Johnson, Jones victorious in Upper Iowa Speedway opener

  • April 22, 2006
  • by Dwight Jones

DECORAH, Iowa -- For area race fans, another long, cold winter came to a screeching halt as a nice field of competitors took to the Upper Iowa Speedway to start the 2006 regular season this past Saturday night.

The sunny evening turned cool after the sun set, but there’s no place else the die hards would rather be as the cars thundered around the track in mid-season form.

Sim’s TV B-Mods – The first ever regular season USRA B-Mod feature at UIS gave fans something to look forward to as a great race developed up front with a number of cars trying to hold the lead.

With Virgil Johnson leading, Al Brink was running second until he spun in corner two, bringing out the caution.

Jimmy Broszeit moved to second on the re-start and was putting all sorts of heat on the leader, but Broszeit soon was feeling heat of his own by Shane Panos would moved to second but would have to settle for the role of bridesmaid as Johnson led every lap of the first B-Mod feature of the year.

Bill’s Auto Repair Stock Cars – Shay Curtin showed the way in the early running of the USRA Stock Car feature until a backstretch spin by Mike Kelly brought out the first yellow.

By this time, the track had grown extremely rough with drivers struggling to find a way to negotiate fast laps around the ruts that had developed.

One driver who figured it out almost immediately was Dan Jones, who quickly moved to third using a very low line, passed Don Rude for second via the same route and soon after overtook Curtin for the lead.

Normally Jones’ cars are blue, but this year he changed it up and like his #25 he was golden as he stretched to a nice lead by the time the checkered flag flew to claim the first Stock Car trophy of the young season.