The World of Outlaws Late Model Series wrapped up their three night swing through the Upper Midwest on Sunday night, July 17th. After an exciting event at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks North Dakota on Friday night and a disappointing rainout at I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls Minnesnowta on Saturday night, the troops crossed the Mississippi River and headed to Wisconsin where they wrapped up the weekend at the Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie Wisconsin for another ten thousand dollar top prize program.
Along with the Late Models, the open Modifieds and WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds would also be competing. It was another blazing hot day for everyone and a few pop up thundershowers threatened in the early afternoon but they quickly dissipated after depositing just a few sprinkles, the sun came back out, the humidity shot up and it was a real "cooker."
The Red Cedar Speedway is located at the Dunn County Fairgrounds which lies right in the city of Menomonie. When the fairgrounds was built, it was on the edge of the city but now the city has grown up around it with residential housing on two sides, businesses, a hospital and even an elementary school now close by. This track is under some of the strictest curfew ordinances of any track I know and to even be allowed to run a race on a Sunday night almost requires a waver from the Governor. The Red Cedar Speedway runs on Friday nights and a Sunday night show is very much a rarity here but now the third time that has happened with the WoO being at this track now for the third time.
Twenty six Late Models would sign in to race on this night. The numbers were down from Grand Forks as while the WoO again supplied ten drivers and cars(Tyler Bruening apparently headed back to Iowa) the number of local drivers running didn't match what Grand Forks brought to the table. Just like River Cities, Red Cedar is a WISSOTA stronghold for Late Models but for whatever reason, not nearly as many of the local and area cars that frequent this track decided to try and run with the WoO. Part of that may be due to the fact the WISSOTA has a huge, five night tour in cooperation with XR that starts on Monday night and the WISSOTA cars may just be getting ready for that tour.
It would be a challenge under these tough conditions to produce a worthy race track but the local crew at the speedway did a fine job, although two full "farming sessions" were necessary to make that happen. But if you are keeping score, that's still just half as many at River Cities did. Tanner English set a new track record in time trials with a lap of 16.093 as the first driver out for qualifying but by feature time the track was slick from top to bottom but had a healthy berm and there would the place that most would run, producing some wild action and daring slide jobs.
Three heats and a B Feature would set the running order for the main event with twenty three cars taking the green for the forty lap event on the fairly flat third mile oval. For some reason, the local track provisional remained unfilled even though there were a couple of candidates that didn't make the show out of the B Feature. Perhaps they just didn't want it, but that seems strange also. In any event, only twenty three would take the green.
Local driver Jesse Glenz would have terrible luck before the race would even start. Scheduled to start third, his car rolled on to the track with a wrecker pushing it with hood and front fenders removed as they apparently were thrashing on the car trying to solve and issue. Jesse had his helmet off and he was pushed across the track and back to the pits to not even see the green. The inside row moved up for the start and the green was dropped.
Ricky Weiss, with plenty of fans in the stands, would shot up from third and take the lead on the opening lap. However, Mike Marlar, who started on the pole, would quickly pick up the pace as he quickly determined the top side was the place to be and while Ricky was "catfishing" around in the low groove, Marlar blew past him for the lead.
While Marlar continued to lead, Shane Clanton moved up into the top three but the driver on the move was Ryan Gustin. This was his kind of track on this night. It was not a technical track, but a "balls to the wall", slam the cushion and hustle it down the chutes kind of track, one that he excels on. He started eleventh but by lap ten he had roared up to second and was pushing Marlar for the lead. Several times he nearly snuck by but each time Mike would fight him off.
Terrible luck struck local racer James Giossi who was running in the top five when his car quit, triggering a yellow. By the halfway point Jimmy Mars had cracked the top five after starting way back in sixteenth and shortly after that Jimmy's son Sam would crack the top five too, running his WISSOTA spec engined car. Sam would later get hung out to dry on a restart and lose several positions but he showed on this night that he will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.
Jimmy would later try to gain more spots but a dirty slider by Clanton almost stuffed Mars into the wall. Jimmy was coming back for a piece of Clanton when he jumped the cushion and slowed his efforts or we might have had even more to discuss.
After being all over Marlar, Gustin suddenly slowed with driveline issues, ending a strong effort but unfortunately making Gustin a DNF as he seems to be way too often. Weiss inherited second but after this point, there would be no one to challenge Marlar and following a lap thirty one yellow for a spin, he would pull away to nearly a full straightaway lead. The action then focused on the battle for third where Dennis Erb was making time on the inside, about the only driver to do so. He succeeded by stealing third away from Clanton on the final corner but Mars couldn't catch him to inflict some justice too. Only six cars failed to go the distance and with well timed yellows, not a single car was lapped in the race. It was a cushion pounding kind of track and certainly made for an entertaining race.
A very nice field of Modifieds was on hand with twenty three signing in for the show. Most were of the WISSOTA variety but there were also a few USRA more open motored cars on hand too. It seems strange to penalize the drivers that support the track all year by racing there weekly to penalize them when a special is run by allowing more open motored cars to compete and on their own tire even. However, when you look a little closer, you realize that the event sponsor has an open motored car he owns and in order to allow his driver to compete, they need open rules. So there you go, question answered.
The Modified feature event was rimmed with controversy that started right at the drop of the green flag. A.J. Diemel and Jake Hartung shared the front row and they got after it just seconds after the green flag waved. It appeared the Diemel "body slammed" Hartung right after the green dropped, moving him up the track. Then it seemed that Hartung responded by gassing up his car, hooking Diemel and shoving him right up to the wall. It seemed a crazy thing to do with a full field of cars right behind, but that's what happened, at least in my view. Several other cars slammed into the hooked together pair and the red flag waved.
Surprisingly, all the cars but Diemel, who exited with front end damage, were able to restart and even more surprising, the track officals saw things much different than I, along with a large number of fans, did. Hartung was restored to his position in the front of the field and as irony would have it, he would then go on for the win.
He was challenged quite strongly by Calvin Iverson, making a rare start this season and Calvin was right there to challenge for the lead. In fact, just past the halfway point, Calvin made a very strong push to take over the top spot. He came charging through corner one and tried to dive under Hartung for the lead. Unfortunately, Calvin got a bit too low in the corner, went flying through part of the infield with debris flying, tore off his front bumper which was hurtled onto the track and caused a yellow to fly
I'm not sure whether Calvin exited during that yellow due to damage or if the officials asked him to leave since he had no front bumper which I believe to be a rule but before he left the track, he made sure to "buzz bomb" the leader. However, in this instance, Hartung seemed to be innocent of all charges.
The last six laps would see him pull away for the win with Adam Hensel charging up from thirteen to finish second as he really started to pick off drivers the second half of the race. Ashley Anderson would finish third and while he has dominated the racing here this season, he didn't seem to quite have it tonight. However, he was one that got involved in the first lap wreck with plenty of body damage and that may also have cause issues that weren't as readily known by us in the crowd.
What I do know is that the majority of the vocal crowd gave Hartung the "Brooklyn Cheer" in victory lane as they appeared to agree more with me than with the call of the track officials.
The Midwest Modified would wrap up the evening with Bloomer's Nick Koehler making a strong run to get the win. He would trail Tommy Richards for the opening lap before driving around him on the tall side of the track and once in front, he was never challenged.
A late yellow allowed Brady Larson to move past Richards on the restart but he also couldn't provide a challenge to Koehler, who rode right through the middle of the track, getting good traction on now what was a black slick from top to bottom racing surface. However, it didn't take rubber so it provided a fair surface for all. Richards would settle for third ahead of Mike Widmann and Cody Borgeson.
All racing was completed before 10 pm which was the magic hour for this show so that was good. A large crowd was on hand for this event, despite the steamy conditions with much liquid beverages consumed, a Wisconsin skill set in action. However, it was just a little hot for cheese.
It was an entertaining night of racing so thanks to the World Racing Group and their officials plus all the folks from the Red Cedar Racing Ass'n, the non profit club that runs the Red Cedar Speedway.
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