We took the trip south to Oskaloosa, Iowa for the season opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday night. The big "monster" half-mile track has been our Wednesday night racing home for many, many years. The weather cooperated and the grandstand crowd sat in comfort watching the USRA modifieds, USRA B mods, USRA stock cars, and the USRA hobby stocks. We noticed several drivers making a substantial haul to indulge in their mid-week racing fix coming from all directions in the state...and beyond.
The Carter Manufacturing USRA B mods ran their feature first. Young Carter VanDenBerg jumped to the lead from his outside front row starting spot and was looking to be headed to victory lane as he pulled away from the rest of the pack. Restarts would bunch the field behind him, putting Mike Shelton and Bill Gibson within their reach for that top spot. Gibson passed Shelton for the second spot and was closing in on leader VanDenBerg making it a nail-bitter on the last lap. VanDenBerg still held the lead at the white flag, but Gibson made the pass in turns three and four, and snatched the win away. Gibson took the win with VanDenBerg settling for the runner-up spot. Andrew Schroeder had a great run from starting near the end of the field, to grab a third place finish ahead of fourth place Mike Shelton. Mike Wanders rounded out the top five positions. As mentioned earlier concerning drivers making a haul to come and race, the #23K B mod of Ben Kates made an appearance. He is from the Kansas City, Missouri area and was there in "the big red hauler" with his dad Joey Kates. We understood announcer Tony Paris to say the Kates Motorsports team was there taking a look at the track in anticipation of father Joey racing the USMTS race scheduled for next Wednesday night in Oskaloosa.
We have always loved watching the stock cars run at Osky and they put on some close racing again tonight. Derek Kirkland, last year's hobby stock track champion was scheduled to start on the pole of the feature, but elected to start at the rear of the 13-car starting field. Only one driver did not make the call for the feature, as veteran stock car pilot, Steve Jackson had mechanical issues and was not able to even run his heat. He was seen leaving the track early.
Shane Weller was once again in fine form as he led most of the race but had a hard battle with several other drivers in Nathan Wood, Randy Killen and Tom Killen, and traveler from Churdan, Iowa, Jason Minnehan. It appeared to us that Nathan Wood held the lead on the last couple of passes at the flagstand before the finish, over Weller, but that black 20DUB car of Weller wasn't to be denied as he took the checkers first. It was a tight finish among the first three, but Weller took the win over Nathan Wood, Randy Killen and Jason Minnehan as they finished second, third and fourth respectively. Tom Killen in the 1K car came home in fifth and rookie in the stock car ranks, Derek Kirkland finished sixth.
USRA hobby stocks started all fourteen cars for their feature. Local favorite and veteran driver from several classes, Jim Hughes took the lead from the pole spot only to have the visiting driver from Decorah, Danny Sacquitine take the helm convincingly with a few laps to go. Sacquitne, in his flashy bright green ride, took the checkers with Hughes retaining the second place. Third went to Craig Brown, fourth to Steve Allen, and fifth to Donovan Nunnikhoven. We are not familiar with winner Sacquitne, but he runs regularly at the Upper Iowa Speedway in his hometown of Decorah according to his interview in victory lane.
The USRA modifieds finished off the night's racing with thirteen of the fourteen cars on hand starting the A main. Only Dan Demay was unable to start, nor did he even make his heat event. Too bad for the driver hauling all the way from Denison, Iowa.
Nate Caruth in his 7II car, shot to the lead and was pulling away from the pack easily, only to have a caution bunch the field with only a handful of laps down in the 20-lapper. That's when Colt Mather took advantage of the restart, took the lead from Caruth and then he pulled away from the field, leaving Caruth trailing a distance behind in second. The 20-lap race ended with Mather taking the win, Caruth in second, Scott Dickey in third, fourth going to Steven Blattler, and fifth to Zack VanderBeek.
A couple of drivers in the modified ranks made a stop over at the track on their way to the following night's USMTS race at the Outlaw Motor Speedway in Oktaha, Oklahoma...near Muskogee. Kelly Shryock was one of those drivers, as no doubt, was Caruth. The USMTS will be making their only scheduled appearance at the Southern Iowa Speedway next Wednesday night. Make plans to attend as this is always a great program. For more information on USMTS racing as well as the Southern Iowa Speedway, check www.usmts.com and www.rlpromotions.com.
Full results are listed below this blog. Get out and support our great sport of racing at a race near you. Until next time, happy racing!
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