The Southern Iowa Speedway held night #1 of the 31st running of the Fall Challenge on Friday evening. There were good fields of cars in all divisions and once again the cream of the crop rose to the top in features.
What can you say about Richie Gustin except when there is good money on the line, he's always there. Gustin took the win in the Modified division. Todd Reitzler out-classed everyone in the Stock Car class, winning in comfortable fashion. Curtis VanDerWal kept his string of wins at the Fall Challenge going, snapping up another win in the SportMod class. Mike Hughes was the victor in the Hobby Stocks, and Chuck Fullenkamp was declared the winner in the Sport Compacts.
Brandon Housley was dominate all night in the Sport Compacts. He won his heat race easily, and then come feature time, shot off to the lead from his pole starting spot, and was never to be touched. Chuck Fullenkamp came home in second place after Barry Taft gave up the second spot when he had mechanical woes. Brandon Allison was in the car usually piloted by Trent Orwig, and finished third. Fourth went to Jeffrey Delonjay who started dead last in the feature (evidently because he did not pass tech after his heat earlier) and Cody Phillips rounded out the top five. However....after the feature race, Housley was disqualified for having an illegal camshaft...therefore handing the feature win over to Chuck Fullenkamp, and moving everyone else up a spot as well. Edit: A check of the official results posted late Saturday evening, shows that the #32 of Jeffrey Delonjay was also disqualified. This then moved Jimmy Haring to fourth and Kyle Boyd to fifth.
Aaron Osweiler led the opening laps of the SportMod feature, but was quickly caught by Curtis VanDerWal. VanDerWal made the outside pass on Osweiler just after lap seven was scored, and then he would go on to stretch his lead and take the easy win. Brandon Lennox was poised to challenge VanDerWal at one point, but suffered a flat tire, taking him out of the game. Runner up spot went to Brayton Carter who had started in row five, Osweiler held on to third place, Tyler Inman was fourth and Carter VanDenBerg had a great run, after suffering mechanical issues in his heat and starting deep in the field, to finish fifth.
VanDerWal has quite a resume of wins at the Fall Challenge races. From what my notes indicate, he has won the last six Challenge races.
Another driver who was dominate all night was the 22R of Todd Reitzler in the Stock Car class. Reitzler won his heat race by coming from seventh starting spot, and in the feature, started seventh as well, and quickly got to the runner up spot. On lap nine, he inherited the lead from leader Todd Inman when his machine expired, and from there on, drove off from the field. Nathan Wood finished in the second spot, third was Dustin Griffiths, Keith Knop made the long haul over from Shelby, Iowa and finished fourth, and veteran Johnny Spaw completed the top five.
The Modifieds ran next, letting the Hobby's finish out on the track with the narrow tires. Dakota Simmons led the field from the pole spot and held it until lap ten when Cayden Carter took over the helm. Richie Gustin had been making his way through the pack of cars from his tenth starting spot, and with 14 laps in the books, had caught and begun to pester Carter. With two laps to go, Gustin flew around Carter and took command. From there on, it was all Gustin as he captured another $1,000 win. Carter held on to the runner up spot, third went to the Late Model driver Nick Marolf, who was piloting the 43 car of Derrick Stewart, fourth was Jarrett Brown, and Andrew Schroeder was fifth. Gustin is also the 2017 Super National's champion.
The night's racing ended with the 15-lap Hobby Stock feature. This was looking to be a runaway by the #555 of Jason Fusselman, the hot shoe out of Shelby, Iowa who made the long haul over from western Iowa. Fusselman was motoring along leading the race comfortably, when he was suddenly off the pace on the back chute at lap five. Aaron Martin inherited the lead for the restart, with Mike Hughes now in second and anxious for the race to go green. By lap twelve, Hughes had taken command and then drove it home to the checkers and the win. Martin had to settle for second, and third went to veteran racer, Bill Bonnett. The race ended in rather spectacular action as it appeared Christian Huffman was fourth, being pushed across the line with heavy contact by fifth place Jeff Anderson. Anderson would drive away after the race had ended, but Huffman's car was damaged beyond driving off.
Hughes is no stranger to the winner's circle at the Fall Challenge. He also won last year's Night #2, and both nights in 2015.
There were many questioning if racing would go on last night, considering the rainy, gloomy weather as of late. But go on it did, and with a nice field of 112 race cars. By my count there were 16 Sport Compacts, 27 Hobby Stocks, 27 SportMods, 22 Stock Cars, and 20 Modifieds. The program was run off in efficient time, and racing concluded at 10:31.
There was somewhat of a fruit basket upset in race cars and drivers last night. It was great to see veteran racer Rick Gustin back behind the wheel of a Stock Car, piloting the John Hunnell "stable" car #17P that a former Osky driver Brad Pinkerton had last piloted. The other Hunnell "stable" car #62 had Ryan Gustin behind the wheel. Edit: Forgot to mention that Curtis VanDerWal was also taking a turn behind the wheel of a Stock Car last evening. He was driving the #51 car that I believe to be a Johnny Spaw car.
As previously mentioned, Late Model driver, Nick Marolf was racing Derrick Stewart's Modified, but we also noted Josh May trying to get some seat time in a Modified. May, who is a successful Mod Lite racer, was in the #99 Modified.
Unfortunately, night #2 of the Fall Challenge is a wash out, as per the track's Facebook page. It will not be made up. However, there are still some races to be found in our area this fall. Be sure and check the racing calendar at Positively Racing for a race you may want to attend. Time will tell if this was our last race of the season, or if there are more in our future for 2017.
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