I made my first visit of the year to CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction and witnessed two thrilling photo finishes in feature action. Jason Hartman took one of those victories in the Hobby Stock division while Nathan Wood used a last lap pass in the Stock Cars to win in the same fashion.
While only four cars signed in to compete in the division on the night, the Hobby Stocks provided possibly the most exciting finish of the evening. Hartman led the way at the drop of the green flag from his front row start. Lane Kauffman gave chase while Alex Buffington ran third as the three cars ran nose-to-tail and wheel-to-wheel for all eight laps.
The trio remained unchanged until Buffington worked his way around Kauffman with only one lap to go, then went to work on Hartman. Buffington pulled even with the race leader over the course of the final lap as the two drag raced to the checkers. Hartman held on by half of a car-length at the line while Buffington ran second and Kauffman third. Brodie Dopler ran fourth.
In the Stock Car division, pole-sitter Billy Faler led the 16-car field to green. As Faler set the pace, Sky Griffith ran the low side and entered a battle for the lead. Faler continued to hold the point as Griffith settled into second. Then, Cole Simmons and David Hemstead challenged and worked into second and third, respectively.
The leaders were running in a tight pack until lap six when Faler got loose coming off of turn four. He got sideways and collected both Simmons and Hemstead, forcing the rest of the field to scatter. When the dust cleared, the trio drivers out front were in the pits with mechanical problems, leaving Griffith to inherit the point and Nathan Wood in second.
On the restart, Griffith continued to lead the field with Wood in tow. Kirk Kinsley, Travis Finke and Darrin Ealey joined the pack out front as the top five broke away from the field to set up an exciting finish. Griffith held on to the lead while his pursuers swapped position behind him as laps wound down.
On the final lap, Wood pulled to the inside of Griffith as the two ran wheel-to-wheel over the final lap for the lead. Wood inched ahead at the line by inches to take the close victory. Griffith ran second and Finke ran third at the stripe. Ealey, who restarted toward the tail of the field after the lap six incident, raced through the field to finish fourth ahead of Kinsley.
Adam Bell took command early in the Modified main event. From his outside front row start, Bell powered into the lead as Daniel Brockert and Steve Stewart gave chase. The leaders pulled away from the field in a three-car breakaway as Bell powered to the win by a few car-lengths ahead of Brockert in the caution-free event. Stewart ran third, nearly a full lap ahead of fourth-running Doug Pratt.
In 4-cylinder action, Geoff Theobald appeared to be the car to beat. Theobald piloted the #33 into the lead after just two laps and quickly put distance on the field. On lap five, however, smoke started showing from behind his machine and he was sidelined with what appeared to be a flat tire.
Bill Whalen Jr., who had just taken over the second spot, inherited the point and drove to the victory. John Whalen ran second and Tyler Whalen nipped Cory Sheetz at the line for third.
In the most dominant performance of the evening, Greg Rossell annihilated the field in the Mod Lite feature. He built up a lead of nearly half of a track by the time the race's only caution flag waved with just a couple laps to go. On the restart, Rossell fulfilled his pursuit of a wire-to-wire win by beating Troy Phillpott to the checkers. Robert Guss, Justin Buchholz and Todd Hansen completed the top five.
As always, the track at CJ was smooth and the racing great. They are struggling with car count and butts in the grandstands, which probably has something to do with the number of eastern and southeastern Iowa tracks running on Friday nights, but I challenge anyone who hasn't already been to CJ to take in the show some Friday night. We were done by 9:30 last night and I think everyone in the stands was crowding the gate to get to the pits. I overheard many people comment how good and close the racing was. If you have been there, but not for a while, a lot of work has gone into making CJ a Friday destination for area race teams and race fans.
Thanks again to Brian and Amanda Tipps and Don and Sharon Wood for their hospitality, and to track announcer Gene Arnold for some positivelyracing.com airtime.
Assuming the weather holds off, it's back to Independence for me tonight. Hope to see you there!
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