Oskaloosa, IA (Wednesday, May 6, 2015) - With the weather forecast for the weekend looking bleak, I figured I would take in the racing action on Wednesday night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa. All five weekly classes were in action on the night, along with the Spring Invaders.
The first feature to take to the track on the night was the 10 lap IMCA Sport Compacts, and despite only 5 cars signed in on the night the battle up front for all 10 laps was hotly contested. Curt Myers and John Whalen started on the front row, with Whalen grabbing the lead on lap 1 over Trent Orwig and Bill Whalen Jr. Bill Whalen Jr. and Chuck Fullenkamp, who started 5th, moved around Orwig for the runner up spot on lap 5 and then 1 lap later they made it a three car battle for the lead. John Whalen held the top spot coming to the white flag, as Fullenkamp slipped under Bill Whalen Jr. for second. Fullenkamp made one last attempt to slip under John Whalen coming off turn 4. But John Whalen held on to pick up the win. Fullenkamp then had to hold off Bill Whalen Jr. for the battle for 2nd, Orwig was 4th, with Myers coming home in 5th.
Up next was the 18 lap IMCA Stock Car feature, with Daniel Gordon and Donnie Pearson leading the field to the drop of the green flag. Pearson would take advantage of his front row start to grab the lead on lap 1 over Brad Pinkerton and Zack VanderBeek, who started 6th. Pearson set the pace out front, as the top 10 cars raced single file around the top side of the 1/2 mile track. Around the midway point of the race VanderBeek would look under Pinkerton for the runner up spot and then went to work on Pearson for the lead. Using the bottom of the track going into turn 1 VanderBeek would slip up in front of Pearson off turn 2 to take over the top spot on lap 11. While VanderBeek started to pull away from the field the battle was going on behind between Pinkerton, Pearson, Gordon, Mike Hughes, who started 9th, Todd Reitzler, who started 7th, and Cayden Carter, who started 8th. Without a caution to catch VanderBeek, he would cruise to an easy win. Pinkerton won the battle for 2nd, Hughes was 3rd, Reitzler was 4th, with Carter rounding out the top 5.
Jarrod Schneiderman was suppose to start the 20 lap Sprint Invaders feature on the pole. But when he chose to go to the back, this would move Harold Pohren to the pole next to Tony Shilling. Shilling jumped out into the lead on lap 1 over Pohren and Jamie Ball, and then set a fast pace out front. On lap 6 Shilling would come up on lapped traffic, which allowed Ball to close in quickly. Coming off turn 4 to complete lap 7 Ball and Shilling made contact, with Shilling getting sideways and falling back to 5th. While Ball grabbed the top spot over Nate Van Haaften, who started 7th, and Terry McCarl, who started 9th. Ball continued to lead, while Russ Hall, who started 12th, and Jon Agan, who started 16th, were making their way towards the front. The action up front was slowed for the first time on lap 13, when Donnie Steward came to a stop in the middle of the backstretch to bring out the yellow. On the restart Ball moved back out front, with Van Haaften looking under him in the corners to try and grab the lead away. This would go on until the final caution appeared on lap 15
Russ Hall and Jon Agan were battling for the fifth spot when the two got tangled together going into turn 1 and came to rest up against the wall to bring out the yellow. Then while sitting there, Dakota Hendrickson couldn't slow his machine down and slid into both cars. Ball once again grabbed the lead on the restart, with Van Haaften and McCarl close behind. Over the final 5 laps Ball would make no mistakes and held on to claim his first career Sprint Invaders win and the $1,500 top prize to go with it. Van Haaften settled for 2nd, McCarl was 3rd, Joe Beaver was 4th, with Shilling holding on for 5th.
Up next was the 16 lap IMCA SportMod feature, with Trent Brink and Jason McDaniel on the front row. McDaniel used his front row starting spot to grabbed the lead on lap 1 over Brink and Braydon Carter, who started 8th. With McDaniel setting a fast pace out front the battle for second was heating up, as Curtis Van Der Wal, who started 10th, was working on Carter for that spot. Van Der Wal was able to clear Carter for the runner up spot on lap 6, but by then McDaniel had built up a full straight-away lead. Without a caution there was no catching McDaniel who cruised to the win. Van Der Wal was 2nd, Carter was 3rd, Brink held on for 4th, with Brett Lowry coming from 9th to finish in 5th.
Jared Stephens and Aaron Martin made up the front row for the 15 lap IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Martin would use his front row starting spot to jump out into the lead on lap 1 over Bobby Greene and Mike Kincaid. Martin then held the top spot until lap 3, when Greene was able to slip under him for the lead. While Martin and Greene battled for the lead, Dustin Griffiths, who started 10th, quickly moved up towards the front using the middle of the speedway. On lap 5 Griffiths was able to slip under Greene to grab the top spot away. Just like the other three weekly class features, the Hobby Stock feature went caution free. So there was no catching Griffiths on this night, as he pulled away to an easy win. Greene settled for 2nd, Danny Thrasher moved up from 8th to finish in 3rd, Martin held on for 4th, with Dale Porter, driving Griffiths back up car, passing 9 cars from his 14th place starting spot to come home in 5th.
The final feature to take to the track was the 18 lap IMCA Modifieds, with Brandon Banks and Scott Dickey leading the field to the drop of the green flag. Dickey would grab the lead on lap 1 over Tyler Groenendyk and Cayden Carter. Dickey used the top of the speedway to start to pull away from Groenendyk and Carter, until late in the race. Groenendyk was able to pull up to Dickey's back bumper on lap 14, and then looked under him on laps 15 and 16. But Dickey would hold off all his challenges to go on to pick up the win in a caution free race. Groenenedyk was 2nd, Carter was 3rd, Carter VanDenBerg started 7th and finished 4th, with Andrew Schroeder rounding out the top 5.
Notes from Osky: 25 360 Sprint Cars signed in on the night....Ryan Jamison was leading heat race 2, when late in the race he lost the engine that forced him to scratch for the remainder of the night....John Greenwood, Rob Weuve, Alan Zoutte, and Dave Getchell joined Jamison in watching the feature from the trailer......Derrick Agee started the Stock Car feature in 11th and finished 8th....Jerry Pilcher finished 11th after starting in 14th....Mike Brown started 18th and finished 15th....Shane Paris, who started 12th, was running 10th before pulling off on lap 15 with over heating troubles to end his night in 16th....Carl Yaw and Bill Fox both had troubles in hot laps that forced them to scratch for the night......Chris Martin started the Sprint feature in 10th and finished 6th....John Schulz, driving Jimmy Davies #99 Sprinter, passed 6 cars from his 13th place starting spot to come home in 7th....Josh Schneiderman started 11th and finished 8th....Mike Philben passed 5 cars from his 15th place starting spot to come home in 10th....Tim Moore passed 7 cars from his 19th place starting spot to finish in 12th......Derek Hodges started the Hobby Stock feature in 12th and finished 7th....Travis Bunnell started 11th and finished 8th....Steve Allen passed 6 cars from his 16th place starting spot to come home in 10th....Jared Stephens and Mike Kincaid, who were battling for 6th, came to rest in the turn 4 guardrail on the final lap to end there nights in 13th and 14th......Barndon Banks, who was running 4th in the Modified feature, pulled off on lap 3 to end his night in 9th......All five weekly classes that race at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday nights saw there feature races go caution free. That is 77 (Sport Compacts 10, Stock Car 18, SportMod 16, Hobby Stock 15, and Modifieds 18) laps of feature racing!!!
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