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.
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