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!
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