Have you ever had the feeling when it was kind of a slow day to just jump in the car and drive out to South Dakota? Me too!
So that's what I did. Specifically, Aberdeen South Dakota in the Northeast part of the state where the USMTS true road warriors were making up a rain out from earlier this Summer. The part that made this trip more significant was that with the rescheduling, this event became a part of their "Hunt" for the national championship so it put more weight on the trip.
Overnight rains made things a bit "sketchy" but the sun came out and the thunderstorms stayed away the rest of the day and racing was on as scheduled. In fact, with the high winds blowing you couldn't have even guessed that they had any rain at all as South Dakota is starting to look like the Sahara with rain badly needed.
The troops shuffled into Aberdeen to race and I must say that this year's crew making the pull from place to place for "The Hunt" appears to be a little thin compared to some other years. Quite frankly some guys that are finishing up in the money in some races couldn't have done so in some years past, particularly at tracks where there was a strong local presence.
This six hour drive out of the way for just the one night of racing before doubling back to Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota before ending up in northern Iowa on Sunday was, if not the "trip from Hell", it was pretty darn close. The promoters really wanted the USMTS to come out to Aberdeen and they threw in several thousand extra dollars in the purse as an incentive but many of the regional drivers decided to wait and let the "Road Warriors" come back to them on Thursday and so the car count was only twenty three in Aberdeen. This also included about seven locals to thankfully, flesh out the field. Otherwise, things would have looked more than a little lean for the racing. Local veteran Terry Haven showed up with his car but didn't expect to unload or race but he did the math and rolled out his car in time to race both his heat and the feature and take home a check.
Missing also on Wednesday also were two of the "billboard" names that the USMTS has with them right now. Ryan Gustin was on hand but was too ill to compete and so he just collected "show up" points for the night. One must assume he was really under the weather to come all the way out to South Dakota and then not race.
Also missing was Tyler Wolff, the latest of the drivers to surprise with a feature win. He missed a plane transfer but is expected to compete in Wisconsin on Thursday so the second and fourth place drivers in the current "Hunt" points were AWOL.
All this was good news to current point leader Stormy Scott. He started on the pole for the forty lap main event and led all the way for what was less than a scintillation victory. But Scott could care less, as he was more than willing to collect the big check at the end of the night. Zach VanderBeek started on the outside pole and it looked like the only two VanderBuilt chassis in the field would slug it out for the win.
However, Zach made the mistake to try and run the high side of the track and by the time he had "shoe horned" his way back into line, he was all the way back to seventh. It was not a good night for the Brown County racing surface as it was bone dry, dusty and dirty and just wouldn't clean off which caused everyone to dive to the inside and bang their way into line. The support classes had no more success than the Modifieds did in widening out the track and it was a frustrating night for many.
However, rookie USMTS driver Travis Saurer was not complaining as he finished a career best second behind Scott and ahead of Jason Hughes. I guarantee his first win will be coming in short order also.
The track's best hope of a local doing well was the entry of "Showtime" Kent Arment with his Modified. However, it was a bad night for "Showtime." He no more than got the green in his heat when he banged together with another car and got a flat tire. This mired him in the back for the main and Arment, who is known for his high side charges to the front of races that can be spectacular, tried to do the same on this night. He was able to pass a few cars and then the top side gave up and while he stayed up there, he started to drop back like a rock. Finally he said the heck with it and pulled off the track, being scored eighteenth at the finish.
Being fairly close to the North Dakota border, there is much in the way of rivalry between the two states and on this night, North Dakota drivers went home gloating as both the support classes were won by drivers from North Dakota. Bo Gregor took the Street Stock win while Zach LaQua won the Midwest Modified main, both of which were WISSOTA sanctioned point races for the track.
I got the opportunity to visit with Modified driver Mike Stearns who was on hand for the event. He suffered a serious injury during the off season and has not as yet been able to race in 2017 and has but Denver Nickeson behind the wheel of his car.
How many of you thought that Curling was a dangerous sport? How many of you even know what the heck Curling is! I do know that it is contested on a sheet of ice and ice is slippery. Stearns fell while competing in Fargo in a tournament last Winter and hit his head and has been out since. He told me that he was in no hurry to get back behind the wheel of his MasterSbilt/Tim's Modified and might not race at all this year. And he was only half kidding when he said that his next race car just might be a Late Model.
I also got to visit with Chris Clark from Jackson Wyoming who was racing at Aberdeen. This guy might be even crazier than me. He was racing in Webster City Iowa on Tuesday night where I was also, then jumped in his truck, drove six hours to Aberdeen, bolted on a spoiler and raced with the USMTS guys. And instead of turning West and heading home from South Dakota, he is instead going to follow the USMTS the rest of this week to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Wow. As I type this, he is likely on the road driving from South Dakota to Wisconsin by way of the Twin Cities. Good luck with that.
Even though the field of cars was sub standard and the Modified racing not spectacular, the crowd on hand which appeared to be of a decent size, seemed OK with what they saw and this likely will not be the last time the "Road Warriors" see South Dakota.
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