My 2018 racing season is now complete and I am more than ready to turn the calendar to 2019. However, before I do that, it is time to take one more look back at the ending season, to confirm if nothing else what my gut tells me should be my response if anyone asks me what I thought about 2018.
It definitely was not a very good season in many ways. In fact, large parts of the season just plain sucked! I can not remember a season in recent memory at least where it seemed like every single trip to a race turned out to be a battle to outlast the elements and dodge the rain. The weather would certainly be the number one topic when talking about the soon to be complete year. It certainly affected my race schedule dramatically throughout the Summer and made the planning of many of my race outings more of a chore than a pleasurable experience.
There certainly were some highlight events and some great individual races but there were also a considerable number of nights that were marked by low car counts matched by half full grandstands.
It is tough enough to be a race promoter in these uncertain times but with all the battles with the weather in 2018, it had to have been a real "gut check" for a lot of race promoters and their employees. So many things for 2019 remain uncertain at this point and a large part of that unquestionably is a carry over from some difficult seasons endured by tracks in 2018.
My personal race statistics from 2018 reflect what a tepid year 2018 was. In fact, I'm somewhat embarrassed to even publish the stats on what was one of my worst personal years in quite some time.
In 2018 I attended one hundred and fifty two nights of racing which was a full thirty nights less than 2017. In fact, it was my worst year since 2008 in terms of races attended. Part of that was due to the fact that after having been able to get to Florida the last two years, there was no Florida trip in the budget for 2018. The other big loss was simply the high number of races that were rained out in 2018. It's not that I gave up on racing, but rather that there were so many shows that just weren't held or were cut back in the number of days they were held.
On the positive side, 2018 did mark the thirty eighth consecutive year that I attended over one hundred races during the season but most of the other stats are grim indeed.
In 2018 I attended races at fifty four different tracks but that is the lowest number of different tracks for me since 2005. I also attended races in twelve states but again that is low, with 2012 being the last year I traveled to that few of states for racing.
And perhaps most stunning to myself, I failed to get to any new tracks in 2018, the first time that has happened since 2003. I failed to keep a close eye on that mark, since if I would have realized it, I would have scheduled a trip to someplace new, no matter how far or irrelevant, just to keep the streak alive.
So, with no new tracks to report, I continue to sit at three hundred and eight tracks attended in twenty nine states and three Canadian Provinces.
Perhaps a bit surprising, the highest number of tracks visited in 2018 was in Iowa where I got to thirteen different tracks with Wisconsin and Minnesota close behind with a dozen each. Other states were considerably farther behind and I also failed to make it across the border into Canada in 2018. Perhaps that was in part because I was a bit afraid that they wouldn't let me back in! (Just kiddin').
Anyway, it was a sub par year for me and I am more than anxious to celebrate the New Year later today and move on with the hopes that 2019 will be a much better year, both for racing and for the country and world in general.
Plans are already starting to take shape in this area with some tracks having announced their schedules already while others wait a while longer with the hopes that they can craft a schedule that avoids the inevitable conflicts which split a rather limited fan base even more.
Our first races of 2019 will be at the FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway for the Wild West Shootout upcoming in just over a weeks time. A number of drivers from this area have already loaded up their cars and headed West and I hope to report on the goings on in the Valley of the Sun shortly. The weather forecast to this point is not particularly favorable but I'm hoping that it changes soon. It's time to race and once again, it's dejavoo all over again.
Monday, December 31, 2018
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Pierce, Bell and Harrison Top Gateway Dirt Nationals Finales
After two days of preliminaries, it was time on Saturday night, December 1st to crown some champions in the third annual Gateway Dirt Nationals at the Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.
Last chance qualifying would start off another long day as promptly at 3 pm, the first of the Late Model Last Chance races would take the green flag. There would be six Last Chance races for the Late Models, followed by four each for the Midgets and Modifieds. Twelve to fourteen cars would start each of the races with only two in the Late Models and three in the Midgets and Modifieds moving up to the main events. Based on the scenario, you can just imagine the intensity level of the races and the lengths that some drivers would go to try and make it into the main events. Needless to say, the racing was aggressive to the highest level and the number of yellow flags and wrecked cars would attest to that premise. In fact, of the fourteen races that were run in the afternoon, only three went green to checkered and there were a few ruffled feathers among some of the drivers when they got spun or had tires speared flat by other drivers, all in an effort to get to the front.
After the preliminaries were completed, a break was taken to freshen up the track and get all the extra presentations set for when the official race program would start at 7:30 pm. There were lots of pyrotechnics and other flashy eye catchers to start of the show and the crowd was more than fired up to see all the special things that have been a part of this event. The crowd appeared to be a huge one with the entire lower bowl of the area appearing jammed and some people even sitting in the upper sections of the arena.
Driver introductions are a big part of this show and a great source of entertainment to get the fans fired up to see the first green flag. By far, the Late Model drivers put on the best show and it was left to those two drivers that brought down the house last year to again get the crowd revved up. First, Scott Bloomquist was introduced and he broke through the smoke and haze with Rico Abreu on his shoulders that nearly brought down the house. But if anything, he was "one upped" again by Jason Welshan who produced a banner that stated" no provisional needed", a telling commentary on Bloomquist's efforts which required some sort of past champions provisional to get him into the show. His telling commentary was worth a howl for all, and I suspect even Scott B. was probably chuckling a little bit himself on that one.
With all the hoopla behind us, it was time to wave off the first of the three feature races with the Late Models going first. Unfortunately, on this night the hype would be much better than the substance as it was not a night for any classic racing action. Truly, the only one of the three features that would come any where close to expectations was the Modified main.
In my opinion, racing inside on such a tight track is very much a crap shoot to begin with and some nights are great and others not so go. And I would say that much of what made this weekend probably not the best this show has had to offer would center on the race track. Other years, the track would be at its worst for the opening night but each following night would produce a track that was much more raceable and not nearly so hard on the equipment. However, that was not the case this year as the track was brutal all three nights and it seemed that no matter what they did, it just did not show much improvement.
The attrition rate was very high in all three feature races with only half the Late Models and Modifieds around at the end while a slightly higher percentage of the Midgets would complete the full distance.
Bobby Pierce totally dominated the Late Model forty lapper. He started on the pole and led the entire race and seemed to be just cruising most of the distance. He was driving a smart race and his car's set up seemed to be supreme and he was able to roll around the track without getting airborne and bouncing around like most of the others did. It seemed that the only real challengers would be Brandon Sheppard and Shannon Babb and after Sheppard got a flat tire early and Babb did his best to destroy his car before finally throwing in the towel, the only way that Pierce would lose would be if he had some kind of mechanical issue.
Even the race played into his favor as both times he caught the back of the pack, and lapped traffic would likely be the only thing that could mess him up, the yellow flag waved and he had a clean track in front of him again. His margin at the finish was a solid one and runner up Billy Moyer was in a defensive mode, just trying to finish and protect his position. Don O'Neal finished third.
The Midget feature, I thought, might be the one where the cars would be able to go all over the track and we would see a lot of slide jobs and changing of positions. However, that proved not to be the case either. Early on, Christopher Bell and Tyler Courtney had a pretty good race for the lead, but once Bell got established, the race was for second. Ten yellows slowed the action including a couple of minor flips, but fortunately there were no big time wrecks which seemed a bit surprising, especially given the fact that the cars were taking a lot of air, depending on the line that the drivers were running. Courtney and Kyle Larson took shots at getting to the front but for both it resulted in them getting DNF's when their cars and the track came to odds.
It took three tries to get the last lap in but it was Bell that held his ground and didn't make a mistake that would open the door to any challenger. Shane Golobic drove a careful race and he advanced as others fell out and he would finish second while Rico came from tenth to third.
The Modified feature produced the only real battle for the lead. Josh Harris started in front and maintained that lead for the first half of the race as almost as if by magic, the first fourteen laps ran nonstop before the first spin produced a yellow. That first yellow saw a tail end car spin and race challengers Ray Bollinger and Dean Hoffman couldn't get stopped in time and were forced to go to the tail of the field. One lap later the same scenario played out yet this time Mike McKinney was allowed to maintain his position, which had many of the crowd in our area scratching their heads and worse.
Harris continued to lead but he was blocking the low side and going so slow that while McKinney couldn't get under him, defending UMP national champion Mike Harrison said, "nuts to this" and he jumped to the cushion. It was a bold gamble and one that while we had seen it work successfully in other years, so far in 2018 it hadn't worked out.
However, Harrison kept the hammer down and he was able to edge past Harris on the outside of turn one and for the first time in three nights, the roar of the crowd could be heard over the engine noise as his move was roundly applauded. Harris eventually went out with a flat tire and while McKinney was digging on the bottom and trying to get pat Harrison, Mike held on for the highly appreciated win. Levi Kissinger finished in the third spot.
And so the final night of the third annual event was in the books. Certainly the crowd size was spectacular as the popularity of the race seems to just grow and grow. I'm sure that there were many in the pits, however, not too pleased with the large amount of damage done to a high number of the race cars. While there will always be plenty of contact when racing in such tight corners, the issues associated with the rough track will have to be addressed to both minimize the damage to the cars and improve the overall racing action.
Between pre race activities, post race interviews and necessary track prep, the final three feature races took nearly three and a half hours to complete so it was again quite a long night. I am still of the opinion that a three class program, done as it was this year, will not fly for a number of reasons next year and I am anxious to see what the plans are for 2019. That being said however, there is no denying what a spectacular event this has grown into so quickly and for those people that have not been to this race yet, it is something that any race fan, no matter what your favorite class is, must experience once.
Last chance qualifying would start off another long day as promptly at 3 pm, the first of the Late Model Last Chance races would take the green flag. There would be six Last Chance races for the Late Models, followed by four each for the Midgets and Modifieds. Twelve to fourteen cars would start each of the races with only two in the Late Models and three in the Midgets and Modifieds moving up to the main events. Based on the scenario, you can just imagine the intensity level of the races and the lengths that some drivers would go to try and make it into the main events. Needless to say, the racing was aggressive to the highest level and the number of yellow flags and wrecked cars would attest to that premise. In fact, of the fourteen races that were run in the afternoon, only three went green to checkered and there were a few ruffled feathers among some of the drivers when they got spun or had tires speared flat by other drivers, all in an effort to get to the front.
After the preliminaries were completed, a break was taken to freshen up the track and get all the extra presentations set for when the official race program would start at 7:30 pm. There were lots of pyrotechnics and other flashy eye catchers to start of the show and the crowd was more than fired up to see all the special things that have been a part of this event. The crowd appeared to be a huge one with the entire lower bowl of the area appearing jammed and some people even sitting in the upper sections of the arena.
Driver introductions are a big part of this show and a great source of entertainment to get the fans fired up to see the first green flag. By far, the Late Model drivers put on the best show and it was left to those two drivers that brought down the house last year to again get the crowd revved up. First, Scott Bloomquist was introduced and he broke through the smoke and haze with Rico Abreu on his shoulders that nearly brought down the house. But if anything, he was "one upped" again by Jason Welshan who produced a banner that stated" no provisional needed", a telling commentary on Bloomquist's efforts which required some sort of past champions provisional to get him into the show. His telling commentary was worth a howl for all, and I suspect even Scott B. was probably chuckling a little bit himself on that one.
With all the hoopla behind us, it was time to wave off the first of the three feature races with the Late Models going first. Unfortunately, on this night the hype would be much better than the substance as it was not a night for any classic racing action. Truly, the only one of the three features that would come any where close to expectations was the Modified main.
In my opinion, racing inside on such a tight track is very much a crap shoot to begin with and some nights are great and others not so go. And I would say that much of what made this weekend probably not the best this show has had to offer would center on the race track. Other years, the track would be at its worst for the opening night but each following night would produce a track that was much more raceable and not nearly so hard on the equipment. However, that was not the case this year as the track was brutal all three nights and it seemed that no matter what they did, it just did not show much improvement.
The attrition rate was very high in all three feature races with only half the Late Models and Modifieds around at the end while a slightly higher percentage of the Midgets would complete the full distance.
Bobby Pierce totally dominated the Late Model forty lapper. He started on the pole and led the entire race and seemed to be just cruising most of the distance. He was driving a smart race and his car's set up seemed to be supreme and he was able to roll around the track without getting airborne and bouncing around like most of the others did. It seemed that the only real challengers would be Brandon Sheppard and Shannon Babb and after Sheppard got a flat tire early and Babb did his best to destroy his car before finally throwing in the towel, the only way that Pierce would lose would be if he had some kind of mechanical issue.
Even the race played into his favor as both times he caught the back of the pack, and lapped traffic would likely be the only thing that could mess him up, the yellow flag waved and he had a clean track in front of him again. His margin at the finish was a solid one and runner up Billy Moyer was in a defensive mode, just trying to finish and protect his position. Don O'Neal finished third.
The Midget feature, I thought, might be the one where the cars would be able to go all over the track and we would see a lot of slide jobs and changing of positions. However, that proved not to be the case either. Early on, Christopher Bell and Tyler Courtney had a pretty good race for the lead, but once Bell got established, the race was for second. Ten yellows slowed the action including a couple of minor flips, but fortunately there were no big time wrecks which seemed a bit surprising, especially given the fact that the cars were taking a lot of air, depending on the line that the drivers were running. Courtney and Kyle Larson took shots at getting to the front but for both it resulted in them getting DNF's when their cars and the track came to odds.
It took three tries to get the last lap in but it was Bell that held his ground and didn't make a mistake that would open the door to any challenger. Shane Golobic drove a careful race and he advanced as others fell out and he would finish second while Rico came from tenth to third.
The Modified feature produced the only real battle for the lead. Josh Harris started in front and maintained that lead for the first half of the race as almost as if by magic, the first fourteen laps ran nonstop before the first spin produced a yellow. That first yellow saw a tail end car spin and race challengers Ray Bollinger and Dean Hoffman couldn't get stopped in time and were forced to go to the tail of the field. One lap later the same scenario played out yet this time Mike McKinney was allowed to maintain his position, which had many of the crowd in our area scratching their heads and worse.
Harris continued to lead but he was blocking the low side and going so slow that while McKinney couldn't get under him, defending UMP national champion Mike Harrison said, "nuts to this" and he jumped to the cushion. It was a bold gamble and one that while we had seen it work successfully in other years, so far in 2018 it hadn't worked out.
However, Harrison kept the hammer down and he was able to edge past Harris on the outside of turn one and for the first time in three nights, the roar of the crowd could be heard over the engine noise as his move was roundly applauded. Harris eventually went out with a flat tire and while McKinney was digging on the bottom and trying to get pat Harrison, Mike held on for the highly appreciated win. Levi Kissinger finished in the third spot.
And so the final night of the third annual event was in the books. Certainly the crowd size was spectacular as the popularity of the race seems to just grow and grow. I'm sure that there were many in the pits, however, not too pleased with the large amount of damage done to a high number of the race cars. While there will always be plenty of contact when racing in such tight corners, the issues associated with the rough track will have to be addressed to both minimize the damage to the cars and improve the overall racing action.
Between pre race activities, post race interviews and necessary track prep, the final three feature races took nearly three and a half hours to complete so it was again quite a long night. I am still of the opinion that a three class program, done as it was this year, will not fly for a number of reasons next year and I am anxious to see what the plans are for 2019. That being said however, there is no denying what a spectacular event this has grown into so quickly and for those people that have not been to this race yet, it is something that any race fan, no matter what your favorite class is, must experience once.
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Gateway Dirt Nationals Day Two
For those, like myself, that had been "grousing" that we spent a long day and night at the races on Thursday yet saw only a handful of races, they more than made up for it on Friday night. When a long day on Friday settling into the early overnight hours, we had seen a mind boggling thirty two races plus Midget qualifying that left us all limp and ready for a break.
Along with the Midget qualifying, we saw heats, B Features and twin Feature races for the Late Models and Midgets along with the B Features plus double features for the Modifieds. Not having been able to keep up with the schedule from early on yesterday, they continued on that path as everything seemed to take longer than was bargained for in the very optimistic schedule for the weekend and the Late Model features, which were last on the agenda, dragged on into the first hour of the new month. Of the huge number of races, only four all night didn't have at least one yellow flag and some had a multitude.
Track conditions started out OK but they quickly deteriorated and no matter what the track crew did, the moguls quickly returned and made racing a real challenge. The amount of torn up equipment was astronomical and just repair and replacement on front bumpers alone could have been a "gold mine" for some entrepreneur
The qualifying showed that, not surprisingly, the Midgets would be the quickest of all three classes but this track is far more suited to them than to the other two classes, even though this race was not conceived for them.
It was announced that the Thursday night crowd was the largest yet for the opening night and with the huge throng of people that were on hand Friday night, it would not be surprising to hear that the same thing held true for the second night of racing.
All the qualifying pared the fields down to twin twenty lap feature races with only the top four finishers in each one locked into Saturday night's finales. Everyone else, apparently, gets one more shot to make the main events and that could lead to another long afternoon of banging and rooting as everyone wants to get introduced under the bright lights on Saturday night.
The twin Modified features went first and these were the longest and slowest paced of the six features. They just didn't seem capable of making more than a lap or two without either spinning or crashing into each other. And of course, with the UMP rules in effect, if you don't stop during a wreck you get your spot back so when a crash is inevitable, many drivers just "gas up" their cars so they hit hard enough that they can keep on moving, no matter the cost!
Josh Harris led the distance to win the first Modified feature with Ray Bollinger, Mike McKinney and Chad Sellars also making the grade and moving on. Brent Mullins made a strong charge from seventeenth to get into the top four but then he got a bit too bold and went for more and got himself hung on the outside and he couldn't get back in line quick enough and missed the cut.
Kenny Wallace also led all the way to win the second Mod main. Dean Hoffman drove a very smart race and moved up as others fouled up and came from fourteenth to second. Nick Hoffman was next in line and in a real body slamming battle for fourth, Gary Bentley got the spot. Local and area drivers seem to have the advantage in this class with their experience racing on some of the tiny ovals that populate the St. Louis and across the river into Illinois scene.
Both the Midgets and Late Models raced much better than the Modifieds on this night, for whatever reason. The Midgets had very little trouble with the conditions and they were able to move to the top side of the track and avoid many of the bumps that seemed to dominate the low side of the track. Christopher Bell and Zack Daum had a good early battle in the first Midget main before Bell took control and after that he checked out on the field. Logan Seavey and Shane Golobic were also locked in. Ricky Stenhouse Jr was making a great run toward the front until he pushed corner number four too hard and went for a tough tumble, which resulted in no injury to himself. Somewhat surprisingly, this would be the only flip of the night.
The second Midget feature saw Tyler Courtney and Kyle Larson have a very nice battle for the top spot as they traded the lead several times before Courtney locked in and took over the top side groove and then was able to stretch out his lead to the finish. Tanner Thorson and Jason McDougal also made the show through this race. I think non Midget fans were probably pleasantly surprised how smooth their part of the program went but truly, the drivers on hand for this event are the best around in these little cars.
The Late Models wrapped up the night with the majority of the crowd sticking around in the wee hours to see their feature races, as after all, wasn't this first organized as a showcase for the Late Model class and don't the Midgets have their special indoor event next month? But I digress.
Brandon Sheppard dominated the first feature, leading from wire to wire while a good battle for position played out behind him. Tim McCreadie ran a solid second and after some shuffling, it was Jason Welshan and Billy Moyer that also made the show. Jonathan Davenport was battling for that last spot for quite some time but came up short. The only yellow of this race was when Billy Moyer Jr. ran over his nose piece and hammered the turn three wall.
Bobby Pierce won the finale of the evening as again, Illinois drivers with tons of experience on these little bullrings once again shined. Don O'Neal provided a good challenge before settling for second while local drivers Jason Zobrist and Jeff Herzog provided the spark for the local fans with both also making the show. This race saw a late event pileup that shook up the finishing positions and allowed Herzog to slip into the top five.
Everyone piled out of the building at this point, only to discover that it was raining hard on the outside. Certainly this is one advantage of racing indoors as no matter what the conditions are like outside, as long as the fans and drivers can make it to the building, racing will take place. Crazy as it sounds, the forecast for Saturday is for temperatures in the sixties and sun.
I suspect that they can not continue on each year with shows that run this late at night and something has got to give. Whether it be to eliminate a class or perhaps make the Late Model field an invitation only class too, I will be waiting to see if some kind of announcement is forthcoming for the fourth annual edition of this race.
Along with the Midget qualifying, we saw heats, B Features and twin Feature races for the Late Models and Midgets along with the B Features plus double features for the Modifieds. Not having been able to keep up with the schedule from early on yesterday, they continued on that path as everything seemed to take longer than was bargained for in the very optimistic schedule for the weekend and the Late Model features, which were last on the agenda, dragged on into the first hour of the new month. Of the huge number of races, only four all night didn't have at least one yellow flag and some had a multitude.
Track conditions started out OK but they quickly deteriorated and no matter what the track crew did, the moguls quickly returned and made racing a real challenge. The amount of torn up equipment was astronomical and just repair and replacement on front bumpers alone could have been a "gold mine" for some entrepreneur
The qualifying showed that, not surprisingly, the Midgets would be the quickest of all three classes but this track is far more suited to them than to the other two classes, even though this race was not conceived for them.
It was announced that the Thursday night crowd was the largest yet for the opening night and with the huge throng of people that were on hand Friday night, it would not be surprising to hear that the same thing held true for the second night of racing.
All the qualifying pared the fields down to twin twenty lap feature races with only the top four finishers in each one locked into Saturday night's finales. Everyone else, apparently, gets one more shot to make the main events and that could lead to another long afternoon of banging and rooting as everyone wants to get introduced under the bright lights on Saturday night.
The twin Modified features went first and these were the longest and slowest paced of the six features. They just didn't seem capable of making more than a lap or two without either spinning or crashing into each other. And of course, with the UMP rules in effect, if you don't stop during a wreck you get your spot back so when a crash is inevitable, many drivers just "gas up" their cars so they hit hard enough that they can keep on moving, no matter the cost!
Josh Harris led the distance to win the first Modified feature with Ray Bollinger, Mike McKinney and Chad Sellars also making the grade and moving on. Brent Mullins made a strong charge from seventeenth to get into the top four but then he got a bit too bold and went for more and got himself hung on the outside and he couldn't get back in line quick enough and missed the cut.
Kenny Wallace also led all the way to win the second Mod main. Dean Hoffman drove a very smart race and moved up as others fouled up and came from fourteenth to second. Nick Hoffman was next in line and in a real body slamming battle for fourth, Gary Bentley got the spot. Local and area drivers seem to have the advantage in this class with their experience racing on some of the tiny ovals that populate the St. Louis and across the river into Illinois scene.
Both the Midgets and Late Models raced much better than the Modifieds on this night, for whatever reason. The Midgets had very little trouble with the conditions and they were able to move to the top side of the track and avoid many of the bumps that seemed to dominate the low side of the track. Christopher Bell and Zack Daum had a good early battle in the first Midget main before Bell took control and after that he checked out on the field. Logan Seavey and Shane Golobic were also locked in. Ricky Stenhouse Jr was making a great run toward the front until he pushed corner number four too hard and went for a tough tumble, which resulted in no injury to himself. Somewhat surprisingly, this would be the only flip of the night.
The second Midget feature saw Tyler Courtney and Kyle Larson have a very nice battle for the top spot as they traded the lead several times before Courtney locked in and took over the top side groove and then was able to stretch out his lead to the finish. Tanner Thorson and Jason McDougal also made the show through this race. I think non Midget fans were probably pleasantly surprised how smooth their part of the program went but truly, the drivers on hand for this event are the best around in these little cars.
The Late Models wrapped up the night with the majority of the crowd sticking around in the wee hours to see their feature races, as after all, wasn't this first organized as a showcase for the Late Model class and don't the Midgets have their special indoor event next month? But I digress.
Brandon Sheppard dominated the first feature, leading from wire to wire while a good battle for position played out behind him. Tim McCreadie ran a solid second and after some shuffling, it was Jason Welshan and Billy Moyer that also made the show. Jonathan Davenport was battling for that last spot for quite some time but came up short. The only yellow of this race was when Billy Moyer Jr. ran over his nose piece and hammered the turn three wall.
Bobby Pierce won the finale of the evening as again, Illinois drivers with tons of experience on these little bullrings once again shined. Don O'Neal provided a good challenge before settling for second while local drivers Jason Zobrist and Jeff Herzog provided the spark for the local fans with both also making the show. This race saw a late event pileup that shook up the finishing positions and allowed Herzog to slip into the top five.
Everyone piled out of the building at this point, only to discover that it was raining hard on the outside. Certainly this is one advantage of racing indoors as no matter what the conditions are like outside, as long as the fans and drivers can make it to the building, racing will take place. Crazy as it sounds, the forecast for Saturday is for temperatures in the sixties and sun.
I suspect that they can not continue on each year with shows that run this late at night and something has got to give. Whether it be to eliminate a class or perhaps make the Late Model field an invitation only class too, I will be waiting to see if some kind of announcement is forthcoming for the fourth annual edition of this race.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Gateway Dirt Nationals
The third annual Gateway Dirt Nationals at the Dome at America's Center kicked off on Thursday night, Nov. 29th. This year the event has been moved up on the calendar by several weeks so that it does not hit quite so close to the Christmas holiday. The common thinking would be that this move would improve the attendance, which has so far been awesome for the two years that this event has been held so far anyway, but since there are plenty of more potential seats to be filled at the dome, why not try and fill the whole house?
The other change involved the classes that are racing this year. Once again the Late Models are the featured class of cars, with up to one hundred and fifty allowed to enter the event. And as it has been for the three years of this race, they never come close to that cut off figure anyway with generally about one hundred cars actually showing up. This year it was reported that ninety three cars signed in to race although I only saw ninety on the track and for qualifying but it is indeed a big building and that elusive ninety third car may still be trying to navigate his way to the track through the maze required to get on to the actual racing surface.
Many of the top names in the sport are signed in to race along with a number of drivers who you will only see race here unless you travel to the far corners of this country to watch Late Model racing.
Along with the Late Models, the Modifieds will also be racing again this year. However, unlike the first two years of this event, instead of the Modifieds also allowed to enter up to the one fifty threshold, this year the Modifieds, in order to race, must have received and invitation to the event. This way they kept the numbers down to a more workable level. And the field is outstanding, with virtually every car on hand driven by top notch drivers and again, many of the biggest names in Modified racing are on hand to compete.
And the reason that the Modified numbers have been limited is that the mighty Midgets have been added to the program for this year. They also are racing on an invitation only basis and along with the Modifieds, fifty four of them are on hand to race also. The Midget list of drivers may be the most impressive of all three fields of cars, as there are but a handful of the best in the country that aren't in St. Louis to race this weekend. So, if it is big name drivers you want to see driving in a variety of different looking kinds of dirt race cars, this is the place to be this weekend.
Once again, a fifth mile track(or so they say) has been laid down in the bowels of the America's Dome and the track seems, in the preliminary action, to race much like it did last year. More fortified infield markers have been placed this year to keep the drivers from cutting the corners and the markers they have this year are going to hurt much more if they are hit than previous years. Just the first night action saw several bumpers and a few front ends laid waste by trying to get too low in the corners.
There will be a few drivers that try to run multiple classes this year with Bobby Pierce picking up rides in both the Modifieds and Midgets to go along with his Late Model ride while Tim McCreadie has a Midget ride to go along with his Late Model. Randy Timms will be running both Late Models and Mods, but with his own personal cars.
The first day is always one to test the patience of even the hard core fan and again that was the case this year. Lots of laps put down on the racing surface but very little actual racing over a long day at the track. For those tough fans who find their seat as soon as the gates open at 2 pm, they would be looking forward to eight hours of on and off activity, with only seven races actually contested during that eight hour period. For those of us that opt, of our own choosing, to hit the pits a few hours before that time, it makes for an even longer day. And as long as the format using the age old archaic method of qualifying everything that moves and then starting the races straight up is used, this will not change.
Late Model and Modified drivers better be on their "A game" however, as they get a total of three hot laps before they are expected to qualify. For some reason, the Midgets were given special status and they had three full sessions of hot laps per car, even though their part of the program doesn't even start until Friday. I get the feeling that management has a special "soft spot" for the Midgets and I get the impression that their part of the program will only increase as the years go by, to the exclusion of perhaps one of the classes that we are seeing this weekend,but that is only me talking.
The first cars hit the track about 3 pm and it was just before 5 pm before the qualifying actually started. Both the Late Models and Modifieds qualified three cars at a time and the whole process, while lengthy, did come off without many hitches. Both classes split the field into two groups and the fast qualifiers in the Late Models were Tanner English and Pierce while the Modifieds saw Chris Arnold and Nick Hoffman turn quick time. One of the biggest surprises was when Scott Bloomquist had fuel pressure problems during qualifying and his very slow laps will put him at the back of a heat race on Friday afternoon, which should make for some interesting racing to be sure. Several of the other potential challengers also didn't qualify the best and this perhaps is natures way of saying that we should be either inverting the lineups to make things more interesting or just drawing a pill and then letting passing points draw the "cream to the top", so to speak.
The Late Model Race of Champions was the first on track activity that counted and that race hit the track about 8 pm. Rusty Schlenk, in the famed Rayburn entry, led all the way to win that contest as he drew away from an early battle with Jonathan Davenport to get the win.
The night concluded with six Modified heat races that qualified the top five in each race for Friday's twin main events, of which the top four of those will make the big show on Saturday night. While their weren't many yellow flags in the Mod heats, the first few saw the drivers pretty much line up and follow each other but as the races continued, the track started to widen out and the drivers moved up the track, with much more side by side racing in the last couple of events. That's much the way it happened last year too, and as more racing takes place, the track seems to get wider, the inside lane starts to slow down and the outside becomes more competitive. Lots of spectators stuck it out until the end of the night and then the crowd was large as people headed for the pit area.
Friday night will be a huge day and night of racing with a full program of both Late Models and Midgets(of course including Midget qualifying) with double features in each class, along with Last Chance races and double features for the Modifieds. This will set the fields for the big features on Saturday for all three classes, except for a few more Last Chance races on Saturday.
The other change involved the classes that are racing this year. Once again the Late Models are the featured class of cars, with up to one hundred and fifty allowed to enter the event. And as it has been for the three years of this race, they never come close to that cut off figure anyway with generally about one hundred cars actually showing up. This year it was reported that ninety three cars signed in to race although I only saw ninety on the track and for qualifying but it is indeed a big building and that elusive ninety third car may still be trying to navigate his way to the track through the maze required to get on to the actual racing surface.
Many of the top names in the sport are signed in to race along with a number of drivers who you will only see race here unless you travel to the far corners of this country to watch Late Model racing.
Along with the Late Models, the Modifieds will also be racing again this year. However, unlike the first two years of this event, instead of the Modifieds also allowed to enter up to the one fifty threshold, this year the Modifieds, in order to race, must have received and invitation to the event. This way they kept the numbers down to a more workable level. And the field is outstanding, with virtually every car on hand driven by top notch drivers and again, many of the biggest names in Modified racing are on hand to compete.
And the reason that the Modified numbers have been limited is that the mighty Midgets have been added to the program for this year. They also are racing on an invitation only basis and along with the Modifieds, fifty four of them are on hand to race also. The Midget list of drivers may be the most impressive of all three fields of cars, as there are but a handful of the best in the country that aren't in St. Louis to race this weekend. So, if it is big name drivers you want to see driving in a variety of different looking kinds of dirt race cars, this is the place to be this weekend.
Once again, a fifth mile track(or so they say) has been laid down in the bowels of the America's Dome and the track seems, in the preliminary action, to race much like it did last year. More fortified infield markers have been placed this year to keep the drivers from cutting the corners and the markers they have this year are going to hurt much more if they are hit than previous years. Just the first night action saw several bumpers and a few front ends laid waste by trying to get too low in the corners.
There will be a few drivers that try to run multiple classes this year with Bobby Pierce picking up rides in both the Modifieds and Midgets to go along with his Late Model ride while Tim McCreadie has a Midget ride to go along with his Late Model. Randy Timms will be running both Late Models and Mods, but with his own personal cars.
The first day is always one to test the patience of even the hard core fan and again that was the case this year. Lots of laps put down on the racing surface but very little actual racing over a long day at the track. For those tough fans who find their seat as soon as the gates open at 2 pm, they would be looking forward to eight hours of on and off activity, with only seven races actually contested during that eight hour period. For those of us that opt, of our own choosing, to hit the pits a few hours before that time, it makes for an even longer day. And as long as the format using the age old archaic method of qualifying everything that moves and then starting the races straight up is used, this will not change.
Late Model and Modified drivers better be on their "A game" however, as they get a total of three hot laps before they are expected to qualify. For some reason, the Midgets were given special status and they had three full sessions of hot laps per car, even though their part of the program doesn't even start until Friday. I get the feeling that management has a special "soft spot" for the Midgets and I get the impression that their part of the program will only increase as the years go by, to the exclusion of perhaps one of the classes that we are seeing this weekend,but that is only me talking.
The first cars hit the track about 3 pm and it was just before 5 pm before the qualifying actually started. Both the Late Models and Modifieds qualified three cars at a time and the whole process, while lengthy, did come off without many hitches. Both classes split the field into two groups and the fast qualifiers in the Late Models were Tanner English and Pierce while the Modifieds saw Chris Arnold and Nick Hoffman turn quick time. One of the biggest surprises was when Scott Bloomquist had fuel pressure problems during qualifying and his very slow laps will put him at the back of a heat race on Friday afternoon, which should make for some interesting racing to be sure. Several of the other potential challengers also didn't qualify the best and this perhaps is natures way of saying that we should be either inverting the lineups to make things more interesting or just drawing a pill and then letting passing points draw the "cream to the top", so to speak.
The Late Model Race of Champions was the first on track activity that counted and that race hit the track about 8 pm. Rusty Schlenk, in the famed Rayburn entry, led all the way to win that contest as he drew away from an early battle with Jonathan Davenport to get the win.
The night concluded with six Modified heat races that qualified the top five in each race for Friday's twin main events, of which the top four of those will make the big show on Saturday night. While their weren't many yellow flags in the Mod heats, the first few saw the drivers pretty much line up and follow each other but as the races continued, the track started to widen out and the drivers moved up the track, with much more side by side racing in the last couple of events. That's much the way it happened last year too, and as more racing takes place, the track seems to get wider, the inside lane starts to slow down and the outside becomes more competitive. Lots of spectators stuck it out until the end of the night and then the crowd was large as people headed for the pit area.
Friday night will be a huge day and night of racing with a full program of both Late Models and Midgets(of course including Midget qualifying) with double features in each class, along with Last Chance races and double features for the Modifieds. This will set the fields for the big features on Saturday for all three classes, except for a few more Last Chance races on Saturday.
Monday, November 5, 2018
The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Day 3(finally some feature races)
The whole weekend has been a challenge here at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. With qualifying shortened up on Thursday due to rain, followed by all day rains that set the time table way back for Friday night's show which resulted in the three feature races postponed until Saturday afternoon and then followed right up by another full show, the weekend was a tough one for the racers and their crews, the fans but most particularly, the track prep people and employees of The Dirt Track who put in some long hours.
When you are at a track for three long days(nights) before you actually get to see a feature race, it makes for a long and frustrating weekend but our inconvenience was a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the people working at the track in some or another capacity were facing.
If the six feature races we were were all so anxiously waiting for would have been "wowzers", surely the misadventures of the rest of the weekend would have been easily forgotten. But when most of the mains were "duds", it make it even more frustrating.
The racing began in the early afternoon with the three feature races left over from Friday night that had to be held off due to the Midnight curfew. As all of us know, afternoon racing is often a challenge and so it was again on this beautiful but windy Saturday afternoon.
After waiting all year to see the Big Blocks in action after a Florida trip was not in the cards last February, the Big Blocks disappointed with one of the worst five feature races seen all year, irregardless of class. For some reason the drivers couldn't keep their Hoosiers inflated and on the rims as it turned out to be a race from yellow to yellow with the vast majority of the yellows due to flat tires. A mind boggling thirteen yellow flags flew during the forty lap main event with the longest stretch of green flag racing in the whole contest being seven laps and that was the first seven of the race before the Hoosiers started to peel, shred and lose air.
With this much dinging around, the race itself lost all credibility and turned into a contest of who could keep their tires inflated or charge from the back after being forced to pit. Brett Hearn was one of the very few to be able to keep racing the whole contest without having a tire issue and after taking the lead after Matt Sheppard suffered a flat while leading, Hearn was able to withstand all the show downs and drive home for the win. Tim McCreadie came from twenty fifth to finish second, but likely didn't pass a car under green during the entire race. Sheppard, who's early yellow threatened his point lead in the Super Dirt Car Series, actually gained some points when he was able to drive all the way back up to third at the finish, gaining two positions on his closest challenger, Erick Rudolph.
The Late Model feature was a decent race. While not a classic, it did feature some good battling among the top five with some trading of positions. The Late Models were also able to keep air in their tires and there were only two yellow flags, both for debris on the track. Brandon Sheppard would do all he could to close the point battle with his win, but Mike Marlar was also solid with a third place finish. McCreadie would have another solid finish it what would be a most prosperous day for him and every time he passed a car, the crowd would go wild as he was clearly the most popular driver among the fans. Meanwhile, Matt Sheppard and Donny Schatz particularly suffer from their success as every car that passes them is celebrated wildly.
The Sprint Cars wrapped up the afternoon with perhaps a top five dirtiest race I have had the displeasure of enduring. The dust was horrendous and with the wind dropping, it just hung in the air. I could see a small stretch of the straightaway right in front of me, but the rest of the track was just a mystery. I had to rely on the scoreboard to figure out who was in front but because there was a distinct lack of passing, it was a bit earlier to keep track of who was where. The crowd was happy that an underdog in Ian Madsen won the race, but as far as telling much else about what happened, I was in the dark. The Dirt Track appears to have some good red clay on it, but it must be mixed with too much sand or something as it never seems to bind together and no matter how wet the surface appears, it always soon is blowing dust. This has always been the case every time I have been here and getting filthy is a way of life at this track but it was even much worse for this afternoon show. With all the yellows, the three makeup feature races took three hours to run!
The best work of the entire weekend was then accomplished. The track prep crew dug the track, watered it and then rolled it in and the racing surface was remarkably improved for the Saturday night session. Even though the Late Models time trials rained out on Thursday were added to the already full program, the track held up well. It was slick and hard but wide and had several racing grooves and although it was blowing some dust, it was nothing like we had to endure earlier. With the surface improved, two of the three feature races also came right down to the wire. While I express disappointment in the racing for most of the weekend, please understand that it was almost totally caused by the weather conditions that made it so difficult.
The Big Blocks reduced their yellows from thirteen in the afternoon to only two for the evening main event. They also provided one of the closest finishes of the weekend. Sheppard had maintained a comfortable lead for most of the race until he got into lapped traffic late. Tim Fuller made a charge at him and when Sheppard failed to handle the lapped traffic well with just over a lap to go and got himself blocked, Fuller drove around him and stole the win, with a crowd pleasing move. Sheppard still won the point title as Rudolph was mired back in the pack but the last lap loss must have stung no matter what. McCreadie would harvest top ten finishes in both the Big Blocks and Late Models once again, making for a very productive weekend for the New York driver.
Donny Schatz had been quiet all weekend and I was beginning to wonder just how it was that he won all those feature races every year. Then he showed me what he is all about in the Sprint Car main, coming from tenth in a loaded field to take the win. He is so smooth and controlled that he isn't really flashy, but when the money is on the line, he shines. He took the lead on a restart late and then survived a slide job from Logan Schuchart which he responded to with one of his own on the white flag lap to take the win. The "Big Cat", Brad Sweet, also came from the fifth row to finish third.
The only feature race that wasn't a "nail biter" was the Late Model feature where Scott Bloomquist dominated, leading all fifty laps and never really having a solid challenge with the last twenty nine laps running green. There was a good battle behind him and the points race was still ongoing with Marlar and Sheppard fighting it out. Again, Sheppard did all he could by finishing third but even though he faded a bit at the end, Marlar still finished sixth and that was plenty good enough to ensure the point title and a smoky post race "burn down" on the front chute. Jonathan Davenport, perhaps driving a bit harder than normal to show that the visiting Lucas Oil point champions shouldn't be overlooked, drove from thirteenth to finish second.
Despite the less than spectacular weather we were handed, the crowds were absolutely huge and I would recommend this as an event that every race fan should see once and then decide if they want to make it a yearly happening. There are some very good things about this show including the awesome facility, the spectacular fields of race cars and the wide variety of racing related activities to do during down time. However, it is a very pricey weekend of racing whether you fly or drive, and hotels are outrageously priced anywhere in the area. Expect to eat a lot of red clay and to be crowded in the grandstands. I know that I will have to think long and hard before I decide one way or the other for next year.
Being the end of the racing year, there were the expected rumors flying concerning who would be driving what for next year. Lots of the Sprint Car news has already been revealed but for Late Model fans if you want to believe, I was told that Josh Richards will move to the Clint Bowyer Team next year as Darrell Lanigan is out. If a new sponsor isn't found, Don O'Neal may join Lanigan in the hunt for a ride for next year. Best Motorsports, the team that Richards drove for this year, is running again in 2019 but hasn't picked a driver as of yet.
Interesting but totally unrelated, on our long way home, we ran into the Ray Bollinger Modified team also taking a food break at a town in southern Ohio. They were returning to Kewaunee Illinois after having picked up a new Lethal chassis at David Stremme's shop in North Carolina. While I didn't get to see much of the car, I can tell you that it will be yellow again, but that should be no surprise. They will debut the car in St.Louis at the Dome race the end of this month and then on to Florida.
Special thanks go out for out weekend to Shaun Johnson of the Charlotte Motor Speedway staff, Don Stodola from G FORCE Racing Gear and Amy Haigler from SRI Performance for their special help and consideration to help make our weekend a pleasurable one.
When you are at a track for three long days(nights) before you actually get to see a feature race, it makes for a long and frustrating weekend but our inconvenience was a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the people working at the track in some or another capacity were facing.
If the six feature races we were were all so anxiously waiting for would have been "wowzers", surely the misadventures of the rest of the weekend would have been easily forgotten. But when most of the mains were "duds", it make it even more frustrating.
The racing began in the early afternoon with the three feature races left over from Friday night that had to be held off due to the Midnight curfew. As all of us know, afternoon racing is often a challenge and so it was again on this beautiful but windy Saturday afternoon.
After waiting all year to see the Big Blocks in action after a Florida trip was not in the cards last February, the Big Blocks disappointed with one of the worst five feature races seen all year, irregardless of class. For some reason the drivers couldn't keep their Hoosiers inflated and on the rims as it turned out to be a race from yellow to yellow with the vast majority of the yellows due to flat tires. A mind boggling thirteen yellow flags flew during the forty lap main event with the longest stretch of green flag racing in the whole contest being seven laps and that was the first seven of the race before the Hoosiers started to peel, shred and lose air.
With this much dinging around, the race itself lost all credibility and turned into a contest of who could keep their tires inflated or charge from the back after being forced to pit. Brett Hearn was one of the very few to be able to keep racing the whole contest without having a tire issue and after taking the lead after Matt Sheppard suffered a flat while leading, Hearn was able to withstand all the show downs and drive home for the win. Tim McCreadie came from twenty fifth to finish second, but likely didn't pass a car under green during the entire race. Sheppard, who's early yellow threatened his point lead in the Super Dirt Car Series, actually gained some points when he was able to drive all the way back up to third at the finish, gaining two positions on his closest challenger, Erick Rudolph.
The Late Model feature was a decent race. While not a classic, it did feature some good battling among the top five with some trading of positions. The Late Models were also able to keep air in their tires and there were only two yellow flags, both for debris on the track. Brandon Sheppard would do all he could to close the point battle with his win, but Mike Marlar was also solid with a third place finish. McCreadie would have another solid finish it what would be a most prosperous day for him and every time he passed a car, the crowd would go wild as he was clearly the most popular driver among the fans. Meanwhile, Matt Sheppard and Donny Schatz particularly suffer from their success as every car that passes them is celebrated wildly.
The Sprint Cars wrapped up the afternoon with perhaps a top five dirtiest race I have had the displeasure of enduring. The dust was horrendous and with the wind dropping, it just hung in the air. I could see a small stretch of the straightaway right in front of me, but the rest of the track was just a mystery. I had to rely on the scoreboard to figure out who was in front but because there was a distinct lack of passing, it was a bit earlier to keep track of who was where. The crowd was happy that an underdog in Ian Madsen won the race, but as far as telling much else about what happened, I was in the dark. The Dirt Track appears to have some good red clay on it, but it must be mixed with too much sand or something as it never seems to bind together and no matter how wet the surface appears, it always soon is blowing dust. This has always been the case every time I have been here and getting filthy is a way of life at this track but it was even much worse for this afternoon show. With all the yellows, the three makeup feature races took three hours to run!
The best work of the entire weekend was then accomplished. The track prep crew dug the track, watered it and then rolled it in and the racing surface was remarkably improved for the Saturday night session. Even though the Late Models time trials rained out on Thursday were added to the already full program, the track held up well. It was slick and hard but wide and had several racing grooves and although it was blowing some dust, it was nothing like we had to endure earlier. With the surface improved, two of the three feature races also came right down to the wire. While I express disappointment in the racing for most of the weekend, please understand that it was almost totally caused by the weather conditions that made it so difficult.
The Big Blocks reduced their yellows from thirteen in the afternoon to only two for the evening main event. They also provided one of the closest finishes of the weekend. Sheppard had maintained a comfortable lead for most of the race until he got into lapped traffic late. Tim Fuller made a charge at him and when Sheppard failed to handle the lapped traffic well with just over a lap to go and got himself blocked, Fuller drove around him and stole the win, with a crowd pleasing move. Sheppard still won the point title as Rudolph was mired back in the pack but the last lap loss must have stung no matter what. McCreadie would harvest top ten finishes in both the Big Blocks and Late Models once again, making for a very productive weekend for the New York driver.
Donny Schatz had been quiet all weekend and I was beginning to wonder just how it was that he won all those feature races every year. Then he showed me what he is all about in the Sprint Car main, coming from tenth in a loaded field to take the win. He is so smooth and controlled that he isn't really flashy, but when the money is on the line, he shines. He took the lead on a restart late and then survived a slide job from Logan Schuchart which he responded to with one of his own on the white flag lap to take the win. The "Big Cat", Brad Sweet, also came from the fifth row to finish third.
The only feature race that wasn't a "nail biter" was the Late Model feature where Scott Bloomquist dominated, leading all fifty laps and never really having a solid challenge with the last twenty nine laps running green. There was a good battle behind him and the points race was still ongoing with Marlar and Sheppard fighting it out. Again, Sheppard did all he could by finishing third but even though he faded a bit at the end, Marlar still finished sixth and that was plenty good enough to ensure the point title and a smoky post race "burn down" on the front chute. Jonathan Davenport, perhaps driving a bit harder than normal to show that the visiting Lucas Oil point champions shouldn't be overlooked, drove from thirteenth to finish second.
Despite the less than spectacular weather we were handed, the crowds were absolutely huge and I would recommend this as an event that every race fan should see once and then decide if they want to make it a yearly happening. There are some very good things about this show including the awesome facility, the spectacular fields of race cars and the wide variety of racing related activities to do during down time. However, it is a very pricey weekend of racing whether you fly or drive, and hotels are outrageously priced anywhere in the area. Expect to eat a lot of red clay and to be crowded in the grandstands. I know that I will have to think long and hard before I decide one way or the other for next year.
Being the end of the racing year, there were the expected rumors flying concerning who would be driving what for next year. Lots of the Sprint Car news has already been revealed but for Late Model fans if you want to believe, I was told that Josh Richards will move to the Clint Bowyer Team next year as Darrell Lanigan is out. If a new sponsor isn't found, Don O'Neal may join Lanigan in the hunt for a ride for next year. Best Motorsports, the team that Richards drove for this year, is running again in 2019 but hasn't picked a driver as of yet.
Interesting but totally unrelated, on our long way home, we ran into the Ray Bollinger Modified team also taking a food break at a town in southern Ohio. They were returning to Kewaunee Illinois after having picked up a new Lethal chassis at David Stremme's shop in North Carolina. While I didn't get to see much of the car, I can tell you that it will be yellow again, but that should be no surprise. They will debut the car in St.Louis at the Dome race the end of this month and then on to Florida.
Special thanks go out for out weekend to Shaun Johnson of the Charlotte Motor Speedway staff, Don Stodola from G FORCE Racing Gear and Amy Haigler from SRI Performance for their special help and consideration to help make our weekend a pleasurable one.
Saturday, November 3, 2018
The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Day Two (Still no features)
Just as promised for over a week, the rains rolled into the Charlotte area by Noon on Friday. Light and more scattered at first, by mid afternoon most everyone was getting wet although the most heavy storms with some severe weather steered away from the Charlotte metro area. However, the officials at the Dirt Track were determined to get a show in, or at least as much of a show in as they could, knowing that they likely couldn't complete two full programs on Saturday before the Midnight curfew and then they would have a real issue on their hands.
Also as promised, the rains stopped by 5 pm and by the time I headed out to the track, they were hard at work trying to whip the red clay back into shape for racing action. None of the race teams were too excited about the prospect though and only a handful of teams had even unloaded their cars by the time I arrived. Most were taking a "wait and see" attitude as quite frankly, the track was a mess and I had serious doubts that they would be able to get the track into some kind of racing shape. However, by the time I checked out the track once again later, they had made some amazing progress and it did seem like racing would take place.
The Sprint Cars were called to the track for engine warm ups and then they were given hot laps, ostensibly to help widen out the racing groove but of course, they were all in racing mode and none of their six hot lap sessions(by heat), did much good overall to change the character of the track. But since the Sprint Cars are soooo slooow to get even their warm ups going, the hot lap sessions took nearly an hour and it was a quarter to nine before the Big Blocks hit the track for their Last Chance qualifiers.
The track was blinding fast but the groove was narrow and passing all night proved to be a real challenge. Of course, this was to be expected due to the weather issues they had been handed and the lower groove, narrow as it was, was smooth. A huge berm developed and woe to the driver that jumped that as much of the evening's passing was done not by driving by other cars, but hoping the driver in front of you got out of line. Again, this was to be expected on a night like this and not an indictment of the track or those who prepared it.
Lots of smashed up equipment was the result as the Late Model heats particularly saw a great deal of break downs and wrecks with a large number of torn up cars as everyone was running very hard and giving no quarter. Some of the biggest losers were Chris Ferguson, Dakotah Knuckles and Rick Eckert who all lost good qualifying spots when issues slowed them down in their respective heats.
Trying to get as much down as possible, there were no breaks taken for track prep, an item that had been built into the pre race schedule to be done at least a couple of times. Because of that, the track was never widened out and all the racing was done in the lowest lane and a half of the track, which hampered the kind of racing we were all hoping to see.
With the surface the way it was, I was expecting to see a bunch of Sprint Car flips as they banged up and over the huge berm but that proved to be incorrect. In fact, the only tip over of the night was a relatively mild one by Paul Nieheiser in the B Feature.
However, "Father Time" kept ticking away as the long litany of qualifying events ground by, and by the time the Sprint B feature was done, it was approaching the Midnight hour which apparently is the curfew time for the Dirt Track. The announcers warned that there might be a forced break in the action a couple of races before the end and people immediately started streaming for the parking lot. When the Big Blocks, lined up in staging for the main, all started turning around and heading back to their trailers, it was apparent that we were going to see all that we would on Friday.
So, the plan for Saturday is to run off Friday night's three features in the early afternoon, and then quickly turn things around and start the Saturday show in the late afternoon, trying to maintain Saturday's plan as much as possible. I'm sure we're going to see a much different type of track for the Saturday show and perhaps one that will allow much more passing and hopefully, finally start to crown some feature race winners.
One thing I did see on Friday that I've never witnessed before was the way they cleaned off the outside concrete wall here. Many times I've seen track workers come out with shovels and scrape the mud off the wall so the drivers had better visibility of where the wall was, but I had never seen it done with a motor vehicle before. They had a four wheel drive truck with some sort of scraper mounted on the front and he just drove at a severe angle to the track and scrapped off the mud from the wall as he drove. It worked super slick and was much faster and less labor intensive than the "tried and true" method.
Also as promised, the rains stopped by 5 pm and by the time I headed out to the track, they were hard at work trying to whip the red clay back into shape for racing action. None of the race teams were too excited about the prospect though and only a handful of teams had even unloaded their cars by the time I arrived. Most were taking a "wait and see" attitude as quite frankly, the track was a mess and I had serious doubts that they would be able to get the track into some kind of racing shape. However, by the time I checked out the track once again later, they had made some amazing progress and it did seem like racing would take place.
The Sprint Cars were called to the track for engine warm ups and then they were given hot laps, ostensibly to help widen out the racing groove but of course, they were all in racing mode and none of their six hot lap sessions(by heat), did much good overall to change the character of the track. But since the Sprint Cars are soooo slooow to get even their warm ups going, the hot lap sessions took nearly an hour and it was a quarter to nine before the Big Blocks hit the track for their Last Chance qualifiers.
The track was blinding fast but the groove was narrow and passing all night proved to be a real challenge. Of course, this was to be expected due to the weather issues they had been handed and the lower groove, narrow as it was, was smooth. A huge berm developed and woe to the driver that jumped that as much of the evening's passing was done not by driving by other cars, but hoping the driver in front of you got out of line. Again, this was to be expected on a night like this and not an indictment of the track or those who prepared it.
Lots of smashed up equipment was the result as the Late Model heats particularly saw a great deal of break downs and wrecks with a large number of torn up cars as everyone was running very hard and giving no quarter. Some of the biggest losers were Chris Ferguson, Dakotah Knuckles and Rick Eckert who all lost good qualifying spots when issues slowed them down in their respective heats.
Trying to get as much down as possible, there were no breaks taken for track prep, an item that had been built into the pre race schedule to be done at least a couple of times. Because of that, the track was never widened out and all the racing was done in the lowest lane and a half of the track, which hampered the kind of racing we were all hoping to see.
With the surface the way it was, I was expecting to see a bunch of Sprint Car flips as they banged up and over the huge berm but that proved to be incorrect. In fact, the only tip over of the night was a relatively mild one by Paul Nieheiser in the B Feature.
However, "Father Time" kept ticking away as the long litany of qualifying events ground by, and by the time the Sprint B feature was done, it was approaching the Midnight hour which apparently is the curfew time for the Dirt Track. The announcers warned that there might be a forced break in the action a couple of races before the end and people immediately started streaming for the parking lot. When the Big Blocks, lined up in staging for the main, all started turning around and heading back to their trailers, it was apparent that we were going to see all that we would on Friday.
So, the plan for Saturday is to run off Friday night's three features in the early afternoon, and then quickly turn things around and start the Saturday show in the late afternoon, trying to maintain Saturday's plan as much as possible. I'm sure we're going to see a much different type of track for the Saturday show and perhaps one that will allow much more passing and hopefully, finally start to crown some feature race winners.
One thing I did see on Friday that I've never witnessed before was the way they cleaned off the outside concrete wall here. Many times I've seen track workers come out with shovels and scrape the mud off the wall so the drivers had better visibility of where the wall was, but I had never seen it done with a motor vehicle before. They had a four wheel drive truck with some sort of scraper mounted on the front and he just drove at a severe angle to the track and scrapped off the mud from the wall as he drove. It worked super slick and was much faster and less labor intensive than the "tried and true" method.
Friday, November 2, 2018
The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Day One
As promised, we did make it to Charlotte(Concord) North Carolina for day one of the twelfth annual World of Outlaws World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Dirt Track is a spectacular facility right across the highway from the "big track" but we have no interest in checking out the Roval this weekend(or quite frankly, any other weekend for that matter.) Instead, we're going to get some good old fashioned North Carolina red clay in our hair and our eyes and lots of other places where we probably don't need any red clay dust but that's a story for another time.
This is the final race weekend for the World of Outlaws in 2018 and three champions are set to be crowned on Saturday night. The point races vary from close to a guaranteed title just by taking a green flag on Thursday night. In the Sprint Cars, Donny Schatz guaranteed his fifth straight title and tenth overall just by taking a green flag for a qualifying lap. What a remarkable statistic his ten titles is. All this from a guy I first saw race when he was sixteen years old and riding his car over the wall at the Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo North Dakota. Matt Sheppard is in good position to win yet another Big Block title and he would have to stumble badly to not win it. The Late Model race is closer with Mike Marlar, Chris Madden and Brandon Sheppard still with mathematical chances to win.
Big Block Modifieds, Late Models and Sprint Cars will all be in action all three nights but not much racing truly gets started until Friday night. Thursday night is reserved for qualifying time trials for all three divisions plus the Big Blocks run two sets of heat races that set their running order for the Last Chance and Feature races on Friday and Saturday night.
Forty two Big Blocks, seventy six Late Models and fifty two Sprint cars rolled into the facility on Wednesday and Thursday, making for a grand total of one hundred and seventy high buck race teams on hand for the weekend's activities. Of those one hundred and seventy teams, I saw only one open trailer and that was for a Late Model that traveled only across one state to get here. There are drivers on hand from nineteen states and three countries with both Canada and Australia represented in the field.
For someone who lives in a part of the world where time trials are never used and I see perhaps six to twelve time trial races all year, this event is a true test of one's patience and resolve. Between the three classes with two full rounds of time trials for both the Sprints and Late Models used to set the fields for the heat races on the two days that follow, along with two full sets of timed hot laps by the Big Blocks, nearly seven hundred laps of time trials are seen on Thursday! That is enough to stretch the patience of any race fan and it is a wonder that as many fans are on hand for the opening night as there are. Mostly, I guess, it is because they are interested to see just who is on hand to race. And if it were not for the good organization of the Outlaws staff that click off this tedium as quickly as possible, we would likely be here for even more hours of non competitive events.
The shame is that when all this is done, then they still go ahead and line up the cars straight up for the heat races, thus further increasing our chances that we won't actually see and passing and racing. You can find the complete results I'm sure posted so I'll not go into those very deeply but Billy Decker and Brett Hearn set the pace in the Big Blocks, Dale McDowell, Shane Clanton and Mike Marlar in the Late Models and Parker Price Miller and David Gravel in the Sprints. With all the upcoming switches in the Sprints, it's tough this weekend to keep straight who's racing for who and where they are moving to next season. I wonder how that must feel racing against a car that you know you'll be behind the wheel of in a few short weeks. To wreck him or not, that is the question.
After the Big Blocks ran their group qualifying, their heat races for Friday and Saturday were interspersed among the rest of the qualifying as they really do get treated like the "red haired stepchildren" at this event and I'm surprised they don't demand their own event where they would get more decent billing. Fortunately, to keep the passing at a minimum, the Big Block heats were lined straight up too and I'm pleased to say that seven of the eight heats were won right off the pole with a bare minimum of passing. The only heat that wasn't taken from position one was the first heat where none other than Matt Sheppard moved low from the second row, passed in the first corner and then everyone was able to settle back and just follow one another again. We can only hope we'll see some more true racing in the nights to come.
This entire weekend has been started under the veil of the threat of rain for most particularly, Friday. However, the first insurgents of the coming cold front moved in even earlier than expected, as halfway through the last set of Late Model qualifying, it started to rain and quite hard initially. So, group B of the Late Models will have their qualifying prior to the start of their program on Saturday to set their running order for Saturday's heats. Both night's shows have an identical format with heats , Last Chance and Features for the Late Models and Sprints while the Big Blocks run Last Chance and Features only. There is a significant chance of rain on Friday which would throw a big monkey wrench into the weekend. With the Outlaw banquet slated for Sunday, that day is not a workable option for racing so if things would get rained out on Friday, they would run both shows on Saturday, starting in the morning and going until they got done. You talk about a marathon. We shall see what happens.
This is the final race weekend for the World of Outlaws in 2018 and three champions are set to be crowned on Saturday night. The point races vary from close to a guaranteed title just by taking a green flag on Thursday night. In the Sprint Cars, Donny Schatz guaranteed his fifth straight title and tenth overall just by taking a green flag for a qualifying lap. What a remarkable statistic his ten titles is. All this from a guy I first saw race when he was sixteen years old and riding his car over the wall at the Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo North Dakota. Matt Sheppard is in good position to win yet another Big Block title and he would have to stumble badly to not win it. The Late Model race is closer with Mike Marlar, Chris Madden and Brandon Sheppard still with mathematical chances to win.
Big Block Modifieds, Late Models and Sprint Cars will all be in action all three nights but not much racing truly gets started until Friday night. Thursday night is reserved for qualifying time trials for all three divisions plus the Big Blocks run two sets of heat races that set their running order for the Last Chance and Feature races on Friday and Saturday night.
Forty two Big Blocks, seventy six Late Models and fifty two Sprint cars rolled into the facility on Wednesday and Thursday, making for a grand total of one hundred and seventy high buck race teams on hand for the weekend's activities. Of those one hundred and seventy teams, I saw only one open trailer and that was for a Late Model that traveled only across one state to get here. There are drivers on hand from nineteen states and three countries with both Canada and Australia represented in the field.
For someone who lives in a part of the world where time trials are never used and I see perhaps six to twelve time trial races all year, this event is a true test of one's patience and resolve. Between the three classes with two full rounds of time trials for both the Sprints and Late Models used to set the fields for the heat races on the two days that follow, along with two full sets of timed hot laps by the Big Blocks, nearly seven hundred laps of time trials are seen on Thursday! That is enough to stretch the patience of any race fan and it is a wonder that as many fans are on hand for the opening night as there are. Mostly, I guess, it is because they are interested to see just who is on hand to race. And if it were not for the good organization of the Outlaws staff that click off this tedium as quickly as possible, we would likely be here for even more hours of non competitive events.
The shame is that when all this is done, then they still go ahead and line up the cars straight up for the heat races, thus further increasing our chances that we won't actually see and passing and racing. You can find the complete results I'm sure posted so I'll not go into those very deeply but Billy Decker and Brett Hearn set the pace in the Big Blocks, Dale McDowell, Shane Clanton and Mike Marlar in the Late Models and Parker Price Miller and David Gravel in the Sprints. With all the upcoming switches in the Sprints, it's tough this weekend to keep straight who's racing for who and where they are moving to next season. I wonder how that must feel racing against a car that you know you'll be behind the wheel of in a few short weeks. To wreck him or not, that is the question.
After the Big Blocks ran their group qualifying, their heat races for Friday and Saturday were interspersed among the rest of the qualifying as they really do get treated like the "red haired stepchildren" at this event and I'm surprised they don't demand their own event where they would get more decent billing. Fortunately, to keep the passing at a minimum, the Big Block heats were lined straight up too and I'm pleased to say that seven of the eight heats were won right off the pole with a bare minimum of passing. The only heat that wasn't taken from position one was the first heat where none other than Matt Sheppard moved low from the second row, passed in the first corner and then everyone was able to settle back and just follow one another again. We can only hope we'll see some more true racing in the nights to come.
This entire weekend has been started under the veil of the threat of rain for most particularly, Friday. However, the first insurgents of the coming cold front moved in even earlier than expected, as halfway through the last set of Late Model qualifying, it started to rain and quite hard initially. So, group B of the Late Models will have their qualifying prior to the start of their program on Saturday to set their running order for Saturday's heats. Both night's shows have an identical format with heats , Last Chance and Features for the Late Models and Sprints while the Big Blocks run Last Chance and Features only. There is a significant chance of rain on Friday which would throw a big monkey wrench into the weekend. With the Outlaw banquet slated for Sunday, that day is not a workable option for racing so if things would get rained out on Friday, they would run both shows on Saturday, starting in the morning and going until they got done. You talk about a marathon. We shall see what happens.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Gustin and Stanton Repeat at Web City; Tuners Hit a Flat Note
Saturday night, October 27th was the second night of the Fall Futurity at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City Iowa. It was a spectacular Fall afternoon for racing, or at least it started that way which made it even more shocking and surprising that by the time the last events on the schedule were to be run off, rain was a threat and eventually did shorten up the action by one main.
More cars were expected to compete on the second night of the show and that was indeed the case with twenty five new drivers signing in to race on Saturday, and the field totaled one hundred and thirty five in the six classes that were racing. Only the Modified class saw no new entrants added to the field on Saturday. With the format in place, drivers felt like even if they couldn't make it on Friday night, they still had a fighting chance to get a good finish as was later shown when one of the feature race winners was a driver that wasn't even on hand on Friday night!
The top eight from Friday night were locked in and ran a dash to establish their starting order while everyone that didn't make the top eight redrew for a heat race assignment with the finishing order of the heats establishing their starting positions behind the already qualified top eight.
As drivers were signing in and getting ready to run the evening show, I took an opportunity to have a quick chat with Todd Staley as to what would be happening with the USMTS in 2019. He told me that he is just now getting started trying to put together the schedule for next year and would have no announcements on that for awhile. However, he did think that the season would again start with a series of races in Texas but that it probably would not be until March before that would begin. He anticipates that the total number of races would likely be close to what they ran this year. However, I suppose the biggest news would be that he plans to go back to the "Hunt" format for next year as he didn't think the format this year worked out that well. All drivers that run each show would again be guaranteed five grand, I believe he said with more particulars to be determined. He indicated that there would likely be few rule changes for next year, something that surprised me a bit since I had been hearing that some wholesale changes might be in the works.
I next took an opportunity to chat with one of my favorite Iowa drivers and that was Double D, Darrel DeFrance who was scouting things out from a ute tire outside the track. For those that don't know, DeFrance is one of the closest racing friends of Gary Webb, and I asked DD if he had talked to Gary recently. In fact, Webb had just dropped by to visit DD earlier this week and Darrel reported that Gary is getting a little bit better every day as he tried to put his life back together after the tragic fire that cost the life of his wife recently.
Gary is back on the road hauling trailers around the county and that is probably the best thing for him to do to get back in the swing of things. Gary is currently living with his brother Robert but plans to eventually get an apartment as there are too many memories for him to ever rebuilt at their current location. He does plan to get some kind of a race shop as he still plans on racing for a few years yet.
As far as DD is concerned, he plans to race his Victory chassis for another year on the Late Model circuit. I asked him about the pending rule changes with the IMCA Late Models and he is expecting to see a spec shock and crate motors for the division next year. He said that if he was twenty years younger he would be "all in" on the new rules but at his age he'd just as soon keep what he already has. However, you can bet that whatever the rules, when the season starts out in 2019, expect the #99D to be on the track as he is very proud of his record with the Derry Brothers series, even if he doesn't remember just exactly what the number of consecutive races is right now.
Rumors persist that while Moyer still has the jig for the Victory Late Models, everything else involving the Victory Late Models is going up to Don Shaw in the Twin Cities, who has had great success running that type of chassis in both spec and open motor versions and does have the personal resources to handle that type of operation. Stay tuned.
While Friday night's program went pretty smooth, there are always some grinding crashes that leave you wondering just who would be able to make it back to the track for Saturday's show. The Stock Cars of Vince Loewen and Cary Heinen were both involved in the same grinding crash on Friday and I was surprised to see that both had made repairs and were back to race. Denny Berghahn from Nebraska spent most of the afternoon in the parking lot trying to put his Tuner back together after a wall smash on Friday and he would be rewarded with a heat race win later. Oliver Monson blew up his Tuner on Friday so he just rolled out another car to race on Saturday night.
If a Hard Luck award would have been presented on Saturday night, it should have gone to B Mod driver Bill Engler who towed all the way from central Wisconsin down to race for the weekend. Only the B Mods required a B Feature for entrance into the main and five cars were racing for four spots. The fifth place car was nearly a full lap behind and had been having trouble keeping the car pointed the proper direction. Yet the third place car decided to make a "super move" on Engler for second with the race nearly over, nailed him in the left rear giving him a flat and knocking him out of the race, the show and costing him a check. Even in the end of October some people still do the same stupid moves they were doing back in April!
The first feature race up was the Stock Cars and this event provided the drive of the night. Redwood Falls Minnesota's Curt Lund, who wasn't even on the grounds on Friday, drove up from the tenth starting position to record a dominating win. Lund, who was a top not Modified driver too, has been very fast in Minnesota this year driving this Stock Car, flexed his muscle early coming from sixth to win a heat race.
In the main, he quickly moved up as he appeared to be the only driver able to pass both high and low on a track that was considerably different than it had been the previous night. It was much slicker and passing required a good plan and the ability to move from the high to low groove. As Kevin Donlin and Derek Green battled for the lead, Lund drove right up to third and began to pressure the leaders. Green took himself out when he plowed the wall in turn one and on the restart, Lund powered past Donlin and took over the lead. He would still have to deal with a couple restarts with the pack bunched but each time he pulled away for a convincing win. Kyle Falck finished second with Donlin showing in third.
The Late Models were up next with twenty car to take the green. It appeared to be a two car battle as Dash winner Billy Leighton Jr and Friday night winner Lance Matthees looked to be the class of the field. However, Matthees broke a rocker arm in his motor during the Dash and despite the fact that he had the outside pole, he was forced to scratch out of the feature.
Earlier in the day, Matthees had to endure one of the more eventful situations of the weekend. There was some sort of communications breakdown and while Matthees was told that there were certain standards his car must be at to race, once he got to the track and after winning the Friday night show, he was told that the rules were considerably different than what he was assuming. While they allowed him to retain the win Friday, in order to race on Saturday he was required to put a carburetor plate on his motor and find some of the proper, uncut tires for the back wheels.
Unfortunately, the tire truck at Webster City didn't even sell Late Model tires and being the end of the year, trying to find another competitor with extra, decent tires was very challenging. Finally, Scott Fitzpatrick was willing to loan the Minnesota team two tires, after a tireless search by one of the track officials that bent over backward to try and help out and find them some tires. Of course, it all proved to be rather fruitless, as the motor problems kept the #90 from running the feature after he looked so good on Friday night.
Leighton Jr absolutely ran away from the Late Model field, winning by a full straightaway and it likely could have been even more. DD and Fitzpatrick had a good battle for second for some time before DeFrance took the spot but then Charlie McKenna, himself running a WISSOTA spec engine, passed DD for second.
The Hobby Stock feature produced one of the closest battles of the night with the leaders going back and forth before the issue was finally decided. Myles Micheli almost duplicated Lund's charge as he too came from tenth to take the lead after only a handful of laps. Micheli had to start that far back after he was challenging for the feature lead until he threw a wheel. However, he fought back Saturday and with some impressive low side moved, drove past Brandon Nielsen and Dustin Gulbrandson to take the front spot.
Eric Stanton and Gulbrandson battled then for second and with several yellows to bunch the field, the race for the lead continued to be a close one. However, each time Micheli would fight off the two behind and continue to hold the top spot. However, when Stanton was able to get to the outside for a restart, that would make all the difference in the world. He was able to get a good run off the top side and drove past Micheli to take over the lead in the later laps. Micheli would push back very hard on the low side in the corners but each time Stanton would fight him off and eventually take the win in a close, exciting finish. Daniel Ayers made a late charge to take the third spot.
The B Mod feature was much like the Hobby Stock in that it proved to be a good, two car battle for the lead and the win. Ty Griffith had looked unbeatable in the B Mods all weekend and after starting on the pole, it looked like this race could be a walkaway for the Webster City driver. However, as the race started to get some laps on it and a couple of yellow flags bunched things up, Jared Boumeester started to become a factor. He was showing the speed to keep up with Griffith, who was "married" to the very low groove, and when Boumeester started to run up against the wall, he started to move up significantly.
The last yellow came with nine laps to go and after that, it was a highly competitive race. Several times Boumeester had a good run off turn two, only to see Griffith drift up the track and block the high groove, causing Boumeester to have to lift. Then, as a counter, Boumeester starting diving low into turn three and trying to beat Griffith down the front chute. With only a few laps left, Jared was finally able to complete the move and once in front, he was able to stretch his lead and show that yes indeed, he was the fastest car on the track, no matter what the initials of the sanctioning body were. Ethan Braaksma came from eleventh to finish third.
Ryan Gustin would likely be branded the most dominating driver of the weekend. Friday night he won the feature when it seemed that he drove just fast enough to take the win. After winning the Dash Saturday, he started on the pole and that was the last that most of the drivers saw of him all night. He just motored away from the field, not being flashy but just being efficient and effective. He was into lapped traffic quickly but he handled it well and never gave anyone the chance to threaten his lead. There was a late restart with only three laps to go, but he handled it well and put distance on those behind him as he took the cash. There was a good battle for second between Joel Rust and Richie Gustin with them running close for quick some time but at the end, Rust was able to stretch out some for the spot.
It would seem that no matter how they try to balance out the classes with weight , lack of spoilers etc, the open motor cars still dominate in both the Mods and Late Models.
It had sprinkled on and off during the Modified feature but never enough to affect the racing. As the Tuners pulled on to the track, it started to sprinkle once again. While the Tuners had added ten cars to their field on Saturday, they still weren't close to the number needed to run their event in three wide fashion so the normal two wide start was used for the ten rows.
They only made three laps before a stalled car triggered a yellow and before the could get back under the green, it started to rain with more intensity. With cars from South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota as well as Iowa, they really wanted to get this last race in. They waited quite some time, eventually pulling the cars off the track so that the other classes could scram out of the pits but it just wouldn't quit. Finally they consulted with the drivers and decided it call it a night. Later I found out that they split the money equally among all the cars that took the green eminently fairer in my mind than what Lucas Oil did with their B Mods several weeks ago. It did rain, by the way, all the way home.
And so the first year of the Hamilton County Speedway under the direction of Todd Staley is complete. Thanks to all at Webster City for a good time and a nice weekend of racing. For those interested in that upcoming race at 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas, keep checking for updates in the next two weeks.
Next up for me is a visit to the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the World Finals for Sprints, Late Models and Big Block Mods.
More cars were expected to compete on the second night of the show and that was indeed the case with twenty five new drivers signing in to race on Saturday, and the field totaled one hundred and thirty five in the six classes that were racing. Only the Modified class saw no new entrants added to the field on Saturday. With the format in place, drivers felt like even if they couldn't make it on Friday night, they still had a fighting chance to get a good finish as was later shown when one of the feature race winners was a driver that wasn't even on hand on Friday night!
The top eight from Friday night were locked in and ran a dash to establish their starting order while everyone that didn't make the top eight redrew for a heat race assignment with the finishing order of the heats establishing their starting positions behind the already qualified top eight.
As drivers were signing in and getting ready to run the evening show, I took an opportunity to have a quick chat with Todd Staley as to what would be happening with the USMTS in 2019. He told me that he is just now getting started trying to put together the schedule for next year and would have no announcements on that for awhile. However, he did think that the season would again start with a series of races in Texas but that it probably would not be until March before that would begin. He anticipates that the total number of races would likely be close to what they ran this year. However, I suppose the biggest news would be that he plans to go back to the "Hunt" format for next year as he didn't think the format this year worked out that well. All drivers that run each show would again be guaranteed five grand, I believe he said with more particulars to be determined. He indicated that there would likely be few rule changes for next year, something that surprised me a bit since I had been hearing that some wholesale changes might be in the works.
I next took an opportunity to chat with one of my favorite Iowa drivers and that was Double D, Darrel DeFrance who was scouting things out from a ute tire outside the track. For those that don't know, DeFrance is one of the closest racing friends of Gary Webb, and I asked DD if he had talked to Gary recently. In fact, Webb had just dropped by to visit DD earlier this week and Darrel reported that Gary is getting a little bit better every day as he tried to put his life back together after the tragic fire that cost the life of his wife recently.
Gary is back on the road hauling trailers around the county and that is probably the best thing for him to do to get back in the swing of things. Gary is currently living with his brother Robert but plans to eventually get an apartment as there are too many memories for him to ever rebuilt at their current location. He does plan to get some kind of a race shop as he still plans on racing for a few years yet.
As far as DD is concerned, he plans to race his Victory chassis for another year on the Late Model circuit. I asked him about the pending rule changes with the IMCA Late Models and he is expecting to see a spec shock and crate motors for the division next year. He said that if he was twenty years younger he would be "all in" on the new rules but at his age he'd just as soon keep what he already has. However, you can bet that whatever the rules, when the season starts out in 2019, expect the #99D to be on the track as he is very proud of his record with the Derry Brothers series, even if he doesn't remember just exactly what the number of consecutive races is right now.
Rumors persist that while Moyer still has the jig for the Victory Late Models, everything else involving the Victory Late Models is going up to Don Shaw in the Twin Cities, who has had great success running that type of chassis in both spec and open motor versions and does have the personal resources to handle that type of operation. Stay tuned.
While Friday night's program went pretty smooth, there are always some grinding crashes that leave you wondering just who would be able to make it back to the track for Saturday's show. The Stock Cars of Vince Loewen and Cary Heinen were both involved in the same grinding crash on Friday and I was surprised to see that both had made repairs and were back to race. Denny Berghahn from Nebraska spent most of the afternoon in the parking lot trying to put his Tuner back together after a wall smash on Friday and he would be rewarded with a heat race win later. Oliver Monson blew up his Tuner on Friday so he just rolled out another car to race on Saturday night.
If a Hard Luck award would have been presented on Saturday night, it should have gone to B Mod driver Bill Engler who towed all the way from central Wisconsin down to race for the weekend. Only the B Mods required a B Feature for entrance into the main and five cars were racing for four spots. The fifth place car was nearly a full lap behind and had been having trouble keeping the car pointed the proper direction. Yet the third place car decided to make a "super move" on Engler for second with the race nearly over, nailed him in the left rear giving him a flat and knocking him out of the race, the show and costing him a check. Even in the end of October some people still do the same stupid moves they were doing back in April!
The first feature race up was the Stock Cars and this event provided the drive of the night. Redwood Falls Minnesota's Curt Lund, who wasn't even on the grounds on Friday, drove up from the tenth starting position to record a dominating win. Lund, who was a top not Modified driver too, has been very fast in Minnesota this year driving this Stock Car, flexed his muscle early coming from sixth to win a heat race.
In the main, he quickly moved up as he appeared to be the only driver able to pass both high and low on a track that was considerably different than it had been the previous night. It was much slicker and passing required a good plan and the ability to move from the high to low groove. As Kevin Donlin and Derek Green battled for the lead, Lund drove right up to third and began to pressure the leaders. Green took himself out when he plowed the wall in turn one and on the restart, Lund powered past Donlin and took over the lead. He would still have to deal with a couple restarts with the pack bunched but each time he pulled away for a convincing win. Kyle Falck finished second with Donlin showing in third.
The Late Models were up next with twenty car to take the green. It appeared to be a two car battle as Dash winner Billy Leighton Jr and Friday night winner Lance Matthees looked to be the class of the field. However, Matthees broke a rocker arm in his motor during the Dash and despite the fact that he had the outside pole, he was forced to scratch out of the feature.
Earlier in the day, Matthees had to endure one of the more eventful situations of the weekend. There was some sort of communications breakdown and while Matthees was told that there were certain standards his car must be at to race, once he got to the track and after winning the Friday night show, he was told that the rules were considerably different than what he was assuming. While they allowed him to retain the win Friday, in order to race on Saturday he was required to put a carburetor plate on his motor and find some of the proper, uncut tires for the back wheels.
Unfortunately, the tire truck at Webster City didn't even sell Late Model tires and being the end of the year, trying to find another competitor with extra, decent tires was very challenging. Finally, Scott Fitzpatrick was willing to loan the Minnesota team two tires, after a tireless search by one of the track officials that bent over backward to try and help out and find them some tires. Of course, it all proved to be rather fruitless, as the motor problems kept the #90 from running the feature after he looked so good on Friday night.
Leighton Jr absolutely ran away from the Late Model field, winning by a full straightaway and it likely could have been even more. DD and Fitzpatrick had a good battle for second for some time before DeFrance took the spot but then Charlie McKenna, himself running a WISSOTA spec engine, passed DD for second.
The Hobby Stock feature produced one of the closest battles of the night with the leaders going back and forth before the issue was finally decided. Myles Micheli almost duplicated Lund's charge as he too came from tenth to take the lead after only a handful of laps. Micheli had to start that far back after he was challenging for the feature lead until he threw a wheel. However, he fought back Saturday and with some impressive low side moved, drove past Brandon Nielsen and Dustin Gulbrandson to take the front spot.
Eric Stanton and Gulbrandson battled then for second and with several yellows to bunch the field, the race for the lead continued to be a close one. However, each time Micheli would fight off the two behind and continue to hold the top spot. However, when Stanton was able to get to the outside for a restart, that would make all the difference in the world. He was able to get a good run off the top side and drove past Micheli to take over the lead in the later laps. Micheli would push back very hard on the low side in the corners but each time Stanton would fight him off and eventually take the win in a close, exciting finish. Daniel Ayers made a late charge to take the third spot.
The B Mod feature was much like the Hobby Stock in that it proved to be a good, two car battle for the lead and the win. Ty Griffith had looked unbeatable in the B Mods all weekend and after starting on the pole, it looked like this race could be a walkaway for the Webster City driver. However, as the race started to get some laps on it and a couple of yellow flags bunched things up, Jared Boumeester started to become a factor. He was showing the speed to keep up with Griffith, who was "married" to the very low groove, and when Boumeester started to run up against the wall, he started to move up significantly.
The last yellow came with nine laps to go and after that, it was a highly competitive race. Several times Boumeester had a good run off turn two, only to see Griffith drift up the track and block the high groove, causing Boumeester to have to lift. Then, as a counter, Boumeester starting diving low into turn three and trying to beat Griffith down the front chute. With only a few laps left, Jared was finally able to complete the move and once in front, he was able to stretch his lead and show that yes indeed, he was the fastest car on the track, no matter what the initials of the sanctioning body were. Ethan Braaksma came from eleventh to finish third.
Ryan Gustin would likely be branded the most dominating driver of the weekend. Friday night he won the feature when it seemed that he drove just fast enough to take the win. After winning the Dash Saturday, he started on the pole and that was the last that most of the drivers saw of him all night. He just motored away from the field, not being flashy but just being efficient and effective. He was into lapped traffic quickly but he handled it well and never gave anyone the chance to threaten his lead. There was a late restart with only three laps to go, but he handled it well and put distance on those behind him as he took the cash. There was a good battle for second between Joel Rust and Richie Gustin with them running close for quick some time but at the end, Rust was able to stretch out some for the spot.
It would seem that no matter how they try to balance out the classes with weight , lack of spoilers etc, the open motor cars still dominate in both the Mods and Late Models.
It had sprinkled on and off during the Modified feature but never enough to affect the racing. As the Tuners pulled on to the track, it started to sprinkle once again. While the Tuners had added ten cars to their field on Saturday, they still weren't close to the number needed to run their event in three wide fashion so the normal two wide start was used for the ten rows.
They only made three laps before a stalled car triggered a yellow and before the could get back under the green, it started to rain with more intensity. With cars from South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota as well as Iowa, they really wanted to get this last race in. They waited quite some time, eventually pulling the cars off the track so that the other classes could scram out of the pits but it just wouldn't quit. Finally they consulted with the drivers and decided it call it a night. Later I found out that they split the money equally among all the cars that took the green eminently fairer in my mind than what Lucas Oil did with their B Mods several weeks ago. It did rain, by the way, all the way home.
And so the first year of the Hamilton County Speedway under the direction of Todd Staley is complete. Thanks to all at Webster City for a good time and a nice weekend of racing. For those interested in that upcoming race at 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas, keep checking for updates in the next two weeks.
Next up for me is a visit to the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the World Finals for Sprints, Late Models and Big Block Mods.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Matthees Tops Late Models at Webster City
Friday night, October 26th marked the first of two nights of racing at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City Iowa as Todd Staley and the other folks that run the speedway this year make an attempt to return the Fall Futurity to the scheduled of racing events in the Hawkeye State. Originally scheduled for several weeks ago, the entire weekend was frozen/rained out and in a bit of a bold move, rescheduled for the last weekend of October. The weather this late in the season can be a bit of a crap shoot as you just really don't know what kind of weather you might see, but the odds are almost as good that it will be sunny and mild as it might be extremely cold and windy. As it turned out, it was somewhere in the middle as it was cool but certainly not intolerable and promises to be even better on Saturday.
The Futurity is a historic race in Iowa racing history that was somehow lost over the course of time and Staley is trying to restore this event as a cap to his season of promoting at Hamilton County. All six classes that routinely race at Webster City would be part of the fun with liberalized(I hope I'm not in trouble here for using that word!) rules in play so as to gather as many racers as possible that would like to squeeze in one more weekend of dirt track racing.
The car count for the opening night stood at one hundred and eighteen cars with more expected on Saturday as while the Friday night show was a full show in all classes, only the top eight are guaranteed starting spots in Saturday's higher paying main events and Saturday only competitors are welcome to come and join the action.
Each class would participate in heat race action with the draw/redraw used to set up the lineups for the six main events. As is often the case, there is some car swapping going on here as drivers pick up new rides late in the season, test out other cars in the process of buying them etc. A couple of the notable changes I saw included Matt Ryan driving the #15k Modified normally steered by Justin Kay and Ryan even using Kay's transporter to haul both that car and Ryan's Late Model. Mark Elliott was also racing the Modified that Minnesota's Jake Timm had raced this year on occasion and it was the IMCA car, not the open car that Timm also races on the USMTS circuit.
There were a number of travelers on hand with drivers from Minnesota and South Dakota also joining with the more regional drivers to spice things up. Tuner drivers even pulled all the way from Minnesota to race and a couple of the cars in that class were seen all the way up in East Central Minnesota racing last weekend so the late season traveling is not just limited to the higher class cars.
Overnight rains caused the track prep crew to put in a full afternoon of track prep before the racing could begin and with the moisture already in the track plus it being a rather gloomy day, only a couple of loads of water were necessary to get the track ready. And with that being said, the track was extremely fast to begin the evening although it did dry out some and slow down some as the night wore on. I did not know that Todd was a track prep guy, having only seen him occasionally on the water truck from time to time at various tracks he might have leased for shows, but he spent virtually the entire afternoon riding the grader this Friday. The track, by the way, was fine for racing action.
And even though they were hustling to get the track ready, the show started right on time and was moved along at a quick clip, with only a slight break after the heats to set the lineups for the main.
All car running were allowed to start the mains but the top eight would be the only ones to lock into the mains on Saturday with everyone else slated for B Feature action. The B Mods had the biggest group of cars and twenty five of them started the main event with the field split between B Mods and Sport Mods, with the big spoilers the identifying mark. This race would be a long one with six yellows for various spins and collisions slowing the action. However, through it all, it was local racer Ty Griffith who led from start to finish with challenges from various drivers. Dan Hovden was probably his stiffest challenger but when Hovden went for broke on the last corner in an effort to gain the win, he got into the wall and took himself right out of the main. These results are unofficial but also qualifying was Jared Boumeester, Jake Sachau, Nate Whitehurst, Rocky Caudle, Hunter Longnecker, Brandon Toftee(from twenty third) and Jared VanDenBerg.
Late Models were up next with eighteen of them on hand including a number of IMCA cars, a few SLMR cars from western Iowa and Nebraska and a lone WISSOTA driver in Lance Matthees. The Winona Minnesota storied veteran showed the field the way home, as he quickly moved up from the third row, blew past Darrel DeFrance and Jason Hahne and then led the rest of the way. However, he was challenged hard by Tyler Bruening who moved up from the fifth row as the track was racy and wide and he put a heavy challenge on Matthees toward the middle of the event. However, Bruening, who was driving harder than I ever rememeber him running before, got into the third corner too hot and plunked the wall and ended his effort. After that, Matthees was home free as he cruised to the win. The top eight included Scott Fitzpatrick, Matt Ryan(from eighteenth), DD, Billy Leighton Jr, Charlie McKenna, Ryan Griffith and Justin Zeitner.
The Modified of twenty four had the fewest cautions and perhaps the closest racing action as the brothers Gustin, Ryan and Richie, went at it for the win. Richie started on the pole and led the early laps with Mike VanGenderen, Matt Ryan and Mark Elliott challenging. Soon Ryan G. moved up from the fourth row, the top two separated themselves from the pack and went at it for the win. They traded the top spot back and forth several times before Ryan finally took over and then in the closing laps, put some distance on the field. Despite the efforts to "even out" the field, the open Modifieds certainly still have the advantage and it almost appeared Ryan waited until he needed "to go" and then he put his foot down. Undoubtedly, he will be the car to beat Saturday night. behind Richie and qualifying was Kyle Brown, Ryan, Jeff Aikey, Nate Hughes, Joel Rust and Elliott.
The Hobby Stocks had some close racing in the early going with Kevin Derry, Myles Micheli, Tyson Overton and Dustin Gulbranson fighting for the top spot. They were joined quickly by Eric Stanton and after Gulbranson slowed with a flat tire, it was left to Stanton and Micheli to fight it out. That ended when Micheli lost a wheel with an axle in it in turn two which flew well into the woods and opened things up for Stanton. He then drove home for the win with Brandon Nielsen putting on the pressure. They were trailed by Gulbranson(from the back after changing a tire), Jeff Fink, Overton, Tracy Halouska, Bryan Derry and K. Derry.
Kevin Donlin led from start to finish to win the Stock Car feature. He was challenged by Craig Berhow early and then it was promoter Staley who put the hardest pressure on Donlin. Lap after lap, Staley would push the high side and nearly steal away the lead but Donlin had just enough to hold him off. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and Staley changed up his tactics, driving to the low side of the track. However, he pushed up the track and gave up second on the final corner to Kyle Falck. Also qualifying were Darrin Korthals, Derek Green, Mark Elliott, Berhow and Joe Schmit.
The Tuners wrapped up the evening with their main event. They are scheduled to start up to thirty six cars on Saturday night, three wide, for the Tuner Nationals. However, they are going to have to send out a search party to round up a whole bunch of cars as there were only fourteen that signed in to race on Friday. Their main event was actually a good one as Josh Uhl and Steve Struck battled it out for the win, going side by side for much of the race before Uhl edged ahead on the final corner for the win. Denny Berghahn was considered a price contender for the win but he plunked the turn two wall right at the start and limped to the infield. Since there were only eight cars running at the end, Chris VanAusdle, Jeremiah Anderson, Seth Scholl, Justin Anderson, Brad Mayland and Jacob Witte all qualified for the main.
All racing was done shortly after 10 pm and while some then headed for the party, others headed for their home and some warmth including "Crazy Martin" who was dressed up like it was a hundred degrees below zero!
For those of us that travel Iowas from North to South a lot, it was a shock to see that the Boondocks Truck Stop in Williams had closed. I think the first time I traveled through Iowa I stopped there and of course I had to buy a hat to let people know that I had visited the Boondocks!
For those fans looking for more racing action in the weeks to come, despite the fact that for some reason it has been removed from the USMTS website, the two day show at 81 Speedway near Wichita is still on for the second weekend of November. If the weather is good, that could be a very interesting race.
The Futurity is a historic race in Iowa racing history that was somehow lost over the course of time and Staley is trying to restore this event as a cap to his season of promoting at Hamilton County. All six classes that routinely race at Webster City would be part of the fun with liberalized(I hope I'm not in trouble here for using that word!) rules in play so as to gather as many racers as possible that would like to squeeze in one more weekend of dirt track racing.
The car count for the opening night stood at one hundred and eighteen cars with more expected on Saturday as while the Friday night show was a full show in all classes, only the top eight are guaranteed starting spots in Saturday's higher paying main events and Saturday only competitors are welcome to come and join the action.
Each class would participate in heat race action with the draw/redraw used to set up the lineups for the six main events. As is often the case, there is some car swapping going on here as drivers pick up new rides late in the season, test out other cars in the process of buying them etc. A couple of the notable changes I saw included Matt Ryan driving the #15k Modified normally steered by Justin Kay and Ryan even using Kay's transporter to haul both that car and Ryan's Late Model. Mark Elliott was also racing the Modified that Minnesota's Jake Timm had raced this year on occasion and it was the IMCA car, not the open car that Timm also races on the USMTS circuit.
There were a number of travelers on hand with drivers from Minnesota and South Dakota also joining with the more regional drivers to spice things up. Tuner drivers even pulled all the way from Minnesota to race and a couple of the cars in that class were seen all the way up in East Central Minnesota racing last weekend so the late season traveling is not just limited to the higher class cars.
Overnight rains caused the track prep crew to put in a full afternoon of track prep before the racing could begin and with the moisture already in the track plus it being a rather gloomy day, only a couple of loads of water were necessary to get the track ready. And with that being said, the track was extremely fast to begin the evening although it did dry out some and slow down some as the night wore on. I did not know that Todd was a track prep guy, having only seen him occasionally on the water truck from time to time at various tracks he might have leased for shows, but he spent virtually the entire afternoon riding the grader this Friday. The track, by the way, was fine for racing action.
And even though they were hustling to get the track ready, the show started right on time and was moved along at a quick clip, with only a slight break after the heats to set the lineups for the main.
All car running were allowed to start the mains but the top eight would be the only ones to lock into the mains on Saturday with everyone else slated for B Feature action. The B Mods had the biggest group of cars and twenty five of them started the main event with the field split between B Mods and Sport Mods, with the big spoilers the identifying mark. This race would be a long one with six yellows for various spins and collisions slowing the action. However, through it all, it was local racer Ty Griffith who led from start to finish with challenges from various drivers. Dan Hovden was probably his stiffest challenger but when Hovden went for broke on the last corner in an effort to gain the win, he got into the wall and took himself right out of the main. These results are unofficial but also qualifying was Jared Boumeester, Jake Sachau, Nate Whitehurst, Rocky Caudle, Hunter Longnecker, Brandon Toftee(from twenty third) and Jared VanDenBerg.
Late Models were up next with eighteen of them on hand including a number of IMCA cars, a few SLMR cars from western Iowa and Nebraska and a lone WISSOTA driver in Lance Matthees. The Winona Minnesota storied veteran showed the field the way home, as he quickly moved up from the third row, blew past Darrel DeFrance and Jason Hahne and then led the rest of the way. However, he was challenged hard by Tyler Bruening who moved up from the fifth row as the track was racy and wide and he put a heavy challenge on Matthees toward the middle of the event. However, Bruening, who was driving harder than I ever rememeber him running before, got into the third corner too hot and plunked the wall and ended his effort. After that, Matthees was home free as he cruised to the win. The top eight included Scott Fitzpatrick, Matt Ryan(from eighteenth), DD, Billy Leighton Jr, Charlie McKenna, Ryan Griffith and Justin Zeitner.
The Modified of twenty four had the fewest cautions and perhaps the closest racing action as the brothers Gustin, Ryan and Richie, went at it for the win. Richie started on the pole and led the early laps with Mike VanGenderen, Matt Ryan and Mark Elliott challenging. Soon Ryan G. moved up from the fourth row, the top two separated themselves from the pack and went at it for the win. They traded the top spot back and forth several times before Ryan finally took over and then in the closing laps, put some distance on the field. Despite the efforts to "even out" the field, the open Modifieds certainly still have the advantage and it almost appeared Ryan waited until he needed "to go" and then he put his foot down. Undoubtedly, he will be the car to beat Saturday night. behind Richie and qualifying was Kyle Brown, Ryan, Jeff Aikey, Nate Hughes, Joel Rust and Elliott.
The Hobby Stocks had some close racing in the early going with Kevin Derry, Myles Micheli, Tyson Overton and Dustin Gulbranson fighting for the top spot. They were joined quickly by Eric Stanton and after Gulbranson slowed with a flat tire, it was left to Stanton and Micheli to fight it out. That ended when Micheli lost a wheel with an axle in it in turn two which flew well into the woods and opened things up for Stanton. He then drove home for the win with Brandon Nielsen putting on the pressure. They were trailed by Gulbranson(from the back after changing a tire), Jeff Fink, Overton, Tracy Halouska, Bryan Derry and K. Derry.
Kevin Donlin led from start to finish to win the Stock Car feature. He was challenged by Craig Berhow early and then it was promoter Staley who put the hardest pressure on Donlin. Lap after lap, Staley would push the high side and nearly steal away the lead but Donlin had just enough to hold him off. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and Staley changed up his tactics, driving to the low side of the track. However, he pushed up the track and gave up second on the final corner to Kyle Falck. Also qualifying were Darrin Korthals, Derek Green, Mark Elliott, Berhow and Joe Schmit.
The Tuners wrapped up the evening with their main event. They are scheduled to start up to thirty six cars on Saturday night, three wide, for the Tuner Nationals. However, they are going to have to send out a search party to round up a whole bunch of cars as there were only fourteen that signed in to race on Friday. Their main event was actually a good one as Josh Uhl and Steve Struck battled it out for the win, going side by side for much of the race before Uhl edged ahead on the final corner for the win. Denny Berghahn was considered a price contender for the win but he plunked the turn two wall right at the start and limped to the infield. Since there were only eight cars running at the end, Chris VanAusdle, Jeremiah Anderson, Seth Scholl, Justin Anderson, Brad Mayland and Jacob Witte all qualified for the main.
All racing was done shortly after 10 pm and while some then headed for the party, others headed for their home and some warmth including "Crazy Martin" who was dressed up like it was a hundred degrees below zero!
For those of us that travel Iowas from North to South a lot, it was a shock to see that the Boondocks Truck Stop in Williams had closed. I think the first time I traveled through Iowa I stopped there and of course I had to buy a hat to let people know that I had visited the Boondocks!
For those fans looking for more racing action in the weeks to come, despite the fact that for some reason it has been removed from the USMTS website, the two day show at 81 Speedway near Wichita is still on for the second weekend of November. If the weather is good, that could be a very interesting race.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Everyone Goes Topless at the "Big O"
Friday night, October 19th would prove to be quite the night at Wagamon's Ogilvie Raceway. Scheduled for both Friday night, October 19th and Saturday night, October 20th, the plan was to run off the ninth annual Topless Nationals at this East Central Minnesota facility. It would also prove to be the final event scheduled for the Gopher State in 2018.
This event started out with humble beginnings and almost as an after thought to the completion of the racing season. It started to "pick up steam" as a race for a couple years then seemed to lose a little punch. However, the last couple of years have seen it again start to become a bigger event and this year would see both the largest car count of its existence and would also see the most entrants from other sanctioning bodies also entered.
However, before the event could even get started, the weather, as it has for much of the Summer, had to once again play a part in what would be presented. The forecast for Friday was fine except that it would be very windy. After that however, the winds of Winter would start howling over the upper Midwest with bitterly cold temperatures, and the first hints of snow expected throughout much of the area.
The owners and management of Ogilvie Raceway decided to condense the racing program into a one day show with the complete program in all six classes that were raced being run off on Friday night. This would prove to be a challenging task but not to the level that it turned out to be as many of us underestimated just how many drivers would be interesting in still racing. I thought that many drivers would be anxious to get one more night of racing in but there were many more than I expected to be and the distance some traveled to get that one last "fix" in was impressive.
The Modifieds, B Mods(as we were calling them generically on this night), Super Stocks and Mod Fours were all required to remove the roofs from their race cars. Other than that, each driver was supposed to select the sanctioning body they race under and run according to those rules with no mixing of rules permitted. The Street Stocks had the choice of whether to remove the roofs or not but there was extra pay for those that did while the Hornets were not allowed to remove their roofs.
When the final tally was in and all drivers were signed in to race, two hundred and fifteen drivers were on hand to race with a jaw dropping seventy nine B Mods topping the charts. There were eleven drivers that drove all the way from Canada to race for just the one night and there were also entries from North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin and host Minnesota.
I have a theory why some of the late season races have drawn so well this year in car counts. Part of it is that, quite frankly, I think we here in the upper Midwest have many of the drivers that are more willing to travel for races than any other part of the country. Just ask the Whitworth's at Humboldt about that. They figured that out years ago. But this year has been especially unique and I believe it has been because the racing season started so slowly due to all the late Spring weather and since Labor Day, the same struggles have hit a number of tracks. Drivers are still anxious to race this year because much of the racing season has been robbed from them.
Despite the huge influx of drivers that all seemed to storm the pit gate at about the same time, the officials at the "Big O" were ready for the tidal wave of entrants and the show started just about right on time, something that was important given the number of races we would be seeing. And in fact, there ended up being twenty nine qualifying races before we could get to the six main events. It was a cool night but not intolerable, particularly for those of us who used the main building as a windbreak as the weather people were correct about the strong winds just getting worse as the evening progressed.
With the majority of the car being topless, it does give them a different look and while it is something that I would not like on a regular basis, at the end of the year it serves to spice things up a bit. So not only are the drivers revealed to the fans, with the Halloween season being upon us, many of the drivers and crews use this race to further enliven things. Many of the cars have strings of lights hanging from the roll cages and things like brooms, skeletons and evil demons can be seen riding along with a number of the drivers. In fact, when the cars go by for their pre feature presentation, it looks as much like a gondola parade on the 4th of July as it does an auto race!
The track also gets into the festivities as this event has morphed into a fund raiser for Breast Cancer awareness as it is this month and the track goes as far as to paint all their concrete walls surrounding the track pink for the occasion. All the ute tires in the infield are also pink and just about everything not bolted down is painted pink for the night. And in fact the drivers are told not to get mad and "seeing red" but instead should be "seeing pink."
Passing points was the format on this night with the top sixteen in each class moving straight up to the main events. The only classes that didn't require at least one B were the Streets and Mod Fours. After all this amount of racing, the track was black and slick from top to bottom but drivers were able to run multiple grooves and there was much side by side racing.
The Streets ran off the first main event with Charlie "The Iron" Shiek taking the win. He started on the pole but slipped back in the field until he went to the high groove and then he blew past Kyle Howland to take the lead and then fight off a late challenge from Howland for the win. Howland finished a strong second with Ryan Kostreba, swapping cars with his brother Russ for the night, taking third while Russ drove the Super Stock.
Only twenty five of the seventy nine B Mods on hand even made it to the track for the main event and it was a surprise winner that took the honors. Jeffrey Lein Jr, was driving for only the second time in a car his father purchased for himself to drive while Jeffrey has been focusing most of his racing efforts in his Modified. Lein Jr also started on the pole and fought off efforts of some of the strongest around as he took the win over "Cowboy" Shane Howell and Brandon Copp.
In the Super Stocks, the "Flying Farmer", Nick Oreskovich from Mason Wisconsin led for most of the race until a late race yellow really threw him under the bus. My guess is that his tires glazed over or perhaps by this time of the night they actually had ice on them but for whatever reason, he didn't take off well on the final restart and he was passed for the lead.
It was an unlikely winner as Tim Johnson, a former national champ in the class who has run a short schedule this year, was in the car owned by Don Shaw and drove it to victory lane. Shaw, who has a car for virtually every class in our area, routinely puts other drivers in his cars and one of his biggest rivals in Johnson caught the ride in the car on this night and made it work. Oreskovich fought his way back up to second at the finish with Shane Sabraski coming from tenth to finish third.
Jeremy Nelson led from start to finish to win the Modified feature race. The track started to take rubber during the Super Stocks so they took time to "rip" the track just before their main event which was the only time all night that they did much to the track, despite the huge number of laps that was put on the surface on Friday night. Late in the race, Sabraski found a line on the track that really caused him to speed up and the finish of this race was a photo, with Nelson holding on by .055 seconds for the win. This is always confusing as there are two Jeremy Nelson's that both run very well in this area and the Jeremy N. that won Friday is the one from Alexandria who was the 2017 Advantage RV Mod Tour champion. Track champion at the "Big O", Jody Bellefeuille was third.
At this point, just as the weather man had promised, it started to rain lightly. Now, we are talking well after 1 am already and the question was, how long are they going to try before they call it a night. It was very close to being a wash at this point but just when it looked it's darkest, the rain stopped and they quickly rolled in the track and restarted the show. After all, there were a lot of drivers in the Mod Fours and Hornets that had towed a long way and also wanted to race.
Dustin Holtquist was the bad luck beneficiary of the night as he led the first twelve laps of the Mod Four feature and had things under control when a late race yellow for a stalled car, and a marginal call whether to stop or not, cost him. He didn't take off strong back under green and was passed by Mitch Hribar who went on for the win. Dustin's father Bob, who towed all the way from South Dakota, finished third.
The Hornet class seems to be the only class where the non WISSOTA cars seem to shine. While the Mods and Sport Mods from outside the sanctioning area seem to have a very tough time keeping up, the Hornet rules seem to favor the IMCA cars or at least allow them to run very strong. However, it was an area driver that took the win Friday. Matt Dettman started in the third row and drove up into the lead and then held off a big pack of challengers. This race saw the yellow wave for a spin on the last lap and since everyone took the white flag, the race was scored complete. Matt Pederson, who runs unsanctioned with anyone and pulled all the way from Fargo North Dakota, was second with IMCA driver Joshua Uhl finishing third.
It was well after 2 am in the morning when the final checkered flag waved so it was a very long night of racing. However, the racing was almost nonstop and just the result of so many cars on hand and so many qualifying races that needed to be completed that caused the evening to run so long. Track employees had to have been exhausted but everything functioned smoothly from start to finish. It was quite a memorable night for all concerned and the track's call was a good one as Saturday was brutal and would not have been possible to race under such horrible conditions. The crowd was fair but with the huge number of people in the pits I feel fairly certain that everything came out OK finance wise which is important if we want to see these races continue.
This event started out with humble beginnings and almost as an after thought to the completion of the racing season. It started to "pick up steam" as a race for a couple years then seemed to lose a little punch. However, the last couple of years have seen it again start to become a bigger event and this year would see both the largest car count of its existence and would also see the most entrants from other sanctioning bodies also entered.
However, before the event could even get started, the weather, as it has for much of the Summer, had to once again play a part in what would be presented. The forecast for Friday was fine except that it would be very windy. After that however, the winds of Winter would start howling over the upper Midwest with bitterly cold temperatures, and the first hints of snow expected throughout much of the area.
The owners and management of Ogilvie Raceway decided to condense the racing program into a one day show with the complete program in all six classes that were raced being run off on Friday night. This would prove to be a challenging task but not to the level that it turned out to be as many of us underestimated just how many drivers would be interesting in still racing. I thought that many drivers would be anxious to get one more night of racing in but there were many more than I expected to be and the distance some traveled to get that one last "fix" in was impressive.
The Modifieds, B Mods(as we were calling them generically on this night), Super Stocks and Mod Fours were all required to remove the roofs from their race cars. Other than that, each driver was supposed to select the sanctioning body they race under and run according to those rules with no mixing of rules permitted. The Street Stocks had the choice of whether to remove the roofs or not but there was extra pay for those that did while the Hornets were not allowed to remove their roofs.
When the final tally was in and all drivers were signed in to race, two hundred and fifteen drivers were on hand to race with a jaw dropping seventy nine B Mods topping the charts. There were eleven drivers that drove all the way from Canada to race for just the one night and there were also entries from North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin and host Minnesota.
I have a theory why some of the late season races have drawn so well this year in car counts. Part of it is that, quite frankly, I think we here in the upper Midwest have many of the drivers that are more willing to travel for races than any other part of the country. Just ask the Whitworth's at Humboldt about that. They figured that out years ago. But this year has been especially unique and I believe it has been because the racing season started so slowly due to all the late Spring weather and since Labor Day, the same struggles have hit a number of tracks. Drivers are still anxious to race this year because much of the racing season has been robbed from them.
Despite the huge influx of drivers that all seemed to storm the pit gate at about the same time, the officials at the "Big O" were ready for the tidal wave of entrants and the show started just about right on time, something that was important given the number of races we would be seeing. And in fact, there ended up being twenty nine qualifying races before we could get to the six main events. It was a cool night but not intolerable, particularly for those of us who used the main building as a windbreak as the weather people were correct about the strong winds just getting worse as the evening progressed.
With the majority of the car being topless, it does give them a different look and while it is something that I would not like on a regular basis, at the end of the year it serves to spice things up a bit. So not only are the drivers revealed to the fans, with the Halloween season being upon us, many of the drivers and crews use this race to further enliven things. Many of the cars have strings of lights hanging from the roll cages and things like brooms, skeletons and evil demons can be seen riding along with a number of the drivers. In fact, when the cars go by for their pre feature presentation, it looks as much like a gondola parade on the 4th of July as it does an auto race!
The track also gets into the festivities as this event has morphed into a fund raiser for Breast Cancer awareness as it is this month and the track goes as far as to paint all their concrete walls surrounding the track pink for the occasion. All the ute tires in the infield are also pink and just about everything not bolted down is painted pink for the night. And in fact the drivers are told not to get mad and "seeing red" but instead should be "seeing pink."
Passing points was the format on this night with the top sixteen in each class moving straight up to the main events. The only classes that didn't require at least one B were the Streets and Mod Fours. After all this amount of racing, the track was black and slick from top to bottom but drivers were able to run multiple grooves and there was much side by side racing.
The Streets ran off the first main event with Charlie "The Iron" Shiek taking the win. He started on the pole but slipped back in the field until he went to the high groove and then he blew past Kyle Howland to take the lead and then fight off a late challenge from Howland for the win. Howland finished a strong second with Ryan Kostreba, swapping cars with his brother Russ for the night, taking third while Russ drove the Super Stock.
Only twenty five of the seventy nine B Mods on hand even made it to the track for the main event and it was a surprise winner that took the honors. Jeffrey Lein Jr, was driving for only the second time in a car his father purchased for himself to drive while Jeffrey has been focusing most of his racing efforts in his Modified. Lein Jr also started on the pole and fought off efforts of some of the strongest around as he took the win over "Cowboy" Shane Howell and Brandon Copp.
In the Super Stocks, the "Flying Farmer", Nick Oreskovich from Mason Wisconsin led for most of the race until a late race yellow really threw him under the bus. My guess is that his tires glazed over or perhaps by this time of the night they actually had ice on them but for whatever reason, he didn't take off well on the final restart and he was passed for the lead.
It was an unlikely winner as Tim Johnson, a former national champ in the class who has run a short schedule this year, was in the car owned by Don Shaw and drove it to victory lane. Shaw, who has a car for virtually every class in our area, routinely puts other drivers in his cars and one of his biggest rivals in Johnson caught the ride in the car on this night and made it work. Oreskovich fought his way back up to second at the finish with Shane Sabraski coming from tenth to finish third.
Jeremy Nelson led from start to finish to win the Modified feature race. The track started to take rubber during the Super Stocks so they took time to "rip" the track just before their main event which was the only time all night that they did much to the track, despite the huge number of laps that was put on the surface on Friday night. Late in the race, Sabraski found a line on the track that really caused him to speed up and the finish of this race was a photo, with Nelson holding on by .055 seconds for the win. This is always confusing as there are two Jeremy Nelson's that both run very well in this area and the Jeremy N. that won Friday is the one from Alexandria who was the 2017 Advantage RV Mod Tour champion. Track champion at the "Big O", Jody Bellefeuille was third.
At this point, just as the weather man had promised, it started to rain lightly. Now, we are talking well after 1 am already and the question was, how long are they going to try before they call it a night. It was very close to being a wash at this point but just when it looked it's darkest, the rain stopped and they quickly rolled in the track and restarted the show. After all, there were a lot of drivers in the Mod Fours and Hornets that had towed a long way and also wanted to race.
Dustin Holtquist was the bad luck beneficiary of the night as he led the first twelve laps of the Mod Four feature and had things under control when a late race yellow for a stalled car, and a marginal call whether to stop or not, cost him. He didn't take off strong back under green and was passed by Mitch Hribar who went on for the win. Dustin's father Bob, who towed all the way from South Dakota, finished third.
The Hornet class seems to be the only class where the non WISSOTA cars seem to shine. While the Mods and Sport Mods from outside the sanctioning area seem to have a very tough time keeping up, the Hornet rules seem to favor the IMCA cars or at least allow them to run very strong. However, it was an area driver that took the win Friday. Matt Dettman started in the third row and drove up into the lead and then held off a big pack of challengers. This race saw the yellow wave for a spin on the last lap and since everyone took the white flag, the race was scored complete. Matt Pederson, who runs unsanctioned with anyone and pulled all the way from Fargo North Dakota, was second with IMCA driver Joshua Uhl finishing third.
It was well after 2 am in the morning when the final checkered flag waved so it was a very long night of racing. However, the racing was almost nonstop and just the result of so many cars on hand and so many qualifying races that needed to be completed that caused the evening to run so long. Track employees had to have been exhausted but everything functioned smoothly from start to finish. It was quite a memorable night for all concerned and the track's call was a good one as Saturday was brutal and would not have been possible to race under such horrible conditions. The crowd was fair but with the huge number of people in the pits I feel fairly certain that everything came out OK finance wise which is important if we want to see these races continue.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Chad Simpson Wraps Things Up at Wheatland
On Friday and Saturday, the fifth annual Fall Nationals were slated at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri. The schedule would have two full shows for the MLRA Late Models with the title on the line between Chad Simpson and Will Vaught. Co-sanctioning the event was the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series with their champion Jack Sullivan already having wrapped up that title. Also on the program would be the first annual B Mod "Clash of Champions" that would pay the winner of that event $3,000.
I must say that I, along with many others, was very disappointed with the management of Lucas Oil Speedway after the events of Friday though. It started raining by 7 am and it rained all day. Not hard, but steady with some occasional mist and drizzle thrown in when it let up slightly. Any time during the afternoon, I expected the announcement of a cancellation which I would have understood 100%. Heck, it had been raining all day. However, the track kept posting through their face book page that the radar was showing that the rain would end by 5 pm and that they would still be racing.
OK, fine. They are determined to get this show in and would ride out the rain until it stopped and then race. I got to the track about 3:30 pm and it was still raining lightly with it backing off to drizzle quite often. Drivers and race teams were streaming in the gate, not being worried about the conditions because with the paved pit area at Lucas Oil Speedway, the concern about being stuck doesn't come into play.
Lo and behold, at 4:45 pm the rain stopped for good(they actually got a forecast right for a change), and pre race activities continued as the rest of the field showed up and signed in, the cars were unloaded and readied and the two drivers meetings took place.
The B Mods came out to roll in the track and then the Late Models hit the track. The first two hot lap sessions were completed and while the track was still slick, it was starting to come around. Just as the third session hit the track, it started misting. The mist lasted about a minute but as soon as it started, the cars were all ordered off the track and the announcement of the cancellation was made immediately, even before all the cars were off the track. No attempt was made to roll in the track or even see how long the precipitation would last. The cancellation was immediate and clearly pre planned as the announcer had been "keyed" to make the announcement. What was most galling was that after that sixty second burst of mist, it never rained again all night. I stood around in the pits talking to people for quite some time and never once did it start to precipitate again. Either they should have called the show when they legitimately had reason too when the rains continued or followed through of their pledge of trying to get the show in after the rain stopped. Waiting until everyone had purchased their tickets and pit passes and then calling the event after the first drop of rain just didn't seem right and not something I would have expected this track to do. After Friday night, I felt like Lucas "owed me one." The cancellation also pretty much took away any small chance that Vaught had of catching Simpson for the MLRA title.
Fast forward to Saturday and let's start over fresh. Saturday dawned cloudy and cool with some weather sources calling for a dry day and other predicting rain by late evening. My source said it would remain dry and unfortunately, they were wrong! But to that later.
Saturday's show was moved up by two hours and with the cloudy conditions and little wind, they could have easily started the show at 1 pm and have gotten the whole thing done early, but that's hindsight. Saturday would be a full day of racing though, with double rounds of heat races for the B Mods before they went into the "ladder" elimination to set the field for their forty lap main event. The Late Models would also be running a full show with a fifty lap, five grand to win at the end of their night.
Forty four Late Models signed in to race on Saturday with Kyle Schlotz not returning to race. Sixteen of the top twenty, including the top twelve, of the MLRA were on hand plus the top five in COMP Cams points were also in the house. There were drivers from as far away as Texas on hand for one of the last Late Model shows of the year in the Midwest.
Seventy three B Mods were also on hand for their part of the show. There was a bit of a snafu in this class as several drivers who had not been on hand for Friday night's portion of the show called and wanted to race and they were told that they could tag the back of heat races. However, when the nine new drivers arrived, they were informed that they would only be allowed to "tail" the back of the E Feature which didn't please some. Eventually this was settled after the track "fessed up" to a communications failure within the track and offered to refund pit fees to those affected drivers. Actually, all but one went ahead and tried to qualify.
Track conditions were brutal. That is the only fair way to assess them. However, to be clear, this was in no way the fault of the track. They did everything they could to try and pack down the surface but due to the huge amount of rain in this area, and really most of the Midwest, in the last few weeks, it was so soft in the corners that there was nothing they could do except pack and pack and watch the moisture seep up out of the ground once evening hit.
It was one of those nights that drivers just had to tighten up the belts and hold on for dear life. When they hit the corners, they often had no way of knowing which way their cars were going to go, and drivers were running over each other and flying through the air with regularity. Two of the B Mods managed to launch themselves up side down before the night was over. It was a very expensive night for them as shocks, frames, suspension parts, you name it, were all put to the test and many destroyed.
The Late Model feature was a very good example of this. Twenty four cars started and only eight finished and most of the eight that finished looked like they had lost a war. Cars were hurtling through the air and connecting with the concrete walls with regularity. Tony Jackson Jr was the early leaded until Jesse Stovall flew (literally) past him to take over the top spot.
Any chance Vaught has was ended when he got turned around on the back chute after Jackson got stuck in a whoop de do and Vaught had to spin to avoid him. The yellow flags were frequent and after Stovall led for a number of laps, a restart cost him when he got out of the groove and was dropped several spots.
Jack Sullivan grabbed the lead but then was passed by Simpson who had been biding his time but Simpson was then surprised by Logan Martin who blew past him to take over the lead. Martin had pitted early in the race and had worked his way back up to the front. By this time the race had been shortened by ten laps and it looked like Martin was going to get the big win. However, he launched himself off turn four into the wall with only four laps to go and Simpson inherited the lead.
He kept the car straight for the last four laps and won over Sullivan and Raymond Merrill. It was a great way for Simpson to go out as the champion and winning the race in the last appearance for him and the Brinkman Racing Team together as the owners will be retiring from racing and Simpson will be looking for a new ride in 2019.
As for the B Mods, their portion of the program was very much similar to the Late Models. Lots of wrecks and spins but with the one spin rule in affect, it kept the show moving. Each B Mod ran two heat races with the total of their passing points for those two events setting their running order for the Last Chance races. The top fourteen were locked in while everyone else raced like heck to try and be one of the other ten to make the show. The Last Chance races were run with a high number of laps so some of the competitors were putting in the equivalent of a month's worth of racing in one night!
Unfortunately, that "source" for the weather that I didn't consult turned out to be correct as nineteen laps into the B Mod B Feature it started to rain. I felt sorry for the fifteen competitors that were still on the track as they must have circled the oval for nearly a half hour, trying to keep the track from getting away from them as it continued to rain, harder for sure than it did on Friday to cause the cancellation. Eventually they were joined by heavy equipment as everyone kept rolling, trying to save the track. The B Mods were finally sent to the infield and eventually to the pits while they kept trying to fight the weather. If only a portion of the time and effort spent to try and keep Saturday's show running would have been devoted to Friday night's event, that show could have been completed and with half the program done, we would have been done racing before it rained on Saturday. Just sayin'.
When the announcement was made for the "locked in" cars to report to the tech shed along with the ten who had qualified out of the shortened B Feature, the die was cast. At 11:35 pm the announcement was made that the show was done.
Interestingly, I have been at a few shows over the years where the same circumstances came into play. With the main event never having started, every one of those shows took the feature pool of money and split it equally between all those drivers that had qualified for the main. Not on this night however, as they gave the winner's share to the driver that was scheduled to start on the pole, Andy Bryant, and went down the line from there. I had never heard of it being done that way, but they certainly have the right at Lucas to do it however they see fit.
Something I noticed about Lucas Oil Speedway that seems to set it apart from other race tracks. Even the finest of tracks, by the end of a long season, start to look a little "used up." The paint might be fading or the wall in need of cleaning or the restrooms showing signs of wear. But not Lucas. Even with this being the last race of the year, the place literally glistens. There is no place crying for a paint update, the bathrooms are so bright you almost need sunglasses to enter them and every blade of grass is in order. The place remains spotless. They must have an awesome maintenance staff here.
Well, it was not the greatest of weekends for Lucas Oil Speedway, in large part due to the bad hand they were given by the weather. However, we did get to see some racing and especially so for fans from Iowa and of the Simpsons, it was well worth it.
I must say that I, along with many others, was very disappointed with the management of Lucas Oil Speedway after the events of Friday though. It started raining by 7 am and it rained all day. Not hard, but steady with some occasional mist and drizzle thrown in when it let up slightly. Any time during the afternoon, I expected the announcement of a cancellation which I would have understood 100%. Heck, it had been raining all day. However, the track kept posting through their face book page that the radar was showing that the rain would end by 5 pm and that they would still be racing.
OK, fine. They are determined to get this show in and would ride out the rain until it stopped and then race. I got to the track about 3:30 pm and it was still raining lightly with it backing off to drizzle quite often. Drivers and race teams were streaming in the gate, not being worried about the conditions because with the paved pit area at Lucas Oil Speedway, the concern about being stuck doesn't come into play.
Lo and behold, at 4:45 pm the rain stopped for good(they actually got a forecast right for a change), and pre race activities continued as the rest of the field showed up and signed in, the cars were unloaded and readied and the two drivers meetings took place.
The B Mods came out to roll in the track and then the Late Models hit the track. The first two hot lap sessions were completed and while the track was still slick, it was starting to come around. Just as the third session hit the track, it started misting. The mist lasted about a minute but as soon as it started, the cars were all ordered off the track and the announcement of the cancellation was made immediately, even before all the cars were off the track. No attempt was made to roll in the track or even see how long the precipitation would last. The cancellation was immediate and clearly pre planned as the announcer had been "keyed" to make the announcement. What was most galling was that after that sixty second burst of mist, it never rained again all night. I stood around in the pits talking to people for quite some time and never once did it start to precipitate again. Either they should have called the show when they legitimately had reason too when the rains continued or followed through of their pledge of trying to get the show in after the rain stopped. Waiting until everyone had purchased their tickets and pit passes and then calling the event after the first drop of rain just didn't seem right and not something I would have expected this track to do. After Friday night, I felt like Lucas "owed me one." The cancellation also pretty much took away any small chance that Vaught had of catching Simpson for the MLRA title.
Fast forward to Saturday and let's start over fresh. Saturday dawned cloudy and cool with some weather sources calling for a dry day and other predicting rain by late evening. My source said it would remain dry and unfortunately, they were wrong! But to that later.
Saturday's show was moved up by two hours and with the cloudy conditions and little wind, they could have easily started the show at 1 pm and have gotten the whole thing done early, but that's hindsight. Saturday would be a full day of racing though, with double rounds of heat races for the B Mods before they went into the "ladder" elimination to set the field for their forty lap main event. The Late Models would also be running a full show with a fifty lap, five grand to win at the end of their night.
Forty four Late Models signed in to race on Saturday with Kyle Schlotz not returning to race. Sixteen of the top twenty, including the top twelve, of the MLRA were on hand plus the top five in COMP Cams points were also in the house. There were drivers from as far away as Texas on hand for one of the last Late Model shows of the year in the Midwest.
Seventy three B Mods were also on hand for their part of the show. There was a bit of a snafu in this class as several drivers who had not been on hand for Friday night's portion of the show called and wanted to race and they were told that they could tag the back of heat races. However, when the nine new drivers arrived, they were informed that they would only be allowed to "tail" the back of the E Feature which didn't please some. Eventually this was settled after the track "fessed up" to a communications failure within the track and offered to refund pit fees to those affected drivers. Actually, all but one went ahead and tried to qualify.
Track conditions were brutal. That is the only fair way to assess them. However, to be clear, this was in no way the fault of the track. They did everything they could to try and pack down the surface but due to the huge amount of rain in this area, and really most of the Midwest, in the last few weeks, it was so soft in the corners that there was nothing they could do except pack and pack and watch the moisture seep up out of the ground once evening hit.
It was one of those nights that drivers just had to tighten up the belts and hold on for dear life. When they hit the corners, they often had no way of knowing which way their cars were going to go, and drivers were running over each other and flying through the air with regularity. Two of the B Mods managed to launch themselves up side down before the night was over. It was a very expensive night for them as shocks, frames, suspension parts, you name it, were all put to the test and many destroyed.
The Late Model feature was a very good example of this. Twenty four cars started and only eight finished and most of the eight that finished looked like they had lost a war. Cars were hurtling through the air and connecting with the concrete walls with regularity. Tony Jackson Jr was the early leaded until Jesse Stovall flew (literally) past him to take over the top spot.
Any chance Vaught has was ended when he got turned around on the back chute after Jackson got stuck in a whoop de do and Vaught had to spin to avoid him. The yellow flags were frequent and after Stovall led for a number of laps, a restart cost him when he got out of the groove and was dropped several spots.
Jack Sullivan grabbed the lead but then was passed by Simpson who had been biding his time but Simpson was then surprised by Logan Martin who blew past him to take over the lead. Martin had pitted early in the race and had worked his way back up to the front. By this time the race had been shortened by ten laps and it looked like Martin was going to get the big win. However, he launched himself off turn four into the wall with only four laps to go and Simpson inherited the lead.
He kept the car straight for the last four laps and won over Sullivan and Raymond Merrill. It was a great way for Simpson to go out as the champion and winning the race in the last appearance for him and the Brinkman Racing Team together as the owners will be retiring from racing and Simpson will be looking for a new ride in 2019.
As for the B Mods, their portion of the program was very much similar to the Late Models. Lots of wrecks and spins but with the one spin rule in affect, it kept the show moving. Each B Mod ran two heat races with the total of their passing points for those two events setting their running order for the Last Chance races. The top fourteen were locked in while everyone else raced like heck to try and be one of the other ten to make the show. The Last Chance races were run with a high number of laps so some of the competitors were putting in the equivalent of a month's worth of racing in one night!
Unfortunately, that "source" for the weather that I didn't consult turned out to be correct as nineteen laps into the B Mod B Feature it started to rain. I felt sorry for the fifteen competitors that were still on the track as they must have circled the oval for nearly a half hour, trying to keep the track from getting away from them as it continued to rain, harder for sure than it did on Friday to cause the cancellation. Eventually they were joined by heavy equipment as everyone kept rolling, trying to save the track. The B Mods were finally sent to the infield and eventually to the pits while they kept trying to fight the weather. If only a portion of the time and effort spent to try and keep Saturday's show running would have been devoted to Friday night's event, that show could have been completed and with half the program done, we would have been done racing before it rained on Saturday. Just sayin'.
When the announcement was made for the "locked in" cars to report to the tech shed along with the ten who had qualified out of the shortened B Feature, the die was cast. At 11:35 pm the announcement was made that the show was done.
Interestingly, I have been at a few shows over the years where the same circumstances came into play. With the main event never having started, every one of those shows took the feature pool of money and split it equally between all those drivers that had qualified for the main. Not on this night however, as they gave the winner's share to the driver that was scheduled to start on the pole, Andy Bryant, and went down the line from there. I had never heard of it being done that way, but they certainly have the right at Lucas to do it however they see fit.
Something I noticed about Lucas Oil Speedway that seems to set it apart from other race tracks. Even the finest of tracks, by the end of a long season, start to look a little "used up." The paint might be fading or the wall in need of cleaning or the restrooms showing signs of wear. But not Lucas. Even with this being the last race of the year, the place literally glistens. There is no place crying for a paint update, the bathrooms are so bright you almost need sunglasses to enter them and every blade of grass is in order. The place remains spotless. They must have an awesome maintenance staff here.
Well, it was not the greatest of weekends for Lucas Oil Speedway, in large part due to the bad hand they were given by the weather. However, we did get to see some racing and especially so for fans from Iowa and of the Simpsons, it was well worth it.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
McGrath and Anvelink Big Winners at 141
On Thursday, September 27th, the 9th annual Creek Classic opened up at the 141 Speedway near Francis Creek Wisconsin. After a season marked with lots of special events for all classes of cars including Sprint Cars, this would be the final weekend of racing for 2018.
The schedule for this weekend would feature two full shows on Friday and Saturday for the classes that regularly race at "The Creek" each week while the "preview night" on Thursday would include the "Blue" race of the "Red, White and Blue" series for the IMCA Modifieds with a grand on the line for the winner. The Dirt Kings Late Model tour would also have their final point race of the season and would crown a champion. The Stock Cars threw in a "Iron Man" race as the final event of the night that would be the same as what I would call an Australian Pursuit race. And in between, any car racing this weekend would have time for practice sessions.
However, the promise of incoming weather for well past Midnight proved to be way off in accuracy as by late afternoon the clouds turned ominous and periodic drizzle began to fall. Most of the teams that had already unloaded their race cars put them back in trailer and it looked tenuous if racing would even take place. The track itself was in solid shape and the prep crew continued to work on the track. However, a weeks worth of rain had left the parking lots and camping areas pretty soggy, and the whole facility couldn't take much more water.
However, the promoters were determined to get the show in if possible and even as it continued to mist, the plans remained in effect to do the last track prep and get the action going. This saw a wild scramble by the teams as everyone hustled to get their cars unloaded and ready for some brief hot laps. To the absolute credit of the promoters and workers, despite the rain and the delay getting the track rolled in and some brief hot laps sessions completed, the first green flag was only about thirty minutes last starting.
Forty six Modifieds turned out for opening night action with five qualifying heats to cut the field down. The Late Models then took to the track for three qualifying heats. Unfortunately, about half way through the last Late Model heat, a sudden shower hit the track once again with by far the heaviest rain of the night. Once again, everything ground to a halt and it appeared this might be the "straw that broke the camel's back."
But once again, the prep crew came to the rescue and it had barely stopped raining before they were right back at it, rolling in the track with a multitude of vehicles in all sizes and shapes. Surprisingly, the track came back into racing shape didn't take too long and in about an hour total, we were back to racing action.
They went right into Modified B features and then straight into the three main events. The Dirt Kings point title was already determined and all Nick Anvelink had to do to take his second straight Dirt Kings point title was take a green flag in the main event.
With the rain, the track had been turned into a blinding fast, "hammer down" type of track and with the Late Models first to go, it was a furious forty lap race they put on. Jim Schmidt was the early leader of the race with both Mitch McGrath and Jared Siefert making strong moved to advance through the field. McGrath started sixth and Siefert eleventh but both were on the march as they moved to the front. Frequent yellows for minor spins kept the field bunched and allowed the two mentioned the chance to move into contention.
McGrath, who has showed much strength of late with two straight wins in this series plus some strong runs with the regional touring series, was able to grab the lead near the halfway point and he led the last part of the race to take the win. Young Taylor Scheffler, who has been making some noise in "open motor" racing this season also, made a strong charge at the end of the race and came from ninth to finish second, ahead of Siefert.
Anvelink, unlike most of the others racing on this night, had plans to race other venues this weekend and he drove a more conservative race, finishing fourth and having his car look none the worse for wear while most of the rest of the field, between the tight race track and the high speeds, looked like they had all lost the battle. With eight yellow flags, the race wasn't a classic but the drivers involved certainly gave it their best shot.
The Modifieds then hit the track with twenty four cars going twenty laps with a grand to the winner. Rookie Joey Taycher led a few laps but unfortunately, for the rest of the field, Johnny "Hitman" Whitman, who runs very well here, quickly got to the front. He made the pass on Taycher and there was then no one that could come close to challenging him. What is usually a very contested race at 141, the Modified main, was a rare walkaway For Whitman. Taycher did a great job to hang on for second, with Tony Wedelstadt, "Racin' Jason Czarapata and Mike Mashl trailing. Twenty one of twenty four finished and only two yellows slowed the show.
Wrapping up the night was the Stock Car "specialty" race. Under the rules of an Australian Pursuit race, the car running last on each lap is supposed to drop out and head for the pits. However, many both on the track and making the calls didn't seem to be on the same page right from the start of the race. Drivers were dropping out that didn't need to and a couple that should have pulled off didn't.
It didn't help that everyone was driving like wild men and the yellows were raining down frequently, including a red when Logan Leary rode over a big corner tire to avoid a spinning car and then landed on his lid. The whole race was kind of a mess and it ended badly with the tower nearly awarding the win to the wrong driver, until the starter, on the spot with what was going on, quickly called the tower and had the decision corrected, with Kyle Frederick being awarded the win. The whole thing ended badly and is one of the reasons that I dislike these "specialty" events. The only reason I stuck around for this race is because I like watching the Stock Cars.
The rain delays and all the yellows in a couple of races made it a very late night at 141, something that rarely ever happens, due to the curfew they have. However, track announcer and co-owner Toby Kruse let us know that when the weather is an issue that the track gets some consideration on nights when the weather is an issue. It was nearly Midnight when I walked out of 141 and that happens almost next to never. Overall the races were not bad but not some of the very close finish events that 141 is well known for.
The schedule for this weekend would feature two full shows on Friday and Saturday for the classes that regularly race at "The Creek" each week while the "preview night" on Thursday would include the "Blue" race of the "Red, White and Blue" series for the IMCA Modifieds with a grand on the line for the winner. The Dirt Kings Late Model tour would also have their final point race of the season and would crown a champion. The Stock Cars threw in a "Iron Man" race as the final event of the night that would be the same as what I would call an Australian Pursuit race. And in between, any car racing this weekend would have time for practice sessions.
However, the promise of incoming weather for well past Midnight proved to be way off in accuracy as by late afternoon the clouds turned ominous and periodic drizzle began to fall. Most of the teams that had already unloaded their race cars put them back in trailer and it looked tenuous if racing would even take place. The track itself was in solid shape and the prep crew continued to work on the track. However, a weeks worth of rain had left the parking lots and camping areas pretty soggy, and the whole facility couldn't take much more water.
However, the promoters were determined to get the show in if possible and even as it continued to mist, the plans remained in effect to do the last track prep and get the action going. This saw a wild scramble by the teams as everyone hustled to get their cars unloaded and ready for some brief hot laps. To the absolute credit of the promoters and workers, despite the rain and the delay getting the track rolled in and some brief hot laps sessions completed, the first green flag was only about thirty minutes last starting.
Forty six Modifieds turned out for opening night action with five qualifying heats to cut the field down. The Late Models then took to the track for three qualifying heats. Unfortunately, about half way through the last Late Model heat, a sudden shower hit the track once again with by far the heaviest rain of the night. Once again, everything ground to a halt and it appeared this might be the "straw that broke the camel's back."
But once again, the prep crew came to the rescue and it had barely stopped raining before they were right back at it, rolling in the track with a multitude of vehicles in all sizes and shapes. Surprisingly, the track came back into racing shape didn't take too long and in about an hour total, we were back to racing action.
They went right into Modified B features and then straight into the three main events. The Dirt Kings point title was already determined and all Nick Anvelink had to do to take his second straight Dirt Kings point title was take a green flag in the main event.
With the rain, the track had been turned into a blinding fast, "hammer down" type of track and with the Late Models first to go, it was a furious forty lap race they put on. Jim Schmidt was the early leader of the race with both Mitch McGrath and Jared Siefert making strong moved to advance through the field. McGrath started sixth and Siefert eleventh but both were on the march as they moved to the front. Frequent yellows for minor spins kept the field bunched and allowed the two mentioned the chance to move into contention.
McGrath, who has showed much strength of late with two straight wins in this series plus some strong runs with the regional touring series, was able to grab the lead near the halfway point and he led the last part of the race to take the win. Young Taylor Scheffler, who has been making some noise in "open motor" racing this season also, made a strong charge at the end of the race and came from ninth to finish second, ahead of Siefert.
Anvelink, unlike most of the others racing on this night, had plans to race other venues this weekend and he drove a more conservative race, finishing fourth and having his car look none the worse for wear while most of the rest of the field, between the tight race track and the high speeds, looked like they had all lost the battle. With eight yellow flags, the race wasn't a classic but the drivers involved certainly gave it their best shot.
The Modifieds then hit the track with twenty four cars going twenty laps with a grand to the winner. Rookie Joey Taycher led a few laps but unfortunately, for the rest of the field, Johnny "Hitman" Whitman, who runs very well here, quickly got to the front. He made the pass on Taycher and there was then no one that could come close to challenging him. What is usually a very contested race at 141, the Modified main, was a rare walkaway For Whitman. Taycher did a great job to hang on for second, with Tony Wedelstadt, "Racin' Jason Czarapata and Mike Mashl trailing. Twenty one of twenty four finished and only two yellows slowed the show.
Wrapping up the night was the Stock Car "specialty" race. Under the rules of an Australian Pursuit race, the car running last on each lap is supposed to drop out and head for the pits. However, many both on the track and making the calls didn't seem to be on the same page right from the start of the race. Drivers were dropping out that didn't need to and a couple that should have pulled off didn't.
It didn't help that everyone was driving like wild men and the yellows were raining down frequently, including a red when Logan Leary rode over a big corner tire to avoid a spinning car and then landed on his lid. The whole race was kind of a mess and it ended badly with the tower nearly awarding the win to the wrong driver, until the starter, on the spot with what was going on, quickly called the tower and had the decision corrected, with Kyle Frederick being awarded the win. The whole thing ended badly and is one of the reasons that I dislike these "specialty" events. The only reason I stuck around for this race is because I like watching the Stock Cars.
The rain delays and all the yellows in a couple of races made it a very late night at 141, something that rarely ever happens, due to the curfew they have. However, track announcer and co-owner Toby Kruse let us know that when the weather is an issue that the track gets some consideration on nights when the weather is an issue. It was nearly Midnight when I walked out of 141 and that happens almost next to never. Overall the races were not bad but not some of the very close finish events that 141 is well known for.
Monday, August 27, 2018
Johnny Scott Continues to Dominate USMTS
What do you do when the skies are leaking water, the forecast is bad for the rest of the day and the wife wants to go out for fish?
Simple. You jump in the car and drive five and a half hours to South Dakota. After all, that fish has friends that will be waiting on the frying pan the next time you hunger for cod but there will never ever be a race quite like the one you would miss to break bread.
While storms would continue to deluge the Minnesota and Wisconsin area and all area tracks would be rained out, there was a sliver of opportunity as things had pretty much passed the South Dakota area over night and they were expecting a sunny and hot Sunday. As it turned out, they were mostly right as it was indeed steamy, hot and windy but they forgot to mention that the South Dakota area would go under a tornado watch by late afternoon and we would end up dodging some pretty hefty storms before the night was complete, but the races would go on to completion and that is really the only important detail.
The USMTS was finishing up their last swing through South Dakota and on Sunday they would be at the Casino Speedway in Watertown, hard on the shores of Lake Kempeska for the final night of their three race tour of western Iowa and South Dakota. They had been rained out themselves on Friday in Iowa and were anxious to get a show completed too.
Casino was featuring the third annual Sandy Benson Memorial race with WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and Street Stocks racing along with the USMTS Mods. Sandy and Earl Benson were the promoters of Casino Speedway for over twenty years until they sold the facility a few years ago and in fact their son Troy is still the announcer at the track. Earl was also very active in the WISSOTA organization, serving as President for a number of years. He also financially supported the racing career of Jon Tesch , who many still remember as one of the top Modified drivers that toured with USMTS after getting his racing start at Casino. In fact, Tesch would make his once a year appearance again on Sunday as he still has his last GRT Modified but races it only at this event.
Sandy was killed in a car accident down in Florida while the Benson's were attending Speedweeks activities and her death rocked the South Dakota racing community. Even now, years later, the sponsors for this event just jump at the chance to be a part of it and the purse is always substantial increased due to their support. The Mods would be running for four grand to win on Sunday with the MidMods at two grand and the Street Stocks racing for fifteen hundred dollars.
Twenty two Street Stocks signed in to race along with thirty seven MidMods. The Modified car count was thirty six and quite frankly, the only reason that it wasn't in the sub twenty range where many of the recent USMTS shows have been is because there were a large number of local WISSOTA drivers that joined in on the action Sunday. They have always supported this race and on the small, high banked track that so many of them know well, they stand a much better chance of being competitive than on some big old half mile. Casino, by the way, is a tight quarter mile , high banked oval that would fit right in down in Illinois but is rather unique for this area. It is a tight one, and there is always plenty of action and fireworks.
On this Sunday, the WISSOTA cars would hang tough for much of the first half of the race but gradually they would start to fade back as the one hundred horsepower difference of the USMTS cars would eventually show up with Tyler McDonald the "best of class" as he finished eighth.
After some teeth griding long heats in the support classes and the USMTS B Feature, along with a power outage that lasted a few minutes, it was starting to get late and with "weather" bearing down on Watertown, the Modified feature was moved up to first in the running order to ensure that they would get that race completed.
A couple of drivers led their first laps of the season in the Mod main as first Travis Saurer and then Tyler Peterson held sway in the early going. Dereck Ramirez then led quite a while but eventually it was Johnny Scott who worked his way up from eighth starting spot to challenge. He and Ramirez had a nice battle for several laps before Scott pulled ahead and with the last fourteen laps run nonstop, he pulled away comfortably near the end.
As Ramirez said in his post race interview, Scott has figured out a way to run his car through the corners without sliding or losing time while everyone else is rolling their cars through the corners and he just pulls away. Peterson, from Hickson North Dakota has a great run to finish third and hold off a surprising Adam Kates for the spot while Terry Phillips passed a lot of cars to finish fifth.
Twenty six cars started the main which filled the track up pretty good but only seven didn't go the distance, including hometown driver Scott Ward who debuted a brand new LG2 car and was set to start in the third row but he couldn't get the car to run. The car was also a special tribute car to his son-in-law who passed away last year.
With a few sprinkles falling, officials hustled the best they could to get the other two features completed as there was plenty of money on the line in those two races also. The Street Stock feature was first up with all cars on hand starting that and it was clear, actually from the start of the first support class heat race that all the drivers had been nipping too much of Joe Duval's Spike Energy Drink as they were all wired to the maxx, driving as if this was the biggest race of all time.
The heats were plagued with yellows for spins, crashes and stalls and while this track has more contact than most, it was nothing compared to a regular night as everyone was driving in a pretty ruthless manner. Many of the highest point drivers in WISSOTA in the Street Stocks were on hand but that didn't seem to matter as they slammed and frammed with the best of them.
In fact, the race turned into a showdown between the second and third place drivers in current national points, Kyle Dykhoff and Jeff Crouse. Dykhoff led early and then Crouse passed him with a good, non questionable move.
However, after leading a number of laps with the race broken up in to short segments due to all the carnage, Dykhoff changed his line and started to reel in the leader. Crouse went into protective mode and after Dykhoff pulled up beside him and looked ready to pass, Crouse threw a real wild slider leaving turn four and knocked Dykhoff aside and retook the lead.
However, it was time to look out as Dykhoff had revenge on his mind. He was able to get within a couple of car lengths of Crouse and going into turn one with only two laps to go, Dykhoff kept the throttle wide open and pointed his car directly at Crouse. The crunch was distinct and around went Crouse, but somehow, he was able to restart with no significant damage to his car. Dykhoff, on the other end, badly damage the right front of his car after using it as a battering ram but he was going to try and restart and worm his way back up to his former position until encouraged by track officials on the Raceceiver to call it a night. Still, they didn't disqualify him like they should have and instead gave him is position and labeled him a DNF.
Crouse was able to restart and then hold off Dustan Davis and Trajan Schmidt for the win. No mention of the incident was made in the winner's interview and Crouse has two things going for him. Number one, he's a good sized guy and number two, he is a high level amateur hockey coach in the Winter and actually runs camps all summer, so what he can't control with his size, he likely can handle with his fists!
Still, it was disappointing for two drivers with so many successful shows, points and wins to be beating on each other so late in the season and with so much on the line. One hard arse tech guy and they could be jeopardizing their whole season.
The Midwest Modifieds finished up the night with a few more persistent raindrops starting to fall. Thirty seven drivers had been whittled down to the top twenty and while their feature race wasn't quite as wild as the Streets, it still had its "moments."
With nearly half the field sidelined by the checkered, Garden City South Dakota's Scott Hansen held off a late charge from "The Chief", Dan Wheeler to earn the two grand pay day.
Even as much as they tried to hustle things along, with the power problems and the many slow downs, including one medical emergency for driver Hope Swenson when she tweaked her neck following hard impact with the front stretch wall, it was almost Midnight when the final checkered fell, far too late on a Sunday night, especially with South Dakota schools starting the next day. There were probably a lot of crabby kids and Moms this morning!
The trip home was one of the most unbelievable that I had ventured out on in quite some time. For many miles, I was running parallel to a huge storm that had just missed the race track and surely would have ended the action prematurely. There was not much rain but the lightning show was unbelievable. And the wind was something else. I could barely keep my car on the road and I was dodging blowing debris constantly. Twice, toppled road signs were laying upside down in my lane and if not for dumb luck or some other unexplained factor, I would have plowed both of them over. As it turned out, I rolled into the driveway at 5:15 am, just another day in paradise.
Simple. You jump in the car and drive five and a half hours to South Dakota. After all, that fish has friends that will be waiting on the frying pan the next time you hunger for cod but there will never ever be a race quite like the one you would miss to break bread.
While storms would continue to deluge the Minnesota and Wisconsin area and all area tracks would be rained out, there was a sliver of opportunity as things had pretty much passed the South Dakota area over night and they were expecting a sunny and hot Sunday. As it turned out, they were mostly right as it was indeed steamy, hot and windy but they forgot to mention that the South Dakota area would go under a tornado watch by late afternoon and we would end up dodging some pretty hefty storms before the night was complete, but the races would go on to completion and that is really the only important detail.
The USMTS was finishing up their last swing through South Dakota and on Sunday they would be at the Casino Speedway in Watertown, hard on the shores of Lake Kempeska for the final night of their three race tour of western Iowa and South Dakota. They had been rained out themselves on Friday in Iowa and were anxious to get a show completed too.
Casino was featuring the third annual Sandy Benson Memorial race with WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and Street Stocks racing along with the USMTS Mods. Sandy and Earl Benson were the promoters of Casino Speedway for over twenty years until they sold the facility a few years ago and in fact their son Troy is still the announcer at the track. Earl was also very active in the WISSOTA organization, serving as President for a number of years. He also financially supported the racing career of Jon Tesch , who many still remember as one of the top Modified drivers that toured with USMTS after getting his racing start at Casino. In fact, Tesch would make his once a year appearance again on Sunday as he still has his last GRT Modified but races it only at this event.
Sandy was killed in a car accident down in Florida while the Benson's were attending Speedweeks activities and her death rocked the South Dakota racing community. Even now, years later, the sponsors for this event just jump at the chance to be a part of it and the purse is always substantial increased due to their support. The Mods would be running for four grand to win on Sunday with the MidMods at two grand and the Street Stocks racing for fifteen hundred dollars.
Twenty two Street Stocks signed in to race along with thirty seven MidMods. The Modified car count was thirty six and quite frankly, the only reason that it wasn't in the sub twenty range where many of the recent USMTS shows have been is because there were a large number of local WISSOTA drivers that joined in on the action Sunday. They have always supported this race and on the small, high banked track that so many of them know well, they stand a much better chance of being competitive than on some big old half mile. Casino, by the way, is a tight quarter mile , high banked oval that would fit right in down in Illinois but is rather unique for this area. It is a tight one, and there is always plenty of action and fireworks.
On this Sunday, the WISSOTA cars would hang tough for much of the first half of the race but gradually they would start to fade back as the one hundred horsepower difference of the USMTS cars would eventually show up with Tyler McDonald the "best of class" as he finished eighth.
After some teeth griding long heats in the support classes and the USMTS B Feature, along with a power outage that lasted a few minutes, it was starting to get late and with "weather" bearing down on Watertown, the Modified feature was moved up to first in the running order to ensure that they would get that race completed.
A couple of drivers led their first laps of the season in the Mod main as first Travis Saurer and then Tyler Peterson held sway in the early going. Dereck Ramirez then led quite a while but eventually it was Johnny Scott who worked his way up from eighth starting spot to challenge. He and Ramirez had a nice battle for several laps before Scott pulled ahead and with the last fourteen laps run nonstop, he pulled away comfortably near the end.
As Ramirez said in his post race interview, Scott has figured out a way to run his car through the corners without sliding or losing time while everyone else is rolling their cars through the corners and he just pulls away. Peterson, from Hickson North Dakota has a great run to finish third and hold off a surprising Adam Kates for the spot while Terry Phillips passed a lot of cars to finish fifth.
Twenty six cars started the main which filled the track up pretty good but only seven didn't go the distance, including hometown driver Scott Ward who debuted a brand new LG2 car and was set to start in the third row but he couldn't get the car to run. The car was also a special tribute car to his son-in-law who passed away last year.
With a few sprinkles falling, officials hustled the best they could to get the other two features completed as there was plenty of money on the line in those two races also. The Street Stock feature was first up with all cars on hand starting that and it was clear, actually from the start of the first support class heat race that all the drivers had been nipping too much of Joe Duval's Spike Energy Drink as they were all wired to the maxx, driving as if this was the biggest race of all time.
The heats were plagued with yellows for spins, crashes and stalls and while this track has more contact than most, it was nothing compared to a regular night as everyone was driving in a pretty ruthless manner. Many of the highest point drivers in WISSOTA in the Street Stocks were on hand but that didn't seem to matter as they slammed and frammed with the best of them.
In fact, the race turned into a showdown between the second and third place drivers in current national points, Kyle Dykhoff and Jeff Crouse. Dykhoff led early and then Crouse passed him with a good, non questionable move.
However, after leading a number of laps with the race broken up in to short segments due to all the carnage, Dykhoff changed his line and started to reel in the leader. Crouse went into protective mode and after Dykhoff pulled up beside him and looked ready to pass, Crouse threw a real wild slider leaving turn four and knocked Dykhoff aside and retook the lead.
However, it was time to look out as Dykhoff had revenge on his mind. He was able to get within a couple of car lengths of Crouse and going into turn one with only two laps to go, Dykhoff kept the throttle wide open and pointed his car directly at Crouse. The crunch was distinct and around went Crouse, but somehow, he was able to restart with no significant damage to his car. Dykhoff, on the other end, badly damage the right front of his car after using it as a battering ram but he was going to try and restart and worm his way back up to his former position until encouraged by track officials on the Raceceiver to call it a night. Still, they didn't disqualify him like they should have and instead gave him is position and labeled him a DNF.
Crouse was able to restart and then hold off Dustan Davis and Trajan Schmidt for the win. No mention of the incident was made in the winner's interview and Crouse has two things going for him. Number one, he's a good sized guy and number two, he is a high level amateur hockey coach in the Winter and actually runs camps all summer, so what he can't control with his size, he likely can handle with his fists!
Still, it was disappointing for two drivers with so many successful shows, points and wins to be beating on each other so late in the season and with so much on the line. One hard arse tech guy and they could be jeopardizing their whole season.
The Midwest Modifieds finished up the night with a few more persistent raindrops starting to fall. Thirty seven drivers had been whittled down to the top twenty and while their feature race wasn't quite as wild as the Streets, it still had its "moments."
With nearly half the field sidelined by the checkered, Garden City South Dakota's Scott Hansen held off a late charge from "The Chief", Dan Wheeler to earn the two grand pay day.
Even as much as they tried to hustle things along, with the power problems and the many slow downs, including one medical emergency for driver Hope Swenson when she tweaked her neck following hard impact with the front stretch wall, it was almost Midnight when the final checkered fell, far too late on a Sunday night, especially with South Dakota schools starting the next day. There were probably a lot of crabby kids and Moms this morning!
The trip home was one of the most unbelievable that I had ventured out on in quite some time. For many miles, I was running parallel to a huge storm that had just missed the race track and surely would have ended the action prematurely. There was not much rain but the lightning show was unbelievable. And the wind was something else. I could barely keep my car on the road and I was dodging blowing debris constantly. Twice, toppled road signs were laying upside down in my lane and if not for dumb luck or some other unexplained factor, I would have plowed both of them over. As it turned out, I rolled into the driveway at 5:15 am, just another day in paradise.
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