Mike VanGenderen was a busy promoter this week as after his successful Wednesday night event at Osky, he moved down the road about a hundred miles Southeast to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson for a special Thursday night of racing at the tricky three eighth mile at the Lee County Fairgrounds.
On tap as the special event was the first of three nights of racing for the Midwest Late Model Series(MLRA) that are making a home away from home this year in the Hawkeye State with many promoters finding them to be an attractive option as a Late Model traveling series. They generally provide a solid base of their own travelers that chase points and occasionally even attract some of the big names in the business who might happen to be in the area. And by being able to pick up some of the open motor drivers from Iowa in a chance to run close to their home areas, it produced a very good field of drivers for the event.
Also running were all the classes that normally compete at Lee County except for the Hobby Stocks, who are currently in the process of trying to marshal enough drivers to continue their weekly Friday night programs, where their car count has sunk to dangerously low levels. The attraction of running on an off night that produced some travelers for the weekly divisions plus a little extra money in the purse produced some of the best fields of the year to date in these classes also and the result was a jammed pit area with one hundred and twenty nine racers on hand.
Another item to keep an eye on also was the developments in the Lee County Late Models, a new class started here this year by Mike V that encourages the use of crate motors and other cost cutting rules. The car counts for the early season races in this class have been promising and Mike V. took some extra steps to try and encourage some of the many IMCA legal cars in this quadrant of the state to join the field. He continues to tweek the rules to try and make the two options as equal as possible on the track, and to me, this is just smart promoting. The off night plus some more adjustments to the IMCA rules package produced the hoped for effect, as a number of IMCA regulars were on hand which beefed up the field to twenty one cars, the most ever so far in the class. With some big money races coming up yet this year at Lee County for this class, there are bound to be more and more racers watching as things develop in this class.And you can bet that some of the rules makers are watching closely to see what happens with this class and if Mike V. is able to finalize a rules package that seems to bring parity to both the main options currently available, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if IMCA didn't offer a crate motor option for their Late Models next year.What happens at Lee County this year in this class will be watched across the state and the politics that may develop behind the scenes might be even more fascinating than even the racing itself.
Before the races, I ran into an old friend that used to race much in the state of Wisconsin but now lives just down the road from the Lee County Speedway. Todd Frank and son Gunner are both racing Lee County Late Models this year, both using the 604 crate option motor. Todd says that they are a little slower to take off and keeping momentum is key to this class, but he also said they don't feel bad to drive and they still race like a Late Model. Todd primarily has one so he can race with his son and keep an eye on him, as Gunner has never raced any kind of vehicle before this year. Todd also tipped that he can't stay away from the open motor cars either, as he has a new one just about one day away from completion and might even have it ready for Memphis yet this weekend. Todd lives in Iowa now but most of his business interests are still located in the Badger state, so he spends a lot of his time commuting back and forth. Perhaps he should hold off on that new Late Model and instead get himself a small plane! He certainly does know the fastest way from the Green Bay area to Southeast Iowa for sure.
Thirty seven MLRA Late Models signed in to race and even though only eleven of the top twenty in points were on hand, combined with all the Iowa racers plus travelers like Brandon Sheppard and Earl Pearson Jr on hand, it made for a most competitive and interesting field.
And of course, who could forget for his legion of fans the fact that Brian Birkhofer was in the house on Thursday also. In fact, Birkhofer looked for the longest time like his comeback would be completed on Thursday as he started on the pole and led for about the first half of the MLRA feature race. However, Sheppard, who loves to move around the race track until he finds the fast line, moved up the speedway and eventually found a fast line that led him past Birky for the lead. Once in front, he did a good job of working through some heavy traffic, passes that allowed him to maintain an edge on Pearson Jr who was debuting a new Black Diamond car for Larry Moring out of Forreston IL. A good run was also put in by Chris Simpson who started fourteenth and drove up to third at the end. Of course, after having to work and actually pass cars, Simpson let it be known that he didn't like a format that actually required passing to take place, something that MLRA has discovered that has led to much of their success but drivers still lobby to change.
It was a rough night for Missouri's Austin Siebert. He had trouble with his primary cars in a heat race and rolled out his back up car for the main event, only to have that car quit on him also and trigger the only yellow flag in the forty lap main event. With lots of green flag racing, there were only nine cars left on the lead lap at the finish.
Other winners on the program included Sam Halstead in the Crate Late Models, Cayden Carter in the Modifieds, Jim Mueller in the Stock Cars, Tony Dunker in the Sport Mods and Ronnie Kibbee in the Sport Compacts.
All classes used the draw redraw format on Thursday and it would seen that formats other that point invert can also produce plenty of passing. Four of the five support classes to the MLRA provided winners that started from at least the third row, highlighted by Carter who came from the eleventh starting position to win the Modified feature against a solid field of competitors. I guess that a racy track and the required track prep are just as, and perhaps even more so, important to the racing than the format used. As usual for when I have been at Lee County, the track was black slick from top to bottom and reminded me of racing on ice. The cars are slower than on a tacky track, but the lines to race on are numerous and there is always much changing of lines on the track and side by side racing.
The evening ended up on a wild note when a lapped car got pushed into the leaders of the Sport Compact feature as they tried to lap him and the resulting scramble saw a double flip by two of the contenders in turn two. Fortunately, there were no injuries in the crazy wreck but feelings were sky high among some of the drivers.
I know there was much discussion before the races on what the running order of events would be. Mike V. was very cognizant of the fact that it was a week night so it was not surprising that the Modified and MLRA feature events were the second and third of the night, thus allowing people to leave early if they needed to while still seeing the featured attractions of the night. Many took advantage of this and had to have been pleased that management would take their concerns to heart. After that, the crowd gradually filtered out the gates with many sticking around to see Halstead's Crate domination before hitting the road. While the show was rushed through just about as fast as humanly possible, it was still 11 p.m. before the final checkered flag waved, which is just a bit late for a week night. Likely, Mike V. did not see as many cars showing as did in some of the support classes. In a perfect world, I would have liked seeing about half as many support classes so that the show could have taken just a little more leisurely pace and still have gotten done early. However, there is also an economic reality to be considered plus drivers in all classes like being a part of a special event like this.
Besides, most are not nearly so far from home and aren't staring at a six and a half hour ride home yet before hitting the sack(a new personal record, by the way). And quibbling aside, it was an excellent night of racing but just what I would expect at a track that has become a personal favorite for many of the insiders in the world of Late Model racing.
No comments:
Post a Comment