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.
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