We were happy to be sitting back in the old covered grandstand at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday night. Not only because it was the beginning of their race season, but mainly because there had been talk of not even having racing in 2018. But thanks to the efforts of many, and a big part of it by Nathan Wood, the stock car racer who pilots the #52, the Wednesday night tradition continues!
This year, the big old half-mile monster is running non-sanctioned and due to the low car count in the Modified division last year, they are not on the program. The stock cars, sportmods, hobby stocks and compacts are the weekly divisions.
The compacts ran their 10-lap feature first, and before the field got to the flagstand, cars were getting squirrley, and the 41 of Nathan Moody put his name in the books as the first roll over of the year. Moody was not hurt, but his night was done. The ensuing feature saw veteran racer, Bill "Happy Feet" Whalen lead the race from flag to flag on his way to victory. Jimmy Harring and Tyler Harring were second and third, fourth went to Kyle Boyd, and Billy Cain came home in fifth. Whalen was happy and emoitional in victory lane as he dedicated his win to his brother and fellow-racer John Whalen who is recovering from a stroke over the off-season.
Cayden Carter set his Orange Crush, Sniper chassis, Roger Kelderman owned ride back in victory lane in the stock car class. He started sixth and had to run down early leader Nathan Wood in doing so. A green-white-checkered finish drew the field closer after his comfortable lead, but Carter had no trouble in keeping the top spot to the checkers. Wood finished as the runner up, Mike Hughes was third after starting in eleventh spot, Brett Lowry, piloting the orange 4M of Mike McClure, was fourth, and Dustin Griffiths, doing double duty in the stocks and hobby stocks, rounded out the top five.
The sportmod feature saw Jason McDaniel take the lead from Jason Hall by lap four. He soon had company in Curtis VanDerWal however, and the two began to battle. VanDerWal won that duel soon, and would race off to another comfortable win. McDaniel held second place, followed by Brayton Carter, Cory VanZante and Blaine Webster, third through fifth. VanDerWal who knows his way around the big old Monster half-mile, looks to be back in his usual winning form already.
The feature racing ended with the 15-lap hobby stock A main. Aaron Martin led the early portion of the race but a yellow at lap six bunched up the field for the restart. By this time, the 10G of Dustin Griffiths was positioned in second place, and eager for the restart. He quickly took advantage of that restart, and flew to the lead. Griffiths held off the rest of the field, and took the win. Scott Shull, in his sharp looking #57 Terminator, came from tenth starting spot, to finish second. Third went to Eric Stanton who started eleventh and gave second place a shot late only to fall short, early leader Aaron Martin was fourth, and Brandon Cox completed the top five.
A few notes from the night: Hot shoe Ricky Thornton was driving the 20RT stock car last night. Thornton, who hails from Arizona, but now calls Clive, Iowa home, is more often found in a modified and has had much success in snagging some pretty impressive big time races. A familiar looking green #409 stock car was back racing last evening too. Howard Gordon, Jr., who has been M.I.A. for several years, looks to be back in weekly action at Osky. One stock car did not hit the track at all last night, that being the #62 of John Hunnell, who must have had some issues preventing him from taking to the track. Another of the VanDenBerg racing family, Jarrett VanDenBerg, was debuting in the sportmod class. He was in the 22V, and is the younger brother of Carter VanDenBerg. Carter jumped up to the modified class this year, so will no doubt, be spending his time on Wednesday nights helping his younger brother. Another driver from years gone by that made his appearance in the hobby stock division, was the 1R of Rick VanDusseldorp. Nice to see him back in action after several year's absence as well.
Racing action moved along quickly last night, ending at 9:12 p.m. I counted 61 cars that checked into the track and there was a decent crowd on hand to watch the opening night's action, on a track that stayed smooth all night long. Prior to the start of racing action, the kids got to enjoy a ride around the track with many of the drivers, much to their delight. Many of those children are the future of racing, so great to get them involved. The night was an enjoyable one, and the weather cooperated quite well for a change! We were glad to spend the night visiting with racing friends/family as well, which always makes the time more enjoyable.
Racing action continues next Wednesday night, with hot laps scheduled for 7 and green flag racing at 7:30.
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