It was a warm and muggy night at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday night. The five regular classes were on the program along with the visiting Mississippi Valley Vintage cars. It was also a night when the fans could cast their ballot for Hall of Fame nominees. There was a new winner in the IMCA Modified class, while all other regular classes saw repeat victories.
Bill Whalen, Jr. took the lead before the halfway mark of the Sport Compact feature, and from there on, motored his way to the win. He held off his brother, John Whalen in second. Third place was Matt Moore. Shawn Cooney, Tyler Harring and Matt Beal did not finish. Bill Whalen has won the last three races at Osky, and five out of six for the year.
The Stock Car class was a little lean last night, with only eight cars on hand. Perhaps the lingering threat of rain and storms kept some at home. The 15-lap feature saw Todd Reitzler lead the field through the first handful of laps. He was being challenged by the Roger Kelderman 10CC orange machine piloted by Cayden Carter. Carter was relentlessly peeking to the underside of Reitzler, and made it pay off on the backstretch just after lap five was scored. From then on, it was all the Gasman's race, taking the win by more than a comfortable distance. Reitzler held the runner up spot, Nathan Wood was third, fourth went to Doug Sylvester and Donnie Pearson completed the top five. Carter won for the second time in the regular season, also having scored the win in the preseason Frostbuster.
Logan Anderson had won his very first SportMod feature a few weeks ago at the big old half-mile in his new Murray chassis ride. He led the first lap, looking strong, when a yellow came out for a couple of cars sitting at the bottom of turn four. One of those, was point leader Curtis Van Der Wal, who was soon to retire to the pits, his night over. When the race restarted, Jason "Mighty Mouse" McDaniel was already sitting in second, and was making his bid for the top spot. McDaniel made the inside work for him, and took the point position by lap three. He would weather a couple more caution flags, never being challenged, and took the win. Second went to Montezuma's Brett Lowry, who started along side the winner in row four. Anderson hung to the front of the pack all night, and scored third place, fourth went to Brayton Carter who had to tag the field from an early incident, and Carter VanDenBerg finished fifth after starting dead last. McDaniel scored back to back wins. A check of the point standings, shows that McDaniel has now taken over the lead, Lowry and VanDenBerg just a few points behind. VanDerWal is now sitting nine points out of the lead, but never count him out!
The Hobby Stocks got after it last night. Veteran Brad Stephens led the field early, cars fighting desperately for position behind him in packs. Dustin Griffiths cleared the pack, and was up to challenge the leader quickly. Stephens kept his ride to the outside, while Griffiths nosed to the low side. He made his persistent dogging pay off, taking the lead at lap twelve. Danny Thrasher followed him around Stephens as well, and was on the hunt, as the laps wound down. Griffiths was the victor, Thrasher had to settle for second as time ran out. Mike Hughes got to third, finishing just ahead of Stephens in fourth. Craig Brown rounded out the top five. Griffiths took his second win of the year.
The ten-car field of IMCA Modifieds ended the night's event. The "Kool Aid Kid" Andrew Schroeder, took the lead from lap one, cruising to the win the remaining fourteen laps. Second place finisher, Scott Dickey tried to reel in Schroeder, to no avail. Jesse Sobbing made his 3 1/2 hour weekly trip over from Glenwood, Iowa, to score a third place finish. Sobbing duked it out with Hunter Marriott, the Missouri driver who came to play for the second week in a row, just getting by him in the closing laps, Marriott being scored fourth. Completing the top five was Lacona, Iowa racer, Casey Greubel. Schroeder won for the first time at the speedway this year.
The Mississippi Valley Vintage Auto Racing Club was also in attendance last night. A good field of midgets, non-wing sprints, and a couple of vintage modifieds made some laps around the track. During their feature, one of the vintage sprint cars rolled in turn three. The driver was transported to the hospital to be checked out, but it appeared to be a non-emergency as the track ambulance waited outside the track near the pit shack for another ambulance to transport to the hospital. The only name we caught last night, was the winner of the sprint competition, the yellow #18 of Ed Fry from Burlington.
There had been a threat of rain in the forecast for Osky last night, but all was avoided with just a hot, sticky night. We are hoping that another threat for rain tonight will also be avoided for the running of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour IMCA Modifieds, and the Sprint Invaders for their turn on the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson. Hot laps are scheduled for 6:45 and racing at 7:30. We plan to attend as does a visitor from the West.....IMCA Western Regional Director, Paul Vetter. Paul joined us at the Southern Iowa Speedway last night, and is hoping for a race filled week or so on his visit to the Hawkeye state.
Thanks for reading, and happy racing!
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