Carpenter, Larson and Losh Top The Madness at Gateway

Every year it seems like there can be no way that the Arizona Sport Shirts Gateway Nationals can top the previous year. And then they drop the green flag, the barking hounds are released and the madness starts. After three nights of chaos, Tyler Carpenter, Kyle Larson and Derek Losh stood on the smoldering ruins of their race cars to accept the awards as winners of the three feature races that were run in front of a huge and raucous crowd of dirt track fans.

This is really not racing in what you might imagine as the normal sense. It's more like racing fighter planes inside a gymnasium. A gymnasium that is filled with dust, ruts, race car parts sheared off and "whoop de doos" that seem to shift position around the track from lap to lap. But one thing is definitely is not, and that is boring or predictable. It seems like this track is the great equalizer and all weekend we have seen local and regional favorites racing elbow to elbow with the biggest names in the sport, and often coming out as the victors. And all this just adds to the infinite uniqueness of this event.

Granted, this race does have its share of warts. The track is incredibly rough, the down time is long and tedious, everything from parking to concessions is over priced, the air inside the area is not the best and the dust was flying in copious amounts on Saturday night and it is a very spendy weekend for all that attend.  But all it takes is to watch one of three main events and all those things are just mere inconveniences not worth mentioning. In fact, mere words can not do justice to describe the action that took place on the track during those three races and I would suggest that anyone that didn't see the race either live or on video, get a hold of a replay and prepare to watch something that just isn't fairly describable with mere words.

Last Chance races started at 3 pm as event organizers wisely decided to only hot lap those drivers that were already in the main event and by 7 pm we were ready for the big shows.

The "lights out" driver introductions and indoor fireworks were spectacular as usual, all leading up to the three main events. The Late Models were first and Tyler Carpenter, live and direct and full of spunk from the mountains of West Virginia, held off the challenges of several drivers to win the forty lap main event. Incredibly, with all that was happening on the track, the yellow flag waved only twice during the Late Model main.

Shannon Babb, Ryan Unzicker, Tanner English and Brandon Sheppard all had legitimate chances to win the race but all sorts of issues plagued them and Carpenter was able to hold off the last lap charge by Sheppard to get the win by a fender length. Only eight of the twenty starters were still on the track at the end and everyone was showing some sort of damage.

Larson was the class of the Midget field and after coming from fifth to take over the lead, he held off challenges to take the win. This race were smoothly for the first half of the distance and then was plagued by yellow flags thereafter including two reds for flipping cars. However, Larson was head and shoulder over everyone else and only bad luck or mechanical failure could stop him. Neither happened and he took the win over Chris Windom and Tyler Courtney. The Midget feature was the only one of three where at least half the starting field was still on the track at the finish.

The Modified feature came right down to the wire also. In fact, a last corner pass by Losh saw him sneak under Kyle Bronson for the ten grand win. Bronson had been holding off the challenges of Losh for the last half of the race but on the final corner Kyle hooked a big rut, went skittering out to the wall and Losh was able to drive under him for the spectacular win. Most of the crowd stuck around to watch the Mods and they went wild at the unexpected finish. 

There is no doubt that this race is truly one of a kind and not able to be duplicated anywhere else currently. I don't know if it's because it is the last race of the year or if it is the unique atmosphere or the fact that it is on TV live or what, but all the drivers seem to address this event slightly different than they do the rest of the year. They take chances here that they wouldn't do at other places and the whole event feels more like "Monster Jam" than a dirt track race. We were even "treated" to some WWF type antics on track and while at most events what happened would resulted in a DQ for the night, at this race instead they give the chief combatant a provisional to start the feature! It is as much show as it is go and perhaps that is part of the secret of its success.

Dates are already set for the next two years of this race with next year's coming close to Christmas again while the 2021 race will be earlier in the month of December.

The one thing that I keep having trouble wrapping my head around is that while many in the field in all three classes go home with wrecked equipment, they still are right at the head of the list the following year to get on the entry list. I keep thinking that eventually drivers and teams are going to get tired of wrecking their stuff year after year but I guess as long as there are some that want to take the risk, there are a very large group of spectators salivating at the thought of watching them tear into each other on the track.

My next reports after the first of the new year should be from Vado Speedway Park for the World of Outlaws Late Models Battle at the Border at this new facility,  IMCA TV Winternationals at Cocopah Speedway and the Wild West Shootout at FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway.

Harrison, Larson, T. Carpenter and Babb Second Night Dome Winners

Action at the Gateway Dirt Nationals Continued on Friday night, December 20th with all three classes in action once again. The second half of the invited Midget and Modified fields ran their qualifying events leading up to one feature in each class while the Late Models finally got on track for some racing action themselves. The field for them was split in half with double feature races qualifying a pair of three driver entries into Saturday night's finale.

With much more racing on tap for Friday night, the suspicion was that it was going to be a long night and unfortunately, those fears were not only accurate, the end result was even worse than most would have imaged. With fierce racing action that produced an almost incalculable number of yellows and wrecks, poor track conditions that led to more track prep periods than I would have the energy to keep track of, damage to the catch fence and wall from accidents that required three long breaks for repairs, some poor driving decisions by racers and some poor choices made by management and the sum total was two calendar days of racing for the price of one! This however, was not the type of racing bargain that most were looking for.

Here is the unvarnished  truth. As long as they are going to try to make a racing surface out of the material that they are currently using, I  believe they never are going to produce a surface that is worthy of racing on. I don't care how many experts they bring in to prepare the track and how much they pack, blade, scrape, feather, cut and pound on it, this "beach sand" they are using is never going to compact into anything worth racing on. No matter what they do to it, and no matter how they try to improve it, it just rolls right back up into waves of loose material that digs holes and doesn't smooth out. They keep trying to fill in the holes with loose material they scrape off the track, and that just digs right back out and forms new holes. And the most maddening thing is that we have seen literally hours of track packing going on that is negated in a couple laps, thus wasting all our time and not helping track conditions by one iota. They might as well just give in to the inevitable, throw a little water on the track to keep the dust down and let the drivers bounce through the holes because all the wasted time on track prep is just that, time wasted that we could have been done with the shows in hours less time.

Even the announcers have given up trying to "sugar coat" the truth as they halfway through the evening stopped referring to the track as "challenging" and one that the track prep crew could and would fix and they just went to describing the track as "rough."

And it's a car killer. The amount of damage done on Friday night to cars in all three classes was just staggering with thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment being wrecked. But the racing was spectacular in all three classes too. Somewhere there needs to be a happy medium to where the racing can still be good but doesn't cause so much damage to the race cars. Somehow they need to get their hands on some real clay and let Kevin Gundaker and his crew have something that they can really work on rather than playing with the sand they currently have.

Apparently the Modifieds have been declared to be the "bad guys." It has been determined that they were the worst offenders at tearing up the track so for Friday night, the whole program for the other two classes was completed before they were even allowed to hit the track for time trials which were followed up by their three heats and main event. However, based on the number of yellows across the board and the track conditions which didn't seem any different whether or not the Modifieds had been out earlier in the evening or not, that theory didn't seem to hold water either. And they got to run their program in the wee hours of the morning with most of the crowd having vacated the building on a night that got so late I literally saw adults sleeping in their seats from track prep boredom and the lateness of the hour.

The drivers didn't help the situation either. Apparently there is a group that comes to this race with the notion that actually slowing down for the corners would be a sign of weakness. So, they "flatfoot" the accelerator from the moment the green flag drops and don't slow for anything or anyone. The results is a demo derby on wheels with many of the cars looking much the worse for the wear.

It was a "perfect storm" also in terms of what could go wrong to slow the program with three different wrecks that saw cars get into and tear down the wheel fence which necessitated long delays to replace fence and posts. The repair crew did an amazing job of fixing what the drivers did as fast as possible but it does take time to replace the posts and put fence back up and we had to suffer three times when that happened.

Management made a poor choice in terms of moving the show along when they allowed all eighty plus of the Late Models to hot lap again on Friday after all were allowed to do so on Thursday night too. All other classes got only one shot at hot laps so I don't understand why the Late Models had to go through a second tedious set of hot laps that only did more damage to the track. Worst of all, instead of starting at 3 pm it was two hours later than that before the first race took the green. That was two hours they desperately could have used later. It was disappointing that such a crack management team would make such decisions, particularly when they have been preaching all week about getting the show done early so that all the spectators can spend their money in downtown St. Louis when by the time the races have been completed, there is no place open still to spend money in.

As far as the racing itself, it was spectacular with all three classes putting on a great show. However, only one driver can walk away from this weekend with the big check, and with all the damage inflicted on so many cars, one wonders when the "light bulb"  will come on and some of these racers will stay home and save on their equipment. It appears that has already happened in the Mods and Midgets with neither class filling out their invited field fully.

Drama started early when the first Late Model heat was stacked and the unexpected occurred, with Scott Bloomquist going up in smoke on the green after he and Freddie Carpenter spent time trying to "one up" each other on the opening green. Reportedly, "Bloomer's" problem stemmed from someone not putting oil in the engine while Carpenter was out shortly after when he lost a driveshaft after being quick qualifier for group A. So they ran off two spectacular heats and then the track equipment came out to try and fiddle with the surface and made something out of it. Thus the pattern of the night was set. Race a little and then watch track prep for what extended into hours.

Freddie's son Tyler was one of the "talking points" of the night. First he engaged in a wild slide job contest with Tanner English in his heat, following by an "F Bomb" interview that fired up the crowd but seemed not very appropriate. Then, in the first Late Model feature he came from third to pass Illinois' drivers Mike Spatola and Ryan Unzicker to take a thrilling win. This was followed by a lengthy rambling interview that included more profanity and branded Carpenter to what he is, a true West Virginia "hillbilly" who can also wheel a race car spectacularly and sometimes also successfully.

Shannon Babb was slightly more restrained but still excited when he won the second feature race for the Late Models by passing Patrik Daniel who most people were flipping through their program to find out just who this was that was beating the indoor expert in Babb. Babb's win was not unexpected but a bit of a surprise in that he got beat initially by Daniel and had to work very hard to make the winning pass.

As was the case on Thursday night, the Midgets had just two heats and a feature race. Kyle Larson showed much strength as he made the winning pass on Michael Pickens and then pulled away. Truthfully, the Midgets are able to negotiate the choppy conditions much better than the other two classes and don't seem to tear up near as much equipment. Young Cannon McIntosh charged up at the end to take second and will be a serious contender for Saturday night honors.

With a largely empty building left for the Modifieds after a very good crowd was on hand earlier, Mike Harrison bounced his way to the win after starting on the pole and fighting off Kyle Bronson. Bronson and Michael Long had a good battle for second and despite Bronson's car pumping out much water in the late going, he was able to hand of for third before a cloud of steam erupted on the slow down lap. Kevin Wallace also ventilated a motor during this race as many cars were running hot due to all the dust plugging up the radiators.

The final checkered flag flew at 1:48 am on Saturday morning. Yikes! As I say, there was much positive to say about tonight's racing but also many things that did go wrong with some that need to be corrected and some that should have been foreseen but apparently overlooked. Saturday's program is promised to begin with racing at 3 pm for the Last Chance races so we will see how this all plays out.   

Kissinger and Meseraull Top Gateway Dirt Opener

The fourth annual Gateway Dirt Nationals presented by Arizona Sport Shirts kicked of its three night run on Thursday night, December 19th at the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis Missouri. For the first time, there was snow on the ground for this event, the result of a snow storm that crossed the Midwest earlier this week, but everything was cleared away and all was in readiness for the racers and fans by Thursday when the action started.

Once again this year, three classes of cars would be racing in the Dome with the Late Models the highlight division with all entrants being allowed to race up to one hundred and fifty cars. And again this year, they did not come close to that number with eighty six actually on hand and two of those never made it to the track. Actually, the car count in the Late Models was the lowest it has been for the four years of this race.

For the second year, Modifieds and Midgets also raced but their format was changed up a bit this year. Those receiving invitations and accepting were then divided into two groups with half the car qualifying and racing their preliminary show on  this night and the other half running on Friday night. Then everyone comes back on Saturday night for the big finale with everyone getting one last shot to make the "show." The numbers in these two classes were down this year with the Midget count being particularly low. There were only twenty five Mods and nineteen Midgets on hand on Thursday with the number expected to be similar on Friday night. Perhaps this might be a good time to step back and maybe reduce the number of classes to two for next year and perhaps maybe finally be able to maintain their posted schedule of events. It appears that the Midgets don't want to race so close to the upcoming Chili Bowl for fear of tearing up their cars or perhaps they just don't want to allocate a week for this event and then soon after have to spend another week in Tulsa. In any event, lesser just might be better in terms of number of cars racing here in St. Louis.

The track looked a little bit different this year. There is an inside wall in the corners instead of those insufferable tires that caused many of the yellow flags last year and tore up a bunch of equipment. Opening night action seemed to bear out the fact that the wall works much better, keeping people out of the infield without causing all the damage that the tires inflicted last year.

The track has been banked a bit more this year and in a different manner, as track officials seek to widen out the racing groove and move the cars up the track more. The inside line is quite flat for the first car length and then the banking increases as you move higher on the track. With just time trials for the Late Models, we will have to wait until Friday night to see if the track races any different than it did before. I would have to say that I didn't notice any large difference in the way that the Mods and Midgets raced the track than last year, but we will see.

The same issues of the rough track continued as it seems that it is almost impossible to build a track indoors in a week and then expect it to stay smooth and bump free. And I think that the heavier Late Models and Mods make this problem even worse than if it were to be a Midget only track such as in Tulsa. Some of the drivers made the point that with the banking being higher, track speeds are actually faster than last year so the cars hit the corners even faster and tend to dig in even harder which leads to the higher likelihood of bumping around and getting airborne.

Another good point made by the announcers was the fact that the dirt used here is the same as the dirt used for Motocross and other arena events and is much sandier than that of many racing surfaces, including Tulsa's indoor dirt. The stuff doesn't want to pack in very well and doesn't seem to bind well either and while the bike racers want the surface to rut up, just the opposite is the desire here. But it is what it is and while the track prep crew will work their hardest to get it better, anyone entering this event should have been aware just what kind of race surface they would be dealing with. And it is hard on the cars, as they tear up a lot of equipment for sure, but again that is part of the understanding of entering this event. And for sure, the track prep and this race surface is probably the most analysed of any all year, to the point of nausea.

Time trials were first on the card and this did provide some surprises with a number of what I would call surprise drivers that ranked among the quickest of the entire night. But the most dramatic moment of this event was when Shannon Babb came out as the last car of the eighty four that would qualify and he set fast time by over a tenth of a second over the entire field. The crowd went wild as they should have as it was quite a stunning moment but given Babb's expertise on "bullrings", something that perhaps should have been expected. An amusing moment saw Billy Moyer manage to snag some of the advertising banners against the outside wall with his spoiler when he clipped the wall during his qualifying effort and a stretch of about two hundred feet of banner followed him down the track before finally becoming disengaged. Moyer did have a very fast lap and interestingly, was driving a Capital chassis this weekend.

So, after time trials, the Late Models were done for the night with their heats, B Features and qualifying feature races taking place on Friday night.

The Midgets then qualified and were then directly followed by their heats and their feature as their entire program was run off next. My guess was that they wanted to get this class done while the track was as smooth as it would be. However, this dragged things out some as there needed to be time after qualifying to set the lineups and then a few minutes for the feature to be formed after heats. The Midget field was so small that no B Feature was needed and will likely be the same  on Friday.

However, the Midget feature race was by far the best event of the night. It was dry and slick on the inside lane but had some bite up a lane so it was perfect for throwing "side jobs" and we saw a number of those in the main event. Justin Grant led for most of the race but Thomas Meseraull moved into second and on the last two laps, they exchanged the lead twice each lap as they dive bomber each other in the corners. On the final corner, Grant dove in low to take the lead but when he slid up the track, Meseraull was right there to cut under him and beat him to the line in a race that was appreciated by the fans. There were three quick yellow flags that included two roll overs but the lat fifteen laps went nonstop and provided the kind of action that the fans were waiting for.

The Mods then qualified after both the other two classes were done for the night and then they raced their program, but the same kind of breaks were necessary with only the one class left. As it was, teams were terribly rushed to get back to the track following heats for the B, and the same for the main following the B Feature.

The Modified feature saw Josh Harris lead for the first half of the race before Levi Kissinger took advantage of a restart to blast past him and take over the top spot. Harris was slowed by a deflating tire and Derek Losh made a charge that saw him challenge Kissinger at the end for the win.

The Mod feature was a pretty good race also with only three yellows and all came in the first half of the race. A surprise saw Bobby Pierce, pressing for the lead, make a mistake on a restart and tip over in turn one which ended his event. There were five roll overs during the night which was more than I would have expected including a couple in the Mods. There were also plenty of torn up race cars in all three classes but that is the norm in this type of racing.

It was a very long day of racing with the first on track activity starting at 3 pm and the final checkered waving toward the Midnight hour. The first actual racing took place about forty five minutes later than scheduled and we actually saw only eight real races all night as hot laps and qualifying does take a long, long time. This was a night for the hard core race fan only as we saw more of the track prep equipment on the racing surface by far than any race cars. But in their defense, they are just trying to make the racing surface as good as possible and the coming two nights will be telling as to whether or not their efforts prove fruitful.

Bleess Tops Junghans Memorial at 81 Speedway

The Grant Junghans Memorial Race was the highlight event of the night on Saturday, November 16th  and the cap to a weekend of racing at Park City Kansas' 81 Speedway. Forty nine Modifieds were on hand to fight for a season high ten thousand and two dollar top prize and it was Minnesota driver Jacob Bleess who led all fifty laps to win the big prize. The B Mods also were in action and their main event, worth one thousand and two dollars went to Ethan Isaacs.

It was also a huge night for the management team at 81 Speedway as promoter C. Ray Hall and his staff shut the gates for the last time as the track has been sold and will be under new management starting next Spring. C. Ray took over management of the track from his parents and has been running the track continuously since 1971 along with starting and running the NCRA sanctioning body. The seventy seven year old Hall had an emotional day as earlier in the afternoon all the family members were on hand at the track for photo taking and they then followed that up by being involved in an emotion opening ceremony before the first green flag of the evening was waved by C. Ray.

He said that he will now focus more energy on his other promotions in Hutchinson Kansas along with Belleville and the NCRA  series.

I made a point of seeking out USMTS head Todd Staley to find out what was in his plan for the 2020 racing season. He said while the schedule is not yet finalized, he expects to run somewhere between forty and forty five races next year. He also plans to have just one region and crown just one champion in 2020. He also won't require drivers to attend every race with their best thirty five or so races being counted toward the points title. he hopes to beef up the point fund for next year and also increase the travel allowance for those drivers in the top ten.

He rated the 2019 racing season as a good but not great one. He said that he felt the competition was among some of the best years he has had but the car counts were down this year also. He lost track of the number of rain outs suffered in 2019 but said it really hurt his early season plans and then they never fully recovered. He plans to open the 2020 season in Vado N.M. in early March but has not ruled out an earlier opening in either Arizona, California or even perhaps Florida.

He sees no significant rule changes on the horizon and is very excite about what the 2020 racing season will be at both his weekly tracks, Webster City and Mason City.

I also had the chance to speak with another high profile promoter briefly and that was Ryan Whitworth of the Humboldt Speedway. He said that the date for his B Mod race in March had been changed by one week due to the unusual calendar that falls in 2020. While it probably won't affect either event, it will be a problem for some race fans as the Spring races at Humboldt and Beatrice fall on the same weekend for 2020.

Ryan was a little coy about saying much more about his plans for the coming year. He did say that he was waiting to work with new 81 promoter John Allen and some things and hoping for some ways to get cars traveling back and forth from Humboldt to 81 and he wouldn't commit to which sanctioning body he would be working with in 2020 with much left to be decided before wheels turned next year.

Even with hit being their last race ever at 81, the unique method of selling concessions in the pits continued, with a golf cart making the rounds in the pits and selling items out of the back of the cart since there is no concession stand in the pits. I would think that the new management group would take a look at that situation as well as the one where pit passes are sold on the front chute and there is really no security keeping people from just entering the pits on a whim. I would guess they lose some revenue over the course of a racing year.

Along with the forty nine Modifieds on hand, there were also twenty two B Mods as ten different Mods and four B Mods showed for the  first time on Saturday. These helped replace some that were wrecked on Friday night as Modified drivers Cory Crapser, Paden Phillips, Beau Davis, Cody Schniepp, Brian Franz, JD Choate and Dan Powers did not return after most were involved in the big feature wreck last night.

Additionally, Ryan Gustin drove for Chris Kratzer and Josh Lanterman for Bobby Bills on this night as those two cars were also damaged in that big pileup.

Keeping to the race schedule was not a big item this weekend as for the second straight night the program started considerably later than advertised with Saturday night's show almost an hour late in starting. However, due to only two classes racing, the program was done just a few minutes after 9 pm, making it the second straight night that the racing was done early and appreciated by the wind swept fans in attendance, of which there were many on Saturday night after the grandstands were quite empty on Friday night.

The program was nearly identical to Friday night's show with five heats, two B Features and the main in the Modifieds while the B Mods ran three heats and a feature. The only significant difference was that the Mods ran an extra ten laps tonight.

Early on, the track was quite similar to Friday night's with it being heavy and having a big cushion which is why extra packing was needed and delayed the start of the show. However, the track was starting to widen out and take shape just like it did on Friday night when it provided some great side by side racing in the mains and most particularly, in the Modified main.

However, after the heat races, they did the unthinkable thing and forgive me if I'm not maintaining our positive attitude here, but the appearance of the grader wrecked the rest of the show with out a doubt. Whoever was operating that machine totally ruined the track for the rest of the show and a wide, rapidly developing racy surface became a one lane track right on the bottom with outside passing nearly impossible. Seldom if ever have I seen the character of a track changed so rapidly and unfortunately, not for the better.

The Modifieds had two follow the leader, hug the bottom events before the features came out with the B Mods first on the agenda. Mike Striegel had the pole and it seemed that he would run away with the show but he was having to pinch his car so hard in the corners that he killed his momentum and got passed by Ethan Isaacs. Isaacs then ran away from the pack with the only driver able to make any significant being Dustin Daniels.

Daniels found a way to pass in the middle lane of the track and he drove by car after car, coming from fourteenth to get to second. It looked like he might have something for Isaacs but Ethan picked up the pace and pulled away for the impressive win. Isaacs was one driver that was not on hand on Friday so he made his one day trip very worthwhile.

Twenty four cars would start the Modified main that with extra bonus money would pay twelve hundred bucks just to take the green flag. The redraw would prove to be even more important than normal with Bleess drawing the pole and then leading all the way. Brandon Sheppard drew the outside pole and he stayed there for fifty laps, sometimes closing in on Bleess some but never in a position to really challenge for the lead. In fact, after the first couple of laps there was no change among at least the ten ten cars in the running order. Even the lapped cars were strung out such that they never really caused Bleess any consternation.

There was only one yellow in the fifty laps and that was for a lapped car, running dead last that still felt it was important for him to stop on the track for his flat tire so that he could go change it , return to the tail of the pack and stay right there. A wise choice by the race director saw the restart done single file as a double file restart on such a one lane track would have been grossly unfair. 

Bleess pulled away again over the last six laps and drove to an impressive win and certainly one of the biggest of his career. Sheppard finished a solid second with Lucas Schott, Tyler Wolff and Rodney Sanders completing the top five.

Again forgive me for saying so, but it was very disappointing to go from one of the best features of,the year on Friday night to one of the very worst on Saturday, simply because they couldn't leave well enough alone and let the track develop and instead over thought and out engineered themselves.

The announcing trio of Chris Stepan, Warren Hardy and infield announcer Scott Stiles was as good as any group I have heard from all year. After sitting dark on Friday night, it was also good to see the scoreboard up and operating on Saturday as the lap count, if nothing else, is a valuable and appreciated thing by the spectators.

However, let it also be said that it has been great to be attending racing in mid November and for that fact I am appreciative to both 81 Speedway and its officials and the folks from the USMTS that put this event together. An ordinary night at the races still beats just about all the other alternatives.

Sanders Edges Mullins in 81 Dandy

The last weekend of USMTS Modified racing for the 2019 racing season kicked off at C. Ray Hall's 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas on Friday night, November 15th. This was the Chisholm Trail Showdown, paying three grand to win as the opening night event of the Grant Junghans Memorial that is scheduled for Saturday night. USMTS Modifieds would be sharing the card with the B Mods with both classes running a full program of heats and features using the typical passing points method employed by the USMTS.

This is a very late show for the Midwest and even a region farther South such as Kansas can get some cool weather this time of year. However, the forecasts did moderate for this weekend and while it still did get cool on Friday night, it was by no means intolerable and quite frankly, not as cold as it was in the grand stands last weekend in Charlotte!

I was able to track down a few items of interest to me before the show began as I scoured the pit area, but some questions still remain to be answered, hopefully on Saturday.

This is the last weekend for the ownership of 81 Speedway by C. Ray Hall and his family. He has been in racing in the Wichita area for something like sixty years and certainly must rank as one of the longest standing consistent owners and operators of a race track in this country.

About six weeks ago I spoke to John Allen at a race at Lucas Oil Speedway and he told me that he was contacted by an unnamed party that was trying to either buy a racetrack in the Wichita area or build one of their own. They had made overtures to Hall about 81 Speedway but they were at that time unable to reach an agreement and were instead looking for a piece of land near Wichita to buy and build a race track. In fact, Allen was going from Wheatland to Wichita to check out a piece of property.

However, something changed since we last spoke and it is indeed this group that has purchased 81 and John Allen will be the new promoter of the track starting next year. John was in the crowd on Friday but I did not get to speak with him but hopefully will before the racing is concluded on Saturday. In any event, it will be interesting to see when their 2020 schedule is revealed.

C. Ray Hall is retaining ownership of the NCRA(National Championship Racing Assn) and is moving their headquarters to an office in Wichita. It sounds like long time announcer Warren Hardy and the rest of the employees of 81 will be out of work after Saturday night but full details on the transition have not been revealed as of yet.

Jimmy Mars was supposed to be on hand this weekend to race one of Rodney Sanders' cars but an emergency at home kept him in Wisconsin this weekend . I did see a "secret" design of his new race car which will be bright yellow with bright orange numbers but will still carry the #28 Mars has made famous. For those that haven't heard, Mars signed on with the Veit Companies to sponsor him in a multi year arrangement as his lead sponsor. Veit sponsored Jeff Wildung for over twenty years but when Jeff announced his retirement this Fall, Veit went shopping to keep their name aligned with the racing public. Wildung has driven Mars built cars the last few years and is also an upper Midwest racer so the connection was a natural. Mars will likely now travel to more national events while still maintaining his lucrative chassis business for both Mods and Late Models as well as furthering the career of his son Sam, who won his first Limited Late Model features in 2019 and will likely soon be moving up the ladder to the WISSOTA Late Models.

One Late Model driver who did show up this weekend was World of Outlaw 2019 champion Brandon Sheppard. Driving one of Dereck Ramirez's cars, it didn't take B-Shepp many laps before he figured out the Modified. Really good race car drivers can fit in behind the wheel of any race car, no matter its type, and it was only a few laps before Brandon was slinging dirt with the best of them. Despite the fact that he hadn't sat behind the wheel of a Modified for nine years. Sheppard made one of the best drives of the night, coming from seventeenth to fourth in the forty lap main event and I would say he is one of the legitimate favorites to win on Saturday night.

Sheppard was on hand to support his buddy Chase Junghans, who was also driving a Modified on this weekend as a part of the Junghans Memorial. Chase did well too, finishing second in a heat race and coming home eighth in the main event.

A strong field of forty eight Modifieds representing twelve different states signed in for night one of the weekend and the Chisholm Trail forty. Even though the car count was a good one, it was odd in that seven of the top twelve drivers in year long USMTS points opted to go to Vegas to race this weekend, even though this show paid much more money.  Five heat races and two B Features set the field of twenty four with no provisional entries this weekend except for previous winners due to it being a non point race. This weekend would be a match up between the USMTS cars and the Modified stars of the NCRA. All were allowed to run their own rules on this night, including tires but on Saturday night the rear tires on all cars must be the USMTS approved American Racers. I believe that NCRA runs the IMCA type Hoosier so I don't see that as being much of an advantage anyway, if at all.

The drivers were presented with a heavy, hammer down type of track as the cool weather and low sun angle didn't dry out the track as much as it would have during a hot July Kansas day. Therefore the groove was narrow and passing hard early on as everyone screamed around the high speed three eighth mile oval. Gradually the groove widened out and the racing moved around some although the top side was still dominant on the cushion, as it has been virtually every time I have been to this track in recent years.

However, the feature race turned out to be a classic duel between the USMTS champ, Rodney Sanders, and the NCRA champ in Tanner Mullins. It was a great, side by side, two groove racing exhibition that could not be beat.

Early in the contest, Cody Jolly, last seen by me running a B Mod, was the early leader with Tyler Wolff, Bobby Bills, Mullins and Sanders trailing. Following a restart, Jolly jumped the cushion and Mullins was right there to take over the lead with Sanders tracking him down from the second spot.

Most everyone was still pounding the cushion but it was showing signs of giving out some in turns one and two and Sanders started experimenting with running the low side on that end of the track. He made several attempts that were fought off by Mullins but Rodney was persistent.

Eventually he got up beside Mullins, was able to beat him to turn three and took over the lead. Sanders did got back to the top again but Mullins wouldn't give up and he started to close back up on Rodney. After showing himself low in turn one and nearly getting by, Rodney also dropped to the inside on turn one and still pounded the cushion in turn three and then began to draw away in the late laps of the race. However, for most of the forty laps, it was a very good race indeed. Dereck Ramirez likes the low side on any race track and he made that work as he came from thirteenth to third and was still moving forward at the checkered. Sheppard and Darren Fuqua completed the top five. It was Sanders' ninety seventh USMTS career feature win.

There were two bad crashes during the course of the evening that tempered the action. Brandon Givens went end over end in the Gressel Motorsports car during a heat race and while the car was pushed back to the pits, it did not return further.

And in the main event, Dan Powers spun across the track at the end of the front chute following a restart(he may or may not have received some help) and the tightly bunched field bearing down on him had no where to go with many very hard hits throughout the field. The cars of Powers, Ryan Gustin, Cory Crapser, Cody Schneipp, Paden Phillips and Josh Lanterman all received significant damage and were down for the night with Lanterman reported having some ill effects that required medical attention. Hopefully all will be able to make repairs and race on Saturday but it was a very bad crash.


B Mods also raced a full program with their feature paying five hundred dollars to win on Friday. Eighteen drivers from four states signed in to race on this night. The number was not expected to be high for this class as 81 Speedway does not run any kind of a B Mod class so all the drivers had to come a distance to run with no home court advantage of any kind for this event.

Most were USRA B Mods that raced and came from other tracks in Kansas and Oklahoma while there were a few IMCA Northern Sport Mods that also attended. The USRA cars were allowed to run a spoiler on this weekend, apparently to help them be competitive with the Sport Mods. I thought this a bit odd as in open shows the USRA cars have shown to be very competitive even when they haven't run a spoiler. Hopefully this is not an attempted experiment for a rule change for next year as with the B Mods running the same tires and also using the quick change rear ends, about the only way to tell the cars apart is by the size or lack thereof of a spoiler. If they give them a big spoiler too, there will be no distinguishing the two classes from one another which is a bad thing in my judgement. We really didn't learn anything about the relative performance as the B Mods on hand were far superior to the Sport Mods present, spoiler or no spoiler.

Tim VanGotten and Josh Everhart battled in the early going but it was mostly a matter of waiting for Andy Bryant to get through the traffic from seventh before he was challenging for the lead. He threw a slider on VanGotten, took the top spot and then was gone. He was much faster than his competition and drove on to an easy win, with the only complications being when three yellows bunched the field. However, each time he again pulled away to comfortable margins.

Dustin Daniels came on for the second spot while Mike Striegel, who had a terrible night overall with more spins and wrecks than he would normally be involved in for a whole year, coming from seventeenth to finish third. Hard charging cushion pounding Dustin Leatherman was next in line with VanGotten rounding out the top five.

Even though the show got started almost forty five minutes late due to the extra wheel packing required on the slick track, once they got rolling there were few breaks and for just a few minutes to get cars lined up. I always support having a limited number of classes in action during special event nights but way too many tracks are guilty of trying to pack the pits with umpteen classes on night like this.

I guarantee you that the fans on hand were grateful that the show moved along at a crisp pace and that with only two feature races to watch, those that were getting cold could head for their vehicles early, knowing that they had gotten their money's worth of racing and action and not having to camp out all night to do so. Thanks to the USMTS and 81 Speedway officials for keeping things moving.

Sweet and Williamson Win First WoO Titles, Sheppard Cruises to Late Model Honors

Saturday night, November 9th, the three night run that wrapped up the World of Outlaws Can-Am Finals at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway was held under sunny skies and extremely cool conditions.

While the individual feature races carried their usual amount of tension and pressure, there was high drama in both the Sprint Car and Big Block Modified pits with point titles hanging in the balance and the closest battle in WoO Sprint history set to be decided. It was one of those rare nights when the actual feature races themselves seemed to take the back stage with most people having their eyes on a few cars to see how the points titles would play out.

If you were a Big Block fan, it was eyes on Matt Williamson and Matt Sheppard while the Sprint Car folks were checking on every move made by Brad Sweet and Donny Schatz while the Late Model title had been cinched long ago by Brandon Sheppard so all the Late Model folks could just worry about racing for the win. However, that was not totally true as the second through fifth position in points was very much in flux as the weekend finished up.

There must have been some whining after Friday night's Big Block feature which allowed all thirty eight cars on hand to start the main. After announcing that there would be no Last Chance races for this class on either night, the format was altered and two Last Chance races led off the Saturday night racing card.

Both Williamson and Sheppard were already safely in the show and in fact, they redrew the front row so they would start side by side for forty laps to settle the issue. After his mistake on Friday night that cost him dearly, Sheppard would need some help as well as pull off a major win in order to overtake Williamson and despite the outside pole, he simply didn't have what it took on this weekend to pull it off.

Sheppard did get the jump on Williamson to lead the early laps but then Billy Decker came charging up and took over the lead. Sheppard desperately needed the win and he drove very hard to try and get back to the top spot and that ultimately may have been his downfall as he may have worn out his tires on this very abrasive surface as he gradually started to fade back. Sheppard would later report after the race that his motor had dropped a cylinder and he was just "floor matting" the car the whole race with the hopes that something good might break his way.

Williamson proved to be just a bit more consistent as he raced on to a second place finish and became the first Canadian driver to win the Super Dirt Car series title. Mike Maresca came charging up on the second half of the race to get the third spot ahead of Sheppard. If not for bad luck with a flat tire on Friday night, Decker could have very well swept the weekend proceedings.

David Gravel would end up sweeping the weekend doubleheader in the Sprint Cars but hardly anyone would even know that he did this as everyone was focused on Sweet and Schatz. The draw bit Schatz for the dash as he drew dead last in one of the dashes and was only able to work his way up to fourth, which gave him a two row disadvantage to Sweet at the start of their main event, which did go the full thirty laps on this night.

Gravel would check out on the field early so there was no battle for the lead, but Sweet and Schatz did have a dandy for second. Schatz worked his way up into contention and with a strong move, pulled past Sweet into second and gave the appearance that he might indeed come from behind to win yet another title.

However, just like Sheppard in the race before him, Schatz may have used up too much of his car early and when passed, Sweet turned right around and blew back past Schatz with a wicked slider for second.

A late yellow set up a ten lap dash to the finish with the title contention directly behind Gravel. Schatz pushed as hard as he could but Sweet was simply just a little bit faster at the end on on this night and he remained comfortably in second to guarantee his first WoO title.

The Late Models were just racing for fun as Sheppard had long ago guaranteed the title in that class. It was not the best of weekends for him as he got an flat tire near the midpoint in this night's show and spent the rest of the event just driving hard to try and get back up into the top ten.

John Blackenship in the "Coal Car" returned to major racing this weekend and surprisingly got the jump on Shane Clanton to lead the early laps. Jimmy Owens quickly came up along with Jonathan Davenport to challenge with Davenport moving into the lead. However, those that thought that Davenport would then just walk away were surprised by the strength that Owens showed as in lapped traffic he blew past Davenport to take over the lead and then build on that.

Owens opened up a considerable advantage before Ricky Weiss and Dale McDowell moved to the front. Weiss desperately wanted to get that first sanctioned win and he pushed hard as he fought his way into second and seemed to be narrowing the gap on Owens. However, Jimmy did a great job in lapped traffic to again build his lead while Weiss had has hands full with McDowell for second. They would finish in that order with a late charging Mike Marlar in the "General Lee" car next in line.

All racing was completed by shortly after 10 pm as the temperatures dipped into the low thirties on a very brisk night. If you want to see many of the best drivers in multiple divisions in action at a track that is one of the premier facilities on the country in action, then the World Finals at Charlotte is certainly an event that you should consider attending. However, be prepared to battle with lots of people for seating, parking etc as the crowds are enormous for this event.

Our thanks go out especially to Shaun Johnson of the staff of the Charlotte Motor Speedway for his help once again this year getting us all squared away for this big event at perhaps the biggest motor racing mecca in the country now. 

Phelps, Madden and Gravel Win, Point Titles a Scramble at Can-Am Finals

Friday night the racers got down to business at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the first of two full programs that will wrap up the season for DIRT Motorsports and their three major series, the World of Outlaws Sprints and Late Models and the Super Dirt Car series for the Big Block Modifieds. Of course, with two of the three series featuring very close point races, the points battles contain just as much drama to them as the feature races themselves.

Friday night's program would consist of heat races for the Big Blocks that were rained out on Thursday night along with their feature race along with full programs for the Late Models and Sprint Cars.

Every car that was on hand to qualify on Thursday night returned, with the lone exception being the Big Block of Marcus Dinkins who blew his motor on Thursday night and rolled out a back up car belonging to another driver that Dinkins raced on Friday night so all one hundred and sixty drivers again raced the four tenths mile oval.

Controversy started early in the Modified heats which were first on the agenda when long time fan favorite Brett Hearn, who announced this week that he would drastically cut back on his racing program for next year to get into track management at a New York track, was scheduled to start on the pole for the third heat. However, he was called for some kind of an unauthorized work done to his car as the race was waiting to be called on to the track and he was sent to the back of the pack. He instead, pulled off the track and went to speak to management. Later in the same heat, point contender Matt Williamson was also called for a jump and set back a row, allowing Matt Sheppard to win this race and pull out to a small lead in the Modified point battle as they award points in heats for this class.

Later, during the Sprint heats, points leader Brad Sweet was set back on row for jumping the start of a heat while in the previous heat race Donny Schatz was moved to the pole when Kerry Madsen was also called for a jump. This was too much for the conspiracy theorists in the crowd who were set to howling about how they were trying to just give the title to Schatz. However, the "black helicopters" flew away and the races were allowed to continue.

While there were certainly some hard fought and intense battles for some of the qualifying positions with only three from each of the Late Model and Sprint heats moving on, starting positions were of the ultimate importance based on time trials. Shockingly, of the sixteen heat races run over the three divisions, all SIXTEEN were won off the front row. A fan of a typical Saturday night point invert  race program would probably wonder when the excitement was starting as one would probably see more passes in a one class program than was demonstrated here all night. But what you sow, so shall you reap and as long as you sell out fourteen thousand seats plus thousands more in the pits, there is no urgency to change anything.

The Big Block feature was first up on the race order on Friday night and to save time, all B Features for this class were cancelled. Thus, all thirty eight cars would start the forty lap main event. While this would seem to be a recipe for disaster, this class is more used to starting huge fields of cars and the large number of cars in this main didn't affect the number of yellow flags. What did was the apparent poor lasting qualities of the tires on the cars as all six yellows were the result of flat tires by the racers.

Things started out with a stunning development when Sheppard, holding the slimmest of leads in the points, got sideways in turn two on the first lap. A near disaster was avoided when another car straightened him out but the damage was done when he slowed with a flat tire on lap three. The exact cause of him getting sideways can't be reported as a group of rude Modified fans chose to stand during the start of this race so whether Sheppard just "stepped on it" couldn't be determined. The Big Block fans stand out by far as one of the rudest crowds seen anywhere at standing in front of other people and "hogging" seats but perhaps that is just my East Coast bias.

Billy Decker led the first twenty two laps of the main until he rolled to a halt with a flat tire and gave up the lead to Jimmy Phelps. This yellow was the fourth of the event, all for flat tires.

Phelps led the rest of the way to record the win. Late in the race Erik Rudolph looked like he might challenge for the lead but Phelps remained strong following the last two restarts to record the win. Rudolph finished a strong second with Larry Wight third. Williamson finished fifth while Sheppard did a good job of racing back to tenth from the back of the pack to minimize the damage to his points battle. However, he will go into Saturday night's finale down eighteen points to Williamson.

It was a "Bloomer" night in the Late Models with the tandem of Chris Madden and Scott Bloomquist finishing first and second in their fifty lap main event. Jonathan Davenport led the first thirty one laps of the feature race, but following a yellow flag for a slowing car, Madden drove past Davenport to take over the lead. After that, he just motored away from the pack and in a seemingly balanced field, he didn't even have to lap a car in the final nineteen laps.

Brandon Sheppard made the biggest charge of the race as he started thirteenth and motored up to sixth as he was one of the few to use the banking and pass cars on the high side. Unfortunately, soon after the last yellow, the track started to take rubber and everyone quickly migrated to the bottom of the track and hung out there.

On the last lap, Davenport made a bold move to run up the banking as he stated that second and third didn't make any difference as he wasn't chasing points and was just there to win. However, the move just gave the second spot to Bloomquist as there was just nothing to be had on the top side of the track. The World of Outlaws regulars were embarrassed as they have been most times in open shows this year with Cade Dillard getting fifth to top the WoO drivers.

With the track taking rubber for the end of the Late Model race, I was worried that the Sprint feature would be a farce.  In fact, the laps for this race were cut from thirty to twenty five with my assumption being that they were worried about track conditions destroying tires. However, it was not in any way as the Sprint drivers found a way to race the whole track, with many settling for the bottom in three in four and the top side in the first corner. 

David Gravel did lead the entire race to take the win but he was challenged at one point by Aaron Reutzel until Dave Blaney broke right in front of the leaders and sent them all scrambling with Reutzel being the big loser.

Schatz and Sweet were interesting to watch as they fought their way to the front, with Schatz getting up to second and Sweet fifth. They will go into Saturday night's finale to the season with a two point margin between the two so essentially whoever beats the other to the line on Saturday will be the point winner. Heat races and making the dash so as to garner an up front starting spot will be key.

Unlike some years where the racing would continue into the wee hours, the show was completed by 10 pm on Friday night. This place is notorious for its dust problem and that was a major focus by World Dirt officials in the weeks before the race. I'm not sure if they got everything right but I can say that we did not get blanketed in dirt like some years. However, a stiff wind at our back might have been the real cause of us not getting pelted with dust as there was still plenty of it in the air. In fact, it was so heavy that at one point it was impossible to see the front stretch during the Modified feature. The gritty red clay is also apparently still very abrasive as I assume this is the reason for all the flat tires.

It was also the coldest finale that I can remember in the years that I have been attending this event. With temperatures dipping into the low thirties, it was a cold, cold night and the wind chill did not help in that regard. 

Night One of Can-Am Finals Features Lots of Time Trial Laps and a Little Rain to Wrap Things Up

The Can-Am World Finals for the World Racing Group's top three divisions kicked off on Thursday night, Nov. 7th at the Dirt Track at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The center steer Big Block Modifieds, Late Models and Sprint Cars would all be participating in their last two full shows of the 2019 racing season. New this year, and I think the first time that this has happened for a number of years, two of the three divisions are so close that the final point standings have yet to be tallied and only Brandon Sheppard, in the Late Models, has a comfortable enough advantage over his competition that his World of Outlaw Late Model title has already been guaranteed. Both the Big Blocks and Sprint Cars are going to go right down to the wire and some fast Math will be done on Saturday night to determine just who the national champions will be. Matt Sheppard and Matt Williamson are fighting it out in the Big Blocks while it is defending champion Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet racing for the title in the Sprint Cars.

Thursday turns into a mad scramble for all the teams that didn't get to the track in time on Wednesday before they locked the pit gate and made the rest wait until Thursday morning. When the gates finally open, it is a wild scene as transporter after transporter barrels into the pits to find their assigned parking spot, unload their race car and get everything situated and their cars through tech so they are ready to roll for the hot lap sessions that start the action.

Even more urgency than normal was required as the racing programs for all three nights had been moved up to an earlier time. Thursday night's show was facing the prospect of rain while the rest of the weekend was predicted to promise below freezing temperatures and miserable cold conditions. A fine state of affairs that is! I could have stayed home and froze to death if I had wanted. I was hoping for something much better down here. So all three days the programs will start an hour early, hoping to beat the rain on this night while trying to wrap up things just a little bit earlier on the other two nights and beat the worst of the cold and wind. It doesn't sound pleasant.

By the way, the trip down to Charlotte was the worst ever with a major road closing due to a chemical spill in a tunnel at the Virginia border causing a reported three hour delay for those that chose to wait it out. We did some "snake trail" exploring through the back roads of Virginia and eventually got to where we wanted to go, but it was not a great way to end a long trip with frayed nerves.

Car counts were down slightly for the 2019 edition of this event, perhaps due to the expected less than pleasant weather. Big Blocks had four less cars than last year, Late Models had seven less while the Sprint Cars actually had one more car than last year. In total, one hundred and sixty cars were on hand to take to the four tenth mile, red clay oval that sits across the street from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The grandstands here hold fourteen thousand people with the pit area adding thousands more and everything but a few obstructed view seats having been sold out for Saturday night's finale although I've got to believe that the cold weather will keep a few people home.

World Racing Group qualifies all classes of cars so the program on Thursday, once the fun of seeing just who is on hand has been answered, is to endure time trial laps like you have never seen before. Patience is definitely a virtue on this night.

The Modifieds and Late Models qualify four or five cars at a time on this track while the Sprint Cars run single laps against the clock. So you get to see one hundred and sixty cars run a pair of timed laps to determine their starting positions for the first night of racing. However, we aren't quite done yet. They all come back out again and all one sixty go through another set of timed laps for the second night of the program. The only true racing seen on this Thursday night is that the Big Blocks then run two sets of heat races which determines their starting order for the main events on Friday night and Saturday night. On the bright side, Friday and Saturday will be race only nights with the time trials finally all completed.

As stated previously, rain was on the way for Thursday night and to the credit of the World Racing Group, they recognized this and tried to move things along as quickly as possible. Some years it seemed like they did an inordinate amount of "dinging around" before they got the time trials all done ,but this year they really moved the show along. The Big Blocks qualified first and then the Sprints and Late Models had hot laps followed by their two sets of time trial laps. Interspersed among all this, the Big Blocks also ran off their first set of four heat races with this setting the running order for the Friday night feature race.

Rain was on the radar and officials were racing through things as fast as they could. It was announced that if the Late Models didn't get fully through their second round of time trials that their first set of laps would set the running order for both Friday and Saturday night shows, with their first and second laps used for different nights. And with the first rain scheduled to arrive by 7 pm, it was within minutes of that points when the rain did indeed start to fall. There were still eleven cars left to qualify so the second round of times was scrubbed and all Late Model lineups would come from the first set of qualifying. The second set of Modified heat races was also washed out and will be run the first thing on Friday night. Super Dirt Car officials have also decided to forgo all the Last Chance races on both Friday and Saturday so it is possible that up to thirty eight cars would start each feature race!

Of course, much attention was paid to how the point battling Modified drivers and Sprint Car drivers qualified as the starting positions for the features are of paramount importance based on the archaic way that the cars are lined up.

Sweet has an eight point lead over Schatz in the Sprint Cars and while Donny will start on the front row of his heat both nights, Sweet had a bad lap and will start farther back on I believe Friday night. They are all racing to make the top two in the heats so they can make the redraw for their mains, all that is important.

Interestingly, the Big Blocks apparently give points for their heats and qualifying while I don't believe the other two classes do. This allowed Williamson to tie Sheppard as he finished one spot farther up in his heat, although both made the redraw and Williamson was also the fast qualifier in his group which awarded him an extra five points. They will start heats on Friday in a flat out tie.

Josh Richards caught a bit of a break with the rain. He was quick qualifier for the first round of time trials and with the second round not completed, they reverted back to the first lap on the first round to determine the second round lineups and he was fastest for that too, so he will start up front in a heat both nights.

Demetrios Drellos and Billy Decker will start Modified heats from up front for both their nights. It should be pointed out also that all four Big Block heats were won right off the pole, again the product of their starting the fast cars right in front, just as their brethren in the other classes do. Hopefully some heavier racing will take place the rest of the weekend.

With the rain pounding down and all the race cars scrambling to load up, it didn't take officials long to decide that all activity was done for the night so everything was wrapped up at the track by shortly after 7 pm, which was a boon for the local establishments in the area. For tomorrow and the rest of the weekend, it will be swapping the rain coats for the long johns.










B

Logan Anderson Tops Shiverfest List of Winners

I caught a break this racing weekend as for once, the weather shined on me while it certainly wasn't quite as nice for some of the tracks trying to get shows in as scheduled. But one man's famine is another's feast, and on this weekend, the stars were aligned in my favor.

After witnessing two excellent nights of racing at Marshalltown, I was able to take advantage of a rain out by Pepsi Lee County Speedway on Saturday for their annual Shiverfest and attend that event on Sunday afternoon. I'm sure they would have rather ran off their program as scheduled, but there were a few of us in attendance that were able to take advantage of the situation and attend one more race on this last full weekend of October. And it is seldom to be able to get three races in on such a late date in the year.

I attended the first few Shiverfests when it was almost absurd to even schedule a race so late in the year. My how things have changed, as now this isn't even the last race of the season in the state of Iowa! The racing calendar keeps getting longer and longer and while I'm not complaining, for many people it has led to an adjustment in their priorities with them picking and choosing more on what races they will attend.

As it was for the first two nights of the weekend, it was a beautiful day for racing at Donnellson on Sunday and while it was cool, it was still very nice to be outdoors so late in the racing season and have that glorious sun shining down.

A good field of cars was on hand with ninety seven signing in to race and while that wasn't an overwhelming number, it was just about right to allow track officials to run off a quick and brisk racing program so as to allow folks to get home early and prepare for the dreading Monday morning experience. There were even seven racers that participated in the program at Marshalltown on Saturday night that made the last minute decision like I did to haul down to Lee County on Sunday and get another race in.

Making a rare Modified run on Sunday was Mike VanGenderen who has been busy promoting races to the point of not allowing himself time to do any racing of his own. He reported that he was very happy with his first year of promoting at Stuart and that the car counts were significantly higher than at any time previously in Stuart history. He said that the 2020 racing schedule should be very similiar to this year's with several special events and the appearance of the Late Models for a few events as they were this year. He was strong in his belief that picking Wednesday night was the best option for his track and that it would certainly stay as a Wednesday night track in 2020, which was good news for someone like me trying to fill in those midweek races. Mike also reported that he has been hired to be a track consultant for the Duel in the Desert and will be spending the week working at the Dirt Track in whatever capacity management decides to use him.

It was also announced that Bruce Hanford would be hanging up his helmet after this season is over, completing forty one years of racing in the Quad Cities area and surrounding tracks. When I first attended races in the state of Iowa, Bruce Hanford was one of the star attractions in those years of the past, and he has remained so for the entire period of his racing career. It will be strange to not see the #61 car in action any more.

Look for an announcement sometime today(if it hasn't happened already) on who the new promoter at Maquoketa will be for 2020. I think folks will be pleased on who the Fair Board there has selected.

There were lots of Halloween type activities going on before the race program started on Sunday with hay rides through the pits to watch the teams as they prepared their cars, trick or treating in the infield before the show, box car races on the front chute and lots of people in costumes. It brought a fun and family type atmosphere to the final race program here of 2020.

No B Feature races were required as management opted to start everyone in the five main events of the day. This made for a crowded field in the Sport Compacts with an event high twenty nine of them signing in for racing action, of which twenty six were still running to start the main.

The track was heavy and just a bit choppy for the early qualifying events but they tilled the track before the mains and while this helped to open up the high groove somewhat, the track was still holding a lot of moisture which made it very fast and totally dust free, despite racing the prelims under a bright October sun.

The twenty six car Sport Compact main was up first and while the stats would show that Jason Ash would lead all laps, it wasn't quite as simple as it might sound. He was pressuring for most of the race with primary contenders Trent Orwig and Codey Phillips both ending up dropping out of the race as the attrition rate stood at 50% before the final checkered waved. One of the toughest flips of the season was executed by Ricky Miller Jr who went high and hard in turn number one but was uninjured.

Ash drove on despite the stoppages to take the win with Jeffery Delonjay and Cody Staley finishing behind him.

The Stock Car feature was filled primarily with local, weekly racers as for some reason there weren't many out of town, non regulars who showed up to run in this class. And the outcome was settled early when John Oliver Jr found a hole on the low side of the pack, drove from seventh into the lead early and then just drove away from the field. Abe Huls eventually got to second and with a long green flag period in this race, had time to cut into the Oliver Jr advantage but as hard as Abe tried, it was Oliver Jr who had the fastest car on this day. "Big Daddy" Jason Cook would complete the top three.

The Late Model feature had much the same scenario as the Stock Cars. Nick Marolf started on the pole and led from green to checkered for the win. This race ran nonstop and while Chad Holladay tried his best to cut into the Marolf lead, it was Nick who comfortably led the whole way. Ray Guss Jr surprised by being on hand and he drove Lynn Richards' car to a third place finish.

The Modified feature saw rookie driver Daniel Fellows take the early lead as he battled with Derek Thompson(one of  only two Badger state drivers on hand). They went back and forth for the lead with Tyler Madigan, Jeff Waterman, Denny Eckrich and VanGenderen all battling right behind them. Madigan was able to put the best pressure on and he appeared just ready to make a move for the lead when Fellows suddenly slowed on the back chute.

He had broken the rear suspension and while Madigan got hung up behind him as Fellows slowed, Echrich made a great move to drive into second and then blew past Thompson who had grabbed the lead through the scramble. After that, Eckrich just motored away from the field as his rare outing in a Modified led to a feature win. Thompson and Madigan trailed.

The best was saved for last as the Sport Mods wrapped up the night with an exciting eighteen lap main event. Logan Anderson took the early lead but was soon challenged by Austen Becerra for the top spot. They battled back and fort with Becerra moving into the top spot. Both Brayton Carter and Colton Livezey were challengers until both broke and left the track.

Becerra continued to lead but on a restart, Anderson was able to get back around him and take over the lead. Suddenly, Jason Roth became a contender and he moved into second and put heavy pressure on Anderson for the lead. They battled it out on the last lap with contact between them on the back chute, only as a result of just plain, good old hard racing. Both lost control and it was Anderson who regained momentum first and he was able to drive across the line for the win with Roth and Becerra close behind. It was a good and competitive way to wrap up the season at Pepsi Lee County.

The show concluded in the early evening hours and was a quick one as everyone cooperated with moving things along and other than a medical emergency that stopped the action for a bit, it was a tight run program.

Thanks to Brian Gaylord and the whole staff at Pepsi Lee County Speedway for a nice welcome to an unannounced guest and particularly to Brian Neal for the awesome help with line ups and names. I look forward to catching a race here in 2020 before October but also hope that Shiverfest continues for the years to come. 

Grabouski Dominates for World Victory

Saturday night, October 26th , the World Nationals would conclude at the Marshalltown Speedway. Final round qualifying would take place for the Modifieds to set the field for the fifty lap, ten grand to win main event while the other three classes would return to run a second complete program of the weekend.

 

Despite all the hard racing of Friday night, all the Modifieds entered in the event would return except Ricky Thornton Jr following his post race issues from Friday night. A strong field of cars would also be on hand for the other three classes with over twenty new cars on hand that did not race on Friday night. 

Racing proved to be just as dramatic through the various qualifying sessions as it had been on Friday night, with all four classes racing extremely hard to either make the big show or qualify well for the other three feature races to be presented. The only marked difference was that the track would look much more like a normal Marshalltown track in that it was much slicker and slower than it had been on Friday night. Of course, that is not necessarily a bad thing at all as the racing continued to be side by side but just not at the perhaps daring speeds that we had seen on Friday night. 

Five heat races and a B Feature weeded the Modifieds down to the twenty four that would vie for the big bucks. Of note during one of the heat races was an exciting little tangle between Ken Schrader and Marcus Yarie that proved to be interesting. Schrader was pretty quiet during the show on Friday but his desire was as great as anyone's to make the main and when he felt that Yarie had cut him off just one too many times as they raced off corner four in that heat race, he responded by diving inside Yarie in turn three and running him right up into the dingle weeds at the top of the track until Yarie spun. Schrader then drove on to second in the heat and Yarie had to race a B Feature. Interestingly, Yarie would start the main directly behind Schrader but I observed no more issues between the two in that race and Schrader would advance all the way from twentieth to ninth at the finish. 

The fifty lapper would put an explanation point on a great racing season for Jordan Grabouski as he led from start to finish to dominate the race and take the ten grand back to Nebraska with him. He had earned the pole position and took the early lead over Richie Gustin and Jeff Aikey. Aikey would apply the most pressure in the early going , several times nearly getting by Grabo coming off turn two. However, Grabouski was tempering his pace as he knew that fifty laps is a lot of laps and he was saving his car for the end of the race. 

Tom Berry Jr was another challenger as he came up from the sixth row to battle for the lead and later in the race it was Joel Rust that applied the heavy pressure. 

The race was red flagged at the twenty lap mark when Bone Larson took a wild ride off the third turn. He was transported for evaluation of a back issue to a local hospital which resulted in a delay for the ambulance. I guess this situation would highlight my only issue of any kind with Marshalltown and that is I would like to see either a wall or a rail around the track to keep the cars from flying off the high banks as speed like they occasionally do. Launching off these big corners at speed can be a very dangerous thing and my druthers would be to keep the cars on the track. 

The restart saw Aikey have trouble and he dropped a full row on the green which would cause him to be snorting mad after the event due to what he felt was a very poor restart. However, Grabo continued to lead with Rust putting on very heavy pressure. There were several times when it looked like Rust would make the pass but each time Grabouski would hold on. 

However, as the laps ran off, Grabo started to draw away as he apparently had saved something for the end and Rust was not able to maintain his pace toward the end of the event. Grabouski would take the win with Rust, Gustin, Cayden Carter and Aikey completing the top five. 

Actually, Grabouski had a good shot at another double win except for some overly enthusiastic moves by another driver on a late restart in the Stock Car feature. Damon Murty had moved up from the third row to take the lead in the Stock Car feature and looked to be the class of the field until Grabouski started putting the pressure on him. The race looked like it might be a shootout at the end after the first yellow of the race flew with only four laps to go. 

Grabouski chose the outside for the Deleware restart but on the green, the car inside him decided to move all the way up the track to the wall despite certainly knowing that the outside lane was already filled. Grabouski was shoved up into the wall and his c ar was damaged and he limped to the pits, done for the event. 

Murty then drove away from the field for the win with Josh Mroczkowski, Elijah Zevenbergen, Jeremy Christians and Todd Reitzler following Murty home. 

The Sport Mods saw Cody Thompson put on another powerful performance as he drove around Brandon Schmitt and Kyle Olson in the early going and then led the rest of the twenty lapper for the win. He was flying and pulled away for a comfortable win in a race that was stopped only twice for yellow flags. Kyle Olson and Schmitt stayed in those positions the rest of the race with Tony Olson and Austin Kaplan completing the top five. 

A double win weekend was completed in the Hobby Stocks by Kaden Reynolds after he was able to get around Eric Stanton for the win. Stanton led the majority of laps in the race with Reynolds following closely behind and putting heavy pressure on as they raced on the top side of the high banking. 

Reynolds was very close and with just a few laps left, Stanton slipped over the banking and gave Reynolds the lead which Kaden held on to for the rest of the event. Stanton would eventually drop out of the race and a strong running Jason Fusselman would come up from the fourth row to finish second. Miciah Hildebaugh would finish in front of Kansas driver Cody Williams for third. Austin Mehmen came back from a DQ in his heat race to race from twentieth to complete the top five. 

Just as on Friday night, the show would roll along at a crisp pace with lots of racing and few yellow flags throughout the night. With the temperatures dropping by the minute, track officials didn't spend a lot of time with needless pomp and circumstance before throwing the green flag and kept the interviews short and to the point, thus keeping the show moving. The final checkered flag waved at just around 9:30 pm and marked the end of two nights of outstanding short track racing. It was as good a weekend of racing as any seen all Summer. Thanks to Toby Kruse and to Jerry Van Sickle for always entertaining us and to all the other track employees for a job well done. 

Grabouski Nips Murty in World Nationals Prelim at Marshalltown

Friday night October 25th, the rescheduled World Nationals kicked off at the Marshalltown Speedway with a spectacular night of racing in all four classes that appeared. No words can do true justice to the tremendous action we saw in what was just about the best racing program of the year I have seen to this point.

It was qualifying night for the Modifieds for their ten grand to win, fifty lap main event to be held on Saturday night. Along with the Modifieds, a full show was also held for the Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks and none of the support classes(a term that probably should not be used to describe them) disappointed in any way as there was great racing across the board in all divisions.

One hundred and forty eight cars signed in to race in the four classes provided and while the Modified count was perhaps just a bit smaller than was expected, there were still forty seven of them on hand to battle it out and try to make the main. Cars were on hand from twelve different states including three drivers all the way from Pennsylvania with Mods plus a Stock Car. To be considered in the car counts in all classes is the large amount of farmers out in the fields and unavailable to either race or attend the races.

The program included a full show of heats, B Features and mains for three classes plus a double go round of Modifieds that saw them earn both finishing and passing points as they tried to make the main.

The track was somewhat  different than normal in that it was much heavier due to all the rain in recent weeks. The infield and pits were quite muddy and the track prep crew spent most of the day pounding the track as it was quite moist. It would later prove to be blinding fast, so add in the increased speed of the night and the apparent abandon of some to drive as if their hair was on fire due to it likely being the last race weekend for most, and you have the formula for some memorable action. And the racing did not disappoint. Yet, with all the tremendously hard racing and too much action to even report, there were only just a handful of yellow flags waved as between the racing mentality here of moving when you spin and the one spin rule in force, the races just seem to keep on moving, no matter what the situation or circumstances. Once in a great while, someone gets gypped due to bad circumstances, but overall all, it makes the program move so much better and is so much better for the fans, period.

The three feature races were run after the first set of Modified heats and following the B Features that were necessary for the Stock Cars and Sport Mods. Hobby Stocks were up first and all that were still operable after the heats were allowed to run the main event which meant that twenty three would take the green for the twenty lap main.

This race saw a great battle between Kaden Reynolds and Dylan Nelson for the win. Reynolds was the early leader after starting on the pole position and he fought off Micah Hidlebaugh and Seth Janssen in the early going. Nelson would advance quickly from his tenth starting spot and join what was an intense race for the lead. Two early yellow flags kept the field bunched and Nelson made his move, ducking low and passing for the lead.

However, it wasn't long before his car started to show steam as he was having a cooling issue and the question was, would the race end before he ran out of water. The red light on the dash was visible as he ran into turn one, but he chose to keep his foot to the floor as pack of cars swarmed around him.

Finally, with only a few laps left, his motor started making very bad sounds and he quickly headed over the bank into the pits, and gave the lead back to Reynolds. Caden was able to hold off a charging Solomon Bennett to get the win with Hidlebaugh, Jason Fusselman and Wayne Gifford trailing.

Fusselman had provided some entertaining moments earlier when a yellow was thrown for him for his rear bumper dragging. Even though it appeared to be hanging by a thread, track workers wrestled with it and couldn't pull it off so he was sent to the pits. However, as he roared away from the workers and headed for the pits, the bumper fell off all by itself and Jason was flagged back on to the track and given his position back.

Incredibly, following the Reynolds victory, a second rookie driver was the winner of a main when Dylan VanWyk led from start to finish to win the Sport Mod feature. He fought off Jason Roth and Tyler Soppe in the early going for the lead until both drivers had trouble on lap twelve and two of the top five runners were then eliminated.

This left VanWyk to fight off the two top chargers of the night, Cody Thompson and.  Brayden Carter. Both had started deep in the field but had made great moves toward the front of the pack and the last several laps saw both try and dislodge VanWyk from the lead. However, the impressive young driver from Osky held off all challenges to take the win. Thompson ended up coming from nineteenth to second while Carter moved from sixteenth to third with Austin Kaplan and Tyler Inman completing the top five.

But while both of these feature races were dandies, the Stock Car feature was even better. This race had more yellow flags and wrecked more cars than the previous two, but the racing was just remarkable as a wad of about ten cars took turns exchanging positions on the track and it seemed like nearly every lap there was a different car making a surge to the front.

The ending was spectacular with Jordan Grabouski and Damon Murty settling the issue. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and these two veterans put on a great show as they crossed over on each other, trading the lead on just about every corner. Murty made a pass to take the lead on the white flag and then Grabouski dived past again to grab the top spot. Murty dived low in turn three to move in front but then Grabouski did a diamond move off the final corner. They raced back to the line and Grabo won by the smallest of margins in a classic finish to a great race. Jimmy Gustin, who had been a player for the lead the whole race, finished a very close third over Todd Reitzler and Benji LaCrosse.

In between all this action, the Modifieds provided some spectacular heat race action with more "slide jobs" than could be counted. After all the twelve heats were totaled in points, the top ten would move directly to the feature race while everyone else gets to run heat races on Saturday.

In a post race development, the top ten in total points were called for tech following the racing action which wrapped up around Midnight. However, Ricky Thornton Jr was in the midst of a family health issue with his wife that forced him to leave immediately and he didn't stick around to have his car teched. Therefore, he was disqualified, his qualifying position was given to Jacob Murray and if Thornton wants to make the main, he will have to start at the back of a heat race on Saturday. We will see how this plays out on Saturday. I can say that I witnessed Thornton Jr changing a motor on Friday afternoon, further adding interest to the issue.

It was a great night of racing and was witnessed by a good sized crowd, especially considering it was "Friday night football night" plus it did dip down to thirty six degrees before the racing was completed. 

Sabraski Impresses at The Big O With Open Wheel Double Dip

On Friday and Saturday, October 18th and 19th, the tenth annual "Topless Nationals" was held at Wagamon's  Ogilvie Raceway near Ogilvie Minnesota. While sitting in rural countryside just East of the small town of Ogilvie, the track is in close proximity to both the Twin Cities metro area and greater Central Minnesota and also North Eastern Minnesota which makes it a perfect location to draw race cars from a far and wide area.

This would be the last race in 2019 in the state of Minnesota and with nice weather for the weekend after a couple of pretty nasty weekends in a row, lots of racers were anxious to get one last race under their belts along with race fans hoping for one more weekend of entertainment before it's time to get out  the snow blowers and shovels and put on the snow tires and dig out the "long handles."
Actually, the weather for some of the racers has already put those plans behind schedule as several of the racers on hand for this weekend report that they have already seen measurable snow and that there was still some in the ditch lines as they headed out to race this weekend.

The "Topless Nationals" was started on a whim by the Wagamon family, looking for one more fun race weekend to wrap up their season and it was started following their second year of owning the "Big O." After a couple of years of being just a rather small wrap up to the season for their local racers, the event started to take "wings" and before they knew it, it had become another in the line of big races put on at this track.

After battling with the weather last year when the race was run as a full show on a Friday to beat an incoming snow storm, the great weather this year allowed them to have two full nights of racing along with a lot of other special events as a part of the weekend, unencumbered by nasty weather.
And speaking of race cars, they had quite a few for this show which ended up challenging their all time highs for car count. The track ran five classes of racing, under broad basic rules that allowed cars from all three sanctioning bodies within towing distance to race under their own rules. The classes were the Modifieds, B Mods, Super Stocks, Street Stocks and Mod Fours.

Since this is a WISSOTA sanctioned track, the majority of the cars that were on hand were from that sanctioning body but there were cars from all parts of WISSOTA racing. A number of IMCA cars were also on hand to run in both the B Mods and Mods with just a few USRA cars on hand too. I was surprised that there weren't more USRA cars on hand when,particularly in the Modified class have a distinct advantage over cars from the other two bodies. Everyone runs their own rules except the tops must come off all the Mods and B Mods as well as the Super Stocks which is just a WISSOTA class. Thankfully, the IMCA Stock Cars were not allowed to run with the Street Stocks this year as that was just an unfair pairing. The Street Stocks had the option to remove the tops also for bonus bucks and most did while the WISSOTA Mod fours also removed their tops.

The FYE promoted Fall Nationals several weeks ago, also at Ogilvie, saw the Hornet feature rained out so that event was piggy backed on to the Saturday night show so six feature races on Saturday would complete the two day program.

As stated earlier, the car count was substantial. Twenty seven Streets, nine Mod Fours, sixty eight B Mods, thirty two Super Stocks and forty one Modifieds made up the field on Friday night. Three more cars were added to the field on Saturday, trying from the back of a B Feature plus the eight Hornets that returned for their program and the grand total for the weekend was one hundred and eighty eight cars that raced the oval.

What was most impressive was the wide area that drivers towed in from. Seven states and three Canadian Provinces were represented in the field with drivers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Michigan, Iowa and Montana along with Provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.  That gives you and idea of how big this race has become but certainly the beautiful weather helped much to pull in long distance travelers.

This race is also run as a fund raiser for Breast Cancer and Cancer awareness and along that theme, anything that can be colored pink, is. The retaining wall all the way around the track is bright pink, the corner tires are all pink, the employees are wearing pink and many of the race cars feature pink numbers along with a lot of other things.

The kids Trick or Treat in the pits before the races on Friday night in costume and most of the racers have candy and treats for them as they wander the pits. Many of the cars are decorated for the occasion with the removed tops exposing lots of lights hanging on roll cages and a variety of other decorations unique to this event. My favorite was Shane Howell's car. Known as the "Cowboy", Howell had a huge cowboy hat made out of tin that he had attached to the top of his exposed roll cage and if that didn't look goofy, I don't know what did. A number of the cars had skeletons riding along with them, or perhaps it was just old crew chiefs that they forgot to feed. Either way, there were a number of two person teams entered.

A highlight also of the final night of racing is a parade of cars with everyone on hand forming a five wide salute to the fans and motoring around the track with lights ablazing and fireworks filling the sky,  until they peel off , row by row back to the pits with the first feature race then taking place.
The Friday night program was heat races only, with a double heat race format. All drivers ran two heat races, with inverted lineups for the second go round from the first. Passing points were used and the first night totals would see the top sixteen drivers in points automatically making the main straight up from the points totals with the rest of the field set for B Features(no rung ladder) to make the mains.

The Friday night show was a mind boggling thirty eight heat races with the big field of cars and they started shortly after 7 pm and racing nearly non stop, wrapped up the show just after Midnight.
Four drivers were able to win both their heat races with Jody Bellefeuille doing so in the Modifieds, both Dave Cain and Shane Sabraski did so in the B Mods and Tim Johnson did so in the Super Stocks.

Both Cain and Sabraski do not race B Mods on a regular basis with Cain in the Tony Bahr ride that Cain put together and Sabraski driving for Randy Laage. Later there would be some complaining about Modified drivers "horning in" on the B Mods, but since all the cars race under the same set of wheels, if those drivers are able to dominate then it must have something to do with their driving ability, not that they have special privileges. However, the double heat winners would certainly be favorites based on their performance and their starting positions for Saturday night's finales.
On Saturday night, B Features for the B Mods, Supers and Modifieds set the twenty four car fields for the six main events.

The Hornet feature was up first and with only eight of the qualified cars returning, it was a quick non stop twelve lap main event that was won by Grayson Pratt in his Ford over Nate Servaty and 2019 WISSOTA national point champion Jake Smith.

Pole sitter Zach Elward won the Street Stock feature but it was not quite as straightforward as it might appear. In the early going, Elward was battling wheel to wheel with Todd Carter for the lead with Carter driving past Elward and taking over the top spot. Carter then led a few laps until Elward motored back up to challenge him. Just as the battle started to heat up again, Carter broke and was out of the contest.

The battle was then for second with Gavin Rowland and Cory Dykhoff fighting for the spot. The battle got so intense that they got together with Rowland flying into the infield. Apparently track officials couldn't decided who was at fault so both got their spots back, in an odd way of deciding the issue by not making a decision.

Elward would continue to lead but the driver on the move was former national champion Justin Vogel who came all the way from thirteenth to second as he found a fast lane up top. He moved in to challenge for the lead but ran out of time as Elward hung on to win his second big race in a row at Ogilvie. Ryan Satter also made a late charge to get third.

The Mod Four field was diminished for this late year special and Dean Larson got the win. He had a heavy battle going on with Bob Holtquist for the top spot. So heavy, in fact, that the leaders rubbed on the front chute with Holtquist going for a spin.

This time there was a call and it went in Larson's favor as he retained the lead and Holtquist decided to call it a year as he pulled to the pits. After that, Larson won easily over Forrest Foster and Justin Pogones. Larson is known for scaling the front stretch catch fence when he wins main events but the Ogilvie fence was just a bit much for the sixty something driver and he settled for a perch at half mast for his victory wave.

The most dominating performance of the night was reserved for another former national champion in Tim Johnson. Johnson has been running a limited schedule this year after recording astronomical feature win totals and races entered for the last few years but he had his Super Stock in top notch form on Saturday. He pulled away from the field and when his biggest challenger, Dave Mass, dropped out when he dumped fluid all over the track, Johnson's biggest challenge was all the lapped traffic.

With only a first lap yellow to slow the pace and with most cars running the distance, there was much lapped traffic but Johnson handled it beautifully as there were eleven cars running a lap down at the end and only eight on the lead lap as Johnson set a blistering pace and maintained it for thirty laps. Dan Nissalke finished a distant second with Dexton Koch third.

The concluding two open wheel races had a duce of a time keeping the action under the green as a combined seventeen yellows waved between the two feature races. However, when the cars were in motion there was plenty of good racing action going on.

In the B Mods, the three car battle was between Sabraski, Cain and Joey Jensen who was driving his brother's car this weekend. Sabraski continued to maintain the lead but on each of the restarts, either Cain or Jensen would challenge him severely but neither were able to make a pass.

This continued right down to the end of the race, with Sabraski dominating the three lap shootout to the finish and taking the win. Cain picked up his pace at the end and was able to secure second ahead of Jensen as the three seasoned Modified veterans finished in that order.

The MidMods saw qualifier Tom Silver scratch out of the main after a post race accident on Friday night left him with a concussion and unable to drive so Kyle Matuska was elevated to a guaranteed starting spot. 

Sabraski was the only one of the six feature winners that did not begin his event while starting on the pole and while that sounds bad, the racing was truly much better than that statistic would indicate. Jody Bellefeuille was the early leader of the Modified race and it took several laps for Sabraski to work his way up from his fifth starting spot. But once he got rolling, ,he was able to work the high and low side of the track as needed and was simply able to drive deeper into the corners than his competition and still maintain control. Slowly but surely, he pulled away from the field until he had a comfortable lead as the last ten laps ran off, the longest green flag stretch of the entire race.

It was a fitting way for Sabraski to wrap up the year with his twenty fourth feature win and first ever national title in the Modifieds after previously having won both Super Stock and Midwest Mod titles. Dave Cain picked up his second runner up finish of the night while Andy Jones drove a great race to finish third in his first time behind the wheel of the Adam Ayotte car.

Regular track announcer "RJ at the Speedway" was absent this weekend as he was out ill. Fortunately, a more than qualified replacement was found roaming the grounds as USMTS announcer and FYE Motorsports head Chris Stepan stepped in and carried the torch just fine.

With the nice weather, a very good crowd was on hand for the final event of the year at Ogilvie. There were many campers on hand for this weekend, albeit that many were using the same units that they will use for ice fishing in a few short weeks when the temperatures drop a few more degrees. I would assume that Ogilvie has a very early April opener planned for 2020 as they like to be one of the first tracks in the area to open if at all possible. Thanks to the Wagamon family and promoter Nate Fischer for their help this weekend and throughout the 2019 racing season during my visits.