Another great fall day was in store for a great crowd at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Saturday. The temperature felt at least ten degrees warmer as the wind wasn't blowing nearly as strong as it was on Friday night. With a great crowd on hand Friday night, I believe there were more people in the stands on Saturday.
While the format was two complete shows, the top eight in Friday night's features were locked into Saturday night's a-mains. That is unless a driver opted to take a chance on pocketing some big money out of an envelope. Ron VerBeek, Steve Jackson, and Jared Timmerman took their chances and forfeited their starting spot. Last chance heat races and last chance qualifiers would be run to fill out the remainder of each starting field.
The first feature to make their way to the track would be the USRA hobby stocks. After pinning down the pole position due to his win Friday night, Bill Bonnett jumped out to the early lead ahead of a trio of Northeast Iowa drivers in Adam Cline, Steve Larson, and Danny Sacquitne. Local racer Donoven Nunnikhoven would enter the mix as he climbed the banking to make the pass on Sacquitne for fourth on the second lap. He continued to run the top side of the speedway and made the pass on Larson for third while Bonnett paced the field utilizing the bottom side. Nunnikhoven steadily made up ground on second place driver Adam Cline before taking over the position. Nunnikhoven would inch closer to Bonnett and eventually took over the top spot on lap fifteen of the twenty-five lap race. Clayton Crump was also making steady progress through the field as he marched into the second spot after passing Bonnett as well. With seven laps to go the top four cars (Nunnikhoven, Crump, Bonnett, and Cline) were out front by themselves. Crump and Bonnett raced side by side for several laps for the runner up spot, but Bonnett found some traction on the low side and pulled even with Nunnikhoven for the lead with two laps remaining. Bonnett would get the lead as the white flag was displayed and go on to take the win by a good five-car length advantage. Donoven Nunnikhoven finished second, Adam Cline was third, Steve Larson fourth, and Chris Hovden completed the top five in the green-to-checkers main event! Clayton Crump crossed the line in third, but was later disqualified in post-race technical inspection.
After that thrilling finish, the USRA modifieds would try to follow it up as Colt Mather and Zack VanderBeek brought the field to the green flag. VanderBeek would get the edge from the start as the top side appeared to be the preferred line in the early going. Mather settled in to second with Bob Timm and track champion Steven Blattler giving chase. VanderBeek would set a fast pace as he encountered lapped traffic by the sixth circuit. The red flag would come out on lap fifteen as apparently somebody in the infield had been injured and needed to be transferred to a medical facility. On the restart Timm would get a little too high in turn two and lose a couple spots. The caution flag would wave a bit later as Mather tagged the guardrail to end his great run. That put Ron VerBeek and Blattler on VanderBeek's rear bumper on the restart. The outside line got the advantage when racing resumed as Blattler got by VerBeek and Kurt Kile made the pass on Bob Timm for fourth. Nobody had anything for VanderBeek though as he motored home to the win by a straight away. Steven Blattler finished second, Ron VerBeek was third, Kurt Kile finished fourth, and Bob Timm secured the fifth spot.
Cayden Carter and Bryon Weyer paced the field of USRA b-mods to the green flag. The green flag didn't stay out long, however, as Carter VanDenBerg appeared to make contact with a big implement tire on the inside of turn two and sent him into a wild rollover. Thankfully he was able to walk away under his own power. Cayden Carter would grab the advantage on the complete restart while Weyer, Jake Timm, and Jason Mallicoat gave chase. Mallicoat would slip past Timm for third while Curtis VanDerWal and Jared Timmerman raced side by side for the fifth position. VanDerWal continued using the inside line and made the pass on Timm for fourth, but Timm would later regain that position a lap later. Carter and Weyer pulled out to a commanding lead by lap six, but the caution flag came out on lap ten to bunch the field back up.
VanDerWal, Timm, and Timmerman would race three-wide momentarily before Timmerman took the fourth position ahead of Timm and VanDerWal. Weyer again would keep pace with Carter as the two broke away from the field. The yellow flag would come out twice more within the final five laps of the race, setting up a sprint to the checkers. Cayden Carter would fend off Bryon Weyer to pick up his 31st win of the season. Jason Mallicoat finished third, Jake Timm fourth, and Jared Timmerman completed the top five.
After the show the USRA stock cars put on Friday night, I was happy to hear they would be the final event of the night. Shane Weller and Nathan Wood paced the field to the green flag with Wood getting the early advantage. Following an early caution, Bryan Webb used the top side to get by Matt Jones for the fourth position, but Jones was able to regain the position a bit later. Steve Jackson, the driver who gave up his outside front row starting spot for a money envelope, started eighth but made the pass on Webb for fifth as the top five drivers used the top line of the track. Behind them, however, was a different story as they were racing two and sometimes three-wide. Shane Weller used the inside line to get by Shay Curtin for second with nine laps remaining. A caution would come out and on the restart Curtin and Jackson made contact with each other, resulting in a flat tire for Curtin to end his strong run. That propelled Jackson to the third spot while Matt Greiner advanced to fourth. Wood, Weller, and Jackson were nose to tail the final circuits, but nobody was able to make a late move as Nathan Wood picked up the win. Shane Weller finished second, Steve Jackson was third, Matt Greiner fourth, and Mike VanGenderen rounded out the top five. Wood told me after the races that he had won a feature event every year that Todd and Janet Staley have promoted at Osky, but he had to wait til the final event of the season to do so this year.
For a full field rundown of Night 2 at Oskaloosa, check out the USRA website.
It was a good night of racing to cap off the Staley era at the Southern Iowa Speedway. The show did get a bit of a late start and the track wasn't quite as good Saturday as Friday was, in my opinion. But the drivers reduced the number of caution flags and kept the show moving all night long.
I wish the Mahaska County fairboard good luck in their search for a promoter for the future. I hope they find somebody that fits their goals and are able to continue racing for years to come.
As for Todd and Janet Staley, they have a few more races to oversee yet this year. The King of America Modified Nationals is their next event that will be held at the Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt, Kansas. This unique format is the same one used at the Deer Creek Speedway in Minnesota back in late July. Things kick off Wednesday and runs through Saturday. I'll be making the trip down for Friday and Saturday to see who gets crowned the winner and pockets the big $15,000 check. For more information on this event, check out the USMTS website.
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