On the way back from Greenwood Nebraska I stopped in on Wednesday, May 24th for the program at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Having been stopped by rain two straight Wednesdays, Osky was looking to finally get a program of racing in. And as race time approached, what had been a cloudy and sometimes drippy day turned into a fine evening for auto racing.
All the postponements due to the rain outs had really jammed up the race schedule at Osky so for perhaps the first time that I can ever remember, we found ourselves looking at a huge seven division program, all on a Wednesday night. The Karl Trucks were already on the race schedule for this Wednesday and the Sprint Invaders, after having been postponed twice in a row, were added when promoter Mike VanGenderen opted to take them on himself after the Fair Board indicated that didn't want to take on that part of the show.
Once the racing started, it was virtually non stop racing for about three and a half hours as the track management cranked through the program about as quickly as possible. Probably the only misstep of the night was that the amount of time needed to hot lap all seven classes was under estimated and by the time all that was accomplished, it was nearly 7:45 pm, later than normal after an earlier starting time was planned, before the first race hit the track. If such a marathon undertaking would be attempted again, I would advise that most classes skip hot laps and perhaps just warm up the Sprints and then go racing.
One of the stars of Wednesday night's show was Osky's own Cayden Carter who earned two feature wins, both of which were hard fought victories. The Stock Car feature win was probably the most difficult as it was done with a last lap pass of Nathan Wood. Earlier, the Stock Cars do what they always do here and that is battle it out, often three and four wide, for laps at a time. Even though they only started twelve cars in their main, the racing was intense and no more cars were really needed. Carter is to be congratulated for having the presence of mind to move where he needed to on the track to make the winning pass. Way too many drivers would have tail gated Wood around the oval on the final lap and settled for second but Carter sensed that Wood was slowing and did what he had to do.
The Modified win wasn't an easy one either as an early battle with Jason Murray and Andrew Schroeder had to be settled before Carter could take the lead. And once in front, he was nearly tracked down by a high side running Derrick Stewart. Stewart was very impressive running up against the wall and passed a number of cars, and it looked like he might have something for Carter, but Cayden fought off his challenges for the win. I believe this was the first night out for Carter in a new Modified from the shop of Zack VanderBeek and the car really "sucked down" in the corners and gave him terrific corner speed.
The Sprint Invaders fielded twenty nine entries which I thought was quite an impressive number. According to Bill Wright, that was the most in Invader history to ever have raced at Osky. And the Sprints put on an almost flawless show, as in their six races they ran, there was only a single lone yellow in the B Feature for a minor spin, otherwise their part of the program was completed without the yellow flag waving. The twenty five lap main obviously went nonstop also and the key to winning for Ian Madsen was the terrific way he got through lapped traffic, of which there was a huge amount. In fact, only six cars finished up on the lead lead which would indicate just how much traffic there was on the track. The McCarl family tried to stay with Madsen but he drove by both of them without much trouble as he was clearly the "class" of the field Wednesday.
My only quibble with the Invaders would be their choice of running four heats as six and seven car heats on the big half mile tended to get pretty spread out quickly.
Strong individual performances marked the winning efforts in the other four classes that raced. It must be comforting to know how strong your equipment is and that is a luxury that Shannon Anderson has right now. The Hobby Stock feature got off to a great start with spectacular three and four wide racing going on. Anderson, who started tenth, just kind of sat back and let everyone get sorted out and then he motored to the front. While we were watching the wild scramble at the lead of the field, suddenly out of no where, there is Anderson and he promptly just motors past everyone and then disappears into the Iowa evening for another feature win.
Perhaps the only other car as strong as Anderson is the Sport Mod of Curtis VanDerWal. In another nonstop main event, Curtis started eighth and just decimated the field as he tore to the front and then ran away from everyone. Carter VandenBerg seemed to be setting a very fast pace but when Curtis caught him, he blew by so fast it seemed like Carter was in another gear. Once in front, he opened up nearly a full straightaway on the rest of the field.
I don't get to see the Trucks in action much and I must confess that I like them better on a shorter track, but Steve Jackson gave a great performance on how to work the top side of the track. While most of the rest of the field tried the low groove, Jackson was cranking on his Truck next to the fence and he made it work to take over the lead, and even in front, he never dropped back to the safe side but continued to work up against the rail.
Daniel Fellows is another driver that was unknown before this racing season but in the early part of the year has already let his name be known with a series of wins at southern Iowa speedways. He won the Sport Compact feature again on Wednesday, starting eighth and quickly driving by the competition in what turned out to be an easy win.
A word about the track surface on Wednesday. It was amongst the finest tracks I have seen at Osky in quite some time with the groove being wide and smooth and drivers literally able to race all over the track. This, of course, flies against all logic with so many laps and so many divisions racing, one would think that the surface would get worn out early, especially with the Sprint feature being the third of the seven mains contested. However, this was not the case at all and while the track was black top to bottom, drivers seemed to be able to race all over and multiple grooves were used. Perhaps the big wide tires of the Sprints so early on actually helped. Who knows, as there are more variables in getting the track surface right than there are days in the month? All I know is that it was good on Wednesday.
Other than the late hour which was hard to avoid given the circumstances, it was a very good show by all classes on Wednesday. It was a looong ride home however, but it made me realize just how early it does get light before the sun comes up!
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