BLOOMFIELD, Iowa — On paper, it was a sweep for Josh Schneiderman on Monday night at the Mt. Dew Bloomfield Speedway, and technically it was.
But few who were in attendance will soon forget what they saw. A main event that saw six lead changes and three-wide battles for the lead had fans abuzz even after the checkers.
In the end, the West Burlington, Iowa native stood in victory lane and pocketed $4,200 on the night. It was Schneiderman’s 10th career win with the series and his second in Bloomfield.
Riley Goodno got the jump on Schneiderman at the outset of the 25-lap feature, with Alex Vande Voort settling into third. Colton Fisher moved up to fourth by lap two, and Tasker Phillips completed the top five by lap three.
Goodno was lapping traffic by the sixth circuit, and dicing through it high and low on the perfectly groomed three-eighths-mile oval by Mike Van Genderen.
Schneiderman slowly reeled in Goodno, passing him for the lead on lap 11. Fisher moved by Vande Voort for third at the same time. The lead trio went three-wide into turn four on lap 13, and it was Goodno who emerged as the new leader, as five cars were in a legitimate battle for the lead.
Fisher was fast on the cushion, however and he drove around Goodno to lead lap 14. It would only last two laps, as he ran into the back of the lapped car of Dustin Clark, sending Clark hard into the turn three fence, ending both of their nights.
Goodno again found himself in the lead on the restart, ahead of Schneiderman, Phillips, Vande Voort and Cam Sorrels. Ayrton Gennetten moved into the top five at that point. As Goodno rode through the middle of turns three and four, Schneiderman returned to the cushion and drove back into the lead for good on lap 17.
Vande Voort had perhaps the fastest car in the late going and while running fourth on lap 19, he slid by both Phillips and Goodno into the second position with six laps to go. Vande Voort slowly reeled in Schneiderman and was gaining on him on the last lap, when he tangled with the lapped machine of Evan Semarad, who spun, setting up a one lap dash for cash.
Schneiderman maintained his advantage to gain the top spot, ahead of Vande Voort, Goodno and Kerry Madsen.
“I told the fans after the dash that this was going to be a hell of a race,” said Schneiderman. “My hat’s off to Bloomfield Speedway. I thought after the heats it may lay some rubber, but they did what they had to do. My hat’s off to Riley. He raced me as clean as he could. I’ve always enjoyed racing with Riley. He has a good family, just like ours. (Colton Fisher’s) may have been the fastest car, but I had a bad feeling that might happen. I saw (Vande Voort) a little bit.
“With three or four to go, I smoked the turn three fence. I don’t know if I got the Jacob’s ladder, we’ll find out. After that, the car wasn’t the same. I knew I needed one good lap at the end. I put it on the fence, and if I was going to wad it up, I was going to wad it up.”
“Early on, I thought the slider line is where I needed to be,” said Vande Voort. “I started getting in the cushion a bit, and I got timid because I can get over my head up there sometimes. I haven’t won yet, so truthfully, I’m trying too hard at times. I was back to fifth or sixth at that point. The car kind of came to life the more I finessed it. Towards the end, I got a good bite on the cushion in two, and Tasker and Goodno were battling. I blew across three and four and caught them trying to ‘short slide’ each other. I thought that was the perfect opportunity to peel off to the bottom and it worked.”
“It felt like I was searching the whole race,” said Goodno. “I didn’t really know what to do after the restart on the red. I kind of felt the bottom might be taking rubber, but then obviously it wasn’t. I got passed on the top. We just weren’t as fast as them on the top. They could enter a lot harder than I could.”
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1.49, Josh Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (1) 2. 5A, Alex Vande Voort, Knoxville, IA (3) 3. 22, Riley Goodno, Knoxville, IA (2) 4. 55, Kerry Madsen, St. Mary’s, NSW, Aust. (8) 5. 50, Ayrton Gennetten, Gravois Mills, MO (12) 6. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (5) 7. 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (7) 8. 40, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (10) 9. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (9) 10. 57, Cam Sorrels, Hallsville, MO (4) 11. 28, Luke Verardi, Taylorville, IL (13) 12. 88, Riley Scott, Quincy, IL (14) 13. 99, Jake Blackhurst, Hanna City, IL (11) 14. 52D, Skyler Daly, Hallsville, MO (18) 15. 31, McCain Richards, Burlington, IA (15) 16. 71, Nathan Murders, Burlington, IA (19) 17. 59, Evan Semarad, Malcolm, NE (17) 18. 11, Colton Fisher, Mediapolis, IA (6) 19. 16, Dustin Clark, Agency, IA (16) 20. 47, Russ Hall, Altoona, IA (20).
