Spencer Diercks Warms Crowd With a Last Lap Win at Osky

At mid-afternoon it was seventy-one degrees and sunny in Oskaloosa. It was a good thing that drivers and fans alike made their decision to go racing at that time because the pits were pretty crowded and there were a decent number of fans in the stands. By race time though the temperature had dropped into the upper forties supported by a stiff and relentless north wind creating at least for me the coldest night of this early season, and perhaps one of the coldest I have experienced at a race track in sometime. If the weather had been like this at mid-afternoon I would say that it would be a pretty safe bet that most of the fans, and likely even some of the drivers would have stayed home. Exciting racing, including a last lap pass in the Late Model feature made it all worth it though!

Before getting into the racing though I want to first send out my thoughts and prayers to veteran racer Mark Widmar of Ottumwa who was injured in a scary crash during the second heat for the IMCA Modifieds. Andrew Schroeder was racing in second before his rear end locked up on him exiting turn four. Schroeder’s car slowed quickly and was close to a complete stop when three cars racing for position behind him closed quickly. Widmar’s car was the last of those three and when the other two made their move to miss the disabled Modified Widmar only had a split second to try to avoid Schroder. Fortunately Mark was able to steer away from a direct nose to tail impact that could have been devastating to both drivers, but in doing so it was his own driver’s side that made impact with the tail of Schroeder’s car. The back bumper went through the side bars protecting Mark’s driver compartment and I saw a message board post this morning from Mark’s wife stating that he is out of surgery and resting. That post noted that just a few millimeters in either direction could have been so much worse for Mark and that he was truly blessed. Mark raced with us on the NKF Tour many times, even making some long road trips to support what we were doing and I have always found him to be incredibly upbeat no matter what the circumstances. It is my hope that we will soon see him again, happy and healthy.

During the process of deciding how best to transfer Mark a second ambulance came to the track and after they sat side-by-side in the infield for several minutes, both ambulances left the grounds causing many to assume that Andrew Schroeder was also being transferred. After the crash the young driver got out of his car under his own power and even walked over to Widmar’s car to make sure that he was okay before making his way back to the pits. My colleague Barry Johnson who was in the infield said that he saw no signs that Schroeder also went to the hospital, but of course either way we hope nothing but the best for him as well.

The aftermath of the accident created a delay of just under an hour and despite the cold temperatures and numbing wind the crowd patiently waited for the racing to resume knowing that the safety of the drivers always comes first. And once back to racing, the show clicked off in good order with the six division program concluding just before 11:00 p.m.

The Sport Compact main event was first and when the rest of the seven car field bunched up on the start the Whalen brothers were able to break away by nearly a full straightaway. Merv Chandler was able to get to third after a couple of laps, but he did not have enough time to reel in the leaders as John Whalen took the win ahead of Bill Whalen Jr. and Chandler. Alex Sampson and Matt Moore completed the top five.

On Sunday night Mike Hughes debuted a new car in style by taking the win at Knoxville and he looked to repeat that accomplishment here this evening in the Hobby Stock feature. Starting tenth Hughes used the high line in turns three and four to pass much of the field on the opening lap advancing quickly up to third. The caution then waved for last week’s winner Dustin Griffiths who had stopped on the track with a flat tire and since that is against the rules he would not have an opportunity to repeat. On the restart Hughes blew past Donovan Nunnikhoven to take the lead and while Bobby Greene was able to stay close throughout the remaining laps he was unable to mount a serious challenge as Hughes took the win. Danny Thrasher started twelfth and finished behind Greene in third, Nunnikhoven was fourth and Justin Hook passed Dale Porter on the final lap for fifth.

The IMCA Late Models were making the first of five appearances here for 2013 and a solid field of sixteen cars were on hand for the posted $600 top prize. That winners’ purse was then bumped up by another $100 as it was in all classes by one of the night’s sponsors Pro-Line Buildings in New Sharon who also paid for everybody’s popcorn for the evening. Tom Darbyshire started last in his heat race and proved that he was fast there passing half of the field to take fourth so when he drew the front row for the 20-lap main event it was no surprise when he quickly moved to the lead. Just as Darbyshire was starting to stretch it out, something broke on his #42 handing the lead over to Kevin Kile on lap five. Todd Cooney was on the move and he went to work on Kile making the pass for the lead on lap nine, but the caution soon waved for a spin with eight laps remaining. On the restart it looked as if Cooney would drive away for a convincing victory, but young Spencer Diercks soon found a line that worked well for him and with three laps to go he was within striking distance of the lead.

As the white flag was set to fly Diercks pulled even with Cooney in turn four, but the leader’s momentum on the high side carried him back to the front by more than a car length with a lap to go. Diercks drove hard to the bottom of turn one, cleared Cooney and then drove up the track exiting turn two. Not ready to give in yet Cooney went even higher exiting turn two and was nearly able to pull back alongside Diercks as they stormed down the back stretch. There was no stopping the teenager from the Quad Cities though as he pulled away in three and four to claim his second career Late Model victory in an exciting fashion. Cooney would have to settle for second on this night, Kevin Kile was solid in third, Andy Eckrich started in the fourth row and finished fourth while Chad Cooney came from row six to take fifth.

The Late Model field included two new faces to the division as Zack VanderBeek finished tenth in the #5 car that we have recently seen Jeff Mitrisin in and Tom Darbyshire’s son Jacob was steady in twelfth. Jacob won a few races a couple of years ago in a Four Cylinder and has been behind the wheel of a Late Model a couple of times since then, but his stellar high school athletic career where he starred in both football and track took precedence. He followed in his father’s footsteps (“Touchdown Tommy”) as an athlete and now it looks as though he will do the same in racing.

After a tough night during the season opener, a low points average landed Jason McDaniel on the front row for the Sport Mod main event and while he was stalked throughout the 15-lap distance by Tony Johnson it was McDaniel’s race to win. Eric Flander finished third, A.J. Johnson was fourth and Carter VanDenBerg filled out the top five.

Randy Killen established a quick early pace in the IMCA Stock Car feature while the field shuffled about often going three-wide behind him. Zack VanderBeek emerged from that pack and then set his sights on Killen taking the lead on lap eight and the “Z-Man” would pull away from there to score the win. Nathan Wood slipped by Killen late to take the runner-up position while Killen held off a challenge from Jason Cook to finish third. Corey Stout recovered from early issues to race his way back up to fifth at the checkers.

The Modified feature would put a wrap on the night and there were a few of us crazies still in the stands to watch it. Brandon Banks would lead the field on the opening lap only to yield to Bill Gibson on lap two. Todd Shute was on the fly coming from the eighth starting spot and on lap six he stormed past Gibson for the lead. A spin by Casey Greubel on lap eight and then a three-car scuffle on lap ten involving Jeff Waterman, Bill Davis Jr. and Nevada visitor Cory Sample kept the field tight and on the restart Jesse Sobbing went to work on Shute passing him for the lead on lap twelve. A caution for Tyler Groenendyk with three laps remaining bunched the field one last time and while Jacob Murray was able to pulled ahead of Shute for second he could not stop Sobbing from taking already his eighth win of his rookie season in the IMCA Modifieds. Cayden Carter and Gibson crossed the line behind Murray and Shute to complete the top five.

For more complete results visit the 4dFan Report.

 

Racing action continues at the Southern Iowa Speedway next Wednesday night and I can virtually guarantee you that it has to be warmer next week than it was last night!

Dylan Smith Repeats At Knoxville Shootout

After two completely enjoyable days of non-racing entertainment in Chicago I made it back home to Iowa in time to get to the Knoxville Raceway Sunday night for the track's Second Annual Shootout for the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks. I have worked with my friend Bill Wright in the past on live internet radio broadcasts and more recently the two of us have paired up to do the p.a. announcing for the 2013 Brockway Mechanical and Roofing Sprint Invaders events. At Knoxville though Bill is the person in charge of keeping the website up to date including the live results page where you can find virtual up-to-the-minute lineups and results from each event as it progresses through the evening at the world famous track.

Since Bill is primarily an open wheel fan he asked if I would be interested in helping him with the shootout on Sunday night since I would be much more familiar with the names and numbers of the drivers participating in these four divisions than he would, so of course I said "yes". And after doing this for one night I am amazed at the effort that Bill puts into this!! After making sure that all of the drivers' numbers, names and hometowns were correct we then entered the lineups for each heat race into the system. Bill and I then rotated from heat to heat typing in some basic narration as the race was run and then had to confirm the official finish with scoring before entering that into the system. As each class concluded their heat races there was then B-Main and partial A-Main lineups to be entered, etc., etc.

With my untrained, but still fairly well advanced hunt and peck typing skills, I was able to watch very little of the racing action going on in front of me as I did my best to make sure that people who were not in attendance could get a feel for what was going on to go along with their continuously updated results. And I was only doing half of the work!!! All that I could think of was how much work this must be for Bill now that he usually does this alone on a regular race night although with sprint cars and the fact that they need to be push started perhaps gives him a little more time to complete the info for each event before the next one takes the green. As I drove home and reflected on how different of a race night experience this was for me all I could think of was the internet forum people who seem to "demand" that someone provide updated results from a track that either they were not able to, or chose not to attend themselves. There are some fans, like our colleague Brian Neal and our buddy Craig (fasttrackfan) who do take the time to keep people updated with "live" results from the events that they are attending and you should really thank them because it definitely takes away from the experience of actually being at the night of racing!

Will I ever do it again? If my friend Bill W. needs me to help him, yes absolutely, but you will NEVER see me on Twitter or on a forum providing results as an event unfolds. I am "old school" or just plain old, but I prefer to enjoy the night of racing in full, then think about it as I am driving home before trying to put a summary into words for you the readers of the Back Stretch. If that approach is outdated then so be it, at least I know that my mother will read this stuff once in awhile......if I ask her to.

As for the bits and pieces of racing that I did see I would have to say that overall the second version of this event was better than last year's often rescheduled first run. We didn't see the one "classic battle" that we did in the Stock Cars last year, but we did see good action with drivers using more than one groove throughout the evening. Dylan Smith repeated his win in the Modified division and while last year he went flag-to-flag from the pole, last night he started eighth and had to pick his way to the front before taking the lead in three-wide fashion on a mid-race restart. Jesse Sobbing is surprising nobody with his early season success as a rookie in the Modified division as he ran second, given their history with each other Josh Foster and Richie Gustin were interesting to watch in both their heat race and the feature as they finished third and fourth while Todd Shute moved from tenth to fifth. I was glad that Nevada driver Cory Sample was able to race his way into the show through the B-Main and he then had some fun at Knoxville by working his way up from row nine to tenth.

Lance Borgman was fast all night moving from seventh to second in his heat race and then in the feature he came from the fifth row to battle David Brandies and Joe Zadina for the lead and the eventual win taking the Stock Car top prize money back to Beatrice, Nebraska. Surprisingly the Sport Mod division had the lowest car count at twenty-four and it was a clean sweep for Austin Kaplan. Glenn Gladson Jr. and Carter VanDenBerg were fast, but not fast enough to catch Kaplan as they ran second and third while the owner of the Springfield Speedway in Missouri, Jerry Hoffman brought his car north to finish in sixth. In the Hobby Stock feature Mike Hughes and Corey Madden ran the first few laps side-by-side and then later Hughes had to race his way past veteran Bill Bonnett in order to secure the victory in the first night out for his #11.

The final checkered flag waved at 9:03 p.m. and the drivers headed for home on a Sunday night excited to have had the rare opportunity to race in one of these four divisions at Knoxville.

Here's hoping that the forecasted rain holds off long enough for Wednesday night's show at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa as the IMCA Late Models will join the weekly program for the evening. Then next week I hope to see the 2013 opener for the Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modifieds in Vinton on Tuesday night before heading to one of my favorite tracks, the Dubuque Speedway on Wednesday for the Deery Brothers Summer Series. Hope to see you there!

Carter and VanDerWal Delight Hometown Fans; Murty Wins Another at Osky

After three straight cancellations due to our Arctic-like Spring, the Southern Iowa Speedway was finally able to drop the green flag on its 2013 season Wednesday night and despite cool and breezy conditions a solid crowd was on hand to watch a nice field of cars do battle. With the cold and wet weather there was some concern that the racing surface might rut out, especially with the new dirt that had been added since the end of last season, but only a ripple or two appeared as the half-mile stayed fast and multi-grooved all night.

The Sport Compact feature was the first of five weekly divisions to take to the track with the Whalen brothers, Bill Jr. and John, leading the seven-car field to the green. John Whalen would open up the early lead as Merv Chandler muscled his way past Bill for second, a move that included some contact entering turn one. On lap four Chandler would take over the lead with Bill Whalen Jr. hot on his heels moving past John for second. Chandler left the inside line open and on lap seven Bill pulled even with leader on the front stretch. They ran side-by-side like that, and even banged doors one or twice over the next two laps until Whalen edged ahead by a car-length as the white flag waved. Chandler made one more run at him in both sets of turns on that final lap, but came up short as Bill Whalen Jr. took the win in an entertaining ten-lapper. John Whalen chased that duo in for third, Matt Moore was just behind him in fourth and Alex Sampson came over from Iowa City to finish fifth.

Team Griffiths made up the front row for the 14-lap Hobby Stock main event with Dustin Griffiths outrunning Dale Porter to the point into turn one. An early caution for debris is all that slowed Griffiths in this one as he was never challenged on his way to victory. Bill Bonnett was a distant second while Porter held off the charges of Danny Thrasher and Craig Brown to finish third.

Ryan Fullenkamp blasted to a big lead on the opening lap of the Sport Mod headliner as Curtis VanDerWal made a big move himself from sixth to second. VanDerWal quickly reeled in the youngster and on lap four he made the pass for the lead going down the back stretch. Trying to maintain the pace, Fullenkamp drove too deep into turn three, got up into the crumbs and spun down the race track causing the first caution period of the event. A spin by Tyler Gross two laps later was the only thing that would slow down VanDerWal as he would cruise the rest of the way to secure the opening night win here in his hometown of Oskaloosa. Brett Lowry was impressive advancing from row five to finish in the runner-up position, suburban Kansas City based teenager Ben Kates took third, current All Iowa Points leader Carter VanDenBerg finished fourth after starting next to Lowry and pole-sitter Jason Hall completed the top five.

There is nobody in any division as hot as Damon Murty is right now and when he drew the pole position for the IMCA Stock Car feature the odds were pretty good that he would win this one. However it was his fellow front row starter Nathan Wood who raced to the early advantage before a caution for a five-car pileup in turn two slowed the field. On the restart Murty went to work on Wood and on lap four "The Chelsea Charger" took over the lead. Jason Minnehan had made the trip down from Churdan and was on the move coming from eighth up to third, but his run ended on lap six when it appeared that something broke in the steering on his ride. There was no touching Murty from there as the field got spread out over the final laps and Damon told announcer Tony Paris in victory lane that he was now eight for nine on the early season. Wood would finish well back in second, Corey Stout used the outside line to pass Alan VanGorp in turn four on the final lap for third and Tommie Killen filled out the top five.

An impressive field of eighteen IMCA Modifieds was on hand for the lid-lifter and all but one of them would take the green flag for the 18-lap finale. Southwest Iowa driver Jesse Dennis would lead the field on the opening lap before Cayden Carter flew by him on the outside in turn four on lap number two. As Carter started to build his lead Todd Shute moved into the second spot and tried to keep pace. Carter's advantage stayed consistent until the closing laps when he started to reel in the back of the field and as the white flag waved it was now clear that lapped traffic just might play a role in this one. Carter stayed patient on that final lap, but in doing so it allowed Shute to close quickly and in turn four Todd was able to get to the inside of Cayden. There may have even been a little contact between the two talented drivers as they raced for the first checkers of the year here and with the crowd coming to their feet Cayden Carter prevailed by a bit more than a car-length over Shute. Jesse Sobbing was not far behind them in third, Kyle Wahlert drove one of Jacob Murray's Modifieds from the sixth row to finish fourth while Murray himself came from fifteenth to fifth. Dennis would come home in the sixth position, Tyler Groenendyk returned to Modified action at Osky in seventh, and Andrew Schroeder was eighth ahead of Tim Murty and Colt Mather.

Dick and Joyce Eisele have a full listing of the results and will also have their thoughts on the event posted soon on the 4dFan Report at Positively Racing.

The final checkered flag for the weekly show waved at 9:47 p.m. and I headed for the warmth of my car rather than watching the 30-lap main event for the small field of Iowa Sportsman Series cars on hand. Thanks to Mike VanGenderen and his entire crew for their hospitality and their usual crisp program. Don't forget race fans that the IMCA Late Models will join the Southern Iowa Speedway program for their first of five appearances here next Wednesday night May 1st.

Another commitment will keep me away from the race tracks on Friday and Saturday this weekend, but I am definitely looking forward to seventy degree temperatures for the second annual Shootout at Knoxville on Sunday night. Drivers, there are still opening in each of the four divisions so if you are interested in competing on the famed half-mile, contact the speedway and get your entry in now!

Chad Simpson Completes Weekend Sweep at Quincy

On Thursday afternoon most of the Quincy Raceways track and pit area was underwater. Three days later that same pit area was full of haulers and the quarter-mile oval was hard and smooth as the Corn Belt Clash, MARS and ALMS Late Models did battle for a $3,000 top prize.

Group qualifying, four heats and two B-Mains trimmed the thirty-three car field down to twenty-four  for the forty-lap main event with Chad Simpson and Brandon Sheppard starting from the front row. Simpson grabbed the lead at the drop of the green with Sheppard and Shannon Babb keeping pace. The top three gradually separated themselves from the rest of the field and while Simpson maintained about a five car-length advantage, Babb was able to put a nose under Sheppard on a couple of occasions.

As the leaders worked traffic with ten laps remaining, Babb tried the topside around turns one and two going a bit too wide and dropping the right rear off the top of the racing surface. To make the save Babb turned completely sideways and somehow avoided contact with a lapped car as he drove down the track, but since the lead trio was now so far in front of the rest of the pack Babb's near spin did not even cost him a position.

Shannon Babb (18) made several attempts on Brandon Sheppard (B5) for second before nearly spinning out. Babb held on to finish in third - Barry Johnson photo

With the laps winding down Sheppard's attempts to keep Simpson within striking distance were not successful as the leader worked traffic like a master going flag-to-flag for a dominating victory. The win backed up his victory the night before when Chad came from the twelfth starting spot at 34 Raceway in Burlington. Sheppard finished second, Babb took third, Brian Shirley moved from ninth to fourth while Jason Perry finished where he started in fifth. Tony Jackson Jr. was sixth for the second night in a row, Chris Simpson finished seventh, Tyler Reddick faded from fourth to eighth, Terry Phillips took ninth and Kevin Weaver rounded out the top ten.

Chad Simpson was on cruise control for the $3,000 victory - Barry Johnson photo

Q Notes......Group qualifying meant that the fast cars started up front in the heats with three of the four (Chad Simpson, Sheppard and Babb) being won from the pole position. Tyler Reddick started third and passed Jake Meier to win the fourth heat....The third heat took a little extra time to complete when Justin Reed and Kevin Weaver made contact on the back stretch during the opening lap sending Weaver for a spin. Dustin Walker spun his car to avoid Weaver and slid right through the only standing water that I saw on the grounds in the infield in turn three sending a big splash of moisture out onto the race track. It took several laps of wheel packing before the race could be restarted. Then, once it did, the cars of Reed and Dave Eckrich got hooked together on the front stretch creating another long delay while they were carefully pulled apart.....The two B-Mains saw good battles for the third and final transfer spot with Ryan Unzicker edging out Brandon Thirlby in the first one and Justin Reed coming from mid-pack to take third in the second one.....Six provisionals, two each from the three tours were added to the field: Thirlby, Doug Herrick, Dustin Walker, Dave Eckrich, Justin Asplin and Brunson Behning......Veteran St. Louis area drivers Ed Dixon and Mike Hammerle were among the nine drivers who did not make the A-main.

Skipp Dunker started the Sport Compact main event from the pole position and was challenged early by Josh Barnes. As Barnes pulled even with the leader following a lap two restart the right front tire came off the rim of Barnes' car ending his evening and from there Dunker went unchallenged for the win. Kimberly Abbott finished second for the second week in a row here, last Sunday's winner Craig Bangert ran third, Matt Moore made the long pull from Ottumwa, Iowa, to finish fourth and Bryce Baker was the last car running in fifth.

Skipp Dunker (3) started from the pole and went flag-to-flag for the Sport Compact win - Barry Johnson photo

Michael Long and Steven DeLonjay had a good battle going in the 25-lap UMP Modified finale until the challenger, DeLonjay slowed and pulled to the infield on lap eight. Robbie Reed who had started sixth was now reeling in Long and was ready to challenge before the caution waved on lap sixteen for a Jake Griffin spin in turn four. On the restart David Wietholder pinched Reed down to the bottom in turn two to take over the second spot and then he went to work on Long over the final laps. Wietholder was able to pull even with Long exiting turn two twice in the final laps, but Long maintained his composure to fight him off in turn three in order to hold on for the victory. Wietholder was a solid second ahead of Reed who had another nice run tonight. Jimmy Cummins made the trip up from the St. Louis area to finish fourth while Shawn Deering completed the top five.

Michael Long was all alone mid-race, but he had to hold off a late challenge from David Wietholder to win the UMP Modified main event - Barry Johnson photo

Ours thanks to the QR crew for their usual fine hospitality and for putting on an efficient show that saw the final checkers wave at 8:45 p.m. For as much work that the Quincy Raceways staff put in over the past three days just to have this show, they deserved a better crowd than what they had this evening. Hopefully they get a more normal week of weather requiring much less work and the stands will fill in nicely for weekly racing here next Sunday night.

Chris Simpson Drops Out Late, Chad Simpson Takes It From There at 34

Late Model fans had it good at 34 Raceway near Burlington Saturday night as three regional touring series (MARS, ALMS and the CBC) came together to produce a solid field of forty-four cars and in the end it was the defending Corn Belt Clash champion Chad Simpson standing in victory lane.

Terry Phillips and Kevin Weaver would bring the field of twenty-seven to the green for the 40-lap main event with Weaver rocking the cushion to take the early lead. A caution on lap two for Jake Meier slowed the pace and on the restart Weaver again raced out to a comfortable lead. Third-starting Chris Simpson was battling Phillips for second and when Weaver bobbled in lapped traffic on lap eleven, both Phillips and Simpson drove by. Simpson would work his way past Phillips two laps later to take the lead while his brother Chad was methodically working his way through the field after starting twelfth.

A caution for Mark Burgtorf on lap fourteen and another for Scott Schmitt on lap seventeen kept the field tight and on lap nineteen Chad made his move to put the Simpson brothers one-two with Chris out front. Despite the hard charge through the pack Chad was not gaining any ground on Chris for the lead and in fact the gap between the two began to grow as the laps clicked away. The race to watch was the battle for third where Jesse Stovall and Brian Shirley were swapping the position back and forth several times while Tyler Reddick closed in on the two of them looking for some racing room of his own.

Chris Simpson looked like he had this one well in hand until with just two and a half laps remaining he suddenly slowed down the back stretch and pulled to the infield. Brother Chad was happy to take it from there as he would lead the final two circuits to pick up the $4,000 top prize. Stovall prevailed in what now had become the race for second while Shirley finished third. Reddick, the young native Californian, had to use a provisional to start twenty-sixth and put on quite a show to finish fourth while Terry Phillips completed the top. Tony Jackson Jr. crossed the stripe in sixth, Weaver faded to seventh, Billy Drake used an ALMS series provisional to start 22nd and finished eighth while Justin Kay came from the tenth row for ninth.

CBC/MARS/ALMS/34 Notes......As expected the field was diverse and was chock full of drivers that you knew had an opportunity to win. Tonight's format saw drivers draw for their starting spots in the five heat races with passing points determining the feature qualifiers......2012 Quincy Raceways track champion Jason Perry showed his strength edging out former UMP National Champion Ryan Unzicker for the win in heat one as Jesse Stovall started eighth and finished third.....Chris Simpson walked away with the second heat taking the checkers well ahead of Scott Schmitt while Ray Guss Jr. took third......Brandon Sheppard started on the pole of the third heat, faded to third early, but then came back to take the win. Kevin Weaver who flew to the early lead after starting sixth wound up in second while local driver Jay Johnson was third......Terry Phillips and Steve Lance Jr. were one-two in the fourth heat that was highlighted by a three-wide battle for third between Mark Burgtorf, Michigan's Brandon Thirlby and Minnesota's Nick Herrick......The fifth heat closed out in thrilling fashion as on the final lap a pair of sliders were thrown in turns three and four. Brian Shirley tried to put one on Tony Jackson Jr. only to see the southwest Missouri shoe Jackson come back under Shirley off of four to take the win. And right behind them it was Chad Simpson trying to make the same move on Denny Eckrich with Eckrich also coming back to take the third position......Two cars out of each of the two B-Mains would advance with Brian Harris winning the first one. Ray Guss Jr. tried to hold on for that final transfer only to see both Justin Kay and Tyler Reddick drive by him before he slowed on the final lap......In the second B Mark "Fluffy" Dotson would take a convincing win with Rich Bell snagging the final transfer......Provisional starters were Dustin Walker, Billy Drake, Jake Meier, Dave Eckrich, Justin Asplin and Tyler Reddick while event sponsor Denny Woodworth, Attorney at Law, was also added to the field.......Brandon Sheppard started eighth in the A-Main and was quickly into the top five before pulling to the infield just after the second lap restart......Dotson had charged from the ninth row into the top ten before his left rear tire went flat on lap 22.....The Clash for Cash combo moves south to the quarter-mile bullring in Quincy Sunday evening.

Sixteen 305 c.i. Sprint Cars were on hand for their opening points race of the season with Andy Huston starting from the pole for the 20-lap main event. On his outside was Damian Getchell, who I believe was competing in his first night ever in a winged sprint car and he looked pretty good before hooking a hole and going for a spin on lap three. Huston had lost his right side headers early in the race and sounded like a high-speed popcorn machine as he raced by the stands in the lead lap after lap. But with just two laps remaining Donnie Steward used the high line in turn two to fly by Huston for the lead, and soon the win. Huston would settle for runner-up money, Jayson Dittsworth was up to third early before spinning on the front stretch and restarting tenth, but he came right back to take the third position at the checkers. John Schulz would finish in the fourth spot followed by Ryan Jamison and central Illinois driver Andy Baugh.

The Sport Compact division was thirty cars strong with twenty-nine of them taking the green for the 12-lap main event. Michael Grossman out dragged fellow front row mate Brent Hartley to take the early lead with the race coming to an abrupt stop two laps later when Corey Sheetz rolled his car off the top of turn two. Hartley blew a tire just as the red flag came out with Dustin Ravelin now picking up the chase of Grossman in second. Eric Hood came from deep in the pack, row nine, to challenge Ravelin for second and with just two laps to go those two drivers came together as the caution waved for another skirmish just ahead of them on the front stretch. There was no stopping Grossman on this night though as he pulled away on the final restart to take the win. Steve Miedke came from row six to claim the second spot while John Whalen and the ageless veteran Wayne Noble were scored third and fourth at the finish. The driver in fifth, Dayton Racer, made the long pull down from Apple Valley, Minnesota, obviously wanting to get out of the snow so that he could racing. Just a sophomore in high school Racer recently won the Class AAA Minnesota state wrestling meet at 145 pounds and helped his team to their eighth straight state title. The youngster got a little jumpy though on that final restart as he actually crossed the finish line in third, but was docked two spots to fifth at the pay window.

Congratulations and a big note of appreciation to Jeff & Amy Laue and the entire 34 Raceway staff for somehow drying this place out enough to race tonight after getting over three inches of rain here on Wednesday and Thursday. The cold temperatures likely kept the crowd down a bit, but those who were here tonight surely enjoyed what they saw and are hopefully excited about doing it all again tomorrow night (Sunday) at the Quincy Raceways.