Saturday night, October 27th was the second night of the Fall Futurity at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City Iowa. It was a spectacular Fall afternoon for racing, or at least it started that way which made it even more shocking and surprising that by the time the last events on the schedule were to be run off, rain was a threat and eventually did shorten up the action by one main.
More cars were expected to compete on the second night of the show and that was indeed the case with twenty five new drivers signing in to race on Saturday, and the field totaled one hundred and thirty five in the six classes that were racing. Only the Modified class saw no new entrants added to the field on Saturday. With the format in place, drivers felt like even if they couldn't make it on Friday night, they still had a fighting chance to get a good finish as was later shown when one of the feature race winners was a driver that wasn't even on hand on Friday night!
The top eight from Friday night were locked in and ran a dash to establish their starting order while everyone that didn't make the top eight redrew for a heat race assignment with the finishing order of the heats establishing their starting positions behind the already qualified top eight.
As drivers were signing in and getting ready to run the evening show, I took an opportunity to have a quick chat with Todd Staley as to what would be happening with the USMTS in 2019. He told me that he is just now getting started trying to put together the schedule for next year and would have no announcements on that for awhile. However, he did think that the season would again start with a series of races in Texas but that it probably would not be until March before that would begin. He anticipates that the total number of races would likely be close to what they ran this year. However, I suppose the biggest news would be that he plans to go back to the "Hunt" format for next year as he didn't think the format this year worked out that well. All drivers that run each show would again be guaranteed five grand, I believe he said with more particulars to be determined. He indicated that there would likely be few rule changes for next year, something that surprised me a bit since I had been hearing that some wholesale changes might be in the works.
I next took an opportunity to chat with one of my favorite Iowa drivers and that was Double D, Darrel DeFrance who was scouting things out from a ute tire outside the track. For those that don't know, DeFrance is one of the closest racing friends of Gary Webb, and I asked DD if he had talked to Gary recently. In fact, Webb had just dropped by to visit DD earlier this week and Darrel reported that Gary is getting a little bit better every day as he tried to put his life back together after the tragic fire that cost the life of his wife recently.
Gary is back on the road hauling trailers around the county and that is probably the best thing for him to do to get back in the swing of things. Gary is currently living with his brother Robert but plans to eventually get an apartment as there are too many memories for him to ever rebuilt at their current location. He does plan to get some kind of a race shop as he still plans on racing for a few years yet.
As far as DD is concerned, he plans to race his Victory chassis for another year on the Late Model circuit. I asked him about the pending rule changes with the IMCA Late Models and he is expecting to see a spec shock and crate motors for the division next year. He said that if he was twenty years younger he would be "all in" on the new rules but at his age he'd just as soon keep what he already has. However, you can bet that whatever the rules, when the season starts out in 2019, expect the #99D to be on the track as he is very proud of his record with the Derry Brothers series, even if he doesn't remember just exactly what the number of consecutive races is right now.
Rumors persist that while Moyer still has the jig for the Victory Late Models, everything else involving the Victory Late Models is going up to Don Shaw in the Twin Cities, who has had great success running that type of chassis in both spec and open motor versions and does have the personal resources to handle that type of operation. Stay tuned.
While Friday night's program went pretty smooth, there are always some grinding crashes that leave you wondering just who would be able to make it back to the track for Saturday's show. The Stock Cars of Vince Loewen and Cary Heinen were both involved in the same grinding crash on Friday and I was surprised to see that both had made repairs and were back to race. Denny Berghahn from Nebraska spent most of the afternoon in the parking lot trying to put his Tuner back together after a wall smash on Friday and he would be rewarded with a heat race win later. Oliver Monson blew up his Tuner on Friday so he just rolled out another car to race on Saturday night.
If a Hard Luck award would have been presented on Saturday night, it should have gone to B Mod driver Bill Engler who towed all the way from central Wisconsin down to race for the weekend. Only the B Mods required a B Feature for entrance into the main and five cars were racing for four spots. The fifth place car was nearly a full lap behind and had been having trouble keeping the car pointed the proper direction. Yet the third place car decided to make a "super move" on Engler for second with the race nearly over, nailed him in the left rear giving him a flat and knocking him out of the race, the show and costing him a check. Even in the end of October some people still do the same stupid moves they were doing back in April!
The first feature race up was the Stock Cars and this event provided the drive of the night. Redwood Falls Minnesota's Curt Lund, who wasn't even on the grounds on Friday, drove up from the tenth starting position to record a dominating win. Lund, who was a top not Modified driver too, has been very fast in Minnesota this year driving this Stock Car, flexed his muscle early coming from sixth to win a heat race.
In the main, he quickly moved up as he appeared to be the only driver able to pass both high and low on a track that was considerably different than it had been the previous night. It was much slicker and passing required a good plan and the ability to move from the high to low groove. As Kevin Donlin and Derek Green battled for the lead, Lund drove right up to third and began to pressure the leaders. Green took himself out when he plowed the wall in turn one and on the restart, Lund powered past Donlin and took over the lead. He would still have to deal with a couple restarts with the pack bunched but each time he pulled away for a convincing win. Kyle Falck finished second with Donlin showing in third.
The Late Models were up next with twenty car to take the green. It appeared to be a two car battle as Dash winner Billy Leighton Jr and Friday night winner Lance Matthees looked to be the class of the field. However, Matthees broke a rocker arm in his motor during the Dash and despite the fact that he had the outside pole, he was forced to scratch out of the feature.
Earlier in the day, Matthees had to endure one of the more eventful situations of the weekend. There was some sort of communications breakdown and while Matthees was told that there were certain standards his car must be at to race, once he got to the track and after winning the Friday night show, he was told that the rules were considerably different than what he was assuming. While they allowed him to retain the win Friday, in order to race on Saturday he was required to put a carburetor plate on his motor and find some of the proper, uncut tires for the back wheels.
Unfortunately, the tire truck at Webster City didn't even sell Late Model tires and being the end of the year, trying to find another competitor with extra, decent tires was very challenging. Finally, Scott Fitzpatrick was willing to loan the Minnesota team two tires, after a tireless search by one of the track officials that bent over backward to try and help out and find them some tires. Of course, it all proved to be rather fruitless, as the motor problems kept the #90 from running the feature after he looked so good on Friday night.
Leighton Jr absolutely ran away from the Late Model field, winning by a full straightaway and it likely could have been even more. DD and Fitzpatrick had a good battle for second for some time before DeFrance took the spot but then Charlie McKenna, himself running a WISSOTA spec engine, passed DD for second.
The Hobby Stock feature produced one of the closest battles of the night with the leaders going back and forth before the issue was finally decided. Myles Micheli almost duplicated Lund's charge as he too came from tenth to take the lead after only a handful of laps. Micheli had to start that far back after he was challenging for the feature lead until he threw a wheel. However, he fought back Saturday and with some impressive low side moved, drove past Brandon Nielsen and Dustin Gulbrandson to take the front spot.
Eric Stanton and Gulbrandson battled then for second and with several yellows to bunch the field, the race for the lead continued to be a close one. However, each time Micheli would fight off the two behind and continue to hold the top spot. However, when Stanton was able to get to the outside for a restart, that would make all the difference in the world. He was able to get a good run off the top side and drove past Micheli to take over the lead in the later laps. Micheli would push back very hard on the low side in the corners but each time Stanton would fight him off and eventually take the win in a close, exciting finish. Daniel Ayers made a late charge to take the third spot.
The B Mod feature was much like the Hobby Stock in that it proved to be a good, two car battle for the lead and the win. Ty Griffith had looked unbeatable in the B Mods all weekend and after starting on the pole, it looked like this race could be a walkaway for the Webster City driver. However, as the race started to get some laps on it and a couple of yellow flags bunched things up, Jared Boumeester started to become a factor. He was showing the speed to keep up with Griffith, who was "married" to the very low groove, and when Boumeester started to run up against the wall, he started to move up significantly.
The last yellow came with nine laps to go and after that, it was a highly competitive race. Several times Boumeester had a good run off turn two, only to see Griffith drift up the track and block the high groove, causing Boumeester to have to lift. Then, as a counter, Boumeester starting diving low into turn three and trying to beat Griffith down the front chute. With only a few laps left, Jared was finally able to complete the move and once in front, he was able to stretch his lead and show that yes indeed, he was the fastest car on the track, no matter what the initials of the sanctioning body were. Ethan Braaksma came from eleventh to finish third.
Ryan Gustin would likely be branded the most dominating driver of the weekend. Friday night he won the feature when it seemed that he drove just fast enough to take the win. After winning the Dash Saturday, he started on the pole and that was the last that most of the drivers saw of him all night. He just motored away from the field, not being flashy but just being efficient and effective. He was into lapped traffic quickly but he handled it well and never gave anyone the chance to threaten his lead. There was a late restart with only three laps to go, but he handled it well and put distance on those behind him as he took the cash. There was a good battle for second between Joel Rust and Richie Gustin with them running close for quick some time but at the end, Rust was able to stretch out some for the spot.
It would seem that no matter how they try to balance out the classes with weight , lack of spoilers etc, the open motor cars still dominate in both the Mods and Late Models.
It had sprinkled on and off during the Modified feature but never enough to affect the racing. As the Tuners pulled on to the track, it started to sprinkle once again. While the Tuners had added ten cars to their field on Saturday, they still weren't close to the number needed to run their event in three wide fashion so the normal two wide start was used for the ten rows.
They only made three laps before a stalled car triggered a yellow and before the could get back under the green, it started to rain with more intensity. With cars from South Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota as well as Iowa, they really wanted to get this last race in. They waited quite some time, eventually pulling the cars off the track so that the other classes could scram out of the pits but it just wouldn't quit. Finally they consulted with the drivers and decided it call it a night. Later I found out that they split the money equally among all the cars that took the green eminently fairer in my mind than what Lucas Oil did with their B Mods several weeks ago. It did rain, by the way, all the way home.
And so the first year of the Hamilton County Speedway under the direction of Todd Staley is complete. Thanks to all at Webster City for a good time and a nice weekend of racing. For those interested in that upcoming race at 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas, keep checking for updates in the next two weeks.
Next up for me is a visit to the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the World Finals for Sprints, Late Models and Big Block Mods.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Matthees Tops Late Models at Webster City
Friday night, October 26th marked the first of two nights of racing at the Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City Iowa as Todd Staley and the other folks that run the speedway this year make an attempt to return the Fall Futurity to the scheduled of racing events in the Hawkeye State. Originally scheduled for several weeks ago, the entire weekend was frozen/rained out and in a bit of a bold move, rescheduled for the last weekend of October. The weather this late in the season can be a bit of a crap shoot as you just really don't know what kind of weather you might see, but the odds are almost as good that it will be sunny and mild as it might be extremely cold and windy. As it turned out, it was somewhere in the middle as it was cool but certainly not intolerable and promises to be even better on Saturday.
The Futurity is a historic race in Iowa racing history that was somehow lost over the course of time and Staley is trying to restore this event as a cap to his season of promoting at Hamilton County. All six classes that routinely race at Webster City would be part of the fun with liberalized(I hope I'm not in trouble here for using that word!) rules in play so as to gather as many racers as possible that would like to squeeze in one more weekend of dirt track racing.
The car count for the opening night stood at one hundred and eighteen cars with more expected on Saturday as while the Friday night show was a full show in all classes, only the top eight are guaranteed starting spots in Saturday's higher paying main events and Saturday only competitors are welcome to come and join the action.
Each class would participate in heat race action with the draw/redraw used to set up the lineups for the six main events. As is often the case, there is some car swapping going on here as drivers pick up new rides late in the season, test out other cars in the process of buying them etc. A couple of the notable changes I saw included Matt Ryan driving the #15k Modified normally steered by Justin Kay and Ryan even using Kay's transporter to haul both that car and Ryan's Late Model. Mark Elliott was also racing the Modified that Minnesota's Jake Timm had raced this year on occasion and it was the IMCA car, not the open car that Timm also races on the USMTS circuit.
There were a number of travelers on hand with drivers from Minnesota and South Dakota also joining with the more regional drivers to spice things up. Tuner drivers even pulled all the way from Minnesota to race and a couple of the cars in that class were seen all the way up in East Central Minnesota racing last weekend so the late season traveling is not just limited to the higher class cars.
Overnight rains caused the track prep crew to put in a full afternoon of track prep before the racing could begin and with the moisture already in the track plus it being a rather gloomy day, only a couple of loads of water were necessary to get the track ready. And with that being said, the track was extremely fast to begin the evening although it did dry out some and slow down some as the night wore on. I did not know that Todd was a track prep guy, having only seen him occasionally on the water truck from time to time at various tracks he might have leased for shows, but he spent virtually the entire afternoon riding the grader this Friday. The track, by the way, was fine for racing action.
And even though they were hustling to get the track ready, the show started right on time and was moved along at a quick clip, with only a slight break after the heats to set the lineups for the main.
All car running were allowed to start the mains but the top eight would be the only ones to lock into the mains on Saturday with everyone else slated for B Feature action. The B Mods had the biggest group of cars and twenty five of them started the main event with the field split between B Mods and Sport Mods, with the big spoilers the identifying mark. This race would be a long one with six yellows for various spins and collisions slowing the action. However, through it all, it was local racer Ty Griffith who led from start to finish with challenges from various drivers. Dan Hovden was probably his stiffest challenger but when Hovden went for broke on the last corner in an effort to gain the win, he got into the wall and took himself right out of the main. These results are unofficial but also qualifying was Jared Boumeester, Jake Sachau, Nate Whitehurst, Rocky Caudle, Hunter Longnecker, Brandon Toftee(from twenty third) and Jared VanDenBerg.
Late Models were up next with eighteen of them on hand including a number of IMCA cars, a few SLMR cars from western Iowa and Nebraska and a lone WISSOTA driver in Lance Matthees. The Winona Minnesota storied veteran showed the field the way home, as he quickly moved up from the third row, blew past Darrel DeFrance and Jason Hahne and then led the rest of the way. However, he was challenged hard by Tyler Bruening who moved up from the fifth row as the track was racy and wide and he put a heavy challenge on Matthees toward the middle of the event. However, Bruening, who was driving harder than I ever rememeber him running before, got into the third corner too hot and plunked the wall and ended his effort. After that, Matthees was home free as he cruised to the win. The top eight included Scott Fitzpatrick, Matt Ryan(from eighteenth), DD, Billy Leighton Jr, Charlie McKenna, Ryan Griffith and Justin Zeitner.
The Modified of twenty four had the fewest cautions and perhaps the closest racing action as the brothers Gustin, Ryan and Richie, went at it for the win. Richie started on the pole and led the early laps with Mike VanGenderen, Matt Ryan and Mark Elliott challenging. Soon Ryan G. moved up from the fourth row, the top two separated themselves from the pack and went at it for the win. They traded the top spot back and forth several times before Ryan finally took over and then in the closing laps, put some distance on the field. Despite the efforts to "even out" the field, the open Modifieds certainly still have the advantage and it almost appeared Ryan waited until he needed "to go" and then he put his foot down. Undoubtedly, he will be the car to beat Saturday night. behind Richie and qualifying was Kyle Brown, Ryan, Jeff Aikey, Nate Hughes, Joel Rust and Elliott.
The Hobby Stocks had some close racing in the early going with Kevin Derry, Myles Micheli, Tyson Overton and Dustin Gulbranson fighting for the top spot. They were joined quickly by Eric Stanton and after Gulbranson slowed with a flat tire, it was left to Stanton and Micheli to fight it out. That ended when Micheli lost a wheel with an axle in it in turn two which flew well into the woods and opened things up for Stanton. He then drove home for the win with Brandon Nielsen putting on the pressure. They were trailed by Gulbranson(from the back after changing a tire), Jeff Fink, Overton, Tracy Halouska, Bryan Derry and K. Derry.
Kevin Donlin led from start to finish to win the Stock Car feature. He was challenged by Craig Berhow early and then it was promoter Staley who put the hardest pressure on Donlin. Lap after lap, Staley would push the high side and nearly steal away the lead but Donlin had just enough to hold him off. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and Staley changed up his tactics, driving to the low side of the track. However, he pushed up the track and gave up second on the final corner to Kyle Falck. Also qualifying were Darrin Korthals, Derek Green, Mark Elliott, Berhow and Joe Schmit.
The Tuners wrapped up the evening with their main event. They are scheduled to start up to thirty six cars on Saturday night, three wide, for the Tuner Nationals. However, they are going to have to send out a search party to round up a whole bunch of cars as there were only fourteen that signed in to race on Friday. Their main event was actually a good one as Josh Uhl and Steve Struck battled it out for the win, going side by side for much of the race before Uhl edged ahead on the final corner for the win. Denny Berghahn was considered a price contender for the win but he plunked the turn two wall right at the start and limped to the infield. Since there were only eight cars running at the end, Chris VanAusdle, Jeremiah Anderson, Seth Scholl, Justin Anderson, Brad Mayland and Jacob Witte all qualified for the main.
All racing was done shortly after 10 pm and while some then headed for the party, others headed for their home and some warmth including "Crazy Martin" who was dressed up like it was a hundred degrees below zero!
For those of us that travel Iowas from North to South a lot, it was a shock to see that the Boondocks Truck Stop in Williams had closed. I think the first time I traveled through Iowa I stopped there and of course I had to buy a hat to let people know that I had visited the Boondocks!
For those fans looking for more racing action in the weeks to come, despite the fact that for some reason it has been removed from the USMTS website, the two day show at 81 Speedway near Wichita is still on for the second weekend of November. If the weather is good, that could be a very interesting race.
The Futurity is a historic race in Iowa racing history that was somehow lost over the course of time and Staley is trying to restore this event as a cap to his season of promoting at Hamilton County. All six classes that routinely race at Webster City would be part of the fun with liberalized(I hope I'm not in trouble here for using that word!) rules in play so as to gather as many racers as possible that would like to squeeze in one more weekend of dirt track racing.
The car count for the opening night stood at one hundred and eighteen cars with more expected on Saturday as while the Friday night show was a full show in all classes, only the top eight are guaranteed starting spots in Saturday's higher paying main events and Saturday only competitors are welcome to come and join the action.
Each class would participate in heat race action with the draw/redraw used to set up the lineups for the six main events. As is often the case, there is some car swapping going on here as drivers pick up new rides late in the season, test out other cars in the process of buying them etc. A couple of the notable changes I saw included Matt Ryan driving the #15k Modified normally steered by Justin Kay and Ryan even using Kay's transporter to haul both that car and Ryan's Late Model. Mark Elliott was also racing the Modified that Minnesota's Jake Timm had raced this year on occasion and it was the IMCA car, not the open car that Timm also races on the USMTS circuit.
There were a number of travelers on hand with drivers from Minnesota and South Dakota also joining with the more regional drivers to spice things up. Tuner drivers even pulled all the way from Minnesota to race and a couple of the cars in that class were seen all the way up in East Central Minnesota racing last weekend so the late season traveling is not just limited to the higher class cars.
Overnight rains caused the track prep crew to put in a full afternoon of track prep before the racing could begin and with the moisture already in the track plus it being a rather gloomy day, only a couple of loads of water were necessary to get the track ready. And with that being said, the track was extremely fast to begin the evening although it did dry out some and slow down some as the night wore on. I did not know that Todd was a track prep guy, having only seen him occasionally on the water truck from time to time at various tracks he might have leased for shows, but he spent virtually the entire afternoon riding the grader this Friday. The track, by the way, was fine for racing action.
And even though they were hustling to get the track ready, the show started right on time and was moved along at a quick clip, with only a slight break after the heats to set the lineups for the main.
All car running were allowed to start the mains but the top eight would be the only ones to lock into the mains on Saturday with everyone else slated for B Feature action. The B Mods had the biggest group of cars and twenty five of them started the main event with the field split between B Mods and Sport Mods, with the big spoilers the identifying mark. This race would be a long one with six yellows for various spins and collisions slowing the action. However, through it all, it was local racer Ty Griffith who led from start to finish with challenges from various drivers. Dan Hovden was probably his stiffest challenger but when Hovden went for broke on the last corner in an effort to gain the win, he got into the wall and took himself right out of the main. These results are unofficial but also qualifying was Jared Boumeester, Jake Sachau, Nate Whitehurst, Rocky Caudle, Hunter Longnecker, Brandon Toftee(from twenty third) and Jared VanDenBerg.
Late Models were up next with eighteen of them on hand including a number of IMCA cars, a few SLMR cars from western Iowa and Nebraska and a lone WISSOTA driver in Lance Matthees. The Winona Minnesota storied veteran showed the field the way home, as he quickly moved up from the third row, blew past Darrel DeFrance and Jason Hahne and then led the rest of the way. However, he was challenged hard by Tyler Bruening who moved up from the fifth row as the track was racy and wide and he put a heavy challenge on Matthees toward the middle of the event. However, Bruening, who was driving harder than I ever rememeber him running before, got into the third corner too hot and plunked the wall and ended his effort. After that, Matthees was home free as he cruised to the win. The top eight included Scott Fitzpatrick, Matt Ryan(from eighteenth), DD, Billy Leighton Jr, Charlie McKenna, Ryan Griffith and Justin Zeitner.
The Modified of twenty four had the fewest cautions and perhaps the closest racing action as the brothers Gustin, Ryan and Richie, went at it for the win. Richie started on the pole and led the early laps with Mike VanGenderen, Matt Ryan and Mark Elliott challenging. Soon Ryan G. moved up from the fourth row, the top two separated themselves from the pack and went at it for the win. They traded the top spot back and forth several times before Ryan finally took over and then in the closing laps, put some distance on the field. Despite the efforts to "even out" the field, the open Modifieds certainly still have the advantage and it almost appeared Ryan waited until he needed "to go" and then he put his foot down. Undoubtedly, he will be the car to beat Saturday night. behind Richie and qualifying was Kyle Brown, Ryan, Jeff Aikey, Nate Hughes, Joel Rust and Elliott.
The Hobby Stocks had some close racing in the early going with Kevin Derry, Myles Micheli, Tyson Overton and Dustin Gulbranson fighting for the top spot. They were joined quickly by Eric Stanton and after Gulbranson slowed with a flat tire, it was left to Stanton and Micheli to fight it out. That ended when Micheli lost a wheel with an axle in it in turn two which flew well into the woods and opened things up for Stanton. He then drove home for the win with Brandon Nielsen putting on the pressure. They were trailed by Gulbranson(from the back after changing a tire), Jeff Fink, Overton, Tracy Halouska, Bryan Derry and K. Derry.
Kevin Donlin led from start to finish to win the Stock Car feature. He was challenged by Craig Berhow early and then it was promoter Staley who put the hardest pressure on Donlin. Lap after lap, Staley would push the high side and nearly steal away the lead but Donlin had just enough to hold him off. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and Staley changed up his tactics, driving to the low side of the track. However, he pushed up the track and gave up second on the final corner to Kyle Falck. Also qualifying were Darrin Korthals, Derek Green, Mark Elliott, Berhow and Joe Schmit.
The Tuners wrapped up the evening with their main event. They are scheduled to start up to thirty six cars on Saturday night, three wide, for the Tuner Nationals. However, they are going to have to send out a search party to round up a whole bunch of cars as there were only fourteen that signed in to race on Friday. Their main event was actually a good one as Josh Uhl and Steve Struck battled it out for the win, going side by side for much of the race before Uhl edged ahead on the final corner for the win. Denny Berghahn was considered a price contender for the win but he plunked the turn two wall right at the start and limped to the infield. Since there were only eight cars running at the end, Chris VanAusdle, Jeremiah Anderson, Seth Scholl, Justin Anderson, Brad Mayland and Jacob Witte all qualified for the main.
All racing was done shortly after 10 pm and while some then headed for the party, others headed for their home and some warmth including "Crazy Martin" who was dressed up like it was a hundred degrees below zero!
For those of us that travel Iowas from North to South a lot, it was a shock to see that the Boondocks Truck Stop in Williams had closed. I think the first time I traveled through Iowa I stopped there and of course I had to buy a hat to let people know that I had visited the Boondocks!
For those fans looking for more racing action in the weeks to come, despite the fact that for some reason it has been removed from the USMTS website, the two day show at 81 Speedway near Wichita is still on for the second weekend of November. If the weather is good, that could be a very interesting race.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Everyone Goes Topless at the "Big O"
Friday night, October 19th would prove to be quite the night at Wagamon's Ogilvie Raceway. Scheduled for both Friday night, October 19th and Saturday night, October 20th, the plan was to run off the ninth annual Topless Nationals at this East Central Minnesota facility. It would also prove to be the final event scheduled for the Gopher State in 2018.
This event started out with humble beginnings and almost as an after thought to the completion of the racing season. It started to "pick up steam" as a race for a couple years then seemed to lose a little punch. However, the last couple of years have seen it again start to become a bigger event and this year would see both the largest car count of its existence and would also see the most entrants from other sanctioning bodies also entered.
However, before the event could even get started, the weather, as it has for much of the Summer, had to once again play a part in what would be presented. The forecast for Friday was fine except that it would be very windy. After that however, the winds of Winter would start howling over the upper Midwest with bitterly cold temperatures, and the first hints of snow expected throughout much of the area.
The owners and management of Ogilvie Raceway decided to condense the racing program into a one day show with the complete program in all six classes that were raced being run off on Friday night. This would prove to be a challenging task but not to the level that it turned out to be as many of us underestimated just how many drivers would be interesting in still racing. I thought that many drivers would be anxious to get one more night of racing in but there were many more than I expected to be and the distance some traveled to get that one last "fix" in was impressive.
The Modifieds, B Mods(as we were calling them generically on this night), Super Stocks and Mod Fours were all required to remove the roofs from their race cars. Other than that, each driver was supposed to select the sanctioning body they race under and run according to those rules with no mixing of rules permitted. The Street Stocks had the choice of whether to remove the roofs or not but there was extra pay for those that did while the Hornets were not allowed to remove their roofs.
When the final tally was in and all drivers were signed in to race, two hundred and fifteen drivers were on hand to race with a jaw dropping seventy nine B Mods topping the charts. There were eleven drivers that drove all the way from Canada to race for just the one night and there were also entries from North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin and host Minnesota.
I have a theory why some of the late season races have drawn so well this year in car counts. Part of it is that, quite frankly, I think we here in the upper Midwest have many of the drivers that are more willing to travel for races than any other part of the country. Just ask the Whitworth's at Humboldt about that. They figured that out years ago. But this year has been especially unique and I believe it has been because the racing season started so slowly due to all the late Spring weather and since Labor Day, the same struggles have hit a number of tracks. Drivers are still anxious to race this year because much of the racing season has been robbed from them.
Despite the huge influx of drivers that all seemed to storm the pit gate at about the same time, the officials at the "Big O" were ready for the tidal wave of entrants and the show started just about right on time, something that was important given the number of races we would be seeing. And in fact, there ended up being twenty nine qualifying races before we could get to the six main events. It was a cool night but not intolerable, particularly for those of us who used the main building as a windbreak as the weather people were correct about the strong winds just getting worse as the evening progressed.
With the majority of the car being topless, it does give them a different look and while it is something that I would not like on a regular basis, at the end of the year it serves to spice things up a bit. So not only are the drivers revealed to the fans, with the Halloween season being upon us, many of the drivers and crews use this race to further enliven things. Many of the cars have strings of lights hanging from the roll cages and things like brooms, skeletons and evil demons can be seen riding along with a number of the drivers. In fact, when the cars go by for their pre feature presentation, it looks as much like a gondola parade on the 4th of July as it does an auto race!
The track also gets into the festivities as this event has morphed into a fund raiser for Breast Cancer awareness as it is this month and the track goes as far as to paint all their concrete walls surrounding the track pink for the occasion. All the ute tires in the infield are also pink and just about everything not bolted down is painted pink for the night. And in fact the drivers are told not to get mad and "seeing red" but instead should be "seeing pink."
Passing points was the format on this night with the top sixteen in each class moving straight up to the main events. The only classes that didn't require at least one B were the Streets and Mod Fours. After all this amount of racing, the track was black and slick from top to bottom but drivers were able to run multiple grooves and there was much side by side racing.
The Streets ran off the first main event with Charlie "The Iron" Shiek taking the win. He started on the pole but slipped back in the field until he went to the high groove and then he blew past Kyle Howland to take the lead and then fight off a late challenge from Howland for the win. Howland finished a strong second with Ryan Kostreba, swapping cars with his brother Russ for the night, taking third while Russ drove the Super Stock.
Only twenty five of the seventy nine B Mods on hand even made it to the track for the main event and it was a surprise winner that took the honors. Jeffrey Lein Jr, was driving for only the second time in a car his father purchased for himself to drive while Jeffrey has been focusing most of his racing efforts in his Modified. Lein Jr also started on the pole and fought off efforts of some of the strongest around as he took the win over "Cowboy" Shane Howell and Brandon Copp.
In the Super Stocks, the "Flying Farmer", Nick Oreskovich from Mason Wisconsin led for most of the race until a late race yellow really threw him under the bus. My guess is that his tires glazed over or perhaps by this time of the night they actually had ice on them but for whatever reason, he didn't take off well on the final restart and he was passed for the lead.
It was an unlikely winner as Tim Johnson, a former national champ in the class who has run a short schedule this year, was in the car owned by Don Shaw and drove it to victory lane. Shaw, who has a car for virtually every class in our area, routinely puts other drivers in his cars and one of his biggest rivals in Johnson caught the ride in the car on this night and made it work. Oreskovich fought his way back up to second at the finish with Shane Sabraski coming from tenth to finish third.
Jeremy Nelson led from start to finish to win the Modified feature race. The track started to take rubber during the Super Stocks so they took time to "rip" the track just before their main event which was the only time all night that they did much to the track, despite the huge number of laps that was put on the surface on Friday night. Late in the race, Sabraski found a line on the track that really caused him to speed up and the finish of this race was a photo, with Nelson holding on by .055 seconds for the win. This is always confusing as there are two Jeremy Nelson's that both run very well in this area and the Jeremy N. that won Friday is the one from Alexandria who was the 2017 Advantage RV Mod Tour champion. Track champion at the "Big O", Jody Bellefeuille was third.
At this point, just as the weather man had promised, it started to rain lightly. Now, we are talking well after 1 am already and the question was, how long are they going to try before they call it a night. It was very close to being a wash at this point but just when it looked it's darkest, the rain stopped and they quickly rolled in the track and restarted the show. After all, there were a lot of drivers in the Mod Fours and Hornets that had towed a long way and also wanted to race.
Dustin Holtquist was the bad luck beneficiary of the night as he led the first twelve laps of the Mod Four feature and had things under control when a late race yellow for a stalled car, and a marginal call whether to stop or not, cost him. He didn't take off strong back under green and was passed by Mitch Hribar who went on for the win. Dustin's father Bob, who towed all the way from South Dakota, finished third.
The Hornet class seems to be the only class where the non WISSOTA cars seem to shine. While the Mods and Sport Mods from outside the sanctioning area seem to have a very tough time keeping up, the Hornet rules seem to favor the IMCA cars or at least allow them to run very strong. However, it was an area driver that took the win Friday. Matt Dettman started in the third row and drove up into the lead and then held off a big pack of challengers. This race saw the yellow wave for a spin on the last lap and since everyone took the white flag, the race was scored complete. Matt Pederson, who runs unsanctioned with anyone and pulled all the way from Fargo North Dakota, was second with IMCA driver Joshua Uhl finishing third.
It was well after 2 am in the morning when the final checkered flag waved so it was a very long night of racing. However, the racing was almost nonstop and just the result of so many cars on hand and so many qualifying races that needed to be completed that caused the evening to run so long. Track employees had to have been exhausted but everything functioned smoothly from start to finish. It was quite a memorable night for all concerned and the track's call was a good one as Saturday was brutal and would not have been possible to race under such horrible conditions. The crowd was fair but with the huge number of people in the pits I feel fairly certain that everything came out OK finance wise which is important if we want to see these races continue.
This event started out with humble beginnings and almost as an after thought to the completion of the racing season. It started to "pick up steam" as a race for a couple years then seemed to lose a little punch. However, the last couple of years have seen it again start to become a bigger event and this year would see both the largest car count of its existence and would also see the most entrants from other sanctioning bodies also entered.
However, before the event could even get started, the weather, as it has for much of the Summer, had to once again play a part in what would be presented. The forecast for Friday was fine except that it would be very windy. After that however, the winds of Winter would start howling over the upper Midwest with bitterly cold temperatures, and the first hints of snow expected throughout much of the area.
The owners and management of Ogilvie Raceway decided to condense the racing program into a one day show with the complete program in all six classes that were raced being run off on Friday night. This would prove to be a challenging task but not to the level that it turned out to be as many of us underestimated just how many drivers would be interesting in still racing. I thought that many drivers would be anxious to get one more night of racing in but there were many more than I expected to be and the distance some traveled to get that one last "fix" in was impressive.
The Modifieds, B Mods(as we were calling them generically on this night), Super Stocks and Mod Fours were all required to remove the roofs from their race cars. Other than that, each driver was supposed to select the sanctioning body they race under and run according to those rules with no mixing of rules permitted. The Street Stocks had the choice of whether to remove the roofs or not but there was extra pay for those that did while the Hornets were not allowed to remove their roofs.
When the final tally was in and all drivers were signed in to race, two hundred and fifteen drivers were on hand to race with a jaw dropping seventy nine B Mods topping the charts. There were eleven drivers that drove all the way from Canada to race for just the one night and there were also entries from North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin and host Minnesota.
I have a theory why some of the late season races have drawn so well this year in car counts. Part of it is that, quite frankly, I think we here in the upper Midwest have many of the drivers that are more willing to travel for races than any other part of the country. Just ask the Whitworth's at Humboldt about that. They figured that out years ago. But this year has been especially unique and I believe it has been because the racing season started so slowly due to all the late Spring weather and since Labor Day, the same struggles have hit a number of tracks. Drivers are still anxious to race this year because much of the racing season has been robbed from them.
Despite the huge influx of drivers that all seemed to storm the pit gate at about the same time, the officials at the "Big O" were ready for the tidal wave of entrants and the show started just about right on time, something that was important given the number of races we would be seeing. And in fact, there ended up being twenty nine qualifying races before we could get to the six main events. It was a cool night but not intolerable, particularly for those of us who used the main building as a windbreak as the weather people were correct about the strong winds just getting worse as the evening progressed.
With the majority of the car being topless, it does give them a different look and while it is something that I would not like on a regular basis, at the end of the year it serves to spice things up a bit. So not only are the drivers revealed to the fans, with the Halloween season being upon us, many of the drivers and crews use this race to further enliven things. Many of the cars have strings of lights hanging from the roll cages and things like brooms, skeletons and evil demons can be seen riding along with a number of the drivers. In fact, when the cars go by for their pre feature presentation, it looks as much like a gondola parade on the 4th of July as it does an auto race!
The track also gets into the festivities as this event has morphed into a fund raiser for Breast Cancer awareness as it is this month and the track goes as far as to paint all their concrete walls surrounding the track pink for the occasion. All the ute tires in the infield are also pink and just about everything not bolted down is painted pink for the night. And in fact the drivers are told not to get mad and "seeing red" but instead should be "seeing pink."
Passing points was the format on this night with the top sixteen in each class moving straight up to the main events. The only classes that didn't require at least one B were the Streets and Mod Fours. After all this amount of racing, the track was black and slick from top to bottom but drivers were able to run multiple grooves and there was much side by side racing.
The Streets ran off the first main event with Charlie "The Iron" Shiek taking the win. He started on the pole but slipped back in the field until he went to the high groove and then he blew past Kyle Howland to take the lead and then fight off a late challenge from Howland for the win. Howland finished a strong second with Ryan Kostreba, swapping cars with his brother Russ for the night, taking third while Russ drove the Super Stock.
Only twenty five of the seventy nine B Mods on hand even made it to the track for the main event and it was a surprise winner that took the honors. Jeffrey Lein Jr, was driving for only the second time in a car his father purchased for himself to drive while Jeffrey has been focusing most of his racing efforts in his Modified. Lein Jr also started on the pole and fought off efforts of some of the strongest around as he took the win over "Cowboy" Shane Howell and Brandon Copp.
In the Super Stocks, the "Flying Farmer", Nick Oreskovich from Mason Wisconsin led for most of the race until a late race yellow really threw him under the bus. My guess is that his tires glazed over or perhaps by this time of the night they actually had ice on them but for whatever reason, he didn't take off well on the final restart and he was passed for the lead.
It was an unlikely winner as Tim Johnson, a former national champ in the class who has run a short schedule this year, was in the car owned by Don Shaw and drove it to victory lane. Shaw, who has a car for virtually every class in our area, routinely puts other drivers in his cars and one of his biggest rivals in Johnson caught the ride in the car on this night and made it work. Oreskovich fought his way back up to second at the finish with Shane Sabraski coming from tenth to finish third.
Jeremy Nelson led from start to finish to win the Modified feature race. The track started to take rubber during the Super Stocks so they took time to "rip" the track just before their main event which was the only time all night that they did much to the track, despite the huge number of laps that was put on the surface on Friday night. Late in the race, Sabraski found a line on the track that really caused him to speed up and the finish of this race was a photo, with Nelson holding on by .055 seconds for the win. This is always confusing as there are two Jeremy Nelson's that both run very well in this area and the Jeremy N. that won Friday is the one from Alexandria who was the 2017 Advantage RV Mod Tour champion. Track champion at the "Big O", Jody Bellefeuille was third.
At this point, just as the weather man had promised, it started to rain lightly. Now, we are talking well after 1 am already and the question was, how long are they going to try before they call it a night. It was very close to being a wash at this point but just when it looked it's darkest, the rain stopped and they quickly rolled in the track and restarted the show. After all, there were a lot of drivers in the Mod Fours and Hornets that had towed a long way and also wanted to race.
Dustin Holtquist was the bad luck beneficiary of the night as he led the first twelve laps of the Mod Four feature and had things under control when a late race yellow for a stalled car, and a marginal call whether to stop or not, cost him. He didn't take off strong back under green and was passed by Mitch Hribar who went on for the win. Dustin's father Bob, who towed all the way from South Dakota, finished third.
The Hornet class seems to be the only class where the non WISSOTA cars seem to shine. While the Mods and Sport Mods from outside the sanctioning area seem to have a very tough time keeping up, the Hornet rules seem to favor the IMCA cars or at least allow them to run very strong. However, it was an area driver that took the win Friday. Matt Dettman started in the third row and drove up into the lead and then held off a big pack of challengers. This race saw the yellow wave for a spin on the last lap and since everyone took the white flag, the race was scored complete. Matt Pederson, who runs unsanctioned with anyone and pulled all the way from Fargo North Dakota, was second with IMCA driver Joshua Uhl finishing third.
It was well after 2 am in the morning when the final checkered flag waved so it was a very long night of racing. However, the racing was almost nonstop and just the result of so many cars on hand and so many qualifying races that needed to be completed that caused the evening to run so long. Track employees had to have been exhausted but everything functioned smoothly from start to finish. It was quite a memorable night for all concerned and the track's call was a good one as Saturday was brutal and would not have been possible to race under such horrible conditions. The crowd was fair but with the huge number of people in the pits I feel fairly certain that everything came out OK finance wise which is important if we want to see these races continue.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Chad Simpson Wraps Things Up at Wheatland
On Friday and Saturday, the fifth annual Fall Nationals were slated at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri. The schedule would have two full shows for the MLRA Late Models with the title on the line between Chad Simpson and Will Vaught. Co-sanctioning the event was the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series with their champion Jack Sullivan already having wrapped up that title. Also on the program would be the first annual B Mod "Clash of Champions" that would pay the winner of that event $3,000.
I must say that I, along with many others, was very disappointed with the management of Lucas Oil Speedway after the events of Friday though. It started raining by 7 am and it rained all day. Not hard, but steady with some occasional mist and drizzle thrown in when it let up slightly. Any time during the afternoon, I expected the announcement of a cancellation which I would have understood 100%. Heck, it had been raining all day. However, the track kept posting through their face book page that the radar was showing that the rain would end by 5 pm and that they would still be racing.
OK, fine. They are determined to get this show in and would ride out the rain until it stopped and then race. I got to the track about 3:30 pm and it was still raining lightly with it backing off to drizzle quite often. Drivers and race teams were streaming in the gate, not being worried about the conditions because with the paved pit area at Lucas Oil Speedway, the concern about being stuck doesn't come into play.
Lo and behold, at 4:45 pm the rain stopped for good(they actually got a forecast right for a change), and pre race activities continued as the rest of the field showed up and signed in, the cars were unloaded and readied and the two drivers meetings took place.
The B Mods came out to roll in the track and then the Late Models hit the track. The first two hot lap sessions were completed and while the track was still slick, it was starting to come around. Just as the third session hit the track, it started misting. The mist lasted about a minute but as soon as it started, the cars were all ordered off the track and the announcement of the cancellation was made immediately, even before all the cars were off the track. No attempt was made to roll in the track or even see how long the precipitation would last. The cancellation was immediate and clearly pre planned as the announcer had been "keyed" to make the announcement. What was most galling was that after that sixty second burst of mist, it never rained again all night. I stood around in the pits talking to people for quite some time and never once did it start to precipitate again. Either they should have called the show when they legitimately had reason too when the rains continued or followed through of their pledge of trying to get the show in after the rain stopped. Waiting until everyone had purchased their tickets and pit passes and then calling the event after the first drop of rain just didn't seem right and not something I would have expected this track to do. After Friday night, I felt like Lucas "owed me one." The cancellation also pretty much took away any small chance that Vaught had of catching Simpson for the MLRA title.
Fast forward to Saturday and let's start over fresh. Saturday dawned cloudy and cool with some weather sources calling for a dry day and other predicting rain by late evening. My source said it would remain dry and unfortunately, they were wrong! But to that later.
Saturday's show was moved up by two hours and with the cloudy conditions and little wind, they could have easily started the show at 1 pm and have gotten the whole thing done early, but that's hindsight. Saturday would be a full day of racing though, with double rounds of heat races for the B Mods before they went into the "ladder" elimination to set the field for their forty lap main event. The Late Models would also be running a full show with a fifty lap, five grand to win at the end of their night.
Forty four Late Models signed in to race on Saturday with Kyle Schlotz not returning to race. Sixteen of the top twenty, including the top twelve, of the MLRA were on hand plus the top five in COMP Cams points were also in the house. There were drivers from as far away as Texas on hand for one of the last Late Model shows of the year in the Midwest.
Seventy three B Mods were also on hand for their part of the show. There was a bit of a snafu in this class as several drivers who had not been on hand for Friday night's portion of the show called and wanted to race and they were told that they could tag the back of heat races. However, when the nine new drivers arrived, they were informed that they would only be allowed to "tail" the back of the E Feature which didn't please some. Eventually this was settled after the track "fessed up" to a communications failure within the track and offered to refund pit fees to those affected drivers. Actually, all but one went ahead and tried to qualify.
Track conditions were brutal. That is the only fair way to assess them. However, to be clear, this was in no way the fault of the track. They did everything they could to try and pack down the surface but due to the huge amount of rain in this area, and really most of the Midwest, in the last few weeks, it was so soft in the corners that there was nothing they could do except pack and pack and watch the moisture seep up out of the ground once evening hit.
It was one of those nights that drivers just had to tighten up the belts and hold on for dear life. When they hit the corners, they often had no way of knowing which way their cars were going to go, and drivers were running over each other and flying through the air with regularity. Two of the B Mods managed to launch themselves up side down before the night was over. It was a very expensive night for them as shocks, frames, suspension parts, you name it, were all put to the test and many destroyed.
The Late Model feature was a very good example of this. Twenty four cars started and only eight finished and most of the eight that finished looked like they had lost a war. Cars were hurtling through the air and connecting with the concrete walls with regularity. Tony Jackson Jr was the early leaded until Jesse Stovall flew (literally) past him to take over the top spot.
Any chance Vaught has was ended when he got turned around on the back chute after Jackson got stuck in a whoop de do and Vaught had to spin to avoid him. The yellow flags were frequent and after Stovall led for a number of laps, a restart cost him when he got out of the groove and was dropped several spots.
Jack Sullivan grabbed the lead but then was passed by Simpson who had been biding his time but Simpson was then surprised by Logan Martin who blew past him to take over the lead. Martin had pitted early in the race and had worked his way back up to the front. By this time the race had been shortened by ten laps and it looked like Martin was going to get the big win. However, he launched himself off turn four into the wall with only four laps to go and Simpson inherited the lead.
He kept the car straight for the last four laps and won over Sullivan and Raymond Merrill. It was a great way for Simpson to go out as the champion and winning the race in the last appearance for him and the Brinkman Racing Team together as the owners will be retiring from racing and Simpson will be looking for a new ride in 2019.
As for the B Mods, their portion of the program was very much similar to the Late Models. Lots of wrecks and spins but with the one spin rule in affect, it kept the show moving. Each B Mod ran two heat races with the total of their passing points for those two events setting their running order for the Last Chance races. The top fourteen were locked in while everyone else raced like heck to try and be one of the other ten to make the show. The Last Chance races were run with a high number of laps so some of the competitors were putting in the equivalent of a month's worth of racing in one night!
Unfortunately, that "source" for the weather that I didn't consult turned out to be correct as nineteen laps into the B Mod B Feature it started to rain. I felt sorry for the fifteen competitors that were still on the track as they must have circled the oval for nearly a half hour, trying to keep the track from getting away from them as it continued to rain, harder for sure than it did on Friday to cause the cancellation. Eventually they were joined by heavy equipment as everyone kept rolling, trying to save the track. The B Mods were finally sent to the infield and eventually to the pits while they kept trying to fight the weather. If only a portion of the time and effort spent to try and keep Saturday's show running would have been devoted to Friday night's event, that show could have been completed and with half the program done, we would have been done racing before it rained on Saturday. Just sayin'.
When the announcement was made for the "locked in" cars to report to the tech shed along with the ten who had qualified out of the shortened B Feature, the die was cast. At 11:35 pm the announcement was made that the show was done.
Interestingly, I have been at a few shows over the years where the same circumstances came into play. With the main event never having started, every one of those shows took the feature pool of money and split it equally between all those drivers that had qualified for the main. Not on this night however, as they gave the winner's share to the driver that was scheduled to start on the pole, Andy Bryant, and went down the line from there. I had never heard of it being done that way, but they certainly have the right at Lucas to do it however they see fit.
Something I noticed about Lucas Oil Speedway that seems to set it apart from other race tracks. Even the finest of tracks, by the end of a long season, start to look a little "used up." The paint might be fading or the wall in need of cleaning or the restrooms showing signs of wear. But not Lucas. Even with this being the last race of the year, the place literally glistens. There is no place crying for a paint update, the bathrooms are so bright you almost need sunglasses to enter them and every blade of grass is in order. The place remains spotless. They must have an awesome maintenance staff here.
Well, it was not the greatest of weekends for Lucas Oil Speedway, in large part due to the bad hand they were given by the weather. However, we did get to see some racing and especially so for fans from Iowa and of the Simpsons, it was well worth it.
I must say that I, along with many others, was very disappointed with the management of Lucas Oil Speedway after the events of Friday though. It started raining by 7 am and it rained all day. Not hard, but steady with some occasional mist and drizzle thrown in when it let up slightly. Any time during the afternoon, I expected the announcement of a cancellation which I would have understood 100%. Heck, it had been raining all day. However, the track kept posting through their face book page that the radar was showing that the rain would end by 5 pm and that they would still be racing.
OK, fine. They are determined to get this show in and would ride out the rain until it stopped and then race. I got to the track about 3:30 pm and it was still raining lightly with it backing off to drizzle quite often. Drivers and race teams were streaming in the gate, not being worried about the conditions because with the paved pit area at Lucas Oil Speedway, the concern about being stuck doesn't come into play.
Lo and behold, at 4:45 pm the rain stopped for good(they actually got a forecast right for a change), and pre race activities continued as the rest of the field showed up and signed in, the cars were unloaded and readied and the two drivers meetings took place.
The B Mods came out to roll in the track and then the Late Models hit the track. The first two hot lap sessions were completed and while the track was still slick, it was starting to come around. Just as the third session hit the track, it started misting. The mist lasted about a minute but as soon as it started, the cars were all ordered off the track and the announcement of the cancellation was made immediately, even before all the cars were off the track. No attempt was made to roll in the track or even see how long the precipitation would last. The cancellation was immediate and clearly pre planned as the announcer had been "keyed" to make the announcement. What was most galling was that after that sixty second burst of mist, it never rained again all night. I stood around in the pits talking to people for quite some time and never once did it start to precipitate again. Either they should have called the show when they legitimately had reason too when the rains continued or followed through of their pledge of trying to get the show in after the rain stopped. Waiting until everyone had purchased their tickets and pit passes and then calling the event after the first drop of rain just didn't seem right and not something I would have expected this track to do. After Friday night, I felt like Lucas "owed me one." The cancellation also pretty much took away any small chance that Vaught had of catching Simpson for the MLRA title.
Fast forward to Saturday and let's start over fresh. Saturday dawned cloudy and cool with some weather sources calling for a dry day and other predicting rain by late evening. My source said it would remain dry and unfortunately, they were wrong! But to that later.
Saturday's show was moved up by two hours and with the cloudy conditions and little wind, they could have easily started the show at 1 pm and have gotten the whole thing done early, but that's hindsight. Saturday would be a full day of racing though, with double rounds of heat races for the B Mods before they went into the "ladder" elimination to set the field for their forty lap main event. The Late Models would also be running a full show with a fifty lap, five grand to win at the end of their night.
Forty four Late Models signed in to race on Saturday with Kyle Schlotz not returning to race. Sixteen of the top twenty, including the top twelve, of the MLRA were on hand plus the top five in COMP Cams points were also in the house. There were drivers from as far away as Texas on hand for one of the last Late Model shows of the year in the Midwest.
Seventy three B Mods were also on hand for their part of the show. There was a bit of a snafu in this class as several drivers who had not been on hand for Friday night's portion of the show called and wanted to race and they were told that they could tag the back of heat races. However, when the nine new drivers arrived, they were informed that they would only be allowed to "tail" the back of the E Feature which didn't please some. Eventually this was settled after the track "fessed up" to a communications failure within the track and offered to refund pit fees to those affected drivers. Actually, all but one went ahead and tried to qualify.
Track conditions were brutal. That is the only fair way to assess them. However, to be clear, this was in no way the fault of the track. They did everything they could to try and pack down the surface but due to the huge amount of rain in this area, and really most of the Midwest, in the last few weeks, it was so soft in the corners that there was nothing they could do except pack and pack and watch the moisture seep up out of the ground once evening hit.
It was one of those nights that drivers just had to tighten up the belts and hold on for dear life. When they hit the corners, they often had no way of knowing which way their cars were going to go, and drivers were running over each other and flying through the air with regularity. Two of the B Mods managed to launch themselves up side down before the night was over. It was a very expensive night for them as shocks, frames, suspension parts, you name it, were all put to the test and many destroyed.
The Late Model feature was a very good example of this. Twenty four cars started and only eight finished and most of the eight that finished looked like they had lost a war. Cars were hurtling through the air and connecting with the concrete walls with regularity. Tony Jackson Jr was the early leaded until Jesse Stovall flew (literally) past him to take over the top spot.
Any chance Vaught has was ended when he got turned around on the back chute after Jackson got stuck in a whoop de do and Vaught had to spin to avoid him. The yellow flags were frequent and after Stovall led for a number of laps, a restart cost him when he got out of the groove and was dropped several spots.
Jack Sullivan grabbed the lead but then was passed by Simpson who had been biding his time but Simpson was then surprised by Logan Martin who blew past him to take over the lead. Martin had pitted early in the race and had worked his way back up to the front. By this time the race had been shortened by ten laps and it looked like Martin was going to get the big win. However, he launched himself off turn four into the wall with only four laps to go and Simpson inherited the lead.
He kept the car straight for the last four laps and won over Sullivan and Raymond Merrill. It was a great way for Simpson to go out as the champion and winning the race in the last appearance for him and the Brinkman Racing Team together as the owners will be retiring from racing and Simpson will be looking for a new ride in 2019.
As for the B Mods, their portion of the program was very much similar to the Late Models. Lots of wrecks and spins but with the one spin rule in affect, it kept the show moving. Each B Mod ran two heat races with the total of their passing points for those two events setting their running order for the Last Chance races. The top fourteen were locked in while everyone else raced like heck to try and be one of the other ten to make the show. The Last Chance races were run with a high number of laps so some of the competitors were putting in the equivalent of a month's worth of racing in one night!
Unfortunately, that "source" for the weather that I didn't consult turned out to be correct as nineteen laps into the B Mod B Feature it started to rain. I felt sorry for the fifteen competitors that were still on the track as they must have circled the oval for nearly a half hour, trying to keep the track from getting away from them as it continued to rain, harder for sure than it did on Friday to cause the cancellation. Eventually they were joined by heavy equipment as everyone kept rolling, trying to save the track. The B Mods were finally sent to the infield and eventually to the pits while they kept trying to fight the weather. If only a portion of the time and effort spent to try and keep Saturday's show running would have been devoted to Friday night's event, that show could have been completed and with half the program done, we would have been done racing before it rained on Saturday. Just sayin'.
When the announcement was made for the "locked in" cars to report to the tech shed along with the ten who had qualified out of the shortened B Feature, the die was cast. At 11:35 pm the announcement was made that the show was done.
Interestingly, I have been at a few shows over the years where the same circumstances came into play. With the main event never having started, every one of those shows took the feature pool of money and split it equally between all those drivers that had qualified for the main. Not on this night however, as they gave the winner's share to the driver that was scheduled to start on the pole, Andy Bryant, and went down the line from there. I had never heard of it being done that way, but they certainly have the right at Lucas to do it however they see fit.
Something I noticed about Lucas Oil Speedway that seems to set it apart from other race tracks. Even the finest of tracks, by the end of a long season, start to look a little "used up." The paint might be fading or the wall in need of cleaning or the restrooms showing signs of wear. But not Lucas. Even with this being the last race of the year, the place literally glistens. There is no place crying for a paint update, the bathrooms are so bright you almost need sunglasses to enter them and every blade of grass is in order. The place remains spotless. They must have an awesome maintenance staff here.
Well, it was not the greatest of weekends for Lucas Oil Speedway, in large part due to the bad hand they were given by the weather. However, we did get to see some racing and especially so for fans from Iowa and of the Simpsons, it was well worth it.
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