Thursday, August 9, 2018

Carter, McBurnie Top Wild Harris Clash

First of all, sorry for the late nature of this report but a very late night of racing followed by an even shorter over night followed by a long drive to North Dakota all conspired to put this report on the back burner, so to speak. I'm sure by now most everyone knows how this race came out so instead of a blow by blow account, I'll just hit a few of the highlights and hope to do better next year.

There was much buzz about this race long before it ever took place. Certainly much of that buzz was due to the choice of facility that it was held at. The Harris Clash has been a long running event held at a number of tracks over its years of operation but its choice of location for 2018 has had everyone talking.

First of all, it seemed strange to have such a race so far North as compared to the other tracks that have held it plus I'm not sure that a major IMCA has ever been held in the state of Minnesota before. Certainly, Deer Creek Speedway has a strong reputation in the racing community, having garnered several awards over the years for the Queensland family for their strong management and promotion of the sport along with their solid operation of this track.

However, it did set many tongues to wagging when it was announced that Deer Creek would host the Harris Clash. After all, Deer Creek has long been a USRA sanctioned track with three of their support divisions also sanctioned by WISSOTA. And despite the fact that they have held both World of Outlaws and Lucas Oil Late Model shows at their track, their "calling card" has long been their big Modified events which have always been sanctioned by USRA or USMTS and to have one of the few remaining bastions of USRA racing run such a huge IMCA show set many to wondering.

I would have liked to have gotten some comment from a member of the Queensland family if this was just another opportunity to host a big race that they jumped at or if this was more of a trial balloon for something bigger but I wasn't able to secure any comment, either on or off the record, from any member of the family and since they were all extremely busy on race night, and even more so than normal following their weather incident, I chose to not bother them. However, a full squadron of IMCA officials was on hand for this show and they were clearly trying to "put on the dog" as much as they could, and were almost licking their chops in anticipation of the night. It would also be interesting to know what Todd Staley was thinking about all of this too.

Deer Creek has had an excellent year to date with their car counts, and I'm sure are averaging almost thirty cars a night in their three open wheel classes that they race weekly with USRA Modifieds, USRA B Mods and WISSOTA Midwest Mods all racing for weekly events. They are getting nearly one hundred open wheel cars in the pits for each show and that doesn't seem like a situation that they would want to mess with or change, but you never know in this business. I can confirm that Bob Harris and the Queensland family have signed a three year contract for this event so for those wondering, it will return to Deer Creek again for at least the next couple of years.

With much excitement for this event and race cars rolling into the pits, the only thing that could have screwed up this night was the weather, and it did its best to try and do just that. It rained steady for at least ninety minutes during the afternoon with the rain starting around 2:30 pm and coming down steady after that. And I can tell you that not many tracks could have handled this amount of rain and still have been racing.

However, along with everything else they do right, track prep is another area where they mostly shine. They had the track rolled in tight in preparation for the precipitation, they have the equipment on hand to handle most any weather issue plus they have a track that drained extremely well. All these things allowed them to take what was likely a rain out at most tracks and instead turn it into a ninety minute delay.  With the amount of race cars they had on hand, this was not an optimal thing, but it was still much better than asking everyone to return for another night, especially when that is not always possible for all racers and fans.

The track was not optimal but it was serviceable and it improved as the night went along. There were many fans on hand that hadn't ever been there before and what they saw was the track not at its best early but improving as the night went on. This place is at its best when it is shinny and smooth from top to bottom so that drivers can work the whole track and while they saw some of the "slide job" potential that the track has, they didn't get the "whole package" on Tuesday.

What was also a very interesting "side bar" was that so many of the drivers had never raced there before. I challenge you to come up with a special event where likely seventy five per cent of the drivers had never raced at the track before but I don't think you will find one. That too added to the interest level of the race. And every driver likes to try new tracks which also led, in part, to the huge car count with ninety six Modifieds and fifty five Sport Mods signing in to race and trying to find places to pit in the muddy pit area. Because the pits sits much lower than the track itself, the pits is always the trouble spot at this facility and it was quite the muddy mess for some but enthusiasm overcame wet feet.

The track was so heavy that passing in the heat races was tough, as everyone seemed to be about the same speed and moving forward was tough. However, to the driver's credit, they didn't turn their frustration into a "ramming contest" as the heats were played out in a very smooth and caution free environment. In fact, the stats for the heat races border on remarkable as the twenty races, all very important for the drivers as they tried to make the main events, saw the yellow flag waved only three times! That is almost unbelievable and helped the track get caught up after their late start. The "one and done" rule that was in effect on this night was a Godsend too, and I sure wish that other tracks would wise up and use this tool also as I continue to claim that long race programs are one of the chief reasons that we can't get more people to come to the track. The B Features, which might be even more important that the heats, were nearly as good with the yellow waving just four times in their ten B mains.

However, come main event time everyone kind of dropped their guards and let it all hang out and the yellow got more of a workout in the final two races, especially so the Sport Mod main. And it wasn't bad enough that the rain had put them behind the eight ball but now they were battling the fog too that rolled across the speedway as soon as the cars slowed or stopped so track officials worked super hard to keep the show moving and the cars rolling. It must have been one of the toughest nights ever for Race Director Justin Queensland but he was up for the task.

A word should also go out to the two announcers who did a great job of both informing and entertaining the crowd without being over bearing such as the announcer at another track I had to endure last night that shall remain nameless.

For those who are regulars of Deer Creek or have heard him at other area tracks, they know what a professional that Todd Narveson is and always enjoy his work. Many probably had not heard Chad Meyers before but I had caught his work many times over the years, primarily at Britt and Algona and I have always found him to be top notch. The choice to bring him in and join Todd was an excellent one as Chad really knows his stuff when it comes to Modified racing. They seemed to mesh well together and to hear them work as a team was a blessing on this night when it would have been awfully easy to leave the fans "in the dark."

The drivers managed to create two feature races full of drama that will leave the fans talking for weeks and hungering for the next Harris Clash, which is exactly what everyone hoped would happen. Both the Sport Mod and Modified feature races had plenty of drama and plot twists and the unexpected turned into reality on more than one occasion.

The Modified feature saw Richie Gustin and Kyle Strickler manage to take each other out with nine laps to go and open the door for Cayden Carter to take the victory. Gustin was probably all "wired up" before the main ever started, having had quite a dramatic night as he was DQ'd after winning his heat, had to come from thirteenth to win a B Feature and also won the Harris Dash, all this before the feature even started!

He then drove from thirteenth once again to take the lead, only to see Strickler come barreling up in the closing laps to try and ruin his party. Strickler appeared the quicker at the end but Gustin managed to hold him off until Strickler got a good run down the front chute and drove low into turn one. Gustin saw him coming, tried to drop low to block him and the two got together.

In my view there was blame to share and the call to send both to the back seemed correct. Strickler left the track in a huff but Gustin hung around and displayed his frustration by not lining up as he should have and then hanging around right in front of the leader as the laps ran down. Fortunately, he didn't mess up Carter who had nothing to do with his incident, other than benefiting from it.

The Sport Mod incident between the leaders was not quite as readily accepted by the fans, including yours truly. It amounted to a great battle between Jared Boumeester and Johnathan Logue Jr for the lead that saw some wicked "slide jobs" attempted following a series of yellow flags that continually bunched up the field. Finally, on one of the very aggressive moves by Logue, there was contact between the two and then the wall for Boumeester, who then came flying off the wall, across the track and caught up several other cars.

The call on this one went against Boumeester and the crowd about tore down the facility as they didn't agree. Neither did Boumeester who then took a shot at Logue under yellow, which cost him a black flag, something that I swear Gustin also did to Strickler but went unnoticed.

Anyway, the only noise louder than the crowd complaint against the call was when they went back under green and Jake McBernie drove past Logue to take over the lead and the hold on for the win. Logue did finish second and there were many that didn't believe that he should have been on the podium afterward. However, there was probably not a soul in the crowd that wasn't entertained by the final two events and the promoters were likely licking their lips in anticipation for next year already.

The crowd was a big one, not as big as at a few other events I've seen at Deer Creek, but a big one nevertheless and likely the gloomy weather may have played a part in that. The track officials did an amazing job of running off the show at lightning speed once they got going and if they hadn't done so, there would possibly have been the need for the concession stand to start serving breakfast! However, 1 am is still miserably late, and while none of their fault, it still made for a dangerous, late night drive home for many with one of the North Dakota drivers reporting to me later that they just missed being in a head on collision caused by someone in too much of a hurry leaving on highway 63 in the heavy fog. Fortunately, no bad accidents were reported, just a lot of tired people on Wednesday morning.

After this year, my suspicions are that this event will do nothing but grow so I'm going to offer my "two cents" worth on a suggestion for next year. The one thing about too much success is that the car counts start to get unmanageable and they were very close to that point this year. At least if the event is to remain as a one night event. My suggestion is that next year it should be a Modified only event for the Harris Clash and if they want to also have Sport Mods as a part of that, then they should be run on a separate night. If something isn't done, then the show, no matter how well it is run, is going to last way too long and ultimately, that will cause some spectators to stop coming and that is the last thing you want to do. But having problems like too many cars is a nice one to have to deal with.


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