Night number two of the annual Spring Meltdown was held as scheduled on Saturday night, April 6th at the I-80 Speedway near Greenwood Nebraska. However, it took a lot of work, great cooperation from the drivers and just a pinch of good luck to get the full program completed before the promised rains hit the speedway.
For several days most weather prediction agencies were calling for rain on Saturday evening and night in the eastern Nebraska area. However, the amount and when it would actually hit was a fact that was bounced all around with just about as many different predictions as there were agencies trying to make a prediction. Most that I looked to were calling for the rains to hit between 8 pm and 10 pm so that was the time frame track officials were using to try and squeeze a show in. And it was important as the 360 Sprints were racing for $2,500 to win and the Late Models had been working for two nights trying to get into their main event, which was paying a very healthy four grand to the winner. Hobby Stocks were also on hand and they were hoping to get their first chance to race the four tenth mile in 2019 also.
The day started out beautifully with bright sunshine and temperatures over eighty degrees. That was the first time I had seen temps like that since last season as it wasn't even that warm in Arizona in January. When crossing into the pit area on Saturday, I noted that a large area outside turn three had been leveled and it looked like the top layer of material skimmed off. I thought that perhaps they were looking to expand the pit area while someone else wondered in they were getting ready to put in a cash crop. As it turns out, the material from that area was put on the track as new dirt this year. I can only wish that we could do something like that in our home area, but the only thing you would find is rocks and sand, not the fine quality dirt that they have here.
I took some time to check out a couple of the burning questions that remained from Friday night's show. The reason that Dylan Smith was disqualified after winning the feature on Friday night was that he had the wrong size throttle restricter plate on his car for the size of the motor. The SLMR has quite a few different sized plates that they use for all the different motor options that are running their series and it no doubt can get quite confusing, especially early in the season when some technical changes have been made for the new year. In any event, Smith would make a nice comeback on Saturday and finally finish sixth in the Late Model feature.
The other interesting thing I learned was when Gary Brown Jr unloaded his car to race after seemingly blowing his motor to kingdom come on Friday night. But looks can often be deceiving and in this case, instead of a blown motor he actually broke an oil line. His motor was fine but what a mess they had to clean up! In fact, he said the car wash they stopped at couldn't do the job fully and they will have to take the car home and dismember the body to clean it properly.
About 4:30 pm things went downhill rapidly. A storm, which after consulting the radar actually formed virtually right over the race track, dumped some rain for a period of time. It didn't rain hard but with the pits in the middle of the track here, it doesn't take too much moisture to send things to a screaming halt. Fortunately, the drops stopped falling and while it didn't clear up, the sky did brighten and it appeared that if the track could be run in that racing might actually take place.
Track owner Joe Kosiski took the bull by the horns, sending out all his packing equipment and just as soon as the track was OK for cars to run on, he ordered the Late Models to start wheel packing. The shocking thing was that virtually every single car in the pits cooperated and helped pack and before you know it, the track was starting to come back into form.
It did take a while to get the track in final shape and then hot laps had to take place so the first green flag finally flew at 7:22 pm, just a tad over and hour late from the scheduled 6 pm start, right after the track singing announcer Stan Cisar, led off the ceremonies. But then Joe got back on the pit pa and started directing the order of events around and strongly urging everyone to be ready to roll on the track when called and the program sped along at a high speed. With a second round of rain coming from the West, everyone was racing to get the complete show in so that everyone would have a chance at a check.
The order of events was changed and the Sprint Cars ran their twenty five lap feature first. The only significant addition for either of the featured classes was when Terry McCarl came high balling into the pit area with his 360 Sprint. He was a winner at 81 Speedway in Park City Kansas on Friday night but Saturday's show was rained out in the morning and he barreled up to I-80 to run. Given the fact that he beat a tough field of cars in Kansas, he was immediately considered a major threat to win in Greenwood too.
However, track champion Jack Dover had other thoughts. It also didn't hurt that he redrew the pole for the feature race. Although not related to Ben Dover, the legendary driver from the Tunis Speedway days, Dover has had quite a name for himself in recent years and he was on his game on this night. He sprinted away from the field and negotiated the heavy traffic beautifully. McCarl could not get past Seth Brahmer for second until later in the race and by that time, Justin Henderson had made a fine charge from the sixth row to blow by McCarl and take over second.
Dover had a full straightaway on the field when Brahmer hammered the third turn wall with just two laps to go which bunched up the field. Henderson went for broke on the start and slid under Dover for the lead temporarily but he couldn't hold it in turn two and Dover blew back past him and stretched his advantage to the finish. McCarl settled for third ahead of Matt Juhl and Clint Garner.
Then it was time for the Late Model main with Corey Zeitner leading a twenty six car field to the line. Billy Leighton Jr and Zeitner battled for the lead on the opening lap before Zeitner grabbed the spot. As he maintained the advantage, he was quickly challenged by Nick Deal who had started in the third row. Deal had his car working great on the low side and he quickly drove to the front and after a few laps, he powered under Zeitner to take over the lead.
Lapped traffic was a constant worry but Deal did a great job of weaving through the back markers and he soon had built a lead of a full straightaway. Meanwhile, the battle for second was a good one as Leighton Jr battled it out with Josh Leonard. They swapped the spot back and forth before Leonard finally secured the position with just a few laps left. Also charging was Brian Kosiski who got by Leighton Jr for third.
Deal drove a wonderful race and had most of a straightaway and several lapped cars between himself and Leonard. Andrew Kosiski rounded out the top five in a race that went nonstop and saw only one driver not finish the event.
The Hobby Stocks finished up the night as the first drops of rain started to fall. Their field was small with only thirteen of them on hand but they put on a hard race with a surprise finish and again, went green to checkered.
After leading the first lap, Hunter Wergin was passed by Kevin Bruck who then pulled away from the field. Running the very low groove, he was driving away from the pack while a good battle raged for second. Jason Fusselman moved to the high side of the track and pulled into second but it seemed that no one had anything for Bruck. Suddenly, with just a couple laps left, Bruck slowed going into turn three and then went shooting up the track as if he couldn't steer his car. Something was clearly wrong as he was quickly overtaken by several cars, nearly tagged the first turn wall and then pulled off.
The race had dropped into Fusselman's lap and he just had to hold off Roy Armstrong to get the win. Roy was banging on his rear bumper on the last tour, but couldn't make a move as Fusselman held on for the win. Jacob Harms, Wergin and Tom Myers completed the top five.
The final checkered flag flew at 9:15 pm and all their hard word was rewarded with a complete program. The drivers certainly helped themselves with the final two feature races going nonstop which obviously helped move things along. The entire operation was keyed to get the show in and they even skipped post race ceremonies so that all the competitors could get their rigs out of the infield before the rain cut loose. When everything works out and things are able to be done so that the elements can be overcome it is a very satisfying feeling for everyone and despite the dire forecasts, there was another fine crowd on hand. Congratulations to Joe and his entire staff for putting on two nights of excellent racing at one of the best facilities around.
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