Logan Anderson Wins Season Opener At CJ Speedway In IMCA Modifieds
Columbus Junction, Iowa (April 18, 2025) – The 2025 IMCA racing season got underway on Friday night under overcast blustery chilly conditions. But a great crowd turned out to watch a strong field of drivers battle it out on the Sinclair Tractor of Muscatine opening night at the CJ Speedway located on the Louisa County Fairgrounds.
Logan Anderson made the move up to the Stewart & Sons Fuel IMCA Modified class after racing several seasons in the Sportmod division and he put his finely tuned Performer chassis in victory lane on opening night. Anderson proved to be the class of the strong field in taking the win over some very well established veterans. Anderson took advantage of the pole position draw and beat Troy Cordes to turn one on the opening lap and Anderson went on to lead the feature green to checkers. Veteran IMCA Modified drivers Cordes, and Kurt Kile raced hard for the runner up spot with Cordes crossing the stripe in second ahead of Kile with California native Troy Morris 111 coming home fourth.
The Mincer Ford IMCA Stock Cars proved that once again the CJ Speedway is going to be home to great IMCA Stock Car racing. A very stout field of 20 drivers took the green with Curtis Kline leading the early laps. Keegan Wells advanced to the front quickly from his third row start and led a few laps before 8th starting John Oliver Jr. and Dustin Griffiths joined the lead group. The race was red flagged after Austin Kemper jumped over the Levee in turn one. Kemper was unharmed and the car appeared to have minimal damage. On the restart, Griffiths led the remaining laps in scoring the opening night win ahead of Oliver, Wells and Kirk Kinsley made a late race charge in taking fourth.
The Aupp Automotive IMCA Sportmod feature belonged to the “Lil Speedster”, Dylan VanWyk of Oskaloosa. Van Wyk has scored many wins the last few seasons at the CJ Speedway and the opening night win proved that he will be the man to beat in the tough Sportmod class. New Sharon driver Colton Livezey ran a strong second but was unable to mount a serious challenge on the 117 of VanWyk. Levi Gaunt ran a very strong race in taking third ahead of Will Wolf. Johnny Williams rode out a nasty flip as he shot up the Levee on the back chute, his car received a considerable amount of damage but Williams was unhurt.
Nathan “Nitro” Ballard took advantage of a great draw and led the CJ Auto Parts/NAPA Store IMCA Hobby Stock feature flag to flag. The draw put Ballard on the front row and the 29N was never seriously challenged in the main event. Corey VanDerwilt advanced from the 12th position to take second at the checkered flag ahead of Tucker Richardson and Brad Graham. The battle for second was a good one all race long as the 2nd through fourth finishers raced in a pack the majority of the main event.
IMCA Racing will continue on Friday, April 25th with the Mini-Haulers making their first appearance of the 2025 season along with the four IMCA sanctioned classes. Hot laps will take to the track at 7 pm with racing to follow.
Category: CJ Raceway, Iowa
