It was summer like temperatures in many parts of Iowa on Wednesday--BUT, for anyone taking a peak at the forecast, you had better have come prepared for the drastically changing weather conditions we encountered at the Osky track. What a change! We always go prepared as we have froze in July at a race in Iowa. Some people were glad we go prepared as we had extra layers that we loaned out! The racing however, did go on at the Southern Iowa Speedway and on the docket along with the regular classes, were the IMCA Late Models.
Sport Compacts brought their seven car field to the track for the first feature. John Whalen had little trouble in taking this win, leading all laps and pulling away. Last week's winner Bill Whalen, Jr. finished a distant second followed by Merv Chandler, Alex Sampson and Matt Moore. Shawn Cooney and Trent Orwig completed feature in sixth and seventh.
The Hobby Stock went 14-laps in their A main. Donovan Nunnikhoven led the opening lap, but by lap two, Mike Hughes had flown through the pack and took the lead. The rest of the way to the finish, it was Hughes, "Out in front and showin' the way", as announcer Tony Paris called it. Nunnikhoven hung around in second until a yellow flag at lap nine bunched the field. On the restart, Bobby Greene took advantage and took over second, bringing Danny Thrasher along with him as he grabbed third. The rest of the way home was smooth sailing for Hughes, as he took the easy win. Greene held second, Thrasher was third, Nunnikhoven took fourth and Justin Hook rounded out the top five.
Things were hurrying along by this time as a lengthy red flag incident earlier in a Modified heat, had put things in a holding pattern for nearly an hour. More on that later. With the cold temperatures and wanting to get some of the Late Model drivers who had driven a good distance on the road home, the program was changed up a bit. So now, it was the big boys being called to the track.
A nice field of 16 IMCA Late Models were on hand and all but one, Nick Marolf, who had broke in his heat, started the 20 lap feature. Tom Darbyshire led this one through lap five, when he was suddenly off power, and his night came to an end. Kevin Kile then became the captain at the helm, Todd Cooney on his bumper at the restart. A couple of laps later, Cooney made his move into the lead and it was looking like smooth sailing to the finish as he pulled away. Enter another yellow flag at lap twelve...and who should now be in second, but young Spencer Diercks from Bettendorf, Iowa. Diercks, who had made the pass on Kile, for second, was now setting his sites on the leader on the restart. The race went clean the rest of the way to the black and white, and Cooney was digging for all his worth. But....so was Diercks! Diercks made the pass on the final lap on the way to the checkers, snatching the win! Cooney was left in second, Kevin Kile took third in a good battle with Andy Eckrich in fourth. Chad Cooney took the fifth spot. In the post race interview, Diercks, who is just sixteen years old, said this was just his second feature win in his young career, having scored #1 last year at Davenport.
There were still three features to go on this cold and blustery night. What? This was May 1st and slowly, slowly creeping across the state was a huge wintery storm front! We had been hearing all the various weather forecasts all day long, and we were hoping that it was as slow moving as they had said. Already, snow was inches deep in the northwest part of the state.
The SportMods went 15-laps. Jason McDaniel had this one covered almost from the drop of the green. AJ Johnson tormented him a bit early on. At the halfway mark, it was Tony Johnson that had now come to the heels of McDaniel, Eric Flander in third, and AJ Johnson, dropping back to run fourth. A yellow flew with three laps remaining, but the restart did not bother McDaniel, as he motored home to the checkers. Tony Johnson kept second, Eric Flander third and AJ Johnson fourth. and it was a close finish for fifth with Carter VandenBerg winning out over Ben Kates and Curtis VanDerWal.
The Stock Car feature was an easy win for the 33Z of Zack VanderBeek who did double duty on the night as he also jumped in the 5X Late Model piloted last year by Jeff Mitrisin. Randy Killen led the first seven laps but it was the orange 33Z coming fast. VanderBeek flew to the lead on lap eight and then drove off from his competitors. VanderBeek took the win followed Nathan Wood in second, Randy Killen held on to third place, fourth went to Jason Cook and Corey Stout took fifth place.
The die hearts were still sticking around for the final feature of the night, the IMCA Modifieds. The temperature showed 43 degrees, wind chill was 36, and the wind was out of the north at 23 mph. BUT...no rain or snow!! Bill Gibson enjoyed being the early race leader but by lap five, Todd Shute was putting the heat on the leader. A lap later, Shute took over first place, appearing hungry for getting a win in 2013 at the track. A restart situation at lap eight saw Jesse Sobbing making a bid for position, swinging around Gibson on the backstretch and into second. Two laps later, another yellow flew when several cars went scattering on the frontstretch, one of them being the driver out of Winnemucca, Nevada, Corey Samples, who found himself up against the guardrail right near the flagstand. This was what Sobbing was wanting, as just a lap or so after the restart, he was able to get by Shute, taking over the lead. Sobbing would then continue his lead to the checkers flying, taking the victory. Jacob Murray was able to get around Shute as they finished second and third. Cayden Carter worked his way skillfully up to finish fourth and Bill Gibson hung around the front of the pack and picked up fifth spot.
At this time, we turn our thoughts and prayers to driver Mark Widmar who was injured earlier in the evening when he was in an unavoidable collision with Andrew Schroeder's stopped car on the frontstretch. Mark was racing with a couple of other drivers and when they all came upon the stopped car, they all had but a split second to make a decision on where to go. Unfortunately, Widmar hit Schroeder's car and the impact was a hard one. Widmar was transported to the local hospital and we heard that he was going into surgery last night. We wish for him a quick and speedy recovery. Though it was a brief meeting in the grandstand a while back, we both remember him being a very congenial person. Wishing you the best Mark!
The track stayed surprisingly smooth with all of our finicky Spring weather, especially with all of the new dirt applied to the surface. Much diligent work by promoter Mike VanGenderen and his crew proved to be a bonus for the racing surface. The racing action was good, but it was still good to see the final checkers flying as putting up with Mother Nature's wintry blast on May 1st, just wasn't a pleasant nor comfortable experience. How those fans that came unprepared for our strange Iowa weather stuck it out, I don't know. As I write this, we have snow falling here in Grinnell, so I guess She isn't done with us yet!
We've already been getting cancellation notices from tracks around the state for racing this weekend, so it may be we are done for racing for this week. Next week at the Southern Iowa Speedway, the five regular classes will once again be in action, but the Hobby Stocks will be featured with a draw/redraw format and $400 to the winner. Happy racing...IF you can find one!
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