Logan Anderson Tops Shiverfest List of Winners

I caught a break this racing weekend as for once, the weather shined on me while it certainly wasn't quite as nice for some of the tracks trying to get shows in as scheduled. But one man's famine is another's feast, and on this weekend, the stars were aligned in my favor.

After witnessing two excellent nights of racing at Marshalltown, I was able to take advantage of a rain out by Pepsi Lee County Speedway on Saturday for their annual Shiverfest and attend that event on Sunday afternoon. I'm sure they would have rather ran off their program as scheduled, but there were a few of us in attendance that were able to take advantage of the situation and attend one more race on this last full weekend of October. And it is seldom to be able to get three races in on such a late date in the year.

I attended the first few Shiverfests when it was almost absurd to even schedule a race so late in the year. My how things have changed, as now this isn't even the last race of the season in the state of Iowa! The racing calendar keeps getting longer and longer and while I'm not complaining, for many people it has led to an adjustment in their priorities with them picking and choosing more on what races they will attend.

As it was for the first two nights of the weekend, it was a beautiful day for racing at Donnellson on Sunday and while it was cool, it was still very nice to be outdoors so late in the racing season and have that glorious sun shining down.

A good field of cars was on hand with ninety seven signing in to race and while that wasn't an overwhelming number, it was just about right to allow track officials to run off a quick and brisk racing program so as to allow folks to get home early and prepare for the dreading Monday morning experience. There were even seven racers that participated in the program at Marshalltown on Saturday night that made the last minute decision like I did to haul down to Lee County on Sunday and get another race in.

Making a rare Modified run on Sunday was Mike VanGenderen who has been busy promoting races to the point of not allowing himself time to do any racing of his own. He reported that he was very happy with his first year of promoting at Stuart and that the car counts were significantly higher than at any time previously in Stuart history. He said that the 2020 racing schedule should be very similiar to this year's with several special events and the appearance of the Late Models for a few events as they were this year. He was strong in his belief that picking Wednesday night was the best option for his track and that it would certainly stay as a Wednesday night track in 2020, which was good news for someone like me trying to fill in those midweek races. Mike also reported that he has been hired to be a track consultant for the Duel in the Desert and will be spending the week working at the Dirt Track in whatever capacity management decides to use him.

It was also announced that Bruce Hanford would be hanging up his helmet after this season is over, completing forty one years of racing in the Quad Cities area and surrounding tracks. When I first attended races in the state of Iowa, Bruce Hanford was one of the star attractions in those years of the past, and he has remained so for the entire period of his racing career. It will be strange to not see the #61 car in action any more.

Look for an announcement sometime today(if it hasn't happened already) on who the new promoter at Maquoketa will be for 2020. I think folks will be pleased on who the Fair Board there has selected.

There were lots of Halloween type activities going on before the race program started on Sunday with hay rides through the pits to watch the teams as they prepared their cars, trick or treating in the infield before the show, box car races on the front chute and lots of people in costumes. It brought a fun and family type atmosphere to the final race program here of 2020.

No B Feature races were required as management opted to start everyone in the five main events of the day. This made for a crowded field in the Sport Compacts with an event high twenty nine of them signing in for racing action, of which twenty six were still running to start the main.

The track was heavy and just a bit choppy for the early qualifying events but they tilled the track before the mains and while this helped to open up the high groove somewhat, the track was still holding a lot of moisture which made it very fast and totally dust free, despite racing the prelims under a bright October sun.

The twenty six car Sport Compact main was up first and while the stats would show that Jason Ash would lead all laps, it wasn't quite as simple as it might sound. He was pressuring for most of the race with primary contenders Trent Orwig and Codey Phillips both ending up dropping out of the race as the attrition rate stood at 50% before the final checkered waved. One of the toughest flips of the season was executed by Ricky Miller Jr who went high and hard in turn number one but was uninjured.

Ash drove on despite the stoppages to take the win with Jeffery Delonjay and Cody Staley finishing behind him.

The Stock Car feature was filled primarily with local, weekly racers as for some reason there weren't many out of town, non regulars who showed up to run in this class. And the outcome was settled early when John Oliver Jr found a hole on the low side of the pack, drove from seventh into the lead early and then just drove away from the field. Abe Huls eventually got to second and with a long green flag period in this race, had time to cut into the Oliver Jr advantage but as hard as Abe tried, it was Oliver Jr who had the fastest car on this day. "Big Daddy" Jason Cook would complete the top three.

The Late Model feature had much the same scenario as the Stock Cars. Nick Marolf started on the pole and led from green to checkered for the win. This race ran nonstop and while Chad Holladay tried his best to cut into the Marolf lead, it was Nick who comfortably led the whole way. Ray Guss Jr surprised by being on hand and he drove Lynn Richards' car to a third place finish.

The Modified feature saw rookie driver Daniel Fellows take the early lead as he battled with Derek Thompson(one of  only two Badger state drivers on hand). They went back and forth for the lead with Tyler Madigan, Jeff Waterman, Denny Eckrich and VanGenderen all battling right behind them. Madigan was able to put the best pressure on and he appeared just ready to make a move for the lead when Fellows suddenly slowed on the back chute.

He had broken the rear suspension and while Madigan got hung up behind him as Fellows slowed, Echrich made a great move to drive into second and then blew past Thompson who had grabbed the lead through the scramble. After that, Eckrich just motored away from the field as his rare outing in a Modified led to a feature win. Thompson and Madigan trailed.

The best was saved for last as the Sport Mods wrapped up the night with an exciting eighteen lap main event. Logan Anderson took the early lead but was soon challenged by Austen Becerra for the top spot. They battled back and fort with Becerra moving into the top spot. Both Brayton Carter and Colton Livezey were challengers until both broke and left the track.

Becerra continued to lead but on a restart, Anderson was able to get back around him and take over the lead. Suddenly, Jason Roth became a contender and he moved into second and put heavy pressure on Anderson for the lead. They battled it out on the last lap with contact between them on the back chute, only as a result of just plain, good old hard racing. Both lost control and it was Anderson who regained momentum first and he was able to drive across the line for the win with Roth and Becerra close behind. It was a good and competitive way to wrap up the season at Pepsi Lee County.

The show concluded in the early evening hours and was a quick one as everyone cooperated with moving things along and other than a medical emergency that stopped the action for a bit, it was a tight run program.

Thanks to Brian Gaylord and the whole staff at Pepsi Lee County Speedway for a nice welcome to an unannounced guest and particularly to Brian Neal for the awesome help with line ups and names. I look forward to catching a race here in 2020 before October but also hope that Shiverfest continues for the years to come. 

Grabouski Dominates for World Victory

Saturday night, October 26th , the World Nationals would conclude at the Marshalltown Speedway. Final round qualifying would take place for the Modifieds to set the field for the fifty lap, ten grand to win main event while the other three classes would return to run a second complete program of the weekend.

 

Despite all the hard racing of Friday night, all the Modifieds entered in the event would return except Ricky Thornton Jr following his post race issues from Friday night. A strong field of cars would also be on hand for the other three classes with over twenty new cars on hand that did not race on Friday night. 

Racing proved to be just as dramatic through the various qualifying sessions as it had been on Friday night, with all four classes racing extremely hard to either make the big show or qualify well for the other three feature races to be presented. The only marked difference was that the track would look much more like a normal Marshalltown track in that it was much slicker and slower than it had been on Friday night. Of course, that is not necessarily a bad thing at all as the racing continued to be side by side but just not at the perhaps daring speeds that we had seen on Friday night. 

Five heat races and a B Feature weeded the Modifieds down to the twenty four that would vie for the big bucks. Of note during one of the heat races was an exciting little tangle between Ken Schrader and Marcus Yarie that proved to be interesting. Schrader was pretty quiet during the show on Friday but his desire was as great as anyone's to make the main and when he felt that Yarie had cut him off just one too many times as they raced off corner four in that heat race, he responded by diving inside Yarie in turn three and running him right up into the dingle weeds at the top of the track until Yarie spun. Schrader then drove on to second in the heat and Yarie had to race a B Feature. Interestingly, Yarie would start the main directly behind Schrader but I observed no more issues between the two in that race and Schrader would advance all the way from twentieth to ninth at the finish. 

The fifty lapper would put an explanation point on a great racing season for Jordan Grabouski as he led from start to finish to dominate the race and take the ten grand back to Nebraska with him. He had earned the pole position and took the early lead over Richie Gustin and Jeff Aikey. Aikey would apply the most pressure in the early going , several times nearly getting by Grabo coming off turn two. However, Grabouski was tempering his pace as he knew that fifty laps is a lot of laps and he was saving his car for the end of the race. 

Tom Berry Jr was another challenger as he came up from the sixth row to battle for the lead and later in the race it was Joel Rust that applied the heavy pressure. 

The race was red flagged at the twenty lap mark when Bone Larson took a wild ride off the third turn. He was transported for evaluation of a back issue to a local hospital which resulted in a delay for the ambulance. I guess this situation would highlight my only issue of any kind with Marshalltown and that is I would like to see either a wall or a rail around the track to keep the cars from flying off the high banks as speed like they occasionally do. Launching off these big corners at speed can be a very dangerous thing and my druthers would be to keep the cars on the track. 

The restart saw Aikey have trouble and he dropped a full row on the green which would cause him to be snorting mad after the event due to what he felt was a very poor restart. However, Grabo continued to lead with Rust putting on very heavy pressure. There were several times when it looked like Rust would make the pass but each time Grabouski would hold on. 

However, as the laps ran off, Grabo started to draw away as he apparently had saved something for the end and Rust was not able to maintain his pace toward the end of the event. Grabouski would take the win with Rust, Gustin, Cayden Carter and Aikey completing the top five. 

Actually, Grabouski had a good shot at another double win except for some overly enthusiastic moves by another driver on a late restart in the Stock Car feature. Damon Murty had moved up from the third row to take the lead in the Stock Car feature and looked to be the class of the field until Grabouski started putting the pressure on him. The race looked like it might be a shootout at the end after the first yellow of the race flew with only four laps to go. 

Grabouski chose the outside for the Deleware restart but on the green, the car inside him decided to move all the way up the track to the wall despite certainly knowing that the outside lane was already filled. Grabouski was shoved up into the wall and his c ar was damaged and he limped to the pits, done for the event. 

Murty then drove away from the field for the win with Josh Mroczkowski, Elijah Zevenbergen, Jeremy Christians and Todd Reitzler following Murty home. 

The Sport Mods saw Cody Thompson put on another powerful performance as he drove around Brandon Schmitt and Kyle Olson in the early going and then led the rest of the twenty lapper for the win. He was flying and pulled away for a comfortable win in a race that was stopped only twice for yellow flags. Kyle Olson and Schmitt stayed in those positions the rest of the race with Tony Olson and Austin Kaplan completing the top five. 

A double win weekend was completed in the Hobby Stocks by Kaden Reynolds after he was able to get around Eric Stanton for the win. Stanton led the majority of laps in the race with Reynolds following closely behind and putting heavy pressure on as they raced on the top side of the high banking. 

Reynolds was very close and with just a few laps left, Stanton slipped over the banking and gave Reynolds the lead which Kaden held on to for the rest of the event. Stanton would eventually drop out of the race and a strong running Jason Fusselman would come up from the fourth row to finish second. Miciah Hildebaugh would finish in front of Kansas driver Cody Williams for third. Austin Mehmen came back from a DQ in his heat race to race from twentieth to complete the top five. 

Just as on Friday night, the show would roll along at a crisp pace with lots of racing and few yellow flags throughout the night. With the temperatures dropping by the minute, track officials didn't spend a lot of time with needless pomp and circumstance before throwing the green flag and kept the interviews short and to the point, thus keeping the show moving. The final checkered flag waved at just around 9:30 pm and marked the end of two nights of outstanding short track racing. It was as good a weekend of racing as any seen all Summer. Thanks to Toby Kruse and to Jerry Van Sickle for always entertaining us and to all the other track employees for a job well done. 

Grabouski Nips Murty in World Nationals Prelim at Marshalltown

Friday night October 25th, the rescheduled World Nationals kicked off at the Marshalltown Speedway with a spectacular night of racing in all four classes that appeared. No words can do true justice to the tremendous action we saw in what was just about the best racing program of the year I have seen to this point.

It was qualifying night for the Modifieds for their ten grand to win, fifty lap main event to be held on Saturday night. Along with the Modifieds, a full show was also held for the Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks and none of the support classes(a term that probably should not be used to describe them) disappointed in any way as there was great racing across the board in all divisions.

One hundred and forty eight cars signed in to race in the four classes provided and while the Modified count was perhaps just a bit smaller than was expected, there were still forty seven of them on hand to battle it out and try to make the main. Cars were on hand from twelve different states including three drivers all the way from Pennsylvania with Mods plus a Stock Car. To be considered in the car counts in all classes is the large amount of farmers out in the fields and unavailable to either race or attend the races.

The program included a full show of heats, B Features and mains for three classes plus a double go round of Modifieds that saw them earn both finishing and passing points as they tried to make the main.

The track was somewhat  different than normal in that it was much heavier due to all the rain in recent weeks. The infield and pits were quite muddy and the track prep crew spent most of the day pounding the track as it was quite moist. It would later prove to be blinding fast, so add in the increased speed of the night and the apparent abandon of some to drive as if their hair was on fire due to it likely being the last race weekend for most, and you have the formula for some memorable action. And the racing did not disappoint. Yet, with all the tremendously hard racing and too much action to even report, there were only just a handful of yellow flags waved as between the racing mentality here of moving when you spin and the one spin rule in force, the races just seem to keep on moving, no matter what the situation or circumstances. Once in a great while, someone gets gypped due to bad circumstances, but overall all, it makes the program move so much better and is so much better for the fans, period.

The three feature races were run after the first set of Modified heats and following the B Features that were necessary for the Stock Cars and Sport Mods. Hobby Stocks were up first and all that were still operable after the heats were allowed to run the main event which meant that twenty three would take the green for the twenty lap main.

This race saw a great battle between Kaden Reynolds and Dylan Nelson for the win. Reynolds was the early leader after starting on the pole position and he fought off Micah Hidlebaugh and Seth Janssen in the early going. Nelson would advance quickly from his tenth starting spot and join what was an intense race for the lead. Two early yellow flags kept the field bunched and Nelson made his move, ducking low and passing for the lead.

However, it wasn't long before his car started to show steam as he was having a cooling issue and the question was, would the race end before he ran out of water. The red light on the dash was visible as he ran into turn one, but he chose to keep his foot to the floor as pack of cars swarmed around him.

Finally, with only a few laps left, his motor started making very bad sounds and he quickly headed over the bank into the pits, and gave the lead back to Reynolds. Caden was able to hold off a charging Solomon Bennett to get the win with Hidlebaugh, Jason Fusselman and Wayne Gifford trailing.

Fusselman had provided some entertaining moments earlier when a yellow was thrown for him for his rear bumper dragging. Even though it appeared to be hanging by a thread, track workers wrestled with it and couldn't pull it off so he was sent to the pits. However, as he roared away from the workers and headed for the pits, the bumper fell off all by itself and Jason was flagged back on to the track and given his position back.

Incredibly, following the Reynolds victory, a second rookie driver was the winner of a main when Dylan VanWyk led from start to finish to win the Sport Mod feature. He fought off Jason Roth and Tyler Soppe in the early going for the lead until both drivers had trouble on lap twelve and two of the top five runners were then eliminated.

This left VanWyk to fight off the two top chargers of the night, Cody Thompson and.  Brayden Carter. Both had started deep in the field but had made great moves toward the front of the pack and the last several laps saw both try and dislodge VanWyk from the lead. However, the impressive young driver from Osky held off all challenges to take the win. Thompson ended up coming from nineteenth to second while Carter moved from sixteenth to third with Austin Kaplan and Tyler Inman completing the top five.

But while both of these feature races were dandies, the Stock Car feature was even better. This race had more yellow flags and wrecked more cars than the previous two, but the racing was just remarkable as a wad of about ten cars took turns exchanging positions on the track and it seemed like nearly every lap there was a different car making a surge to the front.

The ending was spectacular with Jordan Grabouski and Damon Murty settling the issue. A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish and these two veterans put on a great show as they crossed over on each other, trading the lead on just about every corner. Murty made a pass to take the lead on the white flag and then Grabouski dived past again to grab the top spot. Murty dived low in turn three to move in front but then Grabouski did a diamond move off the final corner. They raced back to the line and Grabo won by the smallest of margins in a classic finish to a great race. Jimmy Gustin, who had been a player for the lead the whole race, finished a very close third over Todd Reitzler and Benji LaCrosse.

In between all this action, the Modifieds provided some spectacular heat race action with more "slide jobs" than could be counted. After all the twelve heats were totaled in points, the top ten would move directly to the feature race while everyone else gets to run heat races on Saturday.

In a post race development, the top ten in total points were called for tech following the racing action which wrapped up around Midnight. However, Ricky Thornton Jr was in the midst of a family health issue with his wife that forced him to leave immediately and he didn't stick around to have his car teched. Therefore, he was disqualified, his qualifying position was given to Jacob Murray and if Thornton wants to make the main, he will have to start at the back of a heat race on Saturday. We will see how this plays out on Saturday. I can say that I witnessed Thornton Jr changing a motor on Friday afternoon, further adding interest to the issue.

It was a great night of racing and was witnessed by a good sized crowd, especially considering it was "Friday night football night" plus it did dip down to thirty six degrees before the racing was completed. 

Sabraski Impresses at The Big O With Open Wheel Double Dip

On Friday and Saturday, October 18th and 19th, the tenth annual "Topless Nationals" was held at Wagamon's  Ogilvie Raceway near Ogilvie Minnesota. While sitting in rural countryside just East of the small town of Ogilvie, the track is in close proximity to both the Twin Cities metro area and greater Central Minnesota and also North Eastern Minnesota which makes it a perfect location to draw race cars from a far and wide area.

This would be the last race in 2019 in the state of Minnesota and with nice weather for the weekend after a couple of pretty nasty weekends in a row, lots of racers were anxious to get one last race under their belts along with race fans hoping for one more weekend of entertainment before it's time to get out  the snow blowers and shovels and put on the snow tires and dig out the "long handles."
Actually, the weather for some of the racers has already put those plans behind schedule as several of the racers on hand for this weekend report that they have already seen measurable snow and that there was still some in the ditch lines as they headed out to race this weekend.

The "Topless Nationals" was started on a whim by the Wagamon family, looking for one more fun race weekend to wrap up their season and it was started following their second year of owning the "Big O." After a couple of years of being just a rather small wrap up to the season for their local racers, the event started to take "wings" and before they knew it, it had become another in the line of big races put on at this track.

After battling with the weather last year when the race was run as a full show on a Friday to beat an incoming snow storm, the great weather this year allowed them to have two full nights of racing along with a lot of other special events as a part of the weekend, unencumbered by nasty weather.
And speaking of race cars, they had quite a few for this show which ended up challenging their all time highs for car count. The track ran five classes of racing, under broad basic rules that allowed cars from all three sanctioning bodies within towing distance to race under their own rules. The classes were the Modifieds, B Mods, Super Stocks, Street Stocks and Mod Fours.

Since this is a WISSOTA sanctioned track, the majority of the cars that were on hand were from that sanctioning body but there were cars from all parts of WISSOTA racing. A number of IMCA cars were also on hand to run in both the B Mods and Mods with just a few USRA cars on hand too. I was surprised that there weren't more USRA cars on hand when,particularly in the Modified class have a distinct advantage over cars from the other two bodies. Everyone runs their own rules except the tops must come off all the Mods and B Mods as well as the Super Stocks which is just a WISSOTA class. Thankfully, the IMCA Stock Cars were not allowed to run with the Street Stocks this year as that was just an unfair pairing. The Street Stocks had the option to remove the tops also for bonus bucks and most did while the WISSOTA Mod fours also removed their tops.

The FYE promoted Fall Nationals several weeks ago, also at Ogilvie, saw the Hornet feature rained out so that event was piggy backed on to the Saturday night show so six feature races on Saturday would complete the two day program.

As stated earlier, the car count was substantial. Twenty seven Streets, nine Mod Fours, sixty eight B Mods, thirty two Super Stocks and forty one Modifieds made up the field on Friday night. Three more cars were added to the field on Saturday, trying from the back of a B Feature plus the eight Hornets that returned for their program and the grand total for the weekend was one hundred and eighty eight cars that raced the oval.

What was most impressive was the wide area that drivers towed in from. Seven states and three Canadian Provinces were represented in the field with drivers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Michigan, Iowa and Montana along with Provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.  That gives you and idea of how big this race has become but certainly the beautiful weather helped much to pull in long distance travelers.

This race is also run as a fund raiser for Breast Cancer and Cancer awareness and along that theme, anything that can be colored pink, is. The retaining wall all the way around the track is bright pink, the corner tires are all pink, the employees are wearing pink and many of the race cars feature pink numbers along with a lot of other things.

The kids Trick or Treat in the pits before the races on Friday night in costume and most of the racers have candy and treats for them as they wander the pits. Many of the cars are decorated for the occasion with the removed tops exposing lots of lights hanging on roll cages and a variety of other decorations unique to this event. My favorite was Shane Howell's car. Known as the "Cowboy", Howell had a huge cowboy hat made out of tin that he had attached to the top of his exposed roll cage and if that didn't look goofy, I don't know what did. A number of the cars had skeletons riding along with them, or perhaps it was just old crew chiefs that they forgot to feed. Either way, there were a number of two person teams entered.

A highlight also of the final night of racing is a parade of cars with everyone on hand forming a five wide salute to the fans and motoring around the track with lights ablazing and fireworks filling the sky,  until they peel off , row by row back to the pits with the first feature race then taking place.
The Friday night program was heat races only, with a double heat race format. All drivers ran two heat races, with inverted lineups for the second go round from the first. Passing points were used and the first night totals would see the top sixteen drivers in points automatically making the main straight up from the points totals with the rest of the field set for B Features(no rung ladder) to make the mains.

The Friday night show was a mind boggling thirty eight heat races with the big field of cars and they started shortly after 7 pm and racing nearly non stop, wrapped up the show just after Midnight.
Four drivers were able to win both their heat races with Jody Bellefeuille doing so in the Modifieds, both Dave Cain and Shane Sabraski did so in the B Mods and Tim Johnson did so in the Super Stocks.

Both Cain and Sabraski do not race B Mods on a regular basis with Cain in the Tony Bahr ride that Cain put together and Sabraski driving for Randy Laage. Later there would be some complaining about Modified drivers "horning in" on the B Mods, but since all the cars race under the same set of wheels, if those drivers are able to dominate then it must have something to do with their driving ability, not that they have special privileges. However, the double heat winners would certainly be favorites based on their performance and their starting positions for Saturday night's finales.
On Saturday night, B Features for the B Mods, Supers and Modifieds set the twenty four car fields for the six main events.

The Hornet feature was up first and with only eight of the qualified cars returning, it was a quick non stop twelve lap main event that was won by Grayson Pratt in his Ford over Nate Servaty and 2019 WISSOTA national point champion Jake Smith.

Pole sitter Zach Elward won the Street Stock feature but it was not quite as straightforward as it might appear. In the early going, Elward was battling wheel to wheel with Todd Carter for the lead with Carter driving past Elward and taking over the top spot. Carter then led a few laps until Elward motored back up to challenge him. Just as the battle started to heat up again, Carter broke and was out of the contest.

The battle was then for second with Gavin Rowland and Cory Dykhoff fighting for the spot. The battle got so intense that they got together with Rowland flying into the infield. Apparently track officials couldn't decided who was at fault so both got their spots back, in an odd way of deciding the issue by not making a decision.

Elward would continue to lead but the driver on the move was former national champion Justin Vogel who came all the way from thirteenth to second as he found a fast lane up top. He moved in to challenge for the lead but ran out of time as Elward hung on to win his second big race in a row at Ogilvie. Ryan Satter also made a late charge to get third.

The Mod Four field was diminished for this late year special and Dean Larson got the win. He had a heavy battle going on with Bob Holtquist for the top spot. So heavy, in fact, that the leaders rubbed on the front chute with Holtquist going for a spin.

This time there was a call and it went in Larson's favor as he retained the lead and Holtquist decided to call it a year as he pulled to the pits. After that, Larson won easily over Forrest Foster and Justin Pogones. Larson is known for scaling the front stretch catch fence when he wins main events but the Ogilvie fence was just a bit much for the sixty something driver and he settled for a perch at half mast for his victory wave.

The most dominating performance of the night was reserved for another former national champion in Tim Johnson. Johnson has been running a limited schedule this year after recording astronomical feature win totals and races entered for the last few years but he had his Super Stock in top notch form on Saturday. He pulled away from the field and when his biggest challenger, Dave Mass, dropped out when he dumped fluid all over the track, Johnson's biggest challenge was all the lapped traffic.

With only a first lap yellow to slow the pace and with most cars running the distance, there was much lapped traffic but Johnson handled it beautifully as there were eleven cars running a lap down at the end and only eight on the lead lap as Johnson set a blistering pace and maintained it for thirty laps. Dan Nissalke finished a distant second with Dexton Koch third.

The concluding two open wheel races had a duce of a time keeping the action under the green as a combined seventeen yellows waved between the two feature races. However, when the cars were in motion there was plenty of good racing action going on.

In the B Mods, the three car battle was between Sabraski, Cain and Joey Jensen who was driving his brother's car this weekend. Sabraski continued to maintain the lead but on each of the restarts, either Cain or Jensen would challenge him severely but neither were able to make a pass.

This continued right down to the end of the race, with Sabraski dominating the three lap shootout to the finish and taking the win. Cain picked up his pace at the end and was able to secure second ahead of Jensen as the three seasoned Modified veterans finished in that order.

The MidMods saw qualifier Tom Silver scratch out of the main after a post race accident on Friday night left him with a concussion and unable to drive so Kyle Matuska was elevated to a guaranteed starting spot. 

Sabraski was the only one of the six feature winners that did not begin his event while starting on the pole and while that sounds bad, the racing was truly much better than that statistic would indicate. Jody Bellefeuille was the early leader of the Modified race and it took several laps for Sabraski to work his way up from his fifth starting spot. But once he got rolling, ,he was able to work the high and low side of the track as needed and was simply able to drive deeper into the corners than his competition and still maintain control. Slowly but surely, he pulled away from the field until he had a comfortable lead as the last ten laps ran off, the longest green flag stretch of the entire race.

It was a fitting way for Sabraski to wrap up the year with his twenty fourth feature win and first ever national title in the Modifieds after previously having won both Super Stock and Midwest Mod titles. Dave Cain picked up his second runner up finish of the night while Andy Jones drove a great race to finish third in his first time behind the wheel of the Adam Ayotte car.

Regular track announcer "RJ at the Speedway" was absent this weekend as he was out ill. Fortunately, a more than qualified replacement was found roaming the grounds as USMTS announcer and FYE Motorsports head Chris Stepan stepped in and carried the torch just fine.

With the nice weather, a very good crowd was on hand for the final event of the year at Ogilvie. There were many campers on hand for this weekend, albeit that many were using the same units that they will use for ice fishing in a few short weeks when the temperatures drop a few more degrees. I would assume that Ogilvie has a very early April opener planned for 2020 as they like to be one of the first tracks in the area to open if at all possible. Thanks to the Wagamon family and promoter Nate Fischer for their help this weekend and throughout the 2019 racing season during my visits.

Jackson and Jackson Keep It In The Family at Lucas Oil Speedway

Welcome from Wheatland Missouri(population 371) and the Lucas Oil Speedway for the conclusion of the 6th annual MLRA Fall Nationals and B Mod Clash of Champions II on Sunday night, October 13th.

The Sunday portion of the show would feature another full show of MLRA/COMP Cam Late Models with heats, a couple B Features and a forty lap main event while the B Mods would run their ladder, starting with the E Feature race and working their way down the steps to the forty lap finale for the B Mods which was worth a cool three grand to the winner.

It was another sunny day in Mid Missouri and almost a full ten degrees warmer than it was on Saturday night and this was just the type of weather made for day time dirt track racing. While starting in the afternoon is very often a challenge for track prep, that was not the case here on Sunday as the track stayed nice and racy and there was not a bit of dust to contend with, the bane of most day time racing.

Thirty one Late Models signed in to race for the second night of their weekend events. New at the track on Sunday were Mark Burgtorf and Terry Henson while a few others did not return for various reasons. Qualifying for Sunday's events was through passing points after using the time trial method on Saturday. Half of Sunday's heat races were won off the front row but half were won from positions farther back, which thus produced more heat race passing than was seen on Saturday. And there were only a total of two yellow flags in the heats, thus debunking that old idea that unless all the fast cars start up front, there will be a lot of wrecking as everyone tries to get to the front. Tain't so McGee.

Twenty four cars started the main event which got off to a shaky start when outside front row starter Tyler Bruening got too high on the tricky number one corner and spun, thus taking away what was a very promising starting position for him. After that, it was the Tony Jackson Jr show as he led all forty laps in a dominating drive to the feature win. He quickly put distance on the field and there was no one that would challenge him in  this race. Two Reid Millard spins slowed the action but the last twenty seven laps would run off nonstop and Jackson Jr's biggest challenge was the large number of lapped cars he needed to navigate through.

Making a nice move toward the front was Payton Looney with a great recovery after having been on his lid on Saturday night. He drove up to second and looking following one of the restarts that he might perhaps challenge Jackson Jr but Tony soon stepped away and Looney was left behind.

Soon to be crowned MLRA champion(right following the race), Will Vaught made the hardest charge of the night as he came from thirteenth to wind up third. He was actually up to second in the closing laps but the heavy traffic played against him and Looney was able to recapture the second spot. At the checkered, , Jackson Jr had six lapped cars and space between himself and Looney. Ryan Gustin had a steady run for fourth and Timothy Culp came from fourteenth to finish as he tries to hold on to his COMP Cam point lead. A dozen cars were on the lead lap at the finish and only one car didn't complete the race which in part led to the heavy traffic that Jackson Jr and the other leaders had to deal with early and often.

The B Mod portion of the program started out on a rocky note but eventually smoothed out as we worked our way down to the "meat" of the field. Because of a smaller than planned for field of cars, most everyone in the early "ladder" of races moved on, so there didn't seem to be much point in some of the early events. For the brevity of the race program, it wouldn't have been a bad thing to eliminate some of the early qualifying events and put more cars in just a few qualifying races.

However, the big problem was during the D, C and B features, where the sense of urgency was much higher and of course, everyone wanted to make the main. This resulted in a combined eighteen yellow flags between the three races, a multitude of wrecked cars and so many that were eliminated that there was only one car from the D and C that didn't move up and only four even in the B even that didn't make the feature and were still running at the end. It had to have been tedious even for the drivers and for the fans, yikes is about all I can say.

But then, just when we were expecting the worst, with twenty four cars starting the main and lots of money on the line, the drivers assembled surprised us yet once again. While we were all expecting a wreck fest, instead what we saw was a highly competitive race with only two yellow flags in forty laps and only five cars that didn't go the distance with not a single car running a lap down. Wow!

Ryan Gilmore was the early leader with pressure from Andy Bryant and Eric Turner. But the driver that everyone in USRA has been chasing this year, Kris Jackson, came through to prove that all his credentials were befitting him.

He came from the fifth starting spot and took the lead on lap nine and held the top spot the rest of the way. He didn't run away with things however, as Bryant particularly stayed right on his heels. Jackson got a scare too when his motor started to make some awful sounds at about the twenty five lap  mark and he was in trouble for several laps after that as Bryant and Gilmore were all over him. However, just as quickly as the bad sounds started, they seemed to lessen and by driving hard and hugging the inside lane where the "tack" was, Jackson was able to hold off the competition.

Bryant took a last ditch effort in the final laps, going to the extreme high side and looking for more bite and for a second it looked like it might work. However, it was just too far around that way and Jackson was strong enough off the bottom to hold off all challenges as the cousin of Late Model winner Tony Jr made it a double for the family on a remarkable night for them.

Gunner Martin and J.C. Morton made late race charges and were able to get past Gilmore for positions three and four at the finish with Morton coming from twelfth to get his finish .

All racing was completed by 8:30 pm and except for an unexplained thirty minute late start and one track "farming session" , the program was moved along as well as could be expected. The late starts may seem like a trivial thing, but when an established schedule is prepared, and everyone is sitting around all afternoon just killing time, it's a bit hard to understand why, in what is such a first class facility, that the program can't be started on time.

Speaking of time, the timing of this report is running about twenty four hours later than it should have been. However, I do have an excuse for that. On my way home on Sunday night, about one mile South of Osceola Iowa, I managed to harvest some unwanted venison with my car. Sadly, my noble Camry will likely be totaled and I had to spend an extra night, get a rental car and deal with insurance issues on Monday, instead of writing this report.

One gets attached to their automobile when so much time is spent behind the wheel. That Camry and myself put on 622,272 miles, much of that chasing racing all over the place, and it was still running like a Swiss watch right up until the time I went "deer hunting" on I-35. So now it's time to start shopping for a replacement car. I'm bummed.

Iowans Sweep; Gustin Dazzles at Lucas Oil Speedway

While things weren't working out quite so well for the Iowa Football faithful, it was a glorious day for the Iowa dirt track Late Model fans when drivers from the Hawkeye state took the top three positions in the Late Model fifty lap main Saturday afternoon at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland Missouri.

Originally scheduled to be a two night, Friday and Saturday night event, the MLRA Fall Nationals and B Mod Clash of the Champions II turned into a two day, late afternoon program with racing on Saturday and Sunday after rain and cold temperatures caused track management to back up the opening racing program by twenty four hours.

Along with this being the final weekend of series points for both the MLRA and the COMP Cams Super Dirt Car Series,  the B Mod feature, now to be contested on Sunday, will be paying a cool three grand to the winner of the event.

Thirty eight Late Models from the broad range of twelve different states were on hand for this late season special, which will be the closing dirt track racing event of the season at Lucas Oil Speedway. Eight of the top ten in Lucas Oil points were on hand, missing only Jesse Stovall and Dave Eckrich while the COMP Cams series had nine of the top ten, missing only Kyle Beard who suffered a very damaging race shop fire this week that destroyed much of his racing equipment.

Of the field assembled, I guess the biggest surprise would be the return of Ryan Gustin to Late Model racing after having been away from that segment of the dirt track world for a few years now. It was very much of a surprise when pictures of Gustin's new car surfaced mid-week and even more so when it actually showed up in person for racing this weekend. Ryan is driving a brand new Rocket chassis with the only visible sponsor on the car being Tri Star Engines out of Wisconsin, a sponsor he added to the car last year. I don't think he is actually running a Tri Star engine in the car though, as Tri Stars' main focus in on OEM replacement engines for trucks and cars, not open Late Model motors. However, that detail still needs to be determined. And not only was Gustin sporting a brand new Late Model, but he had a nice new transporter to go with it as everything involved in his racing program has taken a new burst in the upward direction.

Also sporting a brand new car for this weekend's racing was Payton Looney who debuted a brand new Capital race car for this show. What divergent paths these two new cars would later take in the evening!

It was an interesting format set up for the Late Models here this weekend. On Saturday, the Late Models would qualify with two on the clock at a time and then run heat races straight up off the time trial results. On Sunday, however, they will use passing points after drawing for the heat races. No one could explain to me why they use one format one day and then completely change for the second day. It will be interesting to compare the two sets of heats for racing value and entertainment once the weekend is over, but you know where I think the best show will be had. By the way, all four heat races were won from the front row here on Saturday(hint, hint).

The drivers fought some interesting track conditions throughout the race day here on Saturday. Perhaps it was all the rain or the early start time with the wind and sun, but the racing conditions were very odd compared to what I have seen here in other visits and even the best of the Late Model drivers, not to say anything about the B Mods, struggled from time to time with some very unexplained spins by some top notch drivers recorded.

The track was super slick in some spots yet tacky in other spots and the transition from one to the other seemed to play havoc with many of the drivers. Turns one and two had a lot of bite, with the low groove being just a bit choppy. The high side was fast but the line was very narrow and just to miss it by a foot or two caused one to slide right off the end and up into the run off area. Turns three and four were super slick and the fast way seemed to be right on the tires or right up against the wall, but the margin of error there was very narrow and there was plenty of action all day.

Twenty four cars started the Late Model feature, with the higher paying show having been kept to the Saturday portion of the show with the lower paying purse going from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. This meant that the Lates would be going fifty laps on Saturday also.

After having recorded quick time and winning the first heat, Tyler Bruening started on the pole and he took the early lead. They had a devil of a time getting laps in early with five yellows in the first ten laps. Most would be for minor issues except for the second attempt to get the race going when Looney and Will Vaught got together on the back chute. Looney got turned right in front of the majority of the field and a nine car pileup ensued with Looney getting clobbered by Terry Phillips to the point that Looney's car went airborne and upside down. Several others slammed into the wreckage and it looked to be a mess.

Surprisingly, all drove away except for Looney and the damage on his car didn't seem too bad either so we hope that he will be able to return on Sunday. Gustin was wedged up against the wall and had to be lifted off the front end of Jason Papich's car and it looked like he might be out of the race. Surprisingly, even though his car had some sheet metal damage and the spoiler was knocked ajar on the right side, he also continued.

And he did far more than just continue. After starting tenth, he moved up as each restart occurred and the double file restarts allowed him to gain generally a row of cars with each yellow. On lap eleven, after Tony Jackson Jr went off the end to trigger the fifth yellow, Gustin found himself on the outside of row two and when he passed Brian Rickman on the green, he was now on in second and the race was on.

The final forty laps went nonstop and slowly but surely, Gustin started to close in on Bruening. Gustin was one of the few running the higher line around the track and it was working for him while others were bogging themselves down by guarding the tires. When Bruening caught lapped traffic, his momentum was really killed and on lap twenty nine, Gustin squeezed by up against the wall on the front chute to take over the lead.

After that, he slowly pulled away from the field and despite a little problem of his own with the slower cars, he had a comfortable lead at the checkered. Chad Simpson gradually worked his way up into third and a couple of times he made a serious challenge to Bruening before settling for third. Right at the end, Vaught passed Rickman for fourth.

It was a remarkable run for Gustin, having been away from the Late Model ranks for such a time and then to break out a brand new car and top a quality field of cars was much more than just impressive. There are rumors that he intends to take on a major tour next year but we will all just have to see what happens over the Winter in that regard. Either way, he certainly brings new excitement to the Late Model division in the Midwest because if nothing else, Gustin is always exciting and fun to watch because he generally takes the path less walked, when it comes to his racing line on the track.

In the two series' point battles, Vaught extended his MLRA lead when Mitch McGrath spun out on the opening lap and had to fight his way back up to seventh with a hard drive. The COMP Cams series saw Timothy Culp add to his point total with a steady eighth place finish while Jackson Jr finished well back after his early spin.

The B Mod portion of the show saw fifty three B Mods sign in to race on Saturday, considerably down from last year's seventy one that were on hand. My suspicion is that the rescheduled program, which saw all the money racing in this class take place on Sunday just didn't work out for a number of the competitors, thus the fall in entries.

Still, there were drivers on hand from Minnesota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois and Kansas as well as Missouri. The drivers participated in a double heat race format, with their starting positions flip, flopped for the two heats. Total passing points would set the field for Sunday's finales, with the top twelve in passing points locked into the main event on Sunday for forty laps and three grand.

Ten different winners won the twelve heat races with only Dillon McCowen and Ryan Gilmore winning two heats. By coincidence, those will be the two drivers that will start on the front row on Sunday with Eric Turner and Andy Bryant right behind them. National point leader Kris Jackson will start in the third row.

Their heat races were highlighted by two intense battles between Bryant and Turner that they split and the nastiest slider of the entire day when Gilmore ran Greg Scheffler right up to the wall in the fourth corner on the final lap. The announcer called it "doing what he had to do" , while the crowd and Scheffler didn't see the move as being quite so noble.

A one spin rule could have been used for this class as some of the heats got bogged down badly by the same cars that just couldn't seem to keep their bearings and head North and South down the track, instead of East and West through uncharted waters.

The only other un positive thing that happened was the starting time for the show. Obviously set for an early start due to the cold temperatures that would arrive later, the first race was set to roll at 4:05 p.m. Needless to say, when the first race actually started at 5:35 pm, they were more than a little bit tardy. They did hustle after that to make up time but the final checkered didn't fly until just around 9 pm and with the strong winds, it was darn cold by that time and with the number of races they had, they truly should have been done much before that. Of course, much of that lost time could be hung on the two car, time trials for the Late Models, which is an almost guaranteed way to make a program start late.

Overall, however, it was a good show and provided plenty of racing entertainment as the season is in a rapid decent to its 2019 conclusion. Heck, back in Wisconsin, we saw snow this weekend! Fortunately, I wasn't there for that atrocity!