Friday, March 10th was night number two of the third annual Battle at the Bullring at the Humboldt Speedway. B Mods again are participating in a double set of heat races with the points accumulated key to the lineups for the big finale.
Speaking of the finale, it was announced Friday before the show that with the impending bad weather for Saturday, the finals have already been moved back to Sunday afternoon. This was a rather interesting move but obviously track management believes that with the cold conditions and possible rain, that even if the show should somehow be completed, that there would not be enough people in the stands to make it financially work for them. It is rather interesting though, that with everyone already in town that they would make this announcement a full day ahead of time instead of waiting to see how the weather actually does turn out. Forecasts have occasionally been known to be wrong before and once you tell everyone that you aren't racing until Sunday, there's no way to change your schedule. While the rain date had been posted well ahead of time as being on Sunday afternoon, you know that there will be some drivers not able to stick around and will instead head home. One thing for sure, the local establishments should see a nice boost in their business as there will be a lot of people with idle time to kill all day and evening on Saturday.
Some drivers were lobbying for a double show on Friday so that the program could be completed and everyone sent on their way but the numbers for management probably wouldn't work out with that plan. Plus, Friday would have been a very grueling day for everyone. But it is what it is and those that want to race a main will stick around for Sunday.
Along with the B Mods, another strong field of forty Modifieds was on hand to run another full show in that class. Speaking of the Mods, last night's dominating driver that didn't make it to the checkered, Josh Angst, reported that his mechanical issue was a broken right rear axle. Having never broken an axle before, he immediately didn't recognize the problem while in the car but a quick check proved that as the issue. The team was very disappointed as they said the nice eight hundred dollar check could have paid their gas bill from Minnesota to Kansas. The problems for the team weren't done yet either as after a dominating heat race win on Friday, the #99 was disqualified in tech, apparently for a "chip" issue. Angst then had to start twelfth in a B feature and fight his way into the main.
Proving that he was clearly one of the fastest cars on the grounds, he then started seventeenth in the Modified main and fought his way up to a top five finish.
The tech shed was a beehive of activity over the weekend as you might imagine. With drivers from at three different sanctioning bodies racing together and everyone very serious about winning the eight grand top prize, keeping everyone on the "up and up" was a full time job for several people this week. And they proved that they weren't there just for show. By the end of business on Friday night, eleven times B Mod drivers were disqualified, almost all for improper "chips" in their motors! And a couple of Modified drivers also joined the list for similar transgressions. While it was annoying in a way to see so many fine efforts go down the drain, it was also important to understand that they were just following the rules that were established and trying to keep everyone on an even keel. Rules are rules and the "chip" rule in an important one in trying to keep everyone on an even playing field but apparently many drivers decided to try and see if they could slip one past the tech people and most failed. And losing a high point finish in a heat race could be very damaging in trying to get to the top twelve in points and avoid a dreaded B feature on Sunday afternoon.
On the track, the B Mods were starting to establish just who were the strongest runners and Steve Muilenburg and Travis Johnson became the only three time heat winners. Some of the top runners were having a rocky time of it and none probably more so than defending champion Sketter Estey who continues to have both bad draws and tough luck plague his changes of a repeat win.
The one driver perhaps more dominant than Angst in the Modifieds has been Missouri's Mitch Keeter. Friday night he started on the front row and ran off and hid from the competition, winning by nearly a straightaway. Jeremy Chambers had a strong run to finish second while Jake Timm and Kellly Estey also gained top five finishes. Especially impressive has been Estey's efforts as he doesn't have much experience running on the American Racer tires or against open motor competition. Speaking of the DQ's, Steve Holzkamper lost a top five in the Mods when tech found something they didn't like.
Interestingly, near the three quarter mark of Friday night's show, track management decided to "farm" the track. While I didn't think that it was "rubbering up" and seemed to be racing fine, they felt the need to "tickle" the surface and then water and repack it. This wasn't a popular decision, given that it was late and it was bone chillingly cold. The interesting thing was that when they restarted the racing, they only completed a couple more heats before the Mods took to the track for their feature and the track started to take rubber almost immediately with the right rear tires of the Mods smoking off the corners. Let's hope this doesn't happen for the big fifty lapper for the B Mods on Sunday pm.
Previously, I forgot to mention the latest upgrade to the facility at Humboldt. It seems like every year they do something to improve the facility and this year a new entrance into the spectator grandstand area has been completed. They also have built a new VIP booth that is suspended below the scoring tower and likely gives a great view of the track, although it sticking out did obsolete some of the top row seats in the grandstands.
The weather just is not cooperating for this event so far this year as along with the cold temperatures predicted, the rains moved in earlier than expected and it did drip during the last few events on Friday, not affecting the racing any but making spectating even more miserable.
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