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!
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