Saturday night, March 10th was night number two for the annual Spring Nationals at the Beatrice Speedway with another complete show scheduled. Despite a rather gray day with breezy conditions and a few spritzes of rain from time to time, the show would go on as scheduled and along with the four classes that raced on Friday night, the Sport Compacts would be added to the program as they also competed in a full program of heats and features.
Not that we needed any more race cars but with thirty five of the Sport Compacts signing in to race and with the other classes producing just as many or in at least one case even more cars than raced on Friday night, the total in the jammed pits on Saturday was two hundred and thirty two race cars. Folks, that's a lot of race cars, especially when all five classes are running full shows. But once again, the wizards that run the Beatrice Speedway again pulled off the seemingly near impossible task of running off the five class program and not even having to charge us for two admissions if the show would extend over on to Sunday morning because they were done before 11:30 pm. Granted, that is a little late for normal conditions but with this many races and cars, I was more than happy with the way things went.
But even more amazing was the condition of the race track itself. They did start out with it just a bit wetter on Saturday than it had been on Friday which required a little more packing and led them to starting about twenty minutes late but from then on the track turned out beautifully. They ran off forty three races and the track was still racy right to the end of the night with drivers running all over the track. It was black and smooth with no dust but drivers were able to pass all night. And all this was accomplished even though not a water truck, or digger or anything else was put on the track once the first green flag dropped. That is so refreshing to see, particularly when I compare it to my home area tracks where the water trucks, graders and other farm implements get far too much of a workout once the racing starts.
The local race fans had a little more to cheer for on Saturday night too. They were pretty disappointed when Jordan Grabouski was the first driver out of the Modified feature on Friday night and his second place success in the Stock Cars just wasn't the same. But on Saturday, Grabo has things figured out and he came from the third row to win the Modified main. Just like on Friday, Hunter Marriott was the "brides maid" as he fought the good fight but just couldn't get the win. Like Thornton Jr had done the night before, Grabo just worked and worked on the high side until he started to get some momentum and once he did, he was able to drive around Hunter and take the lead. Once in front, he was in control as he took the win but an increasing margin on every lap. Two seconds weren' t bad, but Marriott had to have been a mite frustrated having led both nights but not being able to complete the deal. For the second straight night, Cayden Carter finished third, but unlike Friday, he had to drive from the fifth row to get the third spot. He is looking very good in his new Vanderbilt Modified. Jeremy Payne and Kelly Shryock completed the top five.
While Thornton Jr didn't fare quite as well in the Modified on Saturday, he made up for it to a point by winning the Stock Car feature. On Friday night, he blew the transmission all over the track early in the main but with a lot of hard work by his crew, the car was ready to go on Saturday and he showed dominating speed in winning the main. Once in front in pulled away while there was a tremendous battle for second with drivers exchanging spots multiple times. Kyle Vanover back up Friday's performance with a charge from fifteenth to second ahead of Derek Green.
Northern Iowa's Josh Appel took the Sport Mod feature with a mid race pass. After that, it was a matter of fighting off the challengers on the late restarts. While Appel was confortable up front, there was another tremendous battle for the second spot with Colby Langenberg pounding the cushion to get the position while Jake McBernie rounded out the top three.
The Hobby Stock feature saw a big group battling for the win and at the end it was local driver Taylor Huss who took the top spot with Austin Jahnz a close third and making a late charge for third was Brady Bencken.
The Sport Compacts also had a good run with Ramsey Meyer coming from the eleventh starting spot to take the win. He showed tremendous speed and once in front, opened up a big lead to the finish. The Sport Compacts had only two yellow flags in the finale with the Bohlmeyer's, Drake and Zach, finishing second and third.
All the main events on Saturday featured some tremendous battles back in the pack for position and while the mains were extremely hard fought, the number of yellows was very minimal.
With so many quality drivers on hand, and particularly using the draw/redraw format which weighs so heavily on drawing a good number, it was surprising that there were so many drivers that were able to fashion two solid back to back finishes. In the Hobby Stocks, Taylor Huss had a first and a second place finish while Roy Armstrong finished fourth both nights.
The only Stock Car driver to get strong back to backs was Vanover with a first and a second on Saturday. Meanwhile, in the Sport Mods, Jarred Hackler to a second and a fifth while Brayton Carter placed fourth both nights in the mains. And in the Modifieds, Marriott was second both nights and C. Carter third so it was a good opening weekend for the Oskaloosa brothers.
The outside wall seems to have a magnetic like attraction for the racers at Beatrice although part of the issue is the fact that so many drivers run so close to the wall there. But there were several spectacular incidents that involved racers getting up into and in a couple of cases, over the outside wall.
Chris Bates drove right over the wall with his Hobby Stock in turn one and kept right on going; no small feat in itself. And Modified driver Justin Zeitner broke in his new GRT car not like he'd like by going over the wall in the third turn in his heat race. Defending national champion Tyler Soppe also became very familiar with the Beatrice concrete as he clobbered the wall on Friday and ended his night while on Saturday he managed to make the main but still hit the wall on a couple of occasions and finally retired from the feature event in the Sport Mods.
Part of the problem would appear to be that the wall is just Jersey barricades stacked together which aren't very tall and when the dirt gets built up on them, as it has in many locations on the track, it isn't much of a vault to get up on and over the wall. This might be an issue that , long term, needs to be addressed.
The crowds were good but not spectacular on each night but when you have the advantage of having so many people in the pits, that provides a nice cushion for management. For the fans, even the most hard core among them get enough racing over the two days for sure and with intense racing across the board in all classes, this is one of the best early season specials anywhere. It never seems to be too warm in Nebraska this time of year but just bulk up on the clothes and then enjoy the hot racing action.
No comments:
Post a Comment