Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Sorensen Tops USMTS Opener

 The following two reports were temporarily unable to be completed in a more prompt manner due to some strange issues involving the internet, passwords, sea tides and the howling of wolves at the Moon. They are now being presented, late as they may be,  for hopefully, your interest and enlightenment. 


As we slip into the month of March, more and more traveling racing series are presenting their opening events of the 2022 racing season and this weekend's doubleheader would be one of those. On Friday night, March 4th, the United States Modified Touring Series(USMTS) began their twenty fourth season under the direction of Todd and Janet Staley as we all visited the Rocket Raceway Park located about fifteen miles West of Paris Texas on highway 82. These two opening full programs would be the start of what is to become the richest season for the drivers in the history of the USMTS. More big money races and the recent announcement that due to some very generous backers, the USMTS point champion for 2022 will earn one hundred thousand dollars, forging USMTS right up there with the richest of all the traveling series, no matter the class of car. 

And along with the USMTS cars, three other USRA sanctioned divisions would be running two full programs also on what would be a very busy March weekend. 

This would be my first race ever at Rocket Raceway Park, a track previously known as 82 Speedway and East Texas Speedway and several other names also as the track has had a checkered history over the years. This would also mark the very first weekend of racing at this newly named track by new owners Kevin Rogers and Kevin Sustaire. You may recognize their names as the former promoters at RPM Speedway of Texas, where they leased that track Southeast of the Dallas metroplex and had put on some big races over the past couple years. 

Now they have dropped that track and have purchased this quarter mile facility located about an hour and a half Northeast of that same metroplex. RRP is a quarter mile black dirt oval that sits on remote land on what was likely once grazing land. No towns are close by and hopefully no bitchy neighbors to interfere with their racing plans. They just purchased this track in the off season and much hectic work has been done to get the track ready for racing this year. They have bit off a big chunk with their first race ever here being this doubleheader with five and ten thousand dollar shows on the line. 

The track is wide and has fairly good banking and as we would find out, does race very well and when it is tacky like it was for the opening night action, it is a very fast quarter mile that produces much action. Thirty four hundred high rise bleacher seats provide plenty of seating and are constructed of metal and remind me of those grandstands at both Ardmore and Humboldt. In fact, after watching the first night of racing, it seemed to me that the track raced very much like Ardmore does, except that Ardmore is a bit larger. Perhaps the reason that it races so much like Ardmore led to twelve or more drivers taking to the Ardmore track on Tuesday night of this week to get some extra practice on their way South to this track. There was even a nice little pond behind the pits that worked very well for filling up the water trucks. 

I'm sure there are plenty of things that the new owners, pressed for time, have not had the chance to finish up yet and that is understandable but such simple things as painting out aisle markings in the grandstands need to be done. The track needs a scoreboard badly and the p.a. system is spotty, working well in some places but nonexistent for other parts of the grandstand. The lighting is good(except when it goes out in the middle of a feature race which then becomes scary) and there is plenty of spectator parking although it is quite the walk from the parking lot to the grandstands. However, golf cart service for those that needed it was provided( a nice touch).  

Not surprisingly, a power house field of seventy six Modifieds was on hand to try and take home the big money on opening weekend. The other classes were solid too with thirty or more Factory Stocks and Limited Modifieds while only the Stock Car class was smaller in number, largely due to the fact that Stock Cars are new to this region. 

For the second straight year, USMTS is using a format that divided the cars up into heat races, followed by group qualifying within those heats. They then invert the top four in time trials and use passing points from the heats to qualify for the feature or line up for the Last Chance races. It's well documented that I don't like time trials but it seems to me that if time trials are used, then there shouldn't be an invert after qualifying, especially if passing points are used and they skew toward the heat finish, not number of cars passed. In fourteen heats contested over two nights, only two weren't won by drivers that started in the front row so the reward for timing in quickest and starting in row two of a heat is not large, and many of the quick qualifiers has to run Last Chance races because the eight lap heats with very fast cars in front of them gave them little chance to pass. However, the cars still come to race and as long as they do, I doubt that we'll soon see any change to the format. By the way, one thing that time trials virtually guarantees and that is the first race never hits the track at the advertised starting time, something that held true once again this weekend. 

The field was a strong one in the Modified class with eighteen of the top twenty in last year's points back again to try it plus many new racers for the series along with the always tough local Texas drivers. The first lost one driver before the green flag dropped as South Texas driver Broc Bowen had a motor go bad after only seven practice laps on Thursday night and while the rest of the first unloaded, he headed out for home, hoping to get his money back from his pre paid motel rooms for the weekend. One Stock Car was also sent home early too but that was an issue of a car not even close to class and safety rules. 

Seven heats and three Last Chance races that were large enough and talented enough to be called feature races in their own right, would set the grid for Friday night's forty lap main event. Many regulars in the series would not make the cut, thus necessitating a monstrously large six provisional starters and a thirty car feature field. 

Kyle Brown is racing for the 2022 rookie of the year and he would lead the opening two laps of the main event. However, Jason Hughes was very fast and he would drive around Brown and take the top spot. He was challenged by Brown to get the spot back until Kyle was overtaken by Dereck Ramirez and Bo Day. They, along with Mike Hansen, would be the main challengers in the first half of the race. 

A driver to be watched was Dustin Sorensen, who had won a B Feature and started on the seventh row but was moving forward quickly. Just near the halfway point of the race a couple of yellows really shock up the running order. First Hansen, who had been smoking, slowed and went off on the hook while Brown dropped out at this point also. Then, Sorensen and Ramirez, battling for second, got together in turn one with Ramirez getting turned around and clipped by another car and the defending series champ was done and off on a hook also. To be fair, the track was breaking up quite badly in turn one but it was also the fastest way around, so drivers were flying through the ruts, trying to hold of for dear life and keep their cars straight. The collision between Sorensen and Ramirez was likely caused because the cars were unmanageable. 

However, this put Sorensen in second and he began to pressure Hughes for the lead. When Jason hit those same bumps and slid out , Sorensen was right there to take over the lead with just a handful of laps left. Sorensen would pull away then and drive on for the win, remarkable in that he gained so many positions but tainted slightly after he turned around Ramirez, accidental or not.  Rodney Sanders would come from thirteenth to finish third with a steady run as keeping the cars on the ground was key. Nearly half the starting field wasn't around at the end on the blinding fast but increasingly rugged track.  

There were also full shows for the other three classes. A small field of Stock Cars led to a couple heats and a feature while the Factory Stocks and Limited Mods both ran three big heats, a B and a Feature race. Passing points were used to set the fields in these three classes(thankfully no time trials). An oddity occurred when two of the three mains saw yellows on the last lap which resulted in one lap sprint style finishes. 

Trey Melton was the early leader in the Stock Car feature when one of those oh oh moments that you might see once or so in a life time occurred. As the field was roaring down the back chute at full song, suddenly every light on the race track went out! To say it got dark quickly would be an understatement. However, all drivers were successfully able to stop and there were no collisions or cars wandering off course. I had witnessed this one other time and it was equally shocking and surprisingly but on that occasion, no damage resulted either. After about twenty minutes or so, we were back racing just like normal. 

Shelby Williams took over the top spot but the bumpy track was hard for him to navigate and Missouri's James McMillin took over the top spot. He appeared to be home free but a series of late yellows was problematic and on the final, green and white combined restart, he got a terrible restart and was passed for the win by Arkansas' Arlen Stewart. McMillin and Williams trailed. 

The same thing happened in the Factory Stocks where it came down to a one lap sprint. Nate Dixon led the opening laps but was then overtaken by Walter Hamilton. Hamilton looked to be unbeatable until he suddenly broke and that gave Michael Smith the lead. He led through three late race yellows, and then survived a one lap sprint to the finish to edge out Chad Abernathy for the win. Ironically, before the races I talked to Smith who reported that during practice on Thursday, his car was fast but kept missing and he was going to have to replace much of the electrical system. Oddly, Smith runs an alternator and starter business in Paris, but he got the job done satisfactorily to take the win. 

The Limited Modified feature matched that class against the USRA B Mods which were allowed to race against the Limited Mods. This would be a battle of rules as the Limited Mods run bigger and stronger motors and big spoilers but have very primitive suspensions while the B Mods run no spoiler, a motor rules package and a different tire but have more racing type suspensions plus quick change rear ends. One of the B Mod drivers told me that the Limited Mod strategy would be to putt around the corners, keep the cars straight and then drag race down the chutes whereas the B Mods were going to have to gain time in the corners. 

As it turned out, local driver Rowdy Day would dominate the race, having passed early Dalton Ragsdale and then leading the rest of the way. Cody King would drive the wheels off his B Mod, hurtling the bumps which were by this time getting bad and slamming the wall repeatedly in an effort to get the lead. However, he would have to settle for second to Day with Trent Gibby third. 

The crowd was a very good one on a cool March night and the local fans I talked to all had good things to say about the new management and their efforts to get this race facility back up and running properly. With the large number of races though, the many restarts, plus the delay for the lights(out) and one considerable session to try and get the first turn to cooperate, it was very near 1 am before the final checkered waved. Thankfully those that came to see the Mods didn't have to wait until the end as their feature was run third in the running order. 

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