2014 Oskaloosa Southern Iowa Speedway Season Recap

Since two or three other Positively Racing Bloggers are typically in attendance I don’t write a weekly story about the races at Oskaloosa even though I am there almost every race night.  Dick & Joyce Eisele, and Jeff Broeg do a great job covering it weekly and I don’t know how many times we can all write the same story.  And with my commitments at Knoxville Raceway my time gets stretched thin and I’m not sure how I would find time to write it anyway without staying up past midnight more nights than I do already.  So I contribute to Osky weekly with live Twitter updates for the track @OskySIS (which has more followers now than the Facebook page by the way) and with an end of the season story.  I keep track of stats all season and I’ve started keeping a record of winners the past several years.  I’m hoping to one day complete a list of feature winners and track champions at Oskaloosa so if anyone reading this can help me fill in any blanks I would greatly appreciate it.

 
One thing about the 2014 season at Osky is we had new faces win track championships with 5 new champions. Andrew Schroeder won his first Modified championship, Brett Lowry won his first Sport Mod championship, Cayden Carter won his first Stock Car championship, Dustin Griffiths won his first Hobby Stock championship, and Bill Whalen Jr. won his first Sport Compact championship.

Most impressive on this list of 2014 season champions is Cayden Carter.  This kid won the 2011 Sport Mod title, the 2012 Modified championship, and now he can add a Stock Car title to his resume.  I’m not sure anyone can claim to have won three track championships in three different divisions at Osky, EVER.  Without a doubt this kid can wheel a race car, of any kind. 

The Modified class was interesting this year.  It seemed as though the car who got out front early was going to win the feature most nights.  But there were a few nights that Andrew Schroeder and Todd Shute were able to track down the leader and make a pass for the win.  The Fall Challenge on Saturday was probably the best race of the season for the Modified class with Shute, Carter, and VanderBeek all bunched up together the second half of that race, but no one could seem to make a pass despite Shute using the middle and high line, while Carter and VanderBeek used the low line.  So multiple racing grooves were there, but the cars were equal it seemed, as were the talent in the seats of these cars.  Scott Dickey won 2 features, and when he gets out front, no one is going to catch him. Does clean air make that much difference in the Modified class today? Perhaps.

Schroeder won 7 times this season, Jesse Sobbing won 3, Colt Mather 1, Hunter Marriott 1, Dickey 2, and Shute won 4.  

Cayden Carter finished second 10 times this year, including the Frostbuster and both Fall Challenge races.  Just amazing how close he was, but came up just short so many nights.  I’m looking for big things out of Cayden in 2015.

Modified Points:  1. Andrew Schroeder 545, 2. Cayden Carter 529, 3. Casey Greubel 494, 4. Scott Dickey 484, 5. AJ Johnson 406

Modified Stats (15 point races)
Schroeder: 6 wins, 0 second’s, 9 top three’s, 12 top five’s and 14 top ten’s.
Carter: 1 win, 7 second’s, 8 top three’s, 10 top five’s and 13 top ten’s.

The Stock Car class was dominated by Cayden Carter this season.  He won 8 point races and 10 total at Osky including the Frostbuster and Fall Challenge.  His teammate Zack VanderBeek won the Stock Car Shootout while Cayden ran second.  In the second half of the season not even VanderBeek could beat Cayden and that is saying a lot as Zack is the best there is at Osky running the bottom groove.  The stock car class is always the best competition week in and week out for close side by side racing at Osky. It’s pretty amazing how Carter has been able to do what he has this year.  Other feature winners this season were: Corey Stout picked up 1 win, Brad Pinkerton 1, Jason Cook 1, Todd Phillips 1, Damon Murty won 2, and VanderBeek won 3. 

Stock Car Points: 1. Cayden Carter 607, 2. Corey Stout 543, 3. Todd Reitzler 542, 4. Nathan Wood 523, 5. Kris Walker 475.

Stock Car Stats (16 point races)
Carter: 8 wins, 4 second’s, 12 top three’s, 14 top five’s and 15 top ten’s.
Stout: 1 win, 1 second, 5 top three’s, 9 top five’s and 12 top ten’s.
Reitzler: 0 wins, 2 second’s, 4 top three’s, 6 top five’s and 13 top ten’s.
Wood: 0 wins, 1 second, 3 top three’s, 7 top five’s and 13 top ten’s.
Sport Modified was a very competitive class in 2014.  Brett Lowry won 4 races and never finished worse than tenth in all 17 point races this season.  He was consistent for sure with an average finish of 3.6 which was best in the Sport Mod class.  Curtis VanDerWal won 6 point races, plus 2 more wins at the Fall Challenge, but had just enough bad luck with a 15^th and 11^th place finishes in the middle of the season that he couldn’t recover from.  Jason McDaniel won 3 features and was only 1 point behind VanDerWal at the end of the season.  Both VanDerWal and McDaniel had an average finish of 4.1 for the 17 point races.  VanDerWal seemed to have the best car most nights but the breaks didn’t go his way. And in my opinion one night he was spun out on purpose by a competitor that may have cost him the championship.  But that’s racing, and when it was as close as it was this year in this class, a lot of little mistakes stick out.  I was really happy for Logan Anderson to get his first win this season back on May 21.  Logan had a good first half of the season, but then he seemed to run into some mechanical gremlins and he finished out of the top ten 6 races in a row which was too bad.  Brayton Carter didn’t get a win, but had 3 second place finishes and his average finish was 4.5. Now that Brayton has a couple of years of experience under his belt I think we will see him improve even more.  Carter VanDenBerg had a good spring winning the Frostbuster and 1 more in May, but he seemed to be chasing the handling on his car the second half of the season.  VanDenBerg’s average finish the first half of the season was 6.2 and dropped to 12.7 the second half.  He is a talented kid and had a great 2013 and I’m sure he will regroup for 2015.  If all these drivers are back in 2015, it could make for an even more competitive season.  

Sport Mod Points: 1. Brett Lowry 636, 2. Curtis VanDerWal 628, 3. Jason McDaniel 627, 4. Brayton Carter 620, 5. Carter Van Den Berg 603.

Sport Mod Stats (17 point races):
Lowry: 4 wins, 3 second’s, 9 top three’s, 14 top five’s and 17 top ten’s.
VanDerWal: 8 wins, 3 second’s, 12 top three’s, 14 top five’s and 15 top ten’s.
McDaniel: 3 wins, 2 second’s, 9 top three’s, 11 top five’s and 17 top ten’s.
Brayton Carter: 0 wins, 2 second’s, 3 top three’s, 14 top five’s and 17 top ten’s
VanDenBerg: 1 win, 3 second, 6 top three’s, 10 top five’s and 15 top ten’s

In Hobby Stock the #11 of Mike Hughes dominated this season with 13 feature wins. It didn’t seem to matter where he started, what the track conditions were, he was going to the front.  Hughes won the Stock Car Shootout both nights of the Fall Challenge specials. But Dustin Griffiths was right there with him in the top 3 almost every night.  With Hughes having a few bad finishes (one DQ after a win), that was all it took for Griffiths to score more points in the end. With IMCA point system, wins don’t factor in at all, it’s all based on 1 point per position. 

Hobby Points: 1. Dustin Griffiths 589, 2. Mike Hughes 575, 3. Danny Thrasher 569, 4. Nick Ulin 553, 5. Craig Brown 551.

Hobby Stats (16 point races):
Griffiths: 2 wins, 5 second’s, 11 top three’s, 14 top five’s and 14 top ten’s.
Hughes: 10 wins, 2 second’s, 13 top three’s, 13 top five’s and 13 top ten’s.
Thrasher: 1 win, 2 second’s, 4 top three’s, 8 top five’s and 15 top ten’s.
Ulin: 0 wins, 0 second’s, 4 top three’s, 9 top five’s and 14 top ten’s
Brown: 3 wins, 1 second, 7 top three’s, 11 top five’s and 15 top ten’s, (missed one week)

Sport Compact seemed to grow in car count this year, although I don’t have an official number. Bill Whalen Jr. dominated this class with 9 wins. I’m not sure anyone has more fun racing that Bill.  He is happy all the time and it’s great to see a guy like him have some success and be a good ambassador for his class and racing in general.  Sport Compact Points: 1. Bill Whalen Jr. 511, 2. John Whalen 480, 3. Matt Moore 473, 4. Trent Orwig 313, 5. Tyler Haring 192.

Late Models competed 5 nights at Osky in 2014, plus one night with the Lucas Oil MLRA in June. Todd Cooney won 3 features while Nick Marolf won 1, and Colby Springsteen winning 1.  John Anderson won the MLRA show.  I’m glad we get to see these guys race at Osky periodically, just wish we could get more of them to show up.

Late Model Points:  1. Todd Cooney 194, 2. Nick Marolf 188, 3. Jeremy Grady 171, 4. Curtis Glover 159, 5. Colby Springsteen 156.

Looking back over the past 3 years of stats I have been keeping a list of feature winners.

Most Feature Wins (2012-2014)

Modified:  Cayden Carter 8, Andrew Schroeder 8, Todd Shute 7, Jacob Murray 6, Scott Dickey 6, Jesse Sobbing 5, Richie Gustin 3, Colt Mather 3.

Stock Car:  Zack VanderBeek 13, Cayden Carter 10, Damon Murty 9, Brad Pinkerton 7, Nathan Wood 3, Todd Reitzler 3.

Sport Mod: Curtis VanDerWal 19, Jesse Sobbing 10, Brett Lowry 7, Jason McDaniel 6, Carter VanDenBerg 4, Bryan Weyer 3.

Hobby Stock: Mike Hughes 20, Dustin Griffiths 11, Shannon Anderson 10, Bill Bonnett 4, Craig Brown 3, Danny Thrasher 2, Don Nunnikoven 2.

Sport Compact:  Merv Chandler 19, Bill Whalen Jr. 14, John Whalen 4, Dallas Chandler 3.

Late Model: Nick Marolf 3, Todd Cooney 3, Spencer Diercks 2.

It was another great season of racing at Oskaloosa this year.  Promoter Mike VanGenderen has done a great job the past couple of years with track prep and putting on a good show for us.  I’m especially happy with the Southern Iowa Speedway Hall of Fame that Mike started this year.  I was happy to help out with that over the summer to make that happen.  Honoring this year’s inductees was really cool and I’m sure it will grow in prestige each season as it continues. 

One thing that Knoxville Raceway has been good at over the years is preserving history (thanks to Bob Wilson).  You can’t buy what Knoxville has, and that is history.  Oskaloosa has a long legacy in Iowa dirt track racing and it should be celebrated.  The more you celebrate history, the more fanfare a track has, and the more special it becomes for fans, drivers, and all involved.  Osky racing dates back longer than Knoxville.  It’s not hard to argue that the stoppage of stock car racing in the mid 1950’s is what helped Knoxville grow into what it has become.

Thanks to everyone for following our @OskySIS Twitter account.  Great to see the interaction with fans, drivers, and teams.  Also thank you to Jeremy Fox for his assistance with tracking down the final point standings for me this week.  I will be back with a follow up to this column as I plan to interview some of the Osky weekly drivers and I will post those interviews here over the winter!