Auto racing: Down to the wire at Southern Iowa Speedway
Jul. 28—OSKALOOSA — It's not the first time Jason McDanel and Dustin Griffiths have battled each other with a track championship coming down to the wire.
"We had a battle like this a couple years ago at the Eldon Raceway," McDanel recalled. "We ended up winning down there.
"I think he might have gotten me on this one. We'll have to see how the points shake out."
As it turned out, McDanel edged Griffiths again on Wednesday night at the Southern Iowa Speedway. In the closest points battle of the five divisions, McDanel did just enough to hold off Griffiths by a single point finishing in third just one spot behind Griffiths doing enough to hold on to what had been a two-point lead heading into the decisive Mid States Machine Stock Car race.
"We've been racing each for 20 years, probably as long as both of us have been racing," McDanel said. "I just looked at it like another night of racing. We haven't had the best of finishes. We've had some bad luck, so whatever happened happened."
Griffiths did not go home to Hedrick empty-handed, however. In the final race of the night, Griffiths locked up his first stock car season title winning the Parker Tree Service Hobby Stock main event sailing off from the front row and never looking back racing away both after the first lap and after a caution on the fifth lap to score the decisive win.
"You always try to go out there and give it your best every night. If you don't that's how you get beat," Griffiths said. "I'm comfortable with how the car drives. I know can count on it to be consistent lap after lap. I know the limit I can push it to. That makes it easier to go out there, run my race and not worry who's behind me."
Well behind Griffiths was a hard-charging Rick VanDusseldorp, who moved up from a starting sixth position to finish second after the 14-lap feature edging Centerville native Keegan Ewoldt. For Griffiths, who has won multiple track season championships, winning the Hobby Stock title at SIS meant even more.
"I always wanted to move up to a Hobby Stock. My dad and I finally did it about eight years ago," Griffiths said. "We knew nothing about it when we started out. With the help of some people, we slowly got faster each year. We're going to be getting out a brand new car here pretty soon. I think it's going to be pretty good. I'm looking forward to capturing more wins with it and, hopefully, more track championships."
Griffiths nearly brought home two SIS season championships, moving past McDanel in the feature of the Mid-States Machine Stock Car division putting himself in position to overtake the Eldon native. While Nathan Wood took the feature race win in convincing fashion, the real drama was still to come as McDanel had to remain right behind Griffiths to avoid potentially losing out on the chase for the season points title.
"You just go out there to try and race, try to pass the guys in front of you and try to stay in front of guy right behind you," McDanel said. "Dustin and I are from the same area. We always seem to find ourselves racing against each other somewhere.
"I don't know if we've been that consistent, but this is the way it played out. Everyone's had their struggles. It hasn't been a bad season. It's just like anything. It's kind of like a roller coaster. There have been ups and downs, goods and bads."
The tightest battle in points entering the night was the Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmods with New Sharon native Colton Livezey and Montezuma native Maguire DeJong tied with 390 points apiece. DeJong, however, was unable to race on Wednesday leaving the championship in the hands of Livezey by simply running in the feature race.
Livezey ultimately claimed all 40 points for winning the feature race. After moving back up from third place early in the 14-lap final run moving into second halfway through the race before overtaking Kyle Harwood with three laps left to officially earn his first SIS season title.
"It takes a lot of perseverance and courage to win a championship here," Livezey said. "Things aren't always going to be easy the whole year. You just have to keep digging for every point you can get because you never know what might happen."
Garrett Porter became the youngest season champion at SIS in 2023 as the 17-year-old Libertyville native won the Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compact season championship. Porter led the main event on Wednesday flag to flag, taking the main event win over Tyler Haring and Bob Hayes.
"When you've been battling stuff all year, it's really nice to get over the hump," Porter said. "I've been racing for a couple years now. You just have to hope you that you do your best and have better luck than everyone else."
Ben Woods took the lead from Doug Sylvester late in the Clow Valve Company Non-Wing Sprint Car main and went on to take the win in the season championship main event. Woods had a great season at the Southern Iowa Speedway in earning the season-long points battle. Sylvester ran second ahead of Terry Doud.
Terry and Lori McCarl's Sage Fruit Front Row Challenge will be held at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Monday, Aug. 7. The 410 Outlaw Sprint Car race will pay a whopping $21,000 to win, in addition the 305 Sprints will race for $1,000 to win.
The stock cars will return in October as the Southern Iowa Speedway will host the Musco Lighting Fall Challenge with two full shows of racing competition being held Friday and Saturday, Oct. 13-14.
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
