This year the Southern Iowa Speedway return back to IMCA for the first time in 8 years and it now has complete 3 months of racing with only a couple of rain outs this season and 1 show cut short because of mother nature forcing double feature the following week.
The overall grade i would give it would be an A as the racing has been great all season long and the fans started to fill the stands every week. Several special activites have gotten the fans involved and excited week after week thanks to the creative brain of Promoter Mike Van Genderen and the Southern Iowa Fairboard.
I get a chance to chat with many people on race nights and they extremely happy with how thanks are going this year compared to the past couple of years and happy to see all of the excitement back at the speedway for the first time in a while.
This season there has been 171 different drivers signed in to do battle at the Mahaska County Monster not including the frostbuster with 30 different modifieds, 35 Stock cars, 42 sport mods, 44 hobby stocks and 20 sport compacts and that is already more than the last 2 years.
Car Count
Division Highest - Lowest - Average
Modifieds 18 7 12.0
Stock Cars 20 13 15.91
SportMods 27 13 18.91
Hobby Stocks 23 13 16.91
Sport Compacts 8 5 5.91
Total 78 60 70.64
*Modifeds lowest car count was on May 16th meanwhile their highest count of 18 happened on May 30th and June 6th because cars were allowed to tag the make up feature on June 6th.
*Stock Cars lowest car count was on April 25th and May 9th with their highest being on June 6th.
*SportMods lowest car count was on June 27th and the highest was on April 18th.
*Hobby Stocks lowest car count happened twice (May 16th and June 20th) and the highest was on April 25th.
*Sport Compcats lowest car count happened 6 times (April 18th, April 25th, May 16th, May 23rd, May 30th and June 13th) and the highest happened twice (May 9th and June 20th)
*The Overall Car Count saw its lowest of the season on May 23rd and the highest count has happened twice (April 25th and June 20th). June 20th date includes the Late Models as they replaced the Modifieds that night and none of the car counts include the Iowa Sportsman Series which ran one of the earlier nights
Feature Finishers
Top 10
*131 drivers of 171 different drivers have finished in the top 10 in 1 or more feature events this year.
*All 30 Modifieds and all 20 Sport Compacts that have checked in this year have finished in the top 10 in a feature.
*30 of 35 Stock Cars, 29 of 42 SportMods and 22 of 44 Hobby Stocks have finished top 10 in a feature
*Merv Chandler, John Whalen and Bill Whalen Jr have finished top 10 in every Sport Compact feature.
*Kevin Fee has finished top 10 in every Hobby Stock feature, Shannon Anderson has finished top 10 in 10 of 11 features as has Dustin Griffiths and Donavon Nunnikhoven. Dany Thrasher has finished in the top to in 9 of 11 features.
*Curtis Vanderwal is the only SportMod to finish in the top 10 in all 11 feature events. Jesse Sobbing, Carter Vandenberg have finish top 10 in 10 of 11, Eric Flander along with Tony Johnson, Brett Lowry and Jason McDaniel have finished in the top 10 in 8 of 11 feature events.
*Cayden Carter leads the way with 9 of 10 races in the top 10, Shane Weller is 2nd by finishin 8 of 10 races in the top 10 and then its a tie between Scott Dickey, Brandon Banks and Mark Widmar with 7 of 10 top 10 finishes.
*Nathan Wood has finished in the top 10 in all 11 events with Matt Greiner in 10 of 11, Corey Stout in 9 of 11, Damon Murty and Todd Reitzler in 8 of 11.
Top 5
*88 of those 131 differnt drivers that finished in the top 10 has finished in the top 5 in at least 1 feature event this year.
*22 Modifieds, 16 Stock Cars, 17 SportMods, 14 Hobby Stocks and 19 Sport Compacts have finished in the top 5 this year.
*Merv Chandler and Bill Whalen Jr have finished in the top 5 in every feature and John Whalen has finished top 5 in 8 of 11 features.
*Shannon Anderson leads the way with 9 of 11 top 5 finishes in the Hobby Stocks, Kevin Fee has 8 of 11, Dustin Griffiths has 7 top 5's and Danny Thrasher has 6 top 5's.
*Jesse Sobing has 10 top 5 finishes, Curtis Vanderwal has 7 top 5 finishes in the SportMods. Carter Vandenberg has 5 top 5's and Bill Bison has 4 top 5's.
*Cayden Carter and Jacob Murray each have finished in the top 5 7 times in the Modifieds. Shane Weller is 3rd on the list as he has finished in the top 5 six times and Brandon Banks has 5 top 5's.
*Nathan Wood leads the way in the Stock Cars with 10 top 5's in 11 features. Matt Greiner has 9 top 5's, Damon Murty has 7 top 5's.
Top 3
*59 of those 88 different drivers that finished in the top 5 has finished in the top 3 in at least 1 feature this year.
*15 Modifieds, 11 Stock Cars, 14 SportMods, 11 Hobby Stocks and 8 Sport Compacts have finished in the top 3 this year.
*Once again its Merv Chandler leading the way in the Hobby Stocks with 11 for a 11 in the top 3, Bill Whalen Jr is 2nd with 10 of 11 in the top 3, John Whalen has 5 top 3's and Larry Hopkins has 4 top 3's.
*Shannon Anderson leads the way with 8 top 3's in the Hobby Stocks. Bobby Greene has 4 top 3 finishes and then its Kevin Fee, John Watson, Dustin Griffiths, Eric Stanton and Danny Thrasher all tie with 3 top 3's.
*Jesse Sobbing leads the way with 8 top 3's in the SportMods, Curtis Vanderwal has 5 top 3's and then its Jason McDaniel with 3 top 3's
*Cayden Carter leads the way with 6 top 3's followed by Shane Weller and Jacob Murray with 4 top 3's in the Modifieds.
*Nathan Wood and Matt Greiner lead the way in the Stock Cars each finishing in the top 3 five times. Damon Murty and Zack Vanderbeek have finished top 3 four times.
Feature Winners
*30 different drivers have picked up at least 1 feature win this year.
*5 Modifieds, 7 Stock Cars, 5 SportMods, 6 Hobby Stocks and 3 Sport Compacts have picked a feature win.
*Sport Compacts (3): Merv Chandler (7 feature wins), Bill Whalen Jr. (2), Larry Hopkins (2)
*Hobby Stocks (6): Shannon Anderson (6 feature wins), Donavon Nunnikhoven (2), Kevin Fee (1), Bobby Greene (1), Jamie Songer (1) and Dustin Griffiths (1)
*Sport Mods (5): Jesse Sobbing (4 feature wins), Bryan Weyer (3), Jason McDaniel (2), Robert VanBuskirk (1) and Bill Gibson (1)
*Modifieds (5): Jacob Murray (4 feature wins), Cayden Carter (2), Scott Dickey (1), Richie Gustin Jr. (1) and Bill Davis Jr. (1)
*Stock Cars (7): Nathan Wood (2 feature wins), Matt Greiner (2), Zack Vanderbeek (2), Damon Murty (2), Kyle Harwood (1), Brad Pinkerton (1) and Todd Reitzler (1)
Lap Leaders
*50 different drivers have led at least 1 lap in a feature event this year at the Mahaska County Monster.
*11 Modifieds, 13 Stock Cars, 12 SportMods, 8 Hobby Stocks and 6 Sport Compacts have led laps.
*Sport Compacts (6): Merv Chandler (34 laps led), Bill Whalen Jr. (26), Larry Hopkins (14), John Whalen (11), Brad Chandler (2), Steve Meidke (1)
*Hobby Stocks (8): Shannon Anderson (34 laps led), Donavon Nunnikhoven (27), Bobby Greene (27), Jamie Songer (21), Kevin Fee (16), Dustin Griffiths (13), Danny Thrasher (5), Bill Bonnett (2)
*SportMods (12): Jason McDaniel (53 laps led), Bryan Weyer (44), Jesse Sobbing (20), Jason Hall (15), Bill Gibson (15), Robert VanBuskirk (14), Curtis Vanderwal (5), Carter Vandenberg (2), Josh Modde (2), Racer Hulin (1), Eric Flander (1), Ben Kates (1)
*Modifieds (11): Jacob Murray (45 laps led), Cayden Carter (35), Bill Davis Jr. (15), Mark Widmar (13), Jeff Waterman (13), Andrew Schroeder (12), Brandon Banks (7), Jim Lynch (6), Richie Gustin (5), Shane Weller (1), Tim Murty (1)
*Stock Cars (13): Brad Pinkerton (27 laps led), Matt Greiner (21), Zack Vanderbeek (19), Damon Murty (18), Todd Reitzler (18), Colt Mather (17), Kyle Harwood (15), Nathan Wood (13), Alan Van Gorp (9), Shane Paris (6), Don Killen (5), Rich Vogt (2), Leroy Groenendyk (1)
Heat Winners
*53 different drivers have at least 1 heat race event this year at SIS.
* 12 Modifieds, 13 Stock Cars, 13 SportMods, 10 Hobby Stocks and 5 Sport Compacts have won heat races.
*Sport Compacts (5): Bill Whalen Jr. (4 heat wins), Larry Hopkins (3), Merv Chandler (2), Brad Chandler (1), Trent Orwig (1)
*Hobby Stocks (10): Shannon Anderson (8 heat wins), Dustin Griffiths (6), John Watson (2), Bobby Greene (2), Donavon Nunnikhoven (2), Kevin Fee (1), Eric Stanton (1), Craig Brown (1), Jamie Songer (1), Mike Hughes (1)
*SportMods (13): Carter Vandenberg (4 heat wins), Bill Gibson (4), Bryan Weyer (4), Jason McDaniel (3), Curtis Vanderwal (2), Jesse Sobbing (2), Eric Flander (2), Tom Lathrop (1), Tony Johnson (1), Brayton Carter (1), Brett Lowry (1), Ben Kates (1), Scott Davis (1)
*Modifieds (12): Scott Dickey (3 heat wins), Mark Widmar (2), Jacob Murray (2), Richie Gustin Jr. (2), Cayden Carter (1), Jim Lynch (1), Shane Weller (1), Brandon Banks (1), Jeff Waterman (1), Tyler Cale (1), Andrew Schroeder (1), Dakota Hayden (1)
*Stock Cars (13): Zack Vanderbeek (5 heat wins), Matt Greiner (4), Alan Van Gorp (2), Nathan Wood (2), Damon Murty (2), Corey Stout (1), Tom Killen (1), Rich Vogt (1), Shane Paris (1), Alex Buffington (1), Brad Pinkerton (1), Kyle Harwood (1), Leroy Groenendyk (1)
All i have been very impressed with how this season is going at Southern Iowa Speedway and enjoy calling it my Wednesday Night and i want to thank Mike Van Genderen for inviting me down every week. Tony Paris, Michelle Van Genderen and Jen Turner for letting me help out in the tower every week.
Up next for me is friday night at the Marshalltown Speedway, Saturday Night at the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway in Bloomfield and then Sunday is off day before i head to the Beaver for Night #1 on Monday of the Stock Car Shootout, Night #2 on Tuesday at Marshalltown and Night #3 back at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday Night Next Week and somewhere all that time will be the Stats for Marshalltown!
Until Next Time,
Jeremy Fox aka Foxman
