Saturday, March 19, 2022

Ward Dominates at Southern Oklahoma Speedway, Clark and Hamilton Are Also Winners

 The IMCA Southern Stampede continued on Friday night, March 18th at the Southern Oklahoma Speedway in Ardmore with the IMCA Mods, Stock Cars and Southern Sport Mods all in action. 

Friday night's weather was a little more amiable for racing than Thursday night had been and despite temperatures that were about twenty degrees cooler than they were on Thursday and a nasty North wind howling across the prairie, the sun was shining and racing would take place. 

A few extra cars made their way to the track for the Friday round and there were one hundred and two race cars on hand in the three classes offered, led by the Modifieds where a fine field of forty seven were on hand to battle for twenty four starting spots. 

A driver's only meeting was called for 4:30 pm and the drivers were offered the choice of paying their expected entry fee and racing for Thursday night's purse or getting a partial refund and racing for the Friday night purse, which interestingly was smaller across the board than the Thursday night offering. Most chose to have the track keep the entry fees from Thursday and race for the bigger money but it was an interesting proposal. When the driver's meeting was called, I had hopes that perhaps they were going to reschedule a doubleheader event for perhaps on Saturday so everyone could get three races in here this weekend but that would not be the case.

While I have enjoyed the hospitality and racing so far, one sticking point continues to be the inability to start at the advertised time, or even close to it. Once again on Friday, at the scheduled starting time, packing vehicles are still making laps around the track which at that time wasn't even close to being ready to be raced on. The only saving grace was that instead of thunderheads boiling overhead, we had sun shining down on us. It turned out to be sixty five minutes after the advertised starting time when the first race took a green flag, something that would not be tolerated in many places but seems to be an accepted way of doing business here . 

It does appear that part of the track prep procedure here is to really slop the track up as once racing begins, it does dry out very fast  and if not for the wet beginning, I think a rubbered up track could be very possible. In fact, they did stop at one point on Friday and throw down some water in the low groove as it did look like it was starting to rubber up and the Modified feature, which was run last, gave appearances that Tim Ward was nearly in not fully running in a rubbered up lower groove which did make him very fast. 

Qualifying heat races, done by pill draw, would set the fields for the three feature races. Only the Modifieds would need B Features on this night with two that were as large as most feature races at many tracks these days. Taking only the top two out of each heat means that that vast majority of drivers have to run three times to earn a check, something that I am not particularly in favor of. But that is one way, I guess, to ensure that more races are on the evening's program. 

However, in the Stock Car feature, theme of the night was "let 'em all run" as all thirty cars were slotted into the main with no B Feature run in that class. The result was the best feature race of the night but also the most damaging with several grinding collisions that badly damaged several cars and likely reduced the field for Saturday night's finale. 

There were officially four different leaders in the twenty five lap Stock Car main that saw a lot of three and for wide racing on the ultra wide three eighth mile oval here in Ardmore. The track doesn't have a lot of banking but it is super wide and at least early on in the Stock Car feature, cars were all over the track. 

Dennis Bissonnette was the early leader of the race until he was passed by William Gould, one of several drivers doing double duty in both Stock Cars and Modifieds. Quickly moving in to challenge were Jason Rogers and Shelby Williams with Williams quickly coming up from row four. There were several yellows in the first seven laps, mostly for minor spins but at that point there were two back to back grinding crashes that eliminated a number of cars with the infield looking like the back lot at a salvage yard. 

Gould was moving all over the track, trying to block as much as possible but finally Williams was able to sneak under him and take over the lead. Also moving up was Blake Clark, who had started tenth and with the leaders hugging the low groove, it was a battle to not give away the inside lane. 

As the laps grew short, Clark was nailed to the rear bumper of Williams and as they came for the white flag, Williams slipped off the bottom with Clark driving under him and taking over the lead. Williams then went to the cushion in turn one of the final lap, a lane not many were using, but he got a great run off the top side and accelerated past Clark down the back chute to retain the lead. 

Unfortunately for him, he had such a strong run that he wasn't able to back down enough and protect the low line in the third turn and he slid just high enough for Clark to duck under him. They raced to the line and Clark was the winner in a thriller by .009 seconds. Gould hung on for third with Iowa's Blake Adams crossing fourth but getting DQ'd for an unknown offense. 

Both cars of the Arkansas Hartwick family as well as Minnesota's Andy Altenberg were among those damaged in the big crash on the back chute on lap eight. 

The Sport Mod feature would see the lead exchanged three times before Tim Hamilton would take the checkered. Jimmy Day would be the early leader as he was running the cushion and flying in the early going. Several other drivers including Hamilton and Alex Hickham would work the low side as there were two distinct lines on the track. Hamilton would take over the lead for one lap following a yellow but then Day would use the top side to get his momentum back up and take the top spot once again. 

However, the high side seemed to gradually go away and by the halfway point, Hamilton would slip by on the low side as the leaders raced through traffic and would take over the lead. A late yellow would set up a six lap sprint to the finish and Hamilton would be smooth working the low side, and would drive home for the win. Day would find the top side slipping away and he would be passed late for second by Hickham with Rowdy Day, the big winner several weeks ago at Rocket Raceway Park, settling for fourth. Interestingly, IMCA Southern Sport Mods and USRA Limited Mods seem to be the same thing, as they slip back and forth from track to track without seemingly any changes being made to the cars. 

Ward would start on the pole and would lead all twenty five laps of  the Modified feature. He would only be challenged on restarts, of which there were two, until he could get him momentum going on the bottom, after which we would drive away from the pack. While many in the field were trying to pound the cushion, Ward would get a great run off the low side and simply pull away down the chutes. 

He was challenged by Kale Westover for a time until the top side started to go away and Westover would gradually fade, eventually to sixth. 

Ward's most persistent challenge would come from Brint Hartwick who would move into second after starting fifth. He was running the Ward line but not quite as good as Tim was, as he could maintain second but never challenge the leader. The last half of the feature would go green and those two would pull away from the field. There was heavy traffic to deal with at the end but Ward handled it nicely. The biggest move was by Ethan Braaksma who started seventeenth and would race into third right at the end in a scramble for positions. Only four drivers would not go the distance in this race. 

Saturday night there will be more money on the line in all three classes and the Modifieds will start their feature three wide and ten rows deep. 

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