Wednesday night, June 26th, the Late Model racing action would continue in the Hawkeye State. On this night, the action would be at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa where the SLMR East region was running the first program of what was scheduled to be a very busy week for them. The SLMR made an appearance at Osky last year and would be returning to the Mahaska County "Monster Hall Mile" again, along with a full show of racing in four other divisions of open competition racing.
A very busy night was planned as Wednesday was the Gary Wilson Memorial race with many great sponsors from the local area donating to the purse for all divisions, making this an important race for all drivers.
The excitement in the air over this show was noticeable with the fans coming early and clearly, they were excited to see the Late Models again racing here. There was also much interest in the Hobby Stock class action, as Dustin Griffiths, who has won all six feature races he has finished here this year, has a bounty on his head and while the Hobby feature will pay seven hundred dollars to win, if somehone can beat him while Dustin is still running at the end of the race, the bounty will be seven hundred dollars on top of the race winnings, and will increase a hundred dollars if Dustin wins again.
All this has gotten the fans stirred up and the crowd would be on the most energetic and tuned in of any seen all year to this point. Osky, which is run by a volunteer Race Committee who works with the Fair Board, has worked hard to keep racing alive in Oskaloosa, and it is a tough go without sanctioning and with the weather that all have had to deal with in 2024. However, they do receive great local support as there are many that recognize the entertainment value of the racing here as well as "owning" their local racing.
This would be one of the biggest races at the track for the year and great racing weather would help. Heavy rains the night before did not materialize and the track would be fast for racing on Wednesday.
Twenty three Late Models signed in to race on Wednesday and Dylan Thornton was blistering fast in time trials, turning a lap at 19.024 seconds. Three heat races using qualifying points plus heat race finishing and passing points, would then set the lineup for the Late Model main.
For defending series champion, Chad Holladay, it was a great night. He led all twenty five laps of the Late Model feature but it was not an easy win as he had extreme pressure on him from Tad Pospisil in the late going. Pospisil started fifth on the grid and was still in that position at the halfway point of the race but then he really got going, moving up to second and when Holladay got hung up in traffic, Tad made a move to get beside the leader nd they raced side by side before Holladay managed to hold off the charge.
A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish but things changed dramatically in those last two laps. Pospisil had a terrible restart and fell all the way back to fifth with a gritty performance by Jeff Tharp getting him to the second spot at the end. Kyle Berck moved forward, then dropped back and then once again climbed up to third at the finish.
The bounty race in the Hobby Stocks was spoiled by Griffiths who wasn't about to have anyone beat him without quite the battle. As Rick VanDusseldorp led the opening lap, Griffiths was on the charge from eighth and by lap five, he blew past both Eric Stanton and VanDusseldorp to take over the lead and then he was gone.
No one would get close to him the rest of the race as he collected the top prize while the bounty remained in tact with another hundred added for next week.
The Sport Compact feature was a three car battle between Trent Fowler, Matt Moore and Nathan Moody until Moore lost a wheel and Fowler would take over the lead. He led the last six laps with Seth Meinders moving up to finish second.
The Stock Car feature saw Andrew Schroeder lead the first half of the race until Cayden Carter passed him for the point. Maguire DeJong roared up from seventh to put the heat on Carter and very nearly got by him, only to see Carter fight back and hold the spot. A late yellow saw Carter continue to fend off Maguire and a late closing Nathan Wood.
The other racing Carter, Brayton, had the lead in the Sport Mod feature but this time, Maguire would not settle for second as he drove past the Osky resident at the halfway point of the race and then pulled away to take the win with Logan Anderson's late charge getting him second.
After they widened the track out with some grader work at intermission, the groove moved up the track but drivers were able to work multiple lines and the track raced well. The crowd was a very good one and they seemed to leave pleased with what they had seen. The track officials were pleased with the racing, the crowd and also the car count which has struggled this year at times. The hope is that the drivers will have enjoyed the experience and return on another Wednesday night. It was a "feel good" night for just about everyone and one that the track could use, given all the rainouts and shaky weather they have faced already this year.
I also enjoyed the chance to talk to race announcer Jerry Mackey who was also very fired up and hopeful that this evening would be a good one when I spoke to him early and I'm sure he was happy with the way things went too
Note: This blog was first produced on Thursday morning, June 27th but was somehow lost in "The Cloud" and never reached the website so this version of the story has been reproduced in a shorter fashion with the information, unfortunately, not nearly as timely.
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