If there was ever a case of me perhaps biting off more than I could chew, the weekend of March 10-12 could be the prime example of such foolishness. First of all, I need to apologize to my faithful readers(both of you) for being so slow with this report. For while this weekend of racing produced almost more race cars than imaginable, spare time and sleep were in short supply and when I got called in to work on Monday, my chances of preparing a report that was anywhere near being done in a timely manner went out the window.
As I have discovered in the relatively short time that I have been presenting my racing thoughts to you and sharing my travels, I have found that a blog has much in the way of advantages over the columns that appeared in the various race papers. For one thing, I don't have to count words like I did when I was strictly monitored by Hawkeye. I also have a little more flexibility to cover what I think is important at the track. The big bonus is the timeliness that a blog can bring as opposed to the papers when by the time people got to read a column, it was old news. However, if one doesn't do their blog within a reasonable time limit, the oldness of it is again apparent. So in the future I will attempt to maintain my self imposed regulation of getting this blog out within twenty four hours at the latest and not make it old news once again.
The first night of my three night excursion started on Thursday, March 10th with a visit to the "Hummer"; the Humboldt Speedway in Kansas. One the schedule was their second annual B Mod Nationals, a race that in its first year last year was a smash hit and was quickly put on their schedule for a repeat performance for 2016. Humboldt Speedway has a great reputation as being a smooth and racy track and the Whitworth family that runs the track are on good terms with the drivers as promoters that care about their drivers and are constantly working to make things better for the racers and continuing to upgrade their facility. For that reason, they never seem to have trouble drawing cars to their track for specials and while other tracks have tried to jump on the band wagon and schedule mega specials for the B Mods or Midwest Mods or Sport Mods(whatever you prefer to call them), many of them have fizzled due to lack of cars. That hasn't been a problem at Humboldt and this year one hundred and twenty seven B Mods from literally, all over the place were on hand for night one. Along with the B Mods, USRA Mods were running a full program and for a Thursday race paying only $750 to win, a great field of forty two of them were on hand.
Speaking of improvements, the latest addition to the facilities at Humboldt was a new catwalk for the pit goers that extended diagonally from turn four toward the front straightaway grandstands and ran over the top of the pit exit in turn four. Much like those at Boone and Beatrice, it was set up so that the pit personal could climb up in it and get a great view of the racing. We often forget that at many tracks the people that pay the most to get in, the pit crowd, get treated with the worst grandstands at the tracks, often no decent bathroom facilities and track lights that often shine right in their eyes.
At this point, I must take a moment to honk my horn for the drivers from my WISSOTA area that were on hand. The drivers from the Northern tier have always been known to travel well, whether it was to Arizona in January, Florida in February or Kansas and Missouri in March. Once again they more than held up their end of the deal, as I counted forty three racers from the WISSOTA area on hand. Imagine that, over a third of the B Mod field pulled down from WISSOTA county and we're talking a long distance here as they came from central and northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and South and North Dakota along with one Canadian entrant. The chance to race for big money, rules that seem to balance the three big sanctioning bodies that send cars to this event along with the chance to race before the northern season open up are all great calling cards and each year, more and more drivers take advantage of these early season specials. Walking through the pits, I felt like I might have been at some local track as I knew so many of the racers on hand.
Under the format used for the B Mod three day show, the first two race nights featured just double heat races for the class, with the total points accumulated setting the fields for championship night on Saturday. However, with each heat being of utmost importance, they were all like mini features and the racing was intense.
The only true feature race I saw on Thursday was the Modified feature but that was a dandy race that featured a great three car battle for the top spot. Missouri's Terry Schultz led for much of the race but he was hounded by North Dakota's Ryan Mikkelson and area racer Darren Fuqua. However, charging up on the outside, the eventual winner was former Iowa and now North Dakota racer Mike Hansen. While I knew that several racers were running crate motors in the Modifieds, it wasn't until after the main event that I learned that Hansen was also running a crate motor in his car. Somehow for me, that news was depressing. While I recognize that crate motors more than have their place in racing and it seems more and more likely that they are here for good, I still appreciate the open motored cars and the distinctive sound that they make. I felt that if there was any safe place in Modified racing for the open motors, it was with the USRA and USMTS but now that appears to be an incorrect assumption too. I guess I must just resign myself to the fact that racing motors and motor builders will soon be a thing from the past and that pickup truck motors will soon rule the short track racing world.
While I opted not to stick around for the rest of the weekend, it turned out to be a glorious one for the northern cars as Sketter Estey from Minnesota won the big feature on Saturday night and the $7,500 top prize. Because they had more than one hundred cars, two non qualifier features were run on Saturday too and both of those races saw northern drivers in Michael Truscott from Wisconsin and Jason VandeKamp from Minnesota win.
It was a late night at Humboldt with thirty five races on the program. The one thing that might be done in the future to help expedite things a little would be to consider a one spin rule. I saw this used later on in my travels this weekend and if not for that rule, they might still be racing in Nebraska on Monday!
Thanks to everyone at Humboldt and to host Ryan Whitworth for his help. I expect to return to "The Hummer" for some more Modified racing yet this Spring.
After a short nap(and that was about all there was time for) I was off again, this time heading north to another colossus event across the border in Nebraska. It was time once again for the Beatrice Speedway Spring Nationals, part twenty three. My gosh, it doesn't seem like it could be that many years as I was one that was at part one of this event and while I haven't been to all the Spring Nationals, I've been to a goodly number of them. This is one race that just seems to be getting bigger and bigger every year and particularly, the last few years seems to have really shot upward in interest.
With good weather and warm temperatures in the forecast, it appeared that records could be broken and all predictions were correct in that regard as they had cars coming out of their ears. The pits area was jammed and every available inch of space at the Gage County Fairgrounds was swelled to overflowing with either race cars or campers. I spent literally hours roaming the pits, trying to ascertain who all the drivers were(I'm more than a bit anal in that regard) and taking as many pictures as I could, but it was almost overwhelming. I thought I heard somewhere that Beatrice was now the third biggest IMCA event overall, trailing only Boone and Vegas and after this weekend, I couldn't argue that fact.
There were fields of nearly sixty in both the Stock Cars and Hobbies and over seventy Sport Mods but the wowzer was the Modifieds, where my count showed one hundred and eighteen cars on hand for Friday night racing. Ten heat races with only the winner advancing made for some incredible competition and the other classes found equally tough fields to crack. The field of cars, which numbered three hundred and three(you've got to be kidding me!) ran in a total of fifty two races on Friday night with more laps on the track than I care to count!
But for me, the most amazing statistic of the weekend was this. Despite the huge field of cars and all the hubbub of registering that huge amount of drivers and the accompanying issues and running off hot laps etc., the first heat race on Friday rolled off just seven minutes after the scheduled starting time! And despite all the laps on the track, the racing surface held up very well under the strain, as I might say that Humboldt did also the night before. The crowd was huge on Friday, one of the biggest I've ever seen at Beatrice with about half of them still on hand seven hours later as Terry Phillips showed once again why he is considered one of the finest Modified drivers around as well as being a much accomplished Late Model driver.
It rained for a couple of hours near the Midday on Saturday and while it never seemed to really threaten the racing that night, in reality it was a Godsend as it helped the track immensely. It was the perfect kind of a rain, light and steady and one that could soak into the track. And we all know that Mother Nature can water a track better than the best track prep guy around. The only "speed bump" with the rain was that it took longer than planned to roll in the track and therefore, the racing got started about forty five minutes behind schedule. But we knew it was going to be a long night anyway so what was a few more minutes?
Not feeling they had enough cars on Friday, the Sport Compacts joined the field on Saturday and they fielded over forty of them, adding to the fun. Not many of the other drivers failed to return and the car count was up to three hundred and twenty three for Saturday with fifty nine races scheduled. Yet, even with all the racing, the track again held up and the Modified feature, for those that stuck it out, was more than a reward for our patience.
It will no doubt go down as one of the best races of the year as the Modified feature was incredible with passing and wild slide jobs and more twists and turns than a cheap novel. While the four yellow flags helped bunch the field and allow some racers to move up, one only needs to look at the starting vs. finishing positions to see that a lot happened. Winner Jay Noteboom came from fifteenth for the win, runner up Dylan Smith came from thirteenth and Phillips came from twenty third for third! Wow!
It was a dandy and what a great way to end a great weekend. The folks at Beatrice hit a home run no doubt and topping this event next year is going to be a major challenge. Every once in a while, a race turns into an event and Beatrice was certainly that this weekend.
There was talk about it getting bigger and better next year and frankly, I don't see how that is possible. While the car counts were incredible, they were also stretching the point of endurance for both the fans and the track. A solid seven hours of racing(there was absolutely no monkeying around of any kind) and 2 a.m. finishes was taxing for all. Frankly, I'm good if they can only draw this many cars next year and no more. However, the Modified field was absolutely out of sight.
My thanks go out to all the folks that were involved with running the show at Beatrice this weekend as it was first class in all regards. Special thanks go out to Toby Kruse for his help and I'd be remiss if I didn't give my biggest thanks to the ladies in the booth scoring and registering all the drivers. The Speednet lineups that they supplied me were a life saver.
Oh, and one Beatrice tradition was upheld as I made sure I had my fair share of gizzards too.
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