Friday night, December 15 marked night number two of the VP Racing Fuels Gateway Dirt Nationals at the Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis Missouri.
After Thursday qualifying runs set the field for the weekend, Friday night it was time to get serious with Last Chance races for the Modifieds, Heat races and Last Chance races for the Late Models and then, in the evening's finales, double feature races for the Late Models and a Modified feature to wrap up the evening's entertainment. Not only would the feature races pay good money, the top eight in the Modifieds and the top four in each of the Late Model features would "lock in" for the top spots for Saturday night's huge finale and they would redraw for the top starting spots.
There was one more additional driver that showed up for racing on Friday as William Stile of West Newton Pennsylvania, who was pre-entered in the event, finally made it to the Dome. He told me that they were four hundred and fifty miles into their six hundred mile trip when they had transmission trouble with their hauler. After a tow to a transmission shop and an expensive replacement transmission, they made the rest of the trip. He was highly complementary of the staff at the Dome, who allowed him to race even though he was late. They allowed him to tail a Heat race as he had already reconciled himself to the fact that they might just be watching the event. William said it would end up being his most expensive trip ever and that the bills would probably eat into next year's racing budget and perhaps, even the year after that! He did get to race that heat and he did finish it without further troubles so he will have one more crack tomorrow in a Last Chance event.
It wouldn't be a race unless I ran into "Crazy Martin" from Iowa and he was on hand to celebrate his seventieth birthday at the races this weekend. He even had a hat made up that he was wearing to announce the fact to the world.
I also ran into another Iowan in the grandstand and that was promoter and race director Mike Van Genderen. He told me that he would be working at Donnellson and Vinton and as well as running specials in Memphis Missouri. He will not be at Osky in 2018 and since he was the only one that put in a bid for racing there for the coming season that unless something changes in the coming months, there may be no racing at the historic half mile in the coming year. He also said that they might be involved in one more track but that would be a surprise and that's all he would say on that matter.
As far as his own racing program, he does have a new car and hopes to race at Boone and at other special events over the Summer but doesn't plan to race in Florida this year, feeling that the UMP rules are not favorable for him.
With the Modified Last Chance races being so massive with well over twenty cars scheduled for each one, the decision was made before the program started to go with six Last Chance races instead of the four scheduled and take the top two, not three into the main event. With so many cars on hand and the track only capable of taking about twenty cars comfortably for a main, many drivers are left on the sidelines watching the feature races instead of participating.
With lots of laps to be had on the track, they had it considerably wetter for the start of the show on Friday. And it needed to be to help open up a second lane. With Friday devoted to racing only, and not a ton of one groove time trialing, the cars were racing more side by side and eventually they were able to make it a much wider track with increasing numbers of drivers choosing to run the high side and some with much success.
Eighteen preliminary events set up the fields for the three feature events with the first four heats forming the first feature and the back half of the heats the second main. The Modifieds ran a sole feature but the top eight made the Saturday night show.
Billy Moyer just keeps rolling along and he was the leader for the first laps of the first feature until over taken by Rusty Schlenk in the Rayburn house car. Schlenk appeared on his way to victory until he ticked the outside wall and gave himself a flat, right rear tire with only a few laps left in the twenty lap feature. As Schlenk started to slow, David Brazeale tried to pass him for the lead. Brazeale got by down the back chute but then he got sideways and collected Schlenk and both were done. Hudson O'Neal inherited the lead on the restart and he fought off Moyer to get the win. Jason Welshan and Bobby Pierce, from tenth, also locked themselved in for the show on Saturday.
The second Late Model feature had a bit of an unusual look to it with the first three row filled with solid competitors but not ones you would off the top of your head predict to win an event of this magnitude. Gordy Gundaker took the early lead but Myles Moos, a central Illinois crate Late Model star that is just starting to experiment with open Late Model racing, then took to the high side and blew past Gundaker to take over the lead. It looked for a few laps that a major upset was brewing but slowly and surely, the top side started to give up, or perhaps Moos' tires started to give up. In any event, he started to slow and Gundaker, who never moved off the bottom, retook the lead. The rest of this race was somewhat anti climatic and everyone kind of lined up on the bottom and rode. For Gundaker it was obviously a huge victory at the track that his father is largely responsible for constructing for this event. Behind Gordy, it was Tyler Carpenter, Chad Zobrist and Tanner English that locked in for Saturday.
The Modified feature produced a bit of a surprise as Kansas' Tanner Mullins led from start to finish to take the win. Mullins is driving his own equipment again after being one of the many drivers to have a "cup of coffee" as the driver of the Gressell equipment earlier this Summer. Mullins, who does most of his racing with NCRA and USMTS, didn't seem to have any trouble adapting to the UMP tire and lack of spoiler as for the second straight night, he started in front and stayed there. Despite the half dozen yellows that slowed the action, he never wavered from his pole spot and never felt a severe challenge. Mike Harrison was the show as he worked the high side, which for awhile looked like it was going to allow him to drive by for the win until later when he found himself stuck in that same lane when it wasn't working as well and he was driving the wheels off his car just to maintain his spot. At the end, he dove back to the bottom to salvage third behind Mike McKinney at the finish. Brent Mullins, Levi Kissinger, Tommy Sheppard Jr, Kenny Wallace and Ray Bollinger also locked in for Saturday as everyone except Mullins would be considered top runners in the Illinois and Missouri Modified ranks.
There were two rollovers in the Late Model division on Friday night. Both Austin Hubbard and Derek Fetter took hard tumbles as the fact that for such a small track the drivers do get up a lot of speed and they are sideways so much of the time, it doesn't take much of a tap from a fellow competitor or the wall to send them flying. The only surprise is that there have been no Modifieds dumped yet.
There was one year incident in the Modified feature when a "big one" nearly occurred. Tyler Nicely had just had enough when he got slammed by the odd looking "mud bus" of Tim Hancock and knocked halfway up the track. Hancock had been wearing out other drivers for two nights and Nicely finally decided that his surname was not how he was going to respond to Hancock's actions. Going down the back chute, Nicely "dumped" Hancock for which he immediately drew the black flag. If I had been in Nicely's shoes, I'd have done the same thing!
An odd situation occurred before the start of the second Late Model heat when David Payne pulled on to the track and the crew had neglected to remove a empty fuel jug and filler that was still laying on the deck of the car. After a couple of "burn out" sessions to warm the car, the entire contents were deposited in turn one where Kevin Gundaker had to retrieve them.
Myself and friends around me are having trouble determining just what is the criteria on restart lineups as we have seen cars spin on the first lap and get their spot back, other cars do the same and have to go to the rear, cars be a part of multi car pileups and regain their position and others sent to the back for the same thing. Consistency seems to have been lacking to this point and the number of driver's arms out the window waving seems to confirm that.
A huge crowd was on hand for the second night's action and they have been a lively group indeed. The last race for most people in 2017 has produced a party atmosphere and the special effects that the Dome can generate have only enhanced that. And again, for the second straight night the better managed program was reflected in the fact that even though a lot of racing was done and much time was also used to track maintenance, the final checkered flag waved just around 10 p.m.
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