Jackson and Hughes Among the Opening Night Winners at Southern Iowa Speedway

Jackson and Hughes Among the Opening Night Winners at Southern Iowa Speedway
by Jeremy Fox

Oskaloosa, Iowa (April 26th, 2017) - The 2017 season finally roar to life at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday Night, however it was very chilly with a feel of a fall special and not the season opener in April. Stephen Dell Corporation, KBOE Radio and Mahaska Bottling Company was the sponsors on the night and the feautred driver of the week was Austin Paul.

Feature Winners were Steve Jackson (Dirt Trucks), Daniel Fellows (Sport Compacts), Mike Hughes (Stock Cars), Jason McDaniel (SportMods), Hunter Marriott (Modifieds) and Shannon Anderson (Hobby Stocks).

First feature of the night was the Karl Chevrolet Dirt Trucks 15 lap feature and it was Steve "Action" Jackson and Lou Siplot Jr leading the field to the green flag. Jackson familiar to the Southern Iowa Speedway grabbed the early lead and really was never challenged but just after lap one was scored, the caution came out when Bret Moyer spun on the backstretch. On the restart, the red flag came out when Tony Moro went for a tumble in turn one after contact with Eric Lundstrom and Shonn Mapes, Moro's truck would take the most damage as debris was all over turn one. All drivers would be okay but Moro and Lundstom would not be able to continue. Jackson got a great restart and pulled away to take the win. Brad Moyer passed Siplot for the second. Third-Generation Driver Anthony Moro finished fourth ahead of Andrew Clark.

Kelli Steil State Farm IMCA Sport Compacts 10 lap feature was next up and it was Rookie Daniel Fellows taking the top spot. Fellows led Flag-to-Flag despite several challenges from Jake Dietrich. Dietrich, Josh Barnes, Brandon Housley and Cody Van Dusen round out the top five.

The Budweiser IMCA Stock Cars lived up to the nickname "The Class Too Tough Too Tame" as defending track champion Louis Lynch started on the pole and he took advantage of that by leading the opening lap but last year's Hobby Stock track champion Dustin Griffiths found the right line and when Lynch bobbled a little that allowed Griffiths to take the lead meanwhile Mike Hughes started tenth had worked his way to 3rd and on lap three passed Lynch for 2nd. Hughes continued to chase down on Griffiths and showed the numbers a few times but couldn't complete the pass but coming to the completion of lap 17, Hughes saw a hole open up took advantage and took the lead away. Hughes held off last lap challenges from Derrick Agee who also got by Griffiths, after Griffiths bobbled, to take the win. Griffiths feld back to third, Todd Reitzler came home fourth and Jason See was fifth.

"Mighty Mouse" Jason McDaniel showed the mighty power in Oskaloosa True Value IMCA Sport Mods 16 lap feature, as he started outside front row and took the lead away from Colton Livezey. McDaniel pulled away and looked to be heading on to an easy win but just as he began to encounter lap traffic on lap 11, the caution came out for Matt Beal going off turn three. That forced a restart and that meant McDaniel had Curtis VanDerWal and Carter VanDenBerg on the back bumper. McDaniel was not going to be denied as he held of the challenges to take the win ahead of VanDerWal, Logan Anderson, VanDenBerg and Livezey.

Hunter Marriott led the first lap of the 20 lap Musco Lighting IMCA Modified feature before defending track champion Colt Mather took the lead away. Mather started to pull away only to see the caution force a green-white-checkered finish. Mather held of Marriott and "Toddzilla" Todd Shute to take the feature win. Cayden Carter was fourth and Andrew Schroeder was fifth.

Final feature of the night was the KBOE Radio / Mahaska Bottling IMCA Hobby Stocks 15 lap feature event. Shannon Anderson grabbed the top spot early and never looked back as he led from start to finish. Eric Stanton held off several challenges from a hard charging Bill Bonnett to take second. Aaron Martin and Scott Shull was fourth and fifth respectively.

Racing action returns next Wednesday Night at the Southern Iowa Speedway with Shawn's Hay Grinding Night. All five IMCA Classes will be in competition. Hot Laps at 7pm and Racing at 7:30pm.