FK Rod Ends Practice

FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway(boy, if that isn't awkward!) held a practice night on Friday, January 5th in preparation for the Wild West Shootout.

Unlike last year, the planes were flying on time and there were no hang ups with connecting flights and the "big bird" got to Phoenix actually ahead of schedule and we were able to get out to the track to catch the practice night.

The weather was spectacular for the first day in the desert. Temperatures were in the mid to high seventies and the sun was shinning down. For many of us from the Midwest, reports of an eighty or more change in temperatures in one day were the norm, and to a person, everyone was glad to get out of the "ice box" that we have been enduring for at least a couple of weeks.

Cars from all three classes were on hand to practice while other rigs rolled in during the evening and some remained buttoned up in their trailers with the rig operators having gotten their cargo to Arizona but some of the drivers still en route.

By my count, forty seven Late Models were seen in the pits along with just about that many Modifieds and about thirty X Mods. A number of the drivers entered in the event still have not arrived and more are expected for the opening race on Saturday.

Practice started just after six pm and continued for about three hours with the three divisions rotating through. The only stoppages were to knock down the cushion on a couple of instances. The track was well watered and despite all the laps that it took, no dust was observed. It did start out very wide but as the evening progressed, the berm built up quite a bit and the groove narrowed and it turned out to be a cushion pounder to get maximum speed by the end. Management has promised to work on this and try and slow the track down for Saturday, which would again likely produce a wider racing groove. Several of the drivers did experiment trying to race lower on the track where it was hard and starting to "blacken" up, but they were largely unsuccessful in passing anyone so to maximize the racing, it will probably be necessary to somehow slow down the cushion.

Although many of the cars weren't operating with their transponders, it appeared that with the naked eye that Brandon Sheppard, in his family owner car, was quite possibly the fastest of the Late Models. Bobby Pierce, sporting a mostly black new Rocket was also fast by my eye. Terry Phillips, with an all red car with black numerals, that I thought looked very nice, also seemed to be among the quickest.
As promised, Lance Matthees and Pat Doar were sharing a ride with Matthees Rocket chassis sporting a Andy Durham Ford motor from Doar. Lance was out for three practice sessions while Pat took to the wheel once as he is not a big fan of tall cushions. How they will split up the driving duties remains to be seen.

The biggest surprise of the night found Rodney Sanders behind the wheel of a Barry Wright race car after having much success driving MB Custioms in both the Late Models and Mods for several years. The story I was told was that Sanders' car owner is very high on Chris Madden, and when Madden switched to Wright chassis this year, they followed. I was told though that Sanders will race MB Modifieds and that he will return to the full USMTS series in 2018.

Dustin Strand did not have his Late Model out here this year. I was told by Dustin's father Brian that when they figured out the bottom line from last year in what they spent and made, the Modified produced a better "bottom line" for them so while Dustin will race a Late Model in the upper Midwest, he did not bring it with him to the desert. Instead, he has both a Mod and an X Mod as success with both those cars would be more important anyway, as that is what they sell for a living. They also have a number of Milleneum chassis customers they are helping out here.

The Modified field looked very balanced with a number of drivers getting around the track well and I think their races will be very competitive. Late arrivals Fito and Jake Gallardo looked quick but so did many others, too many to mention. IMCA stalwart Spencer Wilson from North Dakota slapped a big spoiler on his car and was getting around the track very well. Among the fastest Modifieds was that of Shane Sabraski, the WISSOTA driver from Minnesota.

Texas' Phil Dixon is trying to set a record for most big event visited in one year and he noted that he was the only Modified to have raced in the Dome in St. Louis and then have traveled to the desert. Due to everyone else at work being very busy, Dixon is alone by himself with no crew for this week.

Another driver going solo is South Dakota's Dustin Bluhm, although he is getting help from the Ricky Weiss crew, having borrowed an open Vic Hill motor from them to race this week. Weiss was testing two cars tonight, a new one and his WISSOTA car from last year.

Chris Simpson and Lucas Schott spent the night trying to track down some issues and both pulled on  to the track several times for practice, only to head immediately to the infield and not get any hot laps. And both were trying to break in new cars.

Justin Duty, Blake Jegtvig, Chad Olsen and Austin Siebert all exited the track with big smoke issues at various times during the evening but all were seen later back on the track so the problems must not have been serious.

There were two more serious incidents before the night was over however. A mechanical issue saw X Mod driver Terry Bahr taken off on the hook while there was also one bad crash. A Modified believed to be driven by Jerry Craft slammed off the side of Olsen and then traveled head on into the fourth turn guard rail. The frame rails on that car looked to be bent badly and it seems likely we will have seen the last of that car for this meet.

By the end of the night, a sweat shirt was required but the heavy coat, hat and big boots were a thing of the past. The first night of racing will begin on Saturday and those that want to watch it live can check out Dirt on Dirt for live coverage with Ben Shelton doing the call.