Southern Iowa Speedway 2016 Recap & Stats

At the conclusion of the race season I always like to go back and look at stats from my still somewhat new hometown track of the Southern Iowa Speedway.  I know most of you might read this column for sprint car news but I have become a fan of our local IMCA dirt track racing as well over the past 8-10 years. I do not typically write much about Osky because #1 I don’t have the time with my real job and part-time job at Knoxville Raceway, #2 we typically have two or three other reporters at Osky for Positively Racing there so one more guy like me is a bit overkill. #3 with my kids in baseball and softball I miss a handful of nights at the track.  That is why I contribute at Osky with a twitter account for them and post results there as I get them or when I am there I am quicker.

The 2016 season at Osky can be summed up with a few names. Cayden Carter, Curtis VanDerWal, Dustin Griffiths, and Mother Nature.  These three drivers dominated this season at the historic half-mile. Ma Nature stuck it to us with no events run during the month of July and washing out the Fair week racing.

Modifieds: Colt Mather won the track championship, his second in Modifieds with his last championship coming in 2008. He won three features. Kyle Brown won the Frost Buster while Cayden Carter swept the Fall Challenge both nights.

Stock Car: Derrick Agee won the Frost Buster and from there Cayden Carter would win the next eight features which prompted a bounty to be put up against him. Mike Hughes would end the streak on June 29 on a night Carter was not racing due to a higher paying race elsewhere that same night. Nathan Wood would win the two shows in August before Carter would sweep both Fall Challenge events. Hughes would win the points title with Carter not competing in the full schedule at the end of the season.

SportMod: Curtis VanDerWal won nine features and dominated this class on his way to a third track championship in four years. Other feature winners were Kyle Prauner, Brett Lowry, Austin Paul, and Brayton Carter.

Hobby Stock: Dustin Griffiths would win his third consecutive track championship thanks to eight feature wins. Danny Thrasher and Nick Ulin would win two features each with Scott Shull winning one and Mike Hughes won the Saturday of the Fall Challenge.

Sport Compact: Shane Evans won the championship with two feature wins. This class had nine different feature winners this season in a very competitive season.

I have been starting to research historic results from Osky and starting to build a decent history database. It’s a shame no historians have kept records here like we do at Knoxville.  The past five seasons I have down pretty good thanks to the Speed Net Direct database online. 

The past five years here are some interesting numbers.

Top Five in Modified Feature wins: (13) Andrew Schroeder, (11) Cayden Carter, (10) Scott Dickey, (9) Todd Shute, (8) Colt Mather.

Top Five in Stock Car Feature wins: (27) Cayden Carter, (18) Zack VanderBeek, (12) Damon Murty, (7) Brad Pinkerton, (6) Nathan Wood.

Top Five in SportMod Feature wins: (40) Curtis VanDerWal, (10) Jesse Sobbing, (10) Jason McDaniel, (9) Brett Lowry, (4) Carter VandenBerg.

Top Five in Hobby Stock Feature wins: (26) Mike Hughes, (24) Dustin Griffiths, (10) Shannon Anderson, (7) Danny Thrasher, (6) Craig Brown.

Top Five in Sport Compact Feature wins: (20) Bill Whalen Jr., (19) Merv Chandler, (6) John Whalen, (4) Cody Thompson, a four-way tie for fifth with (3) wins are Dallas Chandler, Shaun Slaughter, Trent Orwig, and Shane Evans.

Late Models: Nick Marolf and Todd Cooney have both won 3 features in the past five seasons.

If you combine all of Cayden Carter’s wins across Modifieds, Stock Cars, and Late Models the past five years he has 39 wins. I have already found seven SportMod wins in years prior to that. He has five track championships in three different classes. For a kid who is only 21 years old those are impressive numbers.

VanDerWal has 40 wins in 91 SportMod features the past five years. That is a winning percentage of 44%. If you follow Osky weekly racing, I’ll bet you thought that number was higher didn’t you?

The Southern Iowa Speedway Hall of Fame welcomed three new members this year with Dean Hughes, Terry Schroder, and Pokie West. Congratulations!

I’m hopeful to lineup some driver interviews over the winter this year. If anyone can help me with prior year results at Osky please let me know.  Otherwise it looks like I’m spending some time at the library looking through newspaper archives.

Thanks to everyone at the Southern Iowa Speedway for another great racing season!