Evans, Carter, VanDerWal, Ulin and Thornton Take Opening Night Wins at Southern Iowa Speedway

By Jeremy Fox

Oskaloosa, Iowa (April 13th, 2016) – Wednesday Night at the Southern Iowa Speedway, drivers were treated to a get in free night and 64 cars checked in to tame the monster half mile for the first track points night. The sky was beautiful and clear skies compared to the cloudy skies the frostbuster two weeks ago.

Feature winners on Opening Night was Shane Evans (IMCA Sport Compacts), Cayden Carter (IMCA Stock Cars), Curtis VanDerWal (IMCA SportMods), Nick Ulin (IMCA Hobby Stocks) and Ricky Thornton Jr (IMCA Modifieds).

First feature of the night was the ten lap IMCA Sport Compacts feature and it was Shane Evans grabbing the top spot from his outside front row starting position. Evans led all ten laps to take the opening night win ahead of John Whalen, who held off a late challenge from Jake Benischek. Jason Beruklander and John Gill round out the top five.

Derrick Agee and Greg Gill led the field to the green in the IMCA Stock Cars 18 lap feature but by the end of the lap one it was Cayden Carter in a familiar spot, the lead. Behind Carter they were slicing and dicing for position but it was Carter taking the win ahead of Todd Reitzler, Todd Inman, Mike Hughes and Agee.

In the IMCA SportMods 16 lap feature, Jason McDaniel took the early lead ahead of Austin Paul and Brayton Carter but Curtis VanDerWal worked his way around Carter on lap three and Paul on lap five. McDaniel had VanDerWal chasing him down and just after the completion of lap eight, the caution came out for Trent Brink in turn four. VanDerWal wrestled the lead away from McDaniel on the restart and never looked back. VanDerWal took the win, Jake McBirnie worked his way up to finish second. Carter VanDenBerg finished third, Logan Anderson was fourth and McDaniel fell back to fifth.

Cayden Carter and Josh Foster started the 20 lap IMCA Modifieds feature event on the front row and by lap one it was Foster grabbing the top spot. Foster was out to a commanding lead meanwhile behind him there was battle for second through fifth positions. On lap 12, the caution came out for Stephen Streeter in turn two that forced a restart and Foster saw Kelly Shryock and Ricky Thornton Jr right behind him. Foster held them off but just after the completion of lap 16, the caution came out for Shyrock in turn four. Thornton got a great restart and managed to grab the lead away from Foster. Thornton went on to take the win, Colt Mather finished 2nd, Zack Vanderbeek was 3rd, Foster was 4th and Tyler Groenendyk was fifth.

Final Feature of the night was the IMCA Hobby Stocks 16 lap feature event and before a single lap was completed the caution was displayed for Christian Huffman spinning on the backstretch. After forcing a complete restart, Nick Ulin grabbed the top spot and went on to take his the feature win ahead of Danny Thrasher, Dustin Griffiths, August Bach and Jared Stephens.

Racing continues Next Wednesday Night at the Southern Iowa Speedway for all five IMCA Classes. Hot Laps at 7pm and Racing at 7:30pm.

Southern Iowa Speedway
April 13th, 2016

IMCA Modifieds

Feature – 1. 20RT Ricky Thornton Jr (Chandler, AZ / Harcourt); 2. 8 Colt Mather (Keswick); 3. 33Z Zack Vanderbeek (New Sharon); 4. 77 Josh Foster (Newton); 5. 9 Tyler Groenendyk (Oskaloosa); 6. 71 Dennis LaVeine (West Burlington); 7. 22 Brandon Banks (Washington); 8. 40 Scott Dickey (Packwood); 9. 02 Andrew Schroeder (Keswick); 10. 3 Kelly Shryock (Fertile); 11. 10C Cayden Carter (Oskaloosa); 12. 1X Stephen Streeter (Vinton); 13. 95J Jason Hall (Grinnell)

Heat 1 – 1. Foster; 2. Schroeder; 3. Vanderbeek; 4. Dickey; 5. Streeter; 6. LaVeine; 7. Hall
Heat 2 – 1. Thornton; 2. Shryock; 3. Groenendyk; 4. Mather; 5. Carter; 6. Banks

IMCA Stock Cars

Feature – 1. 10CC Cayden Carter (Oskaloosa); 2. 22R Todd Reitzler (Grinnell); 3. 5T Todd Inman (Altoona); 4. 11 Mike Hughes (Oskaloosa); 5. 14 Derrick Agee (Moberly, MO); 6. 71 Louis Lynch (Glenwood, MO); 7. 28 Greg Gill (Muscatine); 8. 79S Jason See (Albia); 9. 54 Mike Brown (New Sharon); 10. 52 Nathan Wood (Sigourney)

Heat – 1. Wood; 2. Lynch; 3. Carter; 4. Gill; 5. Agee; 6. Reitzler; 7. Brown; 8. Inman; 9. See; 10. Hughes

IMCA Northern Sport Mods

Feature – 1. 1V Curtis VanDerWal (Oskaloosa); 2. 82 Jake McBirnie (Boone); 3. 7 Carter VanDenBerg (Oskaloosa); 4. 9A Logan Anderson (Eddyville); 5. 85 Jason McDaniel (Eldon); 6. 01 Brayton Carter (Oskaloosa); 7. A5 Austin Paul (Monroe); 8. 72 Brett Lowry (Montezuma); 9. 80J Jared Van Deest (Holland); 10. 29 Colton Livezey (New Sharon); 11. 8T Tony Johnson (Oskaloosa); 12. 84B Trent Brink (Bussey); 13. 16 Matthew VanGelder (Pella); 14. 55R Steven Berry (Ottumwa); 15. 98 Thomas Egenberger (Des Moines); 16. 25 Scott Vanbuskirk (Hedrick)

Heat 1 – 1. VanDerWal; 2. Anderson; 3. Carter; 4. Livezey; 5. VanGelder; 6. Egenberger; 7. Berry; 8. Vanbuskirk
Heat 2 – 1. VanDenBerg; 2. Paul; 3. Van Deest; 4. McBirnie; 5. McDaniel; 6. Brink; 7. Lowry; 8. Johnson

IMCA Hobby Stocks
Feature – 1. 21 Nick Ulin (Agency); 2. 84 Danny Thrasher (Agency); 3. 10G Dustin Griffiths (Hedrick); 4. 19X August Bach (Newton); 5. 9 Jared Stephens (Bussey); 6. 57X Scott Shull (Agency); 7. 3S Steve Allen (Oskaloosa); 8. 12 Mike Kincaid (Cincinnati); 9. 14 Christian Huffman (New Sharon); 10. 55 Brad Stephens (Bussey); 11. 57 Greg Franklin (Oskaloosa); 12. 32T Bobby Greene (Tracy)

Heat 1 – 1. Ulin; 2. Griffiths; 3. Huffman; 4. Bach; 5. Jared Stephens; 6. Greene
Heat 2 – 1. Thrasher; 2. Allen; 3. Shull; 4. Kincaid; 5. Franklin; 6. Brad Stephens

IMCA Sport Compacts

Feature – 1. 92E Shane Evans (Iowa City); 2. 77 John Whalen (Ainsworth); 3. 3 Jake Benischek (Durant); 4. 23B Jason Breuklander (Oskaloosa); 5. 02 John Gill (Marshalltown); 6. 00W Bill Whalen Jr (Riverside); 7. 9H Levi Heath (Wilton); 8. 86R James Roose (Grandview); 9. 3D Dustin Hook (Oskaloosa); 10. 52 Billy Cain (Floris); 11. 24A Ashton Blain (Burlington); 12. 5 Tyler Harring (Oskaloosa); 13. 57 Robert Fite (What Cheer)

Heat 1 – 1. Benischek; 2. Whalen; 3.Breuklander; 4. Heath; 5.Roose; 6. Harring; 7. Fite
Heat 2 – 1. Whalen; 2. Evans; 3. Gill; 4. Gordon; 5. Cain; 6. Blain

Category: Iowa, Southern Iowa Speedway