Round five of the sixteenth annual Wild West Shootout at the Vado Speedway Park was held on Saturday night, January 15th. New to victory lane during this year's series was Tennessee driver Mike Marlar who would top the Late Model forty lap feature race after a spirited duel with Tyler Erb.
The dominating drivers in the X Mods and Modified divisions would shine again as Kris Jackson would win his third feature race of the series in the X Mods while Rodney Sanders would win his third straight in the Modified class.
A half a dozen new drivers, primarily X Mod drivers from either Las Cruces or El Paso, would make their first starts of the series and while the X Mod division would for the second time this weekend edge past the car counts that were on hand in Arizona last year, both the Mods and Late Models would be at exactly thirty less than last year. And while it is always important to have large and strong fields of race cars on hand, there can be no question that Vado Speedway Park continues to provide outstanding racing on a consistent basis that the Arizona Speedway found hard to deliver.
I spoke to both series promoter Chris Kearns and officials from Flo Racing who have a big investment in this series also to get their thoughts on the series so far and to perhaps give an idea on what will happen next year as a meeting of the minds was held on Thursday to consider options for next year.
Everyone loves Vado Speedway Park as a great facility and certainly one of the top tracks in the country, one that probably many of the "track raters" have never been to simply because, and no offense to residents of New Mexico here, it is located in a part of the country probably not visited by a lot of people. Just over two million people live in this state, there are not a lot of metropolitan areas and plenty of wide open space, and if you are not a fan of the outdoors, hiking and such or a chili pepper fan or alien believer you may not have even felt the inkling to travel to the "Land of Enchantment."
No matter, this is a great race track and Royal Jones, Chris Stepan and the track staff have put together a track that would rival any in the country. However, while it is a great track to race on and watch at, it has not attracted a lot of the northern travelers this year, simply because at nearly five thousand feet, the weather here is not nearly as temperate as it would be in the deserts of Arizona at this time of year.
The crowds have been disappointing so far for the series although the last two nights have seen things pick up considerably. With the northern cars missing, and believe me, they are seriously missed by the officials of this series, the crowds have lagged. Kearns himself told me that even at Arizona Speedway, the visitors from Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas that attended the races were twice as many as the local Arizona fans. So, while everyone loves Vado, and that track remains an option for 2023, they are also looking into some other race facilities, perhaps in slightly warmer climates, that could host the series next year. All they could honestly tell me is "stay tuned" for an announcement as things develop for 2023. All parties are working hard to find the best solution but it is a complicated issue in a world of racing right now that is tumultuous at best. By the way, the dates for next year have been set at January 7-15th with a practice session slated for the 6th.
The program for Saturday would be identical to the previous ones with the exception that five X Mod heats would be run with the increasing car count on Saturday. This would be tempered by the fact that at least four cars blew motors over the course of the program as the wear and tear of a week of hard racing is starting to catch up with some of the cars.
Josh Cain, who had the scintillating run in the X Mod feature in a borrowed ride on Friday, changed a motor in his own car and would be back in that ride on Saturday. Among the new entrants on Saturday would be Brandon Sheppard driving a second Modified for the Leon Ramirez team. Sheppard, now out of the money for the big bonuses for features won, is now having some fun the rest of the weekend and he has had some great runs in the Ramirez car at previous USMTS races in Texas. Things would start off great though, as he pounded the wall in hot laps, and severely damaged the cars decking but the Ramirez crew would get everything squared away and he would later provide one of the biggest charges of the night.
Early action would tend to make one believe that some upsets were on the way as Sheppard left a trail of liquid between him as his Late Model broke on the first lap of his heat race and he would have to go to a backup car for the B Feature. However, a fifteenth to second charge in the B Feature would get him in the main, albeit with a poor starting spot.
The Ramirez crew earned their keep on this night as not only did they have to repair Sheppard's Mod, Dereck Ramirez's car lost a spring as he was leading a heat race and he would also have to start a B Feature to get into the main. So there were a lot of things going on early that could affect Saturday night's outcomes.
Previous to the Late Model feature, the Pro Power Dash was held for drivers not making the main and in an unprecedented move, for the third time this week in the three dashes held, the winner turned down the grand for the win to instead start the feature from the tail. So while the field of Late Models has been uncharacteristically small this year, those on hand are serious about racing at much as they can. Saturday it was Arizona driver Kent Rosevear that turned down the cash to race.
Once again the Late Models provided dynamic main event that was cleanly run with the forty lapper going green to checkered and only four drivers not on the track at the end. And while the official record will show that there were only two different leaders, the race itself was much closer and intense than that will seem to indicate.
Marlar started on the outside pole and would get the early lead over Tyler Erb. They crisscrossed from the start with Marlar going to the bottom and Erb to the cushion. Erb would charge up and pass for the lead on lap ten but Marlar would fight right back and after a side by side battle, retake the lead.
Ricky Weiss would challenge briefly before slipping back a bit and Erb would also fade some as the race stayed under the green. However, the charges were left to Earl Pearson Jr and Garrett Alberson. Pearson Jr, who seems rejuvenated in his new ride from Jason Papich, would roar up to the second spot but the this race belonged to Alberson.
He started eighth and had worked his way into fifth by the halfway point. However, the last twenty laps were his as he drove past all those contenders in front of him except Marlar, and only a few more laps would have been needed for him to pass for the lead as his car seemed that dominant. However, Marlar would maintain to the checkered for his first win of the week so it seems that Sunday's big twenty five thousand to win main could be a very wide open event.
Alberson woke up the quiet crowds of the week with his charge as he got the biggest ovation of the week for his run to second while Pearson Jr hung on for third . Sheppard was able to only move up six spots from his eighteenth place start.
The X Mods had a rough go of it in their main event with two large pileups before a single lap could be completed. With all the tangled metal, it was remarkable that most could restart the race and at the end, only five cars didn't finish the race. "The Hook", who has been a part of WWS from its days back in Tucson, was again on hand to help quickly separate the wrecks and get disabled cars off the track, was working overtime during this event. Gabe Hodges would start on the pole and lead the opening five laps as the running order got shuffled considerably with all the early carnage and pit stops.
However, it took Kris Jackson only five laps to move up and then pass Hodges for the lead using a power move down the back chute that saw him pull out and drive right by Hodges for the lead.
Once in front, he was quite comfortable with no real challenges, even though he had to contend with three more yellow flags before the checkered flew. However, a race long battle for second saw Hodges fight off Jake Smith for that spot while Aasa Flores make a late race pass to edge out point leader Aaron Blacklance for fourth.
The other multiple winner in the division, Cole Campbell, was involved in a grinding crash in a B Feature when he was turned around and didn't make the main and may have to go to a backup car for Sunday's finale.
Someone "poked the bear" in the Modified division and after a slow start to the week, Rodney Sanders has been on fire since and Saturday night's beat down marked his third straight feature win in the Modifieds. And Sanders has not just been winning against some strong fields, he has been dominating.
Saturday he started in the second row and drove past early leader Bumper Jones on lap three and that was it as he was gone after that.
A yellow flag bunched the field right after he took over the lead but then the race continued on green to checkered and Rodney pulled away from the field. This does not bode well for the competition once the point season for the USMTS begins. Tyler Peterson had another strong run as he got by Jones for second and then maintained that position for the rest of the race, despite Tanner Mullins closing in on him some near the end of the race.
The Ramirez cars were busy in the main as Sheppard came from seventeenth to fifth and Ramirez from twentieth to seventh in the identical cars nearly impossible to tell apart.
Royal Jones and the WWS staff seem to have given thought to just about every facet of this event and they even had a large heating tent available for those fans that got chilled. However, the night didn't turn out nearly as badly as has been predicted and except for Sunday's wind which was indeed brutal, the evening in the high desert have not been too bad. It helps when the program is started early and run off in a quick manner and the hospitality suites have been jam packed this weekend too.
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