One of the few tracks that stuck it out against all odds this weekend was the LaSalle Speedway in Illinois as they were determined to present their seventh annual Thaw Brawl, an event that has fought the weather before during its history.
Despite a rather dire forecast, for at least the second half of the weekend and cool temperatures predicted, the Izzo family forged on with the show, featuring MLRA Late Models for the first time in a double header that featured five and fifteen grand top prizes for the Late Models. It was a program that paid very well indeed.
Along with the Late Models, Modifieds and Sport Mods were also on the program, sanctioned by IMCA for this event after LaSalle and World Racing Group clashed over some policies previously. While there will be a Summer Nationals event at LaSalle in 2018, the majority of the special events at the Izzo family track will be sanctioned by MLRA, Lucas and IMCA.
One of the major concerns expressed by many was what kind of shape the track would be in, given that lots of rain and cool weather had kept them from getting on the track and doing as much track prep as they might have wanted. They continued to roll, pack and sheep foot the track right up to the time that hot laps started, and while it was a little bumpy early, it proved to be a non factor for the evening. The grader came out once to smooth the track and roll in the cushion and after that, they didn't touch the racing surface and while it had a few bumps, it was a very race worthy track as I'm sure the drivers will testify to. They were running all over the track with plenty of three wide racing so their early season experiment was very successful.
One thing that did disappoint but not surprise some of us was the fact that at the last minute, the planned passing point format was junked in favor of time trials for the Late Models. Apparently some of the more powerful voices in the Late Model pits expressed their opinion that because the track was so heavy, they felt that passing would be tough on the fast surface, and my goodness, we certainly didn't want the "big shots" to have to work too hard, did we?
So, on a cool night where a prompt program would have been much appreciated, we instead received the guarantee that because we were qualifying the cars, we wouldn't start on time for sure. So, despite the fact that the driver's meeting and warm up started right on time, the first green flag for racing didn't wave until 8:15 pm, somewhere around an hour late. And while we never will know how the heats would have raced under the passing points format, we do know that with time trials, five of the six heats were won right off the front row with Ricky Weiss being the only exception.
The Late Model field was outstanding with forty seven or forty eight, depending on your interpretation, on hand to race. Kolby Vandenbergh was announced as the forty eighth driver but he never appeared on the track and his rig was never seen in the pits. The field of drivers was a very interesting one with a mix of drivers from different areas and representing different sanctioning bodies. There were the MLRA regulars, UMP cars and some others that float around to a variety of events. Surprisingly, Terry Phillips, Jesse Stovall and Randy Timms were missing so three of the top five in last year's MLRA points were not on hand. The word was that Phillips didn't want to get into a point race and that the other two were afraid of the weather.
Mike Spatola was the surprising quick qualifier but he shot himself in the foot when he spun on the last corner of his heat while going for the lead. He did manage to salvage the night by coming from deep in the field in a B feature and with a lot of attrition in the main, he did get a top ten finish, but not what he was looking for following his qualifying effort.
Only two cars were taken out of each of the six heat races, thus assuring two B Features that were feature length size. More and more sanctioning groups are going to this kind of format that assures bigger heats which might be more appealing to the fans but force the vast majority of the drivers to race three times to get a check and I'm just not sure that is fair to them.
Certainly the highlight of the evening was the Late Model feature which saw some great racing action. The only thing that kept it from being a classic was the fact that the yellow flag waved far too many times, with a total of ten yellows in fifty laps. Several times, things were just heating up and a big battle looked to be in play when the yellow would break up the action. However, that's not to say there wasn't some intense racing going on and much three wide action was occurring
Rusty Schlenk, Weiss and Brian Shirley all took turns holding the lead before Babb made a late charge following a lap forty two yellow. He used the outside to blast into the lead but then Weiss made a strong move off the last corner and the finish was a photo with Babb nipping the Canadian by inches for the win.
It was very interesting the way drivers would surge and then fade throughout the race with Dennis Erb, Shirley and Schlenk among those that moved back and forth threw the field. Schlenk and Chris Simpson were among those that ran the best but didn't have the finishes to attest to that. It was a heartbreaking loss for Shirley, as he was the leader going into the final few laps until he jumped the cushion in turn one and ended up dropping all the way to sixth. I'm sure he would have loved to grab that first win, back in Bob Cullen's equipment after his very short run with G.R. Smith.
Both the Sport Mod and Modified features were won right off the front row. Dustin Schram totally dominated the Sport Mod feature, winning easily. Austen Becerra drove a hard race to work his way up to second with his team mate Austin Howes finishing third. Interestingly, neither of those drivers would probably have been on hand if Memphis Missouri would have gotten their race in this weekend.
And Memphis promoter Mike VanGenderen was also a surprise entrant in the Modified class Friday night. He reported that the Memphis area is nearly under water as they have gotten so much rain and he is already worried that the weather is not going to straighten out fast enough for his next promotion at either Memphis or Donnellson.
Justin Kay lead from start to finish to win the Modified feature. This was a closer race than the Sport Mod main as Kay was challenged by Allen Weisser and Hunter Marriott. Both Weisser and Ray Bollinger, UMP Modified drivers well known to the local fans, produced IMCA legal cars to race and Weisser was able to finish a strong second. It was an appropriate win for Kay since his sponsor, Hoker Trucking, was the event sponsor for this weekend. No Late Model, however, came out of the Kay transporter on this night.
An interesting addition to the Modified class on this night was former Late Model driver Chad Holladay. No doubt his switching of classes certainly has a lot to do with West Liberty, his home track, not racing in 2018 and racing much more readily available in southeastern Iowa for Modifieds than Late Models. It will be interesting to track and see if others in that region follow his lead.
While the Sport Mod and Modified fields were solid, most of the drivers were from points farther away as most of the local cars don't fit the rules being run on this night, and you could tell that a large number of the spectators were unfamiliar with most of the drivers in those two classes.
Speaking of being unfamiliar with the drivers, the announcer on this night, Chris Stepan, told me that he had never seen the vast majority of the drivers before in the two support classes. Yet you would never have known it as he never missed a beat all night long and may have done as good a job bringing the race to those on hand plus those watching on tv as at any event in his career.
The evening got a little late with all the yellow flags and it started to get mighty nippy by the time the last checkered flag waved. However, people dressed for the weather and most were just happy to finally be at the track, the first in Illinois to host a race in 2018.
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