Wednesday night, June 22nd, it was time for another special event for the support classes. On this night I would cross the border back into Minnesnowta and head for the big half mile at the Martin County Fairgrounds in Fairmont for the opening night of the USRA Summer Shootout with the featured classes being the Stock Cars, B Mods and Hobby Stocks along with regular shows for the Modifieds and Tuners.
Wednesday night would be the first of five consecutive nights for this high paying series for these three classes, sponsored by Stealth Oilfield Services, LLC. Obviously this is not a local company as oil drilling in southern Minnesota is a bit of a useless effort but Leslie Gill and his racing team from Odessa TX are putting on this event and Leslie even pulled his Stock Car all the way up here to race too.
Big money is on the line for the Stock Cars, B Mods and Hobby Stocks with a good point fund also available at the end of the week for those drivers that run the majority of this series' races. Top prize for the Stock Cars and B Mods would be two grand on this night along with a grand for the Hobby Stocks but it will be much bigger for the finale on Sunday at Mason City plus the point fund money will be handed out on that night.
This even would be under USRA rules and guidelines although an attempt was made to attract drivers that frequent other sanctioning bodies by offering alternative rules, particularly involving tires, always a sticking point. And here in southern Minnesnowta and northern Iowa, the lines between the sanctioning bodies have blurred with many drivers racing with both groups, mostly just depending who is putting out the most money. Drivers jump back and forth on an almost daily basis and sometimes it's hard to remember just who is running the show until you check the officials uniforms.
And even that is not a guarantee. Chad Meyer, long a voice of IMCA, was called in as a last minute replacement for announcer Lonn Oelke, who was having some health issues and was reported to have undergone some surgery earlier on this day. The word of Lonn was positive though, and Chad proved to be a great replacement. So now Chad as called both USRA and well as being one of the voices for XR Racing so its getting hard to tell who's on first and what's on second anymore. Other than an occasional slip referring to Tuners as Sport Compacts and B Mods as Sport Mods, he did a solid job and I think, enjoyed seeing some drivers in action that he hasn't had the opportunity to see lately. And the bottom line is, racing is racing, no matter what color the track officials are wearing By the way get well soon Lonn. .
This series certainly did attract plenty of attention from the racers with drivers on hand from Missouri, Kansas and Texas as well as the area drivers. And there were plenty of them with the thirty nine car B Mod topping the list. Thirty Hobby Stocks and thirty seven Stock Cars were on hand with the other two classes, not so much. The Modifieds had only eight cars and in fact I talked to a Modified driver in the pits that didn't bring his car because he thought Mods weren't racing! And the Sport Tuners didn't have enough entrees to have a good card game. Both classes probably should have been left home so as to focus on those three classes were the big money was.
Once change when you cross the IMCA bridge to the USRA bridge is how the races are lined up. On this night the draw/redraw format was shelved with passing points qualifying the drivers for the main events and with such big fields, B Features would be needed for all three classes.
Sixteen heat races plus five B Features would be the long process that would set our fields for the main events. And since hot laps were called for in all five classes(why, I do not know), and with all the qualifying events, it was a long process to get us to the five feature races.
The Tuner Compacts, or as I prefer to call them, the Forwards (FWD) saw Jaeden Erickson finish about a mile and a half in front on this half mile track in their five lap thriller. The Modifieds weren't much better as Jason Cummins gapped runnerup Don Gerritsen Jr by about the distance between Fairmont and the South Dakota border in winning that event. With these two exercises in futility completed, it was time to get down to the serious racing.
The Hobby Stocks would do a remarkable job, with twenty four cars going nonstop in their main event and only one driver not finishing the race! On top of that, there were four different leaders of the contest and winner Dylan Clinton didn't take the lead until he was coming down the front chute to take the white flag. It was a good race that saw Scott Dobel lead early until passed by Gavin Bussinger for the top spot.
He would lead until Dylan Nelson would come storming up from the fourth row and take over the top spot but even his lead wasn't secure as Clinton would make a late charge using the middle and upper lanes of the track and he would drive by Nelson at the end to get the win with USRA national point leader Dustin Gulbrandson settling for third.
There were quite a few B Mod drivers on hand from Missouri and Kansas and after the B Mod feature was completed, it was clear they didn't come North for the fishing this weekend as the top four spots were swept by drivers from Missouri and Kansas with the first Hawkeye driver being fifth place Dan Hovden.
The Missouri boys ended up duking it out amongst themselves as they separated themselves from the pack. Earlier in the night, I talked to B Mod driver Jake Hodges who is driving a new J2 car built by Kris Jackson. Hodges told me that these cars were very good on a slight, smaller track but he wasn't sure just how well they would run on the big Fairmont half mile. Well, the answer was, just fine thank you.
Shadren Turner, who is leading the USRA points right now, would lead the first twelve laps of the B Mod feature with Hodges and Jackson trailing. A big pileup would slow the action but on the green, Jackson elected to try and run up the track and he blew past Turner on the restart to take over the lead and then pull away over the last seven laps. A late arriving Ryan Gilmore, another Missouri driver, would get past Turner for third late in the race.
The Stock Car feature would wrap up the night and after the local racers suffered much indignities early, it was up to Derek Green to bring home the Stock Car bacon for the local fans. Racing from just down the road in Granada, Green would start seventh in the Stock Car feature but would be on the hunt early and moving forward quickly.
The early battle saw Chanse Hollatz and Todd Staley trade the lead back and forth as Staley, the head of USRA, has proved to have made himself into quite a race car driver also. After Staley led briefly, Hollatz slipped back under him to regain the top spot but on lap thirteen, Green would use the higher side of the track, one that most drivers had ignored, and blew past Hollatz for the lead.
Most of the drivers were protecting the low line but perhaps his knowledge of the track gave Green the advantage or perhaps he just was not concerned by the big high banks as he rode up top and drove into the lead.
A late yellow set up a two lap sprint to the finish but Green got away strong and would drive home for the win. Kyle Falck made a late rush as he got past Hollatz for second with Bill Crimmins and Staley completing the top five in a race with only two yellow flags.
It was a good night of racing and good to see the support classes, which often times provide some of the best racing, get their chance to earn some big bucks. The down side was that with so much racing and a not particularly early start, it was Midnight before the last checkered flew and many folks, with work staring them in the face on Thursday morning didn't get the see the finale as they were already on their way home. It was, by the way, a very nice crowd that took in the action on Wednesday night. If you are looking for a race to attend the rest of this week, check out the schedule for the rest of the Summer Shootout venues.
Thanks to the track officials and USRA officials and also the track management at Fairmont Raceway.
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