By Jerry Mackey
OSKALOOSA — The 3M Corporation of Knoxville hosted kids night at the races on Wednesday night with a great crowd in attendance on a beautiful night for racing. With five nights of racing in the books in 2024 at the Southern Iowa Speedway, Dustin Griffiths of Hedrick has raced in ten feature events, doing double duty racing in both the Stock Car and Hobby Stock classes. Out of those ten main events the popular Hedrick driver has made his way to victory lane 9 times.
Wednesday night was another clean sweep for Griffiths, the Mid States Machine Stock Car feature saw Griffiths chase Maguire DeJong to the green flag and overtake the 33Z of DeJong on lap number two and go on to score the win in the very tough Stock Car class. Nathan Wood was able to get by DeJong near the midway point of the main event and set up a challenge late in the race for the win. Wood used the top side to close on Griffiths but his last chance charge off of turn four coming to the checkers came up just short at the finish line. The margin of victory was less than a car length for Griffiths. DeJong followed Wood under the checkers in third on Wednesday night.
The final race of the night was the Parker Tree Service Hobby Stock main event, Tom and Cindy Drost of Drost Farms have put a $400 bounty on Griffiths and another anonymous donor has posted an additional $100 progressive on Griffiths as well. Griffths proved to be up to all challenges scoring the win in the 14 lap feature. Griffths charged through the middle of the very wide fast track in turn three as the field was completing lap number 2 and Griffths went on to record the win ahead of Eric Stanton. The 7B of Stanton was able to close late in the race but was not able to catch the smooth running Griffiths. With the Bounty going unclaimed, it will grow to a $600 bonus to beat Griffiths next week.
Kyle Harwood of New Sharon raced into the lead of the Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmod main event and appeared to be in route to the win. It was not to be as veteran driver Curtis VanDerwal chased down Harwood and took over the top spot on the final lap to score the win. VanDerwal stated in victory lane “ I didn’t see any way that I was going to be able to catch Kyle, but I found a quick line on the mutli grooved track and picked up some late speed.” VanDerwal scored the win ahead of Harwood and Brayton Carter drove Carter VanDenberg’s number 7V to third.
Seth Meinders scored his second win of the season in the Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compact class on Wednesday night. Meinders and race leader James Haring had a spirited race going on for the lead the majority of the main before Meinders was able race under the checkers for the win. James haring finished second ahead of last weeks winner Kyle Rysdam.
Another driver having a dream season at the Southern Iowa Speedway is local driver AJ Johnson. The 93 NAPA Stores of Albia Non Wing Sprint Car has been dominant in 2024 and Wednesday nights win kept Johnson’s record unblemished as he has won all five feature events. Johnson overtook early leader, veteran Robert Bell and went on to score the impressive win. Bell held on for second ahead of Mike Mayberry.
Next Wednesday nights race program will be sponsored by Bill & Rays Truck Repair and will be Teacher and School Staff Appreciation night with all school employees being admitted Free. Hot laps will take to the track at 7:15 with racing to follow.
Southern Iowa Speedway 3M Kids Night May 29
Feature results (top 5)
Mid States Machine Stock Cars
- 10g Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 52 Nathan Wood-Sigourney
- 33Z Maguire DeJong-Montezuma
- 22R Todd Reitzler-Grinnel
- 14X Austin Schrage-Knoxville
Parker Tree Service Hobby Stocks
- 10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 7B Eric Stanton-Carlisle
- 7 Keaton Gordon-Ottumwa
- 55 Brad Stephens-Bussey
- 9X Peyton Stephens-Bussey
Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmods
- 1V Curtis VanDerwal-Oskaloosa
- 15K Kyle Harwood-New Sharon
- 7V Brayton Carter-Oskaloosa
- 68 Will Wolf-Grinnell
- 29 Colton Livezey-New Sharon
Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compacts
- 65 Seth Meinders-Ottumwa
- 2H James Haring-Oskaloosa
- 18A Kyle Rysdam-Palaski
- 41 Nathan Moody-Oskaloosa
- 2m Matt Moore-Ottumwa
NAPA Stores of Albia Non Wing Sprint
- 93 AJ Johnson-Oskaloosa
- 71 Robert Bell-Colfax
- 4 Mike Mayberry-Fremont
- T4 Tyler Graves-Chariton
- 12 Doug Sylvester- Ottumwa
