Wood and Stanton tame the Monster 1/2 Mile, VanDerWal repeats

After last Wednesday night's rain out at the Southern Iowa Speedway, the second of the season, Mother Nature played nice last night, allowing only the second race of the year to be completed.  The Iowa Sportsman series joined the Stock Cars, SportMods, Hobby Stocks and Compacts for a great night of racing action.

Nathan Wood excited the crowd with his win in the Stock Car division, Curtis VanDerWal got a much needed yellow to get his repeat victory in the SportMod class, and Eric Stanton put his hatchback ride into Victory Lane in the Hobby Stocks. Brandon Housley claimed his first checkers in the Sport Compact class, and the Iowa Sportsman class made their first appearance of the season, with Doug Weiss taking home the trophy.

Brandon Housley won the Sport Compact 10-lap race but he had to continually fend off the challenges of Kyle Boyd for much of the race.  He was successful, and took the checkers.  Boyd finished a close second, and trailing a ways behind in third place, was Cody Phillips.  Brandon Allison and Billy Cain completed the top five.  Housley collected an extra $50 for being a new winner in the division this year at Osky, bringing his night's pay to $225.

The Stock Cars put on a good race for the nice crowd of fans on hand.  Dustin Griffiths started pole position and immediately shot to the lead.  He soon had Mike Hughes, who started ninth, knocking at his door, right along with Cayden Carter and Nathan Wood.  Griffiths hung tight to the lead but at lap nine, contact between Hughes and leader Griffiths, allowed Nathan Wood to seize the moment and he flew around both of them.  Hughes suffered a flat from the contact, and pulled into the pits, as Wood led the race with a couple of #10 cars, Griffiths and Carter, giving chase.  Carter, in his "Orange Crush" ride, got to second place and drew to the bumper of leader Wood.  The final laps were a crowd-pleaser with the two talented drivers putting on a show.  Wood never faltered, as he successfully held off Carter and took the victory.  Griffiths held third place, followed by Michael Peterson and Derrick Agee in fourth and fifth respectively.  Wood also pocketed an extra $50 for being a new winner on the season, making his night worth $500.

The SportMod feature did not start off well when Cory VanZante took a wild ride coming out of turn two as the race went green.  A row of huge utility tires (we counted sixteen of them) now lines the track just out of turn two, and it is not a good idea to get too close to them...which is evidently, what VanZante did.  The tires did not yield, causing VanZante to flip violently into the air....catching everyone's breath.  Thankfully, the announcement that he was fine came quickly, but his battered car was not.

When racing did get underway, it was Jason McDaniel showing the way at the front.  McDaniel pulled away from the field, and looked strong.  Another red flag situation halted the race at lap eight, when rookie Jarrett VanDenBerg, in just his third race in a SportMod, got that first roll over of his career out of the way, in turn three.  Thankfully, this young man was also okay, but not a way to end your night.  The race was quickly restarted, the field was bunched, and it was Brayton Carter sitting in second, and veteran and multi-time track champion, Curtis VanDerWal sitting in third.  It was to nobody's surprise, that the wile veteran VanDerWal pounced quickly, and nabbed the lead before lap nine was scored.  From there on, VanDerWal pulled away and took a repeat win, leaving McDaniel to finish as the runner up.  Brayton Carter has looked strong this year, and finished a close third.  Blaine Webster, in his sharp looking #7, was fourth, and Logan Anderson was in the #53 car, and finished fifth.

The Hobby Stockers were twenty-three cars strong last evening.  Eric Stanton, in his Buick Century hatchback...his usual car of choice in recent years, started fourth and had the lead at lap one.  Yet another red flag flew at lap two, when the huge tires sitting at the end of the guardrail in turn three, reared their ugly head, the 2K of Derek Kirkland getting the worst end of the deal this time.  He too, was okay and the racing soon resumed.  Jamie Songer gave it a shot in the early laps as he threw challenges at leader Stanton, but it was all in vain.  This was all Stanton's night, as he took the flying checkers in the easy win.  Dustin Griffiths showed his nose to Stanton after another restart at lap eleven, but had to settle for the runner up spot this week after his opening night win.  Jamie Songer just beat out Aaron Martin at the finish line as they went third and fourth.  Mike Kincaid came from deep in the starting field, to round out the top five. Stanton also earned an extra $50, making for a $300 payday.

The Iowa Sportsman Series were in the house last evening, for their first appearance of 2018.  They ran their 20-lap feature last to end the program.  Tyler Sutter pulled off to a good lead early as he left the rest of the pack in the dust.  However, the earlier heat winner, Doug Weiss began to slowly reel in the leader.  At lap fifteen, Weiss was the leader, and he kept that lead to the checkered flag to seal the win.  Sutter was second, followed by Travis Dawson, LeRoy Kline, and John Watts, third through fifth.

There was a nice crowd on hand last evening for High School and College night at the races.  I counted a field of 71 cars as well, giving a night of good competition in all classes.  The huge white tires seemed to be a nemesis last night however, and with the issues that they caused, lets hope they don't continue to cause havoc for the drivers.  Even with the three red flag situations, we noted that the wreckers were quite efficient, and quickly cleared the track.  Though there was an added class last evening in the Sportsman Series, and with those red flag situations, racing action was still completed at 9:49, getting fans back on the road at a good time.

Tonight, we head to the Marshalltown Speedway for a rare Thursday night show.  The Dale DeFrance Memorial will be held, honoring the racing family's patriarch. There is an increased purse as well as contingencies.  The Late Models will be vying for $1,500 and the Modifieds for $1,000.  The green flag drops at 7:30.  There will be no racing at Marshalltown on this Friday night, allowing the Iowa High School Rodeo the run of the fairgrounds.  We hope to see some of you there!