Season Championship night at the Southern Iowa Speedway

It had been a long four weeks since the Southern Iowa Speedway had raced a regular season race, due to unscheduled shows.  Wednesday night was season championship night to close out the 2016 season.  Five track champions were crowned with two divisions being decided at the finish.  Three new Hall of Fame inductees were also announced.

Season championship night, most tracks don't run heats and will line the feature events up by points, but last night at Osky, all classes ran heats AND started their features by the regular invert of points as they do on a regular night.  The drivers were introduced on the front stretch, allowing fans to salute them.

The IMCA Sport Compacts found Brad Havel stepping into victory lane for the first time at the Southern Iowa Speedway.  Havel led all ten laps on his way to the win.  Josh Barnes finished second after starting ninth, James Roose was third, fourth went to fifth place starter Levi Heath and Bill Whalen, Jr. completed the top five.

Going into the Sport Compact feature, it was Shane Evans leading Bill Whalen by nine points.  Evans dropped out of the race and Whalen finished fifth.  A calculation of results found Evans hanging on by ONE point, to take the track championship.

The IMCA Hobby Stock 14-lap A main went to Dustin Griffith.  Griffith, who was the point leader going into the race, started seventh.  He caught a four-pack of cars, Bradley Graham, Danny Thrasher, Scott Shull and Nick Ulin and had to battle past them to get to the lead at lap six.  He then held that lead to the flying checkers and the win.  Nick Ulin just barely beat out Thrasher at the finish line as they went second and third respectively.  Scott Shull and Bradley Graham rounded out the top five.  Dustin Griffith is the track champion for the third year in a row.

Seventeen IMCA Northern SportMods ran the 15-lap feature.  Dakota Simmons and Colton Livezey began the run from the front row.  Livezey overtook Simmons by lap two, taking the lead, but he had Curtis Van Der Wal closing in fast.  Van Der Wal got to second and began reeling in the leader.  With a lap to go, and a lap car blocking the leaders, Van Der Wal used it to his advantage, and grabbed the lead as lap fourteen was scored.  He kept it that final lap and scored the win.  Livezey had to settle for the runner up spot.  Third went to Cory Van Zante, Austin Paul was fourth and Matt Van Gelder rounded out the top five.  Curtis Van Der Wal is the track champion, defending his title from 2015.

The 15-lap IMCA Stock Car feature was the one that decided the track championship at the finish line!  Going into the night, Louis Lynch, the "Hurryin' Missourian", was three points up on local fan favorite Mike Hughes.  Hughes started fourth on the grid and Lynch fifth.  Hughes flew to the lead by lap one and was looking determined to gain those few points to snatch away the championship from Lynch.  Wood tucked in right behind Hughes to run second.  The rest of the race was a close battle between Hughes and Wood, with Hughes keeping the advantage....UNTIL, the final run to the finish line found Wood just edging out Hughes for the win!  That final surge past Hughes ended up giving the track championship to Louis Lynch...by ONE point. Todd Reitzler finished third, Lynch was fourth and Mike Brown was fifth.   If Hughes had won, they would have been tied, but with a win under his belt at the track and none by Lynch, the title would have gone to Hughes.

It was ironic that Colt Mather is the 2016 track champion at the Southern Iowa Speedway, but he was not able to start the feature due to issues in his heat, and luckily far enough ahead of second place in points, Andrew Schroeder, that it did not matter.  Schroeder easily won the night's feature as he finished well ahead of Cayden Carter in second.  Third went to Dakota Hayden and Scott Dickey was fourth.  Fifth place Gordy Head did not finish, nor did David Sndyer from Greentop, Missouri.

Three new inductees into the Southern Iowa Speedway Hall of Fame were announced last night.  They are Pokey West, Terry Schroeder and Dean Hughes.  They will be inducted on the second night of the Fall Challenge, on Saturday night, October 8.  The Fall Challenge is October 7 and 8 this year and will be the next and last race event at the track for 2016.

There are a lot of specials still around our area, so get out to a track and support the sport we all love.