It was a brisk, and breezy Friday night at the Southern Iowa Speedway for the 29th Musco Lighting Fall Challenge....Night #1. Drivers in the Modified, Stock Car, SportMod and Hobby Stock classes were all racing for the $1,000 winning prize in each of those divisions. One driver who was doing double duty, would cash in twice for a $2,000 payday.
Also running last evening, were the Iowa Sportsman Series. This is a traveling series that we see at several area tracks during the season. They brought 11 drivers to run their 30-lap feature. A driver we see run a stock car at the Marshalltown Speedway, Matt Deaton, was looking to take home the prize for the night as he led the feature easily, until lap 23 when he was suddenly off power....and out of the race. When things picked up then, it was the 77 of Travis Dawson inheriting the lead, but he had big time company in the 54 of Gene Tish. Tish would do everything he could to find a way around Dawson those final few laps, but it was all in vain as Dawson took home the trophy on this night. Tish was the runner up, Darin DeZwarte took third place, fourth went to Paul Meiners, and fifth was Wayne Webert.
Ryan Havel took the win in the 10-lap Sport Compact class. He passed early leader Brandon Lambert and then pulled away to take the checkers. It was a real battle at times for 2-4 positions, but winning out for the runner up position was Bill Whalen (who was piloting his brother John's car), Josh Barnes took third place, Lambert fell back to finish fourth, and Darin Smith rounded out the top five. Fifteen cars raced in the Sport Compact division last evening.
B mains were run for the Modified (29 cars), Stock Car(29 cars), and SportMod (33 cars), each taking four cars to tag the field of their respective main event.
The SportMod's ran their 18-lap feature immediately after the B features were completed, in the fast moving program last night. Logan Anderson, who houses his car "just across the road from turn one", jumped to the lead from his outside front row starting spot and looked strong as he led the troops through lap ten, keeping pole starter Tim Plummer at bay. That lap 10 may have been Anderson's downfall when the yellow flew for Plummer, who went into spin mode trying to deal with lap traffic. This tightened up the field for the restart and numerous times track champion, Curtis VanDerWal wasted no time in pulling to the rear of Anderson's bumper when the race went green. Those final laps run to the checkers was an all out dog fight between the two. VanDerWal was able to make the pass in the final lap but Anderson wasn't quite done as he tried the slide out of turn four and also dealing with a lap car, on that final charge to the checkers. It wasn't to be however, and VanDerWal made it to the checkers first for another win at the track. Anderson had to be content with the runner up spot, third went to Jason McDaniel, Brayton Carter took fourth with a nice run from his eleventh place starting spot, and Des Moines driver Glenn Gladson, completed the top five positions.
The Stock Cars went 22 laps in their main event and ironically, the two sitting on the front row for the start were two of the best at Osky....Zack VanderBeek and Mike Hughes. Hughes was able to get the drop on VanderBeek, taking the lead from the get-go. Hughes would never relinquish that top spot, though VanderBeek tried everything for a way around the leader, but to no avail. Hughes took the win and VanderBeek was the runner up. Cayden Carter reeled in the leaders from his ninth starting spot, but could muster no better than third place at the finish. Fourth went to the hot shoe from Ocheyedan, Iowa, Elijah Zevenbergen, who had started twelfth, and John Oliver, Jr. rounded out the top five. The race was non-stop, going flag to flag.
The Modifieds also ran a 22 lap feature. The opening laps were led by front row starters Carter VandenBerg and Andrew Schroeder, but soon it was "G Money", Richie Gustin rushing past and into the lead. Gustin continued his lead, content to let a pack of cars battle it out behind him. That pack included Vandenberg, Schroeder, ninth place starter Cayden Carter, eighth place starter Kyle Brown, and Tyler Groenendyk. Carter and Brown "found something" on the bottom of the track and both reeled in Gustin. Carter took over the lead with a handful of laps remaining, and Brown followed to take over the runner up spot. Carter stamped his name in the books with a win at the Fall Challenge, and Brown took second place. Richie Gustin finished third, VandenBerg was fourth and Schroeder was fifth.
The night's racing ended with 16-laps of Hobby Stock racing. Bobby Greene and Mike Hughes (who was doing double duty...running Stock Car and Hobby) were the lucky one's drawing the front row for the start. Hughes grabbed the immediate lead and then checked out from the rest of the pack. When a yellow flew at lap twelve, this bunched up the field, putting second place runner, Nathan Ballard on the leader's tail for the restart. This wasn't a bother at all to Hughes, as he motored off and distanced himself from the pack in taking the comfortable win. Ballard was the runner up, third went to ninth place starter Dustin Griffiths, fourth was Nick Ulin and Shannon Anderson finished fifth. The win for Hughes made it two on the night after his earlier Stock Car victory and another $1,000 in his pocket.
A few notes on the night: Fellow PR'er, Jeff Broeg mentioned to me that Tim Plummer from Norway, Iowa has an asphalt background, and a little digging on my part found that he has several track titles at Hawkeye Downs. He is also the nephew of the 1983 IMCA Modified Champion, Mike Schulte.
The top two finishers in the features last evening were given the option of locking themselves in to tonight's feature, but starting in row four. Otherwise, they could try to re-qualify tonight to better their starting position. I heard two drivers say that they would try to do just that. Zack VanderBeek in the Stock Car class and Cayden Carter in the Modified will be starting from square one in hopes of starting further up in their A feature tonight. Both VanDeWal and Anderson in the SportMods opted to start in row four for tonight's A main as did Mike Hughes in the Stock Car and Kyle Brown in the Modified. I did not catch the decisions in the Hobby Stock class.
We will do it all over again tonight at the Monster Half Mile. Hot laps are scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight and racing to follow. Hope to see some of you there. Come and support your favorite drivers and the dirt track racing we all love.
No comments:
Post a Comment