The Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa was host to the traveling MLRA (Midwest Late Model Racing Association) series on Thursday night. The usual Wednesday night show was moved to Thursday too, and the regular five classes ran along with the traveling Late Models. A new Modified driver, with a familiar name and who has seen plenty of time around the big old half-mile over the years---stepped back into victory lane. There were first time winners in the Stock Car and SportMod features, while drivers in the Hobby Stock and Sport Compact, added to their list of wins in 2014.
Bill Whalen did a happy dance in victory lane, after taking his fourth win of the season in the Sport Compact class. Whalen led the feature by the halfway mark of the eight lap race, and then sailed off to the win. Matt Moore took the runner up spot, Shaun Slaughter from Iowa City took third. Fourth was Austen Becerra, Carthidge, Missouri and Trent Orwig was fifth.
Jason McDaniel took home a win in the IMCA Northern SportMod class. McDaniel fought for the lead early with Logan Anderson. Anderson then had misfortune strike at lap eight, losing it at the top of turn four, and being eliminated for the night when Cory VanZante plowed into him hard. The race restarted with McDaniel inheriting the lead and keeping it to the checkers. Curtis VanDerWal finished second after starting in row five, and Carter VanDenberg worked his way up from row four to capture third place. Brayton Carter finished fourth, and Brett Lowry (who was sporting a new wrap for breast cancer awareness...yes, much pink) completed the top five. McDaniel's won for the first time at Osky this year.
The MLRA Late Models ran 30-laps for their feature. Their starting lineup was determined via passing points (have no clue how it works) plus series points. A B main was run to fill in the final spots and I believe two provisionals were also added at the tail of the start. We are not very familiar with these drivers, and only wish we could have heard the MLRA announcer a bit better when giving the driver's names....sometimes minus their number. One of my pet peeves is not knowing who is in which car!
The MLRA feature did not get off to a good start. Before a lap was scored, there was an incident coming out of turn four that ended in a parking lot of cars. When the race restarted, it was John Anderson taking the point at lap one, Chris Simpson and Chad Simpson in tow. The rest of the race continued caution free, Chris Simpson making futile attempts at catching Anderson. Anderson took the win, Chris and Chad Simpson going second and third, and Matt Furman in fourth and Jason Utter in fifth. The driver making the most advancement was Marshalltown's Ryan Gustin. Gustin blew up in his heat race, had to go to a back up car, and started back in row ten. He put on the driving show, and finished sixth. I believe we heard that winner John Anderson is a three-time MLRA Series champion.
There were a few new drivers in the Modified ranks last night. Before lap two was scored, an unfamiliar sight saw Jesse Sobbing spinning around in turn four, (contact maybe.....couldn't tell) sending him to the tail on the restart. Dakota Hayden led the race from starting on the pole, and was looking strong. By lap thirteen, he was being heavily challenged by the #44, piloted last night by Colt Mather. Just after lap fifteen, Mather took the lead, pulled away, taking a comfortable win at the checkers. Hayden kept the runner up spot, Casey Greubel was third, Scott Dickey fourth and Jim Lynch was fifth. Mather, who has seen many a lap around the speedway in the past, was racing a Skyrocket chassis that we have seen Kelly Shryock and other drivers race previously.
The Hobby Stock feature was yet another shoot out between Mike Hughes and Dustin Griffiths. Griffiths did everything he could....looking to the outside and then to the low side, but just could not make it work, as Hughes took the checkers, Griffiths being scored as the runner up. Third was Brad Stephens, fourth went to Bill Bonnett and Justin Hook was fifth. Hughes won for the fourth time this season.
The rubbered down track was no detriment to the highly competitive IMCA Stock Cars. Todd Reitzler got to the front early, but behind him, it was three and four wide racing for positions. By lap eight, it was the Chelsea Charger, Damon Murty putting his 99D into the front spot, Reitzler running in second. Murty pulled off from the pack as the laps wound down, and scored his first win at Oskaloosa this year. Brad Pinkerton piloted his ride into the runner up spot after starting ninth, visiting Justin Temeyer started beside Pinkerton in row ten, and went home with a third place finish. Cayden Carter survived a "tail in the air" scare earlier that eliminated Donovan Nunnikhoven from what we guess was a wheel hop, for a fourth place finish, and Nathan Wood finished out the top five places.
Some notes on the evening: Bill Bonnett was piloting a Murray built house car #19 in the SportMod division. Jason Bodenhammer was a late arrival in the MLRA Late Models, making it just in time to run the B. He ended up with his nice shiny newly wrapped car, pretty much having the right side obliterated in an incident. It was nice to see new drivers in every regular class last night. Jim Lynch, Hunter Marriott, Mather, Kyle Krampe and Bruce Hanford came to play in the Modified division. Daniel Dyer and Andrew Hustead were new in the Hobby Stocks. Dalton Lynch, son of veteran Jim Lynch, was new in the Stock Cars, while Bill Bonnett, Shawn Ritter, Casey Lancaster, Kelly Buckallew, and Sam Wieben ran for the first time in the SportMods.
Next week, the Southern Iowa Speedway will be back to their regular Wednesday night show. It will also be the only night that fans can vote for Hall of Fame nominees----selecting five names from a list of twenty-five possible candidates. Racing is at 7:30. Thanks to Mike VanGenderen and crew for putting on the show last night and letting the fans see a taste of the MLRA series. Thanks for reading and happy racing!
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