Sunday, October 17, 2021

Spaw and Ramsey complete full sweeps at the Fall Challenge

 We headed back to Oskaloosa Saturday for Night #2 of the Fall Challenge.  It was another chilly, but beautiful night to end what just might have been our last race of the season.  By my count, there were 86 cars in the five divisions from the previous night, plus 13 of the A.I.R.S. (American Iron Racing Series) on hand.

The Non-Wing Sprints ran their 10 laps feature first, and it was the 11 car of Colton Fisher out of Mediapolis, Iowa taking the win.  Fisher led from the get go and won easily at the checkers.  Glen Saville, Friday night's winner, took the runner up position.  Ben Woods was third, followed by Robert Bell in fourth, and Doug Sylvester completed the top five.

There was a 12 lap feature race next for the Sport Compacts.  Lewie Winkelman was the leader at lap one, but Kolby Sabin had the lead at lap two, never to look back.  Alex Hayes fought it out with Matt Moore for the next positions, Hayes winning second, and Moore going third.  Winkelman and Tyler Haring would round out the top five.

The American Iron Racing Series (A.I.R.S.) were an added class for the evening, with 13 of the nostalgic appearing cars putting on a show for the fans.  They ran a 12 lap feature.  Doak Allen, West Burlington, Iowa, in the #01 Chevelle went home with that win. Allen said he had raced at the track in different divisions in the past, but this was his first win at Osky.  Second place went to Scott Van Buskirk, driving a neat looking #25 Studebaker.  Van Buskirk turned many a lap at the Southern Iowa Speedway, as well as other area tracks in days gone by, when he piloted a Modified.  Third was #68 Travis Heier in a Ford Maverick, fourth went to the# 501 of Bart Miller, Clarence, Iowa, and fifth was the #5 1958 Ford driven by Brian Gade.  

The Hobby Stocks had 29 cars checked in for the evenings racing, requiring one B Main to take four as the final to tag the tail of the 14 lap A Main.  Luke Ramsey picked up where he left off the previous night, and going home with the win.  Ramsey started in row four, and had the lead when lap one was scored, never to relinquish it the rest of the way to the checkers.  Ramsey didn't let a couple of cautions, nor the red flag situation at lap five when Tyler Graves flipped his ride (he was okay) in a high rollover on the backstretch, hinder his drive to the checkers.  Fifth row starter Braden Richards, Madrid, Iowa, finished in second place, John Watson, also came from row five and took third, followed by Keaton Gorden in fourth, and Aaron Martin in fifth.  Not only did Ramsey sweep the weekend features in his division, he repeated the same feat from last year's Fall Challenge.

The SportMods ran a 16 lap feature, with Jeremy Grantham, Allison, Iowa leading the way for the first two laps. Then fellow competitor at the Hamilton County Speedway, Ty Griffith, Webster City, grabbed the lead.  Joining in the fray for position was Maguire DeJong, and Curtis Van Der Wal as they locked into a tight battle.  Van Der Wal would come out on top of that waged contest, as he took over the top spot just a couple of laps later, and then pulled off to secure yet another of his numerous wins at the Monster Half-Mile.  Ty Griffith took home the runner up finish, DeJong was third, Jeremy Grantham took fourth, and Trent Brink completed the top five.

The night cap was the 16 lap Stock Car feature that put a close on the 2021 racing season at the Southern Iowa Speedway.   The previous night's winner, Johnny Spaw started on the outside front row, jumped to the lead, and it was as good as over from then on.  Scott Davis hung close through the first half of the race, but in the end, it was Spaw driving off to secure his second win in as many nights....completing another clean sweep for the weekend.  Davis held on to finish second.  Third place went to Steve Myer, Dustin Griffiths was fourth, and  Austin Kemper, Wapello, was fifth.  Miciah Hidelbaugh, who was suppose to start on the pole, but was late coming out and had to tag the tail of the feature, made a hard charge through the field to finish sixth.  

Jeff Kropf did a fantastic job filling in for regular Jerry Mackey on the mic last evening.  Though Jerry was in the house, his voice had given out by the end of the night on Friday, and he was unable to provide his usual call of the races.  

This put a close to the racing season at Osky this year, but stay tuned for announcements of their 2022 season coming up.  

This MAY, have been our last race of the year as well, but don't hold us to that if we can find a race and the weather cooperates!  Check out the calendar at Positively Racing and you may find some more racing you'd like to attend before calling it over for the season.  We all need to keep supporting the sport we all love.....dirt track racing!

No comments:

Post a Comment