The Southern Iowa Speedway held Night #1 of its annual Musco Lighting Fall Challenge on Friday night, and with beautiful weather to be at a dirt track race with Fall just around the corner. Of course, Mother Nature was not so nice for Saturday's show, and it was a wash out by the afternoon. Thus, the Mahaska Monster Half-Mile has closed out their racing for the year. Despite the draw of High School Friday night football in the state, 75 entries in five classes came to have a last gasp run before calling it a season.
Seven non-wing Sprints ran and it was Jonathan Hughes covering the field, winning easily in his #67 ride. Doug Sylvester led the race through the first six laps of the 10-lapper, but Hughes was chasing him the entire time, and made it look easy with his pass on the backstretch coming to lap seven. From then on, Hughes stretched it out and took the win easily. Sylvester took the runner up spot, third went to Chuck Alexander, Kelly Graham was fourth, and Dylan Alexander was fifth. Logan Alexander, the driver who earlier in the year took a dramatic high roll incident, was sixth, and Lance Silvers took seventh place.
Fourteen Sport Compacts came for a little Friday night action on the half-mile and it was Jeffrey Delonjay standing in the winner's circle at the end of their ten-lap feature. However, he led only the final lap, getting past Ryan Havel on the final dash to the checkers when Havel sent forth a cloud of smoke and was off the pace. Kyle Boyd crossed the line in second, and Havel coasted across to finish in third place. Brandon Housley took fourth and Billy Cain was fifth.
Craig Brown and Mike Hughes put on the show up front in the Hobby Stock 14-lap feature. Brown led from the drop of the green with Hughes tucking in right behind to run second. The two cars ran shoulder to shoulder with Hughes showing his nose in the corners for several laps until he was finally able to make the pass coming out of turn two and take over the top spot at lap eight. Hughes went on to the flying checkers and sealed the win. Brown held the runner up spot, Brad Stephens was third, fourth went to Dustin Griffiths, and Tyson Overton rounded out the top five.
There were 23 SportMods in action on Friday night with Dylan VanWyk leading the field in their 16-lap A main in the early portion. A red flag brought the action to a halt at lap ten when veteran racer Steve Ruepke took a tumble exiting turn two when he got together with Steve Berry. Both drivers were okay.
The action picked back up with VanWyk still in charge. Logan Anderson had made his way to run second and it was Norway, Iowa's Tim Plummer charging up to run third and wanting more. Plummer made his move and took the lead, scored the leader on lap twelve after recovering from some contact between himself and Anderson as they fought for position. In the final circuits, Plummer pulled the field and took the checkers comfortably. Curtis VanDerWal charged the field from starting near the back and took the runner up spot. Dylan VanWyk finished third, fourth went to Ainsworth, Iowa racer Derrick Stewart who charged through the field from starting in row seven, and Logan Anderson was fifth.
Plummer, who acknowledged his displeasure with the racing incident with Anderson (though we thought it just a hard racing deal) also thanked Mike Schulte for much of what he has learned with his racing experience. Schulte, who was on hand in Victory Lane, now residing in Cedar Rapids, was the first IMCA Super National's Champion and the National Champion in 1983. We recently enjoyed a reminiscing racing conversation of the early years with him at this year's Super Nationals.
The final event of the night was the 16-lap Stock Car main event. Nathan Wood, who started on the outside of the front row, put an exclamation mark on his season, leading all laps on his way to the win. The race ended under green-white-checkered allowing second place runner Todd Reitzler to have a last chance at overcoming the leader. It wasn't to be however, and Wood held the lead and took the checkers first, Reitzler a close second. Third went to Donovan Nunnikhoven, Dustin Griffiths came from mid-pack to finish fourth, and veteran racer Johnny Spaw completed the top five.
Earlier, the top ten in points were recognized with track titles going to Trent Orwig in the Sport Compacts, Dustin Griffiths in the Hobby Stocks, SportMod track champion was Blaine Webster, and Nathan Wood is the Stock Car champion.
It was announced that the track is actively looking for a race director for next year, but to rest assured, there WILL be racing next year at the historic track.
The forecast did not sound good for racing on Saturday, but we were keeping our fingers crossed. However, the announcement came in the afternoon that Night #2 of the Fall Challenge was cancelled, with no make-up. This did allow us to get in two softball games, a flag football game, and a soccer game in the Des Moines area though! All this for a nine year old grandson, and seven year old granddaughter. Yup...sat in the rain for some of those!
The racing scene in our area is wrapping up, with a few specials still on tap. Check out the racing calendar at Positively Racing, and find a race to attend. We hope to get in another race or two.
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