I never thought that I would be saying that the first dirt track action of a racing season would be held the last Friday night of April, but that is exactly the case in 2018. When the Mississippi Thunder Speedway near Fountain City Wisconsin waved the first green flag of their first Hornet heat race shortly after 7 pm on Friday night, it marked the start of the first dirt track racing program of the 2018 racing season. That it should be at Fountain City is somewhat surprising as they have taken in the last few years to starting their season later than most, but later than most is also earlier than everyone else in this most crazy of Springs. There may be a couple of other tracks in southern Wisconsin that also got their season started on Friday, but none that have raced in any date before last night. Who woulda' thunk it?
Under the direction of Bob Timm, who's own thoughts must have been split as while his son was out in Texas running USMTS, Bob was home running the race track, a five division program under USRA sanctioning took place. Hobby Stocks, B Mods, Limited Late Models and Modifieds run under USRA sanctioning while the Hornets run home track rules.
It was a sunny day along the shores of the Mississippi River but a strong Northwesterly breeze howled directly in the main grandstand and it made for anther unpleasant viewing night for the spectators, one of very many so far this year. The opening night crowd was fair but they were bundled up tightly and it was not a night for the casual race fan. This night was for those hard core fans that have been bottled up all Winter, dying to get out to the track.
A nice field of ninety three cars signed in for the five class program with numbers in some classes very good for the opener while one or two other classes were somewhat concerning with their small numbers.
Hornets were strong in their participation. Both the Hobby Stocks and Limited Late Models, fairly new classes that Bob has established at MTS in the last couple of years, look to be on the increase. The LLM had fourteen cars, most of which looked and ran well and it appears that this class has caught on at the track. I did notice that while they used to have all limited type motors in their cars, several of the teams have now switched over to the 604 crate motor.
The Hobby Stock class was started a couple of years ago as a new "feeder" division with the feeling that the previous lower classes had gotten too expensive and while they had a nice number of seventeen of them for the opener, they have already gotten far away from the beginner class concept. But while they can continue to draw a number of cars from Northeast Iowa, they should be OK in their numbers. I am confused a bit by the rules in this class as every other USRA track I've been too has the Hobby Stocks running on street tires but here at MTS they run on racing tires and even use bead locks. They look much more like Stock Cars than Hobby Stocks and the assertion by one of the announcers that the Hobby Stocks replaced the WISSOTA Street Stocks because that class was dying couldn't have been more incorrect.
The B Mod class has always been the "bread and butter" division at MTS and they had a solid field of twenty six of them for the opener. However, the Modified fields have been concerning the last couple of years with often a dozen or less cars turning out to race. That feeling wasn't helped by the fact that only thirteen of them were on hand for opening night with several certain to not be regulars all season. I'm sure that especially with Chateau Raceway, their Friday night competition within USRA now closed, that they would have more cars in the class this year.
And perhaps they will once things get settled down. And a major blow to their opening night plans was leveled when the Deer Creek Creek Speedway, their only USRA partner in southern Minnesota left racing, decided to have their practice night, on of all nights, on Friday night in advance of their Saturday night opener. With all the nights available to have a practice, this seemed like a conflict that could have been avoided and there must have been some ill feelings between the Queensland family and Timm over this. As the only two tracks still running these rules in the southern part of Minnesota, it would seem that it would be in both tracks interests to try and work together better than what was evidenced so far. Deer Creek, by the way, had over seventy cars on hand just for practice and while they do run three WISSOTA sanctioned classes, they do run both USRA Mods and B Mods.
Timm continues to upgrade the MTS facility and the improvements this year include the beginnings of a catwalk on the back chute for the race teams to use to watch the races. They have one section completed on the back chute and plans or for two more of them to be built yet this year, one over the exit of the track in turn one and another over the entrance to the track in turn two.
The program got started just a few minutes late but once they got rolling, it was nonstop racing with one heat race after another entering the track and the preliminaries clicking off very quickly. In just over and hour the twelve heat races were completed which was following by some quick track prep and then it was time to move on to the main events.
The Hornets started off the main events with twenty two of them taking the green flag. And it took only a couple of laps before we saw the first flip of the season when J.R. Tourtellott got escorted into the first turn wall and he turned over once. Another grinding collision on the front chute slowed the action and then they settled down.
Jeremy Johnson started on the pole and he led all the way for the win with Donald Martens and Jason Schloegel having a good battle for second until Martens took the spot. Seventeen of the starters took the checkered flag, all on the lead lap.
Brady Link started on the outside pole for the Hobby Stock feature and he led all the way for the win in this division. He had built up a good sized lead until the lone yellow of the race stopped the action with four laps left. Then he found himself in a fight for the position as Jay Mensink put on lots of pressure. But Link held his line and rode home for the win. Travis Krause, Steve Holthaus and Paul Seabrooke followed.
A big field of twenty five M Mods took the green flag but surprisingly, this race went nonstop from green to checkered. Even announcer Dan Bailey expressed his surprise in the victory lane interview that the B Mods where able to get through their opening night feature without a series of yellow flags.
And the outside pole appeared the be the place to start as Parker Hale came from that spot to lead all the way for the win. He pulled out to a healthy advantage with the only driver able to keep him closse being Dan Hovden. Hale got into some heavy traffic that held him up a bit and the lead shrunk but then Parker made some nice moves, cleared the traffic and then started to pull away near the end. Hovden had to settle for second ahead of J.T. Wasmund, Casey Knutson and Andrew Bleess.
Curt Myers got a new Hughes chassis in the off season and big things were expected from him but he has struggled badly so far this year, to the point that he dropped off the USMTS circuit. However, Friday night he got things together and took the Modified win.
Was it an omen when he drew the outside pole? We'll never know but he went to the cushion to take the early lead and basically played "chicken" with the concrete wall for twenty five laps, pushing his car right up to the limit. That's where he likes to run and the track played perfectly into his thinking.
He got a nice sized lead but as the race wore on, Keith Foss and Dustin Sorensen started to cut into his advantage. In fact, Foss got close enough to try some preliminary challenges near the three quarter mark. However, when Foss was ready to get serious and try to make a pass, Myers came up on a lapped car, made a move to get by and Foss was forced to alter his line to do the same. This gave Myers all the chance he needed to pull away again and lead comfortably to the finish. Cory Crapser and Josh Angst completed the top five in the twelve car field.
When defending LLM champ Lance Hofer drew the pole, things were pretty much settled for the main event. Hofer pulled away from the field and won by nearly half a straightaway in the nonstop main event. Justin Sass led home Barry Johnson, Derek Nelson and Troy Langowski among the challengers.
Three of the five main events went nonstop with another having only one yellow and the Hornets three as it was the smoothest night of racing perhaps ever, let alone for the opener, seen at MTS in a considerable while. The track was in excellent shape for the opener, smooth and wide and while the top side seemed the quick way around, there was plenty of side by side racing. Not a lot of track prep was required as only the watering session after the heats saw anything on the track but the race cars themselves. Worries that the track was soft and spongy proved to be unfounded. Overall, opening night proved to be a well run event and a good start to the new racing season. Now if we could just figure out a way to turn off the "wind machine!"
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