The curtain fell on the 2012 racing action at the Southern Iowa Speedway this past weekend. It was the 26th Annual Fall Challenge to be held at the Monster Half-Mile with racing on both Friday and Saturday nights. Promoter Mike VanGenderen kept the showing running at a brisk clip both nights...to go along with the more than "brisk" temperatures, and even moved the starting time up for Saturday's show, ending the action about 9 p.m. on the final night. The hardy race fans in attendance saw seven classes in all in competition over the weekend. The Modifieds, Stock Cars, SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts that are regularly on the program throughout the year at the track, were joined by the Sportsmen Series both nights, and the Mod Lite division on Saturday night.
Friday night's racing qualified cars for Saturday night's championship feature in the Modified, Stock Car, SportMod and Hobby Stock classes. The winner's from each of the heats went directly to the A the following night, plus the top 4 from each of the classes qualifying features. Saturday night, the heat winners plus the 4 qualifying through the feature from the previous night, ran a dash, to determine their starting positions for the championship features.
After a crisp Friday night of racing action, Saturday dawned overcast and nippy again. The hot laps had been moved from 6 p.m. up to 5 p.m. due to the cold forecast and the action for the first qualifying heats had the green flag drop right at 5:38 p.m.
The Sport Compacts ran a 10 lap feature event; their second full program of the weekend. The previous night, it was Merv Chandler trumping Kevin Kirkpatrick for the win. Tonight, son Kassidy Kirkpatrick got a bit of revenge by beating out veteran Merv Chandler. Kassidy Kirkpatrick aced his win by passing Chandler on the final lap, and reaching the checkers first. Third place went to Brandon Lambert, fourth was Kevin Kirkpatrick and Tim Bevins rounded out the top five.
The MADCRA Mod Lite class tried their hand at taming the Monster Half-Mile as they ran a 12-lap A main. This one was over at the drop of the green as pole sitter Josh May...the division's 2012 Champion for the second year in a row as well as track champion at both the Boone and Marshalltown Speedways, shot to the lead and pulled away. Second place went to Daniel Keltner from Wapello, third was Mike Kennedy, fourth went to Joel Keenan, and late arrival Danny Foster was fifth.
The Hobby Stocks went 20-laps in their Championship feature. The dash had decided the starting positions for those that had locked themselves in to the night's main and Craig Brown sat on the pole with track champion, IMCA Super National's Champion, and IMCA National Champion, Shannon Anderson sitting to his outside. The start of the race saw Mike Hughes spinning as he approached the starter's stand, calling for a "no go" on the start. As the field regrouped and they took the green for good, Anderson beat Brown to the first corner, but Brown was able to gain back the advantage, leading lap one. The two drivers were in a good battle up front but quickly making headway from the third row, was another former IMCA National Hobby Stock champion and multi-time Super National's winner, Andy Boeckman running in third. By lap nine, Boeckman had made the move around Anderson to take over the runner up spot, but Anderson fought back and regained second. Anderson's night ended with just a couple of laps remaining, when fate reared it's ugly head, sending him to the pits with a flat tire. Griffiths then motored on home to take the checkers, Boeckman taking the runner up spot. Third went to weekly racer at the track, Danny Thrasher, fourth was Adam Bonnett and Andrew Hustead brought his pink ride home in fifth. It was a $1,100 pay day for Griffiths.
Next came the SportMod division. The dash had set the front row and it found Eric Flander and Carter VandenBerg sitting beside each other. In recognition of the 26th running of the Fall Challenge, the race was set for 26 laps of feature racing. The race was running at a great clip and was going caution free, as Carter VandenBerg was sailing easily out front. It wasn't until lap eighteen, when a pesky yellow finally flew when Tony Johnson smacked the wall in turn two, interrupting the racing. As the clean up of debris began, it was then that announcer Tony Paris brought to the audience's attention, that VandenBerg had a left rear tire going flat! With VandenBerg going to the pits for a tire change, the restart gave the lead to Bryon Weyer, out of the capital city of Des Moines. Weyer went the rest of the distance to the checkers, grabbing the $1,300 win. Regular at the track, Curtis VanDerWal drove past Eric Flander in the waning laps as they finished second and third. Fourth went to Bill Gibson, another track regular, and Jared Timmerman, Norwalk, Iowa, was fifth.
The Stock Car class also went 26 laps in their Championship event. The first lap was led by Elijah Zegenbergen, a driver who runs regularly at the Buena Vista Raceway up in Alta, Iowa and who had made the long haul down from the far northwestern part of Iowa for both nights. His lead lasted until lap three, when Zach VanderBeek, a guy who has turned many a lap at the track over the years, took over the point position. From there on, it was a case of "try and catch Zach" race as he pulled away to a sizable lead and then the $1,300 win. The real race ended up being for second and third with Zegenbergen and Brad Pinkerton going at it in a good battle. Pinkerton ended up winning the war on that one, as he took second place over Zegenbergen in third. Fourth went to Columbus, Nebraska driver Doug Adamy, and Derek Agee rounded out the top five.
There was $1,600 on the line in the Modified A main championship feature. The earlier dash for starting spots had positioned young Andrew Schroeder and Josh Foster on the front row. Schroeder took off to the lead easily, but Foster had issues when sparks flew from beneath his ride on lap one. He soon exited to the infield, his night done. Billy Davis, Jr. sent the familiar looking yellow #1+ to the second place, Greg Cox riding along in third. Cayden Carter, who had started at the tail after getting caught up in an incident earlier in a qualifying event involving himself, Jacob Murray and Ronn Lauritzen leaving the latter two with too much damage to race, now was making a bid for second after passing Cox. With but two laps remaining, that infamous turn two wall came into play again, when Bill Crimmins tore off a few parts after kissing it, bring out the yellow and setting up a green-white-checkered finish. As the race restarted, Carter saw his chance and grabbed second place around Davis, but the leader Schroeder was not to be denied the win tonight, as he raced to the checkers first. Carter finished in second, Davis was third, Cox took fourth and Brandon Banks was fifth.
It was 8:38 p.m. when the above race concluded and though the Sportsman Series 30-lap feature was about to pull onto the track for the final wheel poundings for 2012, a warm vehicle was calling us. Word of mouth tells us that Kris Walker was the victor in that one...a guy certainly no stranger to the race track.
We will cross our fingers that with a few more races still on the schedule in our area, Mother Nature will be kind and hopefully last night was not our final race of the 2012 season. We appreciate the drivers who came out in the nippy weather this weekend to give us racing fanatics a show.
No comments:
Post a Comment