The Southern Iowa Speedway held it's third night of regular season racing on Wednesday night. There were four repeat winners....one keeping his perfect season start going. The track was prepared beautifully and it produced multi-grooved, exciting racing all night long.
The IMCA Northern SportMods ran their 16-lap feature first. Jenae Gustin led the opening laps of the race, but by lap three, Carter VanDenBerg had swung to the outside of the 19J and into the lead. VanDenBerg was distancing himself from the field when a yellow flew at lap six. VanDenBerg had no trouble in keeping his lead on the restart, but Curtis VanDerWal took advantage of the bunched up situation and took over the runner up spot. Young Brayton Carter was also pressuring Gustin after the restart and by lap ten, had placed himself in third spot. One more yellow would fly at lap twelve when Ryan Fullencamp and Cory VanZante tangled. This was what Carter was looking for, as he soon motored around VanDerWal after the restart, and into second. VanDenBerg pulled away the final laps to score the easy victory, his first for the regular season after scoring the Frostbuster win back on April 10. Brayton Carter ran a great race and finished second. Jason McDaniel had been running at the front of the pack all race long and slipped by VanDerWal at the finish as they went third and fourth respectively. Lady racer Jenae Gustin completed the top five.
The Sport Compacts went 10-laps for their feature. Trent Orwig held down the point the first two laps until Bill Whalen, Jr. took over. The rest of the race was a "try and catch Whalen, Jr." as he took another win in comfortable fashion. Orwig took second over Larry Hopkins in third, fourth was Matt Moore and John Whalen took fifth.
The big, wide-bodied IMCA Late Models ran a 20-lap feature next. Todd Cooney started from the pole position and never looked back, taking his first win at Osky this year. Tommy Elston chased Cooney through lap nine when a yellow flew for 17 year old Spencer Diercks. Diercks wound up in the outside wall at the top of turns one and two. When the track was cleared and the race restarted, Colby Springsteen took away the runner up spot from Elston and put a bit of pressure on leader Cooney. Springsteen looked to the low side several times, but just could not make it work. He had to settle for second on this night, after taking the win last week. Nick Marolf was third, Tommy Elston finished fourth and Kevin Kile made his first visit to the Monster Half-Mile this year, and finished fifth.
Up next, the IMCA Modifieds for their 15-lap A Main. Two cars put on quite a show in the early portion of the race as Cayden "Gas Man" Carter, and Todd "Toddzilla" Shute went at it. Carter held the upper hand until Shute's determined running of the low side in turns one and two paid off. Shute kept gaining a bit each lap and just after lap eight, made it work, and took over the lead. Shute went on to the checkers, taking the comfortable win, Carter having to be content with second. Andrew Schroeder took third over AJ Johnson in fourth and Kurt Kile finished fifth in his first appearance of the year. Shute has taken a liking to the Osky track this year. He is three-for-three for the regular point season.
The IMCA Hobby Stocks saw a red flag situation at lap three when Gina Greubel somehow wound up on her side, the roof on the turn one wall. There must have been at least ten emergency/track vehicles (we thought we counted fourteen!) surrounding the site, but we were able to see them tip the car back over....PLOP...and Gina then emerged from the car unscathed.
As the race restarted, Brandon Cox in the #66 car out of Earlham, Iowa, was leading. It was but a lap later that Mike Hughes made the move into the lead after having started sixth. Dustin Griffiths came along as well, taking over second from starting tenth. Griffiths challenged the leader at several points, but in the end, Hughes pulled to a comfortable margin to take the checkers, Griffiths taking second. Nick Ulin came from row four, to take third. Fourth went to Craig Brown and Brandon Cox was fifth. Mike Hughes won for the second time in 2014 at the track.
The always exciting 18-lap Stock Car feature completed the night's racing. This one was appearing to be a runaway, as the Chelsea Charger, Damon Murty was running "with the kite string out" up front, as announcer Tony Paris would say. He was very content to let the field battle it out behind him, and they were! There was four-wide racing several times, as the drivers went at it for position. Kris Walker worked his way to second, and Corey "from just across the road" Stout, escaped the clump and got into third. His night would end not much later when he had to retire to the pits. By then, Zack VanderBeek had his bright orange Roger Kelderman ride up to second after making the pass on Walker and Justin Temeyer, out of Independence, Iowa, had worked his way into third. Temeyer had stopped at the track for some "testing and tuning" on his way back from Hays, Kansas, sporting a brand new race car. At lap fourteen, a yellow flew, setting up a shoot out to the finish. This was not what Murty was wanting to see, as he had been happily running out front content to let the rest of the pack fight it out. However, Zack VanderBeek was the guy with the smile on his face with the situation.! VanderBeek took advantage of the restart and was leading by the following lap.....keeping it to the checkers and the win. Murty scored what had to be a disappointing second place. Justin Temeyer finished third, having to be happy with his new car. Cayden Carter came from the tail of the starting line up, to take fourth, and Kris Walker finished fifth.
It was another chilly night at the races. It's nearly the middle of May for heaven's sake! Will it ever warm up? I'll be eating those words soon, no doubt! Thankfully, the wind was not a factor sitting in the grandstands last night, but coats and blankets were still in vogue! The track, thanks to promoter Mike VanGenderen and crew, was in great shape, allowing the drivers an option of lines to run. Mike announced last night, that in hopes getting more Modifieds to come run the big half-mile, "if you get top ten in Modified, you will be guaranteed at least $110". Offers like that are far and few between!
It was Kelderman's Hobby Shack Night at the races. Occasionally, you could see a helicopter/drone flying above the track that was taking videos. You can find some pretty cool video from high atop the track by going to their Facebook page.
Join us in the grandstands next week.....and drivers, come and get a little mid-week racing in!! It will be Supreme Lawn & Landscape night, with the Late Models on the program again. Hot laps are 7 with racing at 7:30.
Thanks for reading, and happy racing!
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