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Southern Iowa Speedway Oskaloosa, IA
by: Bill W
OSKALOOSA, IOWA (August 10) - 27 cars attended this years Ultimate
Challenge with Bad Kaeding nabbing his first Ultimate Challenge and $15,000
to go with his Knoxville Non-wing Nationals win on Sunday.
USAC
27 cars
Drawings were held at the driver's meeting for a free website from
Driverwebsites.com (Kyle Cummins, Chris Morgan), and right rear Hoosier
Tires (Casey Riggs, Ricky Williams). Defending champion, the late Jesse
Hockett, had his family on hand to pay him a nice tribute with a balloon
release and the JHR #77 paced the field for the feature.
Heat one (started): 1. Kyle Larson 2 (2) 2. Bryan Clauson 2B (8) 3. Robby
Wolfgang 7K (1) 4. Bill Rose 6 (7) 5. Scotty Weir 12B (8) 6. Kyle Cummins
21x (5) 7. Steve Thomas 20T (4) 8. Henry Clarke 67 (3) DNS - Shane Hmiel 17
Larson led early in the 8-lapper before Clarke stopped after a plume of
smoke came from the car with four laps in. Clarke was done for the night.
Larson led Wolfgang, Clauson, Cummins and Rose back to green. Clauson was
able to take second with two to go using the low side. Each heat and
qualifier winner received a right rear tire from Hoosier Midwest. Larson
ended up with two in his sixth ever non-wing start.
Heat two (started): 1. Dave Darland 39 (1) 2. Damion Gardner 71 (2) 3.
Robert Ballou 81 (4) 4. Chris Windom 11 (6) 5. Keith Bloom Jr. 27 (8) 6.
Brady Bacon 99 (7) 7. Chris Urish 77u (3) 8. Ricky Williams 11w (5) 9. Casey
Riggs 37 (9)
Darland led flag to flag in a mostly single-file event on a fast surface.
Heat three (started): 1. Tracy Hines 4 (2) 2. Levi Jones 20 (5) 3. Jon
Stanbrough 53 (7) 4. Bud Kaeding 29 (8) 5. Casey Shuman 4G (1) 6. Jerry
Coons Jr. 69 (9) 7. Kevin Swindell 1 (4) 8. Russ Harper 9 (6) 9. Chris
Morgan F1 (3)
Hines led the first lap before a stopped Morgan brought out a caution. Hines
led Shuman, Jones, Stanbrough and Kaeding back to the green. The trio
running third through fifth worked one by one to get by Shuman by the
checkers. Jones challenged ex-teammate Hines, but settled for second.
Qualifier one (started): 1. Larson (5) 2. Rose (1) 3. Clauson (6) 4. Harper
(8) 5. Weir (4) 6. Wolfgang (2) 7. Thomas (7) 8. Morgan (9) 9. Ballou (3)
Eight lap qualifiers were inverted by six, based on passing points earned in
the heats. Both sets of points were added together to determine the starting
spots in the A. In turn four, on the first lap, Weir pitched sideways and
collected Ballou, who flipped. He was unhurt. Rose took the lead on the
restart. A lap was recorded when Morgan jumped the cushion in turn one and
turned over, ending his night. He was unhurt. Rose led most of the way,
before Larson shot around on the cushion on the last lap. Clauson had been
working over Harper the same way and took third on the last go-around.
Qualifier two (started): 1. Coons Jr. (2) 2. Bacon (1) 3. Kaeding (4) 4.
Jones (6) 5. Windom (3) 6. Hines (5) 7. Swindell (7) 8. Williams (8) DNS -
Hmiel
Coons Jr. led every lap. Bacon challenged in the late stages, but came up
short. Jones came back a couple of positioins after bicycling going into one
on the first lap.
Qualifier three (started): 1. Gardner (4) 2. Darland (5) 3. Shuman (1) 4.
Cummins (2) 5. Riggs (8) 6. Urish (7) 7. Bloom Jr. (3) 8. Stanbrough (6) DNS
- Clarke
Shuman led early with Gardner quickly in pursuit. Gardner shot around to the
point on lap four. A lap later, Bloom Jr. flipped after having passed
Stanbrough back for fourth. On the restart, Stanbrough caught a rut in one
and flipped himself. Both were uninjured. Stanbrough's night was over.
Gardner led Darland, Shuman and Cummins back to green. That's how they would
finish.
Heat and Qualifier winners (Hines abstaining) performed a Hula Hoop contest
for the right to five new crew shirts from Race Gear X. Larson won that
easily as well as his two tires. There was something about seeing Darland
with a Hula Hoop!
Ultimate Challenge (started): 1. Kaeding (6) 2. Clauson (2) 3. Jones (5) 4.
Gardner (3) 5. Darland (4) 6. Coons Jr. (7) 7. Bacon (11) 8. Hines (9) 9.
Swindell (22) 10. Hmiel (24) 11. Shuman (13) 12. Riggs (18) 13. Harper (15)
14. Williams (23) 15. Wolfgang (16) 16. Urish (20) 17. Cummins (14) 18.
Larson (1) 19. Ballou (19) 20. Bloom Jr. (17) 21. Weir (8) 22. Rose (10) 23.
Windom (12) 24. Thomas (21) DNS - Stanbrough, Morgan, Clarke
Things got off to a ragged start in turn one in the 30-lapper. With several
cars checking up in front, Windom got the worst of it and flipped hard. The
incident also involved Wolfgang and Urish, and also Rose and Thomas, who
were done. No one was hurt. Darland replaced a tire and went to the tail for
the restart.
Clauson jumped out to a lead in front of Kaeding, who had a good start and
Jones. Kaeding and Jones battled for second the first five laps before
Kaeding took control. Larson had a resurgence and took third back from
Jones, riding the cushion on lap sevent. On lap ten, Kaeding worked by
Clauson for the lead. The halfway point was unlucky for Larson, who jumped
the cushion in turn one and turned the car over while running third. The
Golden State Challenge driver who seeks a ride for the Nationals was unhurt.
The restart was wicked for Ballou, who flipped violently down the
backstretch. He was unhurt. The last restart saw Kaeding leading Clauson,
Jones, Gardner and Coons Jr.
The last ten laps went fairly uneventful up front, with Kaeding nabbing his
first Ultimate Challenge and $15,000 to go with his Knoxville Non-wing
Nationals win on Sunday.
Swindell lost three spots with a 360 spin on lap 24, but he kept it going.
Darland passed Coons Jr. for fifth on the final go-around. Hmiel was the
hard-charger and took home a new KSE Steering Pump.
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