Once delayed by cold and wet conditions, the 2021 season opener at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa took place on Wednesday night, April 28th. And it proved to be a challenging endeavor to get this program in also as a couple of showers hit the Osky area during the day and there was even another delay during the program but when all was said and done, the program was completed and it was not a real late night either, even with that delay.
If I had checked the weather forecast more thoroughly, I might have not even been down in southern Iowa of this night as I was assuming that the chance of showers was only later in the night. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the radar midmorning as I was traveling as saw bright red heading apparently directly toward Osky! Well, they survived that onslaught with the worst missing the Fairgrounds, and yet another later in the afternoon which saw it really rain up toward Pella but just a few drops in Osky. I was told later that South of town it really came down too but fortunately for those of us wanting to see racing, the area of Osky was mostly missed.
The "Mahaska County Monster half mile" at the Fairgrounds in Osky was in great shape for the opener with it being smooth and fast. And the little spritz of rain during the heats, not even worthy of being called a shower; while it delayed things by about a half hour, it made for an even better track on this cool but humid night.
Five classes are racing again here this year at Osky, all unsanctioned, with a tops of sixteen in the Sport Compacts to a low of seven in the nonwinged Sprints with only that class running a single heat. All others had two heats and a feature as a part of the overall program.
Two legs of the three legged stool that work many of the races in Iowa were on hand for the opening night show. Jerry Mackey was calling the action again here as he has done at so many Iowa tracks over the years. Jerry is a little hobbled up these days with a bad back and it was painful to watch him clamber down from the tower to interview the feature winners. Perhaps you'll have to have them come up to the tower to visit you until you're back up to speed. Jerry is working Osky and CJ this year with plans to get out and visit other tracks after being tied done to the same tracks for so many years.
Kevin Feller is again the Head Scorer as he continues his hectic schedule that sees him working CJ, Osky and East Moline as well as running the show at Maquoketa on Saturday nights.
The third leg of the stool, Doug Haack, was out sick on this opening night and was replaced by veteran stick waver Ronnie Potts. I believe Doug is working Dubuque, Maquoketa, CJ and Osky this year. And for those that attend Osky regularly, the "Junior Flagman" who always stations himself in the front row just to the right of the flagman was back again. I believe he's been there as long as most of the other officials and certainly through several different promoters!
Qualifying heats were completed very quickly minus the rain delay and in fact there was not a single yellow flag waved during all the heat races and in total just five for the whole program! With this show being the only midweek attraction, the Positively Racing.com crew was on board in full force with the Eisele's , Jeff and Barry Johnson all in the house so rather than repeat the blow by blow account of the features, I'll just summarize the action.
While three of the five feature races were led wire to wire, only the Sprint feature was a true runaway as the other two still saw some close racing action. While Billy Cain led from start to finish in the Sport Compact main, a late yellow really bunched up the field and gave him much to worry about. Clayton Webster, who started in the fourth row in his very plain looking #15, raced up to third and when Lewie Winkleman spun exiting turn two on the final lap, a yellow waved and it was decided that the last two laps would be repeated. Webster was very slow on the restarts but once he got going he was very fast and he nearly caught Cain who held on for the win. A good case could have been made for checkering the race when the yellow waved as it seemed all cars had taken the white flag, but unlike many tracks down here that operate that way, they instead dialed it back to rerun the last two laps which nearly caused a pickle for Cain but he was able to hold on.
Rick VanDusseldorp also led from start to finish in the Hobby Stock feature but this also was anything but a runaway. He had Keaton Gordon literally beating on his rear quarter panel on several occasions as Gordon tried disparately to make a pass for the lead. But Gordon was just a part of a three headed monster of Dustin Griffiths and Brad Stephens that were all trading positions as they tried to take over the lead.
That tricky spot off turn two changed things up on lap eleven when Gordon got loose and Stephens got into the grass and spun, triggering a yellow. Stephens went to the back and Gordon pitted with a hot engine which left Griffiths to try and take down VanDusseldorp but the "flying Dutchman", one of many that race at this track, held on for the win.
The third green to checkered winner was in the nonwinged Sprints where Jonathan Hughes ran away from the pack, just as he has almost since the beginning that this class was added here. While his top speed, as measured by the Mahaska County Sherriff's Department at 118 mph was impressive, the level of the competition was not and hasn't been on those occasions that I have been at Osky as runaway wins seem to be the norm here. Granted, the Sprints get paid the same as the Sport Compacts which probably doesn't stir many to come, but the nearness of Osky to the Sprint Car capital of the county in Knoxville hasn't seemed to translate to success for this class.
Without a doubt, the most impressive run of the night was made by defending Sport Mod track champion Curtis VanderWal who came from the third row to score a late race win over Logan Anderson. Anderson made a lap two pass on leader Blaine Webster and built up a fairly sizable lead in the race that ran off nonstop.
However, VanderWal showed great speed as he caught and passed Webster and then began to close on Anderson with Webster hanging right with him. Anderson is no slouch but VanderWal reeled in the leader and with a scintillating move down the front chute on lap thirteen, blew to the inside of the leader and somehow kept his car off the outer barrier and then pulled away for a spectacular win while Anderson held off Webster for second.
Griffiths, running double duty as usual, was the early leader of the Stock Car feature and setting a good pace until he got caught by Derrick Agee. They had a great battle for the lead with Agee finally getting to the inside of Griffiths down the back chute and then running him up into the slop where he took over the lead.
Griffiths seemed inspired by that move as he seemed to pick up the pace and rather than Agee pulling away, Griffiths was right back knocking on his door looking for the lead. Griffiths tried very hard the rest of the way, throwing his car hard into the corners and while he got close, he just couldn't quite get back around Agee for the lead. And to his credit, while he was driving very, very hard, I did not see any contact in the late race battle. Donnie Pearson would finish third.
While we would like to see a few more cars in action on Wednesday and who knows, the weather certainly could have scared off a few, we did see some very good racing action on a high speed but smooth track with zero dust. The program was run off efficiently, as it needs to be to make a successful midweek show and the folks on hand spectating seemed more than pleased with the show, as was I. Lots of very friendly folks in charge of putting on this program and thanks to all of them for their efforts.
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