The three night run for the King of America Modified Nationals at the Humboldt Speedway wrapped up on Saturday, April 2nd. By far the best weather night of the three plus the significance of the night brought out a big crowd to "The Hummer" for championship night plus another full show for the B Mods.
The Modifieds were running the ladder of qualifiers as they worked their way down to the top twenty eight to start their twelve grand to win main event. With nearly one hundred Modifieds still on the grounds and only twelve qualified so far, each rung of the ladder was fought bitterly, with each race just like a feature event.
Although there were more yellows in the qualifiers than there had been in the previous two nights heat races, there was really only one big crash of the entire weekend, although the one they did have was a dilly. With twenty four cars battling for fourteen starting spot in the feature race, the B Feature was a war and while racing in very heavy traffic, Ricky Thornton Jr got into the back stretch wall and ground to a halt. With the rest of the field tightly behind him, a big crash took place that triggered the red light. Eliminated with heavy damage were Thornton Jr, Jeremy Chambers, Aaron Olson, Todd Shute, Bobby Malchus and Keith Tourville. At the end there were only fourteen cars still running and all made the main event.
Appearing with a wad of bills in his hand, Dereck Ramirez bought Thornton Jr into the main event during the auction for the final qualifying spot. He peeled off three grand for the spot and Thornton Jr drove the car of Casey Skyberg since his car was toast. "Big Daddy" Joe Duvall was in the bidding against Ramirez and he must have impressed track officials with his persistence as when the feature rolled out, the rules had been changed and the field went from twenty seven to twenty eight with Duvall also on the track. To do so Duvall had to roll out a back up car himself as he blew a motor in the B feature.
The USMTS has had their issues with communication at times over the years and occasionally has been guilty of changing things on the fly without letting everyone know what was going on. A good example was Saturday night's Modified feature. Most everyone was assuming that the main event would be one hundred laps but apparently that race distance had been under discussion earlier in the day and come race time, the announced distance was seventy two laps, not one hundred.
As far as I am concerned, seventy two laps was plenty. Any longer than that and it stopped being a race and turns more into a conservation contest to save tires, fuel etc. If I wanted to see something like that, I'd watch NASCRAP! Modified racing should be hammer to the firewall, non stop racing and not an endurance contest.
The other source of confusion was the lineup for the main event. Many were assuming that the feature would be lined up three wide and indeed, USMTS Media mogul Jeff Nunn cranked out a release on race day talking about the three wide start later that day. I imagine Jeff was surprised to find out, as the rest of us were, that the race would feature a normal two wide start.
The smart money as the green flag dropped seemed to be with Jason Hughes. Hughes, who had looked dominant all week was starting right on the pole, based on his efforts over the week, and if not him, then Rodney Sanders seemed the second best choice.
The feature itself was a very entertaining event with four different feature leaders. Hughes appeared to let Kyle Strickler take the early lead from the outside pole. The outside is frequently the best way to get the jump on starts here, and it looked like Hughes just let Strickler go and then settled into second. However, when Sanders quickly closed on Hughes, it appeared Jason picked up the pace and quickly caught Strickler. They then engaged in a three way battle for the lead and using lapped traffic, Hughes took the lead.
Sanders was then all over Hughes and after a great battle, Rodney took over the lead. Sanders extended his advantage and he appeared to be on the way to riding home for the win. Meanwhile, VanderBeek was quietly and without fanfare moving forward after starting ninth. The longer the race went, the faster his LG2 appeared to be. The track got slicker and slicker and while others, including Sanders, found their cars wanting to slide out in the corners, VanderBeek was able to drive his car straight and true right on the bottom.
A lap fifty two yellow, the first of the race, proved to be Sanders' downfall. It is possible that he might have had a big enough advantage that if the race had continued under the green, he might have been home free. However, with the field brought back to him, he became a sitting duck. VanderBeek moved from third to second and then put the heat on for the lead. Sanders knew he had to protect the bottom and things got real exciting as the two leaders raced hard for the top spot, banging wheels hard in turn three as Sanders tried to prevent the pass.
However, VanderBeek blew past on the bottom and then rapidly pulled away. A late yellow set up a three lap dash, but again Zach pulled away. A late charge by Johnny Scott saw him come from thirteenth to second while Sanders held on to third. Early leaders faded as Hughes finished seventh and Strickler dropped all the way to fourteenth. Sanders held on to third but was going backwards at the end while Jeremy Payne slipped back and then rallied to finish fourth ahead of crate running Hunter Marriott.
For VanderBeek, it was one of, it not the greatest win of his long career. Long a supporter of the USMTS and carrying one of USMTS's iconic sponsors on his car, VanderBeek's mojo for almost as long has he has been racing has been consistent driving, a clean racing operation and a no controversy kind of guy that has let his driving on the track do the talking for his team. When I told people that hadn't heard the results the next day who had won, their general response was two fold. Number one, they were surprised that neither Hugher or Sanders had won and number two, they were universally happy for VanderBeek. I concur.
The B Mods turned out forty strong to complete their weekend of racing and Missouri driver Lucas Isaaks led all the way for the win. Scott Bintz drew his first decent starting spot in three days and powered home second, edging the other Isaaks brother, Ethan. The track was "farmed" just before the B Mod feature which made it tacky and fast. The race went smoothly with only one yellow but everyone was fast due to track conditions so there was very little passing.
Thanks to all the hard working employees of the Humboldt Speedway and everyone at USMTS for a great three days of racing. Fans from all over the Midwest took advantage of the great field of cars for some great spectating and my untrained eye from the parking lot seemed to indicate that the state of Minnesota was far and away the leader in track visitors. March 23-25, 2017 was already announced as the dates of next year's race so everyone must have been satisfied with this year's race.
No comments:
Post a Comment