Having finally returned home from cool Arizona to brutally cold northern Wisconsin, here is the wrap up on the final weekend of racing at the Wild West Shootout at U.S.A. Raceway in Tucson.
This year's version of the WWS was certainly not short on story lines, with tons of things happening both on and off the track that spiced up the action. However, to be honest, the racing action here never needs any extra drama as the racing is more than good enough itself to carry its own water.
Among the biggest head liner grabbers were the Clanton-Shaw brou ha on Saturday, the incessant whining that came from some of the sports biggest stars and of course, the huge announcement that came on Sunday that the event would be moved to a different location for 2017. We'll get to all these things in just a minute, but first, a review of the last two days of racing is in order.
Darrell Lanigan was dominant in the Late Model division on Saturday while Ronnie Lee Hollingsworth finally was able to make some noise with a second place finish. Jonathan Davenport ran third while Iowa's Chris Simpson had another strong and consistent run. It's funny that despite all the gnashing of teeth about the format (i.e. passing points), more often than not the cream still rises to the top, it's just that instead of starting in front and cruising along, they actually have to pass some other cars to get to the front. What a novel idea!
For the very few times that Jason Krohn races a Late Model, he is really fast and if he focused more on his fendered car, I'd say the sky could be the limit for him. And he's one that doesn't complain about the format as he's used to having to qualify by racing hard in his heat race with his Modified.
Todd Shute was one mighty happy driver on Saturday and he certainly had every right to be so. One doesn't often pass both Rodney Sanders and Ryan Gustin back to back to win a feature race and that's exactly what Shute did. And as he noted, to be so strong in a form of the Modified racing that he has little experience in makes the achievement even that much more impressive. The most dominant car in the Modified class, driven by Cade Dillard, was not on hand for the last weekend of the event as he headed back to Louisiana after hammering the wall on Friday night.
Local driver Brandon Farrington found himself in victory circle on Saturday after recovering from an awful earlier portion of the week where he badly wrecked his car and spent a lot of time putting it back together to complete the week. Minnesota driver Chad Olsen had his best run in the X Mods with a second place finish. He and his crew have been working tirelessly all week, as Chad has been running cars in both Modified classes and has been treated with plenty of bad luck earlier in the week.
Of course, the main topic of conversation on Saturday was the run-in between Shane Clanton and Don Shaw as they dueled for the lead in the final corner of a Late Model heat race. In my eyes, Clanton picked on the wrong guy to try an intimidation move on to gain one more position as they raced to the checkered flag. A well executed "slide job" is among the most thrilling moves in all of dirt track racing, but also one of the riskiest. If a driver tries such a maneuver and doesn't have the driver he's trying to pass cleared, than I think he leaves himself wide open for whatever the the other driver chooses to do. Just like the move Davenport pulled on Ward on Friday, the "stars" are assuming the other drivers are just going to lay over and let the big name driver pull what ever they want.
Well, I know Don Shaw quite well and he is not one to be intimidated by anyone. Plus, unlike some drivers, he's got a big enough racing budget to be willing to stick his nose in where some others might not. And to top off things, He had not been having a good week, with lots of bad luck of his own as he went into this series with plenty of high hopes and strong equipment.
So, when Clanton made his move, Shaw stood his ground and the result was a wild wreck. And then for Clanton to storm out of his car and blame it on the passing points format was really lame, a tepid excuse that absolutely no one in the crowd bought in to. But he had to find something to blame the wreck on as, after all, it couldn't have possibly been his fault!
Veteran reporter Dustin Jarrett also used pretty poor judgement in my opinion, unless of course, he was actually looking for just the reaction he got! Nevertheless, a little restraint to give the drivers some time to cool off might have been in order.
Sunday, the six race series wrapped up with the biggest money on the line in all classes, including eleven grand to win the Late Model feature, the most ever offered for a WWS event.
In the Late Models, Davenport showed just how strong he continues to be as the new season starts. No one knows if his car was running under the newly mandated rules or was still in 2015 mode, but he was clearly the fastest car all week. A couple of times he wasn't dominant enough to catch other fast cars and on night he shot himself in the foot by not following some basic racing rules like going to the scales but in the end, the big money went to him.
However, in my mind, the biggest story in the Late Models was the tremendous run by Ricky Thornton Jr to finish second in a car that he hadn't ever even sat in until Wednesday night! He did a great job in a car that couldn't even make the show opening weekend and he was the only driver to be close to Davenport at the end. Thornton Jr should be called the magic man as he restored to life two race cars over the course of the week that weren't going anywhere. And as impressive as his run in J.R. Haley's Late Model run was, I was even more impressed that he could take a Modified that normally runs in the back of the pack and make it a second place finishing car was nothing short of a miracle.
The other two feature winners were both most deserving after enduring really rocky weeks. Jake Gallardo and father Fito had nothing but bad luck all week with a ton of mechanical issues and motor breakdowns in their Modifieds but finally on Sunday Jake was able to keep his car running for twenty five laps as he fought off a strong challenge from Stormy Scott, who also had a trying week, for his first win of 2016.
Donovan Flores had to take his X Mod back to Las Cruces and put it back together after a grinding opening night crash against the wall last Saturday. Then again on Saturday he found himself against the concrete in the main once again but on Sunday things finally came together as he held off Farrington and Jimmy Ray for his first win of the week.
Points were tallied for the six shows and the point champions received bonuses. Davenport was the run away winner in the Late Models while Shute's consistent runs earned him the Modified title. Grant Southworth, having probably the best racing week of his career, won his first WWS feature in his first appearance here in the desert and consistent runs allowed him to edge Ron Schreiner as they had to go to the third tie breaker to settle the issue as they both were tied in points and only one point ahead of Tyler Peterson.
Little did we know that the Late Models would end up being a battle between the World of Outlaws point champ and the Lucas Oil point champ. However, the battle I'm talking about was not the one for the win but the contest to see which would be known as the biggest whiner of the week! It may have been a tie actually, as both went above and beyond in finding everything under the sun to complain about.
Clanton took issue about nearly everything that happened over the course of the ten days while Davenport let it be known that he would never be returning to the desert to race. I guess the thirty thousand plus dollars that he made for one week while being on vacation just wasn't good enough for him. However, I'm fairly certain that there will be plenty of other drivers willing to race for the money next year if he doesn't show up.
The crowds were excellent the last two days of racing and were among the biggest that I can recall ever seeing for this event as I continue to see more and more fans from the Midwest that are making this a racing destination trip each year. Car counts were up every day of the series in both the Late Models and Modifieds from last year while the X Mod car count was pretty much in line with 2015.
I made a point of personally mentioning to co-promoter Chris Kearns what a good job he had done at the conclusion of Sunday's show. As good as the racing was and as good as the car counts were and as entertaining as the whole series was, it seemed like there was an inordinate amount of complaining by a select few that had to have made him feel a little beat down. I wanted him to know that the race fans appreciated his efforts at keeping this series alive and growing and becoming one of the premier "must see" events of the year. And despite all the lobbying of a select few, I wanted him to know that the fans in the stands paying the bills overwhelmingly support the passing points format, a format that allows for much more actual racing, allows the programs to start right on time and helps keep the racing surface from being worn out before the first green flag is dropped.
The Sunday announcement that the series will be moved next year to Arizona Speedway near Apache Junction was met by me with mixed feelings. I have found U.S.A. Raceway to be a great place to watch racing and the overall racing since I have been coming to Tucson has been very good. I have grown to like Tucson and all the things there are to do there.
However, not knowing all the behind the scenes things taking place with changes scheduled in the track ownership and promoters for 2016, it seemed that the move was inevitable with no chance of the reconciliation.
I asked Pat Doar about Arizona Speedway as he has raced there in the past and he thought it would be a good place for this series. He said the track is slightly smaller than U.S.A. Raceway and probably not as fast as it tends to slick up. However, he remembered it as a track that you could pass on and that is the most important thing. Ricky Thornton Jr. had good things to say about the track too so we will hope for the best for 2017 there. In any event, the series, which seems to be getting stronger and stronger should not be adversely affected by the move in locations. And there should be new things to explore and do as we get more familiar with the Phoenix area next year.
Thanks to promoters Kearns and Kevin Montgomery for providing what is one of the most entertaining racing weeks of the year.
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