Sunday, January 7th marked the second race in the six race series to be held at the F K Rod Ends Arizona Speedway as the Wild West Shootout continued. Surprise endings in two of the three main events would make for some compelling action and much for the fans and competitors to chew on well after the racing program was concluded. Sunday night winners included Don Shaw in the Late Models, Johnny Scott in the Modifieds and Cole Searing in the X Mods.
It was another beautiful day in the desert with fifty Late Models, fifty Modifieds and forty one X Mods signing in to race for the second event. A half dozen new cars spread out between the three classes joined the field on Sunday with a few others not returning for various reasons. Because of the slightly larger field in the Modifieds and after some questions because of the extremely large heat race numbers in the Modifieds for Saturday's show, an extra heat race was added for the Modifieds. And since only the B Features and Feature races pay any money, it was not a big deal to management to add another race. Other than that small change, the number of races and format of the program remained such as it was on opening night.
Sunday saw young Louisiana Late Model talent Tanner Kellick go to a back up car after he suffered some mechanical issues to his car on Saturday and South Dakota's Casey Skyberg, who has helped support Ricky Thornton Jr's Late Model efforts here, turned over his car to Thornton Jr after Ricky had motor problems in hot laps on Saturday and wasn't able to race. They hope to fix the problem and get Ricky back in action in his own car later this week.
The most interesting addition to the field was that of Big Block Modified driver Mike Maresca from New York who was driving a Late Model for one of the first times in his career. With no practice laps, he was struggling a bit on Sunday and likely will use the Tuesday night practice session to get a lot more laps on his car prepared by Ohio's Russ King.
Rusty Kollman from North Dakota was sick yesterday and when you're too sick to race, you're really sick. However, despite still fighting the "crud", he did give it a go on Sunday. Canadian driver Al Giesbrecht arrived and raced on Sunday but the second car in the trailer, belonging to Scott Greer, remained in the trailer as Greer has not of yet arrived in the Southwest.
Despite being one of the last cars in the qualifying order, Chris Simpson once again turned the quick time of the night with his time being about two tenth of a second slower than Saturday as the track was just a bit dryer than the previous day.
Twenty four cars once again started each main event after a series of heats and B Features. An extra car, that of Tony Toste, started the Late Model feature after Toste eschewed the grand he won for the dash for the privilege of starting in the back of the feature race. After all, he is here to race, not watch. The move also pleased Minnesota driver Lance Matthees as he received half that money for finishing second in the dash after a pin hole in his tire saw his qualifying effort go down the drain with a lousy heat race effort that destroyed any chances of making the main event.
The Late Model feature ended up being one of the wildest events that will probably be contested throughout the entire Summer. Drama started before the green flag even flew as Bobby Pierce, slated to start on the pole, had to have a motor change executed before the race started. Motor problems at the end of his heat required the move as he didn't want to sacrifice his starting position by going to a back up car so they pulled the motor out of the back up car and put it in the qualified car.
The race itself had a spectacular start as while Pierce jumped into the lead, the field right behind him went four wide down the back chute with Ricky Weiss being the big winner there as he moved from seventh to second very quickly. Weiss appeared to be the fastest car on the track as he gradually closed on Pierce for the lead.
What ensued then was the kind of stuff that keeps fans returning to the track as Pierce and Weiss executed a series of wild slide jobs on each other that had the crowd swooning and at the same time holding their breath. At least four times they "dive bombed" each other with Pierce fighting off every attempt by Weiss. However, Ricky was staying right on the tail of the #32 car and when they reached some lapped traffic, it got crazy again.
Unfortunately, the thing that was feared in this wild battle took place when they made contact down the front chute with Weiss going for a wild slide out the driveway exit and making contact with the wall at the same time. Who's fault, if any it was, will be discussed for days to come with it probably never to be fully resolved in either camp. However, we must also remember that when racing gets that wild, sometimes accidents do happen with no one truly at fault.
However, Pierce wasn't out of the woods yet, as slowly and gradually Don Shaw had worked his way forward after starting thirteenth. First it was Mike Marlar who tried Pierce after the racing resumed, and he tried hard but he couldn't quite pull off the pass either.
Then, after a yellow, Shaw passed Marlar for second and he took his shot. The car of Shaw was working well on the black track and he was able to race just a little lower on the track and still keep his speed up and with just four laps to go, Shaw drove under Pierce for the lead in a move that many in the crowd cheered. It was a stunning victory for the Minnesota driver and for the second straight night, drivers from "the Great White North" had shocked the national driving stars. Judging from the talk in the pits afterward, these upsets are not playing well with some of the national wheel men as they are not used to playing "second fiddle" to anyone. I would guess that the racing might get even more heated when action resumes on Wednesday. Ryan Gustin and Brandon Sheppard completed the top five.
Earlier, Marlar had given everyone on the grounds a scare as he causally motored across the track following a post heat race interview, unaware that the next heat race was bearing down on him ready to start their event. It was a close call that saw the field take evasive action.
A very strong field of Modifieds took to the track but Johnny Scott had all the answers for the twenty three challengers as he led from start to finish to nail down the feature win. Scott came from tenth to second in his heat race and he continued his domination in the main as he drove off from the field and controlled the race despite six slowdowns that bunched up the field including a late race yellow for debris that forced a two lap sprint to the finish.
Shane Sabraski continued his strong performances as he drove to a well earned second place finish. Jason Krohn was strong too in finishing third with Jake O'Neil and Matt Leer completing the top five.
The X Mod feature concluded with one of the craziest looking finishes seen in quite some time. Jason VandeKamp was the class of the field as he drove away from Saturday night's winner Scott Bintz and built up nearly a full straightaway lead over the field. VandeKamp is a very successful racer in Minnesota who shines on slick tracks as his "keep the car straight" style fits perfectly there. With the track on this night very much the same, it was no surprise to me that he was giving the field a "beat down."
Bintz was not quite as dominant on Sunday and he gave up positions to D.J. Tesch and Cole Searing. With the race just about over, VandeKamp maintained his big lead. However, the unthinkable happened when his car spit out a driveshaft as he took the white flag. His car rapidly slowed as he drove down the back chute as he clearly wouldn't have the momentum to finish in front.
Second place runner Tesch paused for just a second as he caught up to VandeKamp, perhaps trying to figure out what was going on. Searing pounced on the opportunity as he blew around Tesch and drove home to the crazy win. Tesch did get second ahead of Bintz, Josh Cain and Miah Christensen with WISSOTA drivers sweeping the top three.
Ironically, VandeKamp had charged from deep in the field on Saturday all the way up to fourth and was looking to get more when he lost the driveshaft which caused considerable damage under the car. They thought they had everything fixed but the same issue cost him the win on Sunday. Searing has now finished second and first on his opening weekend in this new MB, after not having sat in the car before this weekend.
Forgive me for" busting my buttons" just a little bit but I must take a moment to brag up the drivers from the WISSOTA region where I see the majority of my racing. WISSOTA drivers have now won both the Late Model features, dominated the X Mods and also ran very well in the Modifieds. And while they race "heads up" with the other sanctioning bodies in the X Mods, except they have to run on the other people's tires, in both the Late Models and Mods they must make some extensive changes to their cars, yet have managed to run with and better some of the best in the country.
The Arizona Raceway remains a wildly unpredictable race track. It seems to change more often than almost any track I have seen, except perhaps East Bay Raceway, and can change even during the course of a race, much less than several times over the course of the evening and drivers continue to try and figure out this desert track. And the track also seems to not always respond in the same manner to track prep. All of which makes this even more interesting. And even as the track started to take rubber during the Late Model feature, there were drivers still running a variety of racing lines on the track.
This series is one of the very few that I am aware of where the pay off is still in cash. The sight of watching the workers at the office peel off a roll of one hundred dollar bills to the racers is both dazzling and scary as well as being very surprising.
Arizona Raceway is also a smoke free facility, something appreciated by many and respected I have seen so far by those that need a nicotine fix.
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