Saturday night, July 20th, the Silver Dollar Nationals wrapped up at the I-80 Speedway near Greenwood Nebraska. The record heat finally broke to some degree, with the temperatures still being blazing hot but the breeze was more pronounced and a drier wind than had been blowing earlier in the week. Unfortunately, the strong winds were for the first time this week blowing directly into the main grandstand and despite James Essex's claims that their is no dust at I-80, he obviously was hanging out inside the press box and not out in the grandstands where we were getting "sandblasted". But it was no one's fault as they had the track saturated again and just one of those things that sometimes as a race fan you have to deal with.
Several preliminary events in each class set up the field for the two huge feature races. The Late Model Showdown provided the first difficult decisions for three drivers who qualified for the main in they would opt out of their Showdown pay to get into the main event. Both Terry Phillips and Jake Timm said yes and were allowed to tail the field, while Billy Moyer Sr accepted the cash and loaded his car up, which kind of indicates where his racing program is at these days.
The two feature races were as different as day and night but both provided plenty of thrills and lasting memories. The Late Model eighty lapper was absolutely spectacular with more happenings going on than I could ever possible keep track of and relate. Suffice it to say that there were only a couple of cars at the end that didn't look like they had been in a war.
Bobby Pierce, I would think, must have been physically "whipped" after that race as he drove a line that was very demanding and resulted in hitting the outside wall more times that could be calculated easily. However, even with all the pounding his car never gave up the ghost and he was able to outfight several other drivers just as willing to get aggressive like he was. Suffice to say that there were some hard feelings after the race was completed and I think some of the actions taking by drivers and some of the comments made will reappear at some point down the line, perhaps in the form of some pay back action. However, it can not be overlooked that Pierce simply would not let his car fail him and that he carried it to victory with a performance that will be remembered for quite some time.
In the USMTS Modifieds, the driving style of winner Rodney Sanders was just the opposite of that displayed by Pierce but just as effective. Sanders rode the low and middle lines of the track unless he had to move up the track to lap cars, but he was in complete control of the Modified forty lap main and was never really challenged at any point. He was by far the class of the field. I felt sorry for Terry Phillips who ran second the whole way until tearing a wheel off with only three laps to go. The late race restart could have been troublesome to Sanders but he simply drove away from the field the last three laps. The Modified feature had only three yellow flags while the Late Model feature had three times as many plus one although their race was twice as long and they started sight more cars.
In an unusual quirk, there were six cars with the #1 that made the Late Model feature which would have been a nightmare back in the old hand scoring days.
Before the feature started, Joe Kosiski announced the plans of the track relative to next year's race and a considerable increase in the purse will be offered next year with bonuses at each ten lap mark and all drivers that race will receive at least an extra grand over this year. He stated that there would be no increase in ticket prices however, the top six rows of the general admission seating would be converted over to pre race ticket sales which means that that management will be pocketing some more money before the race actually is held. No announcement was made in terms of what the support divisions will be and on what days they will race. The crowds, by the way, were huge all three nights and supported the event despite the brutal conditions.
Wrapping things up, I'm positive about two things from this weekend's racing. I am positive that the Late Model feature will be one of the top five mains that I will get to see all year and I'm also positive that the last three nights that I spent at the track were the three hottest racing nights that I have ever attended.
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