Who would have ever thought that there would be a day when many of the biggest names in dirt Late Model racing would be traveling North all the way up to Lake Superior to battle it out for a win worth $20,000 for a forty lap feature event in an area where many of these drivers probably swore they'd never go that far North in their entire lives? Such is the world we live in right now, and particularly the dirt Late Model world where one situation after another leaves us just shaking our heads.
Such was the case, however, on Monday night, August 9th when the XR Super Series held their first event ever at the Gondik Law Speedway, hard on the South shore of Lake Superior in Superior Wisconsin. And contrary to popular belief amongst the southern traveling teams, they didn't have to put on stocking caps, long underwear or their parkas on this beautiful early August night.
The sole reason that a race of this magnitude would come to such a small market area was that this is the home area of Barry Braun, head of the XR Super Series. Barry lives only about an hour up the road on the North shore of Lake Superior in Silver Bay Minnesota and he got his career in racing started many years ago at this very speedway, filming the races which he then marketed and much later led to all this plus events at Bristol, Vegas and so many others.
Barry was looking for midweek events to add to his "play list" for XR and this track was an obvious fit, coming just after the big events last weekend at another track in Wisconsin close by. This XR production was originally proposed as a one night event but I'm told that the traveling team balked at the idea of coming up here for just one night before they head South to Kentucky or perhaps back to their homes so this race was made into a two day show with an identical purse for each day. Support classes include the WISSOTA sanctioned classes that race at Gondik Law Speedway on a weekly basis.
Seeing many of the traveling stars at their home track is a novelty for many of the fans from this area and a large crowd was attracted to attending this event, with long lines as folks waited to buy tickets after they got off work and one of the biggest crowds seen here in quite some time. It will be interesting to see though, just how many people return for night number two, having had their taste perhaps of seeing the big names once and at forty bucks a pop, it is a pricey show for folks from this area where cash is not always just floating down from the heavens.
So XR brought in some of their big names including Overton, Davenport, Clanton, Marlar, Babb, Madden , Pierce, Stickler etc. and then filled out the field by adding the local drivers to the mix. Although XR had more "names" on hand here than the Outlaws did when they raced here earlier this month, it was still up to the local WISSOTA drivers to help fill out the field and make the numbers look better. Braun wisely let the WISSOTA drivers run their cars just as they would using their own rules and utilizing spec engines, they wouldn't be a threat to steal any of the many from the travelers but would add to the car count and also bring some of the fans of these drivers to the track, anxious to see if their favorites could keep up. Braun's move was a wise one as their were a number of area drivers that decided to give the race a chance and the forty two car count number looked much better that way. I counted fourteen drivers that were running their cars using the WISSOTA package, of which three made the main event. My guess was that they had their taste of it on Monday night and we will see many of them decide to save their tires and stay home on Tuesday night, but I have been wrong plenty of times before.
Late Model fans will probably remember Terry Casey from New London Wisconsin from his days when he raced open motor cars across the country and was known as "Mr. Excitement." Well, Casey plans a return to racing and was part of a swap going on in the pits that had nothing to do with Monday night's racing. Casey recently bought Late Models from the estate of the late Ed Gressel and he was delivering one of those on this night to Matt Aukland who plans to move up from the Modifieds into the Late Model class running with WISSOTA. Yes, it is the same Aukland family as Matt is the son of Rick and lives in western Minnesota. Casey wanted the motor out of that car and he is in the process of buying yet another Late Model with plans to hit some of the biggest shows in the country. For sure on his bucket list is a return to East Bay where officials should be fore warned to reinforce the infamous gate that Casey nearly brought down years ago.
While Boom Briggs was in the house, Josh Richards was no where to be seen and Andy Bouzel was driving a back up car for Briggs. Don Shaw was making his first start in the Longhorn chassis that he bought recently and that Billy Moyer drove when the Outlaws visited this area recently. Shaw has been suffered from the effects of a concussion that he received in a wreck months ago that caused him to miss last weekend's races as he wasn't fit enough to get behind the wheel.
Gondik Law Speedway was in form on Monday night as the Lake Superior red clay, that runs many feet deep in the old lake bed, tends to get very slick but seldom takes rubber and that is just how it was on Monday night. The track will shine from top to bottom and the trick is getting the race cars to turn in the corners.
Shane Clanton, who knows about red clay from his living in Georgia, was the driver to beat all night. He set fast time at 15.423 seconds, won the first heat and that gave him the pole for the forty lap main event. Four heats and a pair of B Features would set the running order for the main with the fastest qualifier not in the show and highest in XR points not in also rounding out the field. The B Features would have some tough cars in them with both Strickler and Marlar having to win B's to get in the show. The biggest names left on the sidelines would probably be Jimmy Mars and Ryan Gustin, neither of which were even close to qualifying.
Clanton would lead all forty laps to win the twenty grand. He would start up front and stay there and never was seriously challenged for the lead. A couple of times Overton would gain ground on him but was never able to get to where he could provide a serious challenge. Overton once jumped the cushion in turn four and lost a lot of ground, some of which he made back up later.
Interestingly, the only yellow of the main event was triggered when leader Clanton ran over Strickler as he was trying to lap him and spun him in turn three. Clanton was trying to get between two cars and just simply went too hot into the corner, clipped the rear end of Strickler's car and turned him around.
In the local world of racing, Clanton might have to worry that he might be tagged for over driving but in the world of big time racing, the leader has free reign to do whatever it takes to get through traffic and Clanton was restored to the lead, no questions asked.
Chris Madden had done as moving as anyone, coming from eighth to third and it seemed like he might be able to provide a challenge but with the green back out with thirteen laps to go, that was not the case as Clanton drove away from the field without much problem and would drive home for a pretty easy win. I felt like forty laps for twenty grand on a four tenth mile oval was just a tad short, but that was the distance and Clanton would lead Overton and Madden to the win. Ricky Weiss and Joseph Joiner, with a strong performance, would round out the top five. Only four cars would drop out during the race.
The WISSOTA Super Stocks and Modifieds would provide strong support classes, doing just what hey were supposed to do, which was to provide some good racing but not take up too much time.
The Super Stock feature started twenty five cars and had just two minor yellows so they gave the Late Models just the right amount of time to get ready for their main which was second. Dexton Koch, the current national point leader in the Super Stocks would lead all twenty laps to get the win but would be challenged hard by Kyle Copp while Scott Lawrence and Shane Sabraski had a great battle for third that wasn't resolved until the final lap.
The Modified feature would start twenty two cars and would see Cole Spacek lead the first couple of laps until Brandon Copp swept past him and then would lead the rest of the way. Jody Bellefeuille would move up from the third row and provide a stiff challenge to Copp at the end. The end of the race got hung up just a bit with late yellows coming back to back but each time, Copp would hold off the strong challenges of Bellefeuille to get the win. Darrell Nelson would finish third.
This was a smoothly run program and a quick one on a Monday night. XR has an interesting way of doing things in that they play the National Anthem to start the show and then run time trials as a part of the program rather than a preliminary. They do crack off the qualifying quick and racing was going on by 7:30 pm. The Late Models ran second and for those fans just there for the Late Models, they could leave by 10 pm with the Modifieds wrapping up the show.
Tuesday night the Late Model program will be identical while the support classes are, in my opinion, not quite as attractive as they were on Monday so we will see if this has any effect on the crowd. The weather promises to be spectacular again but perhaps it's somewhat of a shame that the visitors can't experience a breeze off the lake that lowers the temperature by fifteen or twenty degrees to those close to the water. Then they would get the full northland experience.
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