Champions Crowned At SIS, Mahaska Presents Season Championship Races
By: Jerry Mackey
Oskaloosa, Iowa: Wednesday night Mahaska hosted the Season Championship races at the Southern Iowa Speedway as the final Wednesday night race program of 2024 was run on the Southern Iowa Fairgrounds in Oskaloosa.
The Parker Tree Service Hobby Stocks had a lot of drama as the Bounty on point leader Dustin Griffith had risen to $850 dollars to be paid on top of the regular weekly race purse. Griffiths had won every race that he had run in 2024 in the Hobby Stock class and either him or someone else was going to claim the Bounty money. The feature took the green with Nathan Ballard charging from the outside of the third row and all the way to the top of the track as the field charged into turn one. Ballard made the move stick as he came off of turn two as the race leader down the back chute of the track. Ballard would go on to lead every lap despite a late race yellow that bunched the field up and put the second place car of Griffiths on Ballard’s bumper. Griffiths was able to show his nose to Ballard on the white flag lap but Ballard held on to win by less than a car length. The win with Bonus paid Ballard $1,250. Griffiths ran second ahead of Josh Most.
Griffiths was crowned the 2024 Champion in the Parker Tree Service Hobby Stock division.
Dustin Griffiths earned his second point championship at SIS in 2024 by topping the Mahaska Season Championship race and earning the season long point title in the Mid States Machine Stock Cars. Griffiths took the lead early and went on to record the Championship feature win ahead of a pesky Nathan Wood.
The Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmod feature win on Wednesday night went to Brayton Carter who led the flag to flag race the entire 14 laps. Carter took the checkers ahead of Kyle Harwood who with his second place finish earned the 2024 SIS Track Championship in the Sportmod division.
Matt Moore overtook early leader Bob Hayes in the Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compact main event and went on to score an impressive feature win. Colton Zaputil turned in a fine run in taking second. Nathan Moody finished outside of the top five but earned enough points to win the 2024 track championship in the Sport Compact class.
It has not been done since the 80’s but on Wednesday night, AJ Johnson completed a perfect season by winning the NAPA Store of Albia Non Wing Sprint Car Championship race. Johnson won every main event in the 2024 season and his win on Wednesday night was highly celebrated. Johnson used every inch of the smooth track and shot to the top side and took the lead on lap number three and went on to score the win ahead of Ben Woods and Alex Vandervoot.
Next up for the Southern Iowa Speedway will be Terry McCarl’s Sage Fruit Front Row Challenge which will be held on Monday, August 5thThe 410 Winged Outlaw Sprint Car Special will pay a whopping $21,000 to the winner. The Season will wrap up with the Musco Lighting Fall Challenge which will be held Friday and Saturday, October 11 & 12, with full race programs each night.
SIS Mahaska Season Championships Feature Results (top 5) 7/24/24
Parker Tree Service Hobby Stocks
29 Nathan Ballard-Marengo
10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
22M Josh Most-Red Oak
22W Nathan Wood-Sigourney
33 Luke Phillips-Wapello
Mid States Machine Stock Cars
10G Dustin Griffiths-Hedrick
52 Nathan Wood-Sigourney
19 Donnie Pearson-Oskaloosa
B17 Steve Byers-Indianola
55X Brett Raasdam-Sully
Oskaloosa Quality Rentals Sportmods
7V Brayton Carter-Oskaloosa
15K Kyle Harwood-New Sharon
29 Colton Livezey-New Sharon
28 Josh Most-Red Oak
8T Tony Johnson-Oskaloosa
Dirt N Asphalt Sport Compacts
2M Matt Moore-Ottumwa
1Z Colton Zaputil-Agency
5H Bob Hayes-New Sharon
2K Kaden Pollock-Fremont
65 Seth Meinders-Ottumwa
NAPA Store of Albia Non Wing Sprints
93 AJ Johnson-Oskaloosa
11B Ben Woods-Newton
5A Alex Vandervoort-Knoxville
16 Dustin Clark-Agency
17 Lance Schlicher-Fairfield
