Race Season Is Just Around the Corner

Some local race car owners and drivers spent some time on Saturday displaying and talking with fans about the upcoming racing season.

Take a look at that shiny sheet metal now, because by August it will be wrinkled, mangled, bent and fixed over and over in a quest to be the best and claim that checkered flag for their own.

Brandon Groenendyk drives a B Modified and mainly races here at the Southern Iowa Speedway. He is looking forward to his first full season of racing. His previous experience is two full nights in a modified. Brandon loves just about every part of racing, including working on the car.

Brandon’s car puts out between 350 and 400 horsepower and has a total weight, with Brandon in it, of 2500 pounds. The chassis of the car is a Skyrocket Chassis, and it is built right here in Fertile, Iowa. The motor is built by Kevin Waters. It is very apparent, when you look over the car, that there is very little in common with your daily commuter car.

Bill Gibson has been driving since 2003. He drives a Harris Chassis and he builds his own engines for his car. Unlike NASCAR, these local dirt slingers don’t have large pit crews. Gibson’s wife and one other serve as his pit crew during the race.

Gibson has won 32 A features in his career, with over 100 wins, including qualifiers, in total.

I spoke with him about the difficulty of getting sponsorship to help them get to the track week in and week out. “To go out and beat the bushes and get businesses to spend money on something right now isn’t very easy.” Gibson said.

Opening night at the Southern Iowa Speedway is May 18th.

The circle track isn’t the only racing that is getting geared up for action. Eddyville Raceway Park begins action on May 7th.