Braaksma and Ballard Stay Hot As IMCA Returns To Bloomfield

Night one of the Southern Iowa Frost Out would be the first IMCA sanctioned event at the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway since 2005 and with 102 cars in five divisions on hand for Friday's show, you would have to consider it to be a great success. As is typical with an early or late season sanctioned event, the roster included drivers from throughout the region knowing that they were running under the standard set of rules and two drivers would score their third straight victory after sweeping their respective divisions last weekend in Memphis, Missouri.

Nathan Ballard would walk away with an easy win in his Hobby Stock heat race, but when he drew the twelfth starting spot for the sixteen lap main event, the driver from Marengo would have his work cut out for him if he wanted to repeat last week's success. Briar Kriegel would start from the pole and he would gradually build his lead as the field battled behind him. Ballard did not make up much ground in the early laps as he searched for racing room with drivers going two and three wide in front of him.

The caution would wave on lap four when Andy Peck spun in turn two and on the restart Ballard went to work. Kriegel was again stretching his lead and it was up to about a half straightaway when Ballard made his way past Peyton Stephens for second on lap nine and that lead vanished quickly as Ballard stormed to the front just one circuit later.

One final caution waved with three laps remaining when Keaton Gordon spun out of a three car battle for fourth on the front stretch bringing the field back to Ballard for the restart, but there would be nobody who could keep up with Nathan's pace as he pulled away again for the win. Kriegel fought off Stephens for second, Bradly Graham finished fourth and Corey VanDerwilt came from the fifth row to finish in fifth. 

Nathan Ballard (29) gets by Peyton Stephens - Barry Johnson photo

The twenty lap IMCA Modified feature was the final event of the night, but it moves to second in this storyline as Ethan Braaksma dominated to win his third straight race. Tim Ward and Jason Bass started from the front row only to have Bass end up against the turn three wall before the first lap could be scored. This allowed the fourth starting Braaksma to slide up to the front row for the restart and he would take full advantage racing out to the lead at the drop of the green.

Cayden Carter who was driving Maguire DeJong's #30m would soon get to second and he was able to keep Braaksma in his sights through the first half of the race, but as the laps clicked away Ethan pulled away to earn another victory in dominating fashion as Carter finished second in the non-stop race. Chris Zogg recovered from a turn one stumble on the restart that dropped him to near the back of the now thirteen car field to race all the way up to third at the checkers. Ward slipped to fourth as Kurt Kile rounded out the top five.

The twenty lap Stock Car feature was the best race of the night as the three-eighths mile oval served up three and even four wide action at times. Young Rowdee Van Genderen would set the early pace with a ton of talent breathing down his back bumper. Dustin Griffiths would pull even with the leader on the inside only to have Van Genderen ward him off while riding the momentum off the cushion before the caution waved on lap four when Andrew Schroeder slowed with a broken right front suspension.

On the restart Rowdee switched lines now running the bottom on both ends so Griffiths went to the top and on lap seven he was able take the lead exiting turn four. Van Genderen was still stout on the bottom though and as he tried to take back the lead he also had to deal with the challenges of Todd Reitzler, John Oliver Jr. and Presley Harrington. As the field scored lap nine, contact between Van Genderen and Reitzler on the front stretch turned Rowdee to the right nose first into the wall and thankfully he did not get upside down at the fastest point of the track. Reitzler was called for rough driving although he may have just ran out of room in the tight battle and rather than restarting at the rear, he chose to call it a night.

Once back to racing Jason McDaniel got shuffled out of a tight pack as the field scored lap ten and he too turned hard right into the outside wall in nearly the same spot collecting Luke Ramsey who deliberately spun to avoid making harder contact with McDaniel. John Oliver Jr. would now restart in second and as the green flag waved he found a tremendous bite off the bottom of turn four to take the lead away from Griffiths before they even passed the flagstand. Michael Jaennette would soon get to second and now you had the drivers who had split the wins at Memphis last weekend looking to see who would take the rubber match here at Bloomfield.

A final caution would wave for Elaine Deppe's spin on lap fifteen and the final five laps would entertain the nice sized crowd. Working the outside line Jaennette would be even with Oliver as they raced down the back stretch for the final time, but it would be Oliver who would take it a bit deeper into turn three and then drift up the track just a bit in turn four to close the door on his challenger and take the win at the checkers. Griffiths had the best seat in the house to watch that battle as he was close behind in third, David Brandies came from the fourth row to finish fourth while Harrington, who made the long pull from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the second weekend in a row, finished in fifth. 

John Oliver Jr. (05) holds off Michael Jaennette - Barry Johnson photo

Brayton Carter went flag-to-flag after starting from the front row to win the eighteen lap Sport Mod headliner, but there was plenty of action to watch behind him as the battles for positions two on back were intense. Following a lap six caution southwest Iowa visitor Hunter Poston was restarting from fourth and took contact sending him for a spin on the front stretch and the rest of the field scrambled to avoid contact. Three more cautions would keep the field tightly bunched and during that final stoppage with just two laps remaining another top five contender, Brandon Dale, retired to the infield with a flat tire.

Maguire DeJong who had started twelfth was now up to second and while he could keep pace with the leader over the final two laps, he could not mount a challenge as Carter cruised to victory. Cam Reimers finished third, Colton Livezy was fourth and Sioux City visitor Willy Kirk took fifth after starting tenth. Poston was impressive racing his way back up to seventh at the checkers.

The Sport Compacts kicked off the evening as the first of five features with a pretty darn good three car battle for the win involving James Haring, Matt Moore and Brandon Reu in a non-stop fourteen lap affair. Haring and Moore had separated themselves from the field after starting second and fourth respectively while Reu was picking his way to the front after starting eighth. Lapped traffic would play a big role in this one as with five laps remaining Haring and Moore would split the lapped car of Jerry Glass at the end of the back stretch. Both would then get loose in turn three and as they recovered that allowed Reu to erase the approximate ten car length advantage that they once had on him.

Haring would maintain the lead as the lap was scored, but it was now a three car battle as Reu moved to second on lap ten and then with two laps remaining he would take the lead. As the white flag waved Haring would slow with mechanical issues leaving him with a thirteenth place showing in the final rundown as Reu scored the win over Moore. Luke Fraise prevailed in another good three car battle for position as he finished third ahead of Caleb Giese and Shenandoah's Zander Steiner. 

The three car race for the lead with James Haring (2H), Matt Moore (2M) and Brandon Reu - Barry Johnson photo

As lightning flashed to both the east and to the west of the track, the final checkers waved at 10:10 p.m. and I left happy knowing that the future of racing is bright here at one of my favorite tracks through the efforts of the Davis County Fairboard and promoter Mike Van Genderen. IMCA is excited to be back in this area that has seen it's four tracks of Oskaloosa, Eldon, Memphis and Bloomfield race unsanctioned for the past several seasons and it will be interesting to see if the others follow suit over the next few years. With other plans for this Easter weekend I will not be back for night number two at Bloomfield, so I hope that you might consider being there to take my place and I will look forward to additional trips in that direction as the 2024 racing season continues.

My racing plans for next week include an IMCA Frostbuster event either at Independence on Wednesday night or at Stuart on Thursday, then on Friday and Saturday I look forward to the IRA and MOWA 410 Sprint Car showdown at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. Then perhaps back to the final Frostbuster in Vinton on Sunday night. Yes, the 2024 season is ready to roll full steam ahead and I hope to see you at the track soon!

B.S. Notes - There were four All Iowa Points Champions in action tonight: John Oliver Jr. (Stock Car 2018), Dustin Griffiths (Hobby Stock 2014), Brayton Carter (Limited Modified 2020 & 2023) and Barry Taft (Four Cylinder 2017-18), plus South Dakota's Limited Modified state champion from 2022 and 2023 in Willy Kirk..

Braaksma, Jackson and Ballard Double Up At Chilly Spring Nationals

Given the weather forecast for the weekend I had given up on the thought of going to Memphis, Missouri, for the Spring Nationals event that was the original one scheduled for this weekend. But when promoter Mike Van Genderen made the announcement on Tuesday that Saturday's show would start at 4 p.m. in an effort to race during the warmest part of the day, that was enough to change my mind, well at least for the Saturday portion of the event.

As our Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert reported, Friday's opener was one of the coldest nights that he has ever spent at a race track, and remember that the man is from Wisconsin! That made me thankful that I sat that one out and while Ed will likely say that today was much better, it was still cold as my thermometer said 44 degrees when I parked my car at 3:50 p.m. and it was 42 when I started it up to head home at 7:09. That, along with a steady breeze that was blowing into the grandstand from turn three early before shifting to a direction that would swirl in from turn two and it was still anything but balmy. Announcer Tony Paris mentioned a few times that the "Winter Nationals" would have been a more appropriate moniker for the weekend, however since we officially crossed over into Spring this past week he had to stick with the original title.

Three drivers would repeat their victory from Friday night, each aided by drawing a front row starting spot for their respective main event and while I will always prefer a draw/redraw show over qualifying and starting straight up, sometimes the fast guys, they draw up front.

The first of that trio would be Nathan Ballard who absolutely dominated the competition in the Hobby Stocks today winning his six lap heat race by more than a straightaway and then repeating that distance between himself and runner-up Dustin Griffiths in the fourteen lap feature. The race was red flagged on lap two when Jeremy Dooley took a hard tumble off the end of the back stretch entering turn three and the caution would wave mid-race when Garrett Croy got clipped in the rear end and went for a high speed slide down the front stretch.

While Ballard, Griffiths and third-place finisher Tom Killen Jr. were running in their own zip codes, the battle for fourth was a wild one on the final lap with four drivers in contention entering turn one. Cody Staley had the spot, but spun at the exit of turn two sending the other three scrambling and it would be David Crimmins taking the position over Curt Reed.

It was a stout field of B-Mod drivers that had gathered here this weekend with some of the best from the POWRi, USRA, IMCA and WISSOTA sanctioning bodies on hand. Last night's winner Kris Jackson would start from the outside of row one and he would outrun pole-sitter Brandon Dale to take the early lead. Brayton Carter had started ninth and he would be one of the first to make the bottom work on what had been a cushion dominate surface and as starter Kevin Eggleston showed the crossed flags in this eighteen lap affair, Carter had made his way into second with his sights set on Jackson.

One lap later the caution would wave as Brett Holman slowed just ahead of the leaders and on the restart the race was on between the top two drivers in our Best of the Midwest standings for this class in 2023. Carter had pulled even with Jackson as lap eleven went in the books, but when he went just a bit too low in turns one and two Carter would clip one of the infield tires breaking his left front. Amazingly Brayton was able to hold onto second for nearly two more laps before he slowed and pulled to the infield.

That would turn second over to the seventh starting Shadren Turner, but he would not be able to catch Jackson who went on to take his second win of the weekend here in Memphis. Minnesota ace Jake Smith would finish in third followed by Dale and Curt Spalding.

We were guaranteed to have a new winner in the Sport Compacts as Friday's star Josh Barnes was not in attendance as the field of four cylinders swelled to twenty-two after just having fourteen here last night. Pole-sitter Brad Mick would have a slight edge at the stripe on lap one before the fourth starting Brandon Reu sailed around him in turn two to take the point. Barry Taft had looked strong in his heat race and he was on the move once again quickly coming from the inside of row five to take the lead from Reu on lap five.

There would be no catching the two-time All Iowa Points champion from there as Taft pulled away for the victory over Reu and sixth starting Dyllan Bonk. Jeffrey DeLonjay rallied from the sixth row to finish fourth as veteran driver Chuck Fullenkamp filled out the top five.

A grinding crash in turn one on the initial start saw Rachel Kile climb from her mangled car uninjured and it was good news as well for Elijah Hoyt who was also involved.

With the wind now changing direction the top of the racing surface had dried out enough that the Stock Cars were given a couple of hot laps prior to lining up to blow off the powder. Once under green the nearly the entire field made their way to the bottom with leader Michael Jaennette setting the pace ahead of fellow front row starter David Brandies. A pair of cautions on laps three and four slowed the event and while Jaennette did push a bit high exiting turn four a couple of times, Brandies could not get a nose under him. The top five were tagging bumpers in the closing laps, but only the fifth running Dustin Griffiths gave the high side a try, but to no avail.

Jaennette would take the win over Brandies and Friday's winner John Oliver Jr. Wisconsin visitor Presley Harrington finished fourth with Griffiths in fifth.

With Friday's winner Ethan Braaksma drawing the pole, it was a good bet as to who would win the Modified feature and Ethan left no doubt as he drove away for a convincing flag-to-flag twenty lap victory. Jarrett Brown gave him a good race in the initial laps, but he would give up second late to Chase Rudolf. Fourth would go to Zach Rawlins who held off veteran driver Ken Schrader by a car length at the checkers. 

Ethan Braaksma on his way to a clean sweep - Carroll Hoover photo

Those final checkers waved around 7:05 and there was even a brief rain shower that swept through as I was peeling layers off in the parking lot before the drive home. A big thanks to the Scotland County Fairboard and promoter Mike Van Genderen for going ahead with this weekend's show despite the chilly conditions and it was all made possible by the support of several new sponsors from the area that now proudly have their signage up around the track. I will look forward to returning to the Scotland County Speedway on Friday June 7th when the Sprint Invaders make their way to northeast Missouri.

And I hope to catch up with MVG again next Friday night at the Bloomfield Speedway for night one of two for the Southern Iowa Frost Out.

B.S. Notes - There were four All Iowa Points Champions in action tonight: John Oliver Jr. (Stock Car 2018), Dustin Griffiths (Hobby Stock 2014), Brayton Carter (Limited Modified 2020 & 2023) and Barry Taft (Four Cylinder 2017-18), plus Limited Modified state champions from Missouri in Kris Jackson (2018-23) and from Minnesota with Jake Smith (2021-22).

MVG tried out a new way of restarting races this weekend going double file from front to back with the leader getting the choice of inside or outside and then having the right to start the race by being the first to hit the throttle within a set area in turns three and four. While the restarts were cleaner than what we see with the Delaware double file alignments, where the second and third-place cars were too often up alongside the leader and, or timing the start at a specific spot, it seemed like the third-place car had an advantage even though the second place driver was starting side-by-side with the leader.

I know that I am in the minority, but the most fair way to restart a race is, and will always be single file nose to tail.

Here's hoping for warmer temperatures soon, see you at the track!

Park Jeff Adds "Spring Kickoff Classic" To The First Saturday In March

It is rare to schedule a race primarily due to a favorable weather forecast and in fact the only one that I can recall prior to this weekend came back in the Fall of 2020. With the ten day forecast calling for temps in the 70's during the first weekend of November, the Darkside Promotions duo paired up with promoter Ricky Kay to schedule "Dirt In November" on Friday November 6th at the Davenport Speedway. Paired with the previously scheduled Turkey Dash at the CJ Raceway the next day, the hastily organized event drew in 121 cars in five classes and while I was unable to attend due to a prior commitment, I was told that there was a solid crowd on hand. And yes, the Turkey Dash the following day went quite well!

Scheduling an event at the end of the season, and essentially pairing it up with another track close by was not as big of a risk as the promoters at the Park Jefferson Speedway took this Saturday. Coming out of the warmest February on record (actually in the Quad Cities it finished in a dead heat with the February of 1882 at 39.5 degrees) and a favorable ten day forecast at the time, the Spring Kickoff Classic was first announced on February 20th and scheduled for a 1 p.m. start on Saturday March 2nd. 

It has been since 2001 that I was last at a race at Park Jefferson and despite it being a five hour drive, the early afternoon start made it where I could go up and back on the same day, so of course I had to go and support this very unique event! And things got even better when two of my Positively Racing colleagues, Barry Johnson and Danny Rosencrans decided to ride along as well to get their first ever look at the track that sits just across the state line from Sioux City.

Barry Johnson photo

The five standard IMCA divisions of Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts were on the initial roster, but after a roll call to see how many drivers would bring their 305 Sprint Cars, they were added to the program as well resulting in a total car count of 136 across six divisions. The sun was bright and temps were in the mid-60's with a sustained strong wind out of the southeast and despite that, the dust was kept to a minimum considering the conditions with a strong dose of water prior to hot laps and then a fifty minute watering session prior to the features.

We arrived at 12:05 hoping to secure a spot in the vast clubhouse that overlooks turn one and we fortunately found three of the last stools available as obviously many others shared our goal of staying out of the stiff wind. Hot laps began shortly after 12:30 and once the Hobby Stocks realized that they were the first set of heat races to be run after the anthem, racing got underway at 1:28 in the afternoon. With the "one and done" rule in effect the heat races clicked off in fine fashion with action that was better than expected for a dirt track day race on a sunny and windy afternoon. 

The Hobby Stocks were first up come feature time and as they were given some hot laps to run in the reworked surface Tyler Smith, who was scheduled to start fifth, went too high exiting turn four and as he tried to make the save his right side tires dug into the now tacky surface and he rolled over once thus ending his day and extending that time difference between the final qualifying race and the start of the features.

Bo Lundquist and Carter Davis would bring the field to green for fourteen laps with Lundquist getting the early advantage until the caution waved for Nate Fontenot's spin in turn three on lap four. During the caution Lundquist had his left rear tire go flat and he would rejoin the field at the rear with Davis leading the way back to green. A pair of multi-car scrambles slowed the pace on laps seven and ten and on that second restart they would go four-wide for fourth down the back stretch and when entering turn three the two cars in the middle made contact sending both Lowell Janssen and Drew Barglof for a spin. Barglof would take the penalty as Janssen would be given his spot back for the restart and he would be the third driver that would chase Carter Davis home to the checkers.

It would be the first career Hobby Stock victory for Davis whose previous best finish was a third back in 2022. Mankato, Minnesota, visitor Corey Black would finish second ahead of Matt Rezac and Janssen while Dillon Richards filled out the top five.

The Sport Mods would be up next for sixteen laps with Willy Kirk taking the point from the outside of row one. Third starting Brayton Carter would quickly move to second and was putting the pressure on the leader when the caution waved on lap nine when Rusty Montagne drove over the top of turn three.

On the restart John Rebstock would take second back from Carter and while those two battled it out for the runner-up spot, Kirk would pull away to earn a familiar place to him here in victory lane at Park Jeff. Rebstock held off Carter for second, Minnesota's Kaden Woodie was fourth with John Klynsma taking fifth.

As the Sport Mod feature drew to a close it was becoming obvious that the track was starting to lock down on the bottom so when Daniel Eckblad took the lead from the pole position it seemed likely that he would cruise to the Stock Car victory. Levi Feltman had other ideas though as he worked a line one car width higher than the rest of the field and steadily made his way up from fifteenth to challenge for the lead with eight laps remaining.

Eckblad felt the pressure to his outside and both cars drove up the track in turns one and two on the fourteenth circuit nearly opening the door for Jason Fisher to steal the lead. But Eckblad was able to get back to the bottom before entering turn three to block Fisher, but Feltman's slightly higher line was too good and he would take the lead exiting turn four.

Mark Krieger would spin right in front of the leaders in turn two with two laps remaining setting up one final restart, and Feltman was too stout for the other to mount a challenge as he completed the drive of the day to secure the victory. Eckblad and Fisher made it an all Minnesota podium with Nebraska's Nate Desive taking fourth. Dan Mackenthun, who was on his way home from a wet Clash on the Coast in Florida made his stop on the way home payoff with a fifth-place finish.

Twenty laps for the Modifieds would be up next and when two cars at the back of the field spun in turn one, the caution would wave well before the opening lap would be scored. The field would then circle the track several times as officials tried to get Cole Bents back up to the outside of row one, but he seemed content to be restarting from inside of row three as he swerved back and fourth to put heat into his tires. Finally they just moved the outside row forward putting Cody Thompson next to pole-sitter Jerry King and when they slipped high exiting turn two on the first lap, Jeremy Mills said "thank you very much" as he raced to the lead down the back stretch after starting third.

Caution would wave for an incident involving Jim Cole and Sam Hoffman on lap five and again on lap eleven when Justin Zeitner slowed to a halt on the front stretch. With each restart Mills would pull away from Thompson and while I believe the announcer meant to say that he was "stretching his legs", it came out much differently and when he used the same term later during the Sprint Car feature I could only hope that he was careful about which drivers he was saying that about.

As the laps clicked off Thompson was able to get to the back bumper of the leader, but with Jeremy not making any mistakes he would take the convincing win over Cody. Troy Cordes drove a nice race picking his spots to go from ninth to third, Shane DeMey finished fourth while Bents stayed where he had dropped himself to in fifth.

With a long drive ahead of us we has set a five o'clock curfew, but we decided to stick around to see how the Sprint Car main event would play out and it was pretty much like we had expected. The high sun, the warming temps and the stiff wind finally had made the track more like rubbered up pavement and passing would be at a premium over the twenty laps. Brandon Bosma would spin out of the third position with seven laps remaining and now it would be a test of who had saved their right rear tire the best behind race-long leader Andrew Sullivan.

A top five run would end for John Lambertz with a flat tire and Trevor Serbus would have his tire blow while running fourth with six laps remaining. Then two laps later the right rear would let go on the second place car of Coby Werkmeister. A caution would wave for debris with two laps remaining and the question now would be who could coax their tire to the checkers and Sullivan did just that to take the win over Dusty Ballenger, Trefer Waller, Lee Goos Jr. and Stuart Snyder. However, as I close out this story later in the day on Sunday I now see that Sullivan has been disqualified with no mention on Facebook as to why. So give the win to Ballenger and move everybody up one spot now landing Dillon Bickett in fifth.

We hustled out as quickly as we could to try to make up some of that post-curfew time and I still made it home right around midnight completeing a long, but enjoyable day of racing. Kaytee DeVries would close out the evening by winning the Sport Compact feature over Tyler Thompson, Kaylee Richards, Johnny Thomas and Kaden Murray.

The track's Facebook page thanked everybody who came out for this quickly scheduled event stating that it was a record attendance under this ownership group with more than 1,200 in the stands and 650 people in the pits. So now the question is, with the success of this event, do you just wait to see if the opportunity presents itself again in the future to schedule an early season event ten days in advance? Or do you just go ahead and schedule the Spring Kickoff Classic on the first Saturday of March for 2025?

What would it hurt to do that? In the old days a promoter would have had to spend money on a display ad in Hawkeye Racing News well in advance to get the word out, but in this day and age you can keep drivers and fans updated for free on social media. Have the race on the schedule and then ten days in advance you assess the situation and decide to have it, postpone it, or just cancel the event all together. 

A perfect example is the event that is now billed as the "Nippy 50" scheduled for the final weekend in March at Maquoketa. This used to be the Thaw Brawl that was listed for that same weekend at Donnellson in 2020 and then at Davenport in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Due to the weather conditions either leading up to, or on the scheduled weekend, that race has not been contested for the past four seasons, but you can bet that drivers and fans alike currently have it marked on their calendar to attend or to compete at if it is able to be run this year.

If I was the promoter at Park Jefferson I would announce this week that the 2nd running of the Spring Kickoff Classic is now scheduled for March 1st in 2025. And most, if not all of us 1,850 race fans that were there yesterday would mark it on their calendar!

I noted above that February of 2024 tied the record set in 1882 as the warmest for the month in the Quad Cities, while in Des Moines this February broke the previous record established in 2017. The Quad Cities meteorologist noted that typically following a warm February we experience colder and wetter than normal weather in March and April so I checked back on some archives and was happy to see that we were able to see events at Beatrice and at Memphis in March as well as some early April action at 34 Raceway and Davenport in 2017, but you can see that the theme in each story was overcoming cold and wet conditions. Hopefully that trend will not prevail in 2024 as our next targeted event is the Saturday night edition of the Memphis Spring Nationals on March 23rd.

B.S. Notes - There were nine former All Iowa Points champions in action at Park Jefferson. Jay Noteboom (Modified 2005), Jeremy Mills (Modified 2009), Cody Thompson (Limited Modified 2018), Brayton Carter (Limited Modified 2020 & 2023), Derek Green (Stock Car 2023), Lee Goos Jr. (305 Sprints (2022 & 2023), Dusty Ballenger (360 Sprints 2003 & 305 Sprints 2020), Stuart Snyder (305 Sprints 2021) and Dustin Gulbrandson (Hobby Stocks 2020)......I am getting tired of getting Facebook notifications saying that some track that I follow has mentioned me and others in a comment by using @followers or @Everyone. I already follow your track so that I can see your posts/updates in my news feed, so keep it up and I will solve the annoyance by no longer following your page......Is this what a grumpy old man looks like? See you soon at the track!