Saturday, February 25, 2017

Clanton and Haers Post Wins on a Bizarre Night at VSP

After two consecutive rainouts, Volusia Speedway Park was back in action for racing on Friday, February 24th with the Craftsman World of Outlaws Late Models in action along with the Super DIRT Car Series big block Modifieds. both groups had been idling away time with the Late Models not having raced since Tuesday night while the Modifieds have yet to turn a wheel on the track since they got practice laps in on Tuesday.

There was plenty of mud to be had around the VSP grounds and crews were busy all day scraping both the pits and trying to help out as they could in the lower sections of the parking lots. Much sawdust and wood chips had been brought in to fill the low spots on the grounds and many of the race teams had obtained some also. It was a little gooey in spots but not too bad really, considering the amount of rain that has fallen in the last two days.

More importantly than the pits and parking lots was the condition of the track racing surface. WoO officials lauded the draining characteristics of the track but with all the rain having fallen in recent days, even this was put to the challenge on Friday. Track officials had opened up the racing surface to let the sun, wind and heat get to it in their best efforts to dry out the surface. But later, as the sun would set and the moisture and humidity level would rise, the track would continue to be "bad fast" with "hammer down" conditions producing blazing speeds but also made it tough to pass as well as putting a strain on the race cars with power plants, suspension parts and drive trains all being put to the test. And despite their claims that they were trying to slow down the track surface, even as wet as it was the track continued to be pounded by the water truck  and not just to mist the top of the track that might be drying out but instead they were dumping water heavily on the track. For some reason this year, all the tracks visited in the last few weeks seem to be transfixed on producing very heavy racing surfaces. All through the evening, the battle cry from the drivers interviewed to a man in both the Late Models and Modifieds was their hope that the track could be slowed down so it could produce better racing and some went further in stating that someone should hide the keys to the water truck so they couldn't wet down the surface any more!

Four new Late Models were on hand for racing action on Friday including Earl Pearson Jr as we mentioned in a previous post, along with local driver Win Ingersoll, Paducah Kentucky's Dylan Thompson and Justin Ratliff who's team unloaded a second car for Ratliff who has been having Jason Jameson drive his car this week. Later, Ratliff would change his mind and scratch from the show while Ingersoll would be done early after his motor went up in smoke. 

Meanwhile, Donald McIntosh and Illinois driver Jeff Beyers had pulled up stakes and headed home after tiring of waiting out the rains.

The Modifieds should be lauded as all forty two that practiced on Tuesday hung around for the racing action on Friday. The only driver missing was Stewart Friesen as he was carrying out his duties in the Truck Series at the big track while his Modified remained trailered here at VSP.

If you recall, Michael Norris was one of the drivers that suffered motor problems on Tuesday and there was some question whether or not he would return to action. They did discover some serious issues with the motor so they unloaded a second car and he set a blazing time trial mark which was the quickest of the first group. Unfortunately, just as he crossed the line at the end of the run the motor let go and he was forced to give up his pole position for a heat race. Even worse, he was out of motors and his efforts during the week had come to an end.  Rambo Franklin also had motor problems during qualifying which ended his night.

The set up for the Late Models was the same as on Tuesday with six heat races and three B Features setting the field for the fifty lap main event. With a lot of series regulars not making the main event, two extra provisionals were added in Frank Heckenast Jr and Joey Coulter so twenty eight cars took the green. However, with the taxing condition of the race track, officials opted to lower the number of feature laps from fifty to forty but forgot to tell announcer Rick Eschelman so it was only during the race that we all discovered the change.

The feature was a grueling contest with the cars flying around the track had great speed but with also the problem that they couldn't keep the cars from breaking or wrecking. No more than nine consecutive laps were able to be completed at any one time as slowing  and spinning cars continued to break up the flow of the race. Among the drivers that had issues and either went to the back or to the pits were Brandon Overton, Donald Bradsher, Devin Moran, Morgan Bagley, Donny Schatz, Dale McDowell, Steve Francis, Chris Madden and Tyler Erb.

Shane Clanton was extremely fast and after setting quick time, he jumped into the lead and everyone was chasing him. Steve Francis, Rick Eckert, Erb, Brian Shirley and Justin Wells were all among the pack of cars chasing him but Clanton was able to pull away from the pack on each green flag.

Meanwhile, almost unnoticed at first but then suddenly a huge factor, the fog started rolling in over the race track and it quickly started to envelop the entire facility. On several of the restarts, it actually became somewhat difficult to identify the cars on the back chute. Finally, after a lap twenty three yellow for a slowing Erb, track officials huddled and the race was called complete, a decision that seemed to be the only logical and safe one. Clanton took the win with Wells having worked his way up to second. Wells actually caught a huge break as his getting sideways in turn four triggered a multi car accident on lap one but since he kept going he retained his third row starting spot which was huge for him. Tim McCreadie fought his way up to third after starting tenth with Eckert and Brian Shirley completing the top five. Clanton and Shirley continue their record of both speed and consistency as they are the only ones having raced to top five finishes in all events. Also, local driver Jason Fitzgerald had another top ten finish as he has been impressive throughout Speedweeks.

The Modified feature was a wild one that could have been historic if they could have kept the race going for any length of time without the yellow flag waving. Much like the Late Models, the track and the speeds generated proved to be very demanding on the cars and they would just seem to get going when the yellow would wave once again, robbing the event of any kind of flow. In fact, eight yellow flags flew during their thirty lap main and the most straight green flag laps they were able to produce was nine.

Mario Clair, the French speaking Quebec driver, led for most of the early going with Alan Johnson and Jimmy Horton pressuring him. On the many restarts, Clair would opt for the high side and then used the cushion in turn one to pull back in front.

The Modifieds, which raced their feature first,  were putting on a show as they sliced and diced all over the track, with much three wide racing taking place in the short bursts of racing they had between yellows. Later, attrition would start to take place when Clair broke while leading and then Horton inherited the top spot. Later, with only a handful of laps remaining, he would suffer a huge oil leak that would set his car a blaze and he would have to call it a night.

Justin Haers would inherit the top spot and he would fight off defending DIRT champion Matt Sheppard in a three lap sprint to the finish. Sheppard was almost unnoticed as he quietly worked his way up from twenty second into second, using the bottom groove almost exclusively as he used the yellows to his advantage.

Sheppard made an all out charge on the final laps but Haers was strong on the final restart and pulled away for the win. There was an almost untold amount of carnage to many of the cars in the field with nearly as many non finishers as drivers that crossed under the checkered flag and much work will need to be done by many to fill out the field for Saturday's show. It was a rough night all around for many in both classes.

The shortening of the show made me feel like I was back home again as fog is often a problem at three tracks I visit quite often in my region.  The Proctor Speedway in Minnesota, AMSOIL Speedway and ABC Raceway in Wisconsin all have lost or had shortened many special and weekly events over the years. At all three tracks, close proximity to Lake Superior is the issue with a changing breeze off the lake under certain weather conditions a guarantee that "pee soup" fog will shut down any racing program.

Friday night's program marked the first time that drug testing has been done by the Outlaws for their drivers with a number of them being selected for testing. Hardly anyone knew it was going on and that is just as it should be.

It seems like the Modifieds have been singled out for the worst bad luck of Speedweeks to date. Making the long pull from the Northeast with absolutely no local competitors, they provided a strong field of their best drivers for this series. Having lost half their shows and being on hand for four days before they could finally turn a wheel in competition, DIRT Motorsports tried to give them an extra break by scheduling a non qualifiers event to be run as the last race of the night as a sort of "thank you" to those Modified drivers that didn't make the main event. Of course, by then the track was obscured by fog and that race didn't take place, but at least the thought was there.

Speaking of VSP, this has been far from their best Speedweeks, mostly caused by things out of their control. Their many rainouts certainly hurt the series, with them resorting to one doubleheader to try and get more of the Sprint Car shows in and the rains causing all classes to lose events. The injury wreck during the Sprint Car show on Sunday was a very bad thing, and the two Sprint Cars that got out of the ballpark will no doubt lead to some major changes at the facility for next year. On the bright side, the events I have attended at VSP seem to have all been well attended with a huge crowd on hand Friday night for the Late Models and Modifieds.

We will be traveling after Saturday night's finale at Volusia so the wrap up report on the action there will likely be delayed by a day or two.

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