While 99% of the drivers and fans on hand at Humboldt for the Battle at the Bullring were idled by bad weather, it is not like me to just sit around for twenty four hours and mark time when I'm in the area for a race. Therefore, as soon as I found out that the Saturday show at Humboldt was postponed, I started looking around for a possible alternative racing program to attend. Fortunately, I was far enough South that a trip down into Oklahoma was not out of the question. And even though the weather forecasts, while not all in agreement, certainly included at least a chance of rain in the forecast, I decided to roll the dice and headed for the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore for the fifteenth round of the Southern Region of the USMTS.
The USMTS has been going strong since the ninth of February with Southern Region events and if they could beat the odds and get a show in on Sunday, they would have completed their fifteenth straight show without a rain out. It certainly must be a record for them as in previous years, they seem to have lost as many of their early shows as those that they actually raced on.
It couldn't have been good news for USMTS head Todd Staley to have seen me walking in the back gate at Ardmore. Here he was, trying to squeeze one last race in and then the jinx shows up! He had already moved the starting time of the show up by an hour to try and beat the anticipated rain which was on the way and then I walk in to muddy the waters on his plans.
However, at this point, things seemed to be looking good. The rain was all North of I-44 and the temperatures were seasonable. Track prep was underway, the pits were filling and fans were starting to arrive. It seemed like everything was progressing nicely.
Forty one USMTS cars signed in to race including a couple all the way from my home area. A couple others had already headed home, anticipating the wet weather and a long drive home. Also on hand were two heats worth of the track's Economy Mods and the Sport Mods.
However, there was one "chink" in the armor and that was the track's condition. I'm not sure how it happened but on a day that was built to start early, run a quick show and beat the weather, somehow the track got well over watered and when the show should have been taking the first green flag, we instead were treated to heavy equipment packing in the wet surface. By the time the track was in condition to race on, the hour early start had been blown, the weather conditions had deteriorated badly, rain was on the horizon and the winds had picked up considerably and were screaming right into the main grandstand, marking yet another uncomfortable night for the spectators.
As Staley has always been good at, once the show starts it moves along at a rapid pace and so it did at Ardmore. Heats were clicked right and then we went directly into the Sport Mod feature. However, it started sprinkling and from time to time, even harder than a sprinkle. The Sport Mods kept racing but the track was not the best for them, triggering a rash of yellows before Wayne Melton, who had led all the way, took the win. At the lap eight mark, the rain got too heavy and the race was stopped. I thought we were done for the night but soon after, the mist stopped, the track packing equipment was back on the track and the race resumed to its finish.
The running order was changed and the USMTS cars hustled on to the track for their B Features but it was slick and racing difficult. However, they persevered and after completing those two B's, the Econo Feature hit the track. With only a couple yellows, it was completed quickly with Trent Gippy crowned the winner.
The Mods hit the track quickly and the twenty four car field took the green flag. Sanders, with a weekend off from his Late Model ventures, jumped into the early lead and would actually hold the front spot for all fifty laps of the feature. Dereck Ramirez had a fine run in second but Sanders would maintain a big lead until lapped traffic started to be a problem. On this night, everyone was in the low groove and trying to displace some of the stubborn back markers was a problem for Sanders. He lost quite a bit of his lead and in fact, things got a little tense as he tried to clear the back markers. Once Sanders cleared all the bunched up traffic, he was able to put eight cars between himself and Ramirez and then cruise home. A spin on the last corner of the main created a jam up and the field was scored back to the white flag lap for their finish. Despite the tricky track conditions, there was only two yellow flags and four non finishers in the race as these guys know what they're doing.
Zack VanderBeek, as he is wont to do, made a big charge up through the field in the main. Pulling off in his heat, he started as a provisional in twenty third in the main and raced all the way up to fourth at the finish. He actually got past Chris Brown on the final lap but the tangle moved him back to fourth.
Wind whipped and wet, the crowd went streaming to their cars as soon as the final checkered waved. In a pattern that would continue all weekend, determined promoters persevered to get shows completed and unfortunately, the spectator side of things was quite bleak, not matching the quality of the racing that was accomplished.
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