By Jerry Mackey
OSKALOOSA — Wednesday night the Mahaska Season Championship races were run with a beautiful night for racing and a great field of race cars in action on the wide smooth Mahaska County Monster 1/2 mile dirt track on the Southern Iowa Fairgrounds. In addition the kids in attendance were treated to a gigantic candy scramble during intermission.
The Midstates Machine Stock Cars brought the 2026 Wednesday night season long point races to an end with another stout field of drivers in action. Aaron Martin led the first couple of circuits in the main event before Nathan Wood took over the top spot. Wood held the lead until 8th starting Zach Vanderbeek was able to move into the lead. Vanderbeek went on to survive a late race caution and score the win ahead of a fast closing Dustin Griffiths who took second ahead of Nathan Wood. With a third place finish Wood secured the 2026 Point Championship in the very tough Midstate’s Machine Stock Car Class.
The Stout Trucking Hobby Stock feature again belonged to Dustin Griffiths who has been the man to beat all year long. Griffiths worked to the front from his 8th position start and took the lead from Brayden Wood and went on to score an impressive win. despite the dominance by Griffiths in the Hobby Stocks, a couple of early season issues by Griffiths allowed the very consistent Keaton Gordon to win the 2026 Point Championships. Gordon ran sixth on Wednesday night but his season long top finishes earned him the Track Championship.
The Sportmod Season Championship win went to Oskaloosa’s very own Curtis VanDerwal. Curtis drove his number 1V into the lead early and went on to score the win over Colton Livezey and Kyle Harwood. With the second place run Colton Livezey earned the 2026 Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmod Track Championship.
The Sport Compacts races were dominated by Seth Meinders all year long. Seth won seven of the nine point races and Wednesday night he put an exclamation point on a great year with another win and the Track Championship. Caleb Hildebrand ran second in the feature ahead of Tyler Haring.
The all new class this year, the Doug’s 4 Wheelers Crown Victoria’s, have shown that they are going to grow in numbers and the class has put on entertaining races all year long. 16 year old Cole Hughes scored the feature win on Wednesday night and with the win the youngster earned the 2026 Point Championship by a very narrow margin ahead of Trent Kerr.
Wednesday night the Vintage Late Models were in action and a nice field of beautiful Vintage Cars put on another great race. Dino Rodish drove his 1980 Sanger Chassis to the win ahead of Bert McDaniel in the big tired division, and Tyler Kelly won the small tired division over Carl Yaw.
Next up at the Southern Iowa Speedway will be Terry and Lori McCarl’s Front Row Challenge featuring he 410 Sprint Cars. The 31st annual event will pay a whopping $21,000 to the winner and will be sponsored by the McKay Group. The winged warriors will invade the Southern Iowa Speedway on Monday, August 10th. For ticket information, please go to OskyChallenges.com
Also in August for the first time ever the “World of Outlaw” Late Models will tackle the Mahaska County Monster 1/2 mile dirt track for the “Cornbelt Showdown”. The very best Late Model Drivers in the Country will be in Oskaloosa on Wednesday, August 26th for a must see racing event. In addition on August 26th the Southern Iowa Speedway Stock Cars and Hobby Stocks will be in action. Please watch the Southern Iowa Speedway Facebook page for ticket information.
Prior to Wednesday nights racing action, Guthrie Vrough of the Southern Iowa Fairboard and Race Committee addressed the drivers and crews and thanked them for making the 2026 a very successful racing season.
Feature Results (top five)
Midstates Machine Stock Cars
- VB1 Zach Vanderbeek-New Sharon
- 10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 52 Nathan Wood-Sigourney
- 02 Andrew Schroeder-Fremont
- 73 Aaron Martin-Sigourney
2026 Track Champion-Nathan Wood
Stout Trucking Hobby Stocks
- 10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 52B Brayden Wood-Sigourney
- 44P Peyton Stephens-Bussey
- 18 Kris Walker-Oskaloosa
- 42T Tyson Overton-Carlisle
2026 Track Champion-Keaton Gordon
Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmods
- 1V Curtis Vanderwal-Oskaloosa
- 29 Colton Livezey-New Sharon
- 15K Kyle Harwood-New Sharon
- 24 Chase Johnson-Agency
- 55B Steven Berry-Ottumwa
2026 Track Champion-Colton Livezey
Sport Compacts
- 65 Seth Meinders-Ottumwa
- 11 Caleb Hildebrand-Oskaloosa
- 14B Tyler Haring-Oskaloosa
- 01C Bryan Clausen-Kirkville
- 18A Kyle Rysdam-Pulaski
2026 Track Champion-Seth Meinders
Doug’s Four Wheelers Crown Vics
- 11 Cole Hughes-What Cheer
- 88N Brendan Nantz-Oskaloosa
- 67 Dalton Folkerts-Albia
- 5K Trent Kerr-Oskaloosa
- 16 Tanner Bainbridge-Libertyville
2026 track Champion-Cole Hughes
