Friday, May 5, 2017

Lee County Speedway Delivers The Goods To Race Fans

Thursday, May 4th brought one of the first mid week special events of the 2017 racing season. And as it turned out, what we as fans saw may have set the bar for the rest of the racing season to follow. On the card Thursday were the MLRA Late Models, racing at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Iowa along with the IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Sport Compacts. Normally one might say that this is too many support classes for a Thursday night show in early May, but the "support" classes were hardly that on this night as their feature races made the Late Model main, although certainly not bad in its own right, pale in comparison. One does not generally see three feature events that were as close as the ones we saw on Thursday and even many of the qualifying heats were nail biters decided right at the line with a couple so close they were hard to call.

One hundred and twenty four cars signed in to race led by the Late Models who fielded thirty three cars which included several "big name" drivers. Before the show Thursday, I had the chance to talk to one of the national driving stars on hand in the person of Jimmy Mars. While I live only about ninety minutes from his home, such is the way that things work that we both have to travel seven hours South to find the time to say hello. Mars would be debuting a brand new car on Thursday, one that he has been trying to get assembled for quite some time but with the high volume of business at MB Customs, the customer cars come first and their Modifieds particularly are very much in demand right now. And as Jimmy said, auto racing is a strange business, given to peaks and valleys and when a customer wants an item, it this case a new car, they want it NOW or else they'll go elsewhere. Right now they have six full time employees helping Jimmy, Chris and A.J. Diemel assemble cars plus do repairs and updates on cars along with a number of other part time employees.

Jimmy has been racing in local WISSOTA competition for his father-in-law Paul Gilberts and said that he is enjoying that very much. Also on the front burner are preparations for a car for Jimmy's son Sam. Sam has been tearing up the track at Thunder Hill Raceway in Menomonie Wisconsin, racing karts for the past several years. But no more karts as Jimmy is preparing a Limited Late Model for Sam to drive in local races for this division that is just starting to spring up in the area. Sam is, I believe, around twelve years old. Later in the night, Jimmy would be fairly satisfied with a third place finish in the feature for his first time out with this particular car.

Another top Iowa Late Model driver was running a Modified on this night as Luke Merfeld was getting laps in before next weekend's huge race in Farley. With all these Late Model drivers running Modifieds right now, one wonders what will happen after these big money events are over. Will all these Mods just get shoved back into the far corner of the garage until next year or perhaps there will be a "fire sale" for top quality Modifieds with low laps on them.

It was a rocky night for a couple of the Late Model drivers. Justin Asplin was debuting a new car but during his heat race he made violent contact with the fourth turn guard rail and tore the nose right off the car and almost stood the machine upright. he returned for the B feature and then made the main as a provisional.

Jordan Yaggy was about the last car in the pits, having hustled down from Rochester Minnesota. He also made the main through the B feature but then, on the first lap of the feature, the two Arnie Ranta Motor Sports cars got together and Yaggy was done before completing a lap. Interestingly, that yellow was the only one of the Late Model feature and Yaggy and Chase Junghans, the other car caught up in the tangle, were the only two cars not to go the distance in the forty lapper.

Chris Simpson led all the way in the Late Model main event after starting on the pole. Terry Phillips tried the outside line but that wasn't working for the Late Models and most had to cozy up to the ute tires on the inside of the track. Tony Jackson Jr made a nice charge into second and several times got close to Simpson, who was having his hands full fighting through some heavy lapped traffic. Jackson Jr. got his closest with about ten laps to go and it looked dire for Simpson until he made a great move in traffic, going high to split two cars and from that point on, he was able to build up a cushion that he would carry on to the win. Billy Moyer would also have a good run,starting eleventh and working his way into the top five at the end.

While the Late Model feature was decent, what made the evening memorable were the Modifieds, Stock Cars and even the Sport Compacts with all three classes providing dynamite main events. While the Late Models sucked down to the bottom of the track, these three classes were racing all over the track, using many different lines and showing much side by side action. The track was black from ute tire to guard rail, smooth and slick and it providing some excellent racing action. It truly would be hard to pick one of the features above the others as all were dandy.

The Modifieds went nonstop for twenty five laps and just like Wednesday night, at the end it was Kelly Shryock and Hunter Marriott battling it out for the win. The margin was even less than Wednesday as they went into the final corner side by side, intermixed in with about three lapped cars that were cutting them no slack.

The Stock Car feature might have even been closer as while John Oliver Jr led most of the laps and seemed to have a fairly comfortable lead, there was a huge battle for other positions behind him. Suddenly, things changed as the pack started to catch the leader and as the laps ran down, things got very tight. Jeff Mueller put on a tremendous charge on the final tour, stuck his nose under Oliver Jr on the last corner and they drove to the line side by side, with Oliver Jr holding on by inches for the win.

The Sport Compacts ran last and many had exited the grounds by them but for those who stuck around, they got to see a last lap nail biter in that class also. Kimberly Abbott had used the "chrome horn" to move Josh Barnes out of the way to take over the lead and she appeared to be in control until Barry Taft came charging up at the end. They too went side by side into the last corner with both on the edge of traction and Abbott hung on by inches for the win.

While not to the level of the other three IMCA divisions on this night, the Sport Mods also had a good , clean race with Tony Dunker holding off the charge of Logan Anderson to get the win.

A few random thoughts: There was a very good Thursday night crowd on hand and after the show they saw, the drivers did a great job of selling the next special that Mike VanGenderen puts on here. There can be no one in their right mind that would have anything to complain about Thursday. Yes, it was a little bit dirty from time to time with the nasty strong North wind blowing, but that is out of everyone's hands. Other than that, everything clicked off just as it should from green flag to checkered.

The Stock Cars set the tone for the night in their very first heat race when Mike Hughes came from dead last in his heat race to nip Jake Wenig at the line with a last corner pass. From there on, it was "Katy bar the door!"

Running the Late Model feature second in the order surely had to have pleased some who had traveled a distance and wanted to scamper out as soon as they saw the Lates run. Most people stuck around for the rest of the mains, but for those that left early, they had to have been thanking Mike VG for the bonus and you can bet, they'll remember that and be back again.

A one spin rule was in affect for the qualifiers and it had a positive effect on keeping the action moving. I wish a few promoters in my area would buy into this fair and simple method of keeping the racing action moving along in this era of "three hours and I'm out of here, done or not."

How can anyone argue that the Stock Car class isn't  the greatest class ever conceived? Virtually every time I see them race the action goes right down to the wire and if they don't cross the finish line three wide, it feels like the race didn't hold up to expectations.

It was a twenty three race program with the vast majority of the races either going nonstop or slowed a single time for a yellow and not a single race run all night that dragged on for time.

I have to apologize for an ill conceived observation from Wednesday night's show. I thought that Carter VandenBerg's Sport Mod was having some suspension issues the way it was all "hiked up" but after watching him race again Thursday, it's clear that the appearances this car makes are just because it is so lifted up on its suspension and that nothing was broken on Wednesday night, making Curtis VanDerWal's run even more impressive. Carter had bad luck Thursday when he was battling for the lead and got a flat tire, ending his run with only four laps to go.

MLRA announcer Trenten Berry is climbing rapidly to the front of the traveling series announcers in my estimation. He is good as giving out the facts and keeping the fans informed while at the same time not getting too "flowery", a condition prevalent among some of the "voices" for other series.

The excellent show was done something just after 10:30 pm and then I hit the road for my six hour and forty five minute drive to my back step. Quite a distance but not so far when you consider that is less that half the distance that Mike and Les Stadel drove from Rapid City to race this weekend!  

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