Al Hejna won his second USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour event in as many nights Wednesday in a thrilling 35-lap Sunoco “A” Main at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa, that saw five lead changes among five drivers, including Hejna’s three-wide pass for the lead with just three laps remaining.
For the second time in five races, DandyLand Farms Rookie of the Year contender Chase Junghans drew the pole for the main event. Unlike ten days ago at the Elko Speedway when his career-first pole ended with a crash before the end of the first lap, Junghans jumped out front at the drop of the green flag ahead of outside front row starter Zack VanderBeek.
Three early-race cautions kept the field bunched tightly for the first three laps. On the third restart, VanderBeek used his experience at the Mahaska County Half-Mile Monster to take over the lead on lap 4. Three laps later, Kelly Shryock edged in front of VanderBeek to lead the seventh lap.
The next dozen laps were nothing short of amazing as Shryock and VanderBeek jockeyed for supremacy in every turn and raced door to door down each straight-away. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack was swapping spots, trading slide-jobs and using every inch of the wide half-mile clay oval.
Ryan Gustin joined in the battle for the lead on lap 18, then overtook both VanderBeek and Shryock with a high-side move on lap 21. Looking to score his third win in seven starts, Gustin continued to fend off the challenges of Shryock for the next six laps, while Hejna slipped by VanderBeek for third.
The yellow flag flew on lap 27 to set up a three-lap shoot-out for the win. When the green flag dropped, Gustin powered into the first turn and laid claim to the high line while Shryock dipped down to take command of the low line in his quest for a 12th career USMTS win at Osky.
That left the door wide open for Hejna, who found a faster way around the track in the middle groove and made it a three-wide tussle for the lead as the trio exited turn 2. By the time they reached turn 3, Hejna was in control with Shryock locking down the second spot. Another caution with two laps to go gave the field a final one-mile stretch to settle the score. Hejna was too much on the restart, however, as he cruised the final distance to score his sixth USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour victory of the season and pocket the accompanying $2,000 winner’s share of the purse.
Wednesday’s Southern Iowa Challenge presented by MUSCO Lighting was the 29th USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour race at the Southern Iowa Speedway since 2002, but the career-first win at the Oskaloosa speedplant for the “A-Train”.
Tommy Myer, who started 15th, found himself sitting fifth on the final restart but made the best of the late-race caution with some crowd-pleasing moves on the final lap to overtake Shryock for the runner-up finish. VanderBeek held on for fourth wile defending Southern Iowa Speedway track champion Colt Mather rounded out the top-5 finishers. Jon Tesch came from 17th on the starting grid to finish sixth with a last-lap pass of Gustin, who wound up back where he started in seventh. Ryan Dolan grabbed eighth-place prize money ahead of Corey Dripps, who made the most of his 21st-place provisional starting spot. Kevin Blackburn’s first show with the USMTS Modifieds in 2009 resulted in a tenth-place finish.
The Central States Region points standings has VanderBeek at the top with 571 points, followed by Tesch (542), Shryock (535), Gustin (518), Hejna (496), Dolan (458), Dripps (440), Myer (433), Dereck Ramirez (420) and Dean Mahlstedt (414).
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