Last night was night #1 of the two-night Fall Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa. What a car count, as by my figures, 167 competitors came from near and far to try their hand at taming this notoriously hard to handle track. Many of those drivers found out just how hard it is to tame! At least four red flags flew for situations involving rollovers or hard hits to the walls or guard rails. Thankfully, none of those incidents resulted in injuries.
The B Modifieds had 51 cars checked in. Two large B mains whittled the starting A feature to eighteen cars of which the eight top finishers would be locked in to tonight's big feature event. By the luck of the draw, local hot shoe, 16 year old Cayden Carter, sat on the pole. It was no surprise that this race was led the entire 18-laps by the young man from Oskaloosa. He pulled away and secured yet another of his many, many wins in 2011....by nearly 3/4 of a lap over his nearest competitor. Jared Timmerman trailed a distant second the entire race but had challenges by Carter VanDenBerg and Bryon Weyer much of the race. Timmerman did take the runner up spot, with Weyer winning out over VanDenBerg as they finished third and fourth respectively. Fifth place went to Jason Mallicoat, who has been piloting the #36 car as of late, that we had seen Matt Pittman racing earlier in the season. Rounding out the top eight qualifiers were Jake Timm, Winona, Minnesota, Eric Flander and Curtis VanDerWal.
By the time the stock car feature pulled on the track, things had gotten a little nippy and the winds that had died down earlier, began to pick up again. Forty stock cars also had to be pared down to eighteen A main starters via two large B mains. Lance Deal sat on the pole along side Steve "Action" Jackson, veteran driver from Polk City, Iowa. Jackson took the lead in the 18-lapper from the start. He had to do battle with Matt Jones, Deal, Shane Weller and a plethora of other cars advancing fast! Jackson, Jones and then Weller swapped the lead until Weller secured that spot with three laps remaining and then took the checkers first. The action in this race was shades of the "old days" when stock car racing was at its finest on the "Monster 1/2 mile". It was an exciting and enjoyable race to watch. The final couple of laps had cars swapping positions continuously right up until they crossed the checkers flying. Following the winner, Weller, was Jackson in second, Nathan Wood in third, fourth was Matt Jones from Waukon, Iowa up in northeastern Iowa, and Shay Curtin, also from Waukon, was fifth. Completing the top eight qualifying spots for tonight's show were Brian Webb out of Decorah, Mike VanGenderen, (who did double duty and competed in the A modifieds class as well) and Brian Mitrisin. If last night's racing in the stock car class is any indication of things to come for tonight's action, you shouldn't miss it!
The hobby stocks also had 40 cars on hand and they too had to have two large B mains to get down to their starting field of 18 cars. Bill Bonnett in the 7B car that is usually piloted by Eric Stanton, had a good battle going on with Austin Wolfgram and Adam Cline as the laps wound down. As the white flag flew, the second place car of Wolfgram was suddenly "dead in the water" in corner two, giving second place over to Cline. Bonnett took the win, Cline was second, third went to Dan Sacquitne, Donovan Nunnikhoven took fourth and Steve Larson was fifth. Rounding out the top eight qualifiers were Nick Ulin, Clayton Crump, and Todd Reitzler.
Twenty-six A modifieds competed in the 25th annual running of the Fall Challenge. Steve Blattler and "RVB"---Ron VerBeek, were the lucky recipients of the front row for the main. It didn't take long until third row starter, Colt Mather came calling and took the lead over Blattler. From then on, there was no looking back for Mather, as he pulled away to the end. Zack VanderBeek gave it a shot in the closing laps, but had to settle for second place. Third went to Blattler, fourth to Bob Timm out of Winona, Minnesota, and fifth was Mark Elliott. Rounding out the top eight spots were Bruce Hanford, Ron VerBeek and Kurt Kile.
We are opting to head back down to the Southern Iowa Speedway and take in the action again tonight. If the racing is anything like last night, we won't be disappointed. We are really hoping this won't be the last night of racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, as the reign of Todd and Janet Staley comes to an end. We thank them for what they did to bring racing to the fans. We have found ourselves sitting in that big ole grandstand on Wednesday nights for years and years, and we feel it would be a shame for that to end and the track to sit idle. We are hoping that someone will pick up the reins and guide the track to a new future. Happy racing!
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