It was night number two for racing at the Mahaska County Fair in Oskaloosa Iowa and on Wednesday Juy 19th, the Modifieds were added to the program. Not just a regular night for them either, as the IMCA sanctioned Hawkeye Dirt Tour was on the card with extra significance because of that. Tour regulars were chasing points plus the locals were hoping to defend the home turf which all made for an interesting night of racing. The same four classes that ran on Tuesday were also invited back again so we had five division program to enjoy.
Now I'm not an expert of Iowa weather by any means, but the fella at the motel where I was staying told me that this was the longest hot stretch of weather that he could ever remember and he's been in this country for a number of years. Also the driest he said, as the storms keep skipping by the Oskaloosa area and toying with them but it really hasn't rained in a month. Well, that's fine until I'm out of town and then it can rain "cats and dogs" if it wants but I need one more day of dry weather before I head back home. Truly, even though it is hotter today on Wednesday than yesterday, with the nice breeze it feels not quite as bad to me. Perhaps I just needed a day to get acclimated to being outside in a "blast furnace" environment.
I'm told by an independent authority that the title "Blogger" has a rather unsavory sound to it and that I should come up with another word to describe these offerings. Not being able to pull a name out of my hat immediately, let's just call this my "Irrational Wanderings" until I can come up with something better.
There were a number of comments about track conditions last night and most were not of a complimentary nature. To be frank, the track was very choppy last night and anyone who wandering above the inside line by more than a car length either had a ill handling car or a very large set of "driver enhancing aids." Fortunately, those folks that are now doing the track prep at the SIS recognized the problem and set about solving it. Wednesday found the track graded to a much smoother level and much more water had been applied to the track. Later on, it did race much smoother than the previous night and while there still wasn't much of a top side, most likely just due to the difficult weather conditions, some drivers were able to move up the track and make it work.
Twenty one Modifieds signed in to race including the top five in HDT points and thirteen of the top twenty which was apparently a "ball park" number that most of the "insiders" felt was about right. When Cory Dripps hammered the guard rail in his heat race that cut the number to twenty for the main event.
Car counts in the other four classes still were lagging and one wonders where all the area drivers were this week that with the doubleheader as a special bonus and most drivers still getting a bit of a special thrill racing at a Fair Race, where the heck was everyone? In an effort to move the show along, single heats were run for both the Sport Mods and Stock Cars when they actually could have been split into two preliminary events.
You see, the storms were building in the Northwest but track officials were right on it, and they eliminated any break after the heats as they moved right into the Sport Compact feature race. Of course, the guy at the motel would have said that the storms are going to miss Osky, and he would have been correct, but it's much better to be safe than sorry. The early conclusion to the races also allowed Race Director Mike VanGenderen to get to the hospital in Newton earlier where his wife is planning on presenting him a boy at some point on Thursday morning.
The Modified feature was moved up in the running order so as to beat the threatening clouds lurking to the West and with Hunter Marriott, coming off his big wins in North Dakota sitting on the pole, it would have seemed that the issue had already been settled. But that's what's so great about short track racing on the dirt, you just never know. Marriott did take off like a rocket ship and moved to a big lead, but Osky's own Cayden Carter moved into second and by the ten lap mark he was clearly reeling in the leader.
Carter had caught Marriott when the only yellow flag of the race was triggered with sixteen laps complete when Dan Brockert somehow managed to turn a harmless spin into a trip on to his roof, which triggered the red flag. During the break, Marriott headed for the pits and was done for the night.
However, Carter was not out of the woods as lurking right behind him was Ricky Thornton Jr who was driving the #30 Cooney car on this night. He had been moving up through the field after starting ninth and I thought that Carter might be in trouble. By the way, is there anything that Thornton Jr. can't drive well?
However, that was not the case as Cayden took off on the green, opened up a big lead and cruised home to an easy win and a grand for his efforts. Joel Rust ran strong throughout the race and by finishing ahead of Kelly Shryock, he might have taken over the point lead in the HDT and if not, it will be very close as they motor on to Knoxville on Thursday.
The conspiracy theorists and "boo birds" got their chance to be satisfied again on Wednesday as the season's two big winners, Shannon Anderson and Curtis VanDerWal, both again won main events without producing too much "sweat" to get the wins.
It seemed that Anderson might have some problems on this night as he started ninth in only a fourteen lap main event and there were some fast cars in front of him but he quickly moved to the front and within a couple laps was in third and charging. Both Mike Kinkaid and Chanse Hallatz tried their best, but there is no way they could stay with the flying Anderson who drove past them and then gradually pulled away. Anderson is now a remarkable eleven for eleven at Osky and according to Tony Paris, track announcer, Wednesday was Anderson's twenty ninth feature win of the year. And for those that think he's cheating, and of course that's always the "battle cry" of those that consistently get beat by another driver, they might want to focus on the handling and cornering of their own race cars as it sure looks to me that where Anderson especially shines is in the corners where he can drive his car in much deeper and it doesn't tend to slide around like so many others were Wednesday on the dry track. Just sayin'.
VanDerWal made the move of the night in the Sport Modified feature as he split the cars of Brayton Carter and Carter VandenBerg to grab the lead and then pull away for the win. While the field was not a big one, those two in front of him were running well and he was having some trouble getting past them. Suddenly, in turn four, as they were battling for the top spot, he moved forward and drove right through the middle of the track and split them to take over the lead. It was a breathtaking and "wowzer" kind of moment that got all in the crowd's attention. Some theorists in the crowd feel that he is just playing with the field, and I haven't seen him run often enough to know whether he is so dominant that he can do that, but either way, it was a dandy move from my perspective.
Nathan Wood must be so sick of looking at the rear bumper and trunk of Dustin Griffith's #10G car that he could expectorate. For the second straight night he tail gated Griffith for most of the fourteen lap Stock Car feature but could just not get past him. And for the second straight night, Wood's car seemed faster but every time he tried to pass, he just couldn't quite pull off the move. So he followed Griffiths through the corners , nose to tail and waited for a mistake but for the second straight night, Dustin was not giving out any "freebies" and Wood just couldn't find a way by.
Mike Hughes, having gotten his car fixed after hammering the guard rail on Tuesday, was able to use the higher groove to pass a few cars but when he caught the lead duo after a mid race spin, the top side just wasn't good enough to pull off a passing move. So Griffiths, who used to dominate the Hobby Stock class here like VanDerWal and Anderson do now, won for the second straight night but this class does need a few more cars.
The Sport Compacts had a real quick turn around time after their heat race with the program being rammed through at top speed but Ryan Havel and Levi Heath had a good battle going for the lead until Heath blew the guts out of his four cylinder motor down the back chute and was done. Havel then cruised home for the win with Bill Whalen dancing his way into victory lane in second.
After a rather slim night at the ticket booth on Tuesday, a regular Wednesday night sized Osky crowd was on hand for night two of the Fair races with the final checkered flag waving right around 9:30 pm. It was still 86 degrees out at that time and you could almost hear the corn a poppin' in the fields.
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