On Saturday afternoon, November 20th, the outdoor racing season in the state of Missouri was concluded with the running of day two of the Turkey Bowl at Springfield Raceway.
It was a quick turnaround for the drivers and crews as after practice was concluded sometime around Midnight on Friday, the pits were open again by 10 am on Saturday as everyone got ready for the main events. With everyone still talking about the wrap up Pure Stock feature from night one, those cars headed to the parking lot to give room to the sixty nine Modifieds and thirty six Late Models that joined the field for their full programs on Saturday. Roughly speaking, that means that with the Legend Cars also running B Features and their main that around three hundred race cars were in the pits and ready to race. Parking spaces for the big haulers were becoming a premium to find and many of the rigs were far beyond even sight distance to the track itself but everyone made due and the show rolled off with the first race getting the green flag dropped over it at 3:50 pm after it took just a few extra minutes to roll in the track which had seen a healthy dose of water applied.
Speaking of the track, it held up remarkably well over the course of the racing, especially considering the huge number of laps turned on it. And while Hoffman would take quick and frequent breaks to throw just a little water on the surface, not once did he fell the need to dig the track up as has become almost the norm for most big events now. And it seemed to pay off nicely as there was good racing right to the end of the show.
Jerry Van Sickle migrated down for Iowa to join the announcing team for Saturday and when Jerry is in the house, it doesn't take too long to notice that he is on hand. The numbers man calculated that there were racers on hand from sixteen different states for this event, quite remarkable.
But if you thought there were a lot of races on Friday night, that was just the beginning as I calculated that there were forty races on the card for Saturday's show! That folks, is a little too many even for me. The B Features for some of the classes seemed to drone on for what felt like forever. The Midwest Mod B division and the B Mods ran fourteen of the B Features between the two classes with no more than eight cars in a race. It seemed like the judicious thing to do here would have been to cut down the number of races and make the fields just a bit bigger as their heat races the night before had more cars in them than the B Features did but that is how they chose to do it.
Finally, after all the B Features were done plus the heats and B Features for the two classes that joined us on Saturday, it was time for feature racing action. There were a few good races amongst the many B's, but more that were follow the leader and were plagued by more of the yellow flag fever of Friday night.
The Midwest Modified A division was up first and while I think this track could handle more cars than they choose to put on it, they never start more than twenty in any of the main events which means that a lot of drivers set the mains out in the pits. Jeff Douty led the first few laps of the race until he got "dumped" in turn four and had to go to the back of the pack along with the "dumper." This gave the lead to Anthony Ferrara and he carefully protected the low groove and drove on for the win over Casey Burnett and Pete Richardson.
Track officials then ran off the two "premier" division main events, a nice move to get their events in before it got too late and the track had too many laps on it. The big field of Modifieds was divided between the IMCA type cars and the more open USRA cars. Springfield has switched over to running the IMCA Mods weekly while many tracks in this area run USRA rules so Hoffman devises a set of rules for this event that tries to equalize the competition and on this small but quick track, it seems to work out just fine. When the feature was completed, IMCA cars finished first and second while the USRA cars ran third through fifth.
Payton Taylor of the Batesville area Taylors would lead the first few laps running the low side. However, Sawyer Crigler went to the cushion and blew past Taylor to take over the lead. Steven Bowers Jr was on the move after starting in the sixth row and he closed in on the leaders.
He and Taylor made contact on the back chute as they came together while battling for second with Taylor spinning backwards off the track and Bowers Jr with a flat tire. Both were upset at the other with several "dive bombs" thrown. Bowers Jr retired from the event and Taylor returned but a lap in arrears.
From this point on, Crigler would lead the rest of the way while Shane DeMey, who seemed to run better here against open competition that he often does running IMCA events, would finish a strong second followed by I-55 regular Steve Picou.
The Late Model feature was also a good one that started out on a wild note. Matt Becker would start on the pole but Tony Jackson Jr, from row two, would make a wild and bold slide in turn three on the opening lap, apparently either expecting Becker to yield or use Becker as a bank board, but when Becker "pulled the chair" out from under Jackson Jr, around went Tony. He did a number of dive bombs on Becker that seemed totally inappropriate, but when in a mind boggling turn of events, somehow Jackson Jr was given his spot back, he had to be snickering.
However, Becker continued to lead as Scott Crigler put the pressure on and eventually took the lead. Jackson, meanwhile, faded and eventually pulled into the infield, drawing some of the largest applause of the day as apparently others saw the same thing as I.
Crigler couldn't hold off the charge of Cole Wells who started sixth though, and Cole would run the cushion with skill to take over the lead. There was much three wide racing among the Late Models as it appeared they thought the five grand to win race had extra zeros added. Will Vaught, who started eleventh, made a late charge but Wells was able to hold him off in a tense two lap shootout for the win with Justin Zeitner running a strong third.
The B Mods had the smoothest of all the features Saturday with only two yellow flags in their twenty lapper. In a hard fought contest Cole Campbell managed to fight off all the low side attempts by Kris Jackson to drive home for the win with Cale Turner finishing third. The top four cars were very close throughout the race.
The Midwest Mod B division wrapped up a long day and night of racing. Quite a few people stuck it out on what turned out to be a cool evening after a nice day and without so much wind. Coming up from the fifth starting position, Robert Bell(not the Sprint Car Robert Bell), would take home the win over Nick Ferrell and James Schrader.
It was two long nights of racing, both of which started in the afternoons and rolled on into the late evening. If you like lots of cars and lots of racing, you certainly got your money's worth at this show. And most of the feature racing was very good and I'm still surprised at just how well the track held up with the huge number of laps that it had on it over the weekend with plenty of sun and wind also that makes it even tougher to prepare. A very good crowd was on hand for the feature races on Saturday and it would certainly have to be considered a very successful weekend of Hoffman and his crew.
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