Fast track provides exciting night of racing at CJ Speedway  

By Jerry Mackey  

COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa (April 28, 2023) – Friday night saw the second night of racing at the CJ Speedway located on the Louisa County Fairgrounds in Columbus Junction. A beautiful day gave way to a typical cool spring evening and the motors were humming on the super-fast 4/10-mile oval.  

The Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds main event took the green with veteran racer Troy Cordes taking the lead from his outside front row starting position. Cordes built a commanding lead as the race went green to checkers. 

Defending track champion Jarrett Brown moved into second as the race neared the midway point and set out to chase down leader Cordes, who had built a commanding lead. Lapped traffic came into play late in the race and Brown was able to use traffic to reel in Cordes.

The two front runners split a slower car as the race off turn four to the checkers saw Cordes score the win by a bumper ahead of Brown. Kurt Kile ran third, ahead of Brandon Banks. 

Veteran racer Jim Redman scored the win in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car main event. Redman was able to take the top spot from Kenny O’Donnell following a restart for a grinding crash that saw the cars of Nathan Ballard, Corey Strothman and Matt Picray sustain extensive damage. Fortunately, all drivers were uninjured. 

Redman scored the win by holding off a fast-closing Dakota Simonsen at the checkers with O’Donnell finishing third. 

Dylan VanWyk scored his second consecutive Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod win of the young season at CJ by advancing to the front from a sixth row start. VanWyk was able to pass cars high and low while making a steady march to the front. 

VanWyk took the top spot from early leader Trey Rock and went on to record the feature win ahead of Carter VanDenberg and Colton Livezey.

The IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks provided an action-packed main event. Rookie Tucker Richardson led early before being overtaken on a restart by Cody Staley. The 55 of Staley took the win over perennial strong runner Randy LaMar.  

Garrett Porter led the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact main before Seth Meinders drove to the lead. Meinders went on to record the feature win ahead of Caleb Giese, who held off Shane Barnes by a matter of a couple of feet at the finish line.  

IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing will continue at the CJ Speedway on Friday, May 5 with hot laps at 7 p.m. and racing to follow.