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.
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