Hot, humid and stormy continued to be the weather adjectives to describe Iowa as this week continued on. The target for racing on Thursday, July 7th was scheduled to be the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City for a visit by the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Several other options were also available to race fans in the state Thursday and the one single united factor among all of them was that rain, or the possibility of it, had all in a "scramble" mode.
At Webster City, they received a half inch of rain during the day on Wednesday and another half inch over night so when Thursday dawned, they had a wet race track and pit area to overcome. For those of you that haven't been at Webster City, you should know that the race track sits in a valley at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds and the race cars must go down a very steep hill to cross the track as they pit in the infield at Hamilton County. Over the years, some of the most entertaining moments at any race track have been those times when a sudden rain storm will hit and turn the place into a skating rink. Trying to get the big haulers back up the hill has provided comedy relief for the fans and frustration as well as a certain danger level for the race teams more than once over the years.
For this reason, the racers keep a very close eye on the weather here and are probably more skittish about entering the pits when threatening conditions exist than at any track around.
For this event, the Outlaws have partnered with Todd and Janice Staley of the USMTS to promote this race so that the burden fell on both of them. I spoke with Todd several times over the course of the day and this was a tough decision for him to make. The weather was sunny; humid but nice and it's always tough to cancel a race when the sun is shining. Shortly after noon, they dragged the pits to open them up for drying and started working on the track which didn't appear to be that wet. Complicating things was the fact that a thunderstorm watch had been issued for the local area until late in the evening and Staley was aware that this was definitely going to hurt his crowd. And the "nut" to cover this race was considerable, even with it being halved by the Outlaws.
So Todd was dragging his feet on the final decision after consulting with Tim Christman of the Outlaws. They set a time of 3 pm to make a decision and then everyone sat back to see how the track would respond and what would happen with the weather.
Well, that time came and went and still they couldn't decide what to do. The race cars were all waiting at the top of the hill, the employees were on hand and waiting to be told whether to start their jobs or not. The track was ready, just needed a last minute squirt over the top to settle the dust and the pits had dried out nicely and wouldn't be giving any hauler a problem.
The issue was, a series of thunderstorm cells had developed West of the area and seemed to be marching straight toward Hamilton County. They didn't want the haulers in the infield if it started to rain, so everyone was in a holding pattern to see what the storms would do. At this point, Staley was really starting to get nervous because now we were getting to that late afternoon time frame when people were getting ready to decide whether they should run the risk of heading to the track or not. I can tell you that at this time, the number of people on the grounds was very small indeed for such a show and it was clear that the crowd wasn't going to be what they would have hoped for. I think it was about this time when Todd started to secretly hope that it would downpour and he could send everyone home. The window to cancel due to wet grounds was long past by this time and his only hope was for the skies to let loose.
But, as I was told by a number of people, it just has had a hard time raining in Webster City this year with most rain storms splitting before they arrived in town. And such was the case again as to the amazement of many, the line of storms split and Webster City was just left with cloudy skies and no rain. By this time, they had been forced to open the pits to reduce the bottleneck in the parking lot and a few of the support class rigs were in the pits. However, zero Late Model teams had come down the hill and now it was starting to get late if they were going to start anywhere near the posted time.
Finally, at 6:08 pm, with hot laps scheduled for just over an hour away, Rick Eckert crested the hill with his burnt orange transporter and the parade down the hill to the pits began. And from then on, it was wild and crazy in the pits as they tried to park and unload the big rigs as quickly as possible with time not in their favor, as everyone still kept one eye trained on the skies.
The Outlaw field numbered twenty five cars, not very many considering they are starting a three week stretch in the Midwest where they won't be in their home districts for quite some time. The quality of the field could not be questioned but one has to wonder how the numbers are going to hold up as they swing through Minnesota over the next two weeks and then up to North Dakota. There are plenty of Late Models in those areas, but all are spec engined cars not likely to join the show just to get "whooped on" by the open motor brigade. One of these races comes Saturday in the form of the Gopher 50 at the Deer Creek Speedway. The Gopher 50 used to be one of the premier events in the Midwest when it was held in Owatonna but now it has sunk to being just another race on the Outlaw schedule and instead of a cosmopolitan field of racers from throughout the Midwest, it has turned into just another outing for the traveling Outlaws and the few locals willing to give it a shot against them. The "buzz" around this race has diminished greatly as the change from it being a midweek show to a Saturday night that was convenient to the Outlaws did much to diminish it as a special.
Staley and Christman had been in discussions earlier in the day to form a "game plan" for the night as the worst possible scenario would be a rain out part way through the program. So, even though the first race didn't hit the track, due in part to the time taken for the dreaded time trials, until 8:20 pm, they flew through the program after that. The support classes were very low in number so their part of the program didn't take long at all, and the Late Model feature would be the second main on the schedule.
The biggest surprise to me in the Late Model field was the appearance of Donny Schatz. He had an off night as the Sprint Cars of the Outlaws weren't racing until a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday at a track in western Wisconsin. He could have taken the night off but instead he chose to drive down to central Iowa and and haul his rig down there just for one night of Late Model racing. He clearly enjoys racing the Late Model and it provides him with another challenge, one that he has not fully cracked yet. Those that boo him when he races his Sprint Car, probably because he wins too often, certainly have the right to do so. But for me, I can't tell you how impressed I have been over the years to see the lengths that Schatz will go just to get the chance to race his Late Model at some far flung out of the way place. I've seen him fly back from an Outlaw show half way around the country to Fargo, and then jump into his Late Model rig and drive down the freeway to Watertown South Dakota. I've seen him fly back after winning Knoxville and then go out and race his Late Model the next night at some little bullring in Minnesota. To me, that is the definition of being a "real racer" and perhaps the Kenny Schrader of our modern times. And I think he enjoys being in the pits at a Late Model show where people aren't "fawning" all over him but give him his space and treat him like any other driver on hand. If you didn't know who he was, he wouldn't be any different than all the other drivers rushing around to get their cars ready.
The amount of rain and humidity seemed to have treated the Hamilton County Speedway well as the track was in good shape for the Late Model feature and provided a solid two lane track for racing. For the longest time it appeared that Jimmy Mars was going to win his first Outlaw show in several years. He was strong up front and fought off several challenges from Rick Eckert and Eric Wells. However, the one driver he couldn't keep behind him was Brian Shirley. Shirley worked the low side of the track while most were still pounding the cushion and eventually he made it work. Mars was still fast in turn one on the high side but the East end of the track proved his downfall as he just couldn't get through turns three and four as quick as Shirley and with only seven laps to go, Brian made the winning pass.
Two late yellows for flat tires kept the field bunched but each time Shirley was able to pull away. Wells stole second from Mars but Jimmy got back up on the wheel and retook the spot with only a couple laps left with Wells settling for third. It was an entertaining forty lap main event, especially by big track standards.
As stated earlier, the numbers in the support classes was really weak although the Stock Cars left a good taste in everyone's mouth as they finished up the night with a fine main event. Earlier, Carter VandenBerg won the B Mod feature as he made a nice move around the high side of Mike Tanner to take the lead and then held off Trevor Fecht for the win. Things got interesting on the last lap when VandenBerg nearly knocked down the turn one wall while maintaining a big lead. He reported that he lost his brakes going into turn one but he managed to keep the car off the wall and bring it home for the win, although much of his racing margin was eliminated on the final lap.
VandenBerg got a little dig in during his victory lane interview when he related that he was told that he shouldn't be at the race as his IMCA legal car would never keep up with the USRA B Mods. Perhaps more drivers should have ventured out to try such as VandenBerg as they were virtually no Webster City regulars on hand and with only nine B Mods, it was a poor turnout that resulted in just a single heat and feature.
The Stock Car field was not huge either as thirteen signed in, but as Stock Cars are often capable of doing, they still provided an excellent main event that saw the final turn settle the issue. Phil Holtz, who started on the outside pole, fended off constant challenges from a series of drivers to take the win. On the last lap, he had to fight off a severe threat from Kyle Falck and Derek Green but was able to edge them both at the line.
About the top eight cars were running in a tight pack and they swapped spots throughout the race with the exception of Holtz who always maintained the lead, tenuous that it was. It was an excellent race to wrap up the evening and most stuck around to watch it.
Despite just a few sprinkles as the Stock Cars were finishing up their second heat, the rest of the night remained dry even though some ominous clouds floated nearly and lightning lit of the sky on occasion. The crowd actually filled in quite a bit and even though it wasn't the "blockbuster" crowd that Staley had hoped for, it didn't seem like the small sized one that would send him off to the Small Business Administration either for a loan to pay the purse. As for me, I was just glad to see a race on this night.
A new scoreboard, paid for by fundraising efforts of the Hamilton County Speedway Racing Association (HCSRA) was on display and pointed out to me by Staley. However, the board was not in operation as the only thing it did was tell the current time, something probably not what the fans wanted to see on this night, although the final checkered flew by 10:30 pm. The scorers are now of the roof of the grandstand, a view I would guess as being breathtaking and and one that would take away your breath having to scale the roof to get to that location. As the highest point on the entire fairgrounds, I would, however, not like to be up there on nights such at Thursday. Now, only the announcer is exposed to the whims of nature without a roof over his head.
Thanks to the Staley's for their help on this night. Todd told me that he clearly has a soft spot in his heart for the Hamilton County Speedway as this is where it all began for him, cleaning toilets at a young age and gradually progressing up the ladder at the track. Even he probably couldn't have predicted that his life's work and living would eventually evolve around the race tracks of America.
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