With all of my other options for the weekend falling by the wayside due to the persistent rain, wind and cold here in Eastern Iowa, it only confirmed my planned trip to the Stuart Speedway on Thursday night to catch the opener of what now will be an IMCA Frostbuster tripleheader. At my age it can be hard to commit to a nearly three hour drive one way to watch a race on a night where I will have to return home and be ready for work first thing in the morning, but numerous trips to Stuart over the past few years have proven that I can do just that.
Barring any unusual circumstances you can always count on the following at Stuart:
- A well prepped racing surface that is ready for hot laps at the scheduled time
- A well organized and professionally presented program where the next race pulls on to the track as the race before it exits.
- Very few cautions caused by solo spins due to the "one and done" rule, and few if any cautions caused by a driver with a flat tire or with mechanical issues because the Race Director will safely talk that driver into the infield so that the race can stay green
- A track that remains multi-grooved throughout the night with timely "tickles" from the water truck and the Lely
Even with that three hour drive home I am usually in bed before one o'clock and it is worth forfeiting that two hours of sleep that I would normally get in order to enjoy a great night of racing! And once again promoter Mike Van Genderen delivered with an entertaining show featuring drivers from thirteen states and one Canadian province that found me back at home at 12:56 a.m. meaning that the checkered flag dropped on the Modified feature just past ten o'clock.
As I have said before, I will always prefer a "draw/redraw" show over qualifying and starting "straight up" anytime, however there is always the possibility that the fast cars will draw up front and that was the case tonight as all five feature winners came from the front row. So while there wasn't much action in regard to lead changes, there was definitely plenty of two and three wide racing for position going on behind the leader.
It started with the Sport Compacts where Beatrice, Nebraska, driver Kaden Murray steadily opened up a lead after the green flag waved. His advantage was a full straightaway by the time that Jake Paysen made his way up to second on lap eight and while he had made that charge from the tenth starting spot, Paysen was only able to trim a car length or two off of Murray's lead over the final six laps. Bryan Vannausdle would finish third in the non-stop race with Blain Petersen fourth and late arrival Anthony Clark was fifth after starting fourteenth.
Once again the Sport Mod field was stacked as most of the top drivers from the past few seasons have elected to stay in the division setting up a roster of "who's who" in these early season events. One name that you might not have on that list would be Tyler Inman, even though he has enjoyed some success in the recent past. However, pair him up with former All Iowa Points champion Carter VandenBerg as a car owner and you have a very stout combination as we witnessed here on Thursday night.
Starting from the front row Inman raced out to a lead that would be challenged early by Alec Fett who had quickly moved to second after starting fifth. Fett would pull even with Inman on a couple of occasions before a caution waved on lap four when Pete Stodgell's car went up in a cloud of smoke entering turn one. I don't ever remember so much fluid coming out of a race car before as there was literally a puddle that the cars were splashing through on the inside groove as the field tried to roll it back in under caution. In fact MVG had to bring out the Lely to tear up the surface a bit to finally get it to roll back in and after several laps under caution we were finally back to racing.
With Fett's preferred line now altered, Inman opened up a lead as the battles behind him raged on. Cam Reimers, Hunter Longnecker and later Taylor Kuehl and Brayton Carter all challenged Fett for his runner-up spot and that allowed Inman to get away before a pair of cautions on laps thirteen and fourteen.
Even with the field back on his rear bumper, Inman would take advantage of the torrid race for the remainder of the top five over the final six laps to drive on to the victory. Carter, the first cousin of the winning car owner, would get to second at the checkers in another impressive run from twelfth while Reimers finished where he had started in third. Fett would slip to fourth at the checkers while the talented young lady from Arizona, Taylor Kuehl would complete the top five.
Austin Bouzek would blast to the lead from the pole position in the twenty-lap headliner for the Stock Cars and he would build the advantage to nearly a straightaway before Austin Meiners worked his way into second. With traffic starting to come into play, Meiners was closing in on the leader until the challenger slowed on the back stretch on lap eight before limping his way to the pit exit in turn four.
Caution would wave with five laps remaining when Todd Van Eaton and Mike Albertson tangled in turn three and on the restart Buck Schafroth tried to keep pace with the speedy Missourian. There would be no catching Bouzek though as Austin secured the flag-to-flag victory. Schafroth fought off Bryan Snell who battled his way back to third after nearly going out of the park exiting turn two mid-race. Dustin Reeh advanced from twelfth to fourth and Travis Hatcher finished fifth while missing the passenger side body work showing just how physical this race was mid-pack.
An ace on the figure eight tracks, Bradly Graham is becoming a force on the ovals now as he scored a convincing win in the sixteen lap Hobby Stock main event. After a caution on the initial start there was only one stoppage on lap four that slowed the event where Graham was never seriously challenged. John Watson started on the pole and finished second as Kansas traveler Cody Williams made it to third after starting ninth. Solomon Bennett and Eric Stanton filled out the top five.
The Modified feature was essentially over about an hour before it had started when red hot Ethan Braaksma drew the pole position for the twenty-two lap headliner up in the scoring tower. Ethan has been on a tear sweeping the two-day specials at both Memphis, Missouri, and at Bloomfield the past two weekends and that win streak would be pushed to five in a row with another dominating run here tonight. It is also the third straight Back Stretch entry where his surname started the title!
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| Ethan Braaksma from last Friday night's butt kickin' at Bloomfield - Barry Johnson photo |
It was a crazy race behind Braaksma though with several caution flags shaping the story. The first caution waved for debris on lap six and then the wheels came off from there. On the first restart, Todd Shute who had made quick progress after starting the race from twelfth, clipped the infield track tire in turn one and spun sending him to the rear of the eighteen car field. On the next restart California transplant Trevor Fitz tangled with hometown racer Scott Bash in turn three and on the third restart the second place car of Dylan Thornton spun at the entrance of turn one and was fortunate that the rest of the field was able to take evasive action.
Finally we would get back to green flag racing with Dallon Murty now up to second after starting next to Shute in the sixth row. He still could not get to Braaksma though before the caution waved for Carson Reinig's spin on lap twelve. One more lap would go in the books before North Carolina visitor Griffin Taylor spun in turn four and just one more lap would be completed before Bash was sideways in turn one.
By now both Thornton and Shute were right back in the mix and while Braaksma was no match, the battle for second between Murty, Thornton, Shute and Jerry Flippo was well worth the trip with slide jobs and crossovers being thrown out on both ends of the speedway. One last caution would wave for Brian Eppert's spin with two laps remaining and again Braaksma would drive away from the battle behind him to take the win. Thornton would prevail for second with Murty in third followed by Flippo and Shute,
It was another enjoyable night of racing in Stuart and I am truly thankful for the warm hospitality of MVG and his staff as I was able to enjoy the evening with IMCA's Jim Stannard and Ryan Clark. Also, when you make your way to Stuart this season don't even think about eating beforehand as the Zipp's Pizzaria food truck will be on hand with a wide variety of tasty selections to choose from. Two slices of the Zipper and a Strawberry Banana Smoothie was my choice on this night.
With all of the events near me already canceled for the weekend due to wet grounds, I will focus on the Final Four in both the Men's and Women's brackets and perhaps pull up some streaming races as well. Then next week I hope to catch Jeff Struck's promotional debut at the Davenport Speedway on Friday before the season opener for the Sprint Invaders at 34 Raceway west of Burlington on Saturday.
Go Hawks!
B.S. Notes - There were four All Iowa Points Champions in action tonight: Dallon Murty (Stock Car 2020-22), Brayton Carter (Limited Modified 2020 & 2023), Todd Shute (Modified 2008), Eric Stanton (Hobby Stock 2019) plus the winning car owner in the Sport Mods, Carter VandenNerg who was the Limited Modified AIP champ in 2013.
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