It was another packed pits night on Saturday and a full grandstand, to close the curtain on the 2011 season at Osky. Thankfully, the temperatures were warmer than the previous night, making for a much more pleasant closure to our "bench sitting" for the year. In recognition of the 25th anniversary of this event, all four classes ran 25-lap features.
The hobby stocks started the A mains by running first. The two top finishers from the previous night's locked-in eight cars, Bill Bonnett and Adam Cline, sat on the front row. Bonnett, driving the car owned by Eric Stanton, wasted no time in establishing the lead and put distance between himself and Cline. Regular competitor, Donoven Nunnikhoven and Missouri driver Clayton Crump took to the topside of the track and pursued Bonnett, as he kept his line on the bottom of the track. It appeared the topside was the way to go, as both Nunnikhoven and Crump were able to get past Bonnett, who dropped to the third spot. With just a couple of laps remaining, Bonnett fought back, still on the bottom and got to second place---and then made the pass on Nunnikhoven for the lead on lap twenty-four. Bonnett then went home to the checkers first, securing his second win in as many nights. Nunnikhoven had to settle for second on this night, Crump crossed in third, Adam Cline was fourth and Steve Larson took fifth. A check of the official results at www.usraracing.com, indicates that the third place finishing Clayton Crump was disqualified. This then put Chris Hovden to round out the top five positions. The race went flag-to-flag.
The USRA A modifieds ran their 25-lap feature next. As previous night top two qualifiers, Colt Mather and Zack VanderBeek sat on the front row. VanderBeek took flight and pulled away from Mather as Bob Timm ran a distant third. At lap fifteen, the yellow flag flew, but not for an incident on the track. The race was halted for a medical call in the infield and a subsequent ambulance transport. One lap after the restart, second place runner Colt Mather's car shot into the the turn one wall, ending his run. VanderBeek then cruised home to the win. Steve Blatter finished as the runner up, and Ron VerBeek and Kurt Kile duked it out for third and fourth, finishing in that order. Bob Timm rounded out the top five.
In the USRA B modified feature, it was Cayden Carter repeating his win from the previous night. Carter led all 25-laps but had company on the topside the entire time. Bryon Weyer chased Carter closely as they broke away from the field. Third place running Jason Mallicoat challenged Weyer on the low side in the last couple of laps, but to no avail. Carter won--his 31st of the season I believe to hear him say--Weyer was second, Mallicoat third, fourth went to Jake Timm, the Winona, Minnesota driver, and Jared Timmerman finished in fifth.
As we thought was fitting, the last to run their feature were the stock cars. Osky has been known as a hot bed of stock car racing in the past. There has been some fantastic races in the class, often the best racing of the night, and times when three cars were coming to the checkers, three-wide. This night brought some of that action as cars were clumped together battling for positions. Nathan Wood, Shay Curtin and Shane Weller fought up front for the top spot. Curtin's run for the money ended when he hit the infamous turn one wall, resulting in a flat and his retirement to the pits. The waning laps saw Weller challenge Wood for the lead, and Steve Jackson threw his hat into the ring, challenging them both. But on this night, it was Wood taking the win...unbelievably his first of the year at the track as he commented in victory lane...Weller kept second over Jackson in third, Matt Greiner in fourth and Mike "The Flying Dutchman" VanGenderen was fifth.
And so ended another Fall Challenge, the 25th at the Southern Iowa Speedway. If memory serves me correct, we have been to them all. We truly hope it will not be the last, nor the end of weekly racing at the big ole 1/2 mile. Thanks once again goes out to Todd and Janet Staley for their dedication over the years in bringing weekly racing to the area. Thanks to announcer Tony Paris for giving a shout out to us and the other Positively Racing collegues who made the trip to the track. We will cross our fingers, and hope that next year, we will once again be sitting in the grandstands and enjoying the racing action.
Our racing adventures for 2011 have more than likely come to an end at 74 races. There is always a chance we could find a race to travel to, but nothing is planned at this time. We already have plans for starting our racing off in 2012 at Daytona International Speedway in February. We do enjoy a NASCAR race now and then, but nothing beats sitting at a good ole dirt track race in our opinion. Until next time, happy racing!
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