July 20, 2021
The Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa was in full swing on Tuesday night. Along with all of the other activities going on, the grandstand was filled with fans there to watch the 3rd Annual Caleb Memorial Race brought to you by Wyffels Hybrids, that honors the young fan who lost his battle with cancer.
It was nice to see the pits filled with race cars for this special race, and they were also there to see if they could take home some of the extra money on the line in all classes. The non-wing Sprint cars had nine cars in their field, the Sport Compacts brought eighteen drivers, as did the SportMod class. The Hobby Stocks had twenty-one checked in, and the Stock Cars brought twenty-six competitors.
Feature racing kicked off with ten laps for the non-wing Sprints. A driver who has been struggling a bit finally got the monkey off his back last night as AJ Johnson would lead all laps in the caution free contest. Doug Sylvester chased the leader the entire race to finish in second place. Third went to Newton, Iowa's Ben Woods, fourth was Kelly Graham, and Nathan James, Russell, Iowa rounded out the top five. This was Johnson's first EVER Sprint car win.
A couple of caution flags and an eventual green-white-checkered finish did not seem to hinder winner Billy Cain as he motored home to his second consecutive win at the Mahaska Monster in the Sport Compacts. Cain led all but lap three of the race when Lewie Winkleman got around him, only to loose his grip in turn two, and bring out a yellow. With Cain back in the lead for the restart, it was all his race the rest of the way to the checkers. Nathan Moody took the runner up position, Tyler Haring was third, followed by Clayton Webster, and James Haring fourth and fifth respectively. This was Cain's third trip to victory lane this year.
Up next was fourteen laps of Hobby Stock racing and an exciting finish to this one had the crowd buzzing! Jesse Williams took the lead as the race went green, but Dustin Griffiths took command by lap three. Many were thinking that race was probably Griffiths then, but as the race wore on, several drivers were making their presence known. Clint Nelson had been running second most of the race, but now veteran Rick VanDusseldorp was making it a three horse race. When a yellow flew at lap thirteen, VanDusseldorp had slipped by Griffiths for the lead. That's when fourth place running Aaron Martin brought out the caution when he smacked the wall, tightening things up for the restart. It would take two more stabs at getting this green-white-checkered race in the books, and it was quite the finish at the line! The final white flag flying found Craig Brown....who restarted fifth or sixth, make the topside work in a three-wide charge that had the crowd on its feet, and pull off the upset as the checkers flew. VanDusseldorp had to settle for the runner up spot, Clint Nelson went third, Griffiths was fourth, and Keaton Gorden was fifth. This was Brown's first win at the speedway this season, with a great comeback after having to tag the field due to an early race spin.
The SportMods followed up with another even closer spectacular finish in their sixteen lap main event. Dylan VanWyk started from the pole and was gone....until the yellow flag on lap ten brought his nice lead to a close. By this time, young hot shoe Maguire DeJong had moved from his sixth starting spot, to run second, and veteran Curtis VanDerWal was in third. It took two tries before the race got back underway, and when it did, VanDerWal had taken command as they flew down the back chute. VanWyk was having none of that however, and came right back to take over that top spot on lap thirteen, and by this time, DeJong had taken over third spot. The closing laps saw DeJong draw closer to the leader, but no one saw how this one would end at the stripe! VanWyk was leading as the cars came out of turn four looking at the checkers, but somehow, DeJong got to the outside of VanWyk, and beat him by a nose at the finish line! VanDerWal took third, Cory VanZante finished fourth, and Logan Anderson was fifth. DeJong defended his Caleb Hammond Memorial win from last year, and this win marked his fourth of the year at Osky. This was a $1,000 win for the young Montezuma sensation.
The night cap was sixteen laps of Stock Car feature racing and a $1,000 pay off for the checkers. Pat Rachels started on the outside of row one and jumped to the lead, with Marengo's Nathan Ballard tucking into second place. Todd Reitzler fell in line to run third and all three took to the topside of the track on their quest for the checkers. A yellow flew at lap six with Rachels still in command, but it was what Ballard was wishing for, as he made the pass and was scored the leader on the next lap. From there on it was Ballard's race, as he won going away and sealed his first Stock Car win at the big old half-mile. Todd Reitzler took second place, and Derrick Agee was third. Brett Lowry, piloting Mike McClure's hot rod after earlier jumping into the #29 SportMod of Colton Livezey, was fourth, and Pat Rachels took fifth.
Next Wednesday night, July 28, will be Season Championship night and then the regular classes will not be running again until the Musco Lighting Fall Challenge on October 15 and 16. The Front Row Challenge, however, will be held on August 10 for those wishing to see a little Sprint Car action prior to the running of the Knoxville Nationals.
The plan for us is to head west tonight, and take in the racing action at the Stuart Speedway, where it will be the Clint Walrod Suicide Awareness Memorial race. This race always brings in a big field of cars to honor the young man. Big money is on the line for all classes too. Check out Stuart Speedway on Facebook or go to Stuartspeedway.net for more details.
Find a race to attend and help keep dirt track racing alive and well.
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