Wednesday night, the Southern Iowa Speedway opened their 92nd year of racing at the historic Monster half-mile with racing in five divisions....Stock Cars, SportMods, Hobby Stocks, Sport Compacts, and Non-wing Sprints. Seventy-six cars checked in for the traditional mid-week racing.
Derrick Agee picked up where he left off last season, taking the Stock Car feature. Dylan VanWyk has already shown he is going to be a contender at any track he attends, as he sailed to the SportMod victory. Tyson Overton was dominate in taking the Hobby Stock win. Terry Bickford, Sport Compact driver, was a happy camper in victory lane, after winning his first ever checkers, and Jonathan Hughes continued to chalk up another one of his numerous wins at the track in the Non-Wing Sprint.
There were nine of the Non-Wingers in the house last evening, but only seven ran their A feature, as Doug Sylvester and Robert Bell were not able to get their rides running for even the heat race. The feature also did not start off well when the 71A of Jayson Alexander went for a ride mid turns three and four before lap one was scored....the first of several delays for mishaps in feature racing.
Jonathan Hughes started on the outside of the front row, and was pretty much gone immediately, despite having a light trail of smoke most of the race. Ben Woods came from seventh to finish as the runner up. Rounding out the top five were Tyler Graves, Kelly Graham, and Garrett Alexander.
The Sport Compacts were up next with thirteen of the mighty little powerhouses checked in for the night. A new driver, to us anyway, was Terry Bickford from Shannon City, Iowa. He made the haul up from the southwest Iowa area and put on an impressive run in the divisions ten-lap main event. He quickly caught early leader Matt Moore and was challenging for the lead in the early laps. A roll-over stopped the action on lap four when Allen Young ended up on his top down low in the middle of turns three and four, halting the action for another clean up of the track. When the action picked back up, Bickford quickly seized the opportunity and made the pass for the lead, never to relinquish it all the way to the checkers. Matt Moore took the runner up spot, third went to Seth Meinders, followed by Kevin Garrett and Braelynn Long. In Bickford's post-race interview, he said this was his first ever win. Always nice to witness one of those occasions. Congratulations to Terry Bickford on his nice run.
The Hobby Stocks had the biggest field of cars last night, with twenty checking in for competition. Brad Stephens was the opening laps leader, but Tyson Overton voided that by lap seven and swept to the lead going down the backstretch. He had no trouble in keeping that lead the remainder of the race, and took the flying checkers. Ryan Havel, Iowa City, Iowa, was in a nice looking #0x last night, a former Kaden Reynolds car who races other tracks in the area. He started around eleventh, and zigged and zagged his way through the field to finish an impressive second. Keaton Gorden was third, fourth went to early leader Brad Stephens, and Aaron Martin was fifth. Overton said in victory lane he hopes to make it to Wednesday night racing often in 2022.
The SportMods had nineteen in the pits and their sixteen lap feature was pretty much a runaway with Dylan VanWyk winning easily. He would lead all laps and made it look easy. Curtis Van Der Wal came from seventh starting spot, but trailed a distant second at the finish. Kyle Harwood was third, followed by Logan Anderson in fourth, and twelfth place starter Carter VanDenBerg in fifth.
The finale of the night was sixteen laps of Stock Car racing, and there were some heavy hitters in the house among the fifteen cars in competition. Dylan Thornton, (no relation to the Ricky Thornton, Jr. Arizona native who now resides in Clive, and who has had such success the last few years all over the country in different classes) a California native who is now living in the Keystone, Iowa area, started alongside the pole sitter, Josh Foster, a former Modified racer who has moved around the state in recent years, starting out in the southeastern part of Iowa, then moved to Newton, and now is calling Fairfax, Iowa home base. A yellow flew early in the race when Martelle, Iowa's Dusty Vis, another hot racer who was the winner of the Bristol Dirt race earlier this year, went spinning on the frontstretch as he was in hot battle, stopping just short of the billboards. When racing picked back up, it was last years track champion, Derrick Agee in command with Thornton doing everything to take back the lead. It wasn't to be on this night however, as Agee held off the challenges, taking his first win of the year. Thornton, who also pilots a Modified, kept second place. Third went to a hard charging Dusty Vis, who after tagging the field after his early spinout, made a great comeback. Fourth went to Dustin Griffiths, and Todd Reitzler completed the top five.
It was great to see the Howard Gordon, Jr. #409 doing the honors of pace car last night. Howard, a racing fixture at the track and around the area for 25 years, had a stroke in January, and has been recovering....recently at On With Life in Ankeny. It was great to hear that he is to be released and going home today, but with still a recovering period ahead of him. Drivers passed their helmets last night to help in the expenses, and over $1,000 was collected. A special note was that Hobby Stock racer, Ryan Havel donated all of his winnings for the night of $250 for feature finish as well as being hard-charger in the class. I'm sure there were others drivers donating some of their winnings as well. Racing family is the best!
It was a beautiful night when we first arrived at the track last evening, a light southerly breeze, and 70 degrees. What a difference during the night as Mother Nature is just not being kind! The wind picked up, changed to out of the east, and blew STRONG all night long, and of course, the temperature dropped. It was not pleasant setting in the stands, especially if not prepared. Don't trust the weather forecasts!
Next week's races on May 4, will be popcorn night sponsored by DeJong Manufacturing. Free popcorn for all! Hot laps are scheduled for 7:15, with racing to follow.
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