How I ended up in Northeast Oklahoma for a Saturday night race when I started out the weekend in Iowa and then made a side trip to another race in Kansas is a story for another time. The point is, on Saturday night, April 14th, I was at the Salina Highbanks Speedway east of Pryor for their NASCAR season opener.
Salina was one of the few tracks in the entire Midwest to get their race program completed on Saturday and if truth were told, they probably would have been well served and no one would have questioned them if they had also "pulled the plug." It was brutally cold under a gray, threatening sky and even with all the large buildings on the front stretch to help block the wind, it was miserable. Even worse was the pit area where the wind had an open shot at the crews as they tried to stay warm and perform maintenance on their race cars. I'm not sure if the track needed to get the season started so that they had the proper number of programs completed with regards to their NASCAR sanctioning or they were just getting tired of getting all their shows cancelled after fighting through several postponements of their B Mod Bedlam event that was eventually cancelled for 2018.
I had last been at Salina back in the early eighties, long before the current ownership had taken over the track. If you recall back from those days, that was the bizarre time when the land owner directly behind the track had a major "beef" going on with the track and in protest, the land owner bought some super big pa speakers and he would have them blaring out music as loud as possible all through the race program. It was one of the weirdest things I have even seen. Interestingly enough, I was told by promoter Bryce Hall that the same people still own and live on the land right behind the track parking lot but he said the current ownership is on much better terms with them. Odd indeed.
Many of you know of Bryce Hall, the former "voice" of the USMTS who resigned from his position with that organization to go back home at take over as the promoter at Salina. Well, the "new" Salina Highbanks Speedway is a real show place. It has the best of everything and immediately reminded me much of the way the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland is laid out. It looks like it was fashioned after Wheatland and many of the great things that Lucas Oil offers are also on hand at Salina.
Top notch lighting, a high banked three eighth mile oval, great sound system, nice restrooms, scoreboard and concessions and even the shuttle vehicles to transport spectators from their vehicles up the inclined walk area to the grandstands. This track has just about got it all. The place is stunning.
This was their opening event for the 2018 racing season and four classes were in competition, highlighted by the Modifieds and buoyed by B Mods, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks. Eighty five cars signed in to race on opening night with only the B Mods requiring a B Feature, just as with most tracks these days.
The Mods and B Mods run under USRA rules although not sanctioned by them while the Pures and Streets run much the same rules as other tracks in the area like Muskogee, Tri State and others. One thing I noticed was when the cars were called out to track pack, they went around the track backwards. That's something that I used to see all the time around this local area as there was a theory about packing backwards that it would make the track smoother and not as likely to "hump up." However, that whole train of thought was dumped years ago and Salina was the first track that I noted this practice in effect in ages. Whether or not it actually works, I do not know and it certainly wasn't an issue on Saturday as the track was wide, smooth and slick but because of the high banks it was still very fast.
Wolff started on the pole for the Modified feature and led all the way for the twenty lap win. He was pressured throughout by Chad Wheeler but each time Wheeler would show a nose under him, Wolff would pull away and the eventual win. Mitch Keeter, who was the driver to beat in these parts last year, did a good job of salvaging would could have been an awful opener. The field didn't come up to speed properly in one of the heats, he had to spin to avoid a collision and he was clobbered from behind and was off on the hook before the green even waved.
He was able to make repairs and due to the fact that so many drivers wanted to go tail back for some reason, he actually got to start tenth in the main and did a fine job racing up to third at the finish. Steve Holzkamper and Mickey Lassiter completed the top five.
The B Mods signed in thirty two cars and needed a couple of B Features to set their lineup and it was Missouri hot shoe Mike Striegel who led from start to finish to take the win. Striegel was one of two drivers that, trying to avoid the weather and find someplace to race, ventured to 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas to race on Friday night and then returned back to Salina on his way back to Missouri. The win made all the extra miles pay off as he also finished sixth with his Modified. The other driver to make both shows was Kyle Schmidt and he had nothing but problems on both nights.
Striegel had the other Wheeler Metals car, driven by Tate Cole, chasing him throughout the race but he fought off all challenges for the win. Brett Hansen, Hunter Byers and Danny Jolly, last year's big winner at Salina in the B Mods, trailed.
The Street Stocks and Pure Stocks are virtually identical in appearance and trying to tell which cars are in which class is strictly a crap shoot. They run the same tire and unless you either crawl under them to check the suspension or pop the hood and check the carburetor, they are all the same.
Apparently however, there must be some difference in what it costs to put one on the track as there were only a dozen Street Stocks and double the Pure Stocks.
The Street Stock feature was the only nonstop main and after starting on the pole, Kyle Slader drove off into the night, winning by a large margin. He was trailed by Neil Johnston, Nick Artherton, Jeff Metcalf and Jason Wayne.
Jake Kirby was the only winner of the night not to start on the front row and he came from position number three to win the Pure Stock main. Driving a spectacular looking #7k, he quickly got to the front and then drove away from a big field of cars. He ran away from Nathan Campbell, Josh Shive, Steve Freeman and Roger Starling. This race was stopped for a spectacular crash that saw Brett Testerman take a wild flip and the entire rear end assembly pulled right out of the car of Brandon Leland.
The only flaw in the entire operation was spotted when I came around to the main grandstand in preparation for the start of the show after roaming the pits earlier. Only then did I realize that this fine track suffers from what I refer to as "the Cedar Lake Syndrome." This is named after the track that offers the worst case of this scenario and that is when not enough pre planing is done before the front stretch wall and grandstands are built. Planks fastened to the ground with a low pitch between rows are not a good substitute for a high rise grandstand, especially when the racing is done right up against the front stretch wall. The result, all the fans sitting in the main grandstand can see when the cars pass by is just the tops of the roofs. It's virtually impossible to tell one car from another and sponsors are wasting their money putting their names on the right sides of any cars that race there because they'll never be seen by the public. It's hard and frustrating to watch when you can't tell one car from another until they poke out from behind the wall when they race into turn one.
Of course, all this was done long before the current management took over the track and to correct this would be a major expense. Actually, the solution was probably right in front of me as the track has built a brand new, 1,600 seat high rise grandstand on the back chute. However, on this night, with the wind screaming right into your face for those few tough enough to sit back there, I chose to stay where I was and grumble a bit instead.
What I was most impressed with was the speed with which the show was completed. Many of the drivers waited until the last possible minute to show up at the track. I'm sure they weren't anxious to have to hang out in the pits any longer than necessary and many from a distance probably waited until the last minute for fear of a late cancellation. So, right at cut off time, they were bombarded with entries. Yet they got the show started only six minutes past the advertised time.
And even better, once they got started, they really kept things moving. Yellow flag situations were handled very quickly and many times on the following lap they were already taking the green. If was impressive, particularly on opening night when things can easily go hay wire.
And it was a good thing as it was really miserable sitting in the stands. And to make matters worse, I caught some sort of a bug and my health was really going downhill as the evening progressed. And for someone who never leaves early, I seriously was considering leaving after the heats. And in fact, if there would have been any delay after the heats before the B Features started, which there was none of, I would have walked out.
But since they were moving things along so well, I tried to stick it out. The drivers cooperated and the final checkered flag waved at 9:30 pm, making for a two and a half hour show. Outstanding!
Things didn't get any better for me. Ever try to blast your way through a foot and a half of snow on the highways while battling a bad case of diarrhea? It ain't pretty!!!
My apologies to Bryce and the staff at Salina for this late race report but I have been in bed for two days, trying to recover from this case of "crud" I picked up somewhere.
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