The regular season drew to a close at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday night with the crowning of this year's track champions. Heats were run as usual and all classes lined up via the invert as they had done weekly.
The IMCA Sport Compacts had a nice field of 11 cars which included several new faces. One of those new faces, the #00 of Shaun Slaughter made his trip from Iowa City pay off, winning the feature in convincing fashion. Slaughter started sixth, had the lead by lap one, and was never threatened on his way to victory. Another new driver, the 11H of Brad Havel, also of Iowa City was second and Ryan Havel made it a top three for drivers from Iowa City. Bob Lake made his first appearance at Osky this season, and the Lone Tree driver finished in fourth, and Matt Moore finished fifth. Bill Whalen, Jr. is the track champion for 2015.
The IMCA Northern SportMods ran next and this one did not get off to a good start. When the initial start went green, fifth place starter Jason McDaniel didn't make it far as his car went into the turn one wall and his night was done. When things once again returned to the green flag flying, this time it was the 352 of Charlie Weber spinning out in front of the entire pack of cars in turn two....several getting caught up in the melee and ending their night as well. One of those was point leader Curtis VanDerWal who appeared to be hit head on and also involving Austin Paul, Corey VanZante, Casey Lancaster and visitor of the night, Ed Hamilton from Atlantic. The third try to get things under way was the charm and the field would go flag-to-flag. Brayton Carter took the win after getting to the lead at lap two; stretching his lead to more than a straight away at the finish line. Logan Anderson was the runner up, Charlie Weber recouped to finish third, fourth went to Trent Brink and Colton Livezey was fifth. "Speedy Bray", Brayton Carter, who started eighth on the grid, won for the first time at the Southern Iowa Speedway, and did it in convincing fashion! Curtis VanDerWal is the 2015 track champion...putting together a string of at least a handful of consecutive titles.
The IMCA Modified feature was dominated by Scott Dickey who led all laps on his way to standing in the the winner's circle. Some drivers rode a fine line in the corners, some slapping their rear quarter panels against the unforgiving wall. Second place finisher Cayden Carter got his right rear quarter panel tucked under by kissing that wall. Third place finisher Andrew Schroeder had even more evidence show when he got a little too high in that corner as well....his rear deck was doubled up. Fourth place went to Carter VandenBerg, and surprise visitor from Keokuk, Tommy Elston finished fifth. Elston is known more recently for piloting a late model. The track champion in the Modified division for 2015 is Cayden Carter.
A new winner emerged from the IMCA Hobby Stock ranks when Brandon Lee Potts got his very first win at Osky. Potts led from lap one and steadily held his course to the finish and the win. Craig Brown finished in second place, third was Steve Allen, Danny Thrasher was fourth and Dale Porter was fifth. Point leader going into the night, Dustin Griffiths suffered a flat tire and did not finish, but had plenty of cushion in his lead. Griffiths is the track champion, repeating from last year.
The IMCA Stock Cars ran last.....and with two drivers TIED in points, and knowing how the Stock Cars always produce great racing, the crowd was really anticipating this one. The two drivers that were vying for a track title were Cayden Carter and Mike Hughes...two crowd favorites at the track, and both sitting on 480 points each. Those two drivers would start eighth and ninth on the starting field.
Zack VanderBeek quickly took the lead from his fourth starting position and just a couple of laps later, it was the "Orange Crush" machine #10cc driven by Carter settling into second place. VanderBeek never faltered with his lead, though Carter threw everything at him....high, low, and in between---nothing worked. VanderBeek took the checkers and his fourth win of the year. Carter finished as the runner up, and at the flag, Mike Hughes slipped around Jerry Pilcher as they finished third and fourth in that order. Nathan Wood rounded out the top five. By finishing just one spot in front of Hughes, Cayden Carter won the track championship for the second time in a row, and secured his second track championship of the year at Osky after his earlier Modified title.
I mentioned earlier some new drivers showing up to race last night. Some others were Tony Johnson, long time racer from the area, who raced his SportMod for the first time this season. In the Stock Car class, Tony Oliver, Des Moines, and Anthony Cassat from Bloomfield ran for the first time at the track.
Knoxville Raceway is holding it's annual Lucas Oil Late Model Nationals starting tonight (Thursday) and running through Saturday. Last night, we saw five of those participants hot lapping on the Monster Half Mile. They were Billy Moyer, Ryan Gustin, Matt Furman, Paul Glendenning and later, Billy Moyer, Jr. Furman suffered what may be significant damage when his ride appeared to break, and was unable to turn, and he went head on into the turn one wall.
Be sure and check the racing calendar at Positively Racing as there are many racing events going on not only this coming weekend, but for several weekends yet. We are hoping the area racing season continues for a while! It could be a long, cold winter!
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