Friday, July 14, 2017

Sheppard Back in the Groove at Hibbing

The World of Outlaws Late Model tour of the upper Midwest continued as their traveling band of motor heads headed to the Hibbing Raceway on the Iron Range of Minnesota. Two years ago the Outlaws made their first appearance ever at the quarter mile Hibbing track and it was a smashing success, jam packing the grandstands at the North St. Louis County Fairgrounds which hold around 4,000 people. Last year's attempt for a repeat was met by rainy weather which caused them to loose the show.

The weather would be very dicey on this night also, despite the fact that according to the weather geniuses there was no chance of rain whatsoever and despite the radars showing no precipitation in the area, that wet stuff falling from the skies was not eagle spittle.

At one time the Hibbing Raceway, located at the fairgrounds, was outside of the famous mining town of Hibbing and they had plenty of space away from the city. Not so anymore as they are seriously crowded on all sides of the track. The city surrounds them in all directions and when the Itasca  Community College moved in next door, they really started to gobble up the space that used to be open land. Now the race fans park in the Community College parking lots on race night and the fairgrounds isn't even used for a fair anymore, with the racing the only activity that the grounds are used for. The College had been eyeballing the land for years, the county didn't even want the land anymore and has given it to the city of Hibbing, who has not spent a dime on upkeep or maintenance for years and the whole facility is looking more than a bit "long in the tooth." The club that runs the speedway has been around for a long time and if not for their continued efforts, I'm sure the track would have been history a long time ago.

At one time there was a proposal to use some of the IRRRB money(Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board) which is basically a pot of money set aside by the mining companies for projects to benefit the community as a form of good will for devastating the local environment for decades with their mining projects, to build a new motorsports park outside of town.  But as is the case with many governmental and socio governmental projects, the paperwork got hung up somewhere and the project never happened. So the Iron Range Racing Association has been making due with what they have for many years.

That's not to say that racing is hurting here, as racing at the Hibbing Raceway has long been a very popular attraction for the area population and some of the biggest paying events in  WISSOTA racing have taken place at this tight quarter mile.

On arrival, I noticed that one of the changes at the track this year was that the pit gate was moved to the North end of the track after having been located off turn one for a number of years. This actually was a "blast from the past" as originally, many years ago the pit gate was in that very same location. The move was precipitated by further issues with the College but I was told that they have now been worked out and the pit gate will probably move back to turn one again next year, if you're keeping score.

It was a miserable, cloudy, very cool for July and drizzly day in Hibbing. It would drizzle, then it would stop, then it would drizzle again, over and over. It never really rained enough for people to have to go find shelter, but it was miserable nevertheless. A field of thirty three Late Models signed in to race with new additions from the travelers including A.J. Diemel, Jason Rauen and Jordan Yaggy It was noted that Rauen has added Arnie Ranta MotorSports as the major sponsor on his car. Ranta was on hand to watch the show Thursday and he pulled into the pits driving his latest spectacular vehicle,  bright yellow Corvette.

 There were also a good number of local competitors that showed up to race too. Hibbing runs WISSOTA Late Models every Saturday night and such drivers as Harry Hanson, Jeff Provinzino, Jeff Massingill, Jay Kintner and Zach Wohlers were taking a shot at the big boys Thursday. Only Massingill had an open motor thanks to his allegiance with JR Motorsports while the rest would take a shot with their small spec engines. Only Massingill and Provo would make the main.

At least two times during the course of the early evening there was the real threat that the show would get either canceled or postponed. Some serious negotiations were on going with another area track, the Grand Rapids Speedway just down the road about a half hour away. They run on Thursday night but had swapped nights with Hibbing on this week so that the Thursday date would be open for Hibbing to race. However, with the cancellation of the race at North Central Speedway in Brainerd, that made Saturday the likely rain date, but Hibbing had given that date to Grand Rapids in exchange for the Thursday. So they were discussing that. Also, the crowd was slow arriving and some club officers were getting worried that they wouldn't have a big enough crowd to pay the freight. A club officers meeting was held with everyone , including the WoO officials on hand, all waiting to find out if they were racing or not. Drivers and everyone roamed around, anxious to find out what he decision was and when I spotted the WoO officials racing back to their trailer to make final preparations and the packing trucks returned to the track, the answer was then determined that racing would go on.

However, we weren't totally out of the woods yet, as a couple more black clouds drifted over the track while last minute track prep  was ongoing and it was enough to make the track wet again and cause the officials to huddle once more before it abruptly stopped and the sun made its first appearance. This apparently buoyed everyone's spirits, the track packing resumed and from then on it was all downhill. The weather would cause the start time of the show to be delayed almost two hours though, and then the track curfew started to be a concern.

Hibbing is normally a very dry, slick sort of race track. Generally speaking, the racing there is very much "stop and go". Drive hard into the corners, hug the inside and then barrel down the next straightaway is a racing style used here by most.

However, the extraordinary weather created some extraordinary racing conditions, with the track being very tacky but not rough and the speeds the drivers were turning where"off the chart" for this track. Fourteen drivers were under the old track record in practice and sixteen were under the record in qualifying with Rick Eckert the quickest at 12.455, nearly a full second under the track record!

Preliminary action saw the speeds blinding but everyone was still hugging the low groove. But as I was reminded, it's almost impossible to have a dirt track that is perfect from start to finish. Fortunately, on this night the track was at its best for the main event. This produced a feature race that was spectacular and certainly one of the best that will be seen all year.

The crowd was heavily rooting for veteran Chub Frank who led for most of the race as he looked for his first WoO win in six or so years. Behind him the racing was great with the drivers swapping positions and lines on the track. Mike Marlar and Sheppard were especially spectacular as they worked the high side of the track, a groove that does not get used too often at this track and normally not too successfully.  The speeds the drivers were turning was remarkable and the racing truly memorable.

It looked like Chub would be home free but then, with only five laps left in the race, the first and only yellow of the event occurred when Eric Wells stopped on the track. Frank was committed to the low groove and Sheppard stormed to the cushion immediately. He drove a beautiful last five laps as his back round on the tight bull rings of Illinois suited him well and he drove around Frank for the win. It had to have been a very disappointing finish to a great run for "Chubzilla." Marlar, Clanton and Tyler Erb completed the top five. It was a very entertaining race from start to finish.

The support division was the Pure Stocks and for some reason, track management chose not to sanction them on this night. My guess was this cost them a few cars as only eleven showed up for a $500 to win event, much more than they normally race for.

However, they served the purpose as they helped pack the track, ran two quick heat races and their feature was saved for the last event of the night, thus allowing those that wanted to head out to do so. Mike Blevins, current national point leader and defending national champion, drove around Cole Provinzino, Jeff's son, for the win.

Once they got going, they really clicked off the program at break neck speed as all racing was done by 10:30 pm, meaning the racing was completed in about an hour and a half!

The crowd was good but nothing like the gathering two years ago. I sure hope that they came out OK money wise on the night as this is a club that can't just dig in their pockets and pull out a wad of bills to cover the night if the income is short. A bad night at the bank could cause them to not schedule a race in coming years, particularly when a club run organization frequently changes over its officers and sometimes it's managerial approach.

Thanks to club President Trevor Arens and the rest of the officers for granting me credentials for this event which surely will be remembered as one of the top Late Model shows of the year.

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