When you get temperatures in the 80's around here in late October, it is going to come with a stiff southerly breeze and while relatively calm on Friday night, the wind was howling on Saturday. Promoter Mike Van Genderen did his best to keep some moisture in the surface throughout the night and while the track stayed wide and racy, the dust was flying and thankfully from south to north at this facility where the grandstand faces to the east. Did that have a factor in the number of cautions that we saw on this night? Perhaps, but I am going to chalk it up to it being just "one of those nights" where the action up front was all too often interrupted by incidents at the back end of the field.
With the "one spin and you're in" rule in effect for the heats and B-Mains, qualifying action clicked off at a good pace although there were a few drivers who chose to sit and wait for a caution perhaps not familiar with how things are done at an MVG directed show. Another lower than hoped for field of Hobby Stocks, there were nine each night, would be up first come feature time and for me at least there was an extra bit of interest in this one with tonight's presence of Randy Lamar.
The veteran driver from Buffalo, Iowa, that is just south of the Quad Cities had skipped Friday's show, but was here tonight knowing that he needed either a third place finish to tie, or a first or second place finish to overtake northwest Iowa driver Mike Smith in the All Iowa Points for Hobby Stocks with (assuming Davenport does not include the class on November 4th) just one more race after tonight for the division at the CJ Speedway on November 5th. And we all know that event, just like all outdoor dirt track races is "weather permitting" so this night could have very well been Lamar's last chance to get back to the top of the standings.
Lamar would draw the third starting spot directly behind Friday night's convincing winner Mike Kincaid, and next two his Quad Cities area nemesis Andrew Burk. Apparently the two drivers had a bit of a scrum the week before at Dubuque so a pre-race warning would be given to them across the raceceiver to keep it clean tonight, or they would be sent to the pits. It would be the outside front row starter Aaron Martin that would race out to the early advantage with Kincaid in pursuit while Lamar and Burk went at it for third in an entertaining battle where both drivers did as they been instructed, they were swapping lines and the position but they were doing so without contact.
The caution would wave when Clint Nelson spun on lap four and Kincaid would choose the outside of the first double row on the restart. When the green flag waved Lamar got a great start off the bottom and drove up in front of Kincaid at the flagstand to get back to his preferred high line to take second and he would then take up the challenge on Martin for the lead. Lamar would poke his nose under the leader on a couple of occasions and without forcing the issue he would eventually tuck back in behind the leader knowing that second is what he needed.
The caution would wave one more time with five laps remaining when Rick Van Dussldorp spun in turn two collecting Nelson and on this restart Lamar found himself on the outside of a three-wide battle for second through turns one and two. His momentum off the top side would put Lamar back to second as Martin opened up a nice advantage and that would be how this one would go into the books with Aaron Martin taking the win and Randy Lamar doing what he had set out to accomplish with his second place run. Kincaid would finish third while Dustin Griffiths, the 2014 All Iowa Points Champion, came from the back of the field to finish fourth and Burk filled out the top five.
Now with just that one race for Hobby Stocks remaining on the schedule, the championship is still up for grabs if Smith chooses to make the long tow from Lake City to compete at CJ's Turkey Dash on November 5th, a track where Lamer is a regular competitor.
The Stock Cars were up next for twenty-laps and $1,500 to win and while this division normally races pretty clean, perhaps it was an omen of things to come when it took until the fourth try at a start to even get a lap in. Then on lap three there was a grinding crash on the front straightaway that took place directly in front of us with that horrifying sound of metal compacting still echoing in my head this morning. Todd Reitzler who had been racing up in the top five had suddenly stopped up next to the guardrail and while the first several cars were able to swerve to miss him, Keegan Wells was not able to see the disabled car until it was too late making hard contact with the right half of his car to the left rear of Reitzler. The impact then spun Reitzler's car down into the path of Dan Kessler whose right front slammed into the now exposed right front of Reitzler's car.
Once back to racing Cayden Carter, who had taken the lead from his third starting position on the opening lap, continued to set the pace while drivers raced two and three-wide behind him when they had the opportunity to do so. Cautions for single car spins would wave again on lap eight and lap ten with Johnny Spaw now finding the cushion to his liking following the latest restart. Spaw would sail around the outside of Carter in turn two to take the point on lap twelve and Dustin Griffiths, who was diving Seth Dickey's #23, would now make it a three car race as he was also fast on the top lane.
Two cars would get together in turn one the lap after Spaw took the point and the race was paused for one final time when a back marker spun in turn four on lap nineteen. Thankfully the final three laps would be run under green and that will hopefully be what sticks in the mind of the nice crowd in attendance as it was a typical Stock Car thriller with six drivers in contention for the victory.
Carter, who was wheeling the Michael Petersen owned #1x for the weekend, squeezed under Spaw exiting turn four to take back the lead with two laps still to be contested only to have Spaw regain the lead coming off of turn two. As those two aimed for the shortest way around turns three and four, Griffiths went to the top and as the field came to the white flag it was again Carter out front, but now with Griffths nearly even with him on the outside. Not to mention that you had John Oliver Jr., David Brandies and a fifteenth starting Abe Huls all right behind the lead trio looking for racing room on the final lap!
Carter would find the bite that he needed on the inside to get to the checkers first just ahead of Griffiths and Spaw with Huls and Oliver Jr. right there as well in a finish that had the crowd buzzing and the scorekeepers happy that transponders were in use.
As the Sport Compacts came to the track next I overheard my friend Nick McCarrick tell his wife Brenda that this would be the one race that would go green to checkers with no cautions and he was spot on with that prediction. Justin Stevenson would outrun Friday's winner Brandon Reu from the front row to take the lead and from the inside of row three it was the 2016 All Iowa Points champion Kimberly Abbott that was on the move. The only female driver to ever win a state championship in this the 56th year of the points, Abbott took several laps to get past Reu for second and then she quickly erased the lead of Stevenson to pass him with just four laps left of the scheduled fourteen.
Once the pass was made it was all over from there as Abbott would take the win ahead of Reu and Stevenson. Garrett Porter started eighth and finished fourth while two-time AIP champion Barry Taft (2017-18) would complete the top five.
The B-Mods had come out strong with forty-one entries on this night with six heat races and two B-Mains used to set the field of twenty-four cars for twenty laps. With $1,500 on the winner's check waiting in victory lane, this one also was a bit ragged with the drivers who started third and fifth on the grid, David Hoover and Logan Anderson both sailing off the top side of turns three and four on the opening lap. It was definitely out of character for Anderson who has now clinched his second straight All Iowa Points title in this division, although the silver lining was now that the crowd could follow his progress after he went to the back of the field for the restart.
The front row duo of cars with the #66 on them waged the early battle for the pace setter with Tim Plummer taking the lead over Kansas visitor Ethan Isaacs, Cautions would wave for solo spins by cars near the back of the field on lap four and lap seven. Dakota Girard would go up in smoke on lap twelve and then another solo spin on the restart would slow the field only to have just one more lap completed before an earlier offender looped it again in turn two.
One of the big infield tires would get punted onto the surface in turn two on lap seventeen and on lap eighteen there was a car sitting at the top of turn four. During this caution Isaacs would pull his car to the infield likely from damage when he hit the dirt berm below the guardrail just in front of us while running third, a tough break for the driver that had just made the trip in for one night of the two. With mercy the final two laps were completed without incident as Plummer scored the flag-to-flag victory. Friday's winner Brayton Carter, the 2020 All Iowa Points champion in this class, came from eighth to finish second. Dylan Van Wyk had come from sixteenth to third, but as he exited turn four on the final lap it looked like the rear end shifted on his car and he would lose three positions before he could make it to the checkers with Maguire DeJong, Brandon Dale and Cayden Carter completing the top five. Carter had started from the ninth row after winning one of the B-Mains in his cousin Carter VandenBerg's #7v and while Anderson had raced his way back into the top five during the second half of this stop and go affair, he would drop back to seventh at the checkers.
Both the Stock Cars and the B-Mods would see eight race stoppages during their feature events, but the Stock Cars will be remembered more favorably for two reasons. They had a thrilling finish and they had their issues first.
The Modifieds would be the final feature race of the night and, as usual Memphis uses a set of rules that allows IMCA, USRA and UMP cars to all race together which makes for a diverse field. Former NASCAR star and long-time dirt track competitor Ken Schrader would draw the pole position for the twenty-five lapper and he would lead the opening four laps before that darn yellow flag would fly for a car slowing with a flat tire. Robbie Reed had advanced from sixth to second and on the restart he would apply the pressure to Schrader making the pass for the lead using the high line of turns three and four on lap eight.
Mark Burgtorf would slow on the topside of the speedway with mechanical issues to require a caution on lap twelve and a single car spin at the back of the field would produce one last caution with nine laps remaining. Chris Spalding was now running second, but he could not maintain the pace being set by the leader over the closing laps as Reed from just down the road in Mexico would score the win. Schrader would chase Spalding in for third while Austen Becerra drove his IMCA car to a fourth place finish and Tim Ward wheeled Becerra's UMP car in for fifth.
The final checkered flag on this one waved at 11:02 and despite the yellow fever you couldn't help but to be satisfied with a late October race night featuring a diverse field of drivers from all around where all you had to do was put on a sweatshirt come feature time. Thanks as always to Mike Van Genderen and everybody with the Scotland County Fair who put on these fantastic late season events at this great little race track. While weekly racing has been tried here in the recent past, they have really settled into their niche with these specials and hopefully they can actually race the one that is traditionally scheduled for late March in 2023 as well.
My 2022 racing season now has just three nights remaining on the schedule. This coming Saturday I encourage you all, drivers and fans alike, to come and enjoy Shiverfest at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa, then on Saturday November 5th here's hoping for another nice autumn day for the Turkey Dash at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction. A wedding to attend on the Friday night of that weekend will keep me from being at Dirt In November "Weather Permitting" at the Davenport Speedway and then I will continue my recent tradition of closing out my season with a trip to the Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri for night number two of the Turkey Bowl on November 19th.
If you are on a similar schedule, I hope to see you there, or I hope that you will find one of the other few races that remain in the region. And as always I invite you to visit the Back Stretch throughout the offseason as we will have all kinds of driver's names, past and present, for you to enjoy with our state points wrap ups and more.
Have a great week and I hope to see you at Shiverfest on Saturday!
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