Night number two of Lucas Oil Speedway's Spring Nationals was bigger all the way around than Friday night's show had been. Purses were up for all three winners and larger car counts were on hand in all three classes also. Temperatures also warmed up somewhat with the nasty wind that seems to have plaguing the entire Midwest only slightly tempered. It did change directions though and along with that change, I also changed course on which side of the track I sat on.
To avoid a hurricane wind in my face on Friday night, I sat in the main grandstand with the suites cutting the wind nicely. However, on Saturday night the wind was howling out of the Southeast, so I shifted my operations to the back chute where the large grandstand on the pit side served the same function. This in only one of the niceties that Lucas Oil Speedway features and with the sound system and lightning just as good on the back chute as the main grandstand, it really makes no difference where on sits at the track as every seat is a winner.
With the cancellation of the Saturday night World of Outlaws Late Model show at Tazwell Tennesseee due to the cold, Brian Shirley and Tyler Erb made the decision to make the over night trip back up to Missouri. While Erb had a nice top ten run after a pitched battle for position with Billy Moyer, things worked out very nicely for Shirley who continued the hot streak that he has been on of late.
Racing well in his heat, he made the front row of the main event for the Late Model and then just drove away from the field for the win. The forty five lap feature went non stop and only three cars failed to make the distance, so you know that lapped traffic was a constant for the leaders. However, Shirley navigated through the field without any trouble and he maintained a lead of nearly a straightaway throughout the event. From the first time he hit the track, his car just looks so much more stable than anyone else on the track. He rolls through the corners so effortlessly and with all kinds of forward bite, he just leaps off the corners. He's also able to maneuver either high or low to get around traffic.
All three of the top finishers all had a good story to tell Saturday. Bobby Pierce came from fifteenth to second as he put on a show for the fans. When there is a top side to race off of, Pierce is always a threat and no matter how hard he pitches his car into the corners, he always seems to somehow save the car and move on. It was revealed that the drivers were instructed to not roll in the high side of the track and to leave a berm to race off of, and it helped the racing by opening up the track even more than expected. The track was much slicker than Friday, when it bordered on being too "hammer down" and while it was still plenty fast, there was a top side Saturday that really wasn't there on the opening night.
To show how tough the Late Model field was, Jimmy Mars, who finished a strong second on Friday night didn't even make the field on Saturday after he drew to the back of a killer heat race and just couldn't pass enough cars to fight his way out of a B.
What a great night for Brantlee Gotschall! The veteran Missouri racer has been a Late Model regular for a number of years and one of those drivers that is always on hand, but never has hit pay dirt in any big races. However, Saturday night he drove himself a whale of a race, starting sixth and hanging right with the leaders for the whole race, eventually finishing third and holding off Tony Jackson Jr and Randy Timms for that spot.
Speaking of drivers that had a terrific weekend. The list would start and end with Modified driver Terry Schultz from Sedalia. Not only did he win the feature on Friday night, he came right back against an even bigger field on Saturday to repeat! And he did it the hard way, working the cushion and gaining inches each lap on leader Jason Pursley until he finally made the winning pass with just a few laps left. Again, the two groove track made the racing exciting as the drivers were able to circle the track side by side, lap after lap.
Veteran Burl Woods held off last night's winner Derek Brown to win the Street Stock feature. Interesting to me was the fact that the Street Stocks run on a ten inch "take off" asphalt tire which they buy in the neighborhood of six tires for a hundred bucks. How many support classes on dirt at other tracks pay that much for one tire! Most,I'd wager.
It was another very good night of racing and the show even moved along a little quicker than on Friday, even with more cars in the field.
The announcer sounded familiar to me but it took awhile for me to figure it out. Eventually he identified himself and it turned out to be Kevin Fletcher, who I used to run into all over the Midwest when he was the traveling announcer for "Cowboy" when he was running the MLRA.
Thanks go out to Dan Robinson and the entire staff at Lucas Oil Speedway for a top quality weekend of racing. Dan was apologetic for not getting back to me after I requested credentials at the last minute. Heck, I was pleased they would even consider them at the last minute. While many other tracks are still slogging through the opening night mud and landscaping is still weeks away, the whole facility at Wheatland looks spotless and even the grass in the infield lots like a golf course.
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