Saturday, November 12th was night two of the annual "Flip Flop 50" (love that name by the way), at the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis Arkansas. It was feature night for the weekend with twin twenty five lap events scheduled for the 360 Sprint Cars along with main events for the Street Stocks and Crate Late Models. The Modifieds and 600 Sprints would run another full program, just as they had on Friday night.
A couple new Streets and Late Models showed up for night number two and were allowed to tail the fields for their main events while several new Modifieds were also on hand for their second full show. Several drivers also opted not to return after damage incurred during Friday night's show.
Roo Schlafer, who was struck by a driveshaft in the leg after his Street Stock lost its drive shaft also did not return. He was limping badly after the accident on Friday night and did seek attention from the ambulance. While no mention was made of his condition, his Street Stock remained on the trailer Saturday night and a replacement driver took his seat in the Crate Late Model he was driving on Friday and tailed the field on Saturday for that main event.
A pre race announcement by USCS series announcer Wesley Overland has me making a correction on a statement I made in my last blog. Overland corrected Ray Bugg's age to seventy nine and announced that instead of retiring, Ray would indeed return for the 2017 racing season and that he may retire after he turns eighty!
One thing I noticed at RIS is that there are a large number of drivers racing in multiple divisions. While there is quite a bit of that also taking place in my home area, in many parts of the country I find that this doesn't take place much at all but there are considerable numbers of drivers at "The Ditch" racing in two classes.
One easily noticed change from Friday night was that the crowd was much bigger than Friday night's preliminary events crowd was. The large main grandstand on the front chute was nearly full and the back side grandstand, largely used by pit personnel, was pretty full also. However, it was a very late arriving and also early leaving crowd too. Many who arrived so late as to miss the preliminary events commented they weren't aware the races were starting ninety minutes earlier on Saturday. Also, the Sprint features were among the earlier features run on Saturday and the crowd, on a cool November night, was clearly a Sprint Car crowd as when they completed their part of the program, well over half of the crowd headed to the gates and the warmth of their vehicles.
As far as most of the crowd was concerned, they were on hand to see the Sprint Cars run their twin twenty five lap mains and then "get out of Dodge." And the Sprints cooperated by running off the two smoothest mains of the night while the other three classes had a terrible time getting any laps strung together in their main events.
The first twenty five lapper was lined up by the finish of the dash on Friday night with several others right behind based on their passing points. A B Feature on Saturday qualified another eight cars plus one provisional set the twenty four car field.
Derek Hagar led all the way for the win in the first twenty fiver. He got into lapped traffic quickly, and with only two minor yellows the event went quickly. Near the end he was really blocked up in traffic and Spencer Bayston caught him. Hagar threw a wild slider at Morgan Turpen on the last corner, climbing up on the back of her car. However, he was able to keep his car going and crossed the line to nip Bayston by a car length in a thriller that had the crowd on their feet.
With bonus money on the line and looking to be the first to ever win both ends of this event, Hagar would start twenty first in the second twenty five lapper. However, he had trouble getting through traffic and was never a threat to win the second twenty five. While I still have not seen the official results as of the producing of this blog, I don't think Hagar made the top five at the finish.
Danny Sams III started on the front row and led the first twenty two laps of the second feature. He had built up a big lead and with the lower placing cars in the first feature starting up front, there was no traffic to fight. Sammy Swindell was the driver on the move, starting nineteenth and dive bombing through the field in an impressive drive. He moved into second and caught the leader as the laps ran down.
Sams appeared to be in trouble but he then seemed to smooth out his game and Swindell found that he couldn't get past as the laps grew few. With only three laps to go, Swindell threw an ill conceived "slider" at Sams III in turn one. Sammy didn't near clear the leader and Sams III didn't back off and just let Swindell by. The result was a collision that saw Swindell spin but Sams III got by far the worst end of the deal as he was punted into the guard rail and flipped end over end.
It was not a shinning moment for the Hall of Famer as he drop kicked the fourteen year old teenager right into the rail after he had been running a fine race and truly deserved the win. Perhaps if he were a little bit older and a little bit bigger, he would have laid a "tattoo" on Swindell's nose, as "Slammin" Sammy deserved it, but on this night he just walked away and perhaps chocked it up to experience.
Another young driver, Jordan Mallett, then inherited the lead and he held off Ernie Ainsworth for his first ever USCS feature win.
Going into the first feature, there was only a one point difference in the season long points between Terry Gray and Turpen. But unbelievably, after that race was started, not another word was mentioned all night about how the points were shaking out, something that was among the largest hyped parts of the event before the weekend.
Both drivers were among the early drop outs of the second main and there should have been high drama to let us know just how the points were falling, but not a single word was said about the points situation, right up to the conclusion of the evening. How this could happen, I do not know but I would consider this to be a major failing on someone's part. Frankly, it just boggles my mind how such an important part of the weekend could be totally overlooked.
While the two Sprint Car mains were well driven events, the four other feature races were caution plagued, patience testing races. The Street feature had eight yellows, the Late Model nine and the Modifieds six and while I didn't keep track of the 600 Sprints, I would venture to guess that their race had the most of any class! Quite frankly, they were all brutal and by the end, when the Modifieds managed to put on some good racing when they could string a few laps together, only a handful of hard core fans were left on hand to watch. Oh, and let's not forget the Modified B which had nine yellows until they finally stuck a fork in that race early.
The Street feature went to pole sitter Justin Glover who took over the lead after long time leader Jon Stinson had mechanical issues with his car. Dayne Davis and Shane Waters trailed.
The Crate Late Model feature saw outside pole sitter Carl Thomas Jr. lead all the way for the win. Brandon Poppenheimer was a close second over track point champion Bubba Wilburn(you knew that there had to be at least one Bubba racing ,right?).
The Modified feature had the potential to be a really good race as the Modified field, for the second straight night, was loaded with strong running cars. However, it too was yellow flag laden with the Tank Lining of Paris team mates of Lucas Lee and Clayton Miller finishing first and second ahead of Hunter Wilbanks.
Overall, the experience of visiting a Mid South tradition in the Riverside International Speedway was interesting, and somewhat surprising. The facility was overall nicer than the descriptions I had received about the track. The surface disappointed me though. I was looking forward to a weekend of mud slinging on the famous "gumbo" that Riverside brags about but instead saw two nights of "ice racing" on a surface that was so incredibly slippery it reminded me more of linoleum than dirt. The way many of the regulars struggled all weekend keeping their cars pointed the right direction has led me to believe that what I saw this weekend was an aberration and not at all like the track is on a weekly basis.
They did a much better job on Saturday of getting the show started on time and didn't really take any time consuming breaks but it was still 12:30 am before the final checkered waved on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I'd be willing to give the track another shot in the future but would expect some things to be improved for sure.
Monday, November 14, 2016
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Checking Out "The Ditch"
For quite a number of years in a row, this has been the weekend that we have had the pleasure of attending the Duel in the Desert at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But for issues having to do with vacation time, this race was not an option this year for us. While we will miss the excitement of Vegas and seeing friends that we have made over the years and often only see in Vegas, life goes on.
However, that does not necessarily mean that I'm just going to lie down whimpering in the corner and let the weekend pass without seeing any kind of motorsports activity, especially so with the outstanding weather that we have been experiencing for the past few weeks.
Twenty five years ago or so, I had a friend that was attending optometry school in Memphis Tennessee. Being a big race fan, he sought out to attend races in that area and one of the tracks that he found and often raved about was the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis Arkansas, just across the Mississippi River from Memphis. Known as "The Ditch", RIS has long been known for its racy surface and great action, particularly in the Sprint Cars which are the "bread and butter" of this area. With drivers such as the Swindell brothers, the Hoods and many others from this area, a long and rich racing tradition holds out at RIS, where these drivers and many others got their racing start at a track that has been running continuously since 1949.
In recent years, the United Sprint Car Series(USCS) has wrapped up their season the second week in November with a big two day show at RIS. And for seven years, this special event has been highlighted by the "Flip Flop 50", a two feature event program that splits the feature into twenty five lap segments with the field completely inverted for the second twenty five laps based on the finish of the first twenty five. Both features have a generous payoff and there is also a bonus offered if one driver can win the first feature, go to the tail for the second main and win that one also. In seven years that has not happened so far with Tim Crawley the closest as he managed to get up to third in the second main.
USCS is a major sanctioning body in this region and this is the last race on their long season schedule. Being the final point race, there is also extra drama with a championship in the 360 Sprint Cars to be decided this weekend. Team mates Terry Gray and Morgan Turpen are separated by only five points entering the weekend's events, and by Saturday night one of them will be crowned the USCS point champion. USCS also sanctions a Modified division where Troy Dow has a big lead in the points and is just waiting for the mere formality of the racing to conclude before he is crowned. USCS also announced this weekend that they will be sanctioning a Crate Late Model division next year too.
The format of the weekend will see 360 Sprint Cars run qualifying heats on Friday(no time trials, thank you) and a dash for the top point cars that will set their starting lineups for Saturday. The Modifieds will run a full show both on Friday and Saturday. Late Models will have heats as well as the Street Stocks plus a dash. The USCS also has a 600 Sprint Car series that will run a full show both Friday and Saturday. While I don't keep track of the 600 Sprints, I can tell you that there were about thirty of them on hand and that Joe B. Miller, who also runs Midgets and Sprint Cars, won their feature on Friday. They also had about one yellow for each of the cars on hand in their main event!
At first glance, RIS reminds me of many of the "bullrings" you might attend in Illinois. It is a quarter mile, high banked track featuring their bragging product, Mississippi River "gumbo" as the surface. They prepare it in a very unusual way as they put some water on it early and then just let it sit. When the cars come out to roll it in, it looks dry and you expect the dust to fly. However, the moisture comes right up and I can say that I didn't see a whisper of dust all night. It didn't have the "hammer down" aspect to it on this night that I might have expected but instead really slicked up but the surface is wide and provides a lot of different grooves and there was plenty of side by side racing all night.
The track has good lighting, and a big grandstand on both the front and back chute. The grandstand was built correctly and has a really steep pitch which makes it tough to clamber up and down but provides excellent sight lines. The sound system is strong enough to knock you right out of the grandstand and a small scoreboard at the end of the front chute does its job.
The pits start almost directly behind the main grandstand and wraps all the way around the track with extra space roped off in the parking lot for this weekend's big field of cars as the pits aren't very big. The spectator parking lots are cramped and small, again reminding me of some Illinois ovals and the main parking lot is shared with the West Memphis VFW, which makes it handy for the spectators to walk next door and have a "cool one or two" before the announcer calls the cars out to wheel pack, at which time they exit the VFW and walk over to the track. If you didn't know exactly where the track was located, you might not even see if when you drove by as there is no sign of any kind identifying where the track is.
Car counts were twenty eight in the Sprints, eighteen in the Late Models, thirty five in the Modifieds and twenty three in the Streets along with the previously mentioned thirty plus in the 600 Sprints.
Heat races were entertaining in all the classes and while the Sprints respected each other, the other classes drove like it was the last race of the year. By that, I mean that they were super aggressive and there was almost an untold amount of smashing and bashing. But it made for spectacular racing.
The Sprint action identified Derek Hagar and Sammy Swindell as the drivers to beat. Swindell was driving the A.G. Rains car this weekend and among the "hired guns" on hand was Spencer Bayston in the Kevin Swindell entry. Among the most interesting of the entries was Ray Bugg, who the announcers said was retiring after this year. The interesting thing is that Ray is seventy eight years old!
The Street Stocks and the Crate Late Models were really rough on each other and there will be much thrashing on the cars on Saturday to get them ready to race for the main events. While the Late Models also have the option of running the same motor as the Street Stocks, it seemed that most of the Late Models were using the crate option and running the big ten inch blades on the back of the cars.
I thought the Modified field was the strongest from top to bottom and I think the number on hand caught track officials by surprise. There was no B feature on the schedule and they had to scramble to add a couple of them to qualify all the cars for the main. The Modified feature was, I thought, the best race of the night and also the cleanest with only two yellows in their twenty five lap main. Dow quickly came up from the third row and led most of the contest, although he was challenged by Ashley Newman for the lead in the late going. The Modified feature gave a preview of what to expect in the mains on Saturday as the lapped traffic was fearsome and I'm told that when the Sprints get into traffic, which comes quickly, the racing them truly gets wild.
The only down side of the opening night of racing was the late hour that the show concluded with the final checkered flag not waving until well after 1 am in the morning. Most of the spectators had found their way to the gates long before the race concluded on a cool night in November. While there were a lot of races run and a lot of yellows that couldn't be avoided, some blame must also go to the track and its operators as the hot laps moved at a "snail's pace" and the show started over an hour late, time that could have been better used later that night.
My request for credentials got buried in the USCS "spam mail" but just by dumb luck, the person I flagged down for help proved to be USCS PR person Wesley Outland who quickly cleared things up for me and was most helpful, along with RIS's Sherry Allen. Outland also shared the announcing duties with Nick Robbins of "Race On Texas" productions and they certainly kept everyone informed on what was going on.
Opening night was enlightening and I look forward to see how the program will play out on Saturday. Likely the only new cars on hand on Saturday might be some new Modifieds, as they have another full, completely separate program upcoming.
However, that does not necessarily mean that I'm just going to lie down whimpering in the corner and let the weekend pass without seeing any kind of motorsports activity, especially so with the outstanding weather that we have been experiencing for the past few weeks.
Twenty five years ago or so, I had a friend that was attending optometry school in Memphis Tennessee. Being a big race fan, he sought out to attend races in that area and one of the tracks that he found and often raved about was the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis Arkansas, just across the Mississippi River from Memphis. Known as "The Ditch", RIS has long been known for its racy surface and great action, particularly in the Sprint Cars which are the "bread and butter" of this area. With drivers such as the Swindell brothers, the Hoods and many others from this area, a long and rich racing tradition holds out at RIS, where these drivers and many others got their racing start at a track that has been running continuously since 1949.
In recent years, the United Sprint Car Series(USCS) has wrapped up their season the second week in November with a big two day show at RIS. And for seven years, this special event has been highlighted by the "Flip Flop 50", a two feature event program that splits the feature into twenty five lap segments with the field completely inverted for the second twenty five laps based on the finish of the first twenty five. Both features have a generous payoff and there is also a bonus offered if one driver can win the first feature, go to the tail for the second main and win that one also. In seven years that has not happened so far with Tim Crawley the closest as he managed to get up to third in the second main.
USCS is a major sanctioning body in this region and this is the last race on their long season schedule. Being the final point race, there is also extra drama with a championship in the 360 Sprint Cars to be decided this weekend. Team mates Terry Gray and Morgan Turpen are separated by only five points entering the weekend's events, and by Saturday night one of them will be crowned the USCS point champion. USCS also sanctions a Modified division where Troy Dow has a big lead in the points and is just waiting for the mere formality of the racing to conclude before he is crowned. USCS also announced this weekend that they will be sanctioning a Crate Late Model division next year too.
The format of the weekend will see 360 Sprint Cars run qualifying heats on Friday(no time trials, thank you) and a dash for the top point cars that will set their starting lineups for Saturday. The Modifieds will run a full show both on Friday and Saturday. Late Models will have heats as well as the Street Stocks plus a dash. The USCS also has a 600 Sprint Car series that will run a full show both Friday and Saturday. While I don't keep track of the 600 Sprints, I can tell you that there were about thirty of them on hand and that Joe B. Miller, who also runs Midgets and Sprint Cars, won their feature on Friday. They also had about one yellow for each of the cars on hand in their main event!
At first glance, RIS reminds me of many of the "bullrings" you might attend in Illinois. It is a quarter mile, high banked track featuring their bragging product, Mississippi River "gumbo" as the surface. They prepare it in a very unusual way as they put some water on it early and then just let it sit. When the cars come out to roll it in, it looks dry and you expect the dust to fly. However, the moisture comes right up and I can say that I didn't see a whisper of dust all night. It didn't have the "hammer down" aspect to it on this night that I might have expected but instead really slicked up but the surface is wide and provides a lot of different grooves and there was plenty of side by side racing all night.
The track has good lighting, and a big grandstand on both the front and back chute. The grandstand was built correctly and has a really steep pitch which makes it tough to clamber up and down but provides excellent sight lines. The sound system is strong enough to knock you right out of the grandstand and a small scoreboard at the end of the front chute does its job.
The pits start almost directly behind the main grandstand and wraps all the way around the track with extra space roped off in the parking lot for this weekend's big field of cars as the pits aren't very big. The spectator parking lots are cramped and small, again reminding me of some Illinois ovals and the main parking lot is shared with the West Memphis VFW, which makes it handy for the spectators to walk next door and have a "cool one or two" before the announcer calls the cars out to wheel pack, at which time they exit the VFW and walk over to the track. If you didn't know exactly where the track was located, you might not even see if when you drove by as there is no sign of any kind identifying where the track is.
Car counts were twenty eight in the Sprints, eighteen in the Late Models, thirty five in the Modifieds and twenty three in the Streets along with the previously mentioned thirty plus in the 600 Sprints.
Heat races were entertaining in all the classes and while the Sprints respected each other, the other classes drove like it was the last race of the year. By that, I mean that they were super aggressive and there was almost an untold amount of smashing and bashing. But it made for spectacular racing.
The Sprint action identified Derek Hagar and Sammy Swindell as the drivers to beat. Swindell was driving the A.G. Rains car this weekend and among the "hired guns" on hand was Spencer Bayston in the Kevin Swindell entry. Among the most interesting of the entries was Ray Bugg, who the announcers said was retiring after this year. The interesting thing is that Ray is seventy eight years old!
The Street Stocks and the Crate Late Models were really rough on each other and there will be much thrashing on the cars on Saturday to get them ready to race for the main events. While the Late Models also have the option of running the same motor as the Street Stocks, it seemed that most of the Late Models were using the crate option and running the big ten inch blades on the back of the cars.
I thought the Modified field was the strongest from top to bottom and I think the number on hand caught track officials by surprise. There was no B feature on the schedule and they had to scramble to add a couple of them to qualify all the cars for the main. The Modified feature was, I thought, the best race of the night and also the cleanest with only two yellows in their twenty five lap main. Dow quickly came up from the third row and led most of the contest, although he was challenged by Ashley Newman for the lead in the late going. The Modified feature gave a preview of what to expect in the mains on Saturday as the lapped traffic was fearsome and I'm told that when the Sprints get into traffic, which comes quickly, the racing them truly gets wild.
The only down side of the opening night of racing was the late hour that the show concluded with the final checkered flag not waving until well after 1 am in the morning. Most of the spectators had found their way to the gates long before the race concluded on a cool night in November. While there were a lot of races run and a lot of yellows that couldn't be avoided, some blame must also go to the track and its operators as the hot laps moved at a "snail's pace" and the show started over an hour late, time that could have been better used later that night.
My request for credentials got buried in the USCS "spam mail" but just by dumb luck, the person I flagged down for help proved to be USCS PR person Wesley Outland who quickly cleared things up for me and was most helpful, along with RIS's Sherry Allen. Outland also shared the announcing duties with Nick Robbins of "Race On Texas" productions and they certainly kept everyone informed on what was going on.
Opening night was enlightening and I look forward to see how the program will play out on Saturday. Likely the only new cars on hand on Saturday might be some new Modifieds, as they have another full, completely separate program upcoming.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Sanders Misses the Desert Buffet; D.Q.'d from Feature Win
While the headline of this post seems to make no sense, humor me for just a few minutes as I try to explain the shocking conclusion of a good racing weekend.
Saturday night brought the feature race to the grid for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown at C. Ray Hall's 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas. It was the ladder events for the Modifieds and even though the ladder didn't have quite as many rungs as some of USMTS's special events, that doesn't mean that the racing was any less intense. Also racing on Saturday was another full show for the B Mods/Sport Mods including a grand to win main event.
There was one additional entrant in the Modifieds as John Webb from Pauls Valley OK. debuted a brand new MB Customs Mod. He was not on hand for Friday's show as his daughter was cheer leading her last ever high school football game and he was not about to miss that event. He didn't let his tail back starting spot spoil his evening as he later would fight his way into the main event and finish in the top twelve.
I got the opportunity to meet young Modified driver Logan Robertson from West Texas. He is running an MB Custom Mod also and was actually the person that drove up to Wisconsin to pick up Webb's new Modified. Logan is a regular at Webb's Southern Oklahoma Speedway, even though it is a four hour tow for the family based team. He also travels to as many special events as possible too.
We were treated to some special information as both Hall and Todd Staley were interviewed on the track during one of the breaks in the action.
C. Ray admitted to being surprised by the large crowds on hand both nights for this weekend's events. The crowd on Saturday was very impressive and was nearly a sell out and C. Ray admitted he didn't expect this big of crowds for this weekend. C. Ray also admitted that it was largely him that turned this planned three day event into a two day show with a reduced purse as he just wasn't sure how the fans would respond to racing this late in the year. Clearly, he won't slip up like this again next year as he and Staley announced that they will have an April show in 2017 paying ten grand to win and a late season event is also in the works, likely with at least ten grand on the line for that race also. My guess is that there would have been a good twenty more cars this weekend if it would have been a three day show. C. Ray also announced that the World of Outlaws Sprints will be at 81 next year also.
Staley reported that each region for his series next year will pay $20,000 and the Hunt will likely pay $40,000 to the winner. Todd confirmed that the prematurely leaked event at the Cedar Lake Speedway will indeed happen with that June event to pay fifty grand to the winner as the folks at Cedar Lake apparently have the desire to "one up" Bob Timm at Mississippi Thunder Speedway who paid forty grand to win a race this year.
This race previously was the two day weekend event for the UMP Late Models as a part of the "Hell Tour" Summer Nationals. With Cedar Lake apparently not participating in the series next year, I guess only Sam Driggers of UMP knows what this means for the series.
I'm not sure just what was going on but for the second straight night it appeared that the track was over watered, resulting in some "hammer down" conditions and a lengthy packing session involving the race cars necessary. While the low line worked at times for some, it wasn't a consistent groove that could be used and so most of the racing was done in the high groove, leading to some dicey rim riding and lots of instances of slide jobs being used.
After carving down the forty four car field through two preliminary races, the twenty six car field of Modifieds was set to go for fifty laps. After being the high point earner in heat race action on Friday, it was Sanders who started on the pole and he took the immediate lead. Ryan Gustin quickly moved into second after starting sixth and he was essentially a two car race the entire distance. There were three yellows in the race and all were for minor spins and stalls.
The middle part of the race was probably the most entertaining part of the event as Gustin was able to run relatively close during this time and watching the two dive through the heavy lapped traffic was both exciting and entertaining. After a lap twenty nine yellow, Sanders was able to gain a comfortable lead and his main danger was again the lapped cars but he skillfully worked past them. He crossed the line with a comfortable lead over Gustin and Dereck Ramirez.
However, that's when things got crazy. Second through fifth passed through the scales and pulled down to the front chute. Sanders was the last to scale and almost immediately, it appeared that something was wrong. The car was placed on the scale a couple of times, then backed off and then re positioned. Still there were no announcements and a lot of people seemed to be looking at each other. There were way too many people near the scale that added to the confusion.
Soon there was a lot of finger pointing and arm waving and lots of activity by members and car owners of the cars that finished behind Sanders. An announcement was made that Sanders was the winner but that didn't seem to end the confusion and there was lots of heated discussion among the teams represented the front runners. Most of the crowd had exited the facility by this time when suddenly, the announcement was made that Sanders had been disqualified and that Gustin was the winner. I'm guessing that most of the fans in attendance didn't find out until much later that Sanders wasn't the winner.
To Rodney's credit, he seemed, at least at the scale, to take the news well. I saw no yelling, or displays of anger and there was no spraying of gravel as he left the scale. What happened in the confines of the pits is, however, unknown. While the issue was trying to be sorted out before an official announcement was made, the pit announcer interviewed the second through fifth finishers and they were at mid season form with their whining. Runner up Gustin, before he was proclaimed the winner, was complaining about lapped cars not getting out of the way, third place finisher Ramirez was complaining about a one lane track. Only Terry Phillips gave any indication that he enjoyed the race and he is usually "Mr. Grumpy" about most things. Racing in November on a beautiful night and that's the best they can do?
I caught Staley as he was crossing the track and heading up to the tower after the final announcement was made but while much milling around on the track was still taking place. I asked Todd how much Rodney was light and he told me that the track scale measured in increments of five pounds and that the measurement was at 2445 pounds which means that Sanders was somewhere between one and five pounds light. That's why I say that if Rodney had made one more trip through the buffet he might have made weight!
For the second straight night Gustin played with the B Mod field before winning another grand. He started third and took his way getting to the front as he sized up the field. However, when the proper time came, he made his move to pass for the lead and then he proceeded to pull away for an easy win. I did notice that the McCartney team that Gustin was driving for no longer sponsors the Gressell Modified team.
The B Mods did a nice job running their main as they had only one yellow in their twenty five lapper and only three cars didn't finish the event. Gustin's biggest challenge was weaving his way through the heavy lapped traffic with at least ten cars down a lap at the end and only eleven on the lead lap.
For the second straight night the Sport Mods took the B Mods to task with five of the top six finishers being Sport Mods after three of the four heats were also won by the Sport Mods. According to top B Mod finisher veteran Steve Muilenburg, the big spoiler that the Sport Mods have makes all the difference in the world.
Talk about clever marketing and merchandising. 81 Speedway doesn't have a concession stand in the pits. However, what they do have is two young guys on a cart that carry the same concession items that are available in the main grandstand and they roam the pits all night, and they stay very busy.
I enjoyed the weekend of racing at 81 Speedway. C. Ray made a point of stating that in working on his schedule for 2017, he respects the drivers and fans that come for the weekly show but he is also careful to offer a wide variety of types of racing so that things stay fresh. 81 Speedway has a lot of good things going for it and should be on your list for consideration for a track to visit in 2017 if you haven't been there before.
Saturday night brought the feature race to the grid for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown at C. Ray Hall's 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas. It was the ladder events for the Modifieds and even though the ladder didn't have quite as many rungs as some of USMTS's special events, that doesn't mean that the racing was any less intense. Also racing on Saturday was another full show for the B Mods/Sport Mods including a grand to win main event.
There was one additional entrant in the Modifieds as John Webb from Pauls Valley OK. debuted a brand new MB Customs Mod. He was not on hand for Friday's show as his daughter was cheer leading her last ever high school football game and he was not about to miss that event. He didn't let his tail back starting spot spoil his evening as he later would fight his way into the main event and finish in the top twelve.
I got the opportunity to meet young Modified driver Logan Robertson from West Texas. He is running an MB Custom Mod also and was actually the person that drove up to Wisconsin to pick up Webb's new Modified. Logan is a regular at Webb's Southern Oklahoma Speedway, even though it is a four hour tow for the family based team. He also travels to as many special events as possible too.
We were treated to some special information as both Hall and Todd Staley were interviewed on the track during one of the breaks in the action.
C. Ray admitted to being surprised by the large crowds on hand both nights for this weekend's events. The crowd on Saturday was very impressive and was nearly a sell out and C. Ray admitted he didn't expect this big of crowds for this weekend. C. Ray also admitted that it was largely him that turned this planned three day event into a two day show with a reduced purse as he just wasn't sure how the fans would respond to racing this late in the year. Clearly, he won't slip up like this again next year as he and Staley announced that they will have an April show in 2017 paying ten grand to win and a late season event is also in the works, likely with at least ten grand on the line for that race also. My guess is that there would have been a good twenty more cars this weekend if it would have been a three day show. C. Ray also announced that the World of Outlaws Sprints will be at 81 next year also.
Staley reported that each region for his series next year will pay $20,000 and the Hunt will likely pay $40,000 to the winner. Todd confirmed that the prematurely leaked event at the Cedar Lake Speedway will indeed happen with that June event to pay fifty grand to the winner as the folks at Cedar Lake apparently have the desire to "one up" Bob Timm at Mississippi Thunder Speedway who paid forty grand to win a race this year.
This race previously was the two day weekend event for the UMP Late Models as a part of the "Hell Tour" Summer Nationals. With Cedar Lake apparently not participating in the series next year, I guess only Sam Driggers of UMP knows what this means for the series.
I'm not sure just what was going on but for the second straight night it appeared that the track was over watered, resulting in some "hammer down" conditions and a lengthy packing session involving the race cars necessary. While the low line worked at times for some, it wasn't a consistent groove that could be used and so most of the racing was done in the high groove, leading to some dicey rim riding and lots of instances of slide jobs being used.
After carving down the forty four car field through two preliminary races, the twenty six car field of Modifieds was set to go for fifty laps. After being the high point earner in heat race action on Friday, it was Sanders who started on the pole and he took the immediate lead. Ryan Gustin quickly moved into second after starting sixth and he was essentially a two car race the entire distance. There were three yellows in the race and all were for minor spins and stalls.
The middle part of the race was probably the most entertaining part of the event as Gustin was able to run relatively close during this time and watching the two dive through the heavy lapped traffic was both exciting and entertaining. After a lap twenty nine yellow, Sanders was able to gain a comfortable lead and his main danger was again the lapped cars but he skillfully worked past them. He crossed the line with a comfortable lead over Gustin and Dereck Ramirez.
However, that's when things got crazy. Second through fifth passed through the scales and pulled down to the front chute. Sanders was the last to scale and almost immediately, it appeared that something was wrong. The car was placed on the scale a couple of times, then backed off and then re positioned. Still there were no announcements and a lot of people seemed to be looking at each other. There were way too many people near the scale that added to the confusion.
Soon there was a lot of finger pointing and arm waving and lots of activity by members and car owners of the cars that finished behind Sanders. An announcement was made that Sanders was the winner but that didn't seem to end the confusion and there was lots of heated discussion among the teams represented the front runners. Most of the crowd had exited the facility by this time when suddenly, the announcement was made that Sanders had been disqualified and that Gustin was the winner. I'm guessing that most of the fans in attendance didn't find out until much later that Sanders wasn't the winner.
To Rodney's credit, he seemed, at least at the scale, to take the news well. I saw no yelling, or displays of anger and there was no spraying of gravel as he left the scale. What happened in the confines of the pits is, however, unknown. While the issue was trying to be sorted out before an official announcement was made, the pit announcer interviewed the second through fifth finishers and they were at mid season form with their whining. Runner up Gustin, before he was proclaimed the winner, was complaining about lapped cars not getting out of the way, third place finisher Ramirez was complaining about a one lane track. Only Terry Phillips gave any indication that he enjoyed the race and he is usually "Mr. Grumpy" about most things. Racing in November on a beautiful night and that's the best they can do?
I caught Staley as he was crossing the track and heading up to the tower after the final announcement was made but while much milling around on the track was still taking place. I asked Todd how much Rodney was light and he told me that the track scale measured in increments of five pounds and that the measurement was at 2445 pounds which means that Sanders was somewhere between one and five pounds light. That's why I say that if Rodney had made one more trip through the buffet he might have made weight!
For the second straight night Gustin played with the B Mod field before winning another grand. He started third and took his way getting to the front as he sized up the field. However, when the proper time came, he made his move to pass for the lead and then he proceeded to pull away for an easy win. I did notice that the McCartney team that Gustin was driving for no longer sponsors the Gressell Modified team.
The B Mods did a nice job running their main as they had only one yellow in their twenty five lapper and only three cars didn't finish the event. Gustin's biggest challenge was weaving his way through the heavy lapped traffic with at least ten cars down a lap at the end and only eleven on the lead lap.
For the second straight night the Sport Mods took the B Mods to task with five of the top six finishers being Sport Mods after three of the four heats were also won by the Sport Mods. According to top B Mod finisher veteran Steve Muilenburg, the big spoiler that the Sport Mods have makes all the difference in the world.
Talk about clever marketing and merchandising. 81 Speedway doesn't have a concession stand in the pits. However, what they do have is two young guys on a cart that carry the same concession items that are available in the main grandstand and they roam the pits all night, and they stay very busy.
I enjoyed the weekend of racing at 81 Speedway. C. Ray made a point of stating that in working on his schedule for 2017, he respects the drivers and fans that come for the weekly show but he is also careful to offer a wide variety of types of racing so that things stay fresh. 81 Speedway has a lot of good things going for it and should be on your list for consideration for a track to visit in 2017 if you haven't been there before.
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Chisholm Trail Showdown Begins at 81 Speedway
The weather was spectacular all weekend, particularly for the first weekend of November. Who could possibly sit home all weekend and not take advantage of the great conditions, knowing that the "other show" will drop eventually and we will be paying for the fantastic weather we are currently enjoying.
With that in mind, along with other appealing considerations, off I headed for the great state of Kansas and in particular, the 81 Speedway in Park City for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown. Originally scheduled to be a three day show using the same format that Humboldt uses for their Spring show, as the race date drew near the program was altered and cut to a two day show with double heat races on Friday and the mains on Saturday. Along with that, a full show for the B Mods would be held each night.
Since the plans were already laid, I did go ahead although I was disappointed that the program would be pared by one day, as were many of the drivers that I talked to, especially those from farther away.
One of the appealing parts of the trip was a chance to again visit the 81 Speedway, a track that I have not been to in what I would estimate to be at least thirty years! My last trip to 81 had to have been back in the eighties where I saw a two day show in April that featured afternoon racing both days for the Sprint Cars and I remember that after the show on Saturday, I ducked down to Enid Oklahoma for their Saturday night show. It's been so long that I hardly even remembered anything about the track.It's been there a long time though, and while it is a nice facility overall, it is starting to show its age in certain areas.
81 is about a three eighths mile paperclip shaped track that is wide in the turns but doesn't have too much banking. When it optimum racing condition, it does provide multiple grooves in the corners. It has a brown dirt surface that generally slicked up but on the opening night of this show they had over watered it and it was pretty "hammer down" for the first round of heat races, after which it dried out and raced remarkably different for the second round of heats.
I was told that the ample grandstands held over 4,000 people and the seating has a nice pitch, so that virtually every seat in the house is a good one, even with some of the lower trailers pitted in the infield. One of the changes that have been made in the years since I was last here was that the majority of the pits have been moved outside the back chute. Musco lights were added about a dozen years ago and it is well lit, including the grandstand seating area.
The sound system is excellent and the announcers can be heard over the roar of the cars. One of the nice things they do here is they have a roving announcer in the infield who quickly interviews each race winner. I was very impressed with the quality of their announcers as a whole. I don't know that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing track announcer Warren Hardy before but he would have to go down as one of the top "voices" anywhere. He is knowledgeable, funny, informed and has a great voice.
The race cars were pretty slow to arrive on Friday afternoon and I was starting to get worried that this show was going to be a "bust." However, lots of late arriving rigs put the worst of my fears to rest and when the racing began, there were forty five Modifieds and thirty five B Mods on hand to race. However, while this was enough for the two day show, likely it wouldn't have flown if there were an extra day included and the lack of pre entries was probably the biggest reason that the show was cut by one day and the ten grand to win event moved to next April. It wasn't however, due to lack of a crowd in the stands and the number of people on hand had to have been one of the largest ones I've seen anywhere for what was essentially a B Mod show plus some Modified heats. However, I've always heard that Wichita is a good racing town with lots of cars and fans and the great weather certainly didn't hurt.
I did have a brief chance to talk to USMTS head Todd Staley in the pits before the show and he revealed that next year's schedule would likely be around sixty events. He's actively trying to reduce the schedule to that number, feeling that he has been running his drivers ragged the last couple of years and while the 2016 schedule probably ended up with about that many races, he also had about twenty rain outs, some of which they didn't mourn when they happened.
Don't expect much in the way of rule changes for 2017 and the new schedule should be revealed at the Harlan trade show upcoming, although there will still be some events that will need to be plugged into the preliminary schedule. The season will start out with an extended visit to the South, with races in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and possibly Mississippi before they come North for the Spring.
This race was "hyped" as a challenge race between the USMTS and the NCRA Modifieds and took place at the home track of C. Ray Hall's NCRA. There were eight of the top ten drivers in NCRA points on hand while only four of the top ten in Central Region points of the USMTS were in the pits, although Ryan Gustin was on hand to drive the award winning car of Jason Hughes. I guess this is proof that even with great weather, there does eventually get a point where some drivers have just had enough for the year.
Things eventually worked out to be pretty even between the two groups as the ten heat races were split equally between the two sanctioning groups and there were seven USMTS drivers versus five NCRA'ers that made the top twelve for the feature. One must also consider that the NCRA group does have the home track advantage too but the USMTS group is used to taking on the best of the locals at wherever they race. The only double heat race winner was Rodney Sanders and he will start on the pole for the fifty two lap, five grand to win show on Saturday night.
While the Modified portion of the show was billed as a showdown between sanctioning bodies, it reality the B Mod portion of the program was the same. Incredibly, with all the Modifieds they have racing at their weekly shows, 81 Speedway does not have a B Mod class. As it was explained to me, they have three different "levels" of Modifieds racing at 81, almost like the different levels of baseball teams. While the rules for each level are the same, drivers designate which "group" they are going to race at during the season. They have the "rookies" which is reserved for drivers that have never won a championship, the "AAA" for those moving up and the NCRA Mods for those at the top of their game. However, they have no B Mod class, something that several drivers I talked with wished that they had.
So, the B Mod portion of the program was left to see how many IMCA Sport Mods from northern Kansas and Oklahoma would show up and the B Mods would be drivers from eastern Kansas and the Kansas City area. So it was quite impressive when thirty five of them appeared and many of the spectators on hand were quite surprised to see as many as they had. Drivers from Missouri and Kansas helped to fill out the field and Jackson Hale and family came all the way from Minnesota.
IMCA Sport Mods won three of the four heats while splitting the two B features with the B Mods. The top two finishers in the main were also Sport Mods. Ryan Gustin, driving one of the McCartney entries, a big sponsor on his former Modified team, came from the fourth row to win the six hundred dollar victory. Travis Johnson, who won a B feature, stormed up from the thirteenth starting spot to finish a strong second just ahead of the first B Mod driven by Missouri veteran Steve Muilenburg. The B Mods put on a good show with only two yellow flags in their twenty lap main and only three starters that didn't complete the distance. I will bite my tongue while not commenting on what Gustin was doing driving a B Mod in this show.
One of the top runners in this class was eliminated early when Mike Roach blew a motor during his heat race. There were several motors that went up in smoke early as the track was pulling very hard.
I wanted to give a special word to a couple of drivers that towed all the way from South Dakota for this event. WISSOTA drivers Arne Anderson and Duke Erickson came from Watertown and Sioux Falls respectively, and neither was anxious to wrap up their racing seasons so they hooked up and towed out here, both with open trailers and both by themselves. Anderson has his own construction company and has been racing the most of his eight years in the Modifieds this year, as I have seen him race several times in the past few weeks at events in Minnesota. Erickson is a Modified rookie, having raced motocross motorcycles until he grew tired of healing up from injuries! He also has traveled a lot in his first year of racing, running regularly in Aberdeen and Watertown South Dakota as well as Madison Minnesota.
I also had a chance to talk with Johnny Allen in the pits before the show. He is on hand, working with his many customers as well as working on the B Mod of his son Dylan. Dylan is a college student in Springfield Missouri so hasn't had the chance to race too much this year. He will be graduating next Spring with a degree in Marketing and is anxious to join the working world. Meanwhile, he plans to race when he can and spectate also. Johnny admits that he misses racing and is entertaining the thought of perhaps getting back behind the wheel but his business interests and the desires of his racing sons now come first.
There were very few yellow flags and most of them were for minor spins as it was a very smooth night of racing with the final checkered flag waving before 10 pm as there was not a single event that had more than two yellows.
Perhaps the most hard luck victim of the entire night was Shaun Peterson who towed all the way from Alexandria Minnesota to race his Mod. He was running well in his first heat race, having passed a few cars which is always important at one of these passing points races when another car spun in front of him. He clipped the car and damaged his right front and as he went down the back chute, the entire right front hub broke and the wheel exited the car. The runaway wheel got some incredible height, bounced over the fence that surrounds the track and out on to the busy street that borders the track. I'm not sure where, or if , they found the wheel but the neighbors live right across the street from the track and they might have gotten a souvenir from the evening's racing. The damage was too severed for Peterson to fix quickly and he missed the second round of heats, thus insuring that his starting spot for action on Saturday is going to be dismal.
With that in mind, along with other appealing considerations, off I headed for the great state of Kansas and in particular, the 81 Speedway in Park City for the first annual Chisholm Trail Showdown. Originally scheduled to be a three day show using the same format that Humboldt uses for their Spring show, as the race date drew near the program was altered and cut to a two day show with double heat races on Friday and the mains on Saturday. Along with that, a full show for the B Mods would be held each night.
Since the plans were already laid, I did go ahead although I was disappointed that the program would be pared by one day, as were many of the drivers that I talked to, especially those from farther away.
One of the appealing parts of the trip was a chance to again visit the 81 Speedway, a track that I have not been to in what I would estimate to be at least thirty years! My last trip to 81 had to have been back in the eighties where I saw a two day show in April that featured afternoon racing both days for the Sprint Cars and I remember that after the show on Saturday, I ducked down to Enid Oklahoma for their Saturday night show. It's been so long that I hardly even remembered anything about the track.It's been there a long time though, and while it is a nice facility overall, it is starting to show its age in certain areas.
81 is about a three eighths mile paperclip shaped track that is wide in the turns but doesn't have too much banking. When it optimum racing condition, it does provide multiple grooves in the corners. It has a brown dirt surface that generally slicked up but on the opening night of this show they had over watered it and it was pretty "hammer down" for the first round of heat races, after which it dried out and raced remarkably different for the second round of heats.
I was told that the ample grandstands held over 4,000 people and the seating has a nice pitch, so that virtually every seat in the house is a good one, even with some of the lower trailers pitted in the infield. One of the changes that have been made in the years since I was last here was that the majority of the pits have been moved outside the back chute. Musco lights were added about a dozen years ago and it is well lit, including the grandstand seating area.
The sound system is excellent and the announcers can be heard over the roar of the cars. One of the nice things they do here is they have a roving announcer in the infield who quickly interviews each race winner. I was very impressed with the quality of their announcers as a whole. I don't know that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing track announcer Warren Hardy before but he would have to go down as one of the top "voices" anywhere. He is knowledgeable, funny, informed and has a great voice.
The race cars were pretty slow to arrive on Friday afternoon and I was starting to get worried that this show was going to be a "bust." However, lots of late arriving rigs put the worst of my fears to rest and when the racing began, there were forty five Modifieds and thirty five B Mods on hand to race. However, while this was enough for the two day show, likely it wouldn't have flown if there were an extra day included and the lack of pre entries was probably the biggest reason that the show was cut by one day and the ten grand to win event moved to next April. It wasn't however, due to lack of a crowd in the stands and the number of people on hand had to have been one of the largest ones I've seen anywhere for what was essentially a B Mod show plus some Modified heats. However, I've always heard that Wichita is a good racing town with lots of cars and fans and the great weather certainly didn't hurt.
I did have a brief chance to talk to USMTS head Todd Staley in the pits before the show and he revealed that next year's schedule would likely be around sixty events. He's actively trying to reduce the schedule to that number, feeling that he has been running his drivers ragged the last couple of years and while the 2016 schedule probably ended up with about that many races, he also had about twenty rain outs, some of which they didn't mourn when they happened.
Don't expect much in the way of rule changes for 2017 and the new schedule should be revealed at the Harlan trade show upcoming, although there will still be some events that will need to be plugged into the preliminary schedule. The season will start out with an extended visit to the South, with races in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and possibly Mississippi before they come North for the Spring.
This race was "hyped" as a challenge race between the USMTS and the NCRA Modifieds and took place at the home track of C. Ray Hall's NCRA. There were eight of the top ten drivers in NCRA points on hand while only four of the top ten in Central Region points of the USMTS were in the pits, although Ryan Gustin was on hand to drive the award winning car of Jason Hughes. I guess this is proof that even with great weather, there does eventually get a point where some drivers have just had enough for the year.
Things eventually worked out to be pretty even between the two groups as the ten heat races were split equally between the two sanctioning groups and there were seven USMTS drivers versus five NCRA'ers that made the top twelve for the feature. One must also consider that the NCRA group does have the home track advantage too but the USMTS group is used to taking on the best of the locals at wherever they race. The only double heat race winner was Rodney Sanders and he will start on the pole for the fifty two lap, five grand to win show on Saturday night.
While the Modified portion of the show was billed as a showdown between sanctioning bodies, it reality the B Mod portion of the program was the same. Incredibly, with all the Modifieds they have racing at their weekly shows, 81 Speedway does not have a B Mod class. As it was explained to me, they have three different "levels" of Modifieds racing at 81, almost like the different levels of baseball teams. While the rules for each level are the same, drivers designate which "group" they are going to race at during the season. They have the "rookies" which is reserved for drivers that have never won a championship, the "AAA" for those moving up and the NCRA Mods for those at the top of their game. However, they have no B Mod class, something that several drivers I talked with wished that they had.
So, the B Mod portion of the program was left to see how many IMCA Sport Mods from northern Kansas and Oklahoma would show up and the B Mods would be drivers from eastern Kansas and the Kansas City area. So it was quite impressive when thirty five of them appeared and many of the spectators on hand were quite surprised to see as many as they had. Drivers from Missouri and Kansas helped to fill out the field and Jackson Hale and family came all the way from Minnesota.
IMCA Sport Mods won three of the four heats while splitting the two B features with the B Mods. The top two finishers in the main were also Sport Mods. Ryan Gustin, driving one of the McCartney entries, a big sponsor on his former Modified team, came from the fourth row to win the six hundred dollar victory. Travis Johnson, who won a B feature, stormed up from the thirteenth starting spot to finish a strong second just ahead of the first B Mod driven by Missouri veteran Steve Muilenburg. The B Mods put on a good show with only two yellow flags in their twenty lap main and only three starters that didn't complete the distance. I will bite my tongue while not commenting on what Gustin was doing driving a B Mod in this show.
One of the top runners in this class was eliminated early when Mike Roach blew a motor during his heat race. There were several motors that went up in smoke early as the track was pulling very hard.
I wanted to give a special word to a couple of drivers that towed all the way from South Dakota for this event. WISSOTA drivers Arne Anderson and Duke Erickson came from Watertown and Sioux Falls respectively, and neither was anxious to wrap up their racing seasons so they hooked up and towed out here, both with open trailers and both by themselves. Anderson has his own construction company and has been racing the most of his eight years in the Modifieds this year, as I have seen him race several times in the past few weeks at events in Minnesota. Erickson is a Modified rookie, having raced motocross motorcycles until he grew tired of healing up from injuries! He also has traveled a lot in his first year of racing, running regularly in Aberdeen and Watertown South Dakota as well as Madison Minnesota.
I also had a chance to talk with Johnny Allen in the pits before the show. He is on hand, working with his many customers as well as working on the B Mod of his son Dylan. Dylan is a college student in Springfield Missouri so hasn't had the chance to race too much this year. He will be graduating next Spring with a degree in Marketing and is anxious to join the working world. Meanwhile, he plans to race when he can and spectate also. Johnny admits that he misses racing and is entertaining the thought of perhaps getting back behind the wheel but his business interests and the desires of his racing sons now come first.
There were very few yellow flags and most of them were for minor spins as it was a very smooth night of racing with the final checkered flag waving before 10 pm as there was not a single event that had more than two yellows.
Perhaps the most hard luck victim of the entire night was Shaun Peterson who towed all the way from Alexandria Minnesota to race his Mod. He was running well in his first heat race, having passed a few cars which is always important at one of these passing points races when another car spun in front of him. He clipped the car and damaged his right front and as he went down the back chute, the entire right front hub broke and the wheel exited the car. The runaway wheel got some incredible height, bounced over the fence that surrounds the track and out on to the busy street that borders the track. I'm not sure where, or if , they found the wheel but the neighbors live right across the street from the track and they might have gotten a souvenir from the evening's racing. The damage was too severed for Peterson to fix quickly and he missed the second round of heats, thus insuring that his starting spot for action on Saturday is going to be dismal.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
World Finals Truly a Colossal Event
I am just returning to some sort of normalcy after a long drive down to Charlotte North Carolina and back for the World Finals at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The long drive home followed up immediately by a couple of surprise days of employment has put this entry into the "old news" category almost before it got spit out of my lap top. For that I am sorry, but with the huge numbers of "real media" on hand to cover the event plus live TV, anyone that really wanted to know who won and other details of the event should have been able to do so almost immediately.
This was actually planned as a "bus man's" holiday with no reports of any kind, but when Shaun Johnson of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Operations Department generously offered to arrange free pits passes for us, I felt compelled to supply some kind of report to all those still following this blog, which appears on a rather hit and miss schedule at this late time of the racing season.
So rather than supply a "blow by blow" account of who won and the other minute details of the event, which is not my forte anyway, I'll try to amuse with a few of my thoughts on the overall event.
The car count in two of the three classes that participated was down from the record breaking numbers of 2015. The Late Model count dropped by double digits from last year while the Sprints was down by a smaller amount. Only the big block Modifieds held true and actually had one more car participating than last year. In all, one hundred and sixty four cars took to the track for qualifying on Thursday. Later in the week, Late Model drivers Joey Coulter, Dustin Mitchell, Willie Milliken and Brian Shirley either rolled out back up cars or borrowed rides from other racers so they could continue competing.
There were only two drivers that participated in more than one class and they were Dave Blaney and Donny Schatz. Blaney ran both a Modified and a Sprint Cars while Schatz had his new XR1 Rocket Late Model to compliment his title winning Sprint Car. It is interesting in particular to watch Schatz during the course of the week. He spends as little time as possible with the Sprint Car in their section of the pit and instead spends most of his time shooting the breeze with the Rocket people and their acquaintances in the Late Model pit. My feeling is that he has been with his crew in the Sprint so long they know just exactly what he wants and any adjustments are made seamlessly while he seems to just have more plain fun hanging out with the Late Model guys. I was told by a reliable source that Schatz's plan is to run the Sprints for three more years and then retire from that aspect of the sport. He's then going to have some fun and my guess is that the fun includes running his Late Model a whole lot more.
One driver that would have liked to run both classes was Tim McCreadie and it is quite surprising that for a high profile event like this that he can't line up a ride with one of the large teams. Folks who aren't familiar with the big blocks should know that money oozes from these teams in just as impressive fashion as any Late Model or Sprint Car operation. And these cars are very much fun to watch in action. They definitely aren't afraid to "lay the lumber" on each other and their fans are just as rabidly enthusiastic as any in the sport.
It was a "who's who" of drivers in all three classes. While there were certainly some of the big names missing, many of the best in the business were on hand and just to see the list of drivers that couldn't even make a main event was impressive.
Overall, drivers were pretty happy with the track conditions for all three days. While there were certainly some periods of time when the track went one groove, most of the time there was racing all over the track. It was somewhat comforting for the local tracks and promoters that with the best in the business brought in to prepare the track, they still completely goofed on Friday night by over watering the track and causing the event to start a full hour late.
While the drivers as a whole were happy with the track, fans on the pit side of the track might have felt somewhat different. Even though there was a cushion and two grooves, the track continued to blow dirt at a monumental level, creating a sandstorm on the pit side of the track. Thursday and Saturday night, the track was a "top five, dirtiest night" ever spent at the track for me. We all complained as we coughed up dirt, but I didn't seen anyone get up and leave. It was a weekend for the hard core fan though, as I can't imagine any "casual fan" putting up with the dirt and ever returning again. Unless of course, you were sitting with the "beautiful people" in the VIP suites.
The employees at the DT@CMS are a very polite crew. They are most helpful and courteous and not at all like their brethren at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Dirt Track where many of the employees are somewhat on the surly side.
Despite great competition and lots of it, it was interesting how the same few drivers seemed to dominate in the three classes all weekend.
Unless you have been to this event, it is hard to comprehend the actual number of fans that are on hand. I can't even imagine how many people were on hand but it must be among the biggest couple of dirt track races anywhere. Even many of the employees at the "Big Speedway" commented on how many campers were on hand for the weekend, perhaps even putting the NASCAR premier events to shame.
If you are a dirt track fan, and I don't care which class is your favorite, it should be a top priority to attend this event at least once.
This was actually planned as a "bus man's" holiday with no reports of any kind, but when Shaun Johnson of the Charlotte Motor Speedway Operations Department generously offered to arrange free pits passes for us, I felt compelled to supply some kind of report to all those still following this blog, which appears on a rather hit and miss schedule at this late time of the racing season.
So rather than supply a "blow by blow" account of who won and the other minute details of the event, which is not my forte anyway, I'll try to amuse with a few of my thoughts on the overall event.
The car count in two of the three classes that participated was down from the record breaking numbers of 2015. The Late Model count dropped by double digits from last year while the Sprints was down by a smaller amount. Only the big block Modifieds held true and actually had one more car participating than last year. In all, one hundred and sixty four cars took to the track for qualifying on Thursday. Later in the week, Late Model drivers Joey Coulter, Dustin Mitchell, Willie Milliken and Brian Shirley either rolled out back up cars or borrowed rides from other racers so they could continue competing.
There were only two drivers that participated in more than one class and they were Dave Blaney and Donny Schatz. Blaney ran both a Modified and a Sprint Cars while Schatz had his new XR1 Rocket Late Model to compliment his title winning Sprint Car. It is interesting in particular to watch Schatz during the course of the week. He spends as little time as possible with the Sprint Car in their section of the pit and instead spends most of his time shooting the breeze with the Rocket people and their acquaintances in the Late Model pit. My feeling is that he has been with his crew in the Sprint so long they know just exactly what he wants and any adjustments are made seamlessly while he seems to just have more plain fun hanging out with the Late Model guys. I was told by a reliable source that Schatz's plan is to run the Sprints for three more years and then retire from that aspect of the sport. He's then going to have some fun and my guess is that the fun includes running his Late Model a whole lot more.
One driver that would have liked to run both classes was Tim McCreadie and it is quite surprising that for a high profile event like this that he can't line up a ride with one of the large teams. Folks who aren't familiar with the big blocks should know that money oozes from these teams in just as impressive fashion as any Late Model or Sprint Car operation. And these cars are very much fun to watch in action. They definitely aren't afraid to "lay the lumber" on each other and their fans are just as rabidly enthusiastic as any in the sport.
It was a "who's who" of drivers in all three classes. While there were certainly some of the big names missing, many of the best in the business were on hand and just to see the list of drivers that couldn't even make a main event was impressive.
Overall, drivers were pretty happy with the track conditions for all three days. While there were certainly some periods of time when the track went one groove, most of the time there was racing all over the track. It was somewhat comforting for the local tracks and promoters that with the best in the business brought in to prepare the track, they still completely goofed on Friday night by over watering the track and causing the event to start a full hour late.
While the drivers as a whole were happy with the track, fans on the pit side of the track might have felt somewhat different. Even though there was a cushion and two grooves, the track continued to blow dirt at a monumental level, creating a sandstorm on the pit side of the track. Thursday and Saturday night, the track was a "top five, dirtiest night" ever spent at the track for me. We all complained as we coughed up dirt, but I didn't seen anyone get up and leave. It was a weekend for the hard core fan though, as I can't imagine any "casual fan" putting up with the dirt and ever returning again. Unless of course, you were sitting with the "beautiful people" in the VIP suites.
The employees at the DT@CMS are a very polite crew. They are most helpful and courteous and not at all like their brethren at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Dirt Track where many of the employees are somewhat on the surly side.
Despite great competition and lots of it, it was interesting how the same few drivers seemed to dominate in the three classes all weekend.
Unless you have been to this event, it is hard to comprehend the actual number of fans that are on hand. I can't even imagine how many people were on hand but it must be among the biggest couple of dirt track races anywhere. Even many of the employees at the "Big Speedway" commented on how many campers were on hand for the weekend, perhaps even putting the NASCAR premier events to shame.
If you are a dirt track fan, and I don't care which class is your favorite, it should be a top priority to attend this event at least once.
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