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!