This is the hot, humid July weather that I remember as a kid. Whew! Thankfully a nice breeze was blowing at the Southern Iowa Speedway this past Wednesday night which provided some relief to fans and those in the pits. Drivers I am sure were sweltering! After feature racing, a total of four drivers would be disqualified--two in the B mods and two in the hobby stock division--making for changes in the finishes.
The USRA stock cars only had a total of six cars signed in on this night. A far cry from the "glory days" of stock car racing at Osky when a B main was nearly always needed. However, it was a really exciting race with two drivers battling it out up front! Not surprisingly, those two drivers were Nathan Wood and Mike VanGenderen. The 12-lap feature saw those two jockeying back and forth most of those laps. Wood led through lap eight when VanGenderen made the pass into the lead and was looking to see victory lane. Wood had other ideas, and flung his #52 around VanGenderen on the final corners as the checkers were flying ahead. I believe this makes four wins for the Keswick, Iowa driver at the speedway this year. Kyle Harwood crossed the line in his #15K machine in third and visiting driver David Dennem crossed in fourth. Rick Todd did not finish as his car had smoked all night long, and Toby Smith was unable to start the feature.
Up next was the USRA hobby stockers. Sitting on the front row were Steve Allen (coming off of a recent win at Memphis, Missouri) and the point leader, Derek Kirkland. Allen led the opening laps but by lap six, Todd Reitzler was in the lead and putting a lot of distance between himself and second place of Andrew Husted. Meanwhile Craig Brown was making great headway and put himself in a distant second place as he battled with Kris Walker and Don Nunnikhoven. Reitzler crossed the line in first place by a lengthy margin as Brown, Walker, Nunnikhoven and Derek Kirkland rounded out the top five. However, things would get changed a great deal after a bit of teching. It was announced that Reitzler and Nunnikhoven were both disqualified for having "illegal ported heads". This would then hand over the win to Craig Brown...his first win at Osky...second would go to Kris Walker, third to Derek Kirkland, fourth to the "Lady's Man" #20 (it's pink) of Andrew Husted out of Rutledge, Missouri, and tallied in fifth would be Steve Allen.
Twelve USRA modifieds took to the track for their feature event. "Birthday boy" Greg Cox sat on the pole...hoping for a birthday win, with Colt Mather along side. Mather would leap to the lead and Cox would give chase the entire 18-lap race. Mather took the win and Cox had to settle for that runner up spot. Third went to Packwood, Iowa driver Scott Dickey, fourth to Steven Blattler, and fifth to Brandon Banks.
The program was stepped up a bit as storm clouds fast approached from the west. The final feature, the B-mods, quickly maneuvered into their starting line-up for their 15-lap A main.
Polesitter, Carter VandenBerg was able to make the call after coasting across the line for the win in his heat race--victim of a shucked driveshaft. Jason McDaniel sat along side VandenBerg on the front row. McDaniel and VandenBerg would run one-two the entire circuits around the "Mahaska Monster half-mile" to finish in that order. I thought I understood announcer Tony Paris say this was McDaniel's first B-mod win at Osky.
The remaining finishing order in the B-mod feature was shuffled around when two of the top five finishers were disqualified in post-race inspection for having "full spools"--Cayden Carter in the #10 and Mike Shelton in the #16. This would move Bill Gibson into the third place finishing spot, Mike Wanders to fourth, and fifth would be the new car on the night, the #20 announced to be Minburn, Iowa driver Clint Luellen. Luellen usually races the 3L IMCA SportMod at the Boone Speedway. As a note, stock car driver Nathan Wood was in a black #52 B mod on the evening, but his night came to an early climax during his heat race when he threw a driveshaft in a ball of fire. He did not start the feature.
The racing program beat Mother Nature on this night. When we left the track, there was lightning all around and radar showed nasty red not far away. Mark your calendars for next Wednesday night as the IMCA Deery Brothers late model series comes to the Southern Iowa Speedway during the fair. All regular classes will also be on the docket. Tickets will be $15 for adults and $5 for children 6-12. Hot laps are scheduled for their regular time of 7:15 with racing at 7:30. Be sure and check www.rlpromotions.com for official race results and information as well as www.heartlandmotorsports.com. Happy racing!
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