More Bang For The Buck Thursday Night In Maquoketa

Four hours and thirty minutes of driving (round trip) to watch an hour and a half or racing? Heck yeah! Especially on a Thursday in mid-October and when that hour and a half of action was five feature races only, the make-up of the All Star Challenge finale that was rained out at the Maquoketa Speedway back in September, it was well worth the trip!

The Darkside Promotions team headed up by Timmy Current and Ryan Duhme used their Thursday night of practice for this weekend's Iowa Dirt Nationals to make up those five feature races and with a scheduled start time of 8:15, following several rounds of practice for the two day show ahead, for just a five dollar bill I was able to see more than 100 cars do battle around the racy three-eighths mile oval. I have to say that I loved knowing that feature racing would start at 8:15 p.m. as that allowed me to put in a full day's work before making a stop in Wapello for a Sal Vitale's pizza. I arrived just in time to catch three final hot laps sessions and then the opening ceremonies on a crisp, but comfortable evening.

The Sport Mods would be up first for twenty laps with Ian Hurst leading early before a red flag was needed when Austin Kemp wound up on his top in turn three. Once back to racing the sixth starting Jason Roth applied the pressure to the leader trying to squeeze under him as they both hugged the bottom. A caution for a three car tangle on lap eight reset the field and now Roth would go to the high line to mount his challenge. If not for the automated scoring loop and linked in scoreboard you would not have known who the leader was for several laps as Roth had the advantage on lap eleven and twelve before Hurst came back to lead the next two laps. Roth would get back to the front with five laps remaining, but now they had a new challenger in Brayton Carter who had started this one from the twenty-first position.

On lap seventeen Brayton went through the middle of turns one and two and then drove deep into turn three to take the advantage. And, even with a green-white-checker restart, he would drive away for the impressive victory. The young driver from Oskaloosa who is now carrying the DeJong Manufacturing colors on his #01 is on the way to his third All Iowa Points title over the past four years and this was his 79th night of racing in 2024. Roth would finish in second just ahead of Hurst, Ryan Schilling rode the rim to gain several spots over the final two laps to finish fourth while Californian Tyler Bannister came from fifteenth to fifth.

The Stock Cars were up next for twenty with Dustin Vis leading the first three before his fellow front row start Mike Wiedeman spun in turn one collecting Gage Neal and Jacob Ellithorpe. David Brandies would use the restart to drive under Vis to take the point and those two would pull away from the rest of the field. Damon Murty had started tenth and was up to third with six laps to go, but he had nearly a full straightaway just to catch up to Vis, but that would change when the caution waved with four laps remaining.

On the "Darkside Double File Restart", Vis would choose his preferred low line which was like giving a gift to Murty who is always a master on the cushion and he would take second down the back stretch and start working on Brandies who was still hugging the bottom, but swinging out a bit on the straights. Dallon would take the lead by a nose on lap eighteen, but when he went too wide out of turn two he would slip off the track momentarily dropping him back to third. Brandies would be the first back the white and as Murty battled back to second he could not get to the leader as Brandies scored the victory. Vis would settle in for third, Braden Richards came from the fifth row to finish fourth and Wisconsin's Kenny Richards started at the back of the twenty-three car field and finished fifth.

Eric Knutson would start from the pole of the twenty lap Hobby Stock headliner and he would lead the distance through four cautions to take the win. A couple of potential challengers fell by the wayside during the race as Andrew Burg slipped off the top of turn three while running third on lap seven and Minnesota's Brandon Bombardo had cracked the top five after starting twenty-first before his right front tire came off late in the race.

The battle for second was wild coming to the checkers out of turn four as Steven Shady would get sideways collecting Scott Wetter as the rest of the field scrambled for an opening. Keith Burg would be the runner-up followed by Lukas Short who is loving the car that he bought from Calvin Dhondt, Bradly Graham continued the streak of drivers coming from deep in the field coming from the twelfth and final row to take fourth and Kile Vohringer recovered from an early spin to rally from the back to fifth.

Barry Johnson photo

The Modifieds were up next and there was no doubt who would win this win from the drop of the green as Ethan Braaksma continued his stellar 2024 season with the flag-to-flag win. Yes, I am using the same photo from Bloomfield in March and that I used for his win last week in Independence! Cody Laney started seventh and moved to second at the mid-race mark, but he was a half a lap behind Braaksma and even with traffic he was not able to cut into that big lead as the California driver finished second. Ryan Maitland had an impressive run in third, Jason Schueller advanced from ninth to fourth and Jaden Fryer faded from the pole to fifth. 

The 4 Stocks would close out the night with fifteen laps that saw Mitch Bielenberg race out to the early advantage with Cyle Hawkins knocking on his back door as they hugged the bottom. Bielenberg was not about to budge though, so "The Hawk" moved up the track a bit and he would take the lead on lap seven, but he had a new challenger in Jake Benischek who was keeping it wound up around the rim.

Jake would take the lead one lap later and while Hawkins tried to keep pace by getting back down to the bottom, but there would be no catching Benischek who would take the win. Bielenberg filled out the podium, Dustin Forbes finished fourth and Brendon Koch closed out the top five.

And just like that I was on may home again pulling into the garage at 12:05 to get a good night's sleep before Danny and I go on a racing road trip for the weekend. The Iowa Fall Nationals will have full shows both tonight and Saturday in Maquoketa and the racing should be great, just as we saw here tonight.

Check into the Back Stretch early next week to see where we were headed for this weekend, but make sure that you get out to the track of your choice soon!