By Jerry Mackey
OSKALOOSA — Wednesday night was Bill & Rays Night at the races at the Southern Iowa Speedway located on the Mahaska County Fairgrounds in Oskaloosa. The night provided plenty of racing excitement with new and repeat winners making their way to victory lane.
The Mid States Machine Stock Cars saw veteran driver Nathan Wood make his way to victory lane following a spirited race with the Southern Iowa Speedways hottest driver, Dustin Griffiths. Wood advanced from his second row start to take the lead early while Griffiths advanced from a sixth position start. Griffiths closed on Wood late in the feature but Wood held his line and scored the feature win on Wednesday night. Maguire DeJong drove his new Stock Car ride to a strong third place finish ahead of Casen Keller.
The Parker Tree Service feature was the last race of the night and the stage was set for another great battle with two drivers driving cars owned by Jim Tull, the 22 cars were driven by past Southern Iowa Speedway Champion and and national IMCA Hobby Stock Champion Kris Walker and Nathan Wood. The two Southern Iowa Speedway masters brought the field to the green with a $600 Bounty on Dustin Griffiths. Wood led early while Griffiths made his way forward from a third row start. Griffiths raced past Eric Stanton on lap two and took the top spot from Wood on lap number 4. With Griffiths well out front the raindrops began to fall as the drivers completed lap number 11 of the 14 lap feature. The race was deemed official as more than ½ of the scheduled laps had been completed. With Griffiths scoring the win the bounty will now grow to $700 if any driver can beat Griffiths in the Hobby Stock Class. Eric Stanton slipped by Wood on lap seven and went on to finish second while Wood ran third ahead of Kolby Sabin.
Curtis VanDerwal proved to be the class of the field on Wednesday night in the Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmod class, VanDerWal led the main event flag to flag from his front row start. Vanderbilt took the checkers ahead of Bray ton Carter and Kyle Haywood.
The Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compacts have been providing great racing for the first half of the season at the Mahaska County Monster and Wednesday nights action was no exception. Nathan Moody took advantage of his front row start and went on to record his second feature win of the season. Moody held off another early season winner in Kyle Mesdames. Seth Menders has been another front runner consistently and Wednesday night saw the 65 of Menders take third.
AJ Johnson continued his unbeaten streak in the NAPA Store of Alba non wing Sprint car division. Doug Sylvester appeared to be on his way to breaking Johnson’s win streak by leading the first 8 laps of the main but Johnson was able to slip by Sylvester with three laps to go and move on to score the win. Sylvester crossed under the checkers in second ahead of Mike Bayberry.
Racing action will continue at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday, June 12th with Stout Trucking and Van Utrecht Farms and Trucking night at the races. It will be Bike night, with several kids leaving the races with new bikes, in addition there will be inflatable jump houses set up for the kids prior to the races. Hot laps will get underway at 7:15 with racing to follow.
Wednesday, June 5th Bill & Ray’s Night At the Southern Iowa Speedway
Feature Results (top 5)
Mid States Machine Stock Cars
- 52 Nathan Wood-Sigourney
- 10G Dustin Griffith-Hedrick
- 30M Maguire DeJong-Montezuma
- 71X Casen Keller-Indianola
- 55X Brett Maasdam-Sully
Parker Tree Service Hobby Stocks
- 10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 7B Eric Stanton-Indianola
- 22 Nathan Wood-Sigourney
- 9 Kolby Sabin-Des Moines
- 7 Keaton Gordon-Ottumwa
Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmods
- 1V Curtis VanDerwal-Oskaloosa
- 7V Brayton Carter-Oskaloosa
- 15K Kyle Harwood-New Sharon
- 29 Colton Livezey-New Sharon
- 68 Will Wolf-Grinnell
Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compacts
- 41 Nathan Moody-Oskaloosa
- 18A Kyle Rysdam-Palaski
- 65 Seth Meinders-Ottumwa
- 7 Brandon Pickney-Ottumwa
- 2M Matt Moore-Ottumwa
NAPA Store of Albia Non Wing Sprints
- 93 AJ Johnson-Oskaloosa
- 12 Doug Sylvester-Ottumwa
- 4 Mike Mayberry-Fremont
- T4 Tyler Graves-Chariton
- 17 Lance Schlicher-Fairfield
