The opening night of the Wild West Shootout at F K Rod Ends Arizona Speedway saw some excellent racing and when the three winners stood on their cars' roofs in victory lane, there were some mild upsets as well as a couple of drivers that made it to victory lane in no surprise.
Ricky Weiss, the Canadian standout in the Late Model class, held the lead, then lost it and then with a stunning move near the end of the race, drove back around Chris Simpson to take the five grand win. Simpson, who switched cars today after having some motor issues with his new car last night, didn't seem to miss a beat as he gave Weiss all he could handle.
Ricky Thornton Jr, who as one pit observer said could win in the Modifieds if he were driving a wheel barrow, put on another amazing performance as he totally dominated a very strong field of open wheel cars.
And in the X Mods, North Dakota's Scott Bintz, who was the driver to beat when this series ran at Tucson but didn't have much luck last year, is back with a vengeance as he drove away from a big field of cars in that class to record a dominating win.
Opening night saw one hundred and forty eight cars on hand in the three classes offered with several more in the pits that opted to pass on opening night for various reasons. The total of cars racing on the opening night was just exactly the same as last year, with the X Mods being down four cars, four more Modifieds and the exact same number of Late Models on hand to take a green flag.
Track conditions were totally different than those seen for any race here last year during the series and considerably different than what was offered even last night. Track officials continued to try and slow the track down so it was prepared in a much dryer situation and it got black and slick much earlier and not nearly so much of a big berm to it. Still, the racing conditions were good and the fast way around the track seemed to move several times during the course of the night from low, to very high up against the rail, to back down low and then, shockingly at the end, back to the high groove where Weiss made his winning pass. The track does look a little bit different this year than last due to the high wood wall the surrounds the track, a concession to the neighbors to try and keep down the noise although to me it still looks like we're in the middle of "no where" there must be some living out there that can hear the cars when they fire.
Late Models time trialed in groups with six heat races offered. Fast cars started in front and only three came out of each heat. twin B features set the rest of the twenty four car starting field and a dash, sponsored by Pro Power Racing Engines was again held for those cars that just missed the main event. Clint Smith won that and decided to grab to cash and run, rather than start in the back of the main, much to the disappointment of Bill Schliepper, who then had to pay Smith.
The Late Model feature proved to be and interesting race with a very surprising finish, one that could have not been predicted even a few laps before the unthinkable happened. Weiss started on the pole and led the first part of the race, building up a good sized lead that Simpson gradually ate into. Even though the track looked fastest right on the bottom, there were a number of drivers that tried the middle and top and they certainly weren't ready to just line up on the bottom and "tail gate" each other like sometimes occurs. As Mike Marlar said, the field wasn't point chasing and they were there to just race and in some cases, to check out their cars for the year so they were willing to experiment, feeling there wasn't near as much to lose.
Don Shaw and Brandon Sheppard beat the cushion along with Cade Dillard, a Late Model rookie that looked very impressive. Shaw couldn't make the top side work and he gradually faded back but Sheppard pulled his way forward throughout the event. At about the half way point, Weiss started sliding off the bottom and Simpson quickly caught him and then drove under him to take over the lead. Weiss stayed fairly close but didn't appear to have anything to offer. Simpson did get slowed when he caught a couple of lapped cars and both Weiss and Mike Marlar started to close.
Weiss said he noticed than when Chase Junghans moved up the track as a lapped car to be passed that he actually pulled away from Simpson so, in a bold move, Weiss jumped to the high side also and within a couple laps he went flying right by Simpson like he was in another gear. With only a few laps left, Simpson then jumped to the top, barely squeezing off Marlar but Weiss had the groove covered and he drove home for the stunning victory. It was a great opener for Weiss who was debuting a brand new Bloomquist chassis, a brand he has been using for several years now. A strong run was put on by Garrett Alberson who was with the leaders the entire race and finished a strong fifth in Dr. Dave Deetz' car.
Simpson blamed his getting caught in the wrong lane at the precise wrong time on the fact that he couldn't see his "stick wavers" as the set up at Arizona Speedway makes it hard to find a spot for a crew member to position himself and signal the driver. Since one of the real attributes a good driver develops is to be able to read the track as it changes over the course of a race and be in the right spot at the right time, this comment fell on deaf ears to me as I've always thought that no one should be allowed to be signaling the drivers at all, unless we just want to put robots in the cars and run them by remote control.
After a first lap slowdown when Tanner Kellick broke, the Late Model drivers did an awesome job, running the last thirty nine laps non stop and with a long green flag run like that, it was enough time for the drivers to do some jumping around and trying different grooves and it made for an interesting race.
Thornton Jr continues to be very impressive in the Modifieds as he totally dominated what was a very strong field of cars. He started in the second row and was so much faster than front row starters Josh Angst and Matt Leer that he just about ran over them until he could find and opening and drive into the lead. After he got to the front, he simply drove away from everyone and after two yellows before a lap could be completed, the rest of the twenty five laps ran non stop and Ricky drove off into the sunset.
Even more amazing, Thornton was making his first run in a new chassis and car for himself and no disrespect to Johnny Saathoff, but I doubt that many people's first thoughts on the hot setup for an open Modified would be a Jet chassis, but Thornton Jr made it work in spades! The phone may be ringing off the hook come Monday morning in Beatrice Nebraska!
Young Minnesota guns Lucas Schott and Angst ended up second and fourth, Schott in a new MB and Angst in an MB they started racing last Summer. Very impressive also was Stormy Scott who came from twelfth to third and was still charging at the end. He and his brother Johnny passed on practice night but both ran strong Saturday with Johnny ending up sixth.
Justin Kay gave a good account of himself also as he ran right with the leaders throughout the race to take a top five. Matt Gilbertson ran very strong in the early going and raced up to fourth but he may have burned up his tires as he started to fade at the end while fellow Minnesota driver Shane Sabraski did the best job of moving up, coming from twentieth to eighth.
The X Mods were dominated by northern cars as they often are at these open types of shows. Four of the top five cars were WISSOTA cars with only Missouri's Steven Muilenburg breaking the trend. Bintz started on the pole and after front row fellow starter Dustin Strand had troubles on the start when his car wouldn't come up to speed which triggered a tangle, it was Bintz who drove away from the field, building up nearly a half straightaway lead over the pack.
Bintz was also debuting a new car as he drove a Millenium chassis that is built by Strand in his Grand Forks North Dakota shops. Cole Searing drove home to an outstanding second place finish, even more remarkable due to the fact that Searing doesn't even race this class on a regular basis. Back in Huron South Dakota where he races, he is a top notch Super Stock driver and finished third in national points in 2017, but his run in the open wheel car was a good one on Saturday. Lucas Rodin, a young North Dakota racer finished third and Shawn Ferkes, who didn't arrive until Saturday from Minnesota, completed the top five.
An interesting phenomena surrounds this entire event. Normally, at any special race meet, the core group of both drivers and fans is the local, weekly racers. However, at this race series, the local drivers are conspicuous by their absence as there are virtually no local drivers that race in the open wheel classes at all, even though both of these classes are regular classes at Arizona Speedway. I suppose the difference in sanctioning bodies and rules does make some difference but you'd think that more of the locals would at least give it a shot but in both open wheel classes, it is out of area drivers that make up the majority of the field.
In the X Mods, nearly half the field of cars is WISSOTA cars from North and South Dakota and Minnesota and the other big part of the field is cars from Las Cruces with that group of USRA drivers seemingly to be much bigger than the first race here last year. There were always a ton of them at Tucson but the longer distance to race when this meet was moved seemed to cut down on their presence last year but they are back up to speed this year.
The Modified class has very much the same flavor with many cars from the North and also New Mexico making up the majority of the field. If those guys ever stopped coming, I'm not sure that they would do for a car count.
In the same manner also, a strong portion of the crowd is now made up of northern race fans that either travel down for this race or winter in the Arizona area and now have something special to look forward to in January with this race now being a Phoenix area happening. I still hold the Tucson track in high regard but it is clear that management's move to Arizona Speedway has produced crowds much larger than ever were seen in Tucson.
As is expected with any Chris Kearns promotion, the racing action started within a scant few minutes of the advertised time and the crowd was a big one, although very late arriving. There were a few more breaks in the action than is normal here but all were for track maintenance and with the temperatures being as pleasant as they were, just sitting and relaxing for a few minutes was not all bad. Racing action continues on Sunday afternoon and for those that would like to watch live and avoid the boredom of NFL playoff football, Dirt on Dirt has the broadcast. Ben Shelton has been doing an awesome job calling the races and unlike some of the Late Model snob announcers that don't want to have anything to do with the other classes, he seems to relish the "support class" action and definitely gives them their "day in the sun" too.
In passing, one thing that surprises me about this facility as that with all the special events they have here for various divisions of racing, both fendered and open wheel, that the track doesn't have any sort of scoreboard or lap counter. That should be next on the upgrade list.
No comments:
Post a Comment