By Jerry Mackey:
Oskaloosa, Iowa: The Southern Iowa Speedway hosted the 2022 Hall Of Fame Induction night at the races on Wednesday night sponsored by our good friends at Kraig Ford/Chevrolet in Oskaloosa. The 2022 class of inductees included Southern Iowa Speedway legends, Kenny Fenn, Sonny Smyser, Troy Folkerts and Mike Spillman. These four were recognized and honored during intermission as they became part of the very prestigious Southern Iowa Speedway Hall of Fame.
The racing headliner of the night was the Parker Tree Service Hobby Stocks 14 lap feature. Young Peyton Stephens is in search of his first ever win and appeared to be in route to the win. But a caution on lap 11 brought the field to his bumper. On the restart. a a pack of five cars put on a classic finish. The white flag waved as the leaders came upon a slower car and the race finish was a true classic as the leaders were all scrambling for a line to get to the finish. Rick VanDusseldorp shot low and found a line to get through the pack and score the win by a bumper over Aaron Martin. The lead pack also included third place finisher Dustin Griffiths and fourth place finisher Trevor Tanner. Peyton Stephens was shuffled back to fifth but was still part of the lead pack.
The Oskaloosa Quality Rental Sportmods feature race went green to checkers caution free. Curtis VanDerwal was able to break away from Maguire Dejong in the early going and go on to score an impressive win. VanDerwal was very emotional in victory lane as he was joined by Howard Gordon Jr., who continues to recover from a Stroke. The win was very special to VanDerwal on a very emotional night at the Speedway.
Tyler Heckart ran second to VanDerwal with Colton Livezey coming home third.
The Midstate Machine Stock Cars main event saw Nathan Ballard make a return to Oskaloosa and again come away with a win. Ballard battled early with Cayden Carter before breaking away and moving on to scoring the win ahead of Dustin Vis and Dustin Griffiths.
The Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compacts was another close race as Matt Moore held off a fast closing Seth Meinders in the late going to score the win. Moore led the race flag to flag but the margin of victory was less than a car length.
Ben Woods continued his mastery of SIS in the Clow Valve Company Non-Wing Sprint Car division. Woods passed early leader Kelly Graham and went on to continue his winning streak. Graham held on for second ahead of Doug Sylvester.
The next racing event at SIS will be the Caleb Hammond Memorial on Tuesday, July 19, during the 2022 Southern Iowa Fair. A $17,000 purse has been posted for this huge night of racing.
Wednesday, July 6 Southern Iowa Speedway Feature Results (top 5)
Parker Tree Service Hobby Stocks
- 1R Rick VanDusseldorp-Oskaloosa
- 73 Aaron Martin-Delta
- 10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 33T Trevor Tanner-Knoxville
- 44P Peyton Stephens-Bussey
Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmods
- 1V Curtis VanDerwal-Oskaloosa
- 42 Tyler Heckart-Ottumwa
- 29 Colton Livezey-New Sharon
- 8T Tony Johnson-Oskaloosa
- 27L Casey Lancaster-Glenwood, MO
Midstate Machine Stock Cars
- 29 Nathan Ballard-Marengo
- 20V Dustin Vis-Martelle
- 10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
- 17B Steve Byers-Indianola
- 1X Cayden Carter-Oskaloosa
Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compacts
- M2 Matt Moore-Ottumwa
- 16 Seth Meinders-Ottumwa
- 63B Terry Bickford-Shannon City
- 0 Bob Hayes-New Sharon
- 7 Brandon Pickney-Ottumwa
Clow Valve Company Non Wing Sprints
- 11B Ben Woods-Newton
- 25 Kelly Graham-Hedrick
- 12 Doug Sylvester-Ottumwa
- 17 Steve Pumphrey-Fairfield
- T4 Tyler Graves-Chariton
