The conclusion to the regular racing season was held on Wednesday, August 31st at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. And as far as I'm concerned, when we turn the calendar to September tomorrow, we are also closing out the summer racing season.
Osky will be settling track title in five IMCA sanctioned divisions on Wednesday, as they do by just running another regular program including point inverts and then just adding up the points to crown champions. The Stock Car, Sport Compacts and Hobby Stocks have yet to determine their champion as the pits opened for the final night of racing with Colt Mather in the Modifieds and Curtis Van Der Wal having already locked up the Sport Mod title.
Wednesday night could well mark my final visit to the Hawkeye State for a racing event in 2016. My calendar for the next eight weeks or so is pretty well locked up with events in the Badger and Gopher state along with a couple of visits to the Dakotas so unless the weather intervenes, which is always a possibility, those interested in my comments and observations for racing in the coming weeks could always purchase and on-line subscription to ALL THE DIRT Racing News, where the majority of my upcoming races will fall under their sanctioning umbrella
Wednesday's program almost didn't happen and I was unaware that the track was so close to not being held. Lots of rain the last few days has turned the Southern Iowa Fairgrounds into a sea of mud in many places and if not for such a fine day on Wednesday, there might have been serious consideration given to canceling the race due to wet grounds.
As it was, a didn't speak to promoter Mike Van Genderen at all, mostly because from the time I arrived on the grounds until right up to race time, he was either riding a tractor dragging a scrapper, the grader or at the end, the water truck to wet those areas that had finally dried out. I was concerned when I walked the track that we would be looking at a rough racing surface but that was not the case as it did roll in nicely. The groove was very narrow though, and the lose dirt formed a big berm up high but not one that could be raced off of.
I was told that the big marker tires had been moved out late in the season, by the order of the Fair Board. But Wednesday, they had been moved out even further as the insides of the corners were mud holes. This made for a particularly narrow groove, especially going into turn one. The drivers didn't seem to have a problem with it however, but the inside was the way to go and a couple of the drivers used the marker tires on the insides of the corners to hold back the pack.
I won't say that the area is getting water logged but both the parking lot at the Fairgrounds and the infield of the race track were overrun by Canadian Geese until just about race time. I'm glad there was not a racing class for them as their constant honking as they wanted to pass would have been very annoying!
Quite frankly, car counts were not good in a couple of the classes with the top two classes in my mind, the Stock Cars and Modifieds, neither having enough cars for two heat races while the Sport Mods, Sport Compacts and Hobby Stocks all had two heats and a feature. There were sixty one cars in total on hand.
That being said however, three of the five feature races went right down to the wire with two of them seeing last lap passes for the win and I thought that overall the mains were very entertaining. Not so was the Modified feature that saw only four cars finish and they were even distributed around the race track.
Not much was happening in the Sport Compact feature either until point leader Shane Evans suddenly pulled off the back chute half way through the event. With runner up in points Bill Whalen Jr still racing , track officials did some quick math and Evans held on by the smallest of margins for the title.
Even more dramatic was the Stock Car feature where Louis Lynch held a three point leader over Mike Hughes as their final feature of the year rolled off. Hughes made some bold moves and got to the lead where he was dogged by Nathan Wood lap after lap. Meanwhile, Lynch was just far enough back that the point title would be lost.
Wood kept trying and Hughes was clearly blocking the pack as suddenly the top four all caught up. On the last corner, Wood went high and then made a crossover maneuver and got to the inside of Hughes and nipped him by inches for the win. This loss of one position also made all the difference for Lynch, who ended up winning the title by one point. Wow.
The other feature race settled on the last lap was the Sport Mod. Although there were no point implications involved, it still ended up being a thrilling finish, albeit it just a bit sketchy. Colton Livezey built up a big lead but Van Der Wal finally worked his way up after starting ninth on the grid. After he moved into second, he quickly cut into Livezey's advantage. Things got real dicey when the top two caught up to lapped traffic.
There seemed to be some sort of communication problem on the laps between the tower and the flagstand as the "flying green", two to go signal was never used , nor was the move over flag shown to the two back markers the leaders came up on. Instead, the white flag was suddenly displayed and , long story short, Livezey got caught on the wrong side of the back markers as they raced down the back chute and Van Der Wal drove by and go the win. It was a surprising turn of developments on the last lap but one that was not totally palatable to the crowd.
The Hobby Stock feature was one where the narrow groove was used to an advantage by the leader. With his strong run going, Dustin Griffiths had the point title in hand. Still, he wanted to win the last feature of the year too. He was leading but Nick Ulin was all over him, as Griffiths protected the low groove and when Ulin tried to move up the track, the heavy surface messed up his efforts. He kept trying though and because Griffiths was about the fourth fastest car on the track at the end, other cars started to catch him too and on the last last, Danny Thrasher went wheel to wheel with Ulin, and this distraction probably saved Griffiths who then held on for the win over the tightly grouped field at the end.
The show itself went extraordinarily smooth on Wednesday with there only needing two yellow flags total in the five feature races and with only three more slowdowns in the heats, the racers kept the show moving under the green for the vast majority of the night.
There was a little bit of everything in the pits practicing Wednesday, as Cayden Carter took his IMCA Late Model out for a couple sets of hot laps. Unfortunately, he left his Stock Car home so that was one top car missing. Zack VanderBeek also had his new IROC USMTS Modified on hand for some practice laps also. I had never seen VanderBeek in a black car before but that is the color of this car. Also, unfortunately, he left his IMCA Modified home too so that was another top car not on hand.
The crowd was a nice sized on for the finale on a beautiful night in southern Iowa and they all seemed satisfied with the program with the close feature races far outweighing what could perhaps be construed as weak numbers in a couple of the classes. For many of these fans, this is their mid week hangout and nothing is going to mess with that.
The next event up at the speedway is the Musco Lighting Fall Classic on October 7-8.
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