After nearly a month of waiting after snow showers in October forced a cancellation and re-schedule into the first week of November, the fans were treated to some nice temps and even hotter racing action.

A field of 110 cars checked into the pit area for the 23rd Annual MUSCO Lighting Fall Challenge with four exciting USRA divisions.

The first feature of the afternoon was the MUSCO USRA A-Mods with Brad Pinkerton of New Sharon taking the $1,000 payday in prime fashion. Pinkerton had to handle the two cautions that closed the field up and wiped away a nice size lead but this didn’t stop the 17p machine.

The battle on the track was for the second spot with Scott Dickey and Zack VanderBeek racing hard for the second spot with VanderBeek making the last lap pass followed by Dickey in third and Ryan Gustin in fourth.

The MUSCO USRA B-Mods saw A.J. Johnson take the win holding off a stellar 24-car field for his first win of the 2009 season. Johnson’s year saw some ups and downs, but this put a exclamation point on the season. The second spot went to last year’s winner Cayden Carter who raced his way from sixth to second with Scott Davis of Madrid in the third spot after taking the green in the 12th starting spot. The fourth spot went to Colter Deutsch of Ellsworth, Minn., who traveled over seven hours to the Southern Iowa Speedway.

The MUSCO USRA hobby stock feature saw Chris Hovden show the crowd why he’s the 2009 national champion. Hovden would take three wins in three days of racing to pocket over $1,600 dollars for his weekend efforts. Hovden had to hold off a late race charge from the 2N machine of Donavan Nunnikhoven of Sully who tried to close the gap, but came up about a car length too short and took the second spot. The third spot went to Todd Reitzler, who took the third spot after starting on the pole position and leading several laps early. The fourth spot went to Danny Thrasher of Agency.

In the MUSCO USRA Stock Car division, a lot of things happen over the years but this was one of the best and most talked about main a event that has ever happened at the Southern Iowa Speedway.

A total of seven cars crashed with Nathan Wood of Keswick breaking a ball joint and causing the car to drift up the race track making contact with Mike Vangendren of Newton who would make contact with Wood and the wall causing a major pileup. Shane Weller being involved along with Dan Christopher and Todd Staley, whose 33T machine would land on top of the 42 machine of Christopher, and Chad Walters and Corey Stout also were involved. After about a 30-minute delay and two drivers going to the work area to try and fix their machines, the action resumed.

Matt Greiner of Washington was the leader followed by Mike Bergan and Mitch Hovden battling for the second spot. Woods would race his way from the back to fourth, but another ball joint problem would end his run to the front and sent him to the trailer for the evening.

Greiner would lead the field with six laps remaining and Shane Weller of Agency would start his march to the front after having to change an A-Frame, shock and spring along with tire and wheel. Weller would make the pass on Steve Jackson for fourth on lap 16 and set his sights on the third and second place cars of Bergan and Hovden.

Weller would close the gap and put pressure on Bergan with two laps remaining and Greiner still ld the field. Weller, who raced his 20W machine from last to battle for the lead ,and the white flag flew. Weller made it three-wide with Greiner, Hovden and Weller and a lap car to the bottom. Weller would get a strong run off turn two and all three would bring the crowd to its feet. Turns three and four Weller would beat the whole field to the corner and would have the crowd screaming and yelling as Weller took the checkers for the win and this was two wins in a row for the 20W and pocketed the $800 and a nice trophy to go along with the first night’s trophy from back in October. Greiner would take the second spot after leading all, but the final lap. Hovden took third and Bergan in fourth, and Jackson in fifth.   

23rd Annual MUSCO Lighting Fall Challenge

Southern Iowa Speedway

Sunday’s Results