Is was a beautiful Wednesday night for racing at the Southern Iowa Speedway. After last Wednesday's show was weathered out, it was good to get back to racing on the big old half-mile. Extra money was on the line in all classes thanks to sponsor of the night, Bill and Ray's Truck Repair and Wrecker Service. The Iowa Sportsmen Series cars were also in the house; rescheduled from their original appearance last week.
There were seven IMCA Sport Compacts vying for the win last night. The initial start was called back, but after that, the race continued caution free the full 12-laps. William Michel led lap one but it was a scramble behind him. By lap two, first time visitor, Michael Grossman took the helm and never gave it up. John Whalen chased Grossman, closed in on him, and took peeks for a way around, but had to settle for second place. Third was Jon Girdley piloting the #33 car last night, and Bill Whalen, Jr. finished fourth in a borrowed car, after destroying his at another track recently. Trent Orwig rounded out the top five.
A nice field of 18 IMCA Northern SportMods were in competition. They ran their 16-lap feature next. When a yellow flew with just two laps in the books, Jason McDaniel had gotten around Dan Drury for the lead and riding in third was the familiar #1V of Curtis VanDerWal. VanDerWal had started ninth and quickly moved his ride forward and was no doubt anticipating the restart. VanDerWal wasted no time, taking the lead before lap three was scored. He was never challenged from there on, scoring the win easily. Finishing a distant second was Jason McDaniel, third went to Brayton Carter who had started eighth, fourth was Logan Anderson who came from seventh starting spot, and Brett Lowry raced his hot rod from eleventh starting place, to a top five finish. This was VanDerWal's fourth win of the season at Osky.
Then came the IMCA Stock Car 18-lap A main...and once again, it had a spectacular finish! The start was tightly bunched packs of cars by the time they reached turn one which saw Derrick Agee claiming the lead at lap one. By lap two, Daniel Hilsabeck had taken command and he soon had Cayden Carter, Damon Murty and Nathan Wood to hold at bay. A yellow flew at lap eleven which found Hilsabeck still holding the lead, but Damon Murty had made it to second by taking his 99D to the topside. Lurking close at hand in third and fourth were Carter and Wood. When things picked back up, the following laps were a jousting back and forth for leads. First Carter took over, followed two laps later by Murty and when yet another yellow flew at lap sixteen, Wood was up to second place and had just been peeking under Murty for the lead when things were halted. Everyone was buzzing in anticipation of the final shoot out to the checkers. Murty was holding on to the lead when lap seventeen went in the books, but Wood stuck his ride under the 99D in corner two, made it stick and shot to the lead. When the cars came out of turn four looking at the checkers, it was almost another spectatular photo finish with four closely clumped this time. Wood snagged the win on this night, while second went to Hilsabeck who shot past Murty in third and Carter took fourth. Not far behind was fifth place Mike Hughes. The Stock Cars never fail to impress at Osky and often worth the price of admission in themselves! In Victory Lane, Wood told announcer Tony Paris that it had been over a year since he had stood in that spot and after checking back at some of my records, I show it may have been back on June 12 of 2013 that he was last in the winner's circle at SIS....the year he was track champion. Forgive me Nathan, if I have that wrong.
Dustin Griffiths took his second win of the year in the IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Griffiths started ninth, and was running third by lap three....chasing leader Bill Bonnett. He was able to work around Bonnett by lap eight, keeping his top spot the rest of the way to the checkers and the win. Veteran Bill Bonnett took the runner up spot, third was Travis Bunnell who had started eighth, fourth went to Danny Thrasher, and Bobby Greene was fifth.
Though there were only eight IMCA Modifieds last night for $450 to win, the action was excellent. Scott Dickey beat Tyler Groenendyk to the corner as the race went green, and was looking to be on his way to the win, pulling out to a nice lead in the early laps. By lap nine however, Groenendyk was reeling in the leader and right before a caution came out at lap fourteen, he had closed in. This set up a green-white-checkered finish. When the race restarted, Groenendyk got under the leader, taking over the top spot as the white flag flew. He kept that lead to the checkered flag, scoring the win, his first at the track in 2015. Carter VandenBerg had been racing hard and put his ride in the number two finishing position after starting sixth. Third went to his cousin, Cayden Carter, fourth was visiting driver from Burlington, Dugan Thye, and Steve Streeter was fifth. Scott Dickey fell back in the closing laps to finish sixth.
The Iowa Sportman's Series also ran last night. They ran a 15-lap heat race earlier, which was won by #47 Darren DeZwarte. They finished the evening's racing off with a 25-lap feature event, which we did not see. We have heard that it was also won by DeZwarte. They had a dozen cars in competition.
For those of you who may not have Facebook or see that the Southern Iowa Speedway has posted their list of candidates for this year's ballot for the Hall of Fame, here are those on the illustrious list.
Bill Bone, Jim Brown, Merv Chandler, Engel DeKock, Jim and Joe Durian, Dave Farren, Dan Feree, Troy Folkerts, Wendell Folkerts, Jeff Haines, Curt Hansen, Bob "Gabby" Hayes, Don Hoffman, Dean Hughes, Bob Maschmann, Mel Morris, Ed Sanger, Terry Schroeder, Gary Storey, Pat Surfus, Dean Sylvester, Paul VanZee, Danny Wallace, "Pokey" West, and Bill Zwanziger. Voting will take place on THURSDAY, June 11 when the Lucas Oil MLRA Late Models join the weekly show. Note....there will not be the usual WEDNESDAY night show that week. Each pit pass and grandstand admission will be able to vote for THREE candidates only. Who will join last year's inaugural Hall of Fame inductees? Those were Denny Banks, the late Aaron Brown, Bill Davis, Sr., Bobby Greiner, Jr., and Randy Schroeder.
Weekly racing resumes next week at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Hot laps at 7 and racing at 7 :30. Join us for another night of great racing action.
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