The Wild West Shootout wrapped up on Sunday night, January 14th at the F K Rod Ends Arizona Speedway and it was defending World of Outlaws Late Model champion Brandon Sheppard that took home the win in the fifty lap Late Model feature to conclude the six night race meet in the Arizona desert. Other feature winners on Sunday included Dustin Strand in the Modifieds and Cole Searing in the X Mods.
Sheppard started on the pole and led all fifty laps of the Late Model feature to record the win worth thirteen grand to the Illinois driver who has been racing his family equipment this week as opposed to his regular Mark Richards ride on the Outlaw tour. Sheppard was relatively quiet most of this week with some consistent runs but not anything that contained a challenge for feature win laurels. He had recorded four top five finishes earlier in the series but Sunday he turned up the wick as he won a heat race and then redrew the pole for the main event.
He took right off and grabbed the lead from the drop of the green with Mike Marlar chasing him in the early going. Marlar remained relatively close for several laps but then Sheppard began to pull away and running at a frantic pace, he was able to build the lead to nearly a straightaway. Don Shaw was in third until overtaken by Ricky Weiss who then began to track down Marlar for second. It appeared that Weiss, who had been very strong all week would be the one to challenge Sheppard. However, Marlar was able to fight off the challenge and then put a little distance on Weiss as the top five began to get strung out.
Lapped traffic was a huge deal in this race as Sheppard was cutting through the back half of the field quickly and eventually he would lap all the way up to the sixth place car. There would be only seven laps left when the first yellow flag of the race would be thrown after Jason Rauen stalled and needed help leaving the track.
Sheppard would once again grab the lead but the battle for second would get wild as Marlar and Weiss exchanged wild slide jobs for the runner up position before Marlar would again secure the spot. They would race on to the checkered flag in that running order with Cade Dillard completing the top five. Sheppard reported that he lost power and the motor shut off on the final lap and the assumption was a blown motor. However, it was determined in the pits after the show that the problem was relatively minor and not a big budget breaker. Sheppard had already replaced a motor for the Sunday show and losing two motors over the course of the weekend would have been hard to swallow.
It was a rather odd race in some regards as second row starter David Breazeale suffered motor problems before the race even started and Kyle Beard also had difficulties that saw him pull off just after taking the green. Only a dozen cars were still around to take the checkered flag with Bobby Pierce finishing seventh and the first car a lap down.
Marlar's consistent finishes throughout the week earned him the Wild West Shootout point title in the Late Models and another three grand for that honor.
The Modifieds continued their great shows that they have been staging all week. And for the sixth straight night, it was a different winner who found his way to victory lane. Dustin Strand had been having a miserable week with both his cars as documented in an earlier blog. But on Sunday he finally put things together to earn a hard fought Modified feature win and cash the biggest amount that the Mods had raced for all week with him hauling two grand back to Grand Forks North Dakota.
Alex Stanford started on the pole and took the early lead, only to be overtaken by Ricky Thornton Jr who was looking to become the first repeat winner of the series. Thornton Jr led a number of laps with Strand moving into second and then grabbing the lead when Thornton Jr jumped the cushion in turn one and lost a bunch of time, falling back to about fifth spot before he regained control.
A couple yellows near the halfway point bunched the field but on every restart Strand would continue to hold his ground and maintain the lead. Thornton Jr was driving the wheels off his car however, and using the cushion he was able to get back up to second, but just when it looked like he might challenge Strand for the lead, his car suddenly shut down and he pulled into the infield.
Strand was then back in control and he drove on for the win without any serious challenges after that. Stanford, who just arrived in time to race on Saturday night, did himself well with a solid second place run while Stormy Scott came from twenty first to finish third. Shane Sabraski, Mr. consistent in this class, recorded another top five run in fourth, just ahead of Lucas Schott.
Johnny Scott was running in the top five early until a skirmish with Tyler Peterson saw Scott go for a spin and have to head to the tail of the pack. However, he was able to race his way back up to ninth and that was just enough for him to claim the Wild West Shootout points title.
As a group, the Modifieds did a great job all week of putting on some excellent shows marked by lots of close racing and a dearth of yellow flags for most events.
The X Mods provided the closest feature finish of the entire week with three cars running for the win right to the finish. Point leader Cole Searing and Jason VandeKamp started on the front row and battled wheel to wheel in the early going. VandeKamp was eventually able to take over the top spot with Searing still pushing hard.
Saturday night winner Josh Cain moved up from the third row and he was working the bottom lane well and he moved in on the rim riding VandeKamp. Cain continued to move in and just as he passed VandeKamp, the first yellow flew for a spin with only three laps to go. It didn't seem like Cain had gained the lead based on the criteria that was explained in how they determine whether a lap should be scored or not.
However, they did give Cain the front spot for the restart and this was key as he dove low into turn one in an effort to fight off VandeKamp and Searing and around his car went. He spun but was able to keep the car moving but he collected Shawn Strong and Greg Gorham who were both in contention for the win also. Both were eliminated in the pile up and Cain raised a ruckus when he was sent to the tail of the field and eventually pulled off the track.
This left VandeKamp and Searing to battle it out for the win with Searing hammering the cushion on the restart and taking over the top spot. However, after seeing the white flag he jumped the berm in turn one and VandeKamp drove under him to retake the lead. Searing again blasted the high side in turn three and when VandeKamp missed his mark in the final corner it was a drag race to the finish line with Searing winning on the outside by .004 seconds! Cole Haugland had his best run of the week as he came from eleventh to third and was trailed by Steve Muilenburg and Nick Rivera.
WISSOTA cars once again dominated the X Mod class with fifteen of the twenty four starters coming from that group and the top four finishers and six out of the top ten also running with that group. Searing, who was the only multiple winner in the X Mods, earned his third win of the week and clinched the point title too. Searing, who will return to running his Super Stock when the South Dakota racing season starts, informed that he may join the George team to race the special at Humboldt Kansas that kicked off the Midwest racing season.
The car counts reflected the finale in a long and grueling series with some drivers wanting to get a head start on the long pull home and with snow in the forecast for many areas, some wanted to get on the road and beat the weather. After a series high of X Mods on Saturday, the field dropped by eleven on Sunday. The Mods recorded their series low of thirty eight cars while the Late Models stayed very consistent with forty five timing in on Sunday. Overall the car counts fluctuated very little from day to day throughout the six nights of racing.
While perhaps not quite as big as Saturday night's crowd, the Sunday crowd was still a very good one and management did their best to get the show over as early as possible by combining the B features in the open wheel classes to just one in each division. The final checkered flag waved right around 9:30 pm.
Dates were announced on Sunday for the 2019 Wild West Shootout which will be the thirteenth annual. Races will be on January 5,6,9, 11, 12 and 13. Next year's race will be highlighted by a fourteen thousand to win Late Model finale with a grand on the line for starting money. More announcements regarding purse structure in the other two classes were promised to be announced as the season progresses.
It was without question the most successful Wild West Shootout yet and while the final checkered flag has hardly waved, people are already circling the dates for next year's event as this year's races were memorable and offered just about everything that a race fan could hope for. This year's race series will certainly be a strong candidate for the Racing Promotion Monthly special event of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment