Saturday night, April 15th, found me back at Lucas Oil Speedway for night number two of the MLRA Spring Nationals. The same three classes would be racing again on Saturday, the Late Models sanctioned by MLRA, the USRA Modifieds and the Street Stocks. Extra money was on the line and more laps would be run in the main events on Saturday.
Even though extra money was being offered in the Late Model class, the car count dropped from forty one to thirty four for Saturday night's finale. Missing for various reasons were Mike Stadel, Jacob Magee, Reid Millard, Gary Gorby, Corey Zeitner, Andrew Kosiski, Brad Looney and Tammy Mitchell while St. Louis area drivers Jim Shereck and Tim Manville were added to the field after racing elsewhere on Friday night.
Street Stock and Modified fields remained about the same as on Friday night although there were several additions in the open wheel class, including the driver that would take Saturday night's main.
Several Late Model drivers had to make a decision whether to remain at Lucas or head up the highway to West Burlington Iowa where the MARS Series, whom some of the drivers chase, was to have run the Slocum Memorial on Saturday night. MARS made it easy for them though, by dropping their sanctioning of the Slocum event and thus the two Roth Racing cars, along with Tony Jackson and Raymond Merrill, remained in the pits at Wheatland.
The biggest news for Saturday's show was that Billy Moyer was rolling out a different car for Saturday racing after being a nonfactor on Friday night. Unfortunately, it didn't get any better for Moyer on Saturday as he qualified poorly, didn't race any better in his heat and had to scramble to make the show through a B Feature. He then took the green for the main and headed for the pits, taking starting money and parking his #21.
The other driver that big things were expected of and failed to deliver was Ricky Thornton Jr. His car developed a bad engine miss during his hot lap session directly before qualifying and he pulled off and missed getting a lap. That put him in the back of a heat race and that' where he finished and starting in the back of a ten car B Feature, he was never close to qualifying for the main and loaded up early.
I talked to Arizona's Joey Moriarty before the show Saturday. He flew in to do the racing weekend while sending his crew ahead for the twenty hour ride to Wheatland. Late Model racing is not in a good place right now in the Southwest, and events are far and few in nature. He would prefer to race at bigger races so will run a hit and miss schedule built around his business at Total Seal High Performance Piston Rings. His next race will likely be Memorial Day weekend right back at Wheatland.
Right next to the pit area at Lucas Oil Speedway, the off road course is rapidly taking shape with walls and fencing currently being worked on. They were in fact working all day Friday on that project as racers prepared for the night's events right next door to them. The amount of concrete they have poured for the walls in staggering.
The tire rule new to MLRA that was mentioned on Friday night is that no right rear tires may be grooved or siped so they must be left pretty much as they come off the tire truck. Tires, unfortunately, play a huge part in the modern day racing in virtually every division, but about all I know about them is that they are expensive and teams use way too many of them for racing to ever be profitable.
Another new rule at Lucas Oil Speedway that is a benefit to the majority of fans is that no smoking is allowed in the grandstand areas and fans must step outside the facility proper if they wish to light something on fire and then stick it in their mouths. I wish Wisconsin would get into the twenty first century and enact such a law also.
The highlight of the evening and surely one of the best Late Model races seen so far this year was the forty lap MLRA weekend finale. With only one yellow flag, that for a fairly spectacular fire suffered by Josh Hughes, to slow the action on lap twelve, the main event was a great show with at least a half dozen drivers racing in the lead pack. Rodney Sanders, who eventually took the win, also took the early lead but then he was overtaken by T.P. and it looked for awhile that Andy's Frozen Custard victory lane would be visited by their sponsored driver for the first time in nearly ten years at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Then the pack started to bunch up and in a wild scramble, Randy Timms drove into the lead. While Timms then started to set a torrid pace and pulled away, Sanders, Will Vaught, Chase Junghans, Jesse Stovall and Phillips all battled back and forth, trading positions and grooves in what was a highly entertaining race.
Timms looked really great for the longest time and it certainly appeared that his first big victory was coming. However, he then got into some really heavy traffic and got no relief from a yellow flag. While he steered through the back markers, he did have to alter his groove and it started to cost him time and space.
Meanwhile, Sanders had went to the cushion and was really slamming his car hard to the high side. It started to work as he disposed of Vaught and started to close on Timms. With just over two laps to go, Sanders was able to edge by on the outside and stretch his lead on the final lap to score an outstanding win. It was a highly entertaining race with only three of the starters not on the track at the end.
Sanders is definitely starting to figure out Late Model racing and with the resources he has available, the sky is the limit for him. Timms was very strong also as another former Modified driver has worked his way into the ranks of those that must be accounted for at every event. Stovall abused the high side like he always does and he made it work, driving from ninth to third at the finish. Vaught and Junghans completed the top five with Phillips really sinking back at the end and Jackson coming from seventeenth to sixth.
The Street Stock and Modified racing was perhaps not quite as good on Saturday as it was the previous night. Stormy Scott, who arrived at the track on Saturday, started on the outside pole and after a brief battle with Jeff Cutshaw, moved into the lead and lead the rest of the way for a fairly easy victory. It was his first win ever at Lucas Oil Speedway, which was somewhat a surprise when revealed. Junghans is starting to get his new Modified ride sorted out and he ran much better on Saturday, finishing a strong second ahead of the racing Principal, Jason Pursley.
The Street Stocks ran last on the program and on the black, slick track they didn't seem to have the power to go up and use the cushion so they pretty much lined up on the inside groove, running in formation and trying to "bogger" each other off the bottom.
Toby Ott led for much of the race, often with a comfortable margin. However, near the end of the race it appeared that he started having some difficulties and James Flood closed to his rear bumper. All Ott had to do was hug the low side and it appeared that there was no one that could drive around him but he just couldn't hold his car down in the corners.
Giving Flood an opening with just a couple of laps left, James drove cleanly under him and took over the lead and drove on from there for the win. Ott did hold on for second ahead of Brian Schutt, Kenny Carroll and Darrin Chrisler.
With not as many preliminary events for the support classes on Saturday, the program moved along at a very crisp pace and even though they started about twenty minutes late, they were done well before 10:30 pm. The crowd looked better than Friday night but still perhaps what I would have expected for such a weekend, particularly with the spectacular weather. I'm thinking that the fact that it was Easter weekend did not help.
Again, thanks to everyone at Lucas Oil Speedway for a great weekend of racing. I'm so impressed with the working staff at Wheatland. From everyone that works the back gate, to the concession people and the security workers, I can't think of a race track anywhere that has so many nice, pleasant people on their staff that actually seem to enjoy doing their jobs. Once a year is about all that I can make it to Lucas Oil Speedway, but it remains one of the highlights of the racing season without question.
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