It was typical Iowa fair weather for the Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa on Tuesday night. The Hawkeye Dirt Tour was in town, along with the IMCA Late Models and the MADCRA Mod Lites joining the regular SportMods, Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks. They shared the grounds with the livestock, carnival rides and of course, the food! The HDT race found another driver winning for the first time in the series and that was even after doing double duty in another class. The SportMod class had a driver find his way to victory lane for the first time this year as well.
The IMCA Northern SportMods saw the winner lead from start to finish in their refreshingly caution free race. Eric Flander put his #12 ride into victory lane for the first time in recent memory, making him one happy camper. Carter VanDenBerg, however, didn't make it a comfortable win in the closing lap. VanDenBerg had chased Flander the entire distance and when lap traffic came into play in the closing moments, VanDenBerg did his darnedest to make the outcome different. It wasn't to be though, as Flander kept his composure and took the checkers. VanDenBerg had to settle for second ahead of Curtis VanDerWal in third. Fourth place was Brett Lowry who came from starting mid-pack and Tony Johnson rounded out the top five.
The MADCRA Mod Lites visited the track last night, their second time ever at the Monster half-mile, having run there initially last August. The outcome was the same however, as Josh May motored his #99 around the huge track. May got around early leader Mike Morrill and was never challenged. May took the win, repeating his 2012 feat, and doing it easily. Andy Hennigar finished a distant second, followed by Mike Morrill in third, Todd Shute hopped in the DC5 car to score fourth, and Dusty Masolini completed the top five. For more on this class, check out www.madcra.org.
The Stock Car feature also went flag-to-flag. Damon Murty fended off the challenges of his co-front row starter Jason Cook. The two drivers would break away from the pack, leaving the rest to sort it out behind them. The last lap got a bit interesting as Cook dove to the low side of Murty as they came out of turn four, but it was a bit too short, Murty taking the win. Following second place Cook a good distance behind was Corey "from just across the street" Stout in third. Brad Pinkerton was a close fourth, and Kris Walker was fifth. Murty told announcer Tony Paris in victory lane, that this was win number seventeen on the year. It was his second checkers at Osky this year.
The Hobby Stock feature found Dustin Griffiths and veteran Bill Bonnett duking it out in the opening laps, Griffiths holding the upper hand. A restart situation at lap eight was the downfall of Griffiths as Bonnett took advantage and made the pass for first. Eric Stanton caught the leaders in the late laps, and the three ran nose to tail. Wiley veteran Bonnett however, held his ground, and scored the win, his second at the track within a week. Griffiths held second, Stanton was third, Nick Murty took fourth and Justin Hook was fifth.
The Hawkeye Dirt Tour for IMCA Modifieds was now up for their headlining feature. Not only was this a $1,000 to win race, but it was also a qualifier to be on the ballot for the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational at the Super Nationals. Lucky front row starters were Casey Greubel and Scott Hogan. Hogan captured the lead at the drop of the green but the yellow came out before lap two was scored when Jacob Murray and Zach Less got caught up in turn one. They were both retired to the pits. When racing resumed, it was immediately later when mayhem happened again in turn one. This one looked like a parking lot of mangled cars and would send many cars to the pits and on the trailer. Both Jimmy and Richie Gustin had damage too extensive to continue, as did Casey Greubel and Tyler Groenendyk. At this point, the 24-car starting field was cut to fifteen cars, and had hardly begun! When racing got back under way, Hogan continued his lead but Todd Shute was on the hunt and promoter/racer Mike VanGenderen was challenging as well. Shute swung to the topside and made the pass, taking the lead by the halfway mark of the twenty lapper. From there on, Shute drove off from any challenge and took the win by a comfortable distance. Hogan kept second place and VanGenderen, third. Fourth was visiting Nebraskan Dylan Smith in his #95 who is no doubt in the area in preparation for Thursday's Harris Clash in Knoxville, and Steve Stewart, drove from starting eighteenth, to finish fifth. Sixth place was Cayden Carter who got together with Mark Elliott as they came to the finish line...sending Elliott in a spin move as he crossed under the checkers. Shute was the seventh different winner in the series this year. Point leader of the HDT series Ronn Lauritzen, finished in eleventh after suffering a toe out problem when he got caught up in some of the chaos in corner one, but still holds a nine point advantage over Mike VanGenderen in second place. Next up for the series will be at Independence on August 5.
The night ended with the IMCA Late Model feature. After the start was called back, the 20-lap race went caution free. Nick Marolf, Moscow, Iowa racer was the only leader in this one. Marolf was chased to the finish line by Keokuk's Tommy Elston in this uneventful race. Following in third was Justin Kay, fourth went to Todd Cooney and regular at the West Liberty track, Chad Holladay, was fifth.
It was a hot night at the races last night---both on and off the track. Thankfully, it was not the sweltering 104 degrees that we endured a year ago, but still a plenty hot July night in Iowa. We welcomed any bit of breeze we caught. Xsan was on hand last night, broadcasting the action. We are always thankful for being able to catch some live action through their great broadcasting when we are unable to attend a race. Check out www.Xsan.tv for information on how you can subscribe. We enjoyed our evening with racing friends, and look forward to doing it all over again tonight! Tonight, Osky will be holding their weekly racing show. There will be another $1,000 winning prize on the line in the Modified class if the winner participated in Tuesday's HDT race. Hope you can attend. Happy racing!
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