Bloomfield Avoids The Weather, Wraps Up Fall Special Saturday

Some of Mike Van Genderen's friends call him "The Weatherman" because he follows it closely and often shares his view of the apps on Facebook leading up to an event, especially if weather might be a threat. Just like the rest of us, he looks like a sucker when the apps make a big change or are just flat out wrong, but for the most part his attention to the weather often allows him to get a show in where others wouldn't and that was the case this weekend with the annual Fall special at the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway.

The weather forecast itself would have been enough to make a promoter throw in the towel on Monday and while some tracks in the region took on over two inches of rain early in the week helping them to make an early decision, the heavy rain stayed away from Bloomfield for the most part allowing MVG to "stay in the game". Future cast models on Wednesday and Thursday continued to show the rain to the north of the south central Iowa community, so the plan was made to proceed, but with an earlier start time on Saturday.

From reports that I had, the track got a bit rough on Friday due to the rain that the seldom used facility took on earlier in the week, but on Saturday outside of a rough spot entering turn three on the bottom, the track was smooth and multi-grooved offering up some great racing action on a warm and sultry September evening. 

The IMCA Stock Cars would be the first of six main events and while the racing up front was entertaining, the back of the field struggled with six cautions and one red flag through the first fourteen completed laps. Johnny Spaw was the early leader before yielding to Dallon Murty on lap four as the "Game Changer" returned to his roots and had started seventh. There was a lot talent at the front and they were running in tight formation restart after restart with Andrew Schroeder coming from eleventh to take the second spot and that is when "the big one" struck.

Racing in to turn one, from my vantage point it looked like Schroeder tagged Murty and when he stabbed the brakes to allow Murty to gather it back up, the three cars behind the lead duo stacked up with John Oliver Jr. driving up and over the left front of Schroeder, while Derrick Agee and Dustin Griffiths were left sideways  after colliding. The incident would eliminate Schroeder, Oliver and Griffiths who had charged to fifth after starting from the rear after coming to the track late, while Agee was given his spot back in the lineup as an innocent victim.

Once back to green Murty was able to pull away a bit as Aaron Martin and Agee battled it out for second and Murty would cruise to victory with Martin as the runner-up. Agee, who started twelfth, would hold down third ahead of Spaw and David Brandies. 

Three-wide Stock Car action featuring Aaron Martin down low, David Brandies up top and Mike Van Utrecht in the middle - Carroll Hoover photo

 

With draw/redraw shows you never know what you are going to get for a feature lineup, but let's just say that the Sport Mod draw was fan friendly on this night with some of the best in the country starting fourth row on back including last week's Super Nationals champion Dylan Van Wyk who missed his heat race and was now lined up eighteenth in this eighteen lap event. 

Jim Gillenwater would lead the opening lap before Kyle Murty took over on lap two. Brandon Dale, who had started fifth, would make his way to the front on lap four and he would then hold off the challenges of the eighth starter Brayton Carter for a couple of laps before Carter made the pass on lap eight. The only caution of the race would wave on lap ten and after the restart Cam Reimers, who had lined up on the inside of row six for the drop of the green, would now take up the chase of Carter in second.

Meanwhile Van Wyk had steadily made his way through the field and in the closing laps as Carter and Reimers were well out front, the race to watch was between Dale and Van Wyk for third. The checkers would wave over Carter, followed by Reimers and while coming out of turn four Van Wyk would execute the perfect high to low move to nip Dale by a nose at the stripe. Bryson Eckrich who had started sixth would complete the top five so if you add them up the average starting spot for the top five finishers was 9.6.

Only eight Modifieds signed in after sixteen were here on Friday likely due to the challenging conditions on night one followed by the persistent online bitching about it by some of the standard naysayers. The redraw in this one was not as fan friendly though with California hot shoe Cody Laney drawing the front row and he would take full advantage to drive away to a big lead and a convincing victory in the non-stop twenty lapper. It was good to see two-time and defending All Iowa Points champion Jeremy Mills make the trip down from Clear Lake and after taking the heat race win, Mills would come from fifth to be the distant runner-up. Kurt Kile would finish third, Bill Roberts Jr. was fourth and Blaine Bryant would round out the top five.

While the top two in the Crown Vics, Wade Francis and Brendan Nantz would drive away, the rest of the pack gave the crowd some thrills with some fender rubbin', wall bangin', front stretch 360 spinnin' action that never did produce a caution. And in the end it would be the retired Stock Car racer Francis posting the victory over Nantz, Tanner Bainbridge, Nick Charlson and Brian Schafer.

After a couple of entertaining heat races, the Sport Compacts would be up next for twelve laps with teammates Michael Weber and Seth Meinders scoring lap one side-by-side with Weber holding the edge by a bumper. Meinders would then gain the lead on lap two and when Brandon Reu made his way to second after starting fifth, you had two of the best in this corner of the state racing for the win.

The lone caution of the race came on lap six when the right front tire blew on the fourth place car of Carson Hayes nearly putting him into the wall in turn three and once back to green that chase would continue up front. Reu was able to poke his nose under Meinders a couple times in the closing laps, but there would be no stopping "The Outlaw" from taking the victory. Reu would settle for second, Weber held off Brandon Allison for third and Cole Hughes filled out the top five.

A solid field of twenty-two IMCA Hobby Stocks would close out the evening starting with a tight battle up front in the opening laps. Zach Cleghorn would lead lap one before Jake Wenig drove around him on the outside of turn two to take the point. As the leaders scored lap two a scramble mid-pack sent four cars spinning on the front stretch to bring out the first caution and then two more cautions would wave for one driver on laps three and seven.

In the meantime, on lap six, Tom Killen Jr. had slipped under Wenig to take the lead with Briar Kriegel and Wenig still in hot pursuit. On lap ten though, Wenig was perhaps a little too hot as he suddenly steered to the infield and that would leave Kriegel to continue the challenge. Killen was up to it though and would hold off Kriegel to take the win. Jared Miller, a native of Bloomfield, would finish on the podium in third followed by Friday's winner Daniel Wauters while Kale Hemsley completed the top five.

The weather apps were showing storms developing in the area around ten o'clock and with the final checkers falling at 9:10 p.m. it allowed us fans traveling toward the north to get a nice lightning show as, once again, those weather apps proved to be pretty accurate. A big thanks to MVG and everybody with the Davis County Fairgrounds for sticking it out and presenting this doubleheader weekend. The Bloomfield Speedway is definitely a gem that doesn't get raced on often, so keep your eye on the track's Facebook page to see what the plans are for 2027.

Of course my original plan for Saturday was to be with the Sprint Invaders for the first Dirt at the Downs event for 2026 in Cedar Rapids, but the persistent heavy rains up there did not allow Rick and Corey Dripps and their team to get the track together during the week. Plus the morning rain on Saturday would have washed things out anyway. With that rainout I am now a perfect, or imperfect five for five when it comes to announcing for the Dripps this season. They had me scheduled for five different nights between Vinton and Hawkeye Downs and all five were cancelled due to rain. Are you sure you want me to work for you in 2027 Rick?

It looks like the weather will settle down in the week ahead and that is a good thing as we have a big doubleheader coming up to close out the 2026 season for the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders. On Friday night we will be at the Davenport Speedway and on Saturday it is the annual Fall Haul at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. Hope to see you there!