By Jerry Mackey
COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa (Apr. 18, 2025) — Logan Anderson made the move this year to the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified class after racing several seasons in the Karl Chevrolet IMCA Northern SportMod division and he put his finely tuned Performer Chassis in victory lane on opening night at CJ Speedway. Anderson proved to be the class of the strong field in taking the win over some very well-established veterans at the Louisa County Fairgrounds facility.
Anderson took advantage of the pole position draw and beat Troy Cordes to turn one on the opening lap and Anderson went on to lead the feature green to checkers for his second score of the season in the Razor Chassis North Central Region. He won the season opener at 34 Raceway last Saturday night.
Veteran IMCA Modified drivers Cordes, and Kurt Kile raced hard for the runner up spot with Cordes crossing the stripe in second ahead of Kile.
The Sunoco IMCA Stock Cars proved that once again the CJ Speedway is going to be home to great Stock Car racing. A very stout field of 20 drivers took the green with Curtis Kline leading the early laps. Keegan Wells advanced to the front quickly from his third row start and led a few laps before eighth starting John Oliver Jr. and Dustin Griffiths joined the lead group.
The race was red flagged after Austin Kemper jumped over the levee in turn one. Kemper was unharmed and the car appeared to have minimal damage. On the restart, Griffiths led the remaining laps in scoring the opening night win, his first of 2025 in the EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region, ahead of Oliver and Wells.
The Karl Chevrolet IMCA Northern SportMod feature belonged to the “Lil Speedster”, Dylan VanWyk of Oskaloosa. Van Wyk has scored many wins the last few seasons at the CJ Speedway and the opening night win proved that he will be the man to beat in the tough SportMod class. He visited victory lane for the third occasion this year after sweeping the Southern Iowa Frostout at Bloomfield late last month.
Colton Livezey ran a strong second but was unable to mount a serious challenge on the No. 117 of VanWyk. Levi Gaunt ran a very strong race in taking third. Johnny Williams rode out a nasty flip as he shot up the levee on the back chute, his car received a considerable amount of damage but Williams was unhurt.
Nathan “Nitro” Ballard took advantage of a great draw and led the Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock feature flag to flag to win his first race of the season in the B&B Racing Chassis Northern Region. The draw put Ballard on the front row and the No. 29N was never seriously challenged in the main event.
Corey Van Der Wilt advanced from the twelfth position to take second at the checkered flag ahead of Tucker Richardson. The battle for second was a good one all race long as the second through fourth finishers raced in a pack the majority of the main event.
