The fifth annual Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals presented by O'Reilly Auto Parts kicked off on Thursday night, December 2nd at the Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis Missouri under the direction of Cody Sommers with Kevin Gundaker in charge of track preparation once again.
After being Covid cancelled in 2020, the event would come back strong this year for it annual three night showing in downtown St. Louis. This year there would be three classes in racing action with the Super Late Models, Midgets and UMP style Modifieds all racing all three nights.
The Late Models get top billing in this event with their two preliminary night features paying five grand to win as everyone tries to qualify for Saturday night's finale that pays thirty grand to the winner. The Midgets and Modifieds race for identical purses with three thousand to win preliminary shows and the mains on Saturday paying ten grand to win each. Due to a lack of numbers in the Midget class, their portion of the program had to be altered but for those that were in attendance, it was actually a huge benefit to them. The Late Models had an open entry policy while the Midgets and Modifieds were selected by management from among those that applied to get into this event as an open entry policy would have seen too many cars to be functional. At least in terms of the Modifieds as it turned out.
Sixty four Late Models were on the opening night entry list but when it came to roll out the cars, only thirty nine were actually in attendance and in the cavernous pits that surround the race track. Apparently there are a lot of teams that wanted to see their names on the list but when push came to shove, they failed to appear at the Dome. Time trials with of course the fast cars starting in front would be the format for the night. Six heats and a pair of B Features would select the twenty car starting field of the main event on this night, with the first four finishers being locked into the main event on Saturday.
Twenty seven Modifieds would receive invitations for the opening night and they would set their starting fields through hot laps/group qualifying. Three heat races and a B Feature would set their eighteen car feature field.
The Midgets had a problem this year. Due to the USAC and POWRi seasons just having recently concluded and most of the teams winding up their years on the West Coast and with the Chili Bowl upcoming soon with every Midget team in the country seemingly attending that event, it was tough to find entrants for this race this year. Once imaging as the second coming of the Chili Bowl, in 2021 this race couldn't even find enough teams to fill out a full field. The entry list kept getting delayed and delayed as officials scrambled to try and find teams to fill out the field and an entry list never would get posted, such as the other two classes had. At race time, twenty cars were on hand to race with the possibility of a couple more showing up later and the quality was not what it had been in previous years. Perhaps it is time to just let Tulsa have the Midgets and go with a two class program for this event as would produce plenty of racing, especially if the Modified portion of the program was expanded some.
Every year one of the big discussion points is the race track itself, how it races and what kind of condition it is in. And every year, while it remains slightly under a fifth of a mile oval, the character of the track is slightly different and it races just a bit different. This year, the dirt, which sits outside all year, was much drier than normal and considerably drier that 2019 when it was so soft that you could see it shift as cars drove over it.
For that reason, it raced different than in previous years. It was much smoother for most of the evening although it started to get pretty bumpy near the end of the program but as announcer Ben Shelton points out, it is a track hauled in and constructed in about two weeks and it is bound to be a little rough. That is the reality and Kevin Gundaker and his crew just do the best they can to keep it as smooth and racy as possible. The track had a different color this year as some different dirt was blended in with what they had and while it raced smoother, it was also extremely dusty for the drivers and in the stands on opening night. It wasn't the kind of dust that blasts you in the face and blinds you, but instead drifts down from the ceiling and coats everything and everyone.
This weekend is not so much a dirt track race but an event. It produces a carnival atmosphere and is billed as such. The racing can be spectacular but also ruthless and the more outlandish the characters, the better that management likes it. WWF style interviews are the norm and the driver introductions for Saturday night will likely test the bounds of sportsmanship and taste. Plenty of partying here is the norm and traditionalists sometimes chafe over some of the nonsense that is not only allowed but provoked. Drivers seem to feed on this and there were more "birds" thrown from driver to driver than perhaps the rest of the year combined. It took only three laps of the opening Late Model heat to stick a car in the back stretch wheel fence and require repairs and a large number of cars left the infield looking more like they had just participated in the Dakar Rally rather than a dirt track race.
And at center stage in all the showmanship sits West Virginia's Tyler Carpenter. The little known on a national stage Late Model driver brought huge amounts of attention to himself with a spectacular performance in the last Dome race and he is back for more in 2021, spouting off in interviews but so far backing up his word on the track.
The Late Model feature had the usual blend of wild action, sudden dramatic changes and a whole lot of wasted equipment before the twenty laps was completed. Carpenter would redraw the pole for the Late Model feature and would lead the majority of the event but there was plenty of wild action, the kind that keeps the crowds coming and that pay per view ticking, to keep most everyone satisfied.
Early on, the arch villain to most, Scott Bloomquist , would challenge Carpenter until he made a rare mistake, cut turn three too short, cream the inside barrier and tear off the front end of his car as he almost rolled.
Carpenter then had to deal with Brandon Sheppard and Ricky Thornton Jr who raced side by side behind him as Carpenter tried to plug the whole track up. Things got even more intense as the leaders hit lapped traffic with Thornton Jr squeezing by for the lead for one lap before Carpenter surged back in front.
Everything came to a head on the front stretch as Carpenter did everything he could to keep the other two behind him and the whole group got messed up in traffic with both Thornton Jr and Sheppard getting crashed out of the race. After an air quality break(a Dome specialty), Carpenter would hold on the last few laps to beat a smooth running Bob Gardner and Tanner English with Kyle Hammer also getting locked in for Saturday. Carpenter would then talk more smack in his victory lane interview and many in the crowd, who have taking a liking to the West Virginia "Hillbilly", roared in approval, their evening complete.
After a couple of really bad heat races, the Midgets got their act together and produced a nice feature race that saw only three yellows and the last sixteen laps of the main ran off nonstop.
Nick Hoffman, an accomplished Modified and Late Model driver, would lead the first eight laps of the feature as he road the inside line. Karter Sarff would show that there was an outside line too as the track, which had been watered just before the Midget main, would hold a high line for these light and small cars.
However, just when Sarff was about to make the move of the night, he jumped the cushion in turn three and lost all that he had gained. However, Jonathan Beason, one that was passed by Sarff's charge, took note of the new fast lane and when Sarff bobbled, he jumped up there himself and quickly drove past the leaders and proceeded to run away with the race.
Hoffman had dropped a few spots but he got up on the wheel and moved up the track and fought his way back up to second, edging past Jake Neuman to get that second spot and showing that yes indeed, it just might be possible for Hoffman to pull off a triple win on Saturday night as he figures to be strong in his Late Model and nearly unbeatable in his Modified.
Speaking of that, Hoffman would then jump into his Modified and lead start to finish in that feature to wrap up the evening's entertainment. While the other two classes were good at using the whole track, the Modifieds pretty much stuck to the bottom lane, perhaps because as the last event it was just too rough to move up the track.
Hoffman would lead through three yellow flags and never be challenged as he drove on to an easy win, if there is such a thing at this track. The best drive was put on by Peyton Taylor as the Arkansas driver would be one of the few able to move up the track and he gained several spots in the last few laps to finish second. Tyler Nicely faded but then moved back up for third and Jordan Grabouski, the Nebraska driver, also made a great late race charge to lock himself in for Saturday.
It was a long evening of racing with the last checkered flying sometime after 11 pm. Of course, there are always a number of breaks needed for track prep, watering and air purification purposes but the announcing group of Ben Shelton, Dustin Jarrett, Blake Anderson, Trenton Berry and on this night, guest announcer Mike McKinney kept things hopping and there were seldom a quiet moment .
The seating was different this year with the front stretch seating open on the first night unlike previous years so it was hard to gauge the crowd with them more spread out but veteran crowd watchers told me they thought the Thursday night crowd was larger than ever. And most importantly, they were consuming more of the products that have made Milwaukee and St. Louis famous than ever!
No comments:
Post a Comment