It was FINALLY a beautiful night for racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway...no coats required! A solid field of cars was on hand as well as a great crowd. During the night, a benefit auction of racing "stuff" was conducted as well as helmets being passed, to benefit injured racer Mark Widmar. Nearly $2500 was raised going toward Mark's medical bills, showing once again that racing family sticks together! More items will be auctioned next week. More good news was announced that Mark may soon be going home, but still with recovery time ahead. Best wishes for that being a swift and complete recovery.
The IMCA Sport Compacts kicked off the feature racing for the night. Eight cars were on hand, but only five were able to begin the A main. After a couple of false starts, the rest of the 10-lap feature continued caution free and it was veteran Merv Chandler leading the entire way. Bill Whalen, Jr. chased Chandler much of that distance, but was beat out by John Whalen at the finish, as they went second and third. Fourth was Trent Orwig and Shawn Cooney finished fifth.
The IMCA Northern SportMods came up next for their 15-lap contest. This one went to a first time winner at the track when Ryan Fullencamp went the entire distance at the helm. It was an exciting climax at the end however, as Fullencamp had to fend off Carter VandenBerg and Brett Lowry in a tight one at the finish. Lowry, who had started well back in the field, managed to eek past VandenBerg on the final lap to score the runner up position, leaving VandenBerg in third. Fourth went to last week's winner Curtis VanDerWal and fifth was Jason McDaniel. Fullencamp was greeted in victory lane by his grandfather and former racer, Jerry Pilcher.
The 15-lap IMCA Hobby Stock winner is getting to be a fixture in the winner's circle this year. Mike Hughes claimed his third in a row feature win on Wednesday night at the Monster Half-Mile. Hughes took over the lead from Dale Porter at lap seven and fended off Porter's peeks on the outside in the waning laps, sealing his victory. Dustin Griffiths, the only other Hobby Stock winner at the track this year, finished in third, veteran Bill Bonnett was fourth and rounding out the top five was Jamie Songer.
Brad Pinkerton put the #62 upfront in the opening laps of the Stock Car feature, but it was soon the familiar orange #33Z of Zack VanderBeek at the forefront after just a handful of laps were in the books. VanderBeek had little trouble from there on as he pulled away from the pack. Nathan Wood finished a distant second and a distant third was Jason Cook. Kris Walker finished in fourth and Shane Richardson completed the top five.
Polesitter, Jeff Waterman led the troops early on in the 18-lap IMCA Modified feature. It was Jacob Murray and Todd Shute battling for second at five laps down, as Waterman motored off from them. That didn't last long however, as by lap ten, Shute had made his way around Murray to take over second and was pressuring the leader. Shute was able to make the pass just a lap later and was looking strong and likely on his way to the checkers first. Murray then put the hammer down and made his way into second and was soon annoying Shute. On the white flag lap, Murray shot around Shute to take over the point and kept it to the checkers. Shute finished, no doubt, a disappointing second and Waterman hung on to third. Cayden Carter finished fourth and new comer to the track for 2013 Adam Larson, rounded out the top five.
The Iowa Sportsman Series also ran last night, but we opted to head out as they were coming to the track. We did learn that Kris Walker took the feature in this class as he must have been as strong in it as he had been in winning his heat earlier in the evening.
Next week, the IMCA Late Models come back to Osky and will be in competition along with the regular five classes. Hot laps 7 with racing at 7:30. Happy racing!
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