Round two of the qualifying events for the King of America Modified Nationals took place on Friday night, April 1st at the Humboldt Speedway. Let's be clear here, the only April Fools Day joke that took place on this night was the weather, and that was no joke at all. A brutally strong wind out of the Northwest made the conditions very miserable and I must admit that I was surprised that as many people showed up as did. It was no where near what kind of crowd that they need to make this event a financial success, but when you consider that they are just running heat races for the second straight night with the exception of the B Mods that run a full program, it is surprising how many people do attend the first two nights.
Most of the people from out of town are here to see the Modifieds, and when their part of the program is completed, most of them scramble off to their vehicles in the parking lot and then off to some warmth, leaving only the diehards to hand around for the B Mod feature. But at least they do come.
The Modifieds participated in another two rounds of nine heats per round with about a dozen cars in each race. Very important to earning their qualifying positions for Saturday night's big race, each heat is treated more like a main event and the racing is intense. Except for some track prep after the first round of qualifying, we saw solid non stop racing right from 7:30 p.m. until the last checkered flew at about 11:15 p.m. I guess is I was required to muster up one criticism for this event, it would be the late starting times that have been scheduled. A 7:30 p.m start of Thursday seemed just a bit late and with most of the drivers and fans on the grounds milling around the majority of the day, another 7:30 p.m start seemed unnecessarily late, especially with the weather being so cold. Even the Saturday night finale won't start until 7 p.m. and again, that could easily be moved up at least an hour and not cause problems. But, let's face it. We're nit picking. Any race that draws over one hundred Modifieds and forty B Mods is on pretty solid ground.
Four less Modifieds were on hand Friday due to some mechanical issues and among the missing were the two cars that flipped on Thursday night while the B Mods actually picked up a couple more entrees probably due to the fact that the winners share went up to a grand Friday.
When all the math was done and the numbers calculated after all four sets of nine heat races were completed, it was absolutely no surprise at all to find that Jason Hughes will start on the pole for the three wide race to the twelve grand winners purse on Saturday night. Hughes has been dominant all week and historically runs very well on this track. The only kicker for him may be that he might not want to start on the inside pole for the three wide start as often here the outside line is the way to go at the start into turn one. However, I'm sure that Hughes will handle the situation just fine. The biggest trick will be to get the race off to a clean start with the three wide start so that they can thin out and truly start racing.
Hughes will have a couple of upstarts to the USMTS beside him in the form of Kyle Strickler and Hunter Marriott, two drivers both capable of pulling off the tall upset. The second row will consist of Jeremy Payne, Rodney Sanders and Brady Gerdes. Cudos to Gerdes for running so strong as he seldom gets to run open motor shows, being a strong competitor in WISSOTA's Minnesota region with his spec engine. We understand that William Heath, one of the two flippers on Friday night, was seeking permission from track officials to punch out Sanders's lights after their front stretch tangle. A little hard to follow was Heath's logic in that one, since he started two rows ahead of Sanders and on the outside lane also!
Others to gain access to the feature race Saturday were Cade Dillard, Jason Cummins, Zack VanderBeek, Travis Saurer, Darron Fuqua and Stormy Scott. Special cudos also to Saurer, who is not driving his normal ride but instead behind the wheel of Scott Bintz's MB Custom for only the second time.
The B Mods wrapped up the night with their twenty lap main, worth $1,500 to the winner. It wasn't as exciting a race as Thursday night with Steve Muilenburg starting on the pole and leading all the way in the nonstop main. Last night's winner Shawn Strong and Kris Jackson were both coming hard at the end and another five laps might have changed the outcome. However, it was a good win for one of Missouri's "good old boys", a driver that I have seen, along with others in his family, racing for as long as I can remember at southern Missouri tracks along with at adjacent states. With a slight quiver in his voice, in victory lane he informed the crowd that he had lost his wife over the off season.
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