ROOKIE WOOD TOPS STELLAR FIELD OF STOCK CARS AT SOUTHERN IOWA SPEEDWAY
By: Tony Paris

OSKALOOSA, Ia (April, 26, 2006) -  Racing action at the Southern Iowa Speedway was sponsored by The Oskaloosa Herald and was also Kids Night at the track with all kinds of giveawayes for the young race fans. They all got a chance to pick-up candy along with nickles on the front-stretch and was divided into diffrent age groups. After all the candy and nickles was picked up three lucky young fans each won twenty dollar bills, from track promoter Todd Staley and R L Promotions.

The Casey`s General Stores USRA Weekly points and National Points chase took place with three divisions in action at the fast half-mile in Oskaloosa. The Musco Lighting USRA Modified division was first up with Steve Stewart of Washington and Rick Gustin of Marshalltown leading the field to the green. Gustin would take the lead with Brad Pinkerton of New Sharon taking the race lead on lap three and never looked back. The caution flag flew closing the field up with six laps togo but Pinkerton proved to be to strong and held of Mark Elliott of Webster City who took the second spot with Gustin in third and Terry Walker of Riverside in fourth.

In the fifteen lap USRA hobby stock division Todd Reitzler of Grinnell would lead the field to the green and would lead till lap ten before mechanical problems would end his run at a first ever win. The race lead then went to Tracy,Iowa driver Joe Ferguson who took the lead and held off several challenges from Nathan Wood of Sigourney for his first win. The battle for the third spot was between Jared Sanders of New Sharon and Matt Snyder of Kirksville,Mo. who worked his way from the back of the pack after spinning on lap three and Sanders worked his way from a twelveth starting spot. Wood took second with Snyder in third and Sanders in fourth.

The third and final feature was truly one of the best stock car finishes any where in the country with two rookie drivers earning alot of respect after thrilling the crowd with side-by-side racing. The USRA stock car feature was twenty laps and wasn`t decided till the last lap when the checkers flew. Shane Weller of Agency and rookie driver Colt Mather of Webster lead the field to the green flag with Mather taking the race lead and paced the field till Brian Edel of Oskaloosa closed in on the topspot. The two drivers would swap the lead several times making for some exciting racing action. Then it got really interesting with another rookie driver Nathan Wood of Sigourney who started seventh and T.J. Criss last years track champion closed in on the two drivers with only five laps remaining. This made for some very exciting three and even four wide racing action. Edel would end his run with a broken shock whick cut a radiator hose sending him to the pits.

On lap sixteen Mather,Wood,Criss and Brad Pinkerton all battled for the lead with Mather still holding the lead. The four drivers all battled for position with Zack VanderBeek of New Sharon joining in on the side-by-side action making a five car battle for the top two spot with field racing down to the white flag with only one lap remaining the four wide action would bring the crowd to its feet,with Mather,Wood,Criss and Pinkerton battling for the lead Pinkerton`s car would spin coming off turn four and would bring cation out and Pinkerton`s right front tire was flat. Wood was the leader and lead the field to a green,white and checker finish and topped a stellar field of stock car drivers for his first win in always tough stock division. Criss took the second spot with Mather in third and VanderBeek in fourth.
 

Next weeks action will feature all three USRA divisions in action on May 3rd with hot laps at 7:15pm and racing action to follow.

USRA HOBBY STOCKS
Heat#1-1.Matt Snyder,Kirksville,Mo. 2.Mike Shelton,Ottumwa 3.Shannon Sherwood,Oskaloosa 4.Nathan Wood,Sigourney 5.Jason VanZomeren,Oskaloosa 6.Danny Thrasher,Agency 7.Dave Breuklander,Oskaloosa

Heat#2-1.Jared Sanders,New Sharon 2.Joe Ferguson,Tracy 3.Bill Gibson,Knoxville 4.Todd Reitzler,Grinnell 5.Jason McDaniel,Eldon 6.Mark Ford,Lovillia 7.Chad Dehne,Ottumwa

Heat#3-1.Rick Landgrebe,Sigourney 2.Steve Allen,Oskaloosa 3.Tyler Ford,Lovillia 4.Chase Mitrisin,Oskaloosa 5.Justin Hook,Oskaloosa 6.Bobby Greene,Eddyville

A-Feature 1.Ferguson 2.Wood 3.Snyder 4.Sanders 5.Landgrebe 6.Gibson 7.McDaniel 8.Sherwood 9.Mitrisin 10.Van Zomeren 11.T.Ford 12.Allen 13.Thrasher 14.Shelton 15.M.Ford 16.Breuklander 17.Reitzler 18.Hook 19.Greene 20.Dehne

USRA STOCK CARS
Heat#1-1.Bobby Greiner Jr.,Ottumwa 2.Eric Flander,Barnes City 3.Colt Mather,Webster 4.Brian Edel,Oskaloosa 5.Shane Weller,Agency 6.Jim Brown,Fremont 7.Steve Landgrebe,Oskaloosa 8.Keith Kuder,Rose Hill 9.Darrin Thompson,New Sharon

Heat#2-1.Nathan Wood,Sigourney 2.Brad Pinkerton,New Sharon 3.Josh Newell,Oskaloosa 4.Matt Greiner,Washington 5.Zack VanderBeek,New Sharon 6.Brian Mitrisin,Oskaloosa 7.T.J.Criss,Oskaloosa 8.Rick Brown,Kellogg

A-Feature 1.Wood 2.Criss 3.Mather 4.VanderBeek 5.Newell 6.J.Brown 7.Landgrebe 8.Pinkerton 9.R.Brown 10.Edel 11.M.Greiner 12.Mitrisin 13.Weller 14.B.Greiner 15.Kuder 16.Flander 17.Thompson

MUSCO LIGHTING USRA MODIFIEDS
Heat#1-1.Brad Pinkerton,New Sharon 2.Steve Stewart,Washington 3.Terry Walker,Riverside 4.Ron VerBeek,Oskaloosa 5.Kyle Harwood,Oskaloosa 6.Brandon Banks,Washington

Heat#2-1.Mark Elliott,Webster City 2.Rick Gustin,Marshalltown 3.Zack VanderBeek,New Sharon 4.Steven Blattler,Oskaloosa 5.Brad Stephens,Bussey 6.David Ott,Ankeny

A-Feature 1.Pinkerton 2.Elliott 3.Gustin 4.Walker 5.Stewart 6.VanderBeek 7.Blattler 8.Stephens 9.Ott 10.VerBeek 11.Harwood 12.Banks