After being off for several weeks, the United States Modified Touring Series rolled back into action on Tuesday night, July 12th with a visit to one of Todd Staley's tracks, this being the Mason City Motor Speedway in Mason City Iowa. This would be a busy week for the Modified drivers of the USMTS with five events this week as they travel to Ogilvie Minnesota on Thursday through Saturday for Mod Wars against the Modifieds of WISSOTA and then wrap up their busy week with an overnight pull to Watertown South Dakota and the Casino Speedway for a guaranteed action packed night of racing in "The Jungle."
Along with the Modifieds at MCMS, the usual group of USRA sanctioned classes would race which would include B Mods, Stock Cars, Hobby Stocks and Tuners.
MCMS remains a work in progress as each time I attend the races there, I find more things that have been changed and improved on with more still in the works. On Sunday I noted that they have both a new asphalted victory lane as well as an asphalt drive up up the hill from the pits to enter the track which is a really nice touch. A number of huge billboards now surround turn three, much like they have at I-94 Sure Step Speedway in Minnesota which might be where Todd saw them to give him the idea. I am however, still waiting for a scoreboard to appear that would be both a nice touch and a valuable asset to the track and helpful for the drivers if it was positioned properly. A new viewing platform for the pit people is also being built just next to the grandstands along the front chute.
Before the races, one driver I talked to in the pits was Modified driver Mike Hansen who originally was from North Dakota, moved to Iowa for awhile and now splits time between homes in Dickinson North Dakota and Arkansas. He doesn't get to race too much any more but does like to hit a few races each year with his Hughes chassis and plans to make this trip on his way back to the Peace Freedom state. However, his talk with me must have been a jinx to him as he went up in a ball of smoke during his heat. He did try to return for a B Feature but only lasted a few laps before pulling in. So his visit to Ogilive would have to be considered up in the air right now.
Thirty Modifieds signed in to race on Tuesday night although Brandon Givens never made an appearance on the track and I suspect he never really made it to Mason City. Even so, the top eleven in USMTS points were on hand and seventeen of the top twenty so they are following their tour as well as any of the major series are at this point of the racing season. Car counts in the other four support classes were quite small with a couple now making two heats. However, it should be noted that one of the other USRA tracks in the area that could supply quite a few cars was also having a Fair race on this night, thus likely splitting the field to a point.
Racing got started about forty minutes late on this night but for once I couldn't blame that on the time trials that USMTS runs. It was for a much more rare occurrence these days and that was for an over watered race track which is something that seldom happens any more.
While the MCMS remains a work in progress, so to does the track prep with an all new surface and truly, a totally new track. They packed quite a bit and after the heats spent more time packing and I even saw Todd Staley on the grader, trying to remove the huge berm that developed in turns three and four. It was odd that even with all the wet dirt, there were still areas that dust was flying, indicating that the wind and sun and warm temperatures had given them some fits with track prep. Truly, the groove didn't widen out much until the last race of the night which was the Modified forty two lap feature and then we saw some exciting sliders being thrown to round out the evening.
I must admit that I don't know a whole lot about Jim Chisholm as I don't see the USRA B Mods race too much and he is a Deer Creek stalwart, having won the B Mod title there the last two years before making the decision to move up to Modifieds this year. Obviously he knows what he's doing as he is the point leader now at Deer Creek in the Mods and had three solid runs as the Mods raced with the Lucas Oil Late Models last weekend.
On this night he would further show his mettle as he would win his first USMTS feature race, quite an accomplishment for a first year driver in the series driving a family owned operation. The redraw would be nice to him but he used the pole to his advantage as he led early with Dan Ebert chasing him hard. Ebert actually appeared to have the faster car early but he just couldn't time it right to make a pass for the top spot.
However, as the race continued and Chisholm continued to lead, it looked like the upset might occur. A yellow when Aaron Benson blew up with twenty nine laps completed proved to be just what Ebert needed. He got a big run on the restart and as we see more and more these days in both Mods and Late Models, if passed are going to occur, they generally happen on restarts.
However, a couple slide jobs later, they had traded the lead back and forth but Ebert found turn two a difficult one for him as his car kept pushing up the hill and Chisholm was able to get past him and retake the lead. A few more slide jobs broke out but Chisholm coolly handled the pressure and remained the leader.
Just when it looked like the checkered would wave, Dereck Ramirez would slow with a flat tire and the last two laps would have to be run. Chisholm got a good restart and would not be challenged on the final two laps. Things went South for Ebert as he got a terrible restart and fell all the way back to seventh at the finish after plunking the wall. Terry Phillips was the big winner as he moved up to second at the line with Darron Fuqua next in line. It was a popular win for the north Iowa driver with the crowd and likely put him on a lot of people's radar that didn't know too much about him, just like me. He is only nineteen years old so I'm sure it won't be too long before some people will be wanting to take him on the road.
As for the support classes, the Hobby Stock feature was the biggest and Zac Smith would lead from start to finish to take the win. There was quite a bit of position jockeying going on behind him with everyone wanting to be on the top side at the correct time and Adam Speicher won that battle, taking second ahead of Zack Smidt.
The Stock Car feature saw Chanse Hollatz also lead from start to finish for the win. Josh Zieman did everything in his power to pass Hollatz but he kept jumping the wicked berm and never was able to make a pass.
Dozen time winner Oliver Monson would add to his total as his car was in perfect pitch for the Tuner feature. He caught a break when leader Devin Jones dropped an octave and pulled off and as fast as Monson was, I think he would have had a tough time passing on the narrow track, but we'll never know as Jones hit a sour cord and was out of the race.
The B Mods surprised us all when they ran off sixteen laps of nonstop racing to proceed the Modified feature and help widen out the track. Ben Moudry would lead all laps and never really be challenged but there was a good battle for second with Jeremy Grantham finished in the runner up position. We got a fore taste of Chisholm success in the B Mod event as Joe Chisholm would make the most passes of the event, working his way up to fourth at the finish.
All racing would be complete sometime just after 10:30 pm. Despite the fact that they had to spend quite a bit of time packing and grading and that the groove made passing tough for most of the night, I still think that MCMS is a work in progress and I can see some really good things for this track in the not too distant future. The changes they have made to the race track I think will do nothing but bode well for them and make the racing so much more interesting and exciting than it used to be. Both here and Shelby County in Harlan have in my opinion done some great things that will make the racing so much better in the coming days and weeks.
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