The third night of the event at Southern Oklahoma Speedway and the wrap up of Winter Speedweeks found the same driver in victory lane that had prevailed on Friday night. Once again it was Rodney Sanders getting to the front early, cruising for awhile before having to fight off a challenge and then ultimately pulling away again for another win.
The evening began with some trepidation for USMTS officials as well as the racers themselves. On Friday night the track locked down hard and quickly in the last half of the feature event for the Modifieds. No one seemed to see it coming and most were surprised that it happened so quickly and so dramatically. The end result was a lot of totally worn out right rear tires after the forty lapper with no more than a few laps left in any of them. With the Saturday night finale scheduled for fifty laps and it being even more sunny and hotter on Saturday, lots of people were more than a little worried.
Among the solutions taken were to make a big attempt to get more moisture into the racing surface and run the Modified feature ahead of the Limited Mods in the hopes that less laps on the track would make it hold up longer. Whether the things they did were the ticket, who knows, but the track didn't rubber up on Saturday and while the high groove ending up once again being the fast way around, there was no hint that it was a one lane race track.
For the first time all week, a "scratcher" was used to dig up the surface and then more water was applied. However, they waited until nearly hot lap time to do this and with it being a lengthy process, the races got a much later than advertised start. Announced to the crowd as a 6 p.m. start but told to the pit folk as being 6:30 p.m., the first race didn't hit the track until almost an hour after that. With the first two nights having small crowds in attendance, it was unfortunate that on Saturday when a big throng was on hand that they made everyone sit around for an extended time before they started. However, with the final checkered flag still waving before 10:30 p.m., the late start fortunately became a non factor overall.
The biggest field of cars for the week was on hand in all three classes with the Modifieds fielding fifty eight cars for their finale. The intensity level seemed to have gone up just as the purse did each night. It wasn't long before USMTS regulars Austin Arneson and Jesse Sobbing got into it in a heat race when Sobbing unceremoniously "dumped" Arneson right on the front chute. Both had to then qualify through B features, that was, after they separated them when a "ruckus" broke out as both returned to their pit stalls. Apparently it wasn't bad enough to park them for the night though, and Sobbing actually passed a large number of cars in the main, coming from twenty fifth to seventh.
There were several drivers who qualifies for hard luck awards. Todd Shute won a heat race but then was disqualified for running an incorrect "chip" in his motor and he had to battle through a B feature. Lance Town was leading a heat race when his motor went "South" and he had to go to a back up car for a B feature and wasn't able to make the show.
Then there was Paul Jones. The driver came all the way from Casper Wyoming to race on Friday, but just as he rolled on to the track for his heat, he had issues and pulled off, not to turn a lap in competition the rest of the night. And to make matters worse, his problems were so severe he didn't even return to the track on Saturday.
Sanders showed superiority right from the git-go in the main event. Starting in the third row, he weaved inside and out to pass cars and move into second behind Kyle Strickler. It took him awhile to make the bottom work enough to pass Strickler but after he did, he was able to pull away.
However, much like Friday, the low side started to slow down and Jason Hughes was reeling him in at a rapid rate when Rodney made the decision to get back up on the side. And much like Friday, he didn't seem to be the fastest car on the top, but he had the ultimately important lead spot, and he just needed to protect it.
Hughes was seemingly the fastest but when he went for broke and tried to pull a big slider on Sanders in turn one, he went too high, hit the wall and nearly launched himself off the track. Making a great save, Hughes went from the aggressor to the protector though, and the rest of the race he spent fighting off Cade Dilland and Johnny Scott, rather than challenging Sanders. Only two yellow flags slowed the fifty lap finale and only eleven cars were on the lead lap at the end.
Even with their biggest field of the week, the Limited Mods achieved the nearly impossible as they ran off their third straight feature race nonstop! They deserved much congratulations for their fine work as did the track starter, who laid down the law early that if you spun or slowed, you need to get going again. There were enough instances during the week of drivers spinning and moving on a regular basis that I was beginning to think I was at Boone!
Curtis Allen, who had challenged for a win in the two previous shows, used the high side to score a dominant victory. And in the Hobby Stocks it was Bo Day who showed that whether there were two people in the race car or one, he was tough to beat. By the way, for the second straight night he ran solo.
The USMTS has a new traveling announcer as Lon Oelke and USMTS have parted ways. The new announcer never did introduce himself and I never did run into him to say hello but I was told he previously announced at the Salina Highbanks Speedway. He was very informative and his voice could be clearly heard through the p.a. system. However, he was all business as his announcing style was very much different from that of Oelke.
Thanks go out to track owners John and Nicki Webb for their hard work during this three day run as well as all their staff workers. A multi day show like this is a huge undertaking and they seemed to have things under control in all aspects of the show. My first time ever at SOS was a very positive experience and I certainly wouldn't hesitate about making a return trip.
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