closing laps Cox would score his second feature win of the season here over Madden. Braden Richards was impressive in what I believe to be his first appearance of the year here finishing in the third spot, Solomon Bennett started twelfth and finished fourth while Midwest Madness Tour point champion contender Jason Fusselman was fifth after starting from the tenth position.
The highlighted division of the night, the IMCA Modifieds would draw a spectacular field of 49 drivers all looking for the $2,005 top prize and the six heat races alone were worth the price of admission as drivers battled three and four wide in each of them looking for the only two transfer spots. Two B-Mains taking five each plus a track provisional and a Midwest Madness Tour provisional would set the field for thirty-five laps with Todd Shute drawing the pole position. Earlier in the night Shute and Jesse Sobbing slugged it out for ten laps after starting from the front row of the fifth heat with Sobbing prevailing. But after Shute's young surrogate pulled the number one for the main event, he was not about to get beat again.
The hottest driver in Iowa right now, Tom Berry Jr. would spin in turn one on the opening lap so on the restart instead of lining up eleventh he would now go to the rear of the field. You will see why that is significant soon. Another top contender, Josh Gilman would be the victim of an accordion effect stack up on the bottom of turn three as the first lap was scored and once underway Shute left the field in his wake as the battle to watch was between Jeff Aikey and Cayden Carter. They weren't racing for second, yet, but after facing off against each other in the opening heat race earlier in the night you had a sense that each had a target on the other as aggressive slide jobs and some door rubbing happened often.
Usually with two drivers battling like that they both end up on the hook, but not Carter and Aikey who eventually advanced their personal war past Cory Sauerman, Ethan Braaksma and Dylan Thronton until they actually were battling it out for second. With Shute still in command and seemingly on is way to a dominant win with just six laps remaining, the California visitor Thornton went too deep into turns one and two with his car climbing up on top of the concrete barrier sending sparks flying before the Modified finally stopped perched atop the wall.
The long delay to carefully remove the car from the top of the wall sealed my fate in regard to the final race of the night, but I was not about to leave knowing that Carter and and Aikey would restart just behind Shute and now Berry was lined up sixth after charging from the rear. Once back to green it was obvious that Shute was the man on this night as "Toddzilla" again pulled away to take the big victory. Carter prevailed in the battle for second and Tom Berry Jr. executed a perfect slide job in the final two turns to take third away from Aikey. Nick Roberts would complete the top five.
It was now 11:30 and knowing that I had to get up and go to work the next morning despite the Holiday in order to get caught up for a busy week next week, I headed for the gates as the Sport Mod feature came to the track. Checking the results this morning I see that Brayton Carter made it a pretty good night for Jimmy's boys as he took the win after starting sixth. Josh Most advanced from twelfth to second, Cam Reimers was third followed by Cody Thompson and last week's winner Brian Osantowski.
A big thank you to Mike Van Genderen and his staff for the hospitality and it is truly a treat to watch him orchestrate a night of racing. No matter how good your Race Director is I can almost guarantee you that he or she would learn something if they observed MVG for an evening. And he still knows that there are things that he can learn himself, something he told me after visiting the Davenport Speedway earlier this season and watching promoter Ricky Kay and his crew pull off a quick moving show with over 160 cars in the pits and a local curfew to beat. Hard to believe that there are just four events remaining on the 2020 Stuart Speedway schedule and while at this point it doesn't look like I will be able to return, I do hope that you will make a visit for some great mid-week racing.
From one big Memorial event to another, this one much closer to home tonight as I look forward to the 12th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway west of Burlington featuring the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models racing for $10,555-to-win. Stock Cars and winged 305 Sprint Cars will also be in action on what will be a big night at 34.
Hope to see you there!
Van Genderen had already hosted some big events this season that drew over 130 cars requiring the use of an overflow pit area and having race fans search for every inch of available space to park their own cars to watch. But he knew that this night could be epic, especially after seeing the car counts at the first few races of the Midwest Madness Tour presented by Western Iowa Racing Results and so he prepared to meet the demand. He doubled an already expanded order for his concession stand, he worked with local government to shut down the road that runs to the west and the north of the race track to use to park haulers if needed and, most importantly, he worked out an agreement with the neighboring land owner to use a large field to the east of the facility to handle spectator parking in case it was needed.
 |
| Stolen from the Stuart Speedway Facebook page |
With 170 race cars signing in to do battle in the six classes, race car haulers had to use the usual spectator parking area so that field was required for the large contingent of fans that showed up to watch another great night of racing at a track that had a pit area built to hold sixty to eighty cars. Thank goodness that MVG came prepared!
All of the qualifying races had wrapped up just past 9:30 p.m. and the Outlaw Mini Mod feature would be first up for a scheduled fourteen lap event. Pole-sitter Kamdyn Haggard would race out to the early lead giving way to Matt Prehn on lap three just before Cody Housby slowed on the back stretch for a caution. On the restart Logan Brown zipped into second and with Minnesota's Nathan Kilwine on the charge after starting eighth we had ourselves a dandy three car battle with Prehn and Brown hugging the bottom and Kilwine working a higher line. That top line would prevail for Kilwine as he would lead lap nine, but the caution would wave soon after when a back marker would spin in turn two.
On the restart Luke Daniels would got turned around exiting turn four leaving Matthew Grobe no place to go and after making hard contact Grobe's car would rollover on the front stretch. Both drivers climbed from their cars uninjured, but Grobe will have to see just how much of his Mini Mod is salvageable once he returns to Austin, Minnesota. With the long red, the race was cut to twelve laps and while Brown was able to get to second on the restart he was not able to mount a challenge to Kilwine who secured the victory. Prehn finished in third, Dan Kline was fourth and Chase Daniels filled out the top five.
The Sport Compacts were up next for fourteen laps with Cody Pierce leading the first one before yielding to the current IMCA National points leader Tyler Fiebelkorn on lap two. Rusty Gyles would spin in turn one on lap four for the only caution of the race and after the restart young Kolby Sabin would challenge for the lead. Fiebelkorn would try to pin him low, but Sabin would not yield and on lap six he would take the lead and then drive away to victory. Fiebelkorn would take the runner-up spot ahead of Bryan Vannausdle who started in tenth. Hunter Patrick finished fourth and Mark Smith came from a sixth row start to complete the top five.
A stout field of 38 IMCA Stock Cars had been whittled down to twenty-four who would race for a possible $1,905 to win (random donations, keep in mind) in this thirty lap affair with pole-sitter Jake Masters getting out to a big early lead. Behind him the action was phenomenal as I counted them five wide exiting turn two on two occasions and some of the usual suspects such as Elijah Zevenbergen and the Murtys, Damon and Dallon, were making their way to the front. Although the driver that got to second riding the high line, Dusty Van Horn from Atlantic, might have been an unknown to many of the fans at Stuart. With this one staying green Masters was still in firm control holding a full straightaway lead, but when Midwest Madness Tour provisional starter Brenton Palmer spun in turn one on lap sixteen that advantage was erased.
Masters had been running the bottom exclusively and on the restart Van Horn sailed around him on the top to take the lead, so rather than stubbornly sticking with the bottom line Jake moved up to the cushion as well to put the pressure on the new leader. With that cushion now getting right up to the universal barriers around turns one and two, Van Horn went in a bit too high on lap twenty-two and when he made a bit of contact with the barriers that was the mistake that Masters was looking for as he slipped under Van Horn to regain the lead. Meanwhile, just behind the them, the Murtys had just left the drive thru at White Castle and the sliders were coming out bringing the huge crowd to the edge of their seats. Still, as the white flag waved, Masters had this one in hand only to have Buck Schafroth coast to a stop in turn three requiring what would be a thrilling green-white-checkered restart.
Dallon Marty would dive low into turn one and slide up in front of Masters in two, but the veteran from Graettinger calmly executed the crossover move to maintain the lead down the back straightaway. Dallon looked to repeat the move in three and four, but when he did not have Masters cleared he raced him clean and lost the momentum to challenge on the final lap. That would allow Masters to take the win with Dallon Murty second, but behind them the finish was wild as Damon Murty tried to slide up in front of Van Horn in turn four. Contact between the two allowed Zevenbergen to charge underneath both of them and as the trio came to the line in tight formation, contact launched the front end of Zevenbergen's car high into the air. Van Horn had the edge by inches for third over Zevenbergen with Damon Murty a few feet further back in fifth.
The crowd was still abuzz about that finish as the Hobby Stocks made their way to the speedway and just after the opening lap was scored Kevin Bruck drove up and over the wall in turn two disappearing from view down the embankment. Within just a minute though, as if he knew the route already, Bruck drove back up to the track entrance in turn one and was ready to restart the race with announcer Tony Paris getting the crowd to give him a standing ovation that was louder than any of the parade laps on this night.
As we have seen so often at Stuart over the last two years, this race would be a battle of the low line versus the high line with early leader Brandon Cox working the bottom before yielding to challenger Chuck Madden Jr. who was running the top. In this race though Cox would stick with his favored line and with five laps remaining he would go back to the front and after working lapped traffic like a pro in those closing laps Cox would score his second feature win of the season here over Madden. Braden Richards was impressive in what I believe to be his first appearance of the year here finishing in the third spot, Solomon Bennett started twelfth and finished fourth while Midwest Madness Tour point champion contender Jason Fusselman was fifth after starting from the tenth position.
The highlighted division of the night, the IMCA Modifieds would draw a spectacular field of 49 drivers all looking for the $2,005 top prize and the six heat races alone were worth the price of admission as drivers battled three and four wide in each of them looking for the only two transfer spots. Two B-Mains taking five each plus a track provisional and a Midwest Madness Tour provisional would set the field for thirty-five laps with Todd Shute drawing the pole position. Earlier in the night Shute and Jesse Sobbing slugged it out for ten laps after starting from the front row of the fifth heat with Sobbing prevailing. But after Shute's young surrogate pulled the number one for the main event, he was not about to get beat again.
The hottest driver in Iowa right now, Tom Berry Jr. would spin in turn one on the opening lap so on the restart instead of lining up eleventh he would now go to the rear of the field. You will see why that is significant soon. Another top contender, Josh Gilman would be the victim of an accordion effect stack up on the bottom of turn three as the first lap was scored and once underway Shute left the field in his wake as the battle to watch was between Jeff Aikey and Cayden Carter. They weren't racing for second, yet, but after facing off against each other in the opening heat race earlier in the night you had a sense that each had a target on the other as aggressive slide jobs and some door rubbing happened often.
Usually with two drivers battling like that they both end up on the hook, but not Carter and Aikey who eventually advanced their personal war past Cory Sauerman, Ethan Braaksma and Dylan Thronton until they actually were battling it out for second. With Shute still in command and seemingly on is way to a dominant win with just six laps remaining, the California visitor Thornton went too deep into turns one and two with his car climbing up on top of the concrete barrier sending sparks flying before the Modified finally stopped perched atop the wall.
The long delay to carefully remove the car from the top of the wall sealed my fate in regard to the final race of the night, but I was not about to leave knowing that Carter and and Aikey would restart just behind Shute and now Berry was lined up sixth after charging from the rear. Once back to green it was obvious that Shute was the man on this night as "Toddzilla" again pulled away to take the big victory. Carter prevailed in the battle for second and Tom Berry Jr. executed a perfect slide job in the final two turns to take third away from Aikey. Nick Roberts would complete the top five.
It was now 11:30 and knowing that I had to get up and go to work the next morning despite the Holiday in order to get caught up for a busy week next week, I headed for the gates as the Sport Mod feature came to the track. Checking the results this morning I see that Brayton Carter made it a pretty good night for Jimmy's boys as he took the win after starting sixth. Josh Most advanced from twelfth to second, Cam Reimers was third followed by Cody Thompson and last week's winner Brian Osantowski.
A big thank you to Mike Van Genderen and his staff for the hospitality and it is truly a treat to watch him orchestrate a night of racing. No matter how good your Race Director is I can almost guarantee you that he or she would learn something if they observed MVG for an evening. And he still knows that there are things that he can learn himself, something he told me after visiting the Davenport Speedway earlier this season and watching promoter Ricky Kay and his crew pull off a quick moving show with over 160 cars in the pits and a local curfew to beat. Hard to believe that there are just four events remaining on the 2020 Stuart Speedway schedule and while at this point it doesn't look like I will be able to return, I do hope that you will make a visit for some great mid-week racing.
From one big Memorial event to another, this one much closer to home tonight as I look forward to the 12th Annual Slocum 50 at 34 Raceway west of Burlington featuring the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models racing for $10,555-to-win. Stock Cars and winged 305 Sprint Cars will also be in action on what will be a big night at 34.
Hope to see you there!
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