Racing, Racing, and More Racing at Scotland County

     With clearing skies and warmer temps, Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri would roar to life with the Jim Oliver Sr. Memorial. The five class program, scheduled as two full shows would see the Friday portion moved one month to the late October fall extravaganza at the speedway. A mods, B mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks, and 4 Cylinder racers would fill the pit area which stretches nearly half way around the three eighths mile facility. The final tally showed a whopping 149 cars, led by 45 B Mods, set to do battle.

    With an afternoon practice session in the books, the track was apparently reworked and needed a bit of "run in" time, but soon hot laps clicked off in brisk fashion and the first heat hit the track just before 7:00. It took twenty of them for early qualifications, then we moved into the novelty event of the night.

   With Oliver Heating and Air providing the purse money, four of the five divisions raced First Time Winners mini features. Drivers who had never won a main event in the class in which they were entered were eligible  to compete, with a trophy and $300 going to each victor. Brandon Lambert led things off by topping the twelve lap B Mod challenge. Christian Huffman was the Hobby Stock winner. Seventeen year old Rowdee Van Genderen made Poppa proud with the Stock Car title. Young Fisher Reese capped things off with a decisive victory in the A Mods.

   Four B mains came next to set the starting lineups for feature racing, and we now had twenty eight races in the books as the clock showed 10:06. When intermission was announced and the grader came out, we decided to set a midnight curfew for ourselves, hoping it would not be needed. A troublesome area had developed in turns one and two, resulting in an unusual amount of suspension issues on the cars, and the reworking of the surface seemed to help that, although it also dredged up a surprising bit of dust that fortunately did not affect the grandstands. 

   Unfortunately, the track work took about thirty minutes, with the twenty lap B Mod feature then coming to the track. And as so often happens when time is a factor, a massive crash occurred on lap two in front of the grandstands. The #57 car of Brandt Ames climbed the fence, landing with the front wheels atop the advertising billboards. It took considerable time to get his car down from its perch. Several other cars were eliminated, including top contender Brayton Carter who had been forced to qualify through a B main and was caught up in the melee, suffering front end damage and losing the drivers side sheet metal off his #01. As the front five, led by outside row one starter Dylan VanWyk drove off from the field, a second red flag was displayed when Colton Livezey flipped his #29 in turn four on lap seven. Again, the single wrecker crew along with a rollback on site spent quite a bit of time clearing the racing surface. Only one more stoppage at lap thirteen slowed the action. VanWyk held the top spot throughout, with Maguire Dejong and Logan Anderson locked in a side by side duel for second. At the checkers, it was VanWyk with the flag to flag win, followed by Dejong, Anderson, Tim Plummer, and Curtis VanDerWal. The win was worth $1,500 to VanWyk.

   Fourteen laps of Sport Compact action came next, with two dozen of the twenty nine cars on hand lining up doing battle for $300. Kimberly Abbott has been on a major roll of late, and her streak continued as she drew the pole position for the race. She shot to the lead with Chuck Fullenkamp hounding her early on, diving low in the turns before Abbott drove away down the chutes, lap after lap. A maddening series of yellow flags slowed the action, with the final ones resulting in the field realigning single file. Fullenkamp chased the veteran speedster Abbott for the entire distance to no avail, as Kimberly led all the way for the win. Luke Fraise moved up from row four to grab a podium finish, while Tim Schnathorst and Des Moines racer Kolby Sabin rounded out the top five.

   The Stock Car field had also been whittled down from twenty nine to twenty four, with twenty laps the distance for the $1,500 prize. Trenton Witt sat outside row one and was out front as lap one was scored. But as the leaders worked into turn four on lap two, the #33 of Witt was suddenly up in the air , landing upside down. When finally we got back to racing, it was Nathan Ballard charging to the front with Dallon Murty hot on his heels. Johnny Spaw had pulled an eleven on the redraw, but was swiftly moving forward, taking third on lap four. Murty and Spaw then engaged in an intense battle for second. Spaw worked around the low side while Dallon operated higher on the track, the duo often racing door to door. On lap fourteen, Johnny was able to gain an advantage, then moved up one lane while Murty then took the short way around, hugging the inside tire barrier. With the race staying green, Ballard cruised to the win, while Murty drove back around Spaw for second. John Oliver Jr. was steady in fourth, while Michael Jaennette chased him to finish fifth.

   Hobby Stocks were up next with A Mods headed to staging, but our self imposed curfew had arrived, and while much of the large crowd stuck around, we regretfully headed for the parking lot. Congratulations to Luke Ramsey for his $500 Hobby Stock win, and to Austen Becerra for taking home the $1,500 A Mod check. 

   Thanks to Mike Van Genderen, Haylee, Kevin, Tony and the rest of the crew at Scotland County for an action packed night of racing!

   Early church is over, racewear laundry is next and (hopefully) a nap, then we will be off to Adams County, Illinois Speedway for their season finale of Sprint Invaders, Crate Late Models, Street Stocks and Hart Series B Mods. Hope to see you there!