Irvine opens Stock Car Series run with Monday victory at Marshalltown Speedway

I was glad to see my schedule was going to get me back to Marshalltown for the Great American Stock Car Series. I missed the show there last year for the first time in a long time, so I was glad to be back. With 52 IMCA stock cars signing in, I was even happier that I was on hand.

In addition to the stock cars, 23 IMCA hobby stocks and 23 IMCA sportmods filled out the card. It was a beautiful night compared to some of the humidity fests we have had recently, and that must have put everybody in a good mood, because we ran off all of the heats in good order. The sun was still in the sky when the sportmods took to the track for their feature. Cayden Carter ran a solid low line to win that event.

Following three stock car B mains, the hobby stocks rolled out, and it was “take your best shot at Todd Reitzler” night. The 22R went up top and held on for the win as a series of challengers took their shot at the win. Scott Lograsso, Jacob Kohl and Michael Murphy among others looked to grab the lead, but Reitzler was stout in taking his second feature win in-a-row at the track.

Dave Smith and Abe Huls led the stock cars to the green for their 30-lap main event. The entire field went two and three-wide in the opening laps as everyone searched for the fastest line and looked to gain positions in a hurry. There was plenty to watch from front to back in this one.

Fourth-starting Brian Irvine kept the leaders in sight, and soon put himself out front. Once in the lead, Irvine set the pace, and held on for the win. Behind him, there was a lot going on. Dustin Smith, Damon Murty and Donavon Smith had some intense laps, and Huls raced all of them hard as he tried to stay at the front of the pack. Dustin Smith would end up second, Murty third, Donavon Smith fourth and Huls held on for fifth.

Monday night set the tone for what should be an exciting week for the stock cars as they raced at BVR on Tuesday, head to Independence on Wednesday and wrap up their week at Lee County Speedway on Thursday, double-heading with the Hawkeye Dirt Tour.

Here’s my advice for the week – don’t forget your bug spray as you head out to your favorite track. The abundance of rain we have had has blessed us with an abundance of mosquitoes, as the little biters are in rare form. They were attacking in formation on Monday night, and I expect follow-ups as the week progresses. Get out, don’t get bit, and enjoy your local track!

Victory Lane - Brian Irvine celebrates his Great American Stock Car Series win Monday night at Marshalltown. - BWJ photo

Winning car - The 26 of Brian Irvine had the front spot to itself Monday night. - BWJ photo

Three-wide - John Heinz (57), Jeff Wollam (3W) and Chris Ullrich (01U) mix it up. - BWJ photo

Four-wide fun - Donavon Smith (35), Mike Van Genderen (57V), Jay Schmidt (19J) and Trent Murphy (25) run their respective lines through turn one. - BWJ photo

Top 5 battle - Dustin Smith (85), Abe Huls (30c) and Damon Murty (99D) race for a spot in the top five. - BWJ photo

Hobby winner - Todd Reitzler was the IMCA hobby stock feature winner. - BWJ photo

Sportmod winner - Cayden Carter won Monday night's IMCA sportmod feature. - BWJ photo

A heart pounding race, and weather, greet fans at USMTS show at Mineral City Speedway

I think the adrenaline is still flowing from last week’s USMTS show at Mineral City Speedway in Ft. Dodge. The combination of a last corner pass for the win by Ryan Gustin, coupled with fleeing from impending tornadoes, definitely left a lasting impression.

I hadn’t been to Mineral City since it had become an oval. I attended the shows there back when the CORR off-road series came to town, and that was a blast. I’ll have to say my visit to the oval was just as exciting. Three competitive classes, two features decided on the last lap, and it was run in record time as the Mineral City and USMTS personnel ran this one off in record time to beat the storms that were brewing. Great job to both of them.

In the first feature of the night, Justin Nehring and Devin Smith brought their battle to the finish line with Nehring taking first. This race also featured a roll-over in turns three and four. The driver emerged unscathed and the track crew had things picked up and we were back to racing in quick order, helping keep me and a few others relaxed as the clouds rolled over.

In the stock car feature, Mark Elliott stunk up the Dart Iron Man Challenge, starting on the front row and setting a brisk pace that nobody else could match. When I say stunk up, that’s nothing against Mark. He was just so dominant on the night; the other drivers in the 22-car field didn’t have a chance. He’s got a good car, I also saw him take third at Oskaloosa in this year’s Dart opener after starting at the tail of the field.

The evening’s USMTS main event saw Al Hejna and Brad Williams starting on the front row, but it was fourth starting Colt Mather that soon found his way to the front.

Mather stretched to an early lead, and looked like he might hang on for the win. Then, the distance between he and second-running Jason Krohn began to shrink. Krohn was reeling him in and in the closing laps made a pass for the lead. It was a pass that I thought was going to stick and see the 7K win. Krohn, Mather and the now-in-third Ryan Gustin, entered traffic as the laps wound down. Gustin soon took second and was looking to the lead. Hammering the car up top, Gustin gained on Krohn, catching him coming out of turn four as the duo headed to the checkers. A wild finish!

Even wilder was how fast the infield and the stands cleared out as lightning flashed to the east, north and west of the track. The photographers managed to catch up to Gustin at his pit stall, where we held an impromptu Victory Lane.

It was a great first experience at Mineral City, and I am looking forward to a return visit – a nice, sunny, calm, return visit.

The winner -Ryan Gustin celebrates his USMTS win pitside at Mineral City Speedway. - BWJ photo


Fast car - Ryan Gustin took the win at Ft. Dodge, his fifth USMTS win in-a-row ,coming out of turn four on the last lap. - BWJ photo

For the lead - In the closing laps, Jason Krohn (7K) went low to take the lead from Colt Mather (8). - BWJ photo

USMTS feature - Jason Schueller (3A) works for position against Mike Weiderman (37x). - BWJ photo

Stock Car Battle 1 - Jeremy Crimmins (15) works underneath Mike Van Genderen (57V). - BWJ photo

Stock Car Battle 2 - Nathan Wood (52) and Jeff Deal (22) race in close quarters in turn one. - BWJ photo

IndyCar wrap-up - Iowa shines as host to 4th annual event

Today is catch-up day. I will take you back in time a week or so, and then tell you a little about last night a couple of posts down the road today.

Many of you have already put June 20’s IndyCar race in the memory bank, but if you were there, you know it was the best of the four so far at Iowa Speedway. There was a lot of racing done on the track, and plenty to watch.

I have always been an Indy fan, and always will be, so my bias in favor of the series is probably greater than most of yours. Indy has seen some darker days in recent history, but as of late, things look to be turning around. With just one series, and new engine and chassis rules coming into play in 2012, the series looks like it is regaining some of its power. This year’s Iowa race featured 25 cars, and in talking to some of the Indy officials, there may be some fields with even more as the schedule plays out this year. Another good sign.

Any of you that watch Wind Tunnel on Speed are familiar with the “teachings” of Robin Miller. Very outspoken, Miller speaks his mind. He is also a champion of open wheel racing in this country and provides some decent insight of where things are and where things are going. To gain a full picture of the significance of this year’s Iowa Corn Indy 250, be sure and check out his story, “Short Ovals are the Future.” It speaks well of this last race, provides some interesting stats, and I think bodes well for the future of IndyCar in Iowa.

If you haven’t checked out this race yet, get your tickets for 2011 when the time comes. You’ll have a good time, see some decent racing, and get to meet some neat drivers. Despite what television may lead you to believe, there is more to an Indy race than Danica Patrick. I always enjoy getting to work with the drivers when I help IndyCar with pit reporting. They offer up good quotes and seem genuinely pleased to be at the speedway.

Below are some highlights from the main event courtesy of Conrad Nelson. As always, thanks Conrad!

Quick end - The race saw a caution on the first lap as a spinning Justin Wilson (22) collected Mario Moraes (32) ending both of their days. - Conrad Nelson photo

Short day - Sarah Fisher met with misfortune in turn four. - Conrad Nelson photo

Power Trio - Rusty Wallace, Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske hold a pre-race pow-wow. - Conrad Nelson photo

Kanaan wins - Tony Kanaan celebrates his Iowa Corn Indy 250 win with Miss IZOD. Uh, guys, that's TK on the right. - Conrad Nelson photo

Winning team - Tony Kanaan and the winning Andretti Autosport team. - Conrad Nelson photo

Conrad's Corner - IndyCar moves in at Iowa Speedway on Friday

Photographer Conrad Nelson was on hand at Iowa Speedway Friday as IndyCar Nation moved in to get ready for this weekend's races. Here is a glimpse of some of the teams as they prepare for Sunday's race. Thanks Conrad!

Lotus - Takuma Sato will be piloting the Lotus colors at Newton. - Conrad Nelson photo


Swiss Miss - Simona De Silvestro will be in Sunday's show. - Conrad Nelson photo

Snug - Helio Castroneves gets fitted for his seat. - Conrad Nelson photo

Foyt's driver - Vitor Meira will be driving the number 14 for AJ Foyt. - Conrad Nelson photo

AJ - AJ Foyt gives everything in the garage the once-over twice. - Conrad Nelson photo

Tour - Soldiers from the National Guard get a tour and a look at the Guard sponsored #4 of Dan Wheldon. - Conrad Nelson photo

Reminiscing and going through withdrawals

Just when you think a summer couldn’t get any rainier, it does. Luckily there have been a few tracks able to get shows in, but we are starting to get to a total washout point if the pattern continues, and it looks like it might. I’m starting to have withdrawals. It started back at the World of Outlaws show at Knoxville.

The Thursday night show had some intense action and a ton of slide job as the race for the win got wild at times. Swindell, Saldana, Meyers, Sides – they were all slide-jobbing each other without mercy. As I stood in turn four, Saldana cut off Swindell but Sammy didn’t brake, instead he gave Saldana a tap on the back bumper to let him know what he thought about it. Brooke Tatnell was impressive in always being able to pull away and keep the action behind him.

Tatnell wins - Brooke Tatnell won the Thursday night WoO show at Knoxville on June 3. - Conrad Nelson photo

305 winner - Randy Smith (center) was the 305 sprint winner at Knoxville on June 3 Tasker Phillips (left) was second, Tim St. Arnold (right) was third. - Conrad Nelson photo

Friday winner - Jac Haudenschild (center), was the June 4 WoO winner. Brian Brown (left) was second, Tyler Walker (right) was third. - Conrad Nelson photo

Friday’s show was a bit of a downer .With the Masters Classic on hand and only 15 Masters, it ended up being a 6-race program as the Outlaws only ran two Bs and an A; plus, they weren’t running for full points, and, they started the feature with an invert of the previous night. I have yet to see an Outlaw show with an invert and less than full points amount to much. Yes, all of the drivers line-up, but it seems like the back half to two-thirds of the field is working on R&D rather than racing since they aren’t getting full points.

They are racing for full money, and that has the first three or four rows of starters racing pretty hard for $10,000-to-win. Friday night’s feature had some intense racing between Tyler Walker, Lucas Wolfe and Kerry Madsen, but it was front row starters Haudenschild and Brown that finished one-two. Out of the top three from Thurday, Swindell did finish tenth, while Saldana finished 16^th and Tatnell 23^rd.
No other top-ten cars from Thursday finished in the top ten on Friday. All this did was get me fired up to see Saturday night’s show, a full WoO program with 360s, but the rain killed that, as it did last week’s show. The 2010 Outlaw schedule at Knoxville left a lot of us pining for the old days. This June appearance is it for this year other than the Nationals. Several of us were reminiscing about the old days when the Outlaws would roll into town in April, late June/early July, and then in September in addition to the Nationals. Area Outlaw fans were spoiled in those days. The Outlaws were needing dates, and Knoxville was happy to help out. Now the Outlaw schedule has grown, as has their sanction fees, and they make limited appearances at any one spot.
My favorite show used to be the September one. The tension was out of the air after the Nationals, autumn weather was on hand, and everyone was just laid back and enjoying the weekend. Everyone’s season was winding down and the show was just plain fun. I don’t miss the April shows as much, the weather for those was always iffy, but I have always missed the September dates coming off the schedule.
My withdrawal pattern continued with the rainout of the Deery Brothers race in Quincy last Sunday. Following two good shows at Marshalltown and Boone, I was ready to continue the run for the championship as once again in 2010, the competition at Deery shows has been solid. You have a mix of veterans and new faces that are putting on some good shows. Guss, Burgtorf and Aikey continue to be the ones to beat, but drivers like Matt Strassheim, Andy Eckrich, Jason Rauen, Tyler Bruening, Cory Goldbeck, and Joel Callahan among others are mixing it up well come feature time. I was really looking forward to Quincy with $3,000-to-win on the line, it was shaping up to be a big show, but it wasn’t to be. The next race on the Deery schedule is June 30 at Independence.
I did quench a bit of my Deery thirst with a visit to Lee County Speedway for one of their late model “Drive for Five” races, as with the drivers that show up for this, it is almost like catching a Deery show. The results were similar too, with an Aikey-Burgtorf one-two finish. Mainly what the trip to Donnellson did for me was once again have me wishing that the track was about an hour closer to my house so I could make the visit a little more often. I will be back there on July 1 for the Liberty Cup for modifieds, and the Great American Stock Car Shootout finale as both pay $1,000 to the winner.
Coming up, the forecast does not look promising, but maybe that is a good thing as all of the calls for rain might actually make it stay dry. This weekend I will be working at the IndyCar show at Iowa Speedway, something I always look forward to. I am one of these IndyCar holdouts that hopes the series will once again hold the power it did 20 or more years ago. I also hope they continue to race 30 minutes from my house, as you can’t beat that.
After Newton, I’ll have to see what the weather holds, and where I’ll show up again. I do promise that is won’t be so long between visits to the High Side.