Another beautiful night greeted the good crowd at Oskaloosa for the USMTS race on Tuesday night. We always anticipate watching the outstanding USMTS drivers when they come to town to put on a show. There were 41 cars participating on this night and they did not disappoint the fans. The feature saw Marshalltown's young Ryan Gustin on the pole, alongside Watertown, South Dakota driver, Jon Tesch. There were 27 cars that started the feature with NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace joining the field as a provisional in his JEG #36 ride. He had been unable to get his machine fired to run his heat and missed qualifying through his B main by a couple of spots, but it was nice for the fans, that promoter Todd Staley allowed him to compete in the feature.
As always with a USMTS race, the action was fast and exciting from the get go. For the better part of the main event, Oklahoma driver, Jason Hughes chased Jon Tesch around the big half-mile oval. However, as the laps wound down, Hughes would catch and pass Tesch to take the win; his first ever at the Southern Iowa Speedway track. Coming home in an impressive third place was Ryan Gustin and behind him came two local New Sharon, Iowa drivers, Brad Pinkerton followed by Zach VanderBeek. I scored the 21M machine of Dean Mahlstedt (who had started well back in the pack and steadily made his way forward) in fifth, but it may have been the 7I car of "A Train", Al Hejna making the pass. Twenty-two cars were still running at the end.
The regular track classes also ran on this Tuesday night. It was nice to see young B Mod driver Tyler Groenendyk take his first win - and he beat out his father Leroy Groendyk who followed him across the finish line. Tyler gave a very nice interview in Victory Lane for his first time there and even got in the mention of his sponsors. No doubt, this will not be his only victory interview. Taking third was another youngster, Drew Lawson, in his good looking #D1 ride. Corey Brown took fourth, and Andrew Schroeder fifth.
Though the stock cars only had 13 cars, they were enjoyable to watch as they powered around the track. Leading much of the race was the 15K car of Kyle Harwood, a driver who ran the modified class last year. In the end, he had to settle for a fifth place finish, as Nathan Wood put his car up front and took the win, followed by Brian Mitrisin, Zach VanderBeek, and Matt Greiner in fourth.
The hobby stocks had a nice field of 20 cars participating. Nathan Wood put his car into Victory Lane for a second time this night, as he took the checkered flag first. I believe I understood announcer Tony Paris say that he is driving the hobby stock car for fellow hobby stock competitor TJ Henderson. Coming home in second was last week's winner Bobby Greene (no backflip for the fans this week)and third was visiting Cresco, Iowa driver Chris Hovden. Fourth was Kris Walker and fifth was Dale Porter.
A very enjoyable and comfortable weather night, concluded before 10:40 p.m. Tonight, May 20th, the USMTS "Cars and Stars", will make their way north for their first ever visit to the highbanks of the Marshalltown Speedway. We are so looking forward to watching them run the quarter-mile highbanked track. It should be fun!
Results for the evening are listed below. Happy racing!
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