Every year it seems like there can be no way that the Arizona Sport Shirts Gateway Nationals can top the previous year. And then they drop the green flag, the barking hounds are released and the madness starts. After three nights of chaos, Tyler Carpenter, Kyle Larson and Derek Losh stood on the smoldering ruins of their race cars to accept the awards as winners of the three feature races that were run in front of a huge and raucous crowd of dirt track fans.
This is really not racing in what you might imagine as the normal sense. It's more like racing fighter planes inside a gymnasium. A gymnasium that is filled with dust, ruts, race car parts sheared off and "whoop de doos" that seem to shift position around the track from lap to lap. But one thing is definitely is not, and that is boring or predictable. It seems like this track is the great equalizer and all weekend we have seen local and regional favorites racing elbow to elbow with the biggest names in the sport, and often coming out as the victors. And all this just adds to the infinite uniqueness of this event.
Granted, this race does have its share of warts. The track is incredibly rough, the down time is long and tedious, everything from parking to concessions is over priced, the air inside the area is not the best and the dust was flying in copious amounts on Saturday night and it is a very spendy weekend for all that attend. But all it takes is to watch one of three main events and all those things are just mere inconveniences not worth mentioning. In fact, mere words can not do justice to describe the action that took place on the track during those three races and I would suggest that anyone that didn't see the race either live or on video, get a hold of a replay and prepare to watch something that just isn't fairly describable with mere words.
Last Chance races started at 3 pm as event organizers wisely decided to only hot lap those drivers that were already in the main event and by 7 pm we were ready for the big shows.
The "lights out" driver introductions and indoor fireworks were spectacular as usual, all leading up to the three main events. The Late Models were first and Tyler Carpenter, live and direct and full of spunk from the mountains of West Virginia, held off the challenges of several drivers to win the forty lap main event. Incredibly, with all that was happening on the track, the yellow flag waved only twice during the Late Model main.
Shannon Babb, Ryan Unzicker, Tanner English and Brandon Sheppard all had legitimate chances to win the race but all sorts of issues plagued them and Carpenter was able to hold off the last lap charge by Sheppard to get the win by a fender length. Only eight of the twenty starters were still on the track at the end and everyone was showing some sort of damage.
Larson was the class of the Midget field and after coming from fifth to take over the lead, he held off challenges to take the win. This race were smoothly for the first half of the distance and then was plagued by yellow flags thereafter including two reds for flipping cars. However, Larson was head and shoulder over everyone else and only bad luck or mechanical failure could stop him. Neither happened and he took the win over Chris Windom and Tyler Courtney. The Midget feature was the only one of three where at least half the starting field was still on the track at the finish.
The Modified feature came right down to the wire also. In fact, a last corner pass by Losh saw him sneak under Kyle Bronson for the ten grand win. Bronson had been holding off the challenges of Losh for the last half of the race but on the final corner Kyle hooked a big rut, went skittering out to the wall and Losh was able to drive under him for the spectacular win. Most of the crowd stuck around to watch the Mods and they went wild at the unexpected finish.
There is no doubt that this race is truly one of a kind and not able to be duplicated anywhere else currently. I don't know if it's because it is the last race of the year or if it is the unique atmosphere or the fact that it is on TV live or what, but all the drivers seem to address this event slightly different than they do the rest of the year. They take chances here that they wouldn't do at other places and the whole event feels more like "Monster Jam" than a dirt track race. We were even "treated" to some WWF type antics on track and while at most events what happened would resulted in a DQ for the night, at this race instead they give the chief combatant a provisional to start the feature! It is as much show as it is go and perhaps that is part of the secret of its success.
Dates are already set for the next two years of this race with next year's coming close to Christmas again while the 2021 race will be earlier in the month of December.
The one thing that I keep having trouble wrapping my head around is that while many in the field in all three classes go home with wrecked equipment, they still are right at the head of the list the following year to get on the entry list. I keep thinking that eventually drivers and teams are going to get tired of wrecking their stuff year after year but I guess as long as there are some that want to take the risk, there are a very large group of spectators salivating at the thought of watching them tear into each other on the track.
My next reports after the first of the new year should be from Vado Speedway Park for the World of Outlaws Late Models Battle at the Border at this new facility, IMCA TV Winternationals at Cocopah Speedway and the Wild West Shootout at FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Harrison, Larson, T. Carpenter and Babb Second Night Dome Winners
Action at the Gateway Dirt Nationals Continued on Friday night, December 20th with all three classes in action once again. The second half of the invited Midget and Modified fields ran their qualifying events leading up to one feature in each class while the Late Models finally got on track for some racing action themselves. The field for them was split in half with double feature races qualifying a pair of three driver entries into Saturday night's finale.
With much more racing on tap for Friday night, the suspicion was that it was going to be a long night and unfortunately, those fears were not only accurate, the end result was even worse than most would have imaged. With fierce racing action that produced an almost incalculable number of yellows and wrecks, poor track conditions that led to more track prep periods than I would have the energy to keep track of, damage to the catch fence and wall from accidents that required three long breaks for repairs, some poor driving decisions by racers and some poor choices made by management and the sum total was two calendar days of racing for the price of one! This however, was not the type of racing bargain that most were looking for.
Here is the unvarnished truth. As long as they are going to try to make a racing surface out of the material that they are currently using, I believe they never are going to produce a surface that is worthy of racing on. I don't care how many experts they bring in to prepare the track and how much they pack, blade, scrape, feather, cut and pound on it, this "beach sand" they are using is never going to compact into anything worth racing on. No matter what they do to it, and no matter how they try to improve it, it just rolls right back up into waves of loose material that digs holes and doesn't smooth out. They keep trying to fill in the holes with loose material they scrape off the track, and that just digs right back out and forms new holes. And the most maddening thing is that we have seen literally hours of track packing going on that is negated in a couple laps, thus wasting all our time and not helping track conditions by one iota. They might as well just give in to the inevitable, throw a little water on the track to keep the dust down and let the drivers bounce through the holes because all the wasted time on track prep is just that, time wasted that we could have been done with the shows in hours less time.
Even the announcers have given up trying to "sugar coat" the truth as they halfway through the evening stopped referring to the track as "challenging" and one that the track prep crew could and would fix and they just went to describing the track as "rough."
And it's a car killer. The amount of damage done on Friday night to cars in all three classes was just staggering with thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment being wrecked. But the racing was spectacular in all three classes too. Somewhere there needs to be a happy medium to where the racing can still be good but doesn't cause so much damage to the race cars. Somehow they need to get their hands on some real clay and let Kevin Gundaker and his crew have something that they can really work on rather than playing with the sand they currently have.
Apparently the Modifieds have been declared to be the "bad guys." It has been determined that they were the worst offenders at tearing up the track so for Friday night, the whole program for the other two classes was completed before they were even allowed to hit the track for time trials which were followed up by their three heats and main event. However, based on the number of yellows across the board and the track conditions which didn't seem any different whether or not the Modifieds had been out earlier in the evening or not, that theory didn't seem to hold water either. And they got to run their program in the wee hours of the morning with most of the crowd having vacated the building on a night that got so late I literally saw adults sleeping in their seats from track prep boredom and the lateness of the hour.
The drivers didn't help the situation either. Apparently there is a group that comes to this race with the notion that actually slowing down for the corners would be a sign of weakness. So, they "flatfoot" the accelerator from the moment the green flag drops and don't slow for anything or anyone. The results is a demo derby on wheels with many of the cars looking much the worse for the wear.
It was a "perfect storm" also in terms of what could go wrong to slow the program with three different wrecks that saw cars get into and tear down the wheel fence which necessitated long delays to replace fence and posts. The repair crew did an amazing job of fixing what the drivers did as fast as possible but it does take time to replace the posts and put fence back up and we had to suffer three times when that happened.
Management made a poor choice in terms of moving the show along when they allowed all eighty plus of the Late Models to hot lap again on Friday after all were allowed to do so on Thursday night too. All other classes got only one shot at hot laps so I don't understand why the Late Models had to go through a second tedious set of hot laps that only did more damage to the track. Worst of all, instead of starting at 3 pm it was two hours later than that before the first race took the green. That was two hours they desperately could have used later. It was disappointing that such a crack management team would make such decisions, particularly when they have been preaching all week about getting the show done early so that all the spectators can spend their money in downtown St. Louis when by the time the races have been completed, there is no place open still to spend money in.
As far as the racing itself, it was spectacular with all three classes putting on a great show. However, only one driver can walk away from this weekend with the big check, and with all the damage inflicted on so many cars, one wonders when the "light bulb" will come on and some of these racers will stay home and save on their equipment. It appears that has already happened in the Mods and Midgets with neither class filling out their invited field fully.
Drama started early when the first Late Model heat was stacked and the unexpected occurred, with Scott Bloomquist going up in smoke on the green after he and Freddie Carpenter spent time trying to "one up" each other on the opening green. Reportedly, "Bloomer's" problem stemmed from someone not putting oil in the engine while Carpenter was out shortly after when he lost a driveshaft after being quick qualifier for group A. So they ran off two spectacular heats and then the track equipment came out to try and fiddle with the surface and made something out of it. Thus the pattern of the night was set. Race a little and then watch track prep for what extended into hours.
Freddie's son Tyler was one of the "talking points" of the night. First he engaged in a wild slide job contest with Tanner English in his heat, following by an "F Bomb" interview that fired up the crowd but seemed not very appropriate. Then, in the first Late Model feature he came from third to pass Illinois' drivers Mike Spatola and Ryan Unzicker to take a thrilling win. This was followed by a lengthy rambling interview that included more profanity and branded Carpenter to what he is, a true West Virginia "hillbilly" who can also wheel a race car spectacularly and sometimes also successfully.
Shannon Babb was slightly more restrained but still excited when he won the second feature race for the Late Models by passing Patrik Daniel who most people were flipping through their program to find out just who this was that was beating the indoor expert in Babb. Babb's win was not unexpected but a bit of a surprise in that he got beat initially by Daniel and had to work very hard to make the winning pass.
As was the case on Thursday night, the Midgets had just two heats and a feature race. Kyle Larson showed much strength as he made the winning pass on Michael Pickens and then pulled away. Truthfully, the Midgets are able to negotiate the choppy conditions much better than the other two classes and don't seem to tear up near as much equipment. Young Cannon McIntosh charged up at the end to take second and will be a serious contender for Saturday night honors.
With a largely empty building left for the Modifieds after a very good crowd was on hand earlier, Mike Harrison bounced his way to the win after starting on the pole and fighting off Kyle Bronson. Bronson and Michael Long had a good battle for second and despite Bronson's car pumping out much water in the late going, he was able to hand of for third before a cloud of steam erupted on the slow down lap. Kevin Wallace also ventilated a motor during this race as many cars were running hot due to all the dust plugging up the radiators.
The final checkered flag flew at 1:48 am on Saturday morning. Yikes! As I say, there was much positive to say about tonight's racing but also many things that did go wrong with some that need to be corrected and some that should have been foreseen but apparently overlooked. Saturday's program is promised to begin with racing at 3 pm for the Last Chance races so we will see how this all plays out.
With much more racing on tap for Friday night, the suspicion was that it was going to be a long night and unfortunately, those fears were not only accurate, the end result was even worse than most would have imaged. With fierce racing action that produced an almost incalculable number of yellows and wrecks, poor track conditions that led to more track prep periods than I would have the energy to keep track of, damage to the catch fence and wall from accidents that required three long breaks for repairs, some poor driving decisions by racers and some poor choices made by management and the sum total was two calendar days of racing for the price of one! This however, was not the type of racing bargain that most were looking for.
Here is the unvarnished truth. As long as they are going to try to make a racing surface out of the material that they are currently using, I believe they never are going to produce a surface that is worthy of racing on. I don't care how many experts they bring in to prepare the track and how much they pack, blade, scrape, feather, cut and pound on it, this "beach sand" they are using is never going to compact into anything worth racing on. No matter what they do to it, and no matter how they try to improve it, it just rolls right back up into waves of loose material that digs holes and doesn't smooth out. They keep trying to fill in the holes with loose material they scrape off the track, and that just digs right back out and forms new holes. And the most maddening thing is that we have seen literally hours of track packing going on that is negated in a couple laps, thus wasting all our time and not helping track conditions by one iota. They might as well just give in to the inevitable, throw a little water on the track to keep the dust down and let the drivers bounce through the holes because all the wasted time on track prep is just that, time wasted that we could have been done with the shows in hours less time.
Even the announcers have given up trying to "sugar coat" the truth as they halfway through the evening stopped referring to the track as "challenging" and one that the track prep crew could and would fix and they just went to describing the track as "rough."
And it's a car killer. The amount of damage done on Friday night to cars in all three classes was just staggering with thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment being wrecked. But the racing was spectacular in all three classes too. Somewhere there needs to be a happy medium to where the racing can still be good but doesn't cause so much damage to the race cars. Somehow they need to get their hands on some real clay and let Kevin Gundaker and his crew have something that they can really work on rather than playing with the sand they currently have.
Apparently the Modifieds have been declared to be the "bad guys." It has been determined that they were the worst offenders at tearing up the track so for Friday night, the whole program for the other two classes was completed before they were even allowed to hit the track for time trials which were followed up by their three heats and main event. However, based on the number of yellows across the board and the track conditions which didn't seem any different whether or not the Modifieds had been out earlier in the evening or not, that theory didn't seem to hold water either. And they got to run their program in the wee hours of the morning with most of the crowd having vacated the building on a night that got so late I literally saw adults sleeping in their seats from track prep boredom and the lateness of the hour.
The drivers didn't help the situation either. Apparently there is a group that comes to this race with the notion that actually slowing down for the corners would be a sign of weakness. So, they "flatfoot" the accelerator from the moment the green flag drops and don't slow for anything or anyone. The results is a demo derby on wheels with many of the cars looking much the worse for the wear.
It was a "perfect storm" also in terms of what could go wrong to slow the program with three different wrecks that saw cars get into and tear down the wheel fence which necessitated long delays to replace fence and posts. The repair crew did an amazing job of fixing what the drivers did as fast as possible but it does take time to replace the posts and put fence back up and we had to suffer three times when that happened.
Management made a poor choice in terms of moving the show along when they allowed all eighty plus of the Late Models to hot lap again on Friday after all were allowed to do so on Thursday night too. All other classes got only one shot at hot laps so I don't understand why the Late Models had to go through a second tedious set of hot laps that only did more damage to the track. Worst of all, instead of starting at 3 pm it was two hours later than that before the first race took the green. That was two hours they desperately could have used later. It was disappointing that such a crack management team would make such decisions, particularly when they have been preaching all week about getting the show done early so that all the spectators can spend their money in downtown St. Louis when by the time the races have been completed, there is no place open still to spend money in.
As far as the racing itself, it was spectacular with all three classes putting on a great show. However, only one driver can walk away from this weekend with the big check, and with all the damage inflicted on so many cars, one wonders when the "light bulb" will come on and some of these racers will stay home and save on their equipment. It appears that has already happened in the Mods and Midgets with neither class filling out their invited field fully.
Drama started early when the first Late Model heat was stacked and the unexpected occurred, with Scott Bloomquist going up in smoke on the green after he and Freddie Carpenter spent time trying to "one up" each other on the opening green. Reportedly, "Bloomer's" problem stemmed from someone not putting oil in the engine while Carpenter was out shortly after when he lost a driveshaft after being quick qualifier for group A. So they ran off two spectacular heats and then the track equipment came out to try and fiddle with the surface and made something out of it. Thus the pattern of the night was set. Race a little and then watch track prep for what extended into hours.
Freddie's son Tyler was one of the "talking points" of the night. First he engaged in a wild slide job contest with Tanner English in his heat, following by an "F Bomb" interview that fired up the crowd but seemed not very appropriate. Then, in the first Late Model feature he came from third to pass Illinois' drivers Mike Spatola and Ryan Unzicker to take a thrilling win. This was followed by a lengthy rambling interview that included more profanity and branded Carpenter to what he is, a true West Virginia "hillbilly" who can also wheel a race car spectacularly and sometimes also successfully.
Shannon Babb was slightly more restrained but still excited when he won the second feature race for the Late Models by passing Patrik Daniel who most people were flipping through their program to find out just who this was that was beating the indoor expert in Babb. Babb's win was not unexpected but a bit of a surprise in that he got beat initially by Daniel and had to work very hard to make the winning pass.
As was the case on Thursday night, the Midgets had just two heats and a feature race. Kyle Larson showed much strength as he made the winning pass on Michael Pickens and then pulled away. Truthfully, the Midgets are able to negotiate the choppy conditions much better than the other two classes and don't seem to tear up near as much equipment. Young Cannon McIntosh charged up at the end to take second and will be a serious contender for Saturday night honors.
With a largely empty building left for the Modifieds after a very good crowd was on hand earlier, Mike Harrison bounced his way to the win after starting on the pole and fighting off Kyle Bronson. Bronson and Michael Long had a good battle for second and despite Bronson's car pumping out much water in the late going, he was able to hand of for third before a cloud of steam erupted on the slow down lap. Kevin Wallace also ventilated a motor during this race as many cars were running hot due to all the dust plugging up the radiators.
The final checkered flag flew at 1:48 am on Saturday morning. Yikes! As I say, there was much positive to say about tonight's racing but also many things that did go wrong with some that need to be corrected and some that should have been foreseen but apparently overlooked. Saturday's program is promised to begin with racing at 3 pm for the Last Chance races so we will see how this all plays out.
Friday, December 20, 2019
Kissinger and Meseraull Top Gateway Dirt Opener
The fourth annual Gateway Dirt Nationals presented by Arizona Sport Shirts kicked of its three night run on Thursday night, December 19th at the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis Missouri. For the first time, there was snow on the ground for this event, the result of a snow storm that crossed the Midwest earlier this week, but everything was cleared away and all was in readiness for the racers and fans by Thursday when the action started.
Once again this year, three classes of cars would be racing in the Dome with the Late Models the highlight division with all entrants being allowed to race up to one hundred and fifty cars. And again this year, they did not come close to that number with eighty six actually on hand and two of those never made it to the track. Actually, the car count in the Late Models was the lowest it has been for the four years of this race.
For the second year, Modifieds and Midgets also raced but their format was changed up a bit this year. Those receiving invitations and accepting were then divided into two groups with half the car qualifying and racing their preliminary show on this night and the other half running on Friday night. Then everyone comes back on Saturday night for the big finale with everyone getting one last shot to make the "show." The numbers in these two classes were down this year with the Midget count being particularly low. There were only twenty five Mods and nineteen Midgets on hand on Thursday with the number expected to be similar on Friday night. Perhaps this might be a good time to step back and maybe reduce the number of classes to two for next year and perhaps maybe finally be able to maintain their posted schedule of events. It appears that the Midgets don't want to race so close to the upcoming Chili Bowl for fear of tearing up their cars or perhaps they just don't want to allocate a week for this event and then soon after have to spend another week in Tulsa. In any event, lesser just might be better in terms of number of cars racing here in St. Louis.
The track looked a little bit different this year. There is an inside wall in the corners instead of those insufferable tires that caused many of the yellow flags last year and tore up a bunch of equipment. Opening night action seemed to bear out the fact that the wall works much better, keeping people out of the infield without causing all the damage that the tires inflicted last year.
The track has been banked a bit more this year and in a different manner, as track officials seek to widen out the racing groove and move the cars up the track more. The inside line is quite flat for the first car length and then the banking increases as you move higher on the track. With just time trials for the Late Models, we will have to wait until Friday night to see if the track races any different than it did before. I would have to say that I didn't notice any large difference in the way that the Mods and Midgets raced the track than last year, but we will see.
The same issues of the rough track continued as it seems that it is almost impossible to build a track indoors in a week and then expect it to stay smooth and bump free. And I think that the heavier Late Models and Mods make this problem even worse than if it were to be a Midget only track such as in Tulsa. Some of the drivers made the point that with the banking being higher, track speeds are actually faster than last year so the cars hit the corners even faster and tend to dig in even harder which leads to the higher likelihood of bumping around and getting airborne.
Another good point made by the announcers was the fact that the dirt used here is the same as the dirt used for Motocross and other arena events and is much sandier than that of many racing surfaces, including Tulsa's indoor dirt. The stuff doesn't want to pack in very well and doesn't seem to bind well either and while the bike racers want the surface to rut up, just the opposite is the desire here. But it is what it is and while the track prep crew will work their hardest to get it better, anyone entering this event should have been aware just what kind of race surface they would be dealing with. And it is hard on the cars, as they tear up a lot of equipment for sure, but again that is part of the understanding of entering this event. And for sure, the track prep and this race surface is probably the most analysed of any all year, to the point of nausea.
Time trials were first on the card and this did provide some surprises with a number of what I would call surprise drivers that ranked among the quickest of the entire night. But the most dramatic moment of this event was when Shannon Babb came out as the last car of the eighty four that would qualify and he set fast time by over a tenth of a second over the entire field. The crowd went wild as they should have as it was quite a stunning moment but given Babb's expertise on "bullrings", something that perhaps should have been expected. An amusing moment saw Billy Moyer manage to snag some of the advertising banners against the outside wall with his spoiler when he clipped the wall during his qualifying effort and a stretch of about two hundred feet of banner followed him down the track before finally becoming disengaged. Moyer did have a very fast lap and interestingly, was driving a Capital chassis this weekend.
So, after time trials, the Late Models were done for the night with their heats, B Features and qualifying feature races taking place on Friday night.
The Midgets then qualified and were then directly followed by their heats and their feature as their entire program was run off next. My guess was that they wanted to get this class done while the track was as smooth as it would be. However, this dragged things out some as there needed to be time after qualifying to set the lineups and then a few minutes for the feature to be formed after heats. The Midget field was so small that no B Feature was needed and will likely be the same on Friday.
However, the Midget feature race was by far the best event of the night. It was dry and slick on the inside lane but had some bite up a lane so it was perfect for throwing "side jobs" and we saw a number of those in the main event. Justin Grant led for most of the race but Thomas Meseraull moved into second and on the last two laps, they exchanged the lead twice each lap as they dive bomber each other in the corners. On the final corner, Grant dove in low to take the lead but when he slid up the track, Meseraull was right there to cut under him and beat him to the line in a race that was appreciated by the fans. There were three quick yellow flags that included two roll overs but the lat fifteen laps went nonstop and provided the kind of action that the fans were waiting for.
The Mods then qualified after both the other two classes were done for the night and then they raced their program, but the same kind of breaks were necessary with only the one class left. As it was, teams were terribly rushed to get back to the track following heats for the B, and the same for the main following the B Feature.
The Modified feature saw Josh Harris lead for the first half of the race before Levi Kissinger took advantage of a restart to blast past him and take over the top spot. Harris was slowed by a deflating tire and Derek Losh made a charge that saw him challenge Kissinger at the end for the win.
The Mod feature was a pretty good race also with only three yellows and all came in the first half of the race. A surprise saw Bobby Pierce, pressing for the lead, make a mistake on a restart and tip over in turn one which ended his event. There were five roll overs during the night which was more than I would have expected including a couple in the Mods. There were also plenty of torn up race cars in all three classes but that is the norm in this type of racing.
It was a very long day of racing with the first on track activity starting at 3 pm and the final checkered waving toward the Midnight hour. The first actual racing took place about forty five minutes later than scheduled and we actually saw only eight real races all night as hot laps and qualifying does take a long, long time. This was a night for the hard core race fan only as we saw more of the track prep equipment on the racing surface by far than any race cars. But in their defense, they are just trying to make the racing surface as good as possible and the coming two nights will be telling as to whether or not their efforts prove fruitful.
Once again this year, three classes of cars would be racing in the Dome with the Late Models the highlight division with all entrants being allowed to race up to one hundred and fifty cars. And again this year, they did not come close to that number with eighty six actually on hand and two of those never made it to the track. Actually, the car count in the Late Models was the lowest it has been for the four years of this race.
For the second year, Modifieds and Midgets also raced but their format was changed up a bit this year. Those receiving invitations and accepting were then divided into two groups with half the car qualifying and racing their preliminary show on this night and the other half running on Friday night. Then everyone comes back on Saturday night for the big finale with everyone getting one last shot to make the "show." The numbers in these two classes were down this year with the Midget count being particularly low. There were only twenty five Mods and nineteen Midgets on hand on Thursday with the number expected to be similar on Friday night. Perhaps this might be a good time to step back and maybe reduce the number of classes to two for next year and perhaps maybe finally be able to maintain their posted schedule of events. It appears that the Midgets don't want to race so close to the upcoming Chili Bowl for fear of tearing up their cars or perhaps they just don't want to allocate a week for this event and then soon after have to spend another week in Tulsa. In any event, lesser just might be better in terms of number of cars racing here in St. Louis.
The track looked a little bit different this year. There is an inside wall in the corners instead of those insufferable tires that caused many of the yellow flags last year and tore up a bunch of equipment. Opening night action seemed to bear out the fact that the wall works much better, keeping people out of the infield without causing all the damage that the tires inflicted last year.
The track has been banked a bit more this year and in a different manner, as track officials seek to widen out the racing groove and move the cars up the track more. The inside line is quite flat for the first car length and then the banking increases as you move higher on the track. With just time trials for the Late Models, we will have to wait until Friday night to see if the track races any different than it did before. I would have to say that I didn't notice any large difference in the way that the Mods and Midgets raced the track than last year, but we will see.
The same issues of the rough track continued as it seems that it is almost impossible to build a track indoors in a week and then expect it to stay smooth and bump free. And I think that the heavier Late Models and Mods make this problem even worse than if it were to be a Midget only track such as in Tulsa. Some of the drivers made the point that with the banking being higher, track speeds are actually faster than last year so the cars hit the corners even faster and tend to dig in even harder which leads to the higher likelihood of bumping around and getting airborne.
Another good point made by the announcers was the fact that the dirt used here is the same as the dirt used for Motocross and other arena events and is much sandier than that of many racing surfaces, including Tulsa's indoor dirt. The stuff doesn't want to pack in very well and doesn't seem to bind well either and while the bike racers want the surface to rut up, just the opposite is the desire here. But it is what it is and while the track prep crew will work their hardest to get it better, anyone entering this event should have been aware just what kind of race surface they would be dealing with. And it is hard on the cars, as they tear up a lot of equipment for sure, but again that is part of the understanding of entering this event. And for sure, the track prep and this race surface is probably the most analysed of any all year, to the point of nausea.
Time trials were first on the card and this did provide some surprises with a number of what I would call surprise drivers that ranked among the quickest of the entire night. But the most dramatic moment of this event was when Shannon Babb came out as the last car of the eighty four that would qualify and he set fast time by over a tenth of a second over the entire field. The crowd went wild as they should have as it was quite a stunning moment but given Babb's expertise on "bullrings", something that perhaps should have been expected. An amusing moment saw Billy Moyer manage to snag some of the advertising banners against the outside wall with his spoiler when he clipped the wall during his qualifying effort and a stretch of about two hundred feet of banner followed him down the track before finally becoming disengaged. Moyer did have a very fast lap and interestingly, was driving a Capital chassis this weekend.
So, after time trials, the Late Models were done for the night with their heats, B Features and qualifying feature races taking place on Friday night.
The Midgets then qualified and were then directly followed by their heats and their feature as their entire program was run off next. My guess was that they wanted to get this class done while the track was as smooth as it would be. However, this dragged things out some as there needed to be time after qualifying to set the lineups and then a few minutes for the feature to be formed after heats. The Midget field was so small that no B Feature was needed and will likely be the same on Friday.
However, the Midget feature race was by far the best event of the night. It was dry and slick on the inside lane but had some bite up a lane so it was perfect for throwing "side jobs" and we saw a number of those in the main event. Justin Grant led for most of the race but Thomas Meseraull moved into second and on the last two laps, they exchanged the lead twice each lap as they dive bomber each other in the corners. On the final corner, Grant dove in low to take the lead but when he slid up the track, Meseraull was right there to cut under him and beat him to the line in a race that was appreciated by the fans. There were three quick yellow flags that included two roll overs but the lat fifteen laps went nonstop and provided the kind of action that the fans were waiting for.
The Mods then qualified after both the other two classes were done for the night and then they raced their program, but the same kind of breaks were necessary with only the one class left. As it was, teams were terribly rushed to get back to the track following heats for the B, and the same for the main following the B Feature.
The Modified feature saw Josh Harris lead for the first half of the race before Levi Kissinger took advantage of a restart to blast past him and take over the top spot. Harris was slowed by a deflating tire and Derek Losh made a charge that saw him challenge Kissinger at the end for the win.
The Mod feature was a pretty good race also with only three yellows and all came in the first half of the race. A surprise saw Bobby Pierce, pressing for the lead, make a mistake on a restart and tip over in turn one which ended his event. There were five roll overs during the night which was more than I would have expected including a couple in the Mods. There were also plenty of torn up race cars in all three classes but that is the norm in this type of racing.
It was a very long day of racing with the first on track activity starting at 3 pm and the final checkered waving toward the Midnight hour. The first actual racing took place about forty five minutes later than scheduled and we actually saw only eight real races all night as hot laps and qualifying does take a long, long time. This was a night for the hard core race fan only as we saw more of the track prep equipment on the racing surface by far than any race cars. But in their defense, they are just trying to make the racing surface as good as possible and the coming two nights will be telling as to whether or not their efforts prove fruitful.
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