Little did we know that when we arrived at Volusia Speedway Park on Tuesday night, February 15th for a three division program featuring night number two for the UMP Late Models, the first night for the Big Bock Modifieds and the conclusion of the opening series for the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series that we would be in for a long evening of racing that eventually developed into that rare night, day doubleheader with the final checkered flag waving just after 2 am local time, even later that bar closing time in Wisconsin. I always figure it's a really late night when we are still going at it at the track after legal closing time in Wisconsin and that was the result of a long evening of racing with probably one division more than could be handled given the number of cars in the competing classes. Throw in some surprise rain showers that caused a near two hour delay and you're talking about a show that while it produced two excellent feature races, saw it's completion only witnessed by the very hearty that stuck out a long night.
Let's focus on the program, division by division, starting with the Late Models. After a number of drivers sat out Monday night's show, most were to race on Tuesday with Chase Junghans, Josh Richards, Gordy Gundaker, Tim McCreadie, Ross Robinson, Earl Pearson Jr, Tyler Erb and Jacob Ulrich all making their first laps of the week after sitting out Monday. Also adding to the field were Cade Dillard, Mike Benedum and Garrett Mosley. A couple previous competitors scratched out for Tuesday but that left fifty five cars to compete.
The format for the Late Models would find two groups for qualifying and because of the larger field of cars, six heat races were scheduled. Different from the WoO qualifying that we will see starting on Wednesday is that the top four qualifiers in each heat would be inverted, so that drivers that didn't run their best laps in time trials would sometimes surprise when they showed up on the pole for a heat race. A primary example would be Brandon Sheppard who struggled just a bit for the second straight night in qualifying but would start on the pole for a heat. This will not be so good for him if that trend continues starting tomorrow.
With the rain showers that fell during the third Sprint Car heat and threw the whole timing of the evening off, the schedule of races was completely changed and the Late Models would not see the track again until the whole Sprint Car program was over, thus making for a two hour or more break for the class. The rain didn't hurt the track and instead made it blistering fast and I thought with the late hour and the relative unimportance of the night for point chasers that there would be wholesale scratches for the night but I was wrong again as nearly everyone on hand chose to run their heat and if needed, a B Feature also.
Perhaps most noteworthy in the heat races that produced some blistering fast racing was the move that Blair Nothdurft made to pass Donny Schatz and get the last transfer spot out of a heat. Nothdurft has been down racing here in Florida for three weeks and tonight he finally qualified for a main event for the first time.
A straight up start for the feature race would see twenty six drivers take the green flag in the wee hours of the morning with Tyler Bruening and Gundaker taking the provisional openings. Sheppard would take the early lead with Earl Pearson Jr, Ashton Winger and Gustin close behind. Gustin made a strong move to slip from the third row up to second and then the chase was on.
Sheppard built up a sizable lead over Gustin with Tim McCreadie and Tanner English starting to make moves to the front. Still, except for lap fourteen yellow when Brandon Overton slowed, I think Sheppard would have been home free as Gustin was keeping the distance between the two static, but not really gaining.
However, yellow flag restarts, which seem to have been a bugaboo for Sheppard during the Florida run, struck again as Gustin got a great run in turn one on the restart and when Sheppard wandered up the track, Gustin cut across him and took over the lead. And once in front, he pulled away as Sheppard really started to struggle and fell back considerably in the closing laps.
Devin Moran, not in the top five at the halfway point, made a great charge after that, moving to third by the second and final restart on lap twenty four and eventually blasting up to second. He did not have anything for Gustin in the closing laps however, as Ryan drove home unchallenged for the win. It was a great and timely win for Gustin but certainly unexpected as Gustin hadn't shown much down here in Florida before this night and in fact had passed on much of the Lucas series races here after not showing much early in their tour. The secret now will be to have some consistency and not just be a one time flash that otherwise struggles to remain competitive and that remains to be seen.
English must be wondering if he should go back to his own car after having a great run on Tuesday driving the car of Dylan Thompson. He completed his dash to the front by surging to third in the closing laps by passing and then holding off Winger after starting eleventh. Sixteen cars were still on the track at the finish with all on the lead lap and only two yellows to slow the blistering pace.
It was the first of five nights for the center steer, Big Block Modifieds and an excellent field of forty three of them pulled down from the East Coast to race. And while the Late Models put on a good show, the Modifieds stole the night with a great opening night feature race that had, by my unofficial count, seven official lead changes before Stewart Friesen made the winning pass with just two laps to go.
The Modifieds may have been slightly sorry that they were on the card Tuesday, as they got to be the "crash dummies" of the program, packing and hot lapping until they must have burned up a tank of fuel before they finally got to race, interspersing their heat races around Last Chance qualifying for the Sprint Cars before the Sprint program was completed before anyone else got to race.
The Mod format would be a simple one. Qualify in groups, start the heats straight up and then start the feature straight up out of the heats. But for a format that often produces "ho hum" events, Tuesday was the pleasant exception as the Modified feature was a dandy and certainly the best at Volusia so far.
It was a two car battle but what a battle it was between Friesen and Peter Britten. They would start beside each other on the front row and would go at it for thirty laps, slide jobbing each other and swapping lanes on the track continuously
Britten would lead the opening laps before Friesen would make a pass for the lead. Stewart would then lead for twelve laps before Britten would work his way back up beside Stewart. The yellow would fly for the only time of the race with fourteen laps complete when Erick Rudolph would pound the wall in turn three and severely shorten up his car.
Then the fun would begin as after the restart, they would swap the lead five times as Friesen and Britten would slide each other and take turns leading the race. It was a great battle and while both were making bold moves, both left each other room to race. The last half of the race was a beehive of activity as the leaders traded the top spot, working both high and low on the track while they raced through some lapped traffic at the same time.
The key moment came with just two laps to go when Britten, who had a slight lead at that point, hit a bump in turn one that upset his car badly and sent the front end into the air, Don Garlits style. By the time he recovered, Friesen had taken over the point and with heavy traffic all around, Stewart maintained the top spot as Britten was bogged down by the slow cars and couldn't make another move. It was a great race and for the first time here for me, the Big Blocks finally put on the kind of show I was hoping for.
While the leaders were fighting it out, Max McLaughlin came creeping up on them and finished a close third and might have gotten more if there had been a few more laps. His team mate Jimmy Phelps would trail him across the line.
Because the Sprint Cars couldn't return on another night due to other racing commitments, after the rain showers every effort was made to complete their portion of the program which included scrambling the running order of events twice. The Sprints had gotten three of their heats in before the showers started, so a big change was made so as to get their remaining three qualifiers done and get the feature on the track with the other two divisions pushed to the sidelines, so to speak, to get that done.
An extra five grand and an extra five laps were on the Xtreme program for this night but it wouldn't have mattered how many laps they ran, it would be a Thomas Meseraull dominating win on Tuesday. He would start on the outside pole and lead all thirty laps to take a relatively easy win. Even a late yellow with just three laps to go would not be a problem for him as he powered away from the field one more time despite an all out charge from Brady Bacon.
Bacon would be quite the story himself. Going for a wild flip on Monday night when Dennis Gile broke a driveshaft right in front of him and lost power, Bacon would pick up a ride in that same car when Gile suffered a broken ankle in that accident and could not drive.
Bacon took to the car immediately, and came up from the third row to give Thomas his biggest challenge of the race but Meseraull was smooth on the cushion and withstood two late yellows for the win.
As far as the future of the Xtreme Series is concerned, I think it remains to be seen how this will all play out. They had a nice field of cars here and seemed to have a good backing of fans but it must be pointed out that these two races piggy backed onto three nights of racing by the USAC cars at Bubba, just down the road and since the majority of the drivers really are more USAC branded, will this series develop its own following or is it just going to be USAC part 2 which is nice in that it gives the non winged racers more shows and bucks but will it be sustainable? If they really wanted to have a special brand for this new Xtreme Series, they'd get some of their "name" winged drivers to participate and then they'd have something special to offer the fans. Short of that, it seems like just more of the same and nothing particularly special.
One thing I know for sure and it has already been intimated to by Late Model folks and that three classes of cars for a show like this is just too many. Even if things go smoothly, which often does not happen, three classes with all the extra cars and laps is just too much racing to get done in a timely manner. If Volusia plans to continue running the Xtreme Series during the DIRTcar Nationals, then they need to find another rime to run them. Folks for this week are here to see Late Models and Big Blocks and those two classes should not be attempted to be "one upped" by another series. Perhaps they can run the Xtreme cars with the WoO Sprints or the All Stars but this is not the week for them.
Drivers from twenty four different states were on hand for races so far this weekend with another big crowd in the stands as it seems that the spectator attendance over the last two weeks has been excellent everywhere despite less than spectacular weather. I have to give credit for the enterprising vendor at Volusia who, after it started to rain, dropped the previous items he was trying to see and instead was peddling umbrellas to the crowd.! That takes ingenuity.
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