The Prelude to the "King of America VIII Modified Nationals " kicked off Thursday night, March 15th at the Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt Kansas. Thursday night was a full point night for the traveling warriors of the USMTS and also served as a cash paying practice night for all those drivers on hand not chasing USMTS points but looking for some big cash at the conclusion of Saturday night's racing action. Also on hand were the USRA B Mods with a full program of racing, one of three for this group with drivers from as far away as South Dakota and Minnesota on hand to race and pick up both some early season laps and for some, some early season national points.
Normally, while there might be a few extra arrivals on Friday for the qualifying night for the KoA, most of the field typically is on hand to race on Thursday so the drivers in the pits would give us a good handle on how many drivers we might be expected to see compete in 2018 for this prestigious award. When the entries seemed to lag all week, there was some question about how strongly the drivers would be supporting this event in 2018. Fortunately, in the last couple of days the phones lit up at USMTS headquarters in Webster City Iowa and by the time the first green flag dropped on Thursday, seventy eight USMTS Modifieds were in the pits. This number was up well over a dozen from last year's count and just goes to show that you never know just exactly what you're going to get when you head for the track.
Along with the Modifieds, a typically solid field of forty one B Mods was on hand too as that field will fluctuate each night as new drivers arrive for each full show while some drag their broken equipment home early.
The weather was incredible for the opening night of this three night run with unseasonably warm temperatures that had even the "locals" swooning. And for those of us that had been locked in the cold and snowy North for the last few months, we were in nirvana. Temperatures cracked the seventy degree mark along with a blazing sunshine and yours truly got a bit of a sunburn as I kept peeling off layers and layers of clothing as it continued to warm as the afternoon progressed. Shorts were not out of the question on this glorious Spring/late Winter day and the only down side was a powerful wind that blew straight out of the South, warming our bodies and souls but raising heck with the racing surface.
Kansas was already under a "red flag" warning for fires as it has been very dry in this part of the country and the strong wind literally sucked the moisture right out of the track, making it almost impossible to provide the kind of racing surface that we are used to at "The Hummer." This would play out later as main events took place.
Nearly every driver that was on the pre-entered list was on hand on Thursday with the major exception being that Ryan Gustin was not in the house. An example of the still strong popularity of Gustin was the number of people that asked me where Gustin was pitted and the expressions on their faces when I said he was AWOL. However, I still expect him to arrive and race on Friday and would be shocked if he wasn't on hand. Also expected on Friday would be the senior half of the Gallardo Racing Team from New Mexico with a car on hand for him on Thursday but no driver as of yet arrived.
The track looked very much like a normal Humboldt track, black and slick top to bottom shortly after the first B Mod heats started, but for whatever reason it did not seem to race as well as some nights. Perhaps it was due to the fact that there wasn't a not of moisture underlying the surface. Not that the racing was bad but there just didn't seem to be the amount of passing as on some occasions. Some of that could also be laid on how the line ups played out which certainly limits passing on some nights.
Not that they are bad racers by any means but it was somewhat surprising that the list of Modified heat race winners would include Jason Strand, Ryan Mikkelson, Bryce Bjerken, R.C. Whitwell and Jake Hartung who are all fine racers but not well known to the USMTS set. I might also point out that three of the five were running crate motors.
Justin making the features was a brutal adventure and the four B features were sixteen car, feature like contests. And drivers like Lucas Schott, Rodney Sanders, Mitch Keeter, Johnny Scott, Bumper Jones, Ricky Thornton Jr and Cade Dillard all had to qualify out of B mains. The list of those left on the sidelines at feature time was impressive and did include defending national champion Jason Hughes, among others.
The forty lap main had an interesting mix of drivers in it but things turned disappointing early. Jason Krohn had the early lead but Kyle Strickler, who was very impressive in his heat race, quickly moved in to challenge Krohn for the lead. After a good side by side battle for a couple of laps, Strickler was able to drive inside Krohn and take over the top spot. Darren Fuqua had also looked fast in his heat and he battled his way into second and past Krohn and closed some on Strickler.
Two early yellows in the first twelve laps slowed the action but then the final twenty eight laps went nonstop. It looked like a battle was going to ensue for the lead but then the track started to take rubber and the drivers quickly lined up and began to tailgate each other. Fuqua would look low in the corners on Strickler but as long as Kyle didn't make a mistake and get out of the rubber, there would be no passing of him.
His only potential problem was lapped traffic which was just ahead but most of the tail end cars dove to the infield when they saw they were about to be lapped and not making any progress and the only one Strickler had to fight past was Bumper Jones but once he cleared him, he was home free. Krohn held on for third with Dereck Ramirez next in line. Whitwell did a fine job taking a top five in and unfamiliar ride. The only significant issue of a non finisher in the main was that of Stormy Scott who appeared to lose an engine and dump a lot of fluid on the track, which triggered the second and final yellow of the event.
The B Mods got the best track to race their main event as after all the qualifying events were completed, the call was made to "farm" the track for the main events. When the B Mods started their twenty lap main, the track was significantly faster than it had been previously and the B Mods were flying around the oval until it started to slow up as the race progressed.
Dan Hovden was the early leader and was pressured and then passed by J. C. Morton. However, Morton was soon under the gun himself as Cody Jolly, and Andy Bryant were all pushing for the lead and they were a strong group battling for the top spot.
Jolly is the defending track champion here and he showed his mettle as he worked past Bryant and then after a good battle, eased past Morton to take over the top spot. On the charge was Kris Jackson who started fourteenth and raced into the top five and then continued to press for the top spot.
He was also able to pass Bryant and Morton and he challenged Jolly for the lead. A couple of late yellows gave him opportunities but the only driver he wasn't able to get by was Jolly, who was just too strong for the field on this night. Bryant settled for third as Morton slipped back with Riley Whitworth having his best run of the early season for a fifth place.
As usual, the show moved along at a quick pace, starting very near the advertised time and with no down time at all, except for the one session of "farming." I'm sure that track prep will be changed up for Friday, with weather similar to Thursday's expected.
Friday's program will feature the Modifieds in three rounds of qualifying heats as they earn points to set the lineups for Saturday night's ladder of events while the B Mods will slug it out with their biggest paying event of the weekend as the winner will go home with fifteen hundred bucks on Friday night.
The evening started on a somber note as Janet Staley, co-founder and operator of the USMTS along with husband Todd, had to rush back to Iowa this afternoon due to a critical family emergency in her family and thoughts go out to her at this difficult time.
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