The Deer Creek Speedway was not my original plan of attack for Wednesday, August 10th but I consider myself fortunate that when my planned race for that night was rained out, I had such a solid event to fall back on to.
Having seen the MLRA Late Models race two straight nights in Iowa, the plan was to do something just a little bit different on Wednesday but the weather had other ideas for me. Fortunately, the rains missed the Deer Creek track and southern Minnesota and not having been to Deer Creek yet this year, things worked out swimmingly without having to do just that.
So, along with a fifty lap, five thousand to win MLRA event, I would also get to see USRA sanctioned B Mods and for the first time in 2016, the Stock Cars would make an appearance at Deer Creek.
The car count in the Late Models continues to dwindle as the week moves on but fortunately for the MLRA, their foray into Nebraska this weekend will be met by a bunch of Husker Late Models that will pump the field back up.
That's not to say that things were all bad at Deer Creek as a number of interesting visitors helped make the field, although somewhat smaller, just as strong as it had been earlier in the week before some started to evacuate.
Young charger Jordan Yaggy was added to the field Wednesday along with his mentor Lance Matthees, both sporting new XR-1 Rockets with only a handful of shows on each. Local driver Nick Herrick had his car on hand while Tommy Weder from Oklahoma took advantage of the opportunity to race at Deer Creek before heading to Nebraska. A powerful two car team of Jimmy Mars and Rodney Sanders was also added to the grid. Sanders was a late addition when his USMTS race got rained out for Wednesday(that's where I was headed too) and he took advantage to jump in one of Mars' extra cars. All told, forty different Late Models participated in the three day run through Iowa and southern Minnesota with eleven drivers making all three nights.
Winner Stovall went to a second car for Deer Creek with two tough nights on his other car, he opted to give it the night off. Dalton Maassen, who tagged along with J.C. Wyman and ran the IMCA co-features in Iowa, originally wasn't going to race at Deer Creek. However, he had some second thoughts, and perhaps because it wasn't a full field, he changed his mind and entered the event. He stayed out of the way with his unde rpowered car and ultimately finished nineteenth which, if nothing else, helped pay the fuel bill back to Nebraska.
Things were about the polar opposite in terms of track conditions for Wednesday night's show and I guarantee you that there was probably not a driver that wasn't happy to see the smooth and slick surface presented to them at Deer Creek. While they didn't come right out and say so, because they probably would like to return to Iowa racing at some point, most were darn tired of the "hammer down" tracks presented to them the last couple of nights and were looking for something that would be easier on their equipment.
And the feature turned out to be a good one. Instead of multiple stoppages, the forty lap main went nonstop and it featured a good three car battle for most of the main event. Cars were able to move around the track and motors had the opportunity to breathe instead of being buried to the firewall at all times.
Mars and Stovall had a good battle for the top spot until Stovall prevailed and later in the race, Ryan Gustin picked up the pace and he was breathing down Stovall's neck at the end. I think if it would have been a fifty lapper, the finish would have been different as Gustin was just searching for a road past when he ran out of laps.
Yaggy had one of his finest runs as he fought off a challenge from the last two night's winner Chris Simpson and was then challenging Mars for third as the race ended. With all the laps and success he's had at this track, I was disappointed in the poor performance by Terry Phillips who hung out near the back of the pack and finished fifteenth.
It was the perfect storm for the Deer Creek Speedway as the drivers were tired of "hammer down"conditions and DCS served them up just what they were looking for in a race track and because of that, praised was literally heaped on the track for the conditions they provided.
The B Mods and Stock Cars also added to the show in their own way. While the B Mods had a little trouble getting laps in early, they settled down and then put on a good show of racing. There was a lot of side by side action and I was amazed by the performance of thirteen year old Mike Chisholm who started on the pole and battled wheel to wheel for many laps with Ben Moudry for the lead. Later, Dustin Kruse, who tows weekly to Deer Creek all the way from Brandon South Dakota, got past and earned his first career win at DCS.
I'm definitely not a strong fan of the young drivers we are seeing these days, but Chisholm showed me something as he fought his way to a second place finish and announcer Todd Narveson pointed out that Chisholm has had several top fives this year. Perhaps it's just that I'm envious as I think back on my youth and know like hell that I couldn't have done what he did when I was thirteen! Also in the field was Jayden Larson who Narveson said was twelve. Now I know that Larson has been racing for at least three years and possibly longer so just how old was he when he started?
The Stock Cars did what they do best and that is run two and three wide while not bringing out a bunch of yellow flags. They had only one slow down in their main while Mitch Hovden came from the fourth row to pass Kevin Donlin for the win. Thirteen of the sixteen starters were still racing at the end.
Seen in the pits Wednesday was Jerry Ingvalson from Blooming Prairie Minnesota who was one half of the original group that got the Gopher 50 started back at the Steele County Fairgrounds in Owatonna. That race has now migrated to Deer Creek and while I didn't see it this year, I'm told that tonight's race was a much more entertaining event. Jerry has helped out a lot of Modified drivers over the years but when there is a Late Model race around, he'll be there as that is where his heart truly is.
Because the fields of cars in any of the three classes weren't huge and because they didn't take too long a break and because they didn't need and B features and because the drivers for the most part avoided the yellow flags in the feature, the whole show was done shortly after 9 pm which was great. A large portion of the crowd took advantage of that to head for the pits afterward.
The only "downer" of the night was the crowd size. While the crowds were pretty good in Iowa both nights, the crowd was much on the small side at Deer Creek. If they were running Modifieds, it would probably have been a different story as the fans from southern Minnesota are really very heavy into the Mods and trying to sell a Late Model show , especially a mid week one, is a tough nut to crack. And that's too bad, as this was a very good all around show with the support classes doing their part to add, not take away, from the show.
In an odd set up circumstances, there were as many big rigs parked in the camping area as there were in the pits Wednesday. With the USMTS show rained out early, many of those drivers steered their rigs over to Deer Creek where they hung out Wednesday.
Thanks to Cole and Randy Queensland and the rest of the family for taking care of me when I showed up unannounced. It was also good to hear Todd Narveson back on the mic as he is definitely one of the best around.
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