Hello again. I am back at the site after a considerable time off I see. Actually, it's been over a month since I had anything to offer here. That has been because I have been doing a steady diet of WISSOTA auto racing during that time period with lots of special events and year end specials as the season up North wraps up. For those that are interested in learning what tracks I have been to and how things are going in the northern region with our year end special events, you could always buy an on-line subscription to ALL THE DIRT Racing News, which is the official WISSOTA paper and covers all the racing on the WISSOTA region as well as offering commentary from a number of veteran reporters from all around the WISSOTA region which stretches from Montana and Wyoming through the Dakotas East as well as parts of a couple of Canadian provinces.
The source of today's report is my attendance at the first night of the twenty first annual Featherlite Fall Jamboree at the Deer Creek Speedway just North of Spring Valley Minnesota. Long a host of many big events, the Jamboree found a home here many years ago and has been going strong here ever since. Set in an area that has a number of strong local teams, Spring Valley and Deer Creek have become one of the mecca's of Modified racing in the Midwest and their year is always wrapped up with the Jamboree.
As has been the case so often this year, rain threatened to mess up the schedule of the Jamboree but the officials prevailed, the skies started to clear and the racing went on as scheduled on Thursday night. They received over an inch of rain in the overnight and morning hours of Thursday but the track drains very well and you would have not have noticed that they even had rain, except for some minor wet spots in the pits. The Queensland family has much equipment that they use to prepare the track on a regular basis so they are old hands at bringing back a track to race that has seen much tougher weather than Thursday morning provided. They did have to hold some of the haulers from entering the pits for a period of time until things dried up but it did not delay the racing at all.
As usual, Deer Creek always draws a stout field of cars for this year end event which also wraps up the Hunt for the Casey's Cup and the Arnold Motor Supply Iron Man Challenge for the B Mods. Sixty B Mods and sixty six Modifieds signed in to race for this year's event. That is a fine field of cars but reflective of the times, it is also about twenty less cars in each class than have been racing at this event in recent years and USMTS Media man Jeff Nunn told me that he believed that this would be the lowest car count in the Modifieds for a Jamboree. However, there were still plenty of good cars on hand and more than enough to provide a great night of racing in both classes.
Qualifying consisted of a series of heat races for both classes using the passing points format that USMTS has most always used. A series of B Features for both classes and a twenty four car Non Qualifiers race was also held before the two main events which both start thirty cars. While thirty cars seems like a lot, this high banked and wide track can handle thirty cars easily and Saturday night I believe that they even start them three wide.
Early action saw Jake Timm and Ryan Gustin exchange a series of nasty slide jobs on each other that carried on over to past the checkered flag. As seen was the first recorded tie for the USMTS Series when Adam Hensel and Rodney Sanders crossed the line and the transponders showed it as a tie, even broken down to the thousandth of a second. While we know there is no such thing as a true tie, they didn't have the equipment on hand to determine just who had won so they called it a tie and gave the win to Hensel because he was leading the white flag lap. I'm not sure that's the fairest way to settle that, but I'm sure that no contingencies have been prepared for such an unlikely scenario.
The B Mod feature was first and it turned out to be an excellent battle for the win. The action was very heavy right from the beginning and a wad of about six drivers were fighting for the lead. Dan Hovden threw a nasty slider on Parker Hale as the front two cars battled. Hale decided not to lift and he got into the back of Hovden, triggering a massive pile up that eliminated several cars and gave the top two spots to Kris Jackson and Jim Chisholm.
Jackson pulled away and it looked like he would dominate the race. However, perhaps his lack of experience at this track hurt him as he was running the bottom and the top side of the track started to get dominant. Jackson continued to work low and Chisholm, with his experience here, was able to drive around Jackson and take over the lead. By the time that Jackson realized what was going on, it was too late and his move up to the top side of the track just let him hold on to second as Chisholm made no mistakes and drove on for the win.
The talented sixteen year old has had a great season and looks to have a very promising career ahead of him. Ben Moudry nipped Jared Boumeester on the last lap to take third and cut into the Iron Man point lead that Boumeester has retained with Brandon Hare rounding out the top five.
Ramirez chased Joel Alberts for the first six laps of the Modified feature before Ramirez was able to get by and take over the lead. Dereck would lead the rest of the race for the win. At certain points, Sanders would seen to cut into that lead but then Ramirez would pick up the pace and put more distance between the two of them once again. They would be separated by quite some distance from the rest of the pack as they fought their own battle for the win.
However, Ramirez was in control on this night and he drove home for the win without there being a serious challenge to him. Brandon Davis made quite a charge as he came from twelfth to finish a strong third with Hunter Marriott and Zack VanderBeek rounding out the top five. At one point it looked like Zack was going to be a real factor as he was closing on both the leaders but he did fade back slightly at the end.
The Modified feature had only two yellows for minor spins and the last twenty six laps clicked off with out a slow down. It was a good way to start off a multi day show as there was little damage to most of the cars and the repairs should have been more like chassis tweaks to increase performance.
There was a good sized crowd on hand for the opening night of this three night stand and while it wasn't a "blockbuster" crowd by any means, it was indeed just the first night of three, some people had to work and until the afternoon and the clearing, there was some question about whether or not they would even race. Tons of campers were on hand and the rest of the weekend should just get bigger and better as these two titles are settled but it will likely come down to Saturday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment