Tuesday night, July 2nd, the twentieth and final Ron Little Memorial Race was held at the Stuart International Speedway in Stuart Iowa. A huge purse was being offered for all five classes of cars that normally race at Stuart, including the IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods, Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts. A large established purse was then added to by a group of fine sponsors and individuals that all wanted to see the last Little race a very big event. Apparently 2019 is a year that is offering some sort of finality as both the Little race here and Hogan Memorial at Vinton are both calling it good after this one week burst in July.
It continues hot and steamy in Iowa and with that is always the threat of thunderstorms and brief, heavy rains that almost can't be predicted as to where they will strike. Such was the case again on Tuesday with lots of threatening clouds and darkening skies very near to the speedway. My sources kept telling me that the rains were going to skirt by and miss Stuart and while it was reported to be a very near miss, once again the Mike VanGenderen "vortex" was in action and the rains all missed SIS and racing was completed as scheduled without any kinds of delays.
Cars, cars and more race cars was the theme of the night at Stuart as big fields of cars were on hand in all five classes, topped by the Modifieds that saw forty seven of them sign in to race including most of the heavy hitters from the central Iowa area along with a number of cars that I saw compete at Park Jefferson the night before as they are chasing the one week points offered on the Midwest Madness Tour. MVG says he always likes a jammed looking pit area as it makes the competitors and fans feel like they are seeing an even bigger event. Well, if that was their thinking, they were for sure liking the show on Tuesday as every available square inch of space in both the pits and overflow pits was crammed with race cars and haulers on Tuesday. They even had to resort to using the dirt road that goes to the pits and is some sort of official highway, either to the county or city but on this night, it is just another pit stall! But somehow, and I'm always amazed how adaptive the race teams are, no matter where they were pitted and how far they were from the track, everyone always seems to arrive for their race at the proper time and there are few, if any, holdups waiting for missing cars.
After a quiet hot lap session for all drivers interested, racing started at 7:35 pm with the first of nineteen qualifying races for the five classes. Now, if you can come up with a more amazing statistic than this, fire away but for me, running nineteen highly competitive heat races where the finish is of ultimate concern, and then to have only TWO yellow flags during all those heat races, that to me is almost impossible to believe, if I hadn't seen it myself. Certainly the one spin rule had much to do wit that as we saw numerous drivers spin and then accelerate away where normally they would just sit to draw the yellow. I wish I could bring some people from my area to show then how great this works so I could sell the idea locally and we wouldn't have so many race marathons caused by slow running heats plagued by yellows. But it is a tough sell in my area for sure. And even with these few yellows, we saw all the hard racing we could possibly have, with three and four wide racing, plenty of passing and no one giving an inch, yet the show moved on.
Four more B Features and we were ready for feature racing action. I wish I could say that the feature races were classics, but sometimes things just don't work out and one car dominates the show. That was the case in several of Tuesday night's mains with three dominating performances, one good two car battle and a debacle to wrap up the night with some in the field totally losing perspective of what constitutes clean racing and sportsmanship.
Buck Schafroth started on the outside pole for the Stock Car feature and he led all twenty five laps for another win for him here, where he has dominated all year after flipping in the season opener. There was only one yellow flag in the race when Bryan Snell was dumped on the front chute while battling for a top five spot. Mike Nichols chased Schafroth most of the way but was never able to get close enough to put on a stiff challenge.
Doug Smith then did virtually the same thing in the Sport Mod feature. He too started on the outside pole, jumped into the lead immediately and led all the way. Thomas Egenberger and Brayden Carter had a good battle for second with Carter making the pass briefly but then Egenberger drove back into second and finished there. Only one yellow slowed this race also.
Then it was time for the Modified thirty lap main and it was the third race in a row to maintain nearly the same pattern. In this race, Hunter Marriott started on the pole and again led for the full contest. This race ran nonstop and Marriott, while leading all the way, was challenged by lapped traffic which was heavy. However, he was flawless as the weaved both high and low to pass to slower cars. Anyone who doubted that he had the best car was shown otherwise when Marriott was forced to move up the track to get by the lapped traffic and was flawless doing so. Jeff Aikey came from tenth to finish second with a strong drive.
The Sport Compact feature saw a real good battle for the lead that carried throughout the contest. Mitchell Bunch took the early lead but was then overtaken by Chris Vannausdle for the top spot. Soon Ramsey Meyer caught up and the two race race for the lead ensued. Meyer seemed just a bit quicker but Vannausdle was giving no openings and while Meyer continued to try and slip under Vannausdle for the lead, he raced him clean and didn't lean on him. The cars were too evenly matched to try a high side move and drive around the leader, so Meyer continued to hope for an opening but Chris wouldn't make a mistake as he drove on for a close victory.
Instead of ending the evening on a high note. the last race of the night was the least memorable, due to some of the driving antics of the competitors. The race started off good enough with a tight pack of drivers racing for the top spot. However, it didn't take long before drivers started leaning on each other instead of making clean passes, and each time they hammered on each other, the intensity increased and soon things were close to losing any kind of control .
Things broke down to where there were at least two obvious and blatant "take outs" of other drivers and then those offended wanted to retaliate and soon drivers were being sent off the track while others continued to carry their vendetta on even past the checkered flag. Meanwhile, Solomon Bennett kept his nose clean, hugged the bottom lane of the track and as the other contenders sent each other either spinning or out of the groove, he just kept on driving on and before you knew it, he was in the lead. A late surge by Chuck Madden Jr saw him finish second ahead of Jack Phillips.
They were even carrying things as far as running into each other after the checkered flag and then racing into the pits at high speed, a very dangerous thing indeed. In fact, I believe that a fight would have broken out if not for the fact that guest announcer Jerry VanSickel saw what was about to occur, grabbed the pit pa system and ordered the drivers back to their pit boxes and to disperse as only Jerry can. According to the official results, no drivers were disqualified from the race which I believe was a mistake as anyone making deliberate contact after the checkered should be automatically disqualified, and there were at least two that did so. In fact, to get their attention, which clearly someone needed to, they deserve to be "set down" for a week or two to think about their dangerous and unsportsmanlike actions.
A very scary incident occurred during one of the Sport Compact heat races when a car lost a right front wheel right in front of the main grandstands. That wheel broke lose the rub bar that ran along the right side of the car and launched that bar into the air. It cleared the top of the wheel fence after hitting on the top of the fence and flew into the crowd, getting about four or five rows up into the crowd, directly in front of the announcers. Fortunately, it slammed against a railing before coming down among the spectators and while one lady was injured to the point that she had to be sent for medical attention to the hospital, it could have been worlds worse that what happened. It was a very scary scene and not one that I have seen happen for a long period of time. It just goes to show the reason why that every track has a disclaimer posted as you walk into the spectator areas.
A very good crowd was on hand and track officials managed to crowd a lot of activity into three and half hours. There was a twenty eight race program, ceremonies surrounding the Little Memorial and a full fireworks display. I'd say that everyone on hand got their monies worth on this night. And it didn't storm us out!
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