Thursday, May 4, 2017

"King Pins Rule at Osky"

There were no upsets at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday, May 3rd as the big half mile oval was able to complete week number two of their 2017 racing season. On what was a cool but comfortable night for dirt track racing, feature winners included Kelly Shryock, Nathan Wood, Curtis VanDerWal, Shannon Anderson and Daniel Fellows.

While I am unfamiliar with Fellows, his early season record speaks for itself as a winner at area tracks while the other four winners all carry a boatload of point titles, national championships and big race prizes earned over the years.

Wednesday night's racing was sponsored by Shawn Ritter and family and his business, Shawn's Hay Grinding. While being a small town but not farm boy, I had no idea what a hay grinding business entailed so it was a learning experience for me to see one of the hay grinding machines pace the feature fields. Now I have seen a lot of things pace feature fields over the years, but I am quite certain that I had never seen a hay grinding machine pace a feature field line up before!

We did a quick google search in the grandstand(when I say we I mean not me as my flip phone doesn't search too well!) but we ascertained that the pace vehicle which was a hay grinding machine mounted on a three axle truck was probably worth well over a quarter million dollars. Those kind of numbers catch my attention. In any event, it was good of Ritter to help support the track in the fashion that he did.

The speedway bonus offered if there were twenty or more cars in any class wasn't quite reached but both the Sport Compacts and Hobby Stocks were close. In all, eighty two cars signed in to race in the five division program which was probably just about right as no B features were required and the heats were just about the right size to provide both competition yet keep the action moving at a good pace.

The Oskaloosa area has received a lot of rain recently, as has most of Iowa I guess, and the main item of track preparation Wednesday was to make sure the races were held and that hopefully the track wouldn't come apart. So, not much water was added to the track and it was actually quite dry on the surface with the outside lane somewhat "crummy." Water was added a few times to the high side and packed in, but the outside lane never really came in on Wednesday, making the bottom lane the place to be. The track did stay fairly smooth until late in the program when some ripples developed in turns one and two but it was never to the point where it negatively affected the racing.

The heats were torn through at break neck speed with only a single yellow during all the qualifying to slow the show. It took less than one hour to settle all the qualifying. Two of the five mains also went nonstop with only the last race of the night, the Hobby Stock feature, needing more than two yellow flags.

The disparity of speeds in the Sport Compacts is really accentuated on the big track at Osky and the haves and have nots are quickly separated into groups. Former kart and motorcycle racer Fellows has become the toast of southeast Iowa and western Illinois with his big streak of wins in the early part of the 2017 racing season. Expect the other drivers and tech people to be giving this car the "extra treatment" in the coming weeks if he keeps up his current pace. Wednesday he started in the third row and was battling for the lead within one lap. His only competition was Denny Bergenhahn Jr who did close on several occasions but could never complete a pass. Both he and fourth place finisher Dylan Richards both towed all the way from Nebraska to race.

Jason Breuklander must live close to the track as after his Sport Compact failed to finish a heat race, he took the car presumably home and brought back his last year's car to run the feature. He started fifteenth in the main and finished seventh.  

Wood got to the front early in the Stock Car feature and then had to fight off several challenges. There was plenty of body contact behind him but fortunately for him, it never carried as far forward as for a fight for the lead. Several drivers were swapping spots behind Wood and at the end, it was Todd Reitzler who came the closest to stealing the win but Wood kept his car nailed to the low side for the win.

VanDerWal probably put on the most dominating and eye opening performance of the night. Normally a dominating character at Osky, early in the race he bobbled and ended up in the infield in turn four. Smartly, he kept going rather than parking his car and while he lost two positions and found himself nearly a straightaway behind, he didn't have to go to the back of the pack like he would have if he would have anchored the brakes like so many others do.

After that, Curtis put on a awesome performance as he displayed speed that no one else could come close to matching. The way he blazed his way back to the front was extremely impressive and it became clear why he is so hard to beat here. I'm not positive but his effort might have been aided somewhat by the fact that it appeared that leader Carter VanderBerg might have experienced some kind of rear suspension issues in the race. His right rear wheel seemed to have shifted back in the wheel well and it did not appear just right but he still seemed to be setting a good pace out front. However, VanDerWal caught him with a few laps left and blew right past him for the win and perhaps setting the pace for the rest of the season.

The Modified field was not a huge one but it contained plenty of strong running cars. Shryock got the jump on Jason Murray to take the early lead and Murray lost a good run when mechanical issues put him in the pits early. After some jockeying, Hunter Marriott was able to pass Todd Shute for second and he closed on the leader as the laps ran down. It seemed like Marriott had a reasonable chance to make the winning pass but Shryock seemed to pick up the pace when Marriott got close.

Hunter made a couple charges, going for the lead, but Shryock held his groove to bring home what he reported to be his third win of 2017.

The Hobby Stocks wrapped up the evening and Shannon Anderson appears just about as dominating in this class as VanDerWal in in the Sport Mods. Mike Kinkaid did everything he could to fight off Anderson but Shannon literally blew right past him down the front chute and once in front, there would be no catching him on this night. Brad Stephens made a nice charge from tenth to finish a fast closing third. It was reported that Ryan Wells, who finished ninth in the main, came all the way from Alberta to race.

As an extra bonus, Late Model drivers Billy Moyer, Ricky Thornton Jr and Rodney Sanders who are all in the area for MLRA racing this week, made some hot laps at various times during the program. Sanders surprised when he unloaded a black race car after having raced a white car earlier this year. Since he was one of the last to arrive, I didn't get to find out if it was just new tin or perhaps a new car but I will find out.

Racing was completed shortly after 10 pm, making it just the right kind of program for a week night. Because it is the "only show in town" on Wednesdays, promoter Mike Van Genderen gets a "full blast" of people wanting to write, blog and video his races and I appreciate the fact that even though I am far from the home town boy here,  he still allows me to "do my thing."

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