Second round qualifying continued on Friday night at the Humboldt Speedway as the Modifieds and B Mods ran two more sets of heat races to earn points and set the running order for the feature races on Saturday night at "The Hummer."
Ninety one B Mods and sixty eight Modifieds were left operational to run on Friday and each one again ran two, ten lap heat races. After which the points for each driver were calculated, their worst race was thrown out and the totals compared. The top twelve in both divisions would be locked into Saturday night's main event while the rest will attempt to qualify via a series of events leading up to the fifty lap feature for the B Mods and the seventy five lap Modified main event. Through the contributions of a couple of generous drivers/businesses the Modified feature will now play twelve grand to win, up by two G's.
The track held moisture a little bit longer on Friday than it had on Thursday and while the first heat races were blinding fast, the track also had considerably more "chop" to it than it had on the opening night. Despite several attempts by heavy equipment to groom the corners, the track definitely had more "character" to it than on Thursday and most drivers commented that it was more challenging to drive. Despite the fact that the track looks firm and hard from the stands, a number of drivers also reported that the racing surface was quite soft, likely due to the extreme Winter that southeast Kansas, like most of the Midwest, has had to endure.
The racing started right out with a bang as the opening rounds of B Mod heats saw the field try and tear each other apart and the drivers seemed to have "dropped the gloves" with results seemingly more important on Friday. The first go round was tough on the equipment with a number of DNF's while things went much smoother for the final set of heats, albeit missing a number of cars that couldn't be fixed in time for the last set of heats with a relatively quick turn around time.
There were a number of close finishes and stirring drives to the front as even the last race of the night capped off a good night of racing when Kyle Strickler used the top side to drive past Kenny Wallace right at the end of the event to gain the win. Strickler has been very impressive in a brand new Longhorn chassis that he built for North Dakota's Troy Giralamo that the "G Man" will take over following this race.
It was no surprise that Ryan Gustin gained the pole position on Saturday night for the Mods as he has looked very tough all weekend. However, it won't be easy going for him as others like Jake O'Neil, Jason Hughes, Zack VanderBeek and others have also looked strong. And seventy five laps is a long race for these types of cars that are built more for short speed contests and not long distance races which I consider seventy five laps to be.
The results were perhaps a bit more surprising in the B Mods with local driver Dustin Daniels on the pole for their fifty lap main event. He has been driving very aggressively so far, to the point that he got a rolled up black flag waved at him twice on Thursday night but managed to escape the starter's wrath any further. Starting outside of him will be western Iowa Sport Mod driver Cody Thompson who has been both smooth and fast and while he hasn't probably drawn much attention from the fans, has put together consistent finishes to gain a great starting position.
More than anything else that happened on Friday night, folks in the stands will probably longer remember the violent crash that marred the third Modified heat in the first set of heats. Richard Mueller of Jackson Wyoming got crowded into the wall on the back chute on the opening lap of the heat race. The car climbed the wall and then dug into the track, executing a series of barrel rolls down the back chute that were so quick that I lost count of how many times he actually turned over. In the middle of this mayhem, the field came barreling down on him and Terry Phillips, with no where to go, clipped his spinning car and turned over himself. Phillips was fine and climbed out on his own while Mueller took several minutes to gain his bearings in what was one of the most violent Modified crashes I have seen in quite a while. He tried to walk to the ambulance with folks holding him up on all sides but he couldn't make it and needed the gurney brought to him. I believe the ambulance stayed on the grounds as the race quickly resumed so his injuries were apparently not severe. It was a very scary looking incident however but examination of the car post race revealed that the cage held up well.
Phillips reported that in all his years of racing that this was the first time he had ever ended up "on his lid" so I guess he was about due. However, he was not able to quickly fix his car and forfeited the pole for the second round of heats as he was apparently on his way back to Springfield and done for the weekend.
Mike Harrison also had a miserable night as he was involved in an early wreck and also forfeited the pole for a second round heat, which likely ended his weekend too. Invading stars Wallace and McKinney have also found the going tough.
It was reported that drivers are on hand from twenty one states and two Canadian Provinces for this show so every attempt will be made to get the finale completed on Saturday as many drivers have to leave on Sunday, whether they race or not on Saturday. Right now, as I complete this, it is raining rather steady out in the local area so we will keep our fingers crossed.
Every year the Whitworth family makes improvements to "The Hummer" and this year they have expanded the scoring and broadcast tower. There are also plans to finally get that badly needed scoreboard erected too.
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