OSKALOOSA, Iowa -- Great weather was brought into the Southern Iowa Speedway for the first kids night of the season brought to you from the Oskaloosa, IA Dairy Queen. This was the first time we tried the kid’s night and it turned out to be a great success and we look forward to the next one in June.

The night started out with the kids getting to ride in the cars around the track for three laps. Then it was time for the racing and the USRA modifieds was the first to the track tonight. Twenty-one cars graced the track tonight and Brain Edel, Brad Bakken, and Danny Wallace each picked up the heat race wins.

Next up was the USRA hobby stocks and twenty-nine cars checked in for the racing action. Picking up heat race wins were Mike Shelton, Tyler Ford, Craig Brown, and Steve Landgrebe.

The final heat races of the night was the USRA stock cars and twenty cars checked in and Brandon Bandstra, Kevin Booy, and Bobby Greiner picked up the wins setting the stage for all the features.

First up was the candy and nickel toss for the kids. First on the track was the modifieds. Mark Daughenbaugh and Kevin Stoa picked the top spots for the start of the feature tonight. Brad Bakken making the long pull from the Clear Lake area took his third starting spot and jumped into the early lead. A caution at lap one would stop the field after the #4 Roger Baxter would lose his drive shaft. While religning the cars someone thought they need to pull a switch shutting off the grandstand lights making turn one dark and putting a halt to the racing action for fifteen minutes.

When racing resumed Kevin Stoa would race right by the wall and Stoa and Bakken would put on a great race racing side by side for several laps. Stoa would eventually puff some smoke ending his evening. Bakken would hold off some challenges from John Vandenberg to take the first win of the season at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Brain Edel who started tenth would make his way to second getting by Vandenberg with three to go. Rounding out the top five was Zack Vanderbeek, Ron Ver Beek.

Next up was the hobby stock main event. Steve Landgrebe would jump into the early lead after polesitter Bill Bonnett would scratch for the night giving Landgrebe the pole. Landgrebe would lead until lap eight after a restart Steinke would get by at the start and Landgrebe would have to settle for a second place finish. Doug Gordon who started eighth would work his way to third with Colt Mather and Rick Landrebe rounding out the top five. The class to tough to tame would be the final feature of the night and Josh Newell picked up his first win of the season leading all eighteen laps. Newell was getting pressure early in the race from Howard Gordon before a hard charging Brandon Bandstra would work his way to second. On lap fourteen Bandstra would go into turn three and his wheel would break sending his car rolling into turn three.

This was a wild ride Bandstra said after the wreck. Brandon did walk away from the crash ending his evening. At the restart it was Tj Criss, Jim Brown and Bobby Greiner in the top five spots. Greiner would work his way past Brown and Ross McCombs to take the third spot with Brown finishing fourth and McCombs fifth.

Next Wednesday night weekly racing will continue with a regular night of racing featuring the hobby stocks, stock cars and modified. Hot laps will begin at 6:45 and racing at 7:15. This makes four different winners in two classes and Mark Steinke is the only repeat winner of the season at the Southern Iowa Speedway. Bradley Bex in the hobby stock class also went for a wild ride after something broke on the last lap. All in all a great night of racing with fans on the rode before 10:15 after all the racing action.

RESULTS

MODIFIED

Heat 1- Brian Edel, John Vandenberg, Kevin Stoa, Zack Vanderbeek, Brad Moriarty, Charlie Thomas, Tom Lathrop

Heat 2- Brad Bakken, Ron Ver Beek, Roger Baxter, Rick Vandusseldorp, Ryan Lundy, Vern Killen, Kris Walker

Heat 3- Danny Wallace, Mark Daughenbaugh, Steve Blattner, Mike Bennett, Kyle Harwood, Mike Louis, Terry Walker

A-main- Bakken, Edel, Vandenberg, Vanderbeek, Ver Beek, Vandusseldorp, Wallace, Bennett, Lathrop, Moriarty, Killen, Blattner, Harwood, Stoa, Lundy, Daughenbaugh, Baxter, Louis, Thomas, Walker, Walker

HOBBY STOCK

Heat 1- Mike Shelton, Pat Rachels, Mark Steinke, Rick Landrebe, Dustin Versteeg, PJ Veenstra, Lonnie Greiner, Toby Vandekamp

Heat 2- Tyler Ford, Bradley Bex, Colt Mather, Bill Gibson, Randy Veldhuizen, Partner Maschmann, Travis Sherwood, Chase Mitrisin

Heat 3- Craig Brown, Bill Bonnett, Curtis Claver, Mark Ford, Joe Ferguson, Matt Beal, David Brueklander

Heat 4- Steve Landgrebe, Bobby Greene, Doug Gordon, Steve Allen, Shannon Sherwood, Nathan Wood, Tory Mathis

A-main- Steinke, Landgrebe, Gordon, Mather, Landrebe, Versteeg, Brown, Veldhuizen, Rachels, Tyler Ford, Sherwood, Veenstra, Maschmann, Gibson, Mark Ford, Greene, Wood, Bex, Shelton, Brueklander, Ferguson, Mathis, Vandekamp, Beal, Claver, Allen, Sherwood, Mitrisin, Greiner, and Bonnett

STOCK CAR

Heat 1- Brandon Bandstra, Matt Greiner, Ross McCombs, TJ Criss, Kyle Harwood, Brian Sterling, Levi Paris

Heat 2- Kevin Booy, Brian Mitrisin, Dave Wilson, Zack Vanderbeek, Bret Lowery, Curtis Vanderwall, Darrin Thompson

Heat 3- Bobby Greiner, Jim Brown, Josh Newell, Howard Gordon, Dan Gordon, Dave Vass

A-main- Newell, Criss, Bobby Greiner, Brown, McCombs, Sterling, Lowry, VanderBeek, Howard Gordon Jr, Thompson, Harwood, VanDerWal, Paris, Brandstra, Mittisin, Booy, Wilson, Dan Gordon, Matt Greiner, David Vass