Tuesday night, June 19th, the 141 Speedway just North of Francis Creek Wisconsin kicked off a special three night midweek extravaganza. The opening night(Tuesday) will see the Dirt Kings Late Model Tour Series from Wisconsin make a stop at the track with a full program of racing. Along with them, Modifieds, Sport Mods and Stock Cars will all be practicing intermixed between the Late Model events.
Wednesday night will see the Stock Cars and Sport Mods run a full program while the Modifieds will run qualifying heats that will determine how they will line up for Thursday night. On that night, the Last Chance and Main events will be run for the Modifieds with ten grand on the line for the winner plus a "bath in the infield pond" while the Stock Cars and Sport Mods will again run a full program.
The Dirt Kings is a second year Late Model touring series that was organized in eastern Wisconsin to try and salvage Late Model racing on that side of the state and in less than two short years they have come a long way. They have a full schedule of special events and have brought Late Model racing to tracks that never had run Late Models before. They suffered some setbacks when two tracks(Oshkosh and Manitowoc) that were strong supporters of the series both closed after the 2017 racing season, but they have found some new venues to appear at and they have a couple of three and four thousand dollar to win races on their schedule. Their basic twelve hundred and fifty dollar to win race isn't a huge amount but it is still better than what they run for at the two remaining weekly Late Model tracks on the eastern side of the state(Shawano and Plymouth).
So far, one of the big keys to their success is that they are getting great support from the drivers. Twelve hundred and fifty to win for a midweek special doesn't sound like a huge drawing card but yet, on this night at 141 Speedway, they drew a fine twenty six car field including the top sixteen in Dirt Kings current points. That was impressive to me.
It has been a rainy time in Wisconsin for the last week or so and many spots across the state have been suffering from flooding issues. While it hasn't been quite as bad in eastern Wisconsin, they were still reported to have received over two inches of rain at 141 overnight Monday and into the morning on Tuesday. The rain had stopped by the time I got to the track and of course, Toby Kruse was determined that the show would get in. It remained gloomy and cloudy most of the day and the track prep crew stayed off the track as long as possible, allowing the wind to help dry it off.
Late in the afternoon they finally got on to the track and they were successful in getting it whipped into shape rather quickly and the original time table of hot laps at 6 pm and the first Late Model race at 7 pm was able to be maintained. The infield was a sea of mud and there would be no swimming in the pond for the winner on this night, simply because it was so muddy it would be hard to even get to the pond!
The track was blinding fast for hot laps with both the Late Models and Modifieds setting near track records during their warm up sessions. The Late Models were in the mid twelve second bracket as they were as close as humanly possible to holding it wide open all the way around the unique, egg shaped quarter mile track that if you have ever been here, you know how tight the corners are even though they are also very wide. It is definitely a "different animal" than most drivers are used to.
The other classes practiced for nearly an hour which helped to roll in the track and widen it out but it was still "hammer down" when the Late Models came to the grid for the first of four heat races. They would run passing points for their heats, take three more out of the Last Chance and provide one driver a provisional based on Series points so they would start twenty cars for thirty laps.
Things were going go through three intense heats when suddenly, out of the blue, it started to rain again. Not hard, in fact more of a heavy mist, but it was just enough to make the track too slick to race on. They booted the Late Models off the track and brought out the packing rigs, of which they have many and also started to till up the track at the same time. The rain was persistent but the track workers refused to loose, and they kept circling the track until it finally stopped drizzling and they were able to quickly then make progress.
Before too long, they were ready to send out the fourth and final heat which really screamed around the track. Open practice sessions then followed between the last heat and the B Feature and then once again before the main event which was scheduled to hit the track at 10 pm. One of the unusual by products of all the open practice was that we would see Late Models come out and take a few laps before the B Feature to make sure they had the right set up and some even came out just before the Feature race to check out their setup. But at 10 pm the Late Model feature hit the track to wrap up the night.
The series announcer(who didn't identify himself) stated that what we were about to see would be a "clash of cataclysmic proportions" and while he might of overstated things just a bit, I would prefer to characterize it as a "severe butt kicking" by one Nick Anvelink. The series point leader coming into this event, Anvelink showed why he is the one driver on this series who can travel to any race at any facility and be a serious contender, whether it be an open show or a WISSOTA spec engine show that he typically visits late in the racing season. He is just that good and has that good of equipment. Plus he is an exceptionally smart driver.
All the practice sessions had finally caused the track, which typically is very hard and slick and was atypical earlier in the evening, to slow down and slick off. However, many of the drivers didn't catch this fact and were still trying to "floorboard" it all the way around the track, causing then to slide high.
Anvelink started ninth in the main and had a car working great in the low groove so he just showed great patience and waited for everyone to slide up out of the groove and then he drove past them on the bottom. He did this time and again and after the only yellow with seven laps complete, caused when "Diamond" Jim Letezia pounded the back stretch wall, He was able to pass both the leader and second place car in one swoop and he drove into the lead.
It took him all of ten laps to go from ninth to first and after that, he pulled away from the field. Even when he was fighting his way through heavy traffic, he was still gaining on the cars trying to catch them and his work in the heavy traffic was magnificent. At the end of the race there were only six cars on the lead lap and Anvelink had seven lapped cars and nearly a straightaway between himself and Brett Swedberg who finished second.
Paul Parker had made a fine drive of his own and had moved into second, although it was in a different zip code than Anvelink when he lost power coming to the white flag and pulled into the infield. Behind Swedberg, it was Ron Berna, Jared Siefert and Mark Rose at the finish. Only four of the nineteen started failed to finish with Tom Naeyaert dropping out on the pace lap when he couldn't get his car to fire.
After the conclusion of the Late Model feature, the Modifieds were allowed some more practice as their time had been cut short earlier due to the rain. I counted sixty eight different Modifieds that took practice laps and surely there will be others on hand Wednesday night, although no practice will be held on that night; it is simply line up and race at 6 pm.
Among the drivers obseved who made practice laps in no particular order were: Joel Rust, Hunter Marriott, Jason Walla, Tim Ward, Jason Hughes, Kyle Strickler, Mike Mullin, Lance Mari, Rodney Sanders, Brian Mullen, Kyle and David Brown, Dylan Smith, Cayden Carter, Racer Hulin, Ricky Thornton Jr, Jordan Grabouski, Terry Phillips, Dan Nelson, Anthony Roth, Kelly Shryock, Mike Mashl, Troy Cordes, Cory Dripps, Wade Taylor, Benji LaCrosse, Bone Larson and Shane Demey. Phillips was even putting some laps on his "open" Modified as well.
A few Stock Cars and Sport Mods also were practicing but other than Ethan Braaksma, it looks like most of the entrants in those classes will be local competitors.
The heat race action as drivers jockey for positions for the big money on Thursday is expected to be intense. Stay tuned.
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