Thursday night, August 11th, the Midwest Late Model Racing Association began a three night swing through eastern Iowa with a visit to the C J. Raceway in Columbus Junction. This entire swing had been scheduled earlier this Summer but the entire swing fell victim to the weather and the whole shebang was rescheduled to this week with visits to both Davenport and Maquoketa upcoming. Along with the MLRA Late Models, there would be racing for three IMCA divisions including Modifieds, Stock Cars and Sport Mods. All three divisions would be racing for extra money and this would attract visitors in all classes to make for an interesting show. As things would turn out, a late race pass would net Tony Jackson Jr the MLRA victory while all three of the support classes would see some late race drama that would have the fans talking well past the final checkered flag.
There were storms threatening the area early with a couple of separate batches of rain skirting the Columbus Junction area but no more than just a few sprinkles fell at the track so on this night they would be the lucky ones and racing would proceed.
MLRA would be running their first races in almost a month and the car count was a concern, even for the group's officials. Point leader Johnny Scott was MIA from the night's action with his status going forward in the series very much up in the air. Group officials hadn't been able to reach him and it would be left to the night's activities to see whether he would show up or not. Four other drivers in the top ten in points also failed to be on hand and the group that MLRA presented to the local promoter was not that strong for sure. Fortunately, some local and area drivers decided to race on this night or it could have been really bad but sixteen cars for eight thousand dollars to win is not a good turnout.
MLRA has seen their influence wane in this area with SLMR taking over some of their Iowa and Nebraska dates and Comp Cams and the Cash Money Series also taking some of their dates in Missouri and elsewhere and it would seem that a real makeover for this series is due if it is to continue. However, on this night the crowd seemed more than happy to have sixteen Late Models on hand at at place that routinely doesn't even run Late Models.
Being a time trial show, it didn't get started on time and it was nearly 8 pm before the first green flag flew but the heat races clicked off very smoothly and all qualifying was completed in about an hour. The three support classes had just the right number of cars to provide full heats but not need a B Feature so when the last heat race was done, we were ready to move right into the main events and the Late Models would be up first, pleasing to those in the crowd that came to see the Late Models run on this week night.
The track had been heavily watered on this night and with it clouding over and high humidity, the track was in no hurry to dry out. Numerous packing sessions before each heat helped but we really didn't get to see the "levee racing" that is so unique to this track. The track just wasn't wide enough for the Late Models to climb up on the levee and race but later we would see some of that action.
All sixteen of the Late Models on hand would take the green for their thirty lapper and it would be Spencer Diercks that would lead for all but the last six laps. After starting on the pole, he would fight off challenges from Tony Jackson Jr and take the top spot and while Jackson Jr would be knocking on his back door most of the race, Diercks would manage to keep him behind him.
That is until there was a late yellow with just six laps to go. Jackson Jr picked up the pace and was able to swing past Diercks coming off turn four and take over the top spot and once in front, he was able to pull away in the remaining laps. It would be nice $8,000 win for Jackson Jr, buoyed by extra contributions from sponsors that raised it up Difrom the original five grand to win. It would be Jackson Jr's first win on the tour this year after being a former champion of this series who has struggled quite a bit so far this year. Diercks was able to hold off Chris Simpson for second with Simpson moving into third late and making a charge. Interestingly, this was only the second time out for Jackson Jr with a new Capital chassis while Diercks was racing a new Longhorn for the second time and Simpson was making his first run in a new Longhorn also. Apparently August is the time for drivers in this class to get fresh equipment as these open Late Models don't even last a year anymore. Only one driver failed to finish the race and only two minor yellows slowed the contest, although Diercks would probably argue that the last yellow was a huge one.
The three support class features all saw interesting races with surprising outcomes, many twists and turns along the way in each with just a bit of controversy thrown in for fun. They also were plagued by yellow flags so while they had much in the way of action, they all tended to get just a bit tedious with their length.
The Stock Cars would go first and Nathan Ballard would lead for nineteen of the twenty laps before a crazy finish saw him lose his apparent victory. Ballard started up front and was ahead of most of the action as he just quietly led the race while all the action was behind him. Scotty Pratt, Johnny Spaw, Damon Murty and Jason Cook were all part of a big group of drivers battling for position for nearly the entire contest which was slowed several times for spins.
Kirk Kinsley, who started ninth, was slowly working his way to the front also and near the end had moved into second spot. A last late yellow set up a three lap sprint to the finish and on the final lap, as the field headed into turn one, Ballard got sideways after a smooth run to that point and Kinsley had to take evasive action to avoid him. Spaw, who had gone to the tail with a flat tire and worked his way back to the front using all the yellows, spot past both the cars in front of him and in a shocking development, drove across the finish line as the winner with Ballard and Kinsley settling for positions behind Spaw. It was a surprising and stunning finish.
Another local track point leader, Jarrett Brown would inherit the win after some wild late race action in the Modified feature. Mitch Way would be the early leader until he was overtaken by Austin Becerra who drove a good race to overtake Way and become the new leader. Brown was working his way forward after starting seventh while Drew Janssen was also having an outstanding run as he moved into second late in the race.
Once again, a late race yellow or yellows in this case, hugely changed the outcome of the contest. There was a yellow with only four laps to go which bunched up the pack. Becerra continued to lead but Janssen would make an all out push to try and pass him, using the levee to get a run off turn one. The leaders and in fact, the entire pack took the white flag and raced into turn one where Janssen lost control up on the levee and spun. With most of the pack having already passed the accident scene and everyone having taken the white flag, I thought this race should have been checkered at this point .
It, however, was not, and everyone lined back up and they tried to run off the last two laps once again. This time the bump in turn one caught leader Becerra and he went up the levee, racing most of the way down the back chute trying to get back on the track. His chance at victory was done and because another car also spun way up on the levee, we had another yellow and another two lap try to get this race done.
With Becerra and Janssen now both gone, the lead was inherited by Brown but he had to fight off a last lap slider by Mike McKinney who had gradually moved up in the pack as everyone else shuffled their way to the back. Brown would cross back over on McKinney's attempted slider and go on for the win in this scrambled affair.
Another late race yellow would dramatically change the finish in the Sport Mod feature which was the last race of the night. Levi Heath would lead lap one with the yellows raining out twice early. Shane Paris would come roaring up from the third row and drive past Heath to take over the lead with pressure from Jason Roth and Brayton Carter. Logan Anderson would also move his way forward and by the halfway point become the main challenger to Paris.
Paris would continue to hold off Anderson and it looked like he would take the win when another in the frustrating series of very late race yellows was triggered by a car that spun as the white was coming out.
The restart worked well for Anderson and not so good for Paris as Anderson was able to get past and Paris must have felt like he got a race stolen from him with the late yellow. He would hang on for second however.
The support class action was indeed wild on this night and I was almost hoping that we would go to single file restarts in an effort to keep things moving as the old adage of yellows breeding more yellows couldn't have been more true than on this night. The action was good but it did get a bit tedious with the four feature races taking over two hours to complete and our early evening turned into a rather late night for a midweek show. With some of the repeat spinners in each class, perhaps in the long run it would have been good to have few B Features and perhaps eliminate a little of the chaff that was bogging things down.
It was like old home week with Doug Haack waving the sticks, Kevin Feller recording the numbers and Jerry Mackey calling the action at CJ. Thanks to Larry Richardson and all the folks at CJ for an entertaining evening as a very nice crowd turned out for this Thursday night make up race.
No comments:
Post a Comment