Berry Jr. Dominates, Wieben Nips Kuehl At IMCA's Anniversary Celebration

The birthplace of the IMCA Modified, the Benton County Speedway in Vinton, Iowa, celebrated the 43rd Anniversary of the division on Memorial Day Monday night, and they did it in style putting up a $4,343 top prize for the Mods and a healthy $2,000-to-win for the IMCA Northern Sport Mods. The result was a two division program boasting a total of 78 cars and drivers from all around racing on "the Bullring" that was buffeted throughout the night by a south wind often exceeding thirty miles per hour.

Sport Mod heat race action with Sam Wieben leading the way

Promoter Corey Dripps and his crew stayed on top of things though adding water at key times during the evening keeping the surface racy despite the fact that the neighbors to the north today will wake up to a nice layer of dust covering their property, or mud if the overnight thunderstorms delivered as promised.

Two years ago if Tom Berry Jr. was in the field, you were pretty much racing for second. And now for the second time this season I watched Berry returned to that form as he would completely dominate the 43-lap finale for the Modifieds. Drawing the pole position Berry was on kill mode from the drop of the green driving away from fellow front row starter Richie Gustin and having more than a straightaway advantage before encountering lapped traffic. And it didn't stop there as there were at least seven lapped cars between the leader and his nearest challenger before the first caution of the race flew on lap twenty-six when Ryan Maitland spun in turn two.

On the restart Ethan Dotson would take over the second spot and while he was able to keep Berry in sight over the next five laps, he was not able to mount a challenge. Cautions on laps thirty-one and thirty-two gave us restarts that shuffled the field behind him, but each time Berry drove away from the pack and with one final stoppage with five laps remaining Dotson did his best to mount a charge.

That would not happen though as again Berry pulled away to put the icing on the Anniversary cake with an absolutely dominant performance over a stellar field. The Californian Dotson would chase in the Medford, Oregon native in second, Gustin would hold on for third, Joel Rust moved from twelfth to fourth and Cody Laney would pass Jake McBirnie on the final restart to complete the top five. A tip of the hat as well to provisional starter Troy Cordes who came from the thirteenth row to finish seventh.

There was plenty of action up front in the twenty-five lap Sport Mod feature with division rookie Braden Richards leading the opening lap. The young lady from Arizona Taylor Kuehl would power to the point on lap two before second starting Sam Wieben sailed around the outside to take the lead on lap four. The first caution of the race would fly on lap six for Brandon Tharp who had driven off the top of turn one and on the restart the battle behind Wieben would heat up involving Kuehl, Tony Olson, Austin Schrage and Logan Anderson.

The pack was hot on the heels of Wieben until the leader quickly disposed of a couple of lapped cars with six circuits remaining and the driver from nearby Dysart appeared to now have this one well in hand. Caution for a Kaylin Lopez spin turn one though with four laps to go would reset the field and on the restart Anderson would throw a big slider on the leader entering turn one. Wieben calmly crossed him over to maintain the lead down the back stretch and Kuehl would move to second a lap later just before disaster struck for Anderson. While trying to ride the cushion back to the front with two laps remaining, the defending All Iowa Points champion slipped off the top of turn three returning to the track at the back of the field and exited to the pit area as the white flag was about to wave.

Kuehl would get a nice run out of the middle groove of turn four to nose ahead with one lap to go only to have Wieben hit his marks perfectly on the final lap to ride that narrow cushion to victory by just a car length. Kuehl continues to impress with her runner-up finish with Tony Olson close behind in third. Schrage was consistent finishing where he started in fourth while Dylan Van Wyk made a big run up to fifth after starting from the outside of row ten.

The gale force winds on a warm Monday evening necessitated a couple of extra track prep sessions, but fans were still on the road for home and a short work week just before 9:30 p.m. It is always great to be entertained by the announcing duo of Ryan Clark and Jerry Van Sickel and Ryan will dazzle you with his statistics that on this night included a rundown of all of the former IMCA Modified National Champions as well as the top ten drivers in career feature wins for both the Modifieds and Sport Mods. All of that information has inspired me to share with you below the list of all of the All Iowa Points Modified champions since we started compiling the points for the division in 1979. Forty-three years of Modified state champions as a matter of fact, and four of these drivers were in action on Monday night.

Year         Modified All Iowa Points Champion

2021 Jeff Larson, Freeport IL

2020 Tom Berry Jr., Des Moines

2019 Joel Rust, Grundy Center

2018 Kelly Shryock, Fertile

2017 Kelly Shryock, Fertile

2016 Chris Ableson, Sioux City

2015 Chris Ableson, Sioux City

2014 Chris Ableson, Sioux City

2013 Jesse Sobbing, Glenwood

2012 Ryan Dolan, Lisbon

2011 Ryan Dolan, Lisbon

2010 Ryan Dolan, Lisbon

2009 Jeremy Mills, Garner

2008 Todd Shute, Des Moines

2007 Mark Schulte, Delhi

2006 Mark Schulte, Delhi

2005 Jay Noteboom, Hinton

2004 Ron Barker, Dubuque

2003 Ron Barker, Dubuque

2002 Ron Barker, Dubuque

2001 Ron Barker, Dubuque

2000 Ron Barker, Dubuque

1999 Troy Folkerts, Albia

1998 Ron Barker, Dubuque

1997 Ron Barker, Dubuque

1996 Steve Droste, Waterloo

1995 Rich Smith, Davenport

1994 Rick Wages, Moline IL

1993 Rick Wages, Moline IL

1992 Wayne Larson, Ames

1991 Danny Wallace, Des Moines

1990 Bill Davis, Des Moines

1989 Kelly Shryock, Story City

1988 Dave Farren, Des Moines

1987 Greg Kastli, Waterloo

1986 Greg Kastli, Waterloo

1985 Merv Chandler, Cedar Rapids

1984 Merv Chandler, Cedar Rapids

1983 Jack Mitchell, Cedar Falls

1982 Dale Fischlein, Davenport

1981 Mike Schulte, Norway

1980 Jim Schmueker, Vinton

1979 Arlo Becker, Atkins

McCreadie Manhandles Lucas Field At 34 Raceway

(Note: Great minds think alike? The official press release from the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series posted at about the same time that this story went up on the Back Stretch had nearly the exact same headline. The only difference is that theirs had the word "Oil" in it.)

When Saturday morning was cold and wet in West Burlington 34 Raceway owners Brad Stevens and Jessi Mynatt were faced with losing their ninth event of ten scheduled already for 2022. And this was a big one with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, so with a favorable forecast for the next day they decided to roll the dice and postpone the big money show to Sunday starting an hour earlier than originally scheduled.

With a high sun and a steady breeze that early start soon produced day race conditions as after the Stock Cars and Sport Mods raced all over the track in their qualifiers, the Late Models ran their three heats single file around the bottom and that hour was then committed to a track prep session to allow the touring Late Model drivers to put on a show for the Sunday night crowd.

As the sun was now setting twenty-two Lucas Oil Late Models lined up for fifty laps on the freshly prepared 3/8th-mile oval and it would be outside pole-sitter Tim McCreadie that would snag the early advantage. Brandon Sheppard would try to keep pace early as the favored groove again settled to the bottom, but McCreadie was on a rail pulling away to a big advantage by lap fifteen. Not even lapped traffic would keep the defending series champion from extending his lead and when the fifty non-stop laps of racing came to an end the margin of victory was by more than half a lap.

Earl Pearson Jr. was able to draw even with Sheppard on the final lap only to have Brandon fight him off for runner-up honors and extending his non-winning streak here at 34, something that I was not aware of until Sheppard admitted as much during his quick qualifier interview. Rookie-of-the-Year contender Garrett Alberson finished fourth and Hudson O'Neal fought back a mid-race challenge from Bobby Pierce to complete the top five.

After the top five were all interviewed in victory lane the Sport Mods were up next for fourteen laps of racing with Sean Wyett leading the way while keeping his #12s pinned to the bottom. Logan Anderson had settled in behind Wyett and appeared content to follow him to the checkers until a caution waved with four laps remaining.

On the restart Tyler Heckart was able to squeeze down between Wyett and Anderson to take second and that sent Anderson one line up the track looking to regain the spot. Not only did he get past Heckart, but Logan found that higher line better than the leader as well taking the point coming to the white flag and then holding off Wyett over that final lap to score the win. Heckart finished third with Travis Hartman fourth while Rex Widmer had his best night yet since returning to racing after a two decade layoff by finishing fifth.

The Stock Cars would close out the night and even though their numbers were short, as usual they would put on a great show. Abe Huls would set the early pace with Jason Cook hounding him all the way and as they battled up front Corey Strothman was coming to join them after starting sixth. Perhaps seeing what Anderson had done in the Sport Mods while sitting in the staging area, Strothman went one groove higher and in just two laps drove around both Cook and Huls to take the lead on lap six.

Leaving the bottom himself now, Huls tried to battle back and was able to stick his nose under the leader a couple of times, but there would be no passing Strothman as he completed the win ahead of Huls, Cook, Chad Krogmeier and Chris Wibbell.

After having to use a Sunday to get their second show of the season in, 34 Raceway will hope for better weather next weekend as the track presents a Memorial Day weekend doubleheader. Saturday night will feature the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Sport Compacts while Sunday night the Sprint Invaders will come to town and will be joined by the Mini Hauler truck division.

Some Familiar Faces Plus A First Time Winner Find Victory Lane At Osky

With perhaps the best weather night of the season thus far I decided to practice what I preach by plunking down my ten dollars at the local track rather than staying at home to watch a big race on PPV Wednesday night. Yes, I did have my air pods in and would watch the action from Marshalltown on my phone during the few minutes of downtime, but it was the racing action in front of me that kept my attention at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.

Heat races for the five classes were completed in less than an hour and following a brief intermission the Sport Compacts would be first up for feature racing with six of the eights cars that had signed in on the night ready to go for ten laps. Fan favorites Lewie Winkelman and Bob "Gabby" Hayes had both popped motors during the heat race, but this one would prove that you don't need to have big field of cars to produce a good race.

Seth Meinders would set the pace with Matt Moore and Terry Bickford in hot pursuit and the top three were seldom separated by more than a car length. In fact on lap six as they raced down the back stretch the trio went three wide as Meinders somehow fought off the onslaught and maintained the lead. Only for one more lap though as Moore would gain the advantage on lap eight and he would lead the final two trips around the Mahaska Monster to take the win. Bickford would pass Meinders for second going down the back stretch for the final time only to have Seth throw a four cylinder slider in turns three and four to reclaim second at the checkers. Brandon Pinckney and Trent Fowler finished fourth and fifth.

Kelly Graham would lead the first six laps of the Sprint Car feature with Ben Woods sizing him up all the way. And on lap seven, when Graham paused to setup for the entry of turn one, Woods dove under him to take the lead and the eventual victory. It would be the only pass of the race after the start as the rest of the field stayed single file with Tyler Graves third, Robert Bell fourth and Steve Pumphrey fifth.

The Hobby Stocks boasted the biggest car count tonight with seventeen and it would turn out to be a dismal night for the top three in the point standings Keaton Gordon, Aaron Martin and Dustin Griffiths. Gordon would set the early pace while Griffiths moved quickly toward the front after starting ninth. Griffiths was up to third by lap nine and was working on Austin Barnes for second when he slowed suddenly in turn four to bring out the first caution of the night.

With Griffiths now in the pits and Martin struggling to make headway after starting twelfth, Gordon was looking to pad his point lead with a win, but on the restart as the front of the field raced in a tight pack Gordon suddenly veered to the right, perhaps from some contact, and exited the race track disappearing behind the guardrail that starts in turn three. The race would stay green and by the time he returned to the race track Keaton would be a lap down and he would then spin in turn three on lap twelve to bring out the caution.

Barnes was now your leader for the green, white, checkers restart and he would have Trevor Tanner pull alongside him in the closing laps. But the driver from Des Moines would fight off that challenge to claim his first career feature victory ahead of Tanner and veteran driver Brad Stephens. Pole-sitter Kale Hemsley would finish in fourth with division rookie Tyler Haring taking fifth. Gordon had actually rallied through the pack and crossed the line just behind Haring even though he was a lap down to the rest of the field. Meanwhile Aaron Martin had spun to the infield while challenging for fifth on the first try at the restart, so he too had a bad points night.

Curtis Van Der Wal said it best in victory lane, some of the fastest Sport Mods in the Midwest race here at Osky on a weekly basis. So to come from the back of the field to win in a non-stop sixteen lap event was extra impressive and I was glad to not hear any of the boo-birds that typically greeted Van Der Wal when he emerged from his car as we have heard in the past. Perhaps it was because some of the young guns have been outrunning him more regularly here in 2021 and at the start of 2022, and the fans didn't even yet know why the veteran driver did not run the heat race earlier in the night leaving him to start at the tail of the nine car field.

Curtis was in attendance at his son's National Honor Society induction banquet while his other son was keeping him updated from the track while preparing the car for the feature. Talk about a great night for the Van Der Wal family!

Colton Livezy would lead the first two laps of this speedfest before Brayton Carter, wheeling the #7v normally driven by his cousin Carter VandenBerg, would take the point. As Carter started to pull away Van Der Wal was on the fly, but he first had to navigate Trent Orwig, Travis Bunnell, Kyle Harwood and Casey Lancaster. the challenge was even bigger when he reached Maguire DeJong for the third spot and then Livezy for second.

Now Curtis had nearly half a straightaway to erase before challenging Speedy Bray for the lead, but he was on a mission and on lap eleven the run from back to front was completed on his way to victory. DeJong would slip by Carter in the final two laps to claim the runner-up spot with Livezy and Lancaster rounding out the top five.

Nathan Ballard has been an infrequent visitor to the Southern Iowa Speedway over the past few years in both a Hobby Stock and a Stock Car, but when he does make the trip in from Marengo the results are typically good and tonight was no different. Starting the sixteen lap Stock Car feature from third, Ballard stalked early leader Nathan Wood for the first five laps before sweeping around him on the outside entering turn one to take the lead.

After moving up to that same groove Wood was able to keep pace with the new leader and even gave him a tap on the back bumper a time or two until the final lap when Wood tired to pull a slider for the win entering turn three. Ballard did not flinch though to score the win, and Wood kept it clean settling for second just ahead of Derrick Agee who would have stolen the victory if mayhem had occurred. Steve Byers was impressive in fourth and Dustin Griffiths filled out the top five.

The final checkers waved at 9:53, which isn't terrible for a Wednesday night but in the days before the Sprint Cars were added to the program this would have been about 9:15 instead and that makes a big difference for a race fan making a 72-mile trip with work looming the next morning. For the story on the Castrol FloRacing Night in America event just up the road in Marshalltown check out Positively Racing coverage in the 4dFan Report, One Fan's Travels and Racin' Down The Road. I can always watch the replays that are now available the next day to catch anything that I might have missed.

I am headed to the blue oval in Des Moines Friday and Saturday while hoping to make it back to 34 Raceway for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series afterward, then on Sunday a trip to Quincy for the MARS Super Late Models is on my wish list.

Thanks for visiting the Back Stretch!

A First For Rothzen While Durbin, Grimm, Bonney, Gonzalez, Burk and Hawkins Finish First As Well

My original plan was to take in the season opener at the Benton County Speedway in Vinton Sunday night, but with the radar still showing some green, orange and red a little too close for comfort I instead took the exit for I-80 east at Iowa City diverting to the season opener at the East Moline Speedway.

With the wind howling out of the southeast I positioned myself as far up and toward turn one as I could in the east facing amphitheater giving myself a perspective that I have never had before in the many trips that I have made to the high banked quarter-mile over the past forty-three years. The strategy kept the dust in my eyes to a minimum although the wind still created a constant struggle to keep my hat on reminding me that I prefer bundling up for a cold night at the races much more than having to endure a strong wind. Thankfully the temperature was hovering around seventy and while some locals appeared to be comfortable in shorts and t-shirts, both Bob Litton and I were bundled up in winter coats to take on the night.

Perhaps I missed it before, but the heat races for the seven divisions ran off quickly aided by the addition of the "one spin and you are in" rule under Race Director Brett Sievertson. There were only a couple of drivers who were caught by this tonight, but believe me once drivers get used to the result of a simple spin in the heat race they seem to drive with their head more than their right foot and over time it just improves the racing program.

Something else that improves a racing program is what I have preached before in this Back Stretch entry titled Class Order as following a reasonable intermission to water the top of the track we were ready for feature racing at 7:15 p.m. Yes, 7:15 p.m. on a Sunday night, perfect! That is until the Street Stock and Sport Mod features both took more than twenty-five minutes to complete with each suffering through seven cautions in the scheduled fifteen laps of green flag racing.

I will spare you the details on most of those cautions to protect the guilty, but the first one in the Street Stock feature is part of the storyline as early leader Jeff Struck Jr. slowed suddenly exiting turn two on the second lap causing the field to stack up behind him. After being pushed to the pit area, Struck soon rejoined the field at the back for the restart.

Jesse Owen would take the point for lap two only to have Joe Bonney charge past him on the next circuit and with plenty of restarts mixed in Struck was making his way back to the front. In fact, with just four laps remaining he had just passed Kyler Hickenbottom for third before he again slowed suddenly and coasted into the infield ending a frustrating night.

Bonney would hold on to take the win ahead of Owen and Hickenbottom. Heat race winner Peter Odell finished fourth after restarting from the rear on lap six when he was a victim of circumstance in somebody else's spin and veteran driver Jeff Walker, a member of the track's Hall of Fame filled out the top five.

Sixteen Sport Mods would start the feature and five finished, so draw your own conclusions. Up front the racing, while often interrupted, was quite good with Chuck Fox leading early before Matt Speidel drove around him on the outside to take the lead on lap three. Trey Grimm, as his name would suggest, was making it a three car race and he would drive under Speidel for the lead on lap five and then hold it through the remaining mayhem to take the win. Speidel would record his best career finish in second, Fox was third followed by teenager Jesse Bodin and Josh Marth.

A short field of Hobby Stocks were up next and even they couldn't get through the first two laps without a couple of cautions. The field looked to be trimmed from six to three until both Randy Lamar and Logan Gustaf were both able to pull off a tire change in just over a minute and they returned for the second restart. Andrew Burk would lead the distance in this one with Lamar taking second ahead of Brandon Schneider and Donald Cole who finished a lap down in fourth.

The Mod Lites restored my faith in racing by completing their fifteen lap main event in non-stop fashion and I was now committed for the rest of the night. R.J. Gonzalez redrew the pole position and sometimes the fast guys start up front in this format as he was never challenged for the win. Jacob Copley passed Blake Gonzalez late to finish second with Jon Padilla and Rob Guss completing the top five.

Only seven IMCA Modifieds would start the twenty lap feature and there would only be one caution for a spin that would interrupt a spirited effort by Travis Denning to try to pass leader Brand Durbin. Denning tried every line possible during the race only to have Durbin ward him off to take the win with George Spence III, Doug Lenth and Mike Garland filling out the top five.

After Dustin Porter paced the first three laps, the Four Cylinder feature would be a battle between brothers as Travis Hawkins tried to hold off defending All Iowa Points champion Cyle in a twelve lap race that also went non-stop. With Travis blocking the bottom, Cyle went one groove higher and when he pulled even Travis rode him up the track a bit. This would allow Drew Wise to close quickly and he was poised to pounce should brotherly love go astray, but after taking the lead with two laps to go Cyle would go on to take the win ahead of Wise and Travis. Codie Proehl would finish fourth with Porter taking fifth.

I am glad that I stuck around to witness the first career Late Model feature win by Brandon Rothzen who is known to bang the cushion and run some crazy lines in his Modified and Stock Car from years past. In tonight's twenty-five lap finale he would start second, pound the cushion in turn one and then aim for the bottom exiting turn two. Using the same line in turns three and four Rothzen would drive away from the field until caution waved on lap four for Tim Marsdan's spin.

On the restart, as Rothzen went to his spot at the top of turn one, both Jacob Waterman and Chuck Hanna would drive under him only to have Brandon rocket through the middle of them exiting turn two. That move alone was worth the trip and the second year Late Model driver would post his first win ever in the division by dominating the remaining twenty-one laps. Waterman would hold off Hanna for second, Andy Nezworski was fourth and 73-year-old Gary Webb took fifth.

After those first two features took nearly an hour to complete, the remaining five races took just an hour and ten minutes in total and I was back home shortly after 11 p.m. from another fun night at the races. Now my question is can I leave work early enough to get to the Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Illinois, this Wednesday night?

Find out later this week on the Back Stretch.

Cordes, Vis, van Wyk, Havel and Staley Open With Victories at CJ

For once this spring the weather went in our favor, well at least just enough for one track in the region to race as the heavy rains that had been predicted for all of southern Iowa on Thursday and Friday, for the most part stayed south. Yes, it was still enough rain to wash out everybody else, but when promoter Larry Richardson took a drive around the CJ Speedway at one o'clock in the afternoon he determined that the show would go on as scheduled Friday night in Columbus Junction!

Eighty-four cars in five classes filled in a moist, but firm pit area and a nice opening night crowd had no choice but to navigate the standing water between the parking lot and the entrance to the old covered grandstand, but finally there would be racing after three straight rainouts here. From the stands you could see one large puddle on the apron entering turn one. Announcer Jerry Mackey called it a pond and that may have been a more accurate description, but for the most part that would be the only trouble spot as the saturated dirt above it would start to chunk out as the evening went on. It was right where the drivers would set their cars to enter the corner and while going a few lines higher would yield a smoother ride, as so often is the case the rough spot seemed to be the fast way through turns one and two so it was "cowboy up" come feature time.

During intermission Richardson and his crew did their best to provide a smooth surface, especially in turn one, but just after the green flag waved to start the twelve lap Sport Compact feature third-starting Dustin Munn charged into the corner, pitched the car sideways and up and over he went barrel rolling at least six times before the car came to rest on its roof. Safety crews scrambled to the scene and while it took what seemed like several minutes for Munn to finally emerge from his battered ride, it was reported that his seat belt had jammed and they could not get the shaken, but thankfully uninjured driver out while upside down.

Once back to green defending track champion Cristian Grady would edge out Jason Staley by a nose to lead lap one only to have Staley take the lead on the second circuit. Grady would stay close though and soon Alex Hayes would join the battle for the lead after starting sixth. Coming to the white flag Hayes would make his move getting past Grady exiting turn four and his big run would then pull him even with Staley as they raced into turn one for the final time. Being cheered on by a large contingent of fans in the open bleachers, Staley from nearby Letts would ward off the challenge and take the popular win over Hayes and Grady. Jay Crabill finished where he started in fourth and Ottumwa's Seth Meinders completed the top five.

The IMCA Stock Cars would be up next and there is no better advertisement for Johnny Spaw built race cars right now than Dustin Vis. For many years Vis has been competitive, but did not find victory lane often. That has changed in 2022 after taking delivery of his new car from the Cedar Rapids racer/car builder and starting with a victory at Bristol, Vis has been in the hunt in every race he has entered since returning home and leads the All Iowa Points for the division coming into the weekend.

It would be the 2021 IMCA National Champion and the All Iowa Points Hobby Stock Champ Kaden Reynolds who would hold the early lead in this one though until lap four when the division rookie bicycled in turn one leaving the second place car of Seth Dickey with no place to go. Contact between the two would send Reynolds for a spin and while he would be able to restart at the rear, the damage to Dickey's front end was too much for him to continue.

I have to mention that Dickey, who is also a rookie in the Stock Cars for 2022 after stepping up from the Hobby Stocks, was able to draw the front row by making a nifty pass of two cars on the final turns of his heat race to snare the fifth and final redraw position. It is too bad that he was a victim of circumstance in the feature.

With the restart this one became a thrilling three car battle featuring David Brandies, Corey Strothman and Dustin Vis as they raced in tight formation for the next four laps before Vis slipped ahead of Brandies for the lead. Strothman would soon take over second and while he stayed within striking distance over the remaining laps, he could not mount a challenge as Vis picked up his second win and fifth top three finish in Iowa here in the early season. Strothman and Brandies were next in line with Josh Foster making the trip in from Newton to finish fourth. Reynolds made the charge back through the pack to hold down fifth at the checkers.

Speaking of Reynolds, his championship Hobby Stock from last season is now in the capable hands of Ryan Havel and he too came into this weekend as an All Iowa Points leader. Drawing the pole position for the twelve lap main event Havel would lead flag-to-flag in this non-Stop event for his third win of the season. Randy Lamar was there to challenge early, but when got squirrely exiting turn four on lap four he lost ground on the leader and could never make it up while finishing second. Jon Irwin would ride home in third followed by a pair of 33's, Luke Phillips and Trevor Tanner.

The Sport Mod field was stacked tonight with four former All Iowa Points Champions, Logan Anderson, Brayton Carter, Tony Olson and Carter VandenBerg, plus current point leader Shane Paris. They would all be chasing a young driver from Pella though as Dylan van Wyk would lead the entire race from his front row starting spot to take the win. There would be several incidents along the way though starting on the opening lap when Trey Rock got sideways on the back stretch collecting VandenBerg and ending his race early. Trent Brink and Will Wolf were also involved.

After a caution for debris on lap four the restart would see the fifth pace car of Tyler Heckart also spin down the back stretch, perhaps when his rear end locked up as he was then towed to the pit area. Logan Anderson appeared to be poised to challenge van Wyk for the lead, but on this restart he dropped from second to fourth and a lap later the defending AIP champion slowed on the front stretch and pulled to the infield.

One more caution would wave when Richard Hurlbut could not make it to the pits off turn three and while Brayton Carter was able to keep it close over the final six laps he could not catch van Wyk. Colton Livezy was the hard charger of the night coming from fifteenth to finish third, Tony Olson was fourth while Shane Paris filled out the top five.

All but one of the twenty IMCA Modifieds that had signed in for the night took the green for the eighteen lap finale and five of those cars carried my favorite number, 32, with two of them Kyle Montgomery and Kyle Madden on the front row. Another 32, Chris Snyder would spin in turn two on the opening lap but that would be behind a four car pile up on the back stretch involving Charlie Mohr, Jordan Hicks, Brandyn Ryan and Brian Bushong. All four would be done for the night and in fact only twelve cars would restart.

Madden would set the early pace as Troy Cordes made his way to the front after starting from the fourth row. Sizing up the leader for a couple of laps before making his move, Cordes would drive under Madden in turn four to take the point at the mid-race mark and the caution would wave three laps later when the fifth place car of Drew Janssen went spinning down the back stretch. Obviously something was creating a challenge back there as well, just not as visible as the turn one infield pond.

One more caution would slow the field as there was no catching the veteran Cordes who walked away with the feature win after making the trip in from Dunkerton. Modified rookie Maguire DeJong found some speed late moving from fifth to second in the closing laps, Jarrett Brown finished third, Kyle Montgomery was fourth and Kurt Kile avoided the early carnage and them moved to fifth at the checkers after starting eighteenth.

Kudos to Richardson and the entire CJ Speedway crew for giving the drivers as good of a race track as they could following such terrible weather conditions for the past five weeks. You can bet that they will have it smooth and wide again for night number two here next Friday.

Finally it looks like some good racing weather in our region tonight, although wet grounds have forced 34 Raceway in Burlington to cancel. The Lee County Speedway in Donnellson will take advantage of that and move their Drive for 5 and Drive for 3 qualifiers that were washed out on Friday to tonight so there are plenty of opportunities for race fans to get out and visit a track of their choice here in the Midwest! 

Racing Is Alive And Well Again In Quincy

After a two year hiatus, initially due to Covid and then extended while waiting for a new promoter, it sure was good to be back at the track in Quincy Sunday night now known as the Adams County Illinois Speedway. This would be night number two of the rebirth under promoter Jimmy Lieurance and once again they would be one of the few tracks in the region able to put on a show due to the crummy Spring weather helping to swell the pit area with drivers making some long trips in just to have a chance to race.

A couple of fun facts for you. Knoxville Raceway was the only track in Iowa to be able to get a full show in over the past two weekends while both Stuart and Oskaloosa were able to race last Wednesday. And according to the meteorologist at KCRG last Thursday this was going to end up being either the fifth or sixth coldest month of April in Cedar Rapids since they started keeping records.

The weather for the week ahead does not look good either, but let's worry about that later and be thankful that we did see some good racing here at Quincy on Sunday night. 

A seven car field of Crate Late Models that are now UMP sanctioned would be the first feature up after a twenty-three minute intermission with Denny Woodworth driving away from the field for a commanding victory in the non-stop eighteen lap race. Sam Halstead had nipped Woodworth at the line in last week's opener, but he would be more than a half lap behind at the checkers on this night with Ray Raker hot on his heels in third after starting seventh. Darin Weisinger Jr. finished fourth while Jeremy Pundt was fifth after a spirited battle with Spencer Coats. Ed Hollenbeck rounded out the field in his return to racing after a long absence.

The fifteen lap Street Stock feature would be up next with Davenport visitor Austin Riggs and Iowa's Leremy Jackson making up the front row. The first lap did not go well for that duo as by the time it was scored they were now at the back of the nine car field with fourth starting Robert Cottam out front. Cottam had sailed around the outside of turn two to take the lead down the back stretch and despite three restarts he would never be seriously challenged in his second straight victory here. Rudy Zaragoza chased him in for second, Robert Thompson slammed the door on a late challenge from Pete Stodgell to finish third while Jackson recovered for his second straight top five finish here.

A stout field of twenty-eight Sport Compacts would take to the track next for a very entertaining twelve lap feature with cars racing three and four wide around the well prepared quarter-mile. Michael Grossman was three-wheeling it four banger style, lifting the left rear high in the corners to lead the first two laps only to have Jeffrey DeLonjay power by on lap three. Despite the huge car count there would be just one incident and it was a big one on lap eight when the leader's brother, Jadon DeLonjay pushed up the track in turn two sending Dyllan Bonk up and over three times in a scary looking ride.

Thankfully both drivers were not injured and we were now ready for a four lap sprint to the finish. With a big run on the restart Grossman was able to drive around the outside to hold the lead on lap nine only to have DeLonjay come digging back on the bottom to take back the point with with two to go. A great battle was going on just behind them as well and it would be DeLonjay taking the win just ahead of Grossman with defending All Iowa Points champion Cyle Hawkins from Blue Grass, Iowa, edging out Decatur's Jeremy Reed for third. Canton's Rick Deford filled out the top five in a field that definitely had the best of the best four cylinder drivers from throughout the region in attendance.

A nice field of sixteen UMP Modifieds would be up next for twenty laps with Kenny Wallace being the first back to the flag on lap one. Dave Wietholder and Austen Becerra would make it a three-wide race for the lead on lap two with Wietholder having the advantage at the stripe and as the leaders continued to battle down the back stretch, a couple of cars mid-pack would spin in turn two bringing out the caution. That would be when the May Basket gifts would be handed out as first, for some reason, that second lap would not be counted and Wallace would be put back out front for the restart with just one lap scored and then on the restart when Becerra got sideways in front of the field in turn two he was bailed out by a back marker that had spun exiting turn four coming to the green.

Two more laps would be scored before an incident involving Bill Roberts Jr. and Brandon Bollinger would send Roberts up and over in turn one and then on lap twelve Jace Gay would spin in turn two to produce the final caution of the event.

The veteran Wallace definitely showed his racing knowledge as he would sense where Wietholder's challenge was coming from and then block that line to earn the feature win ahead of Wietholder and Becerra. Mike Vanderiet Jr. would take the fourth spot and Chris Spalding, coming off his fourth straight victory at the I-35 Speedway in Winston, Missouri, the night before finished fifth.

You have to hand it to promoter Jimmy Lieurance as after last week's ten caution marathon the IMCA Sport Mods were moved to last in the running order this week, something that we have advocated so many times in the past. It is so nice to see a promoter make this common sense move and the twenty-four Sport Mod drivers in attendance then promptly went out and put on a great race tonight that had just one caution for a spin by a lapped car with five laps remaining in the eighteen lap race.

One thing that the discerning race fan at Quincy will notice this year is that the Sport Mods, being the only class that is sanctioned by IMCA here, will be the only class to be lined up using an average point inversion so it will see the most movement through the field and that was evident on this night. A.J. Tournear would pace the opening lap before third starting Logan Cumby took over and as he opened up a big lead the show to watch involved last week's winner Shane Paris who had started ninth and defending All Iowa Points champion Logan Anderson who had lined up twelfth.

Looking for a place to race, Anderson had won his heat race from the eighth starting spot earlier in the night and after getting by Paris early in the feature, Shane kept pace and they both made their way to the front. They would line up fourth and fifth for the restart and while Anderson quickly moved to second he could not reel in Cumby who, by my records at least, would take his first career victory in the division. Anderson would be the runner-up while Paris would take third keeping them one-two with Shane ahead of Logan in the early All Iowa Points race. Adam Birck advanced from sixth to fourth and Nicholas Profeta posted a solid top-five finish.

It was just shy of 9:05 on a perfect night to be at the races in Quincy with the wind blowing from the north and I am already looking forward to my return to the Bullring on Broadway, perhaps on Sunday May 22nd when the MARS Super Late Models come to town.

Here's hoping that the weather cooperates soon so that we can get this 2022 racing season into full swing. We will see you at the track soon!