When the checkers waved, it appeared as though Andrew Schroeder was not only celebrating his first career IMCA Modified victory, but celebrating a win in his very first night competing in the division. Although Schroeder led all 20 laps, it was Richie Gustin who took home the hardware in the season opening Frostbuster event at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa.
Schroeder, who drew the pole of the IMCA Modified feature following his win in the first heat, quickly settled into the top spot when the green flag waved. Gustin, who started to his outside, dropped into second with Kyle Strickler in tow. Following the race's only two stoppages during the first lap, the trio pulled away from the pack, leaving Lance Arneson and Mark Elliott to battle for fourth.
Although Gustin reeled in the leader a couple of times throughout the event, Schroeder couldn't be caught... until his machine failed post-race inspection, handing the win to Gustin.
It should be noted that late in the event Strickler made contact with Gustin as the leaders entered turn one. Although there was no severe damage as a result of the contact, the pair did a terrific job holding their positions, which, in hindsight, may have led to an even more significant difference in the final results. Elliott made his way around Arneson just shy of the midway point to come home third.
Rich Smith, Strickler, Tyson Turnbull, Jay Noteboom and NASCAR's Ken Schrader earned heat race wins while Eric Dailey, Jon Snyder and Joey Galloway won the B features.
IMCA MODIFIED (48 cars)
1. 19G Richie Gustin
2. 8 Kyle Strickler
3. 12 Mark Elliott
4. 98 Lance Arneson
5. 10K Ronn Lauritzen
6. 9 Ken Schrader
7. 7N Jay Noteboom
8. 7 Eric Dailey
9. 69X Jon Snyder
10. 58 Marcus Yarie
11. 73 Dan Ratajczak
12. 8X Rich Smith
13. 13 Matt Waugh
14. 18 Jake Durbin
15. 62 Greg Cox
16. 21CZ Tim Czarneski
17. 10 Tyson Turnbull
18. 40 Scott Dickey
19. 01 Joey Galloway
20. 02X Kody Scholpp
21. 99M Tim Murty
22. 19V Eric Vaniten
23. 70 Jesse Dennis
DQ 02 Andrew Schroeder
(Non-Qualifiers): 10X AJ Fike, 66 Jared Siefert, 3M Josh Muller, 19 Jimmy Gustin, 36C Jeff Conner, 20DUB Shane Weller, 36 Russ Gladson, X3 Shawn Reed, 59 John Barber, 71 Derrick Big Eagle, K1 Kyle Krampe, 10C Cayden Carter, 11 Ray Cox Jr., 37 Sean Jerovetz, 1J Jeff Streeter, 51 Tyler Vandekamp, 99X Jeremy Christians, 25P Mike Petersilie, 2 Kyle Scholpp, 12H Dakota Hayden, 66X Bob Heffer, 77 Jim Lynch, 8R Jesse Richter, 00 Masen Big Eagle.
Defending National IMCA SportMod champion Bryan LaRiviere (pronounced lah-REE-vee-air), earned the most convincing win of the night as he scored top honors in that 16-lap feature. LaRiviere, who started inside the second row, quickly worked past front row starters Clint Luellen and Racer Hulin to steal the lead just prior to the race's only caution following the completion of the first lap.
On the restart, LaRiviere pulled away from the pack to take the checkers ahead of Luellen and a hard-charging Ty Luellen, who started inside the seventh row.
Austin Lucas, LaRiviere, Bill Gibson and Clint Luellen were heat race winners. Ty Luellen and Bryan Weyer won the B features.
IMCA SPORTMOD (36 cars)
1. 2 Bryan LaRiviere
2. 3L Clint Luellen
3. 32L Ty Luellen
4. 505 Racer Hulin
5. 3K John Vandenberg
6. 81D Scott Davis
7. 7+ Jared Timmerman
8. 27 Bryan Weyer
9. 23K Ben Kates
10. 21L Brad Lautenbach
11. 1 Curtis VanDerWal
12. 72 Brett Lowry
13. 19J Jenae Gustin
14. 38 Bill Gibson
15. 8C Rob Charapata
16. 30X Josh Modde
17. 64 Casey Greubel
18. 198 Sam Wieben
19. 20 Brad Theys
20. 48 Blake Conant
21. 10H Jack Housley
22. 00 Brett Moffit
23. 7 Carter Vandenberg
24. 9X Austin Lucas
(Non-Qualifiers): 21 Matt Lettow, 01X Troy Jerovetz, 8T Tony Johnson, 30 Tracy Wassenberg, 75 Justin Medler, 36 Matt Pittman, 95J Jason Hall, 85 Jason McDaniel, 777 Jayme Dunink, 01 Brayton Carter, 10R Ryan Fullenkamp, 12 Eric Flander.
Although he started on the pole, John Heinz fought every step of the way to take the victory in the IMCA Stock Car feature. Heinz, who led the 18-lapper in its entirety, held off persistent challenges from a trio of drivers to take the checkers.
Jeff Mueller challenged for the lead early as he and fellow third row starter JC Howell worked their way to the front. Howell slipped past Mueller on the second lap and applied constant pressure to the #57 machine of Heinz while Justin Jacobsen worked his way through traffic from a fifth row start.
Jacobsen made his way around Howell just past the midway point and, despite a valiant effort, was unable to make his way past Heinz, who held on for the exciting win. Kyle Harwood made a nice run from a sixth row start to finish third.
Mueller, Jacobsen, Tom Killen and Corey Stout were heat race winners.
IMCA STOCK CAR (22 cars)
1. 57 John Heinz
2. 1330 Justin Jacobsen
3. 15K Kyle Harwood
4. 103 JC Howell
5. 77M Jeff Mueller
6. 22R Todd Reitzler
7. 99D Damon Murty
8. 93 Michael Jaennette
9. 1K Tom Killen
10. 94 Corey Stout
11. 29 Matt Greiner
12. 81X Randy Killen
13. 38 Rich Vogt
14. 52X Nathan Wood
15. 27 Gary Bass
16. 10 Matt Junio
17. 22 Jamie Suchocki
18. 49G LeRoy Groenendyk
19. 3 Joe Zadina
20. 73C Carl Yaw
21. 14R Jim Redmann
22. 00 Luke Lemmens
With the assist of a well-timed caution flag in the waning laps, Shannon Anderson drove to the win in the 15-lap IMCA Hobby Stock main event. Anderson, who chased race-long leader Bill Bonnett for the first nine laps, made his bid for the lead at the start/finish line to complete lap 10 just before the caution waved.
Anderson was awarded the point for the ensuing restart and held off challenges from Eric Stanton over the final laps to score the win. Bonnett ran third.
Anderson, Danny Thrasher and Stanton won the heats.
IMCA HOBBY STOCK (19 cars)
1. 78 Shannon Anderson
2. 7B Eric Stanton
3. 19 Bill Bonnett
4. 84 Danny Thrasher
5. 33X Justin Hook
6. 2N Donovan Nunnikhoven
7. 69 Craig Brown
8. 24B Brandon Brinton
9. 31 Dale Porter
10. 4X Pete Hutzel
11. 27C Cory Adams
12. 33 Rick Kriegel
13. 20B Ben Bruck
14. 10G Dustin Griffiths
15. 53D Ron Downing
16. 57 Scott Shull
17. 224 Gina Greubel
18. 25 Robert VanBuskirk
19. 32T Bobby Greene
Wednesday night marked the first IMCA action at the Mahaska County Fairgrounds since 2003. Although it was a long time coming, new promoter Mike Van Genderen should be pleased with the evening's show. Despite the large car count and 25 racing events scheduled, the final checkered flag waved 10 minutes before the 11 o'clock hour on a great night of racing. The folks in southern Iowa should have an excellent season in store as Van Genderen looks to bring back the glory days at Osky.
The 125 entries on the night represented a good portion of the Midwest, along with other regions of the country and Canada. In all, nine states were represented, including Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Kansas, California, Wyoming, North Carolina and Texas. There were 38 drivers on-hand from out-of-state, all of whom plan to follow much of the Frostbuster tour through the weekend. You can probably expect even higher car counts in the next few days as more local drivers will join the mini-tour with the weekend approaching.
I spoke with one of those out-of-staters at length prior to the races tonight. I met defending National SportMod champion Bryan LaRiviere at last year's national IMCA banquet and we had a chance to catch up just prior to hot laps. While he still plans to race a fairly healthy schedule this season, he admitted that he has no plans to try to defend his championship run of last season. Other priorities have become his focus as he and his wife are expecting their first child in September. When asked how many nights of the Frostbuster he plans to hit, that, too, was an uncertainty. Like most other drivers hoping to make it all five days, he said the first few days will determine how deep into the weekend he will race. If tonight was any indication, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him make his first-ever trip to Benton County Speedway on Sunday. If you plan to attend any of the remaining Frostbusters, stop by LaRiviere's #2 SportMod in the pit area and say hello. Not only is he a champion on the track, but he is as nice of a person as he is a driver and represents all that is good of our sport.
I had the chance to chat with another driver who left his car at home Wednesday night. Regular Independence Motor Speedway, Benton County Speedway and Farley Speedway driver Patrick Flannagan left his IMCA Modified in the shop, but made the trip to Oskaloosa for the night's show. We sat together throughout the night (yeah, I have no idea how I was the "lucky" one) and we discussed his plans for the upcoming season. Flannagan indicated that he expects to run three nights a week this year, but those plans had a rocky start at this past Sunday's season opener in Vinton. He broke two pistons in his heat race, forcing him to work hard in the shop a little earlier than expected this spring. Despite his early misfortunes, Flannagan assured me that
he'll be at Farley on Friday for the make-up race from last weekend's
rainout. He also plans to return to Vinton for this Sunday's Frostbuster
to get one more night in before the weekly battles begin on April 15. Flannagan did want me to let my readers know that he is accepting donations to help support his engine program and even nickel deposits from soda cans are welcome. Drink up!
My next race will be Friday night at Marshalltown for the third night of Frostbuster action. For those who don't have plans on Thursday night, however, the second stop of the five-day whirlwind tour hits Iowa State Fairgrounds Speedway in Des Moines.
A number of Positively Racing's bloggers were in Oskaloosa tonight so be sure to check out their take on the evening, as well. Jeff Broeg, along with Dick and Joyce Eisele, were on-hand and will have their thoughts available on the Back Stretch and in the 4D Fan Report. Barry Johnson made an appearance, as well. Should he be so inclined to indulge us with his words of wisdom, they will be found at Running the High Side.
See you at the races!
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