Whew! It was a hot one at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday night. The racing had a lot of hot action as well. This night would see four new drivers win for the first time this season, and one veteran driver just keeps racking up the wins.
The features kicked off with the IMCA Sport Compacts and their 6-car, 8-lap main event. John Whalen led the first three laps but veteran Merv Chandler was soon on his tail. Chandler would take the lead on lap four and never look back--taking his seventh win at the track this year. Bill Whalen, Jr. would finish a distant second, with John Whalen in third, fourth was newcomer on the night, Tim Bevins from Eldon, and fifth was Anthony Cassat and Trent Orwig finished in sixth.
The IMCA Northern SportMods ran their 15-lap A main next and it would be a caution-free affair. Bill Gibson had little trouble in taking the win; leading all laps. Ryan Fullencamp crossed the finish line in second, but would be disqualified in the tech area with what announcer Tony Paris said was, "an illegal MSD box, and the chip was not working". This handed the runner up spot over to Curtis VanDerWal who made up significant distance from starting in eighth place. Third would go to Eric Flander, fourth was Jesse Sobbing, who continues to make his weekly long-distance trip over from Glenwood, Iowa in far western Iowa, and Carter VandenBerg took the fifth place.
The IMCA Hobby Stocks were vying for an extra $100 (as were the SportMods, Stock Cars and Modifieds, thanks to generous sponsors on the night) with a $50 bonus thrown in for second place. This one didn't start off so well as it took a couple of tries before they could get more than lap one scored. When things finally got into real racing mode, the race was up front between Dustin Griffiths and Jamie Songer, the two challenging each other the rest of the feature. Justin Hook was scrambling to catch the two front running cars, but would slip off of the backstretch and loose many positions before gaining control of his ride. Griffiths would eventually take command of the lead and race home to his first victory of the season at the Southern Iowa Speedway, Songer taking second. Third went to Mike Hughes, fourth was Kevin Fee, and no stranger to the big ole half-mile monster, Kris Walker rounded out the top five. Walker was piloting Scott Shull's usual ride.
It was now time for the 16-lap IMCA Stock Cars. Leroy Groenendyk and Todd Reitzler were the front row sitters. Groenendyk led the first lap but he was soon off power and took his ride to the pits. This put Todd Reitzler in charge with cars going 3-4 wide behind him. Alan VanGorp took over the second spot with a toss up for third between Matt Greiner, Corey "from just across the street" Stout, and Colt Mather. Damon Murty threw his hat into the ring as he caught the front runners and took over third. Greiner had other ideas about Murty's pass, and slipped by him for a brief moment until Murty took third place back with a lap to go. Reitzler would score the victory, his first ever in the Stock Car class (he's a former Hobby Stock driver) at Osky, VanGorp took the runner up spot, followed closely by Murty in third. Fourth was Matt Greiner and Nathan Wood was fifth. Reitzler was a happy camper in the victory lane interview, deeming the track "perfect" and to his liking.
It was a slicked off track by the time the IMCA Modifieds ran their 15-lapper. Billy Davis, Jr. and Beau Kaplan led the field to the green flag. Scott Dickey quickly made his move into second as he chased Davis. Davis and Dickey put on the show early and Andrew Schroeder ran third with visitor on the night, Todd Shute coming from ninth to quickly take over fourth. Shute's run would end on a restart situation when contact was made with another car, sending him to restart at the tail and with a right side damaged car. Another vistor who is often seen running at the front, Jake Durbin from Perry, Iowa, now stuck his #18 into third place. As the laps wound down, Durbin challenged Schroeder for second, but just fell short at the finish line. Davis took the win, Schroeder scoring second and Durbin in third. Jacob Murray finished in fourth, recovering nicely from a spin at lap seven that sent him to the tail end of the starting field, and fifth went to Beau Kaplan. I believe we heard Davis to say in his post-race interview that this was his first win at the Monster Half-Mile.
The show got off a little late last night, starting right at 8 p.m. This was due to a finicky water truck that was eventually brought back to working order. The program was still completed by 10:18 p.m., that being with five classes of cars. A short intermission brought a little extra entertainment to the crowd when the top two in points from each class tried their hands at a slightly different type of racing on the track....remote controlled cars. The 10th-scale cars were run in front of the grandstands on the track, and I must say, some did not have a lot of control! The eventual winner was Cayden Carter who confessed on the mic after his win, that he had a car very similar to what they were racing.
Next Wednesday night will be not only a 4th of July celebration at the speedway, with a giant fireworks display after the racing, but it will be the 17th Annual Stock Car Shootout. This is always a must see event. Please note that there will be an early start time with hot laps at 5:30 and racing to commence at 6 p.m. It was announced that there will be a "party area" in the pit area. You can bring your lawn chair and enjoy the action from the "party pit" for a total of $15. These special wristbands will be sold at the front ticket booth and you will access the area by crossing the track under the flagstand. Hope you will be able to attend. Happy racing!
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