Thursday, June 21st was the third and final night of the Clash at the Creek X at the 141 Speedway. All three classes that raced on Wednesday night would be back in action on Thursday with the Sport Mods and Stock Cars to again run a full show while the Modifieds would carve the eighty three car field down to twenty four and then decide the big winner.
141 caught a break from the weather on this night as rain spun from Milwaukee to Madison but it was all moving to the North and East and left the Michigan shore high and dry, providing some very comfortable weather with low humidity and a nice Easterly breeze off the lake to refresh everyone.
This is a very bucolic and peaceful setting for a race track here at 141, with the track set into the rolling fields among some of the finest dairy farms in the entire country. In fact, the race track is surrounded on three sides by pasture land and during this week the herd seemed particularly interested in the race happenings. In fact, while I was talking to the Steve and Tom Schneider Racing Team that was pitted right up tight against the wire fence that is the track's boundary, about thirty of the Jersey Girls came right up to the fence and seemed to want to be part of the conversation! I had nothing to offer them so eventually they drifted off when they found some nice grass to chew on.
However, I digress. It was an important night for the Modifieds and everyone had their "game faces" on Thursday. The top ten in Modified points after Wednesday night's double heat races automatically moved on to Thursday night's fifty lap feature race. Everyone else would be divided into five Last Chance races with the top two moving into the main and finishing positions three, four and five going to what they call the "Final Four" with the top four in that event tagging the twenty four car field. Only five Modifieds that raced on Wednesday failed to return and yes, Lance Mari was able to get his rig out of the pits and hopefully on to get the trailer fixed so that he can break his race car out.
Every last chance race was like a mini feature due to the car count in each race, the intensity of the driving and the length of each event plus the fact that many of the finest Modified drivers in the country were in these races. As an example, Terry Phillips, Jordan Grabouski, Scott Mullen, Jason Walla and Steve Schneider would eventually win these races. Not exactly slouches by any stretch of the imagination.
The "Final Four" event would see local driver Josh Long take the win and set the last four starters for the main. No provisionals or other artificial means to get certain drivers in the show were used. Either you raced your way into the main or you watched from the sidelines, just as it should be. Thus it was that drivers like Rodney Sanders, Marcus Yarie and Casey Arneson along with many others watched the feature from the stands.
Ricky Thornton Jr. had been very strong on Wednesday night as he was the top point gatherer and started from the pole in the fifty lap main. However, he clearly had saved a little bit on Wednesday because tonight he turned things up another notch and totally destroyed an outstanding field of cars and drivers. He led the whole fifty laps of the main and never once was in any danger of being passed or being challenged for the lead.
He pulled away from Benji LaCrosse immediately and quickly began to pull away from the pack. His lead just kept building and by lap fifteen he was in traffic as he caught the back of the field.
The race behind him was a good one though as most of the leaders lined up in the low groove. Kyle Strickler, who had started ninth on the grid, took to the top side and he began to make time, passing several of the front runners and soon battling Hunter Marriott for the second spot. Strickler took the position for awhile and seemed ready to set his sites on catching Thornton Jr but that didn't happen.
In fact, after a number of laps, Strickler began to fade and he was soon passed by several other cars that were moving forward. One of the drivers making the most progress was Phillips who started eleventh after winning the first B Feature. He gradually began to pick up positions but there was not a huge movement of drivers as most seemed to stay pretty close to where they started the race.
There was only one yellow flag in the whole race and that came after second running Marriott got tied up with the lapped car of Kyle Brown. Brown was tagged for the yellow and Marriott got his spot back.
Any doubt about the strength of Thornton Jr's program was put to rest when he pulled away on the green, just as he had earlier at the outset of the race. He put nearly a straightaway on the field in the final fourteen laps and coasted home the winner by a big margin. Finishing behind him were Marriott, Mike Mullen, Phillips and LaCrosse. Now I caution that as I type this I have not been able to find any official finish posted anywhere, so I am basing my finish on how I saw them cross the line.
Nineteen of the twenty four starters were still on the track at the finish and all but four were on the lead lap as most of those that had been lapped soon pulled off the track to save their equipment since they weren't going anywhere.
Thornton Jr was more than willing to take the traditional dive into the pond in the middle of the track after the victory lane ceremony on this comfortable June night, the ten grand he won serving as a nice life buoy.
It was just the way things worked out but after last night's hard racing with much passing, the feature race was a bit anti climatic with Thornton Jr's total domination and truly not a whole lot of other passing going on. It was impressive, though, that the drivers could run such a clean main event given the importance of the show.
Sport Mods and Stock Cars once again provided the support classes for the night. Both classes somewhat surprisingly turned out bigger numbers than they had on Wednesday with thirty six Sport Mods and thirty four Stock Cars ready to run.
Four heats and two B Features set the field for the main event in both classes with twenty four cars taking the green in each. For awhile it looked like it might be an Iowa sweep of the Sport Mod class after Ethan Braaksma won on Wednesday and Tyler Soppe took the lead briefly but he simply couldn't figure out 141 and he was clearly not comfortable running either the low side or the top. He was soon passed on the outside by Jason Ebert who was one of the few riding the outside line.
Ebert looked to be in good shape until Kyle Raddant picked up the pace. He started eleventh on the grid and did as much charging as any driver in any class all week, other that perhaps Nick Anvelink with his Late Model on Tuesday. Raddant came storming up on the inside line and Ebert couldn't hold him off. Raddant pulled away in the closing laps and had a comfortable lead over Ebert and Cody Schroeder at the finish.
The Stock Car feature saw plenty of contact as the "chrome horn" strategy was used on several occasions as a passing move. Luxemburg Speedway promoter Eric Mahlik took the early lead in the Stock Car feature but he had his car hiked up badly in the corners and on this track on this night, that wasn't a winning strategy. He fought as long and as hard as he could but he couldn't hold his line and John Heinz squeezed inside him to take over the lead.
At this point of the night, the track was pretty one grooved for the Stock Cars right on the bottom and they were hammering on each other pretty good as they tried to pass with not much doing in the second lane.
Kyle Frederick, last night's winner, was on a roll this week and he moved into the second spot and started challenging Heinz for the lead. As Frederick beat on the rear bumper of Heinz, John just about stopped several times in the corners but Kyle was unable to loosen the veteran racer up. After repeatedly tapping the rear bumper and not being able to make it work, it appeared that in frustration he moved to the second lane, feeling he was fast enough to make the pass.
However, that strategy did not work as the second lane just wouldn't work and Iowa's Jay Schmidt was able to drive under Frederick and take second. Schmidt did a little tapping of his own but Heinz was not going to be dislodged from the low groove and he drove on for the win, a victory some in the crowd didn't seem particularly pleased by. Dave Bouche and Hot Rod Snellenberger completed the top five.
A strategy I had seen employed for the first time on a dirt track was used this weekend. Called the "tap out" rule, this idea was stolen from the blacktop tracks in the Midwest. Basically, how it works is that if a driver causes another driver to spin or wreck and it is his fault, he taps on the roof of his car and then goes to the tail of the field and the offended driver then gets his spot back. In my home area the track officials make the call on such a thing and decide who goes to the tail and who gets their spot back. The only thing the "tap out" rule does is that it releases the track officials from making any decisions and places all the pressure on the drivers to settle it among themselves. Basically, I would consider it a "cop out" rule so that track officials aren't forced to do what their job should be.
Announcer Jerry VanSickel pointed out that Thursday was the Summer Solstice with the most light of any day of the year and as quickly as the program went off Thursday, they almost didn't have to turn the lights off. I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't a lot of pre race "pomp" and that Jerry just read off the Modified line up, they did a brief four wide salute and then went racing.
With only one yellow flag in the Modified main, the final checkered flag of the night flew at 9 pm which I though was great. Being so early, many, many people that normally don't go to the pits were headed that way and I'll bet the t-shirt sales were exceptional on this night. I absolutely loved the fact that track management didn't feel like they needed to drag things out and obviously aren't of the belief that in order for the fans to get their monies' worth, they had to be there until the wee hours of the morning.
In summary, the Clash at the Creek was three days of good racing and promotion the way it should be done. There is a reason that Kruse and his tracks keep raking in promotional awards and it would be smart for more promoters to drop in at one of his shows and see how he and his crew of workers do things.
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