By Jerry Mackey
OSKALOOSA — The fans came out in great numbers to support the opening night of Stock Car Racing as KBOE sponsored the racing action on a chilly late April evening on Wednesday night. The track crew once again gave the competitors a perfect race track and the drivers provided a very entertaining night of racing that got underway at 7:30 pm and the final checkered flag of the night waved at 9:45 pm.
The Mid States Machine Stock Car feature saw two of Southern Iowa’s very best drivers battle it out for the extra money provided by the Southern Iowa Fairboard and their great supporters. Nathan Wood who is now a 25 year veteran racer led the feature flag to flag from his outside front row start but the win was very hard fought as Zach Vanderbeek raced wheel to wheel with Wood for the entire main event. Vanderbeek was able to pull along side Wood several times but was not able to secure the lead. Dustin Griffiths ran third on opening night.
The Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmods took the green with Oskaloosa hot shoe Curtis VanDerwal setting the pace but 4th starting Colton Livezey got a great start and quickly moved into the race lead. Livezey driving his VB Built Sportmod went on to record the feature win ahead of VanDerwal and Chase Johnson.
The Stout Trucking Hobby Stocks took the green with Brad Stephens leading the first few circuits before the lead pack swelled to four cars with Jeremy Dooley, Peyton Stephens and Brayden Wood joining the elder Stephens. As the race went on Keaton Gordon joined the leaders and the battle for the top spot continued with great side by side action that saw the drivers race two and three wide around the big 1/2 mile. Late in the race Keaton Gordon took over the point position and held off Peyton Stephens and Jeremy Dooley for the win.
The Sport Compacts saw a strong field of 19 drivers take the initial green flag, with only three laps completed contact was made in turn two that sent the 2H of James Haring airborne, Haring did roll over, but was uninjured in the incident. On the restart Seth Meinders took command and went on to score the win ahead of Katelynn Watts who advanced form a 4th row start to claim second ahead of Brandon Pickney.
The all new class this year at the Southern Iowa Speedway is the Crown Victoria Class. The main event was very entertaining and well received by the fans. The entry level class will be sure to grow as the season goes along and if the opening night action is indicative of what is to come, the Crown Vics will be a great addition to the Southern Iowa Speedway race program. The opening night win went to Wade Francis in the Tim Folkerts owned Crown Vic. Cole Hughes ran second ahead of Clayton Danner.
Wednesday, May 6th will be DeJong Manufacturing Night at the races with all fans receiving free popcorn courtesy of DeJong’s. Hot laps will get underway at 7:15 pm with racing to follow.
