The USMTS kicked off the Northern Region with their opener on Thursday, May 12th at the Ogilvie Raceway in east central Minnesota. The track, affectionately known as the "Big O", is a three eighth mile, wide and high banked oval that has hosted the USMTS drivers a number of times over the years. I believe, however, that this is the first time that they have hosted for a midweek show so early in the season and actually got the race in. It may be the second week in May on the calendar, but in this part of the country you never know what Ma Nature might dish out.
And the weather, quite frankly, was on the crummy side for this race. Some rain had fallen on Wednesday but not enough to damage the race track. It was cloudy, gloomy and a sullen sky greeted the early arrivals and the winds picked up to a steady breeze out of the Northwest. Those sheltered by the main building on the grounds found some relief but those in the new "catbird" viewing area had no respite from the cold winds.
Despite being less than a "Chamber of Commerce" type of night, the racers were ready to go and anxious to hit the track. Forty eight USMTS cars signed in to race while an accompanying unsanctioned B Mod special brought another fifty one open wheel cars to the track.
The USMTS is not traveling with a huge number of regulars, at least during this week, but the sanctioning body was graced by the many Minnesota area Modified drivers eager and anxious to take on the travelers.
Five heats were contested in each class with passing points used to set the feature lineups in both classes. This format led to three large B features giving the drivers who didn't fare well early one last shot to make the mains.
With two provisional starters in Brent Larson and Jesse Glenz thrown in, twenty six started the main event. Johnny Scott and Dan Ebert battled in the early laps for the lead but then Hughes picked up the pace and showing the domination that he had, he drove right between the two battling for the lead on the front chute, and then drove away from Scott for the lead. He built up a strong advantage and seemed in control until Cade Dillard was able to move into second. Hughes then got hung up behind a lapped car and Dillard was able to close right up behind him and in fact, pull right up beside him. The lapped traffic finally broke in Hughes favor, and after getting a scare from Dillard, he then pulled away for a comfortable lead and ultimately, the win.
Johnny Scott fought back around Dillard to take second at the end while Stormy Scott came from thirteenth to fourth with steady Zack VanderBeek completing the top five. While the USMTS didn't bring a huge number of travelers, their regulars ruled the roost. USMTS regulars finished first through fifth, southern Minnesota drivers running USRA rules completed the next three spots while the remaining top ten cars were central Minnesota drivers but both have cars designed for this open competition. The first true local driver was Justin Oestreich who finished eleventh and interestingly, he is one of the very few Modified drivers in this region running a crate motor.
Speaking of crate motors, I've always heard it said that crates never blow and particularly spectacularly. However, Jesse Sobbing proved that statement incorrect as he grenaded his 525 crate in a spectacular manner during one of the B features. There was smoke, fire, flames and assorted metal pieces on the track after his incident.
The heavy hand of the tech shed also came down on Thursday night. Don Eischens won a heat race in the Modifieds but was disqualified while Craig Thatcher finished fourth in the same race only to be also Dairy Queened. Eischens' transgression was the wrong chip while Thatcher's problem was not reported. Both tried to requalify through a B feature but neither succeeded. By the way, Thatcher, a multi time WISSOTA national champion was coming out of a retirement as he hasn't raced since last year and was debuting a new GRT chassis.
Along with the USMTS, the B Mods had themselves a special event too. Apparently to "one up" the Modifieds, the B Mod race paid $3,001 dollars to win and $200 to start. Fifty one B Mods signed in to race with the vast majority being WISSOTA Midwest Mods as you might expect with a couple of IMCA cars and USRA cars too. Each group ran under their own rules.
There was an unusual "kicker" for this race as any driver that had raced in a class higher than Super Stocks at any point in their career, which would probably equal a Stock Car in IMCA or USRA terms, was not eligible to race in this event! I believe this was the only reason this race wasn't sanctioned with WISSOTA is that kind of restriction wouldn't be allowed by the sanctioning body.
The promoters intentions were good, as with this rule they hoped to open up the win to some driver who likely had never won a race that paid this much before. However, in reality I thought it to be a bad idea, and one that upset plenty of drivers who would have liked to race in the event. I still believe that just because someone has previous experience in a higher class, that doesn't make them a prohibitive favorite as everyone is still racing under the same set of rules.
While it's tough to put a definitive number on the drivers that couldn't race that would have been there otherwise, I'd be willing to guess that there had to have been at least twenty and at thirty five bucks a pop for a pit pass, that's a lot of money to turn your back on as a promoter. As promoters they also turned their backs on some of the drivers that have the biggest fan following locally, and that doesn't seem to be a good business decision to me either. Fortunately, my money was not on the line.
And, wouldn't you know it, the winner managed to slip in through one of the loop holes in the rules anyway. The one exception to the rule was that if you were a rookie in a higher division, you were allowed to compete. Cory Bruggeman jumped into the car normally driven by Jason VandeKamp, a car he has never driven before, and out fought Travis Schulte for the big win. However, while Bruggeman is a rookie in the Modifieds, he has already won a feature race at this very track this Spring and for my money, he shouldn't have been allowed to race either and he turned out to be the only driver racing on Thursday in both classes. Not that I have anything against Bruggeman. He has proven to be an outstanding rookie, a clean driver and seems to be a very nice individual to top it off. But I just don't believe it was fair to let him run.
There was one bad wreck in the B Mod feature when early in the event one of the leaders got turned sideways into the back stretch wall and with no where to go, many drivers piled into him and each other at high speed. At least eight cars were damaged, many severely and Mike Nichols had his bell rung but was able to walk away without needing treatment. After that, the B Mods were able to negotiate the rest of their thirty one laps feature with only one more yellow flag and sixteen of the twenty four starters took the checkered.
A decent crowd was on hand on what was much less than a perfect night for racing. One glaring issue remains at the Big O and that is to do something about their p.a. system which is one of the worst that I have heard(or more correctly, haven't heard) in quite some time. Neither track announcer R.J at the Speedway or the USMTS announcer could be heard all night. And it wasn't just deaf old me having trouble as everyone in the bleachers was commenting on how they couldn't hear the names of the drivers. And it is also surprising that they haven't gotten around to adding a scoreboard at this facility too, which is top notch in just about every thing else.
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