The Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 Speedway near Greenwood Nebraska started on Thursday night, July 18th. For the opening night of three, the Lucas Oil Late Model Series ran a full, $12,000 to win program. Along with them, the Malvern Bank Late Models had their highest paying program of the year with the winner receiving $5,300 as the top prize. Along with them, the Modifieds(IMCA/NASCAR) type, ran an "invitational" type program with thirty two of them on hand to run a twenty five lap main event. It was quite an opening night for such a high powered event to begin on.
Forty five Lucas Oil Late Models signed in to race, along with thirty eight Malvern Bank Late Models plus the invited Modifieds.
Of course, perhaps the biggest story on opening night was the heat, which as everyone in the Midwest knows, has and will be oppressive right through the end of the weekend. It was brutal at the track with the wind providing a little relief but really not much in the way of true comfort. I which Minnesota Late Model driver Darrell Nelson was on hand, as he told me in the steamy pits at Gondik Law Speedway on Tuesday night that it could never be too warm for him. Of course, he lives in Duluth where it could possibly still snow on the fourth of July too!
It even got so bad that I had to take a sudden break, as my legs got just too weak to hold me up. I crash landed in the Modified pits and Josh Most was kind enough to offer me a bottle of cold water and the use of their air conditioned rig if I wanted but I was afraid if I went into the cool, when I came back out I'd probably for sure have the "big one" so I opted to sit in the dirt and regain my "pins" under me. Thanks go out to Josh though, as that cold water was about the tastiest drink I ever had!
Along with being blazing hot, it was also very humid and while that was a double whammy for everyone on hand, it helped to make the race track both lightning fast and dust free, something that you would just not expect under such extreme conditions. It was a "motor eater" on this night with at least a half dozen expense power plants going up in smoke. I had asked Pat Doar earlier this week if he was going to I-80 and he said know because that track would just eat up motors and he didn't want to blow his good one up. Well, he was totally correct with that assessment. I felt sorry almost for the Modifieds as those poor little crates were racing their lungs out and rattling half way down the chutes with tongues dragging by the end of their main event as the drivers were pretty much driving them wide open into the corners.
I-80 is a big track that races more like a small bull ring with much more back and forth and side by side racing than you would normally see at a larger track like this. The Kosiski ran facility is first class in all regards and they put on a good show with all divisions seemingly treated as the top class. They didn't touch the track after the racing got going, except to scrape the walls a couple times and I'm glad they chose to not "farm" the track all night as it was fine and was almost too fast the way it was. In fact, many of the drivers are hoping that the track actually slows down a bit the rest of the weekend, but that seems dubious, given the propensity of dumping on the water and their almost "itch" to farm the surface.
Plenty of first class qualifying events led up to the three feature races. Tyler Bruening had the crowd "buzzed up" in the early going when he drove past Davenport to win the first heat race and guarantee the pole position for himself. One thing I did notice about I-80. With its size and high speeds, passing must be done in the first lap or two in the heat or not at all as the cars tend to line up after that and with all the turbulence they cause, make passing tough. Only when the mains start, more laps are run and cars and tires start to change is it then easier to make race passes.
All three feature races were top notch, with plenty of good racing and one not settled until the final corner of the race. The Lucas Oil cars did much dicing for position with several different leaders in the first half of the race, truly a rarity for big time Late Model racing these days. Eventually it boiled down to the two point leaders of the "big two"series and when Brandon Sheppard got stuck behind a slowing Shannon Buckingham, Davenport dropped inside him and drove into the lead, a position he would not give up again. This race saw lots of fighting for positions and some wild "slide jobs" at high speed that thrilled the crowd and probably got the driver's attention too. Tyler Erb and Devin Moran were unofficially crowned as the biggest "slide job throwers" of the night, but there were others tossing their cars and hopes to the wind in what was a pretty spectacular event.
The Malvern Bank Late Model race was a two car battle between Kyle Berck and Bruening, who was having a fine night in both the fender classes. He was one of six drivers that were racing in both Late Model classes with the stars of the Malvern series expected to convert their cars over and race with the Lucas group on Friday night.
Anyway, Berck drew the outside pole and that seems to be it in terms of a racing event, as Kyle is seldom caught from behind, particularly at this track. However, Bruening apparently didn't get the memo, as he pulled in behind Berck and a great two car battle took place as they put distance on the pack. After two yellows with a couple of laps completed, the last thirty three laps ran off green and it was a tough race for all.
Bruening would make his move and complete the pass and when Berck tried to respond with a "slider" that didn't work, he lost enough ground that the race was never in doubt again. In fact, Berck had to drive hard to fight off Tad Pospisil for second at the end. Mention much be made of Scott Ward who spun on lap one and went to the back of the twenty four car field. He then raced his way back up to tenth, all done under the green flag.
The Modified feature was just as spectacular with a group of about five drivers slicing and dicing for the lead. R.C. Whitwell was the early leader but he was overtaken by Jesse Sobbing for the top spot. Most, Jordan Grabouski and Jake O'Neil was all challenging as they swaps spots and lines on the track. This was a very good race too with plenty of side by side action.
A late yellow set up a four lap sprint to the finish and it was Sobbing trying to hold off O'Neil for the win. Coming for the white flag, Sobbing got just a bit high and killed his momentum and with these under powered Modifieds on this track, momentum is everything. O'Neil made a dive in turn one and took over the lead and Sobbing had no answer as Jake drove on for the win. O'Neil will be one back with the USMTS Mods on Friday night to try it all over again.
The final results show apparent third place finisher Grabouski set all the way back to sixteenth and I'm still trying to find out the reason for that. Terry Phillips, driving one of Grabo's cars, was officially third ahead of Hunter Marriott, who had to come out of a B Feature after his car wouldn't run for beans in a heat and Most who finished fifth with a banged up front end after contact with the wall. When I pointed out what seemed to be an evident scoring and timing error related to Grabouski, no one seemed to have have caught it or knew anything about it. Hours later I now notice that the error has been corrected on both the speedway's results page and also on MyRacePass.
One other odd and unexplained occurrence from the evening saw Iowa legend Jeff Aikey make his first ever appearance at I-80, winning a Malvern Bank B Feature with his IMCA car and earn a position in the main. Or so we thought. When he didn't come out for the main and another car moved up in his place, something was fishy. Turns out he was apparently DQ'd for something but his nonappearance was not explained by any of the announcers. Perhaps they didn't know either.
Overall, the racing was excellent for the opening night. Generally speaking, you do not have three classes of cars that all produce close and exciting racing across the board but that was certainly the case on Thursday. Friday night the racing should be just as interesting with the all important heats for the Lucas cars plus the USMTS Modifieds starting out the weekend. They will have to go some to keep up with the Modified show we saw on Thursday though.
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