Night number three of the Cajun Swing for the STSS Modifieds would sent everyone about ninety minutes East of Shreveport along Interstate 20 to the city of Monroe and the state of the art Revolution Park which was just off I-20 on the East side of the city.
The Rev presented by Dylan Scott, would host the STSS series on Thursday night, November 11th which was of course also Veteran's Day. Along with the Modifieds, the local classes racing would be the Factory Stocks and the Limited Modifieds.
While Monroe received about a third of an inch of rain in the overnight storms, fortunately it wasn't enough to hamper the show. While the pits were muddy in spots and the track was left to dry all day, it turned out to be a good racing surface although I suspect I have yet to see this track at its best. Track officials brought in some heavy equipment to help clean up he pits as the red clay of this area is heavy indeed and reminds me much of the Lake Superior red clay found in extreme northern Wisconsin along that great lake. It is miserable to handle when it gets wet and stains the race cars while being tough to get off.
A crew member for one of the teams did the old "screwdriver test" on the track while I happened to be near by and he said the tool went all the way down to the concrete that is under the red clay and had to be at least six inches so we were dreading the worst but the track actually rolled in quite nicely and was not near as rough as I was concerned it might be although it continued to hold moisture throughout the night on what was an incredibly damp night. In fact, upon the completion of the show, the aluminum grandstand was just as wet as it might have been if it had rained, that's how humid it was.
The Rev was just as nice as advertised with just about everyone that was seeing it for the first time having good things to say about it. The track has concrete under the red clay as it was a former tar track until bought by Scott and transformed into a dirt track. I believe this is just the finale of its second year of operation and already it has played host to most of the big national racing series and has a full scheduled of special events already booked for 2022.
It is about a three eighth mile track, wide and with high banking. It has great lights and a strong sound system and a large aluminum grandstand that is elevated so everyone has a good view. There is nothing in the infield to obstruct views and I would guess that somewhere around four thousand people could comfortably be seated. The restrooms are somewhat oddly placed on the grounds and it seemed like quite a long hike around to turn one and the concession stand but those are picky observations for what would be one of the nicer places I have visited. That same crewman that did the "screwdriver test" told me that the track reminded him of Fulton in New York but not having been there either, I'll have to take his word on that. I was told that they applied new clay on the surface at some point this Summer and since then, have had to do a little maintenance on the track from time to time as they did with a quick blading of the corners during the show on Thursday but with the rain that was totally understandable.
For some reason they didn't even bother to turn the scoreboard on tonight which is frustrating for those of us that kind of like to know what lap the race is on etc, so we are oh for three on tracks with working scoreboards this week which is odd these days.
I believe that STSS is renting these tracks to put on this Cajun Series so the support classes feel like they are getting the short end of the stick and while there were actually two announcers on hand to cover their part of the program on Thursday, no where could I find any official results for their racing or even a driver's list which is really maddening. I did see a funny thing in the pits on Thursday. The garbage can by the tech shed had a sign posted on it that said, "Suggestion Box", so you get the inference.
Twenty nine STSS Modifieds signed in to race on Thursday night. Somewhat surprisingly, there were a couple of new entrants as two regional drivers showed for the first time this week. The STSS Cajun Region points would show that twenty of the twenty eight that have raced with them this year have participated in at least one of this week's races which is outstanding support. Unfortunately, Tyler Siri headed back to New York after his bad wreck off the end at Ark-La-Tex with no back up car to replace his damaged equipment.
Two heats and a feature would be the program for the support classes while the STSS cars would run three heats and a B Feature plus two Cajun provisionals.
There was much talk in the pits about last night's dust up between Stewart Friesen and Ryan Godown and apparently much talk on social media in the Northeast where which is the main focus of everything that happens here this week with that being their home base. Pay per view is expected to soar for tonight as many want to see just what comes next.
The two main combatants from last night would be racing close together for much of the earlier part of the feature race until things came unglued but not because of anything that either did. Twenty six cars would take the green for the forty lap Modified main with Godown, who redrew the outside pole, grabbing the early lead. Friesen started in row two and would quickly move into second.
This race was a bit frustrating to watch as it seemed that time after time, just when they would get some kind of rhythm, the yellow would wave in what would prove to be a yellow bunting plagued event. In total, there would be six yellows plus one red before the checkered could be waved.
Godown would lead through the first three yellows which encompassed the first sixteen laps with Friesen all over him. Just like the previous nights, lapped traffic would be hairy but at higher speeds tonight it would be even more breathtaking. Last night's winner Erick Rudolph would be an early out when he slammed into the back of a slower car in a pack of racers as there were a couple of the "rolling chicanes" that also couldn't seem to maintain a straight line on the track.
Following a yellow for Steve Davis, things really heated up as Friesen got a great restart and stayed right with Godown. They exchanged slide jobs and Friesen took over the lead and then started to pull away as it appeared that he had plenty left for an open track.
However, just when it looked like he was going to cruise, things when horribly bad for him. It appeared that something in the right rear broke as he slammed his car into turn one and the wheel came off, the car dug into the soft surface and off would Friesen go, soaring into the Louisiana night. He made two and a half somersaults before slamming back to earth upside down.
Fortunately he was OK but the car was ruined. However, he has a back up car and promises to be back at Super Bee on Friday night as they prep for the biggest crown of the week on Saturday.
After this wreck, Godown inherited the lead and as the second fastest car of the night, no one would touch him the rest of the way as he maintained a half straightaway lead for the duration of the race, slowed three more times by breaking cars.
At the finish, Godown was comfortably ahead of Mike Mahaney and Matt Sheppard for the win, his second this week. This race was really tough on the equipment as only eleven cars were running at the end and there will be a lot of busy teams putting the pieces back together for Super Bee.
It was another tough night for the Factory Stocks or should I say the mechanics that will have to fix them! Fourteen of them started the main and only half of them were left twenty laps later. There weren't as many crashes as there have been on previous nights but more that this fast and heavy track was just overstressing race cars that have already put on a long season of racing.
One of the Bubba's, Jones by name, was dominating the early going of this race after starting on the outside pole. He was sailing along with a nice sized lead until his motor went South and he rolled to a halt in a cloud of steam and smoke. Second place runner John Berry managed to clip the rear of Jones trying to avoid him and both were eliminated.
Mike Hurst, who had run second early and then faded back, inherited the lead at this point and despite an ill handling car that wanted to climb the banking in each turn, managed to hold on and take the win over C.J. Howell and Caleb Smith. It would seem that the asphalt pull offs that this class is required to run don't work too well and wet and heavy tracks and the whole field seemed to be on roller skates as they raced through the turns.
The Limited Modifieds brought a field of thirteen cars to the track and eight were left to see the checkered flag after their twenty lap finale. This race saw only one yellow and featured a dominating performance by Wyatt Wilkerson who started on the pole and led all the way and was never challenged. It didn't help that the two support classes used the "tried and true" method of lining up the features based on heat race finishes so after dominating his heat, Wilkerson did the same again in the feature.
Brain Doles would finish a distant second with Mark Underwood Jr third. Underwood was racing in both support classes and what would be the odds that in a field of thirteen cars, there would be two numbered #V8 and two numbered #2R? But that is exactly what happened! Impressive was the fact that I was told that winner Wilkerson was just fourteen years old.
The Rev is a mighty nice place and perhaps I can return again some time and see that three wide racing that I was told has happened more than once here for big series events. Tonight it was just too heavy and fast for that to happen but that was no one's fault except Ma Nature. As usual, STSS officials have been running off a crackerjack quick program and I was back at the hotel before 10 pm while there are going to be a lot of mechanics putting in an "all night" getting these racing machines back and up to go.
Track announcer at Boothill, Joshua Bell was again on hand to perform a very nice rendition of the National Anthem, particularly important on this special occasion.
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