It was one heck of a lot nicer sitting at the Southern Iowa Speedway this Wednesday night than it was a week ago! Mother Nature did try to mess with us a bit as there had been a light rain earlier in the day, providing the track with natural watering, and there were sprinkles on the windshield as we arrived at the track. The small shower cell quickly passed, and it was racing as usual on the big ole Monster half-mile. The Hobby Stocks were racing for $400 to win with a draw/redraw format special, with the other four regular classes on the docket as well.
The Stock Cars came out in full force last evening, with twenty-one cars, requiring three heats. They ran their feature first. The first few laps found Todd Reitzler trying to catch Churdan, Iowa's Jason Minnehan, while a bit farther back in the pack, Randy Killen, Kris Walker and Damon Murty were battling for position.
Minnehan had distanced himself from challengers, when a yellow flag flew at lap 15 of the 18-lap race, and at the same time, a cloud of steam rolled out of the 99D of Murty, eliminating him from the race as well. When the race resumed, Minnehan maintained his lead, but it was now Randy Killen and Nathan Wood fighting for that second position and behind them, a tight grouped Jeff Joldersma, Todd Reitzler and Jason Cook were putting on a show for the crowd. Minnehan kept his lead the final couple of circuits, scoring his first win at the track. He was followed by Randy Killen in second and Nathan Wood took third. Fourth place was Jeff Joldersma who made the long haul over from far western Iowa, running another one of his always distinctive appearing self-built cars, and Todd Reitzler rounded out the top five spots.
The Modified A Main came to the track next. This was looking to be a runaway for the 22 of Brandon Banks. But---enter in those always pesky yellow flags that bunch the field. After the second yellow at lap eight, it was "Toddzilla" Todd Shute that was sniffing at the bumper of Banks and we were expecting a good one upfront on the restart. Shute gave it a shot, but just a couple of laps later, his car slowed and he was forced to retire to the pits. So, now who should be on the tail of leader Banks, but last week's winner, Jesse Sobbing. It took less than a lap for Sobbing to fly around Banks, but the race wasn't over yet as another caution reared it's ugly head, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. The caution flew when Jacob Murray was fast tracking down leader Sobbing after making the pass on Banks, but a little too much effort in turn one, found Murray putting it on spin cycle. Sobbing motored home to the easy win--his second in as many weeks---Banks took the runner up spot, third went to Bill Gibson, the driver who moved up this year from the SportMod class, Murray redeemed himself a bit and took the fourth spot and Tyler Groenendyk rounded out the top five.
We saw another repeat winner from last week in the SportMod feature as Curtis VanDeWal went to victory lane again. It wasn't looking as if this would happen though as Des Moines racer Tyler Gross was leading most of the race, outdistancing himself from the pack. Then, just as the white was about to fly, AJ Johnson would bring out the yellow as his ride gave up the ghost, and once again, we were in a green-white-checkered situation. VanDeWal was able to get the advantage on the restart and then sealed the deal on his back-to-back wins. Tyler Gross finished in what had to be a disappointing runner up place, third was Tony Johnson, Brett Lowry finished fourth and Tonganoxie, Kansas driver, Ben Kates took fifth.
The IMCA Sport Compact feature ran as the Hobby Stocks prepared for their run at the $400 prize.
The old veteran, Merv Chandler took the checkers in this one. He took the lead from early leader Alex Sampson by lap three, and set sail to the easy win. John Whalen finished in second, third went to Bill Whalen, Jr., fourth was Alex Sampson and Matt Moore took fifth. Tony Paris asked Chandler in victory lane how many wins "the old girl" (meaning the racecar) had on her and Chandler replied about fifty. He also mentioned that he was working on a new car.
The luck of the draw for the front row in the $400 to win Hobby Stock feature went to local favorite Bobby Greene, and Eldon's Craig Brown. Brown gassed it at the drop of the green and took the lead, bringing row two starter Jamie Songer along to tuck in behind him. Kevin Fee was also sniffing for more as he ran third and last week's winner Mike Hughes ran in fourth. By the halfway mark of the special 20-lap feature, Brown still held the advantage, but now Mike Hughes had made his way into the runner up position after making the pass on Fee on the backstretch. A caution and restart situation set up Hughes for the pass to the lead and the subsequent run to the checkers, his second in a row. Craig Brown held on to second, third went to Fee, and Dustin Griffiths and Jamie Songer were fourth and fifth.
There were a lot of overheating cars on the night, sending cars to the pits, as well as a blown motor here and there and dropped drive shafts. Carter VandenBerg saw his night end in the heat race when he went up in smoke, ending his night early. The track stayed fast, wide and pretty smooth, requiring only a turn or two during the night by promoter Mike VanGenderen on the tractor between races. Next Wednesday night, we will hope for "racing weather", when the Monster half-mile will be back in action with the Sportsman Series added to the regular weekly classes. Hot laps 7 with racing at 7:30. Happy racing!
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