USMTS in Oklahoma

There were at least a couple interesting options for racing this weekend across the extended Midwest. With the weather looking favorable, their fields for recent events having been impressive and at a location not having been seen before by me, my choice was to join the USMTS Modifieds in their fourth and final week of Winter Nationals racing at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore.

The SOS in located a couple miles South of the city of Ardmore, an old looking town that reminded me very much of Chanute Kansas in many ways. Get off the main street by a block or two and it looks like time might have stopped a number of decades ago.

Having not really done much investigating before I arrived at the track, I was imaging a track that was bigger than SOS turned out to be. Not that turned out to be a bad thing as the track turned out to be just the right sized and raced very well all night. I'd guess it to be between a third and three eighth mile in length, with long chutes and tight but high banked corners. (I see in National Speedway Directory that they list the track as being a three eighth mile but that might be around the very high side.) The cars really flew around the track and they were able to race side by side all night. Two grooves developed after the track was very much "hammer down" early and drivers had the choice of running right up on the edge of the track or taking a low line through the wide corners. As the evening progresses, it did slick off but the racing surface still provided a couple of lanes. Because the berm got so big early, they quickly knocked it down with the grades and while it didn't take away the outside lane like sometimes happens when the berm is removed, it removed the dangerous element of the heavy cushion.

The track has no outside wall around it, but unlike at home where it seems like tracks without walls have drivers flying off the ends all night, I recall only one instance when a driver went over the edge and that was Mike Jergens in the feature and they just raced on without him, with no yellow triggered because of it.

The track is pretty well lit with just a couple of dark spots and the pit area is huge with the rigs on hand Thursday barely scratching the available space for pitting. The sound system for the spectators was good and the only thing I could see that was missing was a scoreboard, something more and more tracks are now getting and truly, something that every track should have.

I never thought I would see another set of bleachers quite like those at the "Hummer" in Humboldt and if you've ever been to Humboldt, you know exactly what I'm talking about. However, I was wrong, as the bleachers at SOS are just like those at Humboldt. They are uniquely wide like Humboldt's, made out of the same material and just as hard to scale. However, once you get up into them, the view of the track is outstanding and you don't have to worry about the folks in front of you getting in your way. They are very steep and even from the top row, you feel like you are hovering right over the track. It's close by viewing without a doubt.

A power packed field of USMTS's best was on hand with fifty six Modifieds from thirteen different states on hand to race. Many of the drivers on hand I was seeing for the first time this year and some for the first time ever. When you race with the USMTS you better have your "big boy pants" on as these guys don't mess around. From the first green flag for hot laps until the final checkered of the night, it is high speed, intense racing action. The drivers give no quarter and ask for none in return but yet their racing is remarkably clean, with very few collisions and drivers notably giving their competitors room to race. I guess that is one of the reasons why the USMTS is so popular across the wide regions these "road warriors" roam.

One of the interesting, big news items Thursday was the news that national driving star Jimmy Owens from Tennessee would be joining the field for Thursday night action. Some might have forgotten that before Jimmy became a national driving star in the Late Models, he was a multi time champion racing UMP Modifieds and he still builds Modifieds as a side line business that is very lucrative to him, so he definitely knows his way around the cockpit of the open wheel cars.

However, with the quality of the cars on hand, earning passing points is a tough deal and Owens, who drew the back of a stacked heat, was forced to run a B feature. However, in the B, you could see that he was starting to get more comfortable in his car and he found the cushion to score a thrilling win over Randy Timms. It would have been fun to watch Owens' progress in the main, but he was an early mechanical dropout and was scored last.

Owens was brought in to drive a second Modified for Dereck Ramirez so apparently there were no hard feelings about the split between Leon Ramirez and Owens that left Jimmy scrambling to find a ride for this year's Late Model tour.

Being from the "North" country and located only about an hour and a half from the Mars Brothers shop in Menomonie, I always seem to notice the MB Customs chassis and how many more drivers seem to be getting them. Thursday night there were a bunch of different drivers from the Oklahoma-Texas area that now have gotten MB's and I continue to be amazed just how much their Modified business has boomed in the last couple of years. Seeing their cars at the track used to be rare and now they are all over the country. Among the newest to have one is Oklahoma's Randy Timms. However, after having a bright yellow car for so many years, one that was especially favored by me for its colors, he is now in a rather understated two tone blue and white car. Disappointing.

The feature race was a dandy, especially for the first twenty laps or so as the battling up front was breath taking. Drivers were sliding each other and jumping lanes so fast and often, it was hard to keep up. Eventually it seemed the top side got stronger as an early run from eleventh to second by Ramirez saw him start to fade back in the pack.

The track turned into an "elbows up", blast the high side kind of race and who else but Ryan Gustin would prevail on a track like that? There can be no better driver around when it comes to tempting fate and dancing the edge of the track than the Marshalltown Iowa driver. Seldom do you see Rodney Sanders and Jason Hughes blown past, but when both hung out too long on the low side, Gustin roared past both of them.

Cade Dillard came from thirteenth to fourth and looked very fast at the end of the race and almost without fanfare, Zach VanderBeek came from eighteenth to seventh with a steady drive on the low side.

Lucas Schott almost was the story of the night as the young Chatfield MN driver started out strong and looked like he might steal the victory. Driving a plain looking, unsponsored black #69 Hughes chassis that they put together for this weekend(he's waiting for his new car, a guess what, MB!), he took the early lead and looked strong but a couple of early yellows brought the field back to him and he eventually started to lose ground and dropped out near the end of the race.

Fans had no more than settled into their seats when the fireworks began as the first Modified heat, and first race of the night, was more than worth the price of admission alone as Johnny Scott and Kyle Strickler engaged in a fantastic battle for the lead with both coming daringly close to the other, yet I don't think they touched once during the race. It was a portent of what we were going to see all evening.

The support division for the evening deserves some "love" too. They were billed as the Limited Mods on this night and were a combination of the local class along with some visiting cars that I believe were mostly IMCA Southern Sport Mods. In any event, they ran off some entertaining races with a lack of yellow flags, something always appreciated by the support class at such events. Their feature race ran nonstop  with Bobby Ruffin edging Bo Day for the win.

The support class racing was announced by the local track announcer, Bubba Ross. Somehow I just knew that once I was South of the Mason-Dixon line that at least one of the track officials would be named "Bubba."

My first night impressions of SOS were very good with good racing and a well run show, once they got started. They did get quite a late start, nearly forty five minutes, but once they got rolling the show went off pretty much nonstop and they were done just after 10 p.m. One must remember too that USMTS has as much control of the running of the show as the local track does for this type of event.  Of course, it helped that they ran only two classes and there were a distinct lack of yellows in both classes. The crowd was small on the opening night of the three night run but not surprising considering it was a Thursday night on a cool early March night.