If it's race cars you wanted to see with full fields in several classes and action across the board, then the place to be would have been the Hancock County Speedway on Tuesday, June 27th for their annual Salute to Veterans race which also featured the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds as a part of the show.
With promoter Joe Ringsdorf now retired, a new promotional group has now taken over the track but they wisely retained this event, which traditionally has been one of the biggest at the track all year along with their "Night of Stars" series of races. While there are some new folks working for the track, they have retained others including veteran announcer Chad Meyer who probably gets to as many races in this part of the state as anyone. He teamed with Ryan Clark Tuesday to provide knowledgeable commentary and an occasional bad joke or two. Just kidding.
With one hundred and forty three race cars signed in to race, by my count, you kind of knew that it was going to be a long night and prepared for it. With the strong winds blowing however, it was brutal on the race track and I doubt that there could have been anything done that would have saved it any more than was possible. I counted twenty nine races and all had plenty of cars in them. That, folks, is a lot of racing in one night.
There were a lot of preliminary heats and B features needed to whittle down the big field and determine who would start the mains but eventually it was cut down to the top twenty four in Mods, Stock Cars and Sport Mods with all the Sport Compacts and Hobby Stocks taking the green.
The best feature race of the night was the Stock Cars feature which had a huge gaggle of cars batting for the lead positions. A yellow with only three laps to go was devastating for Calvin Lange who had led to that point. At the end, he got shuffled all the way back to sixth as Dustin Larson emerged the winner.
The other crazy finish was in the Sport Mods where the two leaders started beating on each other in the last couple of laps, ruthlessly trying to lift each other off the ground, and Austin Luellen kept his wits about it and drove past both of them for the win.
Dominating performances were turned in by Tyler Droste, Nate Coopman and Cody Nielsen to win the other three main events.
It was a long, long night of racing and almost more than a fan would want to see. However, when you are putting up as much money in all classes as this race provided, it is a compliment to the track when you say that there were almost too many cars to run off a smooth show that would fit within most people's time limits. Tuesday's show ran at over four hours and that is getting a bit long. One thing I would say, the 7 pm starting time seems about right but when you hot lap so many cars, the real racing doen't get started until almost forty five minutes later. To start at 7 pm, if you plan on hot lapping, then the hot laps need to start much earlier than they did.
One victim of the long show was the fireworks display. They did have some very nice fireworks but most on hand didn't get to see them. Many had taken their leave after the Modifieds were done and even a fireworks fan like myself watched them over my shoulder as I headed to the parking lot, a whipped "puppy" after twenty nine races.
Thanks to Four Wide Racing Promotions for the Media Credentials. I must apologize to them and the other readers of this blog for the lateness of this report. While I can never hope to keep up with the thoroughness of "the boss" here, I usually at least can match his promptness. However, I have been sick as "a dog" for the last couple of days and everything has been put on hold because of that.
Friday, June 30, 2017
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Probst the Big Winner at Spencer
Monday night, June 26th, It was "Monday Night Madness" at the Clay County Speedway in Spencer. Normally now a Sunday night track in 2017, the Fair Board has scheduled a few midweek shows at the Fairgrounds when they have special events targeted for a specific class while also running the other classes in their normal program.
Monday night there were actually three classes running for extra money as the Hobby Stocks were racing for a grand to win, the Modifieds were also racing for a grand and the Sport Mods had a top check of five hundred dollars waiting for them. The Sport Compacts and Stock Cars were presumably racing for their normal weekly purse while awaiting their special events which are upcoming.
Actually, Monday night was just the opening volley in what will be a very busy week for racers in Western Iowa and particularly the Hobby Stock drivers. Monday was opening night of the "Sizzling Summer Speedweeks" with thousand dollar to win shows slated Monday at Spencer, Wednesday at Alta, Thursday at Algona and Saturday at Fairmont(technically not in Western Iowa). And not included in this schedule is the big Salute to Veterans race on Tuesday night in Britt where the Hobby Stocks are racing for eighteen hundred dollars to win as a part of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds where that class is going for over three grand. All classes are also racing on all these nights so you can see its a huge week for racers in this area.
Interestingly, until less than a week ago, I didn't even know that this Monday night show was taking place. Originally it was scheduled to be run on Tuesday but when track officials discovered that Britt was also racing, they decided that in everyone's best interests it would be better to find a different date. So, with some clever thinking, they came up with the Monday night show which made a big week even bigger and a potential bonanza for the drivers. Curiously, Britt didn't tag along with the other tracks on advertising for this series, but the drivers were probably most concerned that the events weren't being run on top of each other.
There must be something special about the dates of this week as Webster City also had a two day Stock Car and B Mod special planned for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week but with all the clutter going on, Todd Staley did reschedule that event for August.
Eighty three cars signed in for the five classes racing including thirty two Hobby Stocks for the grand and a season high twenty Modifieds also going for a grand. This week long series was attractive enough to draw three Hobby Stocks who towed all the way from Kansas to race including Cody Williams, Tathan Burkhart and Eric Cross.
I have had the pleasure of attending races a couple of times at the Clay County Speedway in Spencer and it is a very fine facility with great seating and lighting for the drivers. The pits are a little cramped but everyone makes due and rolling the cars out on the stage past the main grandstand as they enter the track is a very cool entrance procedure.
The only thing that concerns me is how exposed the flagman is and potentially how unsafe his position is. All that protects him is a low wall that could easily be jumped by any class car and he has no screen, shield or anything else to help him ward off flying objects. The starter on this night was highly regarded Grant Ostvig and he made it through the night unscathed but this track remains just one freaky circumstance away from a real tragedy. Seriously, they really need to revisit where and how they have their starter placed.
Calling the action on this night was replacement announcer Steve Zwemke, the regular announcer at Alta and Worthington. Steve drives all the way over from South Dakota to call the action and has been a long time friend.
Surprisingly, this fine facility with seating for thousands under either a covered grandstand or in an open one(your choice), doesn't have a scoreboard and that seems to be the only thing missing from what is otherwise a top notch facility. Of course, they haven't been running a weekly program for that many years and are still searching for their niche in terms of what is the best night for them to be racing. And in this area of limited populations, there are an awful lot of race tracks all trying to make a go of things. It can't be easy.
The most disappointing thing of the night was the track condition. When I looked at it early, it looked a little dry but not bad. However, when I headed to the grandstand for hot laps, I was shocked to see that they had "souped" the track up really bad and racing certainly wouldn't be starting on time. They had many packing vehicles working the track including one that I can't even begin to describe. My best guess; a huge propane tank mounted vertically on wobble wheels with a wing attached to it! Seriously!
But even more important than the late start that the overly watered track caused, was that it negatively affected the racing all night. It was tough to get more than one lane for racing no matter how hard they tried to pack in the high side and it rolled up into a big berm that was tough to straddle. The racing was fast, and it certainly was exciting but for most of the night the vast majority of the track couldn't be used and most were banging on each other to get to the low side.
Speaking of intense racing, the first three Hobby Stock heat races all saw the black flag used by Ostvig for rough driving. That kind of set the tone for the night. Most spectacular was Cody Nielsen who was turned around in the final corner of his heat race while battling for the lead. Despite the fact that he had a flat tire, he slammed his car into reverse and roared across the finish line going backward at high speed. This move earned him the fifth position in his heat instead of just stopping and sulking about his bad luck. His "heads up" move would allow him to later win the B Feature and after starting seventeenth in the main, he would come home third. How about that?
According to Zwemke, both Matt Looft and Ricky Stephan would come into Monday night's action with ninety nine IMCA feature wins but neither would score that big victory they were looking for. Coincidentally, both would end up fourth in their respective mains.
In the featured event, Cory Probst would make a great move to come from the second row into the lead early and then he would weather five yellow flags to take the fifteen lap main. He was challenged several times on restarts, but each time he would pull away and at the end, it was Brandon and Cody Nielsen chasing him across the line.
When I saw the lineup for the Modifieds, it figured it was not premature to write the check immediately. Kelly Shryock started on the pole and he wasted no time taking the lead. Once in front, he never truly was pressured as he topped Travis Hatcher and Mike Jergens in the "screaming banana."
Clay Evans came from the third row to win the Sport Mod feature as he was strong to fight off point leader Zech Norgaard.
The big news in the Sport Compacts was that Nate Coopman actually lost a feature race! He's probably up close to triple digits in wins already this year but Monday Tyler Thompson got a good head start on Nate, and by the time Coopman came up from tenth, he didn't have enough time to catch the leader.
The Stock Car feature saw Randy Brands and Justin Nehring go at in a class that could have used a a few more cars. Still, they put on a good race that went right down to the wire before Brands claimed the win.
It was an interesting racing program and an enjoyable one also. It did get done just a bit late for a Monday at around 10:45 pm. but that forty five minutes was just the amount of time that they started late due to the extra track packing needed and frequent quick packing sessions that took place between races. Thanks to everyone at the Clay County Fair Board and the people at the track organizing and putting on the show.
Monday night there were actually three classes running for extra money as the Hobby Stocks were racing for a grand to win, the Modifieds were also racing for a grand and the Sport Mods had a top check of five hundred dollars waiting for them. The Sport Compacts and Stock Cars were presumably racing for their normal weekly purse while awaiting their special events which are upcoming.
Actually, Monday night was just the opening volley in what will be a very busy week for racers in Western Iowa and particularly the Hobby Stock drivers. Monday was opening night of the "Sizzling Summer Speedweeks" with thousand dollar to win shows slated Monday at Spencer, Wednesday at Alta, Thursday at Algona and Saturday at Fairmont(technically not in Western Iowa). And not included in this schedule is the big Salute to Veterans race on Tuesday night in Britt where the Hobby Stocks are racing for eighteen hundred dollars to win as a part of the Hawkeye Dirt Tour for Modifieds where that class is going for over three grand. All classes are also racing on all these nights so you can see its a huge week for racers in this area.
Interestingly, until less than a week ago, I didn't even know that this Monday night show was taking place. Originally it was scheduled to be run on Tuesday but when track officials discovered that Britt was also racing, they decided that in everyone's best interests it would be better to find a different date. So, with some clever thinking, they came up with the Monday night show which made a big week even bigger and a potential bonanza for the drivers. Curiously, Britt didn't tag along with the other tracks on advertising for this series, but the drivers were probably most concerned that the events weren't being run on top of each other.
There must be something special about the dates of this week as Webster City also had a two day Stock Car and B Mod special planned for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week but with all the clutter going on, Todd Staley did reschedule that event for August.
Eighty three cars signed in for the five classes racing including thirty two Hobby Stocks for the grand and a season high twenty Modifieds also going for a grand. This week long series was attractive enough to draw three Hobby Stocks who towed all the way from Kansas to race including Cody Williams, Tathan Burkhart and Eric Cross.
I have had the pleasure of attending races a couple of times at the Clay County Speedway in Spencer and it is a very fine facility with great seating and lighting for the drivers. The pits are a little cramped but everyone makes due and rolling the cars out on the stage past the main grandstand as they enter the track is a very cool entrance procedure.
The only thing that concerns me is how exposed the flagman is and potentially how unsafe his position is. All that protects him is a low wall that could easily be jumped by any class car and he has no screen, shield or anything else to help him ward off flying objects. The starter on this night was highly regarded Grant Ostvig and he made it through the night unscathed but this track remains just one freaky circumstance away from a real tragedy. Seriously, they really need to revisit where and how they have their starter placed.
Calling the action on this night was replacement announcer Steve Zwemke, the regular announcer at Alta and Worthington. Steve drives all the way over from South Dakota to call the action and has been a long time friend.
Surprisingly, this fine facility with seating for thousands under either a covered grandstand or in an open one(your choice), doesn't have a scoreboard and that seems to be the only thing missing from what is otherwise a top notch facility. Of course, they haven't been running a weekly program for that many years and are still searching for their niche in terms of what is the best night for them to be racing. And in this area of limited populations, there are an awful lot of race tracks all trying to make a go of things. It can't be easy.
The most disappointing thing of the night was the track condition. When I looked at it early, it looked a little dry but not bad. However, when I headed to the grandstand for hot laps, I was shocked to see that they had "souped" the track up really bad and racing certainly wouldn't be starting on time. They had many packing vehicles working the track including one that I can't even begin to describe. My best guess; a huge propane tank mounted vertically on wobble wheels with a wing attached to it! Seriously!
But even more important than the late start that the overly watered track caused, was that it negatively affected the racing all night. It was tough to get more than one lane for racing no matter how hard they tried to pack in the high side and it rolled up into a big berm that was tough to straddle. The racing was fast, and it certainly was exciting but for most of the night the vast majority of the track couldn't be used and most were banging on each other to get to the low side.
Speaking of intense racing, the first three Hobby Stock heat races all saw the black flag used by Ostvig for rough driving. That kind of set the tone for the night. Most spectacular was Cody Nielsen who was turned around in the final corner of his heat race while battling for the lead. Despite the fact that he had a flat tire, he slammed his car into reverse and roared across the finish line going backward at high speed. This move earned him the fifth position in his heat instead of just stopping and sulking about his bad luck. His "heads up" move would allow him to later win the B Feature and after starting seventeenth in the main, he would come home third. How about that?
According to Zwemke, both Matt Looft and Ricky Stephan would come into Monday night's action with ninety nine IMCA feature wins but neither would score that big victory they were looking for. Coincidentally, both would end up fourth in their respective mains.
In the featured event, Cory Probst would make a great move to come from the second row into the lead early and then he would weather five yellow flags to take the fifteen lap main. He was challenged several times on restarts, but each time he would pull away and at the end, it was Brandon and Cody Nielsen chasing him across the line.
When I saw the lineup for the Modifieds, it figured it was not premature to write the check immediately. Kelly Shryock started on the pole and he wasted no time taking the lead. Once in front, he never truly was pressured as he topped Travis Hatcher and Mike Jergens in the "screaming banana."
Clay Evans came from the third row to win the Sport Mod feature as he was strong to fight off point leader Zech Norgaard.
The big news in the Sport Compacts was that Nate Coopman actually lost a feature race! He's probably up close to triple digits in wins already this year but Monday Tyler Thompson got a good head start on Nate, and by the time Coopman came up from tenth, he didn't have enough time to catch the leader.
The Stock Car feature saw Randy Brands and Justin Nehring go at in a class that could have used a a few more cars. Still, they put on a good race that went right down to the wire before Brands claimed the win.
It was an interesting racing program and an enjoyable one also. It did get done just a bit late for a Monday at around 10:45 pm. but that forty five minutes was just the amount of time that they started late due to the extra track packing needed and frequent quick packing sessions that took place between races. Thanks to everyone at the Clay County Fair Board and the people at the track organizing and putting on the show.
Monday, June 26, 2017
Last Lap Pass Gives Cummins MCMS Win
On Sunday, a trip down to northern Iowa was necessary to outflank all the rain plaguing the local area, as it had done for most of the weekend. Hitting sun in southern Minnesota, all was was high, dry and windy at the Mason City Motor Speedway and that is where I spent my Sunday night.
I have been more than tardy getting back to this track, a place that I generally have made at least a stop or two for many years while the track was under the guidance of Joe Ringsdorf. However, with Todd and Ryne Staley along with Al Hejna in charge, this would be my first visit since the 2015 racing season. It seemed that last year every time I considered a trip to Mason City, the weather decided otherwise for me and MCMS does not open the first weekend of April like it did in years past so those early season trips are no longer a consideration.
Many of you have probably been to Mason City more recently than me, so I will not belabor you with all the improvements that I noted upon entering the track. Suffice to say that much has been done in the last two years to the entire grounds as well as the track itself. Most notably, the track has been shortened up some and the banking has been increased by a large amount as this used to be a pretty flat half mile and that is no longer the case. Retaining walls, new fencing and a new entrance to the track all all among the changes that have taken place. All of these, by the way, were much needed and a large improvement to the track.
Most important for the racers and the racing in general was the significant increase in the banking of the corners and the widening of the corners too. Early in the show, while the track was holding moisture better, I got a quick glimpse of how the racing could be as the cars were running side by side and using many lines of the track. Back in the day, the vast majority of the racing was done right on the tires and it was rare to be able to move up the track and pass.
Later on Sunday, the track dried out quickly due to the brutal winds that howled and sucked the moisture out of the track but even at the end of the night, a high groove was available when the bottom got too slick and that was pretty much a nonentity in past years too. So, overall all, the changes to the racing surface have been very much positive moves.
The old VIP tower, that annoyance that hung out over the track and ruined many of the prime viewing spots in the grandstands, has been turned into the official's tower for scoring and announcing as well as for the Race Director. Amazingly, in the old days, the scorers and announcer actually couldn't even see the three-four corner because the VIP tower stuck out too far and obscured the view for the officials! Unbelievable. I wonder who was the chief engineer on that project?
One thing that was a "blast from the past" was that the irrepressible Lonn Oelke has returned to the announcer's tower at Mason City. My goodness, long before he hit the road with USMTS, he used to announce here and at Fairmont and now he's back to his roots, as I believe he now works at both tracks.
When Oelke stopped following the USMTS as their announcer, rumors of his demise surfaced and the rumors had him as either Mayor of Ceylon Minnesota or a part of T-Rump's Washington team. Apparently neither were correct. In any event, it was good to hear him behind the mic again and he was in rare form, cracking jokes and not taking himself too seriously, a pleasant departure from many announcers that work too hard at not having any fun and not bringing any fun to the spectators too. I'm just sorry that I didn't catch up with him before the show.
The nomenclature in racing remains more than confusing. This being a USRA track, and one co-promoted by the head of the that very organization, one would think that they would get straight the titles of their various divisions. However, more than once during the evening, the mid level Modifieds were referred to as the Sport Mods when that's an IMCA title as these cars should have been referred to as B Mods. I get wild about that at home when people call them the B Mods when they should be referred to as the Midwest Mods. Oh well, I guess as long as everyone knows what class you're referring to, that's the important thing.
I prefer the draw/redraw format over the point average method simply because I think it's fairer for the drivers. However, there can be times when draw/redraw comes back to bite you where it hurts. On this night, four of the five feature winners started right in the front row with only Jason Cummins' drive from the fourth row to win the Modified feature breaking up the trend. That race and the Stock Car battle between Luke Saathoff and Kevin Donlin were by far the highlights of what otherwise was a pretty predictable show.
Even Lonn referred to the fact that the show needed more race cars and there were barely enough in any division to have two heat races. How ironic was it that the head of one of the most powerful Modified sanctioning bodies in the country was involved in the promotion of this event and the Modified car count was the lowest of all the divisions with just enough cars for two heats. Some of the Modifieds were true USMTS cars and most of the others converted over and their looks and performance were dramatically different as that appears to be a major stumbling block to the growth of the class at this track. There just aren't too many true USMTS cars in north Iowa.
However, their feature race proved to be the best of the night with Ryan Ruter holding off the pack for seventeen laps until Jason Cummins made a bold outside pass coming to the white flag. Cummins had benefited from several yellow flags and a diminished field to get to second but he appeared considerably faster than Ruter at the end. However, Ryan was using the track well and making a pass difficult. After nearly getting by on the low side several times, Ruter moved down to block that groove and Cummins blasted past him on the top side and drove home for the win.
The other notable race was in the Stock Cars where Luke Saathoff was the early leader until the groove moved up the track and Kevin Donlin blew past him for the lead. However, following a yellow flag, Saathoff also moved up the track and when Donlin overcooked turn one and nearly went out into the corn field, Saathoff retook the lead. The drama at the end of the race saw Saathoff's car smoking heavily but it stayed in one piece and he held off Donlin for the win.
Brandon Hare led wire to wire in the B Mods as did Chanse Hollatz in the Hobby Stocks and Mitch Balik in the Tuners(four cylinders).
Before the races, Dylan Suhr introduced himself to me and we talked about the rich racing heritage he comes from. The rookie driver is the eldest grandson of the late Kenny Farrell, a North Iowa racing legend who passed away a couple of years ago. Suhr is getting a late start in racing as he graduated from Iowa State and got himself a solid job before he considered starting a racing career. An engineer for John Deere in Waterloo, Suhr holds true to the racing family he comes from as his car number, #87, is his grandfather's number inverted. He said he's having great fun in his rookie year of racing and can hardly wait for the weekend to come so he can get to the track. He is racing here and in West Union in his first year.
I have been more than tardy getting back to this track, a place that I generally have made at least a stop or two for many years while the track was under the guidance of Joe Ringsdorf. However, with Todd and Ryne Staley along with Al Hejna in charge, this would be my first visit since the 2015 racing season. It seemed that last year every time I considered a trip to Mason City, the weather decided otherwise for me and MCMS does not open the first weekend of April like it did in years past so those early season trips are no longer a consideration.
Many of you have probably been to Mason City more recently than me, so I will not belabor you with all the improvements that I noted upon entering the track. Suffice to say that much has been done in the last two years to the entire grounds as well as the track itself. Most notably, the track has been shortened up some and the banking has been increased by a large amount as this used to be a pretty flat half mile and that is no longer the case. Retaining walls, new fencing and a new entrance to the track all all among the changes that have taken place. All of these, by the way, were much needed and a large improvement to the track.
Most important for the racers and the racing in general was the significant increase in the banking of the corners and the widening of the corners too. Early in the show, while the track was holding moisture better, I got a quick glimpse of how the racing could be as the cars were running side by side and using many lines of the track. Back in the day, the vast majority of the racing was done right on the tires and it was rare to be able to move up the track and pass.
Later on Sunday, the track dried out quickly due to the brutal winds that howled and sucked the moisture out of the track but even at the end of the night, a high groove was available when the bottom got too slick and that was pretty much a nonentity in past years too. So, overall all, the changes to the racing surface have been very much positive moves.
The old VIP tower, that annoyance that hung out over the track and ruined many of the prime viewing spots in the grandstands, has been turned into the official's tower for scoring and announcing as well as for the Race Director. Amazingly, in the old days, the scorers and announcer actually couldn't even see the three-four corner because the VIP tower stuck out too far and obscured the view for the officials! Unbelievable. I wonder who was the chief engineer on that project?
One thing that was a "blast from the past" was that the irrepressible Lonn Oelke has returned to the announcer's tower at Mason City. My goodness, long before he hit the road with USMTS, he used to announce here and at Fairmont and now he's back to his roots, as I believe he now works at both tracks.
When Oelke stopped following the USMTS as their announcer, rumors of his demise surfaced and the rumors had him as either Mayor of Ceylon Minnesota or a part of T-Rump's Washington team. Apparently neither were correct. In any event, it was good to hear him behind the mic again and he was in rare form, cracking jokes and not taking himself too seriously, a pleasant departure from many announcers that work too hard at not having any fun and not bringing any fun to the spectators too. I'm just sorry that I didn't catch up with him before the show.
The nomenclature in racing remains more than confusing. This being a USRA track, and one co-promoted by the head of the that very organization, one would think that they would get straight the titles of their various divisions. However, more than once during the evening, the mid level Modifieds were referred to as the Sport Mods when that's an IMCA title as these cars should have been referred to as B Mods. I get wild about that at home when people call them the B Mods when they should be referred to as the Midwest Mods. Oh well, I guess as long as everyone knows what class you're referring to, that's the important thing.
I prefer the draw/redraw format over the point average method simply because I think it's fairer for the drivers. However, there can be times when draw/redraw comes back to bite you where it hurts. On this night, four of the five feature winners started right in the front row with only Jason Cummins' drive from the fourth row to win the Modified feature breaking up the trend. That race and the Stock Car battle between Luke Saathoff and Kevin Donlin were by far the highlights of what otherwise was a pretty predictable show.
Even Lonn referred to the fact that the show needed more race cars and there were barely enough in any division to have two heat races. How ironic was it that the head of one of the most powerful Modified sanctioning bodies in the country was involved in the promotion of this event and the Modified car count was the lowest of all the divisions with just enough cars for two heats. Some of the Modifieds were true USMTS cars and most of the others converted over and their looks and performance were dramatically different as that appears to be a major stumbling block to the growth of the class at this track. There just aren't too many true USMTS cars in north Iowa.
However, their feature race proved to be the best of the night with Ryan Ruter holding off the pack for seventeen laps until Jason Cummins made a bold outside pass coming to the white flag. Cummins had benefited from several yellow flags and a diminished field to get to second but he appeared considerably faster than Ruter at the end. However, Ryan was using the track well and making a pass difficult. After nearly getting by on the low side several times, Ruter moved down to block that groove and Cummins blasted past him on the top side and drove home for the win.
The other notable race was in the Stock Cars where Luke Saathoff was the early leader until the groove moved up the track and Kevin Donlin blew past him for the lead. However, following a yellow flag, Saathoff also moved up the track and when Donlin overcooked turn one and nearly went out into the corn field, Saathoff retook the lead. The drama at the end of the race saw Saathoff's car smoking heavily but it stayed in one piece and he held off Donlin for the win.
Brandon Hare led wire to wire in the B Mods as did Chanse Hollatz in the Hobby Stocks and Mitch Balik in the Tuners(four cylinders).
Before the races, Dylan Suhr introduced himself to me and we talked about the rich racing heritage he comes from. The rookie driver is the eldest grandson of the late Kenny Farrell, a North Iowa racing legend who passed away a couple of years ago. Suhr is getting a late start in racing as he graduated from Iowa State and got himself a solid job before he considered starting a racing career. An engineer for John Deere in Waterloo, Suhr holds true to the racing family he comes from as his car number, #87, is his grandfather's number inverted. He said he's having great fun in his rookie year of racing and can hardly wait for the weekend to come so he can get to the track. He is racing here and in West Union in his first year.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Stolp and Lamberies Top Night Two at "The Clash"
Wednesday night, June 21st, I was a repeater in that I returned to the 141 Speedway near Francis Creek Wisconsin for night two of the ninth annual "Clash at the Creek."
This was not my original plan but if one wants to see racing when on the road, one needs to be flexible. Just ask California's Ron Rodda about that. My original thought was to head to Farley Iowa for the SummerNationals event to be staged there on Wednesday and then skedaddle home. However, one look at the weather radar on Wednesday morning gave me cold feet and it was time to go to plan B. I waited around as long as I could in Manitowoc Wisconsin where I was staying and still make it to Farley, but at some point a decision had to be made, and I opted to stay put where I knew the weather was fine and a race most certainly would take place on Wednesday night while Farley still looked very much up in the air. Later I would get a text message that Farley was indeed canceled, so for once I didn't out maneuver myself and the best result possible under the circumstances would take place.
Night two of "The Clash" found the IMCA Modifieds running double heat races to accumulate points that would set the fields for their big race on Thursday night. Along with the Modifieds, a full show of IMCA Stock Cars and Sport Mods would also take place with each division running for a grand to win. This would turn out to be plenty of racing for one night and would end at a delightfully early hour, with a four hour plus road trip awaiting me at the conclusion of the racing events.
Fifty nine Modifieds signed in to race on Wednesday. This was a very good field but to me, somewhat less than one might expect for a ten grand to win show. Is it just me, or have these mega buck shows for the Modifieds kind of run their course? I have nothing against paying this class lots of money but it seems to be getting to a point where beyond a certain figure, it doesn't seem to make any difference how much more the top prize is. And with this event butted up against other big paying shows coming up the end of this week at Oshkosh and Shawano, I would have thought there might be many more travelers in the house, particularly from North Dakota where not a single entrant came from. Still, there were plenty of good race cars on hand and I didn't hear any complaints about either the size or quality of the field.
Of all the interesting things that could be commented on here, there is one item that is so striking that it bears strong mention here. Now, this is a big race and there is much on the line. How many times have you been to a race like this and it turned into a crash fest? More than anything else, what leaves me with lasting memories is the startling fact in how clean the racing action was.
The Modifieds are fighting like crazy for each additional position they can gain, as each position means points and might make the difference between making the show and watching it. Yet, in the first round of ten lap heat races, of which there were six, only one yellow flag was waved! and yet they even improved that the second time around. The second set of heat races found all six running green to checkered without a single yellow flag! That is absolutely phenomenal and proof that drivers can race hard without running over each other.
Granted, the one caveat of this is that the one spin rule was in affect so drivers knew that if they spun or stopped by themselves, they were out of the race and what a fantastic difference that rule does make. Unfortunately, that brilliant rule, perhaps more than anything else that can be done to keep a program moving in this era of fans demanding a quick show, has not trickled over to the western part of the Badger state as of yet. Some day hopefully, an enlightened promoter on the West coast of the state will give it a try and a new day will have dawned.
But I digress. Many of the usual suspects were among the strongest runners and gathered up the highest point totals. They should be posted by now for those that are interested. Kyle Strickler, Hunter Marriott, Ken Schrader and Darin Duffy were among those gathering many points and perhaps the biggest heat race surprise was the winning performance by young Billy Kendall from Baxter Minnesota who ran away from the field in one of the second round heats.
One of the nice things about racing in this area is that there are big and strong fields of cars in all divisions on the eastern side of Wisconsin. Most of the Modified entrants were from the state and intermixed with some travelers, a large field is almost a certainty.
The same goes for the Stock Car and Sport Mod fields. Thirty nine Stock Cars signed in along with forty Sport Mods. The Stock Car field had a few travelers from Iowa including Jay Schmidt and Elijah Z. plus the Illinois traveler Abe Huls. Three Texas drivers were also in the field but quite frankly, they looked lost and it's hard to imagine they would drive that many hours with open trailers, only to be so slow. Hopefully for them, they can get up to speed on Thursday night.
When it came to feature time, the Stock Cars did just as good a job as the Modifieds did. The starting field of twenty four cars made it around twenty five times without triggering a single yellow flag and only one car that started the race didn't finish! On top of that, not a single car got lapped either so that kind of tells you how close the racing was.
141 Speedway is a tight quarter mile with their infamous turn four that tightens right down to a sharp left hand hook. Yet, as close as the racing was, the flagman had an easy time of it as he didn't have to wear out his arm, waving the yellow.
Aaron Stolp started on the front row but didn't lead until late in the race as he kind of fell back and then recharged himself and moved to the front. There was plenty of jockeying for the lead position and at the finish, Shawn Wagner had come from eighth to second with Derek Moede third.
The Sport Mods did nearly as well as their twenty four car field brought out the yellow only once in their main event. Tailar Ness started on the pole and was determined to carry the lead as long as possible by not moving off the hub. Luke Lamberies discovered the fast way around the track was to drive it into the third turn as hard as possible as the top side was working there, and then to peddle through the one-two corner and try not to lose too much time there as the inside line was far superior on that end.
It took him most of the race to finally pick up enough momentum so that he could clear Ness off turn four and then dive to the preferred bottom in one and once he did, he pulled away. Late in the race, Jacob Zellner also pulled off the same move to take the second place. Only five of the starters weren't on the track at the finish and again, not a single car was lapped.
By starting right on time, waving little in the way of down time, and with the drivers cooperating, twenty six races were completed between 6:15 pm and 9:40 pm. Perfect for those fans that didn't take Thursday off and wanted to head home at a reasonable hour so they weren't too tired to return on Thursday for the Modified main event plus another full show in the other two classes. It is a pleasure when you see promoters that truly "get it" and then you wonder, why are they so hard to find?
It might not have been a Late Model Summer Nationals event, but truth be told, I probably saw more passing in the first Modified heat than a whole night of SummerNationals action all together! Sad, but true. But that's a discussion for anther time.
One thing I was surprised about and should give the Late Model teams and fans in eastern Wisconsin something to hang their hat on, and that is the fact that the crowd was substantially bigger for the Late Model show plus practice on Tuesday than it was for the Modified heats and other two classes on Wednesday. While eastern Wisconsin is known for its Modified racers, I guess there is also substantial interest in the Late Models too.
Racers who run at the Oshkosh Speedzone were dancing in the streets following Tuesday night's County Board meeting. It was "push or shove" time for the Zone as there was a proclamation in front of the Board to end racing at the Zone, tear down the race track and put up a stage for the Lifefest people to use once a year.
Fortunately for race fans and racers, the proposal was turned down in a close vote so now it will be up to the promoters and the county officials to work out a new contract as they are operating on a one year contract due to expire the end of this racing season. There were a lot of "back room" politics being played on this issue with some county officials seemingly very anti-racing, but the racers stuck to their guns and convinced enough board members and citizens looking for fairness to see their side of the issue so now, at least for the time being, racing in Oshkosh seems to be safe. And truly, if you have never been to the Zone, you should make a trip to Oshkosh to see what I think is one of the top facilities in the Midwest without doubt. Especially now that they aren't firing up the wrecking ball, at least for awhile.
This was not my original plan but if one wants to see racing when on the road, one needs to be flexible. Just ask California's Ron Rodda about that. My original thought was to head to Farley Iowa for the SummerNationals event to be staged there on Wednesday and then skedaddle home. However, one look at the weather radar on Wednesday morning gave me cold feet and it was time to go to plan B. I waited around as long as I could in Manitowoc Wisconsin where I was staying and still make it to Farley, but at some point a decision had to be made, and I opted to stay put where I knew the weather was fine and a race most certainly would take place on Wednesday night while Farley still looked very much up in the air. Later I would get a text message that Farley was indeed canceled, so for once I didn't out maneuver myself and the best result possible under the circumstances would take place.
Night two of "The Clash" found the IMCA Modifieds running double heat races to accumulate points that would set the fields for their big race on Thursday night. Along with the Modifieds, a full show of IMCA Stock Cars and Sport Mods would also take place with each division running for a grand to win. This would turn out to be plenty of racing for one night and would end at a delightfully early hour, with a four hour plus road trip awaiting me at the conclusion of the racing events.
Fifty nine Modifieds signed in to race on Wednesday. This was a very good field but to me, somewhat less than one might expect for a ten grand to win show. Is it just me, or have these mega buck shows for the Modifieds kind of run their course? I have nothing against paying this class lots of money but it seems to be getting to a point where beyond a certain figure, it doesn't seem to make any difference how much more the top prize is. And with this event butted up against other big paying shows coming up the end of this week at Oshkosh and Shawano, I would have thought there might be many more travelers in the house, particularly from North Dakota where not a single entrant came from. Still, there were plenty of good race cars on hand and I didn't hear any complaints about either the size or quality of the field.
Of all the interesting things that could be commented on here, there is one item that is so striking that it bears strong mention here. Now, this is a big race and there is much on the line. How many times have you been to a race like this and it turned into a crash fest? More than anything else, what leaves me with lasting memories is the startling fact in how clean the racing action was.
The Modifieds are fighting like crazy for each additional position they can gain, as each position means points and might make the difference between making the show and watching it. Yet, in the first round of ten lap heat races, of which there were six, only one yellow flag was waved! and yet they even improved that the second time around. The second set of heat races found all six running green to checkered without a single yellow flag! That is absolutely phenomenal and proof that drivers can race hard without running over each other.
Granted, the one caveat of this is that the one spin rule was in affect so drivers knew that if they spun or stopped by themselves, they were out of the race and what a fantastic difference that rule does make. Unfortunately, that brilliant rule, perhaps more than anything else that can be done to keep a program moving in this era of fans demanding a quick show, has not trickled over to the western part of the Badger state as of yet. Some day hopefully, an enlightened promoter on the West coast of the state will give it a try and a new day will have dawned.
But I digress. Many of the usual suspects were among the strongest runners and gathered up the highest point totals. They should be posted by now for those that are interested. Kyle Strickler, Hunter Marriott, Ken Schrader and Darin Duffy were among those gathering many points and perhaps the biggest heat race surprise was the winning performance by young Billy Kendall from Baxter Minnesota who ran away from the field in one of the second round heats.
One of the nice things about racing in this area is that there are big and strong fields of cars in all divisions on the eastern side of Wisconsin. Most of the Modified entrants were from the state and intermixed with some travelers, a large field is almost a certainty.
The same goes for the Stock Car and Sport Mod fields. Thirty nine Stock Cars signed in along with forty Sport Mods. The Stock Car field had a few travelers from Iowa including Jay Schmidt and Elijah Z. plus the Illinois traveler Abe Huls. Three Texas drivers were also in the field but quite frankly, they looked lost and it's hard to imagine they would drive that many hours with open trailers, only to be so slow. Hopefully for them, they can get up to speed on Thursday night.
When it came to feature time, the Stock Cars did just as good a job as the Modifieds did. The starting field of twenty four cars made it around twenty five times without triggering a single yellow flag and only one car that started the race didn't finish! On top of that, not a single car got lapped either so that kind of tells you how close the racing was.
141 Speedway is a tight quarter mile with their infamous turn four that tightens right down to a sharp left hand hook. Yet, as close as the racing was, the flagman had an easy time of it as he didn't have to wear out his arm, waving the yellow.
Aaron Stolp started on the front row but didn't lead until late in the race as he kind of fell back and then recharged himself and moved to the front. There was plenty of jockeying for the lead position and at the finish, Shawn Wagner had come from eighth to second with Derek Moede third.
The Sport Mods did nearly as well as their twenty four car field brought out the yellow only once in their main event. Tailar Ness started on the pole and was determined to carry the lead as long as possible by not moving off the hub. Luke Lamberies discovered the fast way around the track was to drive it into the third turn as hard as possible as the top side was working there, and then to peddle through the one-two corner and try not to lose too much time there as the inside line was far superior on that end.
It took him most of the race to finally pick up enough momentum so that he could clear Ness off turn four and then dive to the preferred bottom in one and once he did, he pulled away. Late in the race, Jacob Zellner also pulled off the same move to take the second place. Only five of the starters weren't on the track at the finish and again, not a single car was lapped.
By starting right on time, waving little in the way of down time, and with the drivers cooperating, twenty six races were completed between 6:15 pm and 9:40 pm. Perfect for those fans that didn't take Thursday off and wanted to head home at a reasonable hour so they weren't too tired to return on Thursday for the Modified main event plus another full show in the other two classes. It is a pleasure when you see promoters that truly "get it" and then you wonder, why are they so hard to find?
It might not have been a Late Model Summer Nationals event, but truth be told, I probably saw more passing in the first Modified heat than a whole night of SummerNationals action all together! Sad, but true. But that's a discussion for anther time.
One thing I was surprised about and should give the Late Model teams and fans in eastern Wisconsin something to hang their hat on, and that is the fact that the crowd was substantially bigger for the Late Model show plus practice on Tuesday than it was for the Modified heats and other two classes on Wednesday. While eastern Wisconsin is known for its Modified racers, I guess there is also substantial interest in the Late Models too.
Racers who run at the Oshkosh Speedzone were dancing in the streets following Tuesday night's County Board meeting. It was "push or shove" time for the Zone as there was a proclamation in front of the Board to end racing at the Zone, tear down the race track and put up a stage for the Lifefest people to use once a year.
Fortunately for race fans and racers, the proposal was turned down in a close vote so now it will be up to the promoters and the county officials to work out a new contract as they are operating on a one year contract due to expire the end of this racing season. There were a lot of "back room" politics being played on this issue with some county officials seemingly very anti-racing, but the racers stuck to their guns and convinced enough board members and citizens looking for fairness to see their side of the issue so now, at least for the time being, racing in Oshkosh seems to be safe. And truly, if you have never been to the Zone, you should make a trip to Oshkosh to see what I think is one of the top facilities in the Midwest without doubt. Especially now that they aren't firing up the wrecking ball, at least for awhile.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Anvelink Repeats in Northeast Wisconsin Late Model Action
Tuesday night, June 20th found me at a highly respected racing facility for an interesting event. I was at the 141 Speedway near Francis Creek Wisconsin for the preliminary to the preliminary to the Clash at the Creek, the ten grand to win IMCA Modified event. But on this night it wasn't the Modifieds that held center stage but the Late Models of the Dirt Kings Late Model tour who were running their fourth event of the year.
Of course, 141 Speedway is the highly decorated dirt track that not that many years ago was a blacktop track that was ready to fold, and now look at where they are. Under the ownership of Toby Kruse and the Ratajczak brothers, they pack in the crowds for their Saturday night shows, have plenty of race cars and have made many improvements to the facility. After a bumpy off season when they and the local elected officials weren't seeing eye to eye on some issues involving parking, camping and other crowd flow issues, things have been ironed out enough for everyone to move foward and 141 to schedule another aggressive season of racing, with a number of special events.
None however, are any bigger than the Clash at the Creek with Modifieds from a wide area in attendance to go for the large posted purse.
Tuesday night was night number one of this event, a night reserved for Modified practice along with Stock Cars and Sport Mods which will also be running shows on Wednesday and Thursday. However, Kruse if nothing if not but a sharp businessman. Rather than having no one in the stands for the practice night, Toby came up with a plan to run one class of cars in a quick, full show along with the extended practice for other divisions. He first tried this last Fall at his two day end of the season event where he ran the WDLMA Late Models. The crowd was good and the show was a quick one and it clearly was a winner, as the Late Models were again scheduled for the opening night event, this year under the sanctioning of the Dirt Knights, the new organization that was forced after buying out the assets of the WDLMA.
The Dirt Knights have been a solid hit so far this season, drawing good fields of cars and putting on professionally run shows so far at Luxemburg, Angell Park and Shawano. Again on Tuesday, even with it being a week night, they still drew a solid field of twenty four Late Models, split about in the middle between those that race at Shawano and those that race at Plymouth. It was apparently just a little too far for the WISSOTA drivers to make it tonight. Nine of the top ten and thirteen of the top fifteen in current points pulled to 141 to race.
The action started at 6 pm with a solid, nonstop hour of practice for all classes that are racing this week. For those interested in the Modifieds, along with most of the top IMCA runners in eastern Wisconsin, some of the out of state drivers spotted practicing included Tom Berry and Lance Mari from California, Kyle Strickler and Kenny Schrader from North Carolina, Mike Garland and Bone Larson from Illinois, Hunter Marriott from Missouri, Jordan Grabouski and Dylan Smith from Nebraska, Billy Kendall from Minnesota and Iowa drivers Cory Dripps, the Browns, Kelly Shryock, Shane Demey and Darin Duffy. I'm sure there were also others that didn't practice.
At 7 pm, the Late Models came to the track for their heat races on the super slick and black, quarter mile, egg shaped oval that can and does give grief to many drivers. However, the Late Models did a nice job racing the track, and even those unfamiliar with it did a good job as there was only one yellow flag needed during the preliminaries. Series officals opted to move everyone into the main, avoid running a B with passing points setting the main lineup.
It was then time for more practice for all classes and in an interesting turn of events that I may have never seen before, Late Models were out on the track getting extra practice, even though they had already ran their preliminary events.
At 8:30 pm, practice was shut down again and the Late Models took to the track for their thirty lap main event. All the practice laps saw the inside lane get used pretty heavily and with the tight corners at 141, it would seem that the low groove would work much better. However, when the green flag dropped, it would be just the opposite. Mike Mullen was on the pole and seemed like a likely winner, but Bret Swedberg went to the high side and made the outside momentum work as he jumped into the lead. Mullen would challenge him but so also would Ron Berna, Nick Anvelink and Jared Siefert.
Swedberg would continue to lead but his margin was small and there were about a half dozen cars swapping positions behind him. Early on, Mitch McGrath would be very entertaining as he jumped to the high side of the track and came charging to the front. So also did Justin Schmidt and they drew the crowd's attention with their daring high side runs. Unfortunately, both came to "croppers" when McGrath climbed the back stretch wall and almost flipped, yet never even backed off and came back to earth with his foot still in the firewall while Schmidt tried too hard and spun, triggering the first yellow.
Still Swedberg led but his lead was shorter as on the restarts, Mullen would challenge him again and again and as a couple of more yellows flew, it got dicier each time for Swedberg. Anvelink eventually worked himself to the low side of the track and following another yellow, this time took the lead. In the last few laps he would be challenged again by Mullen, but would hold on for the win. Swedberg either wore out the top side or his tires as he fell back to third at the finish after a valiant effort. Berna and Buhler would complete the top five as twenty one of twenty four starters were still on the track at the finish.
It was an entertaining main event and the best thing was that they were done at 9 pm. The other classes had another ninety minutes left of tire burning, but I chose to call it a night at this point. This unique way of handling the practice night is quite novel and perhaps something that other tracks might want to look at when it comes to scheduling the inevitable practice nights that precede many of the big races of the year. It certainly puts many more fans in the stands that wouldn't be there otherwise and once there, they buy food, drink and apparel.
Of course, 141 Speedway is the highly decorated dirt track that not that many years ago was a blacktop track that was ready to fold, and now look at where they are. Under the ownership of Toby Kruse and the Ratajczak brothers, they pack in the crowds for their Saturday night shows, have plenty of race cars and have made many improvements to the facility. After a bumpy off season when they and the local elected officials weren't seeing eye to eye on some issues involving parking, camping and other crowd flow issues, things have been ironed out enough for everyone to move foward and 141 to schedule another aggressive season of racing, with a number of special events.
None however, are any bigger than the Clash at the Creek with Modifieds from a wide area in attendance to go for the large posted purse.
Tuesday night was night number one of this event, a night reserved for Modified practice along with Stock Cars and Sport Mods which will also be running shows on Wednesday and Thursday. However, Kruse if nothing if not but a sharp businessman. Rather than having no one in the stands for the practice night, Toby came up with a plan to run one class of cars in a quick, full show along with the extended practice for other divisions. He first tried this last Fall at his two day end of the season event where he ran the WDLMA Late Models. The crowd was good and the show was a quick one and it clearly was a winner, as the Late Models were again scheduled for the opening night event, this year under the sanctioning of the Dirt Knights, the new organization that was forced after buying out the assets of the WDLMA.
The Dirt Knights have been a solid hit so far this season, drawing good fields of cars and putting on professionally run shows so far at Luxemburg, Angell Park and Shawano. Again on Tuesday, even with it being a week night, they still drew a solid field of twenty four Late Models, split about in the middle between those that race at Shawano and those that race at Plymouth. It was apparently just a little too far for the WISSOTA drivers to make it tonight. Nine of the top ten and thirteen of the top fifteen in current points pulled to 141 to race.
The action started at 6 pm with a solid, nonstop hour of practice for all classes that are racing this week. For those interested in the Modifieds, along with most of the top IMCA runners in eastern Wisconsin, some of the out of state drivers spotted practicing included Tom Berry and Lance Mari from California, Kyle Strickler and Kenny Schrader from North Carolina, Mike Garland and Bone Larson from Illinois, Hunter Marriott from Missouri, Jordan Grabouski and Dylan Smith from Nebraska, Billy Kendall from Minnesota and Iowa drivers Cory Dripps, the Browns, Kelly Shryock, Shane Demey and Darin Duffy. I'm sure there were also others that didn't practice.
At 7 pm, the Late Models came to the track for their heat races on the super slick and black, quarter mile, egg shaped oval that can and does give grief to many drivers. However, the Late Models did a nice job racing the track, and even those unfamiliar with it did a good job as there was only one yellow flag needed during the preliminaries. Series officals opted to move everyone into the main, avoid running a B with passing points setting the main lineup.
It was then time for more practice for all classes and in an interesting turn of events that I may have never seen before, Late Models were out on the track getting extra practice, even though they had already ran their preliminary events.
At 8:30 pm, practice was shut down again and the Late Models took to the track for their thirty lap main event. All the practice laps saw the inside lane get used pretty heavily and with the tight corners at 141, it would seem that the low groove would work much better. However, when the green flag dropped, it would be just the opposite. Mike Mullen was on the pole and seemed like a likely winner, but Bret Swedberg went to the high side and made the outside momentum work as he jumped into the lead. Mullen would challenge him but so also would Ron Berna, Nick Anvelink and Jared Siefert.
Swedberg would continue to lead but his margin was small and there were about a half dozen cars swapping positions behind him. Early on, Mitch McGrath would be very entertaining as he jumped to the high side of the track and came charging to the front. So also did Justin Schmidt and they drew the crowd's attention with their daring high side runs. Unfortunately, both came to "croppers" when McGrath climbed the back stretch wall and almost flipped, yet never even backed off and came back to earth with his foot still in the firewall while Schmidt tried too hard and spun, triggering the first yellow.
Still Swedberg led but his lead was shorter as on the restarts, Mullen would challenge him again and again and as a couple of more yellows flew, it got dicier each time for Swedberg. Anvelink eventually worked himself to the low side of the track and following another yellow, this time took the lead. In the last few laps he would be challenged again by Mullen, but would hold on for the win. Swedberg either wore out the top side or his tires as he fell back to third at the finish after a valiant effort. Berna and Buhler would complete the top five as twenty one of twenty four starters were still on the track at the finish.
It was an entertaining main event and the best thing was that they were done at 9 pm. The other classes had another ninety minutes left of tire burning, but I chose to call it a night at this point. This unique way of handling the practice night is quite novel and perhaps something that other tracks might want to look at when it comes to scheduling the inevitable practice nights that precede many of the big races of the year. It certainly puts many more fans in the stands that wouldn't be there otherwise and once there, they buy food, drink and apparel.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Jake Timm A New Face in USMTS Victory Lane
The USMTS Modifieds took over the Ogilvie Raceway near Ogilvie Minnesota on Wednesday, June 14th along with unsanctioned B Modifieds for a makeup show from a previous rain out almost four weeks ago. There was not a lot of excitement among the Modified drivers for this event, as it was an "ad on" to their schedule and coming just before the fifty thousand dollar to win weekend, many would have just as soon taken the night off to tighten up their equipment and prepare for the important weekend ahead.
This was reflected in the fact that USMTS regulars such as Cade Dillard, R.C. Whitwell, Adam kates, Tyler Wolff, Mike Densberger and several others were conspicuous by their absence. Still, there were enough local and regional racers ready to race to make the field of twenty nine acceptable to the fans.
Along with the USMTS cars, the unsanctioned B Modifieds were also in action with a three thousand and one dollar top prize awaiting them. The composition of this field is and interesting one and I'll get to that later.
First, an update on last night's event at Mississippi Thunder Speedway. Track owner Bob Timm was on hand on Wednesday night to help his son Jake who was racing his Modified and he was available to speak briefly, something that he wasn't able to do on Tuesday.
The Timm Racing Team was tired, having put in a long day on Tuesday and then heading out directly for Ogilvie as soon as they got things buttoned up at MTS. Bob said he only got about four hours of sleep and most of that came after they arrived Wednesday morning in Ogilvie.
Bob stated that the entire purse of his event Tuesday was paid for by his sponsor for that night, Miller Ingenuity. They are a very civic minded business in Winona MN and with the combination of the community based Steamboat Days celebration plus the fact that it was Breast-Fest at the speedway(a breast cancer fund raiser for those of you thinking dirty thoughts), Miller Ingenuity was all for sponsoring the event to the extent that they did. Bob also tipped that he worked for Miller while he was going to high school so he knew the business well.
They paid the entire fifteen thousand dollar plus purse so he could afford to only charge five bucks or the Steamboat Days button as admission. That being said, Timm was very disappointed in both the fan turnout and the car count for this show.
With only forty seven cars racing in the three main classes, he called the drivers "sketchy" this year in that it's almost impossible to know how many cars are going to be on hand for any event and that traveling to races seems to be way down.
He was also disappointed in the small crowd, given the amount of local advertising the Steamboat Days tie in with the race received in both print and on the radio. We both agreed that the blistering hot conditions likely had a part in the small crowd but he still felt that there should have been more people on hand then there were.
So, the Timm Racing Team went into Wednesday night on a bit of a "downer" but that was soon to be changed around dramatically. About five hours or so after we spoke, they were wildly celebrating their first ever USMTS feature win when Jake Timm got past Jason Hughes in lapped traffic with just a few laps to go to get his monumental win.
The Modified forty lap main event went nonstop and with Hughes redrawing the front row, the decision on who would win seemed obvious. However, while Hughes took the early lead, he wasn't able to run away from the pack like I anticipated and Jacob Bleess and Timm were able to stay within striking distance.
As the race moved into its later stages, lapped traffic became a concern as Hughes was finding himself getting slowed up in the traffic and Timm caught him with Zach VanderBeek also catching the leader.
One particular car, due to be lapped, just would not move over and he was just fast enough that Hughes couldn't get by him. Unable to get a nose under the lapped car, Hughes didn't appear good enough to drive around the lapper, or perhaps the track was starting to take rubber and the low groove was just too good to leave.
In any event, Hughes was stymied, and when he slipped up the track just once, Timm was right there to take over the lead and when Hughes then tried to go high around the lapped car and repass for the point, he gave up second to VanderBeek too.
Timm drove on to the somewhat surprising win, surprising because Hughes simply doesn't give up the lead like that very often. He wasn't particularly jovial when interviewed, but one can understand his frustration. I, myself too hate to see a driver loose a win because the backmarkers can't figure out that they shouldn't be hogging the groove on a lead pack racing for the win, but the reality is that sometimes it happens.
However, Timm had a very good car at the end and his did exactly what he needed to do to get the win without roughing the leader either. In a short few years, Jake has come a long way as a driver and with his father supplying him with top notch equipment, he is a threat every night. By the way, to this point, I don't think Bob has raced at all this year and is he really retired or just waiting to get a second team car on the track?
Forty three B Mods signed in to race for the $3,001 dollar top prize in their class. While only one car in the field wasn't a WISSOTA sanctioned car, the race was run unsanctioned for one reason only. Chubbs Performance, who was the sponsor of the event, wanted to restrict the drivers that could participate in this event to Midwest Mod or B Mod drivers only. They didn't want any part time or full time Late Model or Modified or even Super Stock drivers coming in and taking the top prize which they wanted to see a limited Mod driver win.
If the race was sanctioned, likely by WISSOTA since this is a normal WISSOTA track, then they couldn't issue these kind of restrictions under the rules of WISSOTA so they had to run it unsanctioned to do this. Several drivers were denied entry due to their current or previous racing experience and likely, for the amount of money that the drivers were racing for, a sanctioned event would have drawn a bigger field but the sponsor was adamant on their feelings.
The B Mod feature didn't go quite as smooth as the USMTS race, with four yellows and one red for a flipping car on a restart. Coming from the third starting position, young Eric Lamm, the grandson of chassis builder Dave Jones, was the winner over Mitch Weiss and Travis Schulte. Weiss, a top notch MidMod driver in his own right, was driving the car of Jason VandeKamp on this night as VandeKamp was illegal to race, having also raced a Modified from time to time. Weiss had never been in the car before but did a fine job finishing second.
Lamm is in only his third year of racing but he has inherited the Jones family skills and is a star in the making. Speaking of the Jones family, legendary Modified driver Ron Jones was on hand to watch his son Corey, a young open wheel driver who has shown marked improvement this year, race Wednesday too and I got to talk to Ron for a few minutes. Corey had bad luck Wednesday when a flat tire took him out of the main early.
Speaking of the ups and downs of racing, Ben Moudry, the winner of a grand on Tuesday at MTS, was the lone USRA entrant on Wednesday night, and seemed to be riding high after his big win on Tuesday. However, with the quirks of racing, on Wednesday he got a flat tire right off the bat in his heat, and failed to make the main from a B feature. That's just some of the highs and lows in this often frustrating sport.
Thanks to Nate Fischer, promoter at the "Big O" along with the Wagamon family that own the track and Todd Staley and everyone else with the USMTS for a good night of racing.
This was reflected in the fact that USMTS regulars such as Cade Dillard, R.C. Whitwell, Adam kates, Tyler Wolff, Mike Densberger and several others were conspicuous by their absence. Still, there were enough local and regional racers ready to race to make the field of twenty nine acceptable to the fans.
Along with the USMTS cars, the unsanctioned B Modifieds were also in action with a three thousand and one dollar top prize awaiting them. The composition of this field is and interesting one and I'll get to that later.
First, an update on last night's event at Mississippi Thunder Speedway. Track owner Bob Timm was on hand on Wednesday night to help his son Jake who was racing his Modified and he was available to speak briefly, something that he wasn't able to do on Tuesday.
The Timm Racing Team was tired, having put in a long day on Tuesday and then heading out directly for Ogilvie as soon as they got things buttoned up at MTS. Bob said he only got about four hours of sleep and most of that came after they arrived Wednesday morning in Ogilvie.
Bob stated that the entire purse of his event Tuesday was paid for by his sponsor for that night, Miller Ingenuity. They are a very civic minded business in Winona MN and with the combination of the community based Steamboat Days celebration plus the fact that it was Breast-Fest at the speedway(a breast cancer fund raiser for those of you thinking dirty thoughts), Miller Ingenuity was all for sponsoring the event to the extent that they did. Bob also tipped that he worked for Miller while he was going to high school so he knew the business well.
They paid the entire fifteen thousand dollar plus purse so he could afford to only charge five bucks or the Steamboat Days button as admission. That being said, Timm was very disappointed in both the fan turnout and the car count for this show.
With only forty seven cars racing in the three main classes, he called the drivers "sketchy" this year in that it's almost impossible to know how many cars are going to be on hand for any event and that traveling to races seems to be way down.
He was also disappointed in the small crowd, given the amount of local advertising the Steamboat Days tie in with the race received in both print and on the radio. We both agreed that the blistering hot conditions likely had a part in the small crowd but he still felt that there should have been more people on hand then there were.
So, the Timm Racing Team went into Wednesday night on a bit of a "downer" but that was soon to be changed around dramatically. About five hours or so after we spoke, they were wildly celebrating their first ever USMTS feature win when Jake Timm got past Jason Hughes in lapped traffic with just a few laps to go to get his monumental win.
The Modified forty lap main event went nonstop and with Hughes redrawing the front row, the decision on who would win seemed obvious. However, while Hughes took the early lead, he wasn't able to run away from the pack like I anticipated and Jacob Bleess and Timm were able to stay within striking distance.
As the race moved into its later stages, lapped traffic became a concern as Hughes was finding himself getting slowed up in the traffic and Timm caught him with Zach VanderBeek also catching the leader.
One particular car, due to be lapped, just would not move over and he was just fast enough that Hughes couldn't get by him. Unable to get a nose under the lapped car, Hughes didn't appear good enough to drive around the lapper, or perhaps the track was starting to take rubber and the low groove was just too good to leave.
In any event, Hughes was stymied, and when he slipped up the track just once, Timm was right there to take over the lead and when Hughes then tried to go high around the lapped car and repass for the point, he gave up second to VanderBeek too.
Timm drove on to the somewhat surprising win, surprising because Hughes simply doesn't give up the lead like that very often. He wasn't particularly jovial when interviewed, but one can understand his frustration. I, myself too hate to see a driver loose a win because the backmarkers can't figure out that they shouldn't be hogging the groove on a lead pack racing for the win, but the reality is that sometimes it happens.
However, Timm had a very good car at the end and his did exactly what he needed to do to get the win without roughing the leader either. In a short few years, Jake has come a long way as a driver and with his father supplying him with top notch equipment, he is a threat every night. By the way, to this point, I don't think Bob has raced at all this year and is he really retired or just waiting to get a second team car on the track?
Forty three B Mods signed in to race for the $3,001 dollar top prize in their class. While only one car in the field wasn't a WISSOTA sanctioned car, the race was run unsanctioned for one reason only. Chubbs Performance, who was the sponsor of the event, wanted to restrict the drivers that could participate in this event to Midwest Mod or B Mod drivers only. They didn't want any part time or full time Late Model or Modified or even Super Stock drivers coming in and taking the top prize which they wanted to see a limited Mod driver win.
If the race was sanctioned, likely by WISSOTA since this is a normal WISSOTA track, then they couldn't issue these kind of restrictions under the rules of WISSOTA so they had to run it unsanctioned to do this. Several drivers were denied entry due to their current or previous racing experience and likely, for the amount of money that the drivers were racing for, a sanctioned event would have drawn a bigger field but the sponsor was adamant on their feelings.
The B Mod feature didn't go quite as smooth as the USMTS race, with four yellows and one red for a flipping car on a restart. Coming from the third starting position, young Eric Lamm, the grandson of chassis builder Dave Jones, was the winner over Mitch Weiss and Travis Schulte. Weiss, a top notch MidMod driver in his own right, was driving the car of Jason VandeKamp on this night as VandeKamp was illegal to race, having also raced a Modified from time to time. Weiss had never been in the car before but did a fine job finishing second.
Lamm is in only his third year of racing but he has inherited the Jones family skills and is a star in the making. Speaking of the Jones family, legendary Modified driver Ron Jones was on hand to watch his son Corey, a young open wheel driver who has shown marked improvement this year, race Wednesday too and I got to talk to Ron for a few minutes. Corey had bad luck Wednesday when a flat tire took him out of the main early.
Speaking of the ups and downs of racing, Ben Moudry, the winner of a grand on Tuesday at MTS, was the lone USRA entrant on Wednesday night, and seemed to be riding high after his big win on Tuesday. However, with the quirks of racing, on Wednesday he got a flat tire right off the bat in his heat, and failed to make the main from a B feature. That's just some of the highs and lows in this often frustrating sport.
Thanks to Nate Fischer, promoter at the "Big O" along with the Wagamon family that own the track and Todd Staley and everyone else with the USMTS for a good night of racing.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Angst "Steam rolls" Field at MTS
I'm back. I've been doing a lot of WISSOTA racing in the last couple of weeks so you haven't seen much of me on these pages. I'd love to give you reports from my recent visits to the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta Iowa or the first ever appearance of Late Models at the historic Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie Wisconsin but management decided otherwise so those will have to disappear into "the cloud" forever.
However, one race that I can report on was the 1st annual Steamboat Days Race for a Cause at Bob Timm's Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin held on Tuesday night, June 13th.
A little back round is needed here. MTS isn't right on the Mississippi River but it is very close to the river and while the race track sits just a couple miles North of Fountain City, both the city of Fountain City Wisconsin and its neighboring city just down the river in Winona Minnesota, by far the biggest local population center, both are right on the Mississippi. Obviously, the river is important to local commerce and Fountain City has one of the biggest levees on the river operated by the Army Corp of Engineers. Tourism is a big part of the area economy so celebrations like this area huge.
Every year Winona has their Steamboat Days Festival featuring all sorts of activities and street dances and live music are among their biggest draws. Over the years, MTS has tried to run special events on their regular Friday night slot and have not done well in attendance due to all the Steamboat Days activities. They have also taken that Friday night off and didn't race on some years.
This year they came up with a new strategy, one that I could be a part of. They decided to race on Tuesday night, featuring a short program of only three classes that would be done early so that spectators, if they wanted, could still get back to Winona before the music started at 10 pm. They also had a special admission price of only five dollars to get in or free admission for those that had a Steamboat Days button. It seemed like a good plan but no one took in to account the weather, which threw another "blast furnace with humidity" kind of day at the track, with it being almost too miserable to even be outside. An inch and a half of rain the day before and the miserable heat didn't stop the racing action, but no doubt it did put a damper on the crowd in attendance.
MTS is a USRA sanctioned track with Hobby Stocks, B Mods and Modifieds being the three classes in action on this night. There aren't many USRA sanctioned tracks in this part of the country so they have to rely on drivers from Rochester, the Austin area of Chateau Speedway and drivers from northeastern Iowa to show up to enhance the local fields.
The Hobby Stock class was just started at the track last year and it has been slow to build. Tuesday they had a dozen Hobbies but about half were from the Decorah Iowa area who journeyed up on this night. In an attempt to "beef" up the numbers in the class, Timm recently allowed the WISSOTA Street Stocks, the class he eliminated to bring in the Hobby Stocks, to race with the Hobbies but that proved to be an unfair match and the local drivers complained about that, so he stopped that practice.
MTS always has lots of B Mods and their field Tuesday was down considerably from their regular numbers, likely because of the midweek race.
Getting Modifieds has been a struggle at MTS this year, just as it has been an many tracks across the country. Normally they struggle to just get enough for two heats and on this night, they had fourteen sign in to race. Because of the USMTS rain out in Aberdeen South Dakota, scheduled for Tuesday also, they picked up out of state travelers Ricky Thornton Jr, Zane Devilbiss and Lance Mari who were all in the area. They were likely looking for a pay check for gas money as they moved farther North and also to get laps at the track in preparation for upcoming shows. None would be factors in the night's racing with Mari the best at ninth in the main event.
Actually, I've never seen Thornton Jr so slow as he was on Tuesday, as he started and finished last in his heat race and was running in the last position in the main until he gave up and pulled into the infield.
Timm and his partners have done an amazing job of upgrading MTS since they bought the race track and it is hardly recognizable to the old, tri oval that used to be here. The latest change happened last Fall with a re configuring of the corners. Previously, the corners kind of flattened out in front of the wall so there was a run off area but also an area that couldn't be raced on.
Now, the track has been banked much higher that it was previously and the banking continues its progressive nature right up to the "jersey barricades" that surround the track. I've been told that it has helped the racing and allowed more passing and side by side racing.
I didn't see that on Tuesday however, as getting the track in shape from the previous rains had been their main focus and just getting the track dry enough to race on was their priority. So, the track didn't get properly watered, and the surface was kind of loose in the high groove, which kept the racers mostly in the low and middle lines all night with not much high side racing or passing taking place.
Just as promised, they started right on time at 7 pm, kept the three class show moving along and had the entire event done well before 9:30 pm. The program ran off incredibly smooth with a total of only three yellow flags waved all night. There was one big multi car pileup in the B Mod feature but other than that, it was mostly green flag racing.
Brady Link started on the outside pole of the Hobby Stock feature and he led all the way in a race that saw little happening. It was the fifth feature win at MTS already this season for Link and it makes it tough to try and build a class when one driver dominates so much that the competition is discouraged to even try.
The B Mods was much more intense with Alex Williamson leading for awhile until he was passed by Ben Moudry. Moudry led the rest of the way but had to fight off a couple of drivers. Kylie Kath, who usually races at Chateau Speedway on Fridays, nearly stole the race from the locals as he started seventh and moved up to second and appeared ready to challenge for the lead.
The big yellow pileup seemed to slow his momentum and Iowa's Dan Hovden got the jump on him on the restart and finished second. Youngster Jayden Larson is starting to pick up the pace as he moved from ninth to finish a close fourth.
There might not be a lot of Modifieds, but the ones they have are mighty tough. It was a four car parade of MB Customs that led the way with Josh Angst leading from start to finish with Jake Timm close behind along with Lucas Schott and Dustin Sorensen. Sorensen is the only one that doesn't race weekly at the track as he is a Chateau regular on Fridays. The Modified main event went green from start to finish with all cars still on the lead lap at the double checkers.
MTS is one of the few tracks around that has a posted order of events available on line and at the track ready for the first competitors. They also have a very nice, eight page color program that is free of charge and contains a yearly schedule, point standings, a concession menu, general track information, explanation of the classes racing and a driver profile every week. It's one of the more informative free programs that I have seen.
Thanks to Bob Timm and his staff for their help as well as a welcome from track co-announcer Dan Bailey. I didn't get to speak to Bob at all as on race night, the track is his "baby" and he spends the vast majority of his time either on the water wagon or some other heavy equipment.
However, one race that I can report on was the 1st annual Steamboat Days Race for a Cause at Bob Timm's Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin held on Tuesday night, June 13th.
A little back round is needed here. MTS isn't right on the Mississippi River but it is very close to the river and while the race track sits just a couple miles North of Fountain City, both the city of Fountain City Wisconsin and its neighboring city just down the river in Winona Minnesota, by far the biggest local population center, both are right on the Mississippi. Obviously, the river is important to local commerce and Fountain City has one of the biggest levees on the river operated by the Army Corp of Engineers. Tourism is a big part of the area economy so celebrations like this area huge.
Every year Winona has their Steamboat Days Festival featuring all sorts of activities and street dances and live music are among their biggest draws. Over the years, MTS has tried to run special events on their regular Friday night slot and have not done well in attendance due to all the Steamboat Days activities. They have also taken that Friday night off and didn't race on some years.
This year they came up with a new strategy, one that I could be a part of. They decided to race on Tuesday night, featuring a short program of only three classes that would be done early so that spectators, if they wanted, could still get back to Winona before the music started at 10 pm. They also had a special admission price of only five dollars to get in or free admission for those that had a Steamboat Days button. It seemed like a good plan but no one took in to account the weather, which threw another "blast furnace with humidity" kind of day at the track, with it being almost too miserable to even be outside. An inch and a half of rain the day before and the miserable heat didn't stop the racing action, but no doubt it did put a damper on the crowd in attendance.
MTS is a USRA sanctioned track with Hobby Stocks, B Mods and Modifieds being the three classes in action on this night. There aren't many USRA sanctioned tracks in this part of the country so they have to rely on drivers from Rochester, the Austin area of Chateau Speedway and drivers from northeastern Iowa to show up to enhance the local fields.
The Hobby Stock class was just started at the track last year and it has been slow to build. Tuesday they had a dozen Hobbies but about half were from the Decorah Iowa area who journeyed up on this night. In an attempt to "beef" up the numbers in the class, Timm recently allowed the WISSOTA Street Stocks, the class he eliminated to bring in the Hobby Stocks, to race with the Hobbies but that proved to be an unfair match and the local drivers complained about that, so he stopped that practice.
MTS always has lots of B Mods and their field Tuesday was down considerably from their regular numbers, likely because of the midweek race.
Getting Modifieds has been a struggle at MTS this year, just as it has been an many tracks across the country. Normally they struggle to just get enough for two heats and on this night, they had fourteen sign in to race. Because of the USMTS rain out in Aberdeen South Dakota, scheduled for Tuesday also, they picked up out of state travelers Ricky Thornton Jr, Zane Devilbiss and Lance Mari who were all in the area. They were likely looking for a pay check for gas money as they moved farther North and also to get laps at the track in preparation for upcoming shows. None would be factors in the night's racing with Mari the best at ninth in the main event.
Actually, I've never seen Thornton Jr so slow as he was on Tuesday, as he started and finished last in his heat race and was running in the last position in the main until he gave up and pulled into the infield.
Timm and his partners have done an amazing job of upgrading MTS since they bought the race track and it is hardly recognizable to the old, tri oval that used to be here. The latest change happened last Fall with a re configuring of the corners. Previously, the corners kind of flattened out in front of the wall so there was a run off area but also an area that couldn't be raced on.
Now, the track has been banked much higher that it was previously and the banking continues its progressive nature right up to the "jersey barricades" that surround the track. I've been told that it has helped the racing and allowed more passing and side by side racing.
I didn't see that on Tuesday however, as getting the track in shape from the previous rains had been their main focus and just getting the track dry enough to race on was their priority. So, the track didn't get properly watered, and the surface was kind of loose in the high groove, which kept the racers mostly in the low and middle lines all night with not much high side racing or passing taking place.
Just as promised, they started right on time at 7 pm, kept the three class show moving along and had the entire event done well before 9:30 pm. The program ran off incredibly smooth with a total of only three yellow flags waved all night. There was one big multi car pileup in the B Mod feature but other than that, it was mostly green flag racing.
Brady Link started on the outside pole of the Hobby Stock feature and he led all the way in a race that saw little happening. It was the fifth feature win at MTS already this season for Link and it makes it tough to try and build a class when one driver dominates so much that the competition is discouraged to even try.
The B Mods was much more intense with Alex Williamson leading for awhile until he was passed by Ben Moudry. Moudry led the rest of the way but had to fight off a couple of drivers. Kylie Kath, who usually races at Chateau Speedway on Fridays, nearly stole the race from the locals as he started seventh and moved up to second and appeared ready to challenge for the lead.
The big yellow pileup seemed to slow his momentum and Iowa's Dan Hovden got the jump on him on the restart and finished second. Youngster Jayden Larson is starting to pick up the pace as he moved from ninth to finish a close fourth.
There might not be a lot of Modifieds, but the ones they have are mighty tough. It was a four car parade of MB Customs that led the way with Josh Angst leading from start to finish with Jake Timm close behind along with Lucas Schott and Dustin Sorensen. Sorensen is the only one that doesn't race weekly at the track as he is a Chateau regular on Fridays. The Modified main event went green from start to finish with all cars still on the lead lap at the double checkers.
MTS is one of the few tracks around that has a posted order of events available on line and at the track ready for the first competitors. They also have a very nice, eight page color program that is free of charge and contains a yearly schedule, point standings, a concession menu, general track information, explanation of the classes racing and a driver profile every week. It's one of the more informative free programs that I have seen.
Thanks to Bob Timm and his staff for their help as well as a welcome from track co-announcer Dan Bailey. I didn't get to speak to Bob at all as on race night, the track is his "baby" and he spends the vast majority of his time either on the water wagon or some other heavy equipment.
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