For those of us who refer to "the glory days at Osky", there was a glimpse of those bygone days at the Southern Iowa Speedway last night. Those old times were photo finishes as several cars came to the checkers----and that is exactly what it was in the Stock Car feature last evening. Every class also found a new winner standing in victory lane for 2015.
The very first feature of the night was the above mentioned 18-lap IMCA Stock Car feature. This one really got the crowd going and everyone's adrenaline pumping! It did get off to a slow start as a yellow flew at lap one, and then two restarts were also called back. When things did pick back up, it was a familiar looking (to us anyway) #77N car holding the point spot. That was Daniel Hilsabeck who had scooted from starting fourth, and into the lead by the time that first lap was scored. It was but a lap or two later when, here came the "Orange Crush" cars of Zack VanderBeek and Cayden Carter. Also making a huge charge from starting tenth, was the #52 of Nathan Wood. It was quite the race among those top four cars, with VanderBeek snatching the lead by lap ten. Carter and Wood were still hanging tough, with Carter and then Wood making the passes around Hilsabeck and now tight on VanderBeek's tail. Those three broke free of the rest of the pack and they were battling for all it was worth. Then, with one lap to go, out came the dreaded yellow flag one more time. Now we would be going to a green-white-checkered finish....or what we often refer to as "bonus laps" or as announcer's Tony Paris and cohort for the night, Ryan Bergeson, call "overtime". For the restart, VanderBeek was holding down the point position, Carter was second and Wood was third. The last two laps were more than any race fan could have hoped for! Memories of the past came rushing back as those three cars came out of turn four headed to the checkers. It was a three-wide finish and depending upon where you were sitting, it could have been any one of the three going to the winner's circle. But, the scorers all agreed on the finish, and this night it was the "Gasman" Cayden Carter taking the thrilling victory. VanderBeek was scored second and Nathan Wood was third. There was a lot of discussion going on in the stands as to who placed where, etc. From watching races for years and years, we know the angle you are watching from can make a huge difference in what you perceive as the finish. What we do know, is that was a spectacular race for all three of those drivers and we salute them and thank them for putting on the show for the fans. Daniel Hilsabeck finished fourth, (we mentioned the car looked familiar to us and found out it was the car formerly driven by Audubon, Iowa's Jeff Nielsen...yup same colors and all) and fifth place went to Mike Hughes.
The next feature to hit the track was the Sport Compacts. They went ten laps in their feature which found John Whalen leading the entire race. The last two week's winner, Trent Orwig pestered him in the early part of the race, but was never able to slip by, having to settle for second. Third went to the winner's brother, Bill Whalen, Jr., and trailing a good distance in fourth was Jon Girdley and Curt Myers in fifth.
The IMCA Northern SportMod feature was led early by Jason McDaniel. McDaniel looked strong even after a restart at lap three, but by lap four, he was off the pace and exited into the infield. By that time, Brett Lowry had already made his way from seventh to chasing the leader, and then would inherit the lead with McDaniel's demise. From there on out, it was a Sunday drive for the Montezuma racer, as he pulled away from the field and took the win, his first at Osky this year, by a comfortable margin. Curtis VanDer Wal, who had won the other two week's races, finished in second. Third went to Brayton Carter when he passed fourth place finisher Logan Anderson at the finish, and Cory VanZante rounded out the top five.
Mike Kincaid took the lead quickly at the start of the IMCA Hobby Stock 15-lap feature. It didn't take long though until Craig Brown was on his bumper and taking peeks for a way around him. It finally paid off and Brown took over the helm. Last week's winner Dale Porter then moved up from starting tenth and swept past Kincaid and was on the hunt to catch leader Brown. This race too, would go to "overtime" with a lap to go, setting up another green-white-checkered finish. Brown was able to maintain the top spot, and snatched up his first win at Osky this year. Porter had to settle for the runner up spot, third was Travis Bunnell, fourth went to Kincaid and Derek Hodges came home in fifth.
There was still one more feature to run, that being the IMCA Modified 18-lapper. The front row starters were Brandon Banks and Kyle Brown. Brown got the drop on Banks, flying to the lead, while Cayden Carter, who had started directly behind Brown, followed to settle into second spot, and third place starter Andrew Schroeder joined in the chase in third. Brown hung tough until Schroeder took over to set the pace at lap eight. As the laps wound down, Carter made the pass on Brown, taking over the runner up spot, but by that time Schroeder had checked out, and kept hold of that coveted top spot the rest of the way to the win. Carter snagged a runner up finish, Brown held on to third place, and following a distance behind in fourth and fifth, were Brandon Banks and Scott Dickey.
The fans certainly got their money's worth in the Stock Car feature alone last night, let alone all the rest of the features that followed. There was another bit of nostalgia last night in that Stock Car class when a red Thunderbird was once again on the track. That car had turned a lot of laps at Osky as well as other tracks around the state in years gone by. It was the car that used to be piloted by "The Flyin' Farmer", Rick Brown, and now owned and driven by Terry Clayton of Brooklyn.
Thanks again to promoter Mike VanGenderen and crew for providing a great, racy track last night for the drivers, and giving the fans a great show. Up next at the Southern Iowa Speedway is next Wednesday night's action that will include the Sprint Invaders. The Sprint Invaders is a traveling series of limited/360 winged sprint cars. The racing will once again be hot laps at 7 and racing at 7:30. For more info, you can check out www.sprintinvaders.com and www.oskyspeedway.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment