Monday, January 10, 2022

Sheppard, Jackson and Ramirez Top WWS Opener

 Saturday night, January 8th was the opening night for the sixteenth annual Wild West Shootout held this year at the Vado Speedway Park in Vado New Mexico. Late Models, X Mods and Modifieds would be the three featured classes as has been the case for a number of years for this event. 

Of course, by now everyone knows that this race was moved by necessity this year due to the closing of the Arizona Speedway near Mesa and Cave Creek Arizona and close to the metropolitan Phoenix area. The WWS run at Arizona Speedway was a very successful one, growing by leaps and bounds after its move from U.S.A. Raceway in Tucson as the metro Phoenix area proved a big attraction for both drivers and fans as a Winter destination. 

However, with that track now closed due to urban expansion and no other track in the Phoenix metro area suited to handle such a big show, series owners Chris Kearns and Michael Rigsby went shopping for another track to handle this event and they settled on the Vado Speedway Park here just off of Interstate 10 halfway between Las Cruces New Mexico and El Paso Texas. 

In my opinion, there can be no doubt that Vado is a superior facility to Arizona Speedway as this is a new track, built just  about three years ago and trucking magnet and Modified racer Royal Jones spared no expense when he built this facility which is state of the art in all regards. It is top notch in all regards with excellence in all facets and much thought was put into the track before it was built, even to having it pointed the correct direction so as to minimize any problems from sun or wind. It certainly has to rank right up there with the finest tracks in the country and I'm sure Jones is hoping that this series, which is always a big media hit during the cold of Winter, will highlight just what he has here in the Southwest, an area probably not at the top of the tourist attractions spots in the country. And there is a lot of ground between here and the next racetrack but fortunately, there is great local support from both cities and a strong local field of cars to draw from. 

The one sticking point going into the racing was just how this was going to draw for both fans and drivers with it being a fact that much of the support and success for the WWS in years past has been the large number of drivers from the Midwest and upper Midwest who came to Arizona for this race and in many cases, brought their families along for a vacation. Would New Mexico, at nearly five thousand feet in elevation, be as attractive a destination as going to the Arizona area? And that question has yet to be fully answered as only time and this weeks results being a strong indicator. 

Opening night weather fears were put at ease as it was a pleasant night and certainly not a whole lot colder than it could be at Arizona Speedway as heavy coats were often needed there. As far as the car counts for the three classes, there were forty two X Mods, Fifty three Modifieds and thirty one Late Models. I felt that the X Mods and Mods would have a good field of cars as both classes have a strong local base of support of really quality cars. The item impossible to not notice was the much smaller number of cars from my area of the upper Midwest. 

Quite frankly, the Late Model field was just a bit thin, both in quality and quantity. That's not to say that there weren't some extremely good cars on hand; just that the number and depth of them was not as deep as most years at Arizona. Just my feeling alone but it looks like the lack of a vacation destination for a lot of teams and their families has exposed this series to the fact that there are five races with only mediocre pay and one good paying event at the end and with so many gigantic paying shows scheduled this year across the country, that even the chance to race on this fine track was not enough incentive to stir a lot of teams to make the drive, which is by the way several hours closer than driving to the Phoenix area. 

As far as the racing itself would go, it was top notch in all regards but there would be no upsets on opening night as three of the strongest drivers in their respective divisions would dominate the show on Saturday. A pit walk before the show would find that some teams were already in trouble as Nathan Smith and Clint Reichenbach had already been forced to change motors after practice night issues while Christy Barnett would miss the opening night action after slamming the wall with her X Mod during practice. One team, whose name I didn't catch, was also headed home after blowing their motor during practice and not having a back up power plant and they were multiple hours from home!

Opening night provided some drama as a huge crash on I-10 between El Paso and the track involving a semi blocking the whole road caused a huge backup and many of the teams arrived at the track at the last minute but as  far as I know, everyone was able to eventually get through. 

Something that you always get with a Chris Kearns promoted event and that is an extremely quick show as there is not diddling around with this group once that first green flag waves. Passing points are used for the open wheel classes with the Late Models qualifying and unfortunately, starting their heats straight up. They used to use passing points for the Late Models too, but certain drivers, many of which are no longer here, whined long and hard enough that eventually they got their way. If fact, if I was to criticize anything, it's that they put too many cars in heats and they only run eight laps for the heats. But I might be splitting hairs here too.  Two B Features would set the final running order for the three main events. 

Late Models would go first on this night for their main as Kearns knows that the pay-per-view, which is huge for this event, is driven by the Late Models and with this track being in the Mountain time zone, an early finish for those watching on tv is important. 

With Bobby Pierce redrawing the pole, there was the threat of a runaway and he would lead the opening eleven laps of the main. However, Brandon Sheppard, who started right behind him, figured out the fast line for his car and he would move to the cushion while Pierce continued to run low on the track. Getting a gigantic run off turn two, Sheppard would blast into the lead and would then pull away. 

The Late Models would run nonstop for forty laps so the race was over quickly and Sheppard's main challenge later was working through lapped traffic but it caused him no difficulty and he would win easily. Pierce would finish second with Mike Marler third ahead of Stormy Scott and Earl Pearson Jr. 

In victory lane Sheppard would point out that this was the first race out for what was a brand new car, his family owned and prepared Rocket that he will run at regional events etc. in between WoO shows and other big races. 

The X Mod feature would also be one of domination, this time by Kris Jackson who is one of the top B Mod drivers in the Midwest and a dominant racer in the state of Missouri. He would start on the pole and would lead from start to finish in a race that was slowed four times for minor yellow flags. 

Jackson is building his own chassis now as he has went into partnership with his cousin Tony Jr  building race cars and his opening performance can only help business. Andy Bryant would move into second on the opening lap and remain there the rest of the way with Gabe Hodges third as the visitors from the Midwest would hold sway over the locals, at least on opening night. 

The domination would continue as the Mods wrapped up the night. Defending USMTS champion Dereck Ramirez would start on the pole and he would lead from start to finish in a race that was stopped just one for debris on the track. 

Ramirez would cruise up front as he had a comfortable margin on the field and no challengers to push him. There was however, a good battle for second with Jacob Bleess going back and forth for the spot with Tyler Peterson and the Minnesota driver would hold on over the North Dakota driver for second. Another Minnesota driver, Dan Ebert, would finish fourth while Rodney Sanders, who "stepped on it" and spun in his heat, would come from seventeenth to complete the top five. 

The track was good for the opening night and the program moved through smoothly but with the dominant wins and not a lot of battles for the lead, it was just a bit "ho hum." but sometimes that happens. Vado doesn't miss a beat though as among other things, they debuted a new video board on the back chute for lineups, replays etc. 

If you've never been to Vado, the track sits just off I-10 and is bordered on both the North and South by several huge dairy operations. And on this day, with the wind in just a perfect direction, the smell of "farm success" was strong in the air!

I have one bone to pick and that is with the rules for the X Mods. For a class that doesn't even run at this track anymore, which is where the rules were formulated, it seems poor for even the local drivers to have to modify their cars to race at their home track. Vado now runs USRA rules but for this series, it's pretty much open season with most drivers putting on spoilers and the weight package not seeming to be very appropriate. If they were sharp, they would go with the rules that Humboldt used for their big shows where the USRA, WISSOTA and IMCA all run their own rules and the mix works out well and fair and just get rid of these out of dates X Mod rules that just cost everyone money and definitely kept some cars at home in the garages this year.  

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