Saturday night, March 9th, the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore wrapped up their second annual Southern Stampede with their third full show of the weekend. Saturday night's feature races were the highest paying events of the three night meet and everyone was focused on the finale, hoping to either continue their good fortune or turn things around, depending obviously on how the two previous nights had gone.
Thunderstorms rolled through the area overnight on Friday but by dawn on Saturday the sun was back out and everything was a "Go" for Saturday night's finale. The temperatures were the highest of the week with the afternoon high well above seventy degrees which IMCA official Jim Stannard very much approved of. The pits did have some muddy spots and several of the racers had moved locations overnight to avoid the really soupy spots but the high banked track was hard as a rock and drained off every well, not causing any kind of issues in that regard.
Seventeen cars scattered among the four classes made their first showings of the weekend including two new Modifieds as the track management expressed their pleasure at the turnout of racers in all divisions. They also announced that the number of states represented here this weekend among the participants rose to fourteen and with the word going out of what a stout weekend of racing it was, that will likely climb next year even higher.
The first dark note, however, on what had been a fine weekend of racing appeared as track conditions went down hill dramatically on Saturday night. Whether it was the driving rain overnight that threw the surface off or three nights of lots of cars racing lots of laps or even a combination of the above factors, but the track started to take rubber early and heavy and it dramatically altered the course of the feature events, and , unfortunately, not in a positive way. I observed this week and was told that this is the standard procedure for SOS to run the track hard and slick and that's how it was this week, which is fine. Thursday night's races were run on that kind of track and that whole program was dynamite. However, by the end of the night on Friday things were starting to change and the groove was becoming pretty defined and tough to leave with any success and by Saturday, even the first feature winner, Trent Gibby in the Eco Mods commented about how much rubber the track was taking and how it was making that groove fast and hard to move out of.
The Eco Mod feature was first and last year's point champion Chad King had the pole and led the opening laps. Gibby tried to drive around him on the high side and quickly learned that groove was not going to work so he dropped back in line and progressed to second as others slid out of the fast line. Eventually King too made a mistake and slid off the bottom and Gibby drove past him to take over the lead. After that he drove away in a race that was slowed only twice by yellow flags. Gibby became the only driver to sweep all three nights of feature racing action and was so dominant that the other competitors must be now scratching their heads and wondering as the regular season points start this coming weekend at SOS. Shawn McKinney also drove past King to take second with Chase Vineyard and Trevor Raney completing the top five.
The Stock Car feature took on the same character as the drivers quickly discovered that they had better be right on the tires if they wanted to succeed, even though track manage kept moving the ute tires up the track after each race. It, however, seemed to have no effect on the conditions as anyone trying to run the high side of the track just slipped farther and farther behind. Jeffrey Abbey started on the pole and he quickly took the lead. Early in the race he seemed dominant but as the laps went by, he seemed to get a bit slower and Friday night's winner Kyle Pfeifer was all over him. The train built up to about the top four running nose to tail as the white flag came out. Both Pfeifer and Kyle Falck had the opportunity on the final lap to pull a "NASCAR style bump and run" but both, to their credit, elected to play it clean and while they were glued to each other's bumper, no one tried to "bogger" the other out of line. They finished in that order with Cary White and George Egbert completing the top five.
Forty two different Sport Mods competed over the course of the weekend with several different ones showing up each night. And there was a first time winner in this class as Jared Baird's attempt to sweep did not go well. Matt Beasley started on the pole and took the early lead. Baird sat to his outside and went to the cushion as he had done the previous two nights. However, he quickly lost several spots but was saved by the yellow flag. However, he opted to make the same move on the second attempt at a start and he dropped back in the field so rapidly that reportedly track officials were checking for debris, thinking that perhaps the motor had fallen out of his car! That was not the case but eventually Baird gave up the futile attempt and called it a night. Meanwhile, Beasley continued to lead but Kyle Robinson was moving up and looking quick in the corners. All it took was one mistake by Beasley as he slip high in turn one and Robinson blew past him to take over the lead. Following him through was Dustin Robinson and soon it was a battle among the Robinson's for the win. Dustin seemed to be getting faster as Kyle was protecting the low side in the corners. Coming for the white flag, they locked up briefly but both were able to save themselves and this gave Kyle the margin he needed to complete the win ahead of Dustin. Beasley held on for third with Rowdy Day and David Bolf next in line.
An attempt was made before the Modified feature to fix the track as everyone recognized that there was an issue. They tried to water the high side particularly and this then took a few minutes to roll in, given especially how hard the track was. In my mind however, the effect was very minimal as everyone still lined up in the favored groove, although the water was just enough to bead up the loose dirt and make it quite dusty where it hadn't been before. Jason Hughes has been the master of both the track and the redraw the first two nights but on Saturday his efforts were topped by Ricky Thornton Jr, who not only was fast but started on the pole. He took the immediate lead with Hughes coming from the second row to move into second. Jason made a futile attempt to catch Thornton Jr but just like the first couple of nights, they seemed very similar in speed but on Saturday Thornton Jr had the track position. The feature went green to checkered and Thornton Jr did earn his money late as he had to steer through about a half dozen lapped cars near the end. This was Hughes' only chance but Ricky handled the slower cars like the pro he is and he maintained his lead to the finish. Chris Elliott, who has shown big speed all weekend, finished third ahead of David Murray Jr and Tanner Black.
A couple of observations include the notion that when things started to rubber up, they probably should have gone single file on the restarts as we saw that those on the outside row on restarts really got the short end of the straw and got shuffled back in the pack before they could slam their way back in line.
Also, I didn't catch the starter's name, but I thought he did a great job all weekend. He was fair on his starts, calling back those that needed to be. He was also very quick about getting the races back under green after yellows had occurred and he was very judicious with the use of the yellow. He held it until the last possible moment on a number of occasions precipitated by spins and even in several of the features he got cars to move and restart so that the yellow wasn't needed. He deserved special mention for his efforts.
Overall, it was a very good weekend of racing, despite the less that perfect completion on Saturday night. Everyone at the track was very welcoming including all the employees and officials. Even with the extra track work on Saturday the final night show was still completed by 10:30 pm as they were very good about starting on time and keeping things moving. The track announcer was very knowledgeable and they had a strong pa system so he could be easily heard. Lots of pluses about the entire operation and very few negatives. I would definitely go back again.
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